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Behind the Lines

The Stand Up Desk|
January 20, 2013

Behind the Lines

TALK OF CHANGE AND REFORM has been in the air since the Sharpstown scandals more than perhaps at any time in our state’s history. Such talk is welcome, and, as most of us apparently felt in the last elections, mandatory. One imagines that talk of reform came as uncomfortably, but

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The Stand Up Desk|
January 1, 1997

Testy Mail

IN NOVEMBER WE PUBLISHED A RANKING of 3,172 public grade schools in Texas, giving each school one of five grades, from four stars (the best) to no stars (the worst). This article provoked an unusual amount of mail. Some of the letters were barely restrained victory whoops from people connected

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The Stand Up Desk|
December 1, 1996

Running With the Big Dogs

From Fred Gipson’s fictional Old Yeller to A&M mascot Reveille and Lyndon Johnson’s beleaguered beagles, dogs have always reigned as Texans’ pets of choice. The long line of distinguished dog lovers includes John Graves of Glen Rose, Texas’ writer emeritus, and acclaimed Beaumont photographer Keith Carter, who joined forces

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The Stand Up Desk|
April 30, 1974

Behind the Lines

On a warm March morning we went looking for the grave of my great-great-grandmother Nancy Daugherty. My mother had visited the grave more than 40 years before, and remembered only that it was near the capitol and that a small iron fence encircled the plot. We found the grave amid

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Politics & Policy|
March 31, 1974

Behind the Lines

We Texans have always seemed to drive more, and farther, and for perhaps stranger reasons, than just about anyone else. Young people in the bleak and monotonous landscapes of West and North Texas grew up accustomed to endless, aimless rides around the countryside and to regular trips into the cities

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The Stand Up Desk|
February 28, 1974

Behind the Lines

Writing about Larry L. King is a difficult task that leaves me feeling like some sweating country jeweler stooped over a fine stone trying to fashion an appropriate setting out of tin. Some good writers have craft; others have soul and spirit. Larry has what great writers have: he has

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The Stand Up Desk|
January 1, 1974

Behind the Lines

INMATES OF THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT of Corrections have made 181 new desks for about $34 a desk. Rockford Furniture Associates of Austin has fashioned matching chairs for $180 a chair. A new electronic voting board has been installed for $33,500 ($200 more than the total cost for the chairs). These

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The Stand Up Desk|
December 1, 1973

Behind the Lines

GOOD REPORTING SOMETIMES INVOLVES RISKS. Most people see the world outside their immediate vision through the eyes of the media, and much of the world contains people and situations that are unpleasant, distasteful, and downright dangerous. Wars fit in this category. So do murders. Becoming intimately involved in either can

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The Stand Up Desk|
November 1, 1973

Behind the Lines

SENIOR EDITOR GRIFFIN SMITH JR.‘s comprehensive study of the great law firms of Houston (page 53) ranks among the most important writing ever printed by this or any other Texas publication. It goes to the heart of a group of institutions whose influence upon our state is incalculable, and

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The Stand Up Desk|
September 30, 1973

Behind the Lines

ALL OF US ARE GOING to have to stop Arthur Temple if he decides to move the headquarters of Time, Inc., to Diboll. We don’t care if Diboll is a nicer place to work than Manhattan, Arthur, you should have thought of that before you went ahead with the deal.The

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The Stand Up Desk|
August 31, 1973

Behind the Lines

RARELY DOES A WRITER PARTICIPATE as a major actor in the events he reports, although from time to time writers of more ego than effectiveness posture as characters injected into the dramas they cover, much as coloring is injected into an apple to make it red. Last spring Griffin

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The Stand Up Desk|
July 31, 1973

Behind the Lines

MANY OF THE ARTICLES IN this issue are, in one way or another, about crime. It seems we have opened Pandora’s box. Returning from lunch one day we found that the offices next to ours had been burglarized. The next afternoon we got a call from Al Reinert, who

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The Stand Up Desk|
June 30, 1973

Behind the Lines

TWO MONTHS AGO IN OUR story “Sex and Politics” we took an affectionate, if irreverent, look at a side of our political traditions that is as old as politics itself, but which has rarely been discussed in public. This month we wrap up the latest session of the Texas Legislature

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The Stand Up Desk|
May 31, 1973

Behind The Lines

THIS ISSUE TELLS OUR READERS how to enjoy Texas in the summer. That we could so easily be urging Texans to enjoy summer is a testimony to how summers have changed. It wasn’t so long ago that a Texas summer was as inhospitable to normal human existence as a 40-inch

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The Stand Up Desk|
April 1, 1973

Behind the Lines

WE TEXANS TALK A LOT about how big we are, and how we are getting bigger. This is all right, since it is true. We are the only state with more than one of the ten largest cities in the country. In fact, we have three—Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.For

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