“My hope has always been, for all my flaws and weaknesses, that people will say this: ‘He wanted to be a reporter and he is.’ I think they know that I love this country.” And other reflections on retirement from the broadcast-news icon turned right-wing punching bag.

In 2004 San Antonio euthanized some 49,000 cats and dogs—more per capita than any other major city in the United States—using an outdated, sometimes painful method that has been criticized for years. The expression “not fit for a dog” resonates.

The marriage of Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital should have been made in heaven—and until recently, it was. Their nasty breakup is a bell tolling for American medicine.

Over the past thirty years, I’ve edited or written more than 28,000 restaurant reviews for this magazine. That’s a lot of crème brûlée under the bridge, folks. So what’s my life been like, exactly? And how have I stayed this thin? Good questions.

From humble Oak Cliff roots did a hip intellectual giant grow. In this oral history, friends and fans remember the late Grover Lewis, one of the great magazine writers of our day.

Why old media hacks like me matter.

How I learned to stop worrying and love “blood sport”—or at least understand its appeal.

I still remember the moment I discovered that a world existed outside Brownsville. I’ve been trying to explore it ever since.

Professional suicide times two.

The Republicans have made real inroads into winning over Hispanic voters. If that doesn’t freak out the Democrats, I don’t know what will.

Whether burned, shot, or blown up, the brave soldiers who leave Iraq on a stretcher and start to rebuild their lives at Brooke Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, have a lot of fight left in them.

Yellow band = Green in hand.

Pain, pain, go away

“I used to resent the fact that people romanticize Whole Foods. I always wanted to shake them and say, ‘Gosh, we’re just a grocery store!’ ”