Texana
356 stories
My Three Sons »
Prudence Mackintosh's sons.
September 2001 by Evan Smith
Queen of the Rodeo »
For teenage girls in the Hill Country town of Llano, life can be short on glamour and excitement—except at the annual rodeo, when one of them gets a rhinestone tiara and a rare, thrilling moment of glory.
August 2001 by Pamela Colloff
Boone Pickens Wants To Sell You His Water »
And you’re going to need it, eventually, since Texas’ most precious natural resource is being depleted at an alarming rate. His plan is to pump vast amounts from his land in the Panhandle and pipe it to parched cities like El Paso and San Antonio—for a hefty price, of course. But other powerful interests have the same idea. Let the battle begin.
August 2001 by Joe Nick Patoski
Old-Fashioned Texas »
Texas is changing before our eyes, but fried pies, drive-in movie theaters, and other vestiges of earlier days are all around. To find these treasures, we risked life, limb, and cholesterol count-and had a blast from the past.
August 2001 by Suzy Banks, Anne Dingus, Kathryn Jones, Patricia Busa McConnico, Joe Nick Patoski, Eileen Schwartz, Patricia Sharpe and John Spong
Tex Education, Part 2 »
In 1883, being caught with what everyday object could have gotten you killed? Find out the answer, along with 24 other equally fascinating tidbits, in the second installment of my Texas-literacy test.
June 2001 by Anne Dingus
Skeleton Crew? »
Chasing ghosts in Corpus Christi.
June 2001 by Kathryn Jones
The Second Battle of Goliad »
In March 1836, 342 men fighting for Texas
independence surrendered to Mexican general
José de Urrea. A week later they were shot on orders of Santa Anna. Was it a massacre, as generations of schoolchildren have been taught, or an execution? The question has divided a historic Texas
town.
May 2001 by Cecilia Ballí
Medal Round »
Pamela Colloff tests an Aggie hero's medal.
May 2001 by Pamela Colloff
Writers Bloc »
What did Graham Greene observe about crossing the border into Mexico in 1938? Would you believe Molly Ivins was born in California? Here are my picks for the fifty greatest literary moments in Texas, plus a roster of leading lights who are from here—and some who aren't.
May 2001 by Don Graham
Return to The Gay Place »
Forty years after it was published, Billy Lee Brammer's novel about LBJ-era Austin is still one of the best ever written about American politics. Yet just as interesting is the story of Brammer himself.
March 2001 by Jan Reid
50 Things Every Texan Should Do »
Have you gotten lost in the Big Thicket? Attended a South Texas pachanga? Whether you’re a newcomer or a native, following these suggestions will give you a crash course in all things Texas—and one heck of a good time.
March 2001 by Anne Dingus and Joe Nick Patoski
Tex Education »
Who exactly was Cabeza de Vaca? Why did Texas revolutionaries shout, “Remember Goliad”? Sharpen your pencils for Part I of my four-part Texas literacy test.
March 2001 by Anne Dingus
The Whole Shootin' Match »
The most famous bank-robbing lovers of all time weren't nearly as glamorous as Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Although the fragile, pretty Bonnie Parker had her good points, Clyde Barrow was a scrawny, two-timing psychopath. They were straight out of a country and western ballad. And when they died in a hail of bullets 66 years ago, their legend was born.
February 2001 by Gary Cartwright
The 2001 Bum Steer Awards »
A year of alarming art, befuddled bus drivers, crustacean confiscators, demanding donors, entomological eats, feckless felons, garbled George W., hideous headgear, inspirational ice cream, juiced journalists, KKK kiss-offs, Lubbock lampooners, mucho manure, nada nudity, oafish officials, P.O.'d policemen, quirky queens, raunchy Republicans, shapely sideburns, thanatological toys, used uniforms, vampire vanquishers, witless waiters, x-pert x-terminators, yeoman Yankees, and zany zealots.
January 2001
Return to Padre »
For years my relatives have claimed that they were robbed of oil and gas royalties on Padre Island. Last May a Brownsville jury agreed, vindicating—for now—the family's proud heritage and proving that, sometimes, the little guy does win.
January 2001 by Cecilia Ballí
Deer Prudence »
Back when I was a hippie pacifist in Northern California, I never thought I'd kill an animal for sport. Then I married into a South Texas ranching family, and in time I managed to pull the trigger and bag a buck. My emotions were decidedly mixed, but I knew that I had become a Texan at last.
December 2000 by Michael DiLeo
The Twelve Months of Christmas »
Kitschy calendars that say "Feliz Navidad."
December 2000 by Anne Dingus
They Haven't Got a Prayer »
In the Gulf Coast town of Santa Fe, high school football games had always kicked off with a prayer, but in June the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the practice violated the separation of church and state. Now the issue—which has turned neighbor against neighbor and provoked some decidedly un-Christian behavior— has grown from a local controversy into a national one.
November 2000 by Pamela Colloff
Man of Letters »
Forty years after the publication of John Graves's Goodbye to a River, a keepsake volume of correspondence—between the author and J. Frank Dobie, among others— chronicles its journey from an idea for a magazine article to an instant literary classic.
November 2000
My Library
