Dallas

Stories about Dallas

In Praise of My Sports Town

How I’m learning to love the Cowboys. And the Mavericks. And the Rangers. And the Stars. And . . .

Do Call It Dallas–Fort Worth

The Walking Deadline

For decades, the state’s big urban newspapers helped bind together the inhabitants of our major cities. Now those papers are threatened by a rapidly evolving (some might say collapsing) business model. Is there hope for daily journalism in Texas?

Sonya’s Homecoming

A return to the Trinity.

Don’t Call It the Metroplex

The nomenclature of the area known as Dallas–Fort Worth. 

By Invitation Only

In a city that loves its parties, there’s perhaps none so aesthetically significant as Two x Two for AIDS and Art, Dallas’s most cutting-edge fundraiser—and one hell of a good time.

Horsemen, Goodbye

Thoughts on the gradual march of civility and urban sprawl across the lost frontier.

Jackpot of the Plains

My unsentimental education in the wheeler-dealer ways of the most American of Texas cities.

Where to Eat Now

And the year's best new restaurants are . . .

Gastronome on the Range

Stephan Pyles swings for the barbed-wire fences with his modern Texas cuisine.

Everything Must Be Perfect

A night behind the velvet ropes.

Dialed In

How Randall Stephenson plans to lead AT&T in the age of wireless.

The 2013 Bum Steer Awards

Now with special advice from the Texanist!

The Dallas Arts Scene Is Ready for Its Close-Up

As the fiftieth anniversary of the JFK assassination approaches, the eyes of the world will be upon the city, and its cultural leaders are prepared for the attention.

Cliff Notes

With three days in Dallas’s historic Oak Cliff, my mantra was “Shop, eat, repeat.”

Purée Country

Culinary whiz kid Matt McCallister settles down at the surprising, new FT33.

Pearl-Snap Shirts

For when you need a beautiful shirt that can be removed quickly.

11/22/2013

In one year the eyes of the world will turn to Dallas's Dealey Plaza for the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Is the city ready?

The Unsinkable Lisa Blue

Her husband, Fred Baron, helped bankroll John Edwards's presidential campaign, only to die of cancer amid the most sordid political scandal in recent history. But before long, Dallas's newest rainmaker had emerged from the wreckage—with every hair in place.

The Joule, Dallas

Tackling the Cowboys

Joe Nick Patoski takes on America's most storied football franchise in his new book, The Dallas Cowboys. 

Cast Iron

Rugged, refined, and heavy as hell.

Wes Is More

In Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson lovingly embraces his fantastical streak.

Con, Baby, Con

What Joseph Blimline's oil and gas Ponzi scheme tells us about financial regulation.

The Texanist

Offering Fine Advice Since 2007

Friday Night Frites

A Dallas bistro’s artful take on “not too French” cuisine.

The Kay Place

Kay Bailey Hutchison, the state’s senior senator and the first woman from Texas to hold that office, opens up about the changes in her party, why she decided to retire, and the governor’s race that got away. 

Turnover!

Two decades ago, a barbarian from Arkansas named Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys and rebooted the franchise from the ground up. Inside the wild first days of the most hostile takeover the NFL has ever known.

I Shall Never Surrender or Retreat . . .

. . . from teaching my fifteen-year-old daughter about her Texas roots. So when I realized I was failing to accomplish this most sacred of duties, I did what any well-meaning parent would do: loaded her (and her friends, of course) into the car and hit the road.

The Children of Texas

I was never certain how to explain the importance of the state to my three daughters. Now that I have two grandsons—named Mason and Travis, no less—I’ve realized something that I should have known all along. 

Cell! Cell! Cell!

As cancer hospitals in Dallas try to compete with Houston’s M.D. Anderson, the medical technology arms race is heating up. Is that good news for patients?

Years Later, Old 97’s Still Embrace One Special Record

It might have been recorded fifteen years ago, but the Dallas-based band will mark an important anniversary with the album that began their alternative-country journey.

TNT’s Dallas Spurs Its Namesake to Prosper

The time-honored TV show is finally back, and it's bringing Dallas economic and tourism growth, as well as a certain sense of pride.

Offering Fine Advice Since 2007

Unwelcome shotgun blasts, unwanted mustaches, uncouth behavior, and the un-bare-able truth about going sockless in your cowboy boots.

The Indie Film Scene of Dallas

The city is home base for a growing community of young filmmakers, who are making their mark on the independent film scene.

Five New Albums You Shouldn’t Miss

Including new sets from Alejandro Escovedo, Rhett Miller, and more.

Texas Gets Prehistoric With Two New Fossil Halls

After years of exporting prized dinosaur fossils to some of the world’s best museums, the state will be getting two huge exhibit halls, in Dallas and Houston.

Return to Southfork

The new Dallas smartly pretends the nineties never happened.

Laura Wilson’s Studio

The Dallas photographer shows us where she works.

New + Noteworthy

Chicken Scratch and Papi Tino's.

The Scales of Injustice

Larry Hagman’s Curtain Call

As the man known to the world as Dallas's J. R. Ewing fends off throat cancer, he gears up to reprise the role that turned him into an icon and looks back on one of the most extraordinary—and eccentric—lives in show business.

Ben Fountain Undoes Dallas

The acclaimed 
author is publishing his first novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. And some of his neighbors may not be happy.

Dallas’s Design District

This once-industrial enclave has been reborn as the city's trendiest new spot. Here's a guide to the area's acclaimed restaurants, chic stores, and daring art galleries.

Like a Writer

Bizarre similes pour forth from debut novelist Jonathan Woods’s fingers like wine from a bottomless bottle that is also missing its cork.

A Killer Role

In Killer Joe, Matthew McConaughey keeps his shirt on. For a while.

The Grifter’s Hymnal

A new album by Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Dear Jane

My mother-in-law knew how to sew, keep an immaculate house, and dress stylishly. In short, she was nothing like the unpolished young woman who married her son. Perhaps that’s why we loved each other so much.

Justice in Time

Fifteen years after being released from death row, Kerry Max Cook is still looking for freedom.

A Q&A With Bryan Curtis

The special correspondent on talking to former-football-star-turned-politician Craig James, understanding the “Real Street” rhetoric, and making predictions about sports.

Becoming a Pro Soccer Player

Brek Shea on scoring goals, getting free cleats, and doing the faux-hawk. 

The World at Her Feet

Twenty-year-old Jane Aldridge draws 400,000 readers to her style blog, Sea of Shoes, each month; has appeared in Vanity Fair; and once attended a private dinner with Karl Lagerfeld. The secret to her success? That she won’t leave Dallas behind.

Hail Mary

Craig James—former star football player, onetime ESPN commentator, eternal antagonist of Texas Tech fans everywhere—is polling at about 4 percent in this year's Senate race. Does he really want your vote? Or just your sympathy?

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas

Notable Openings and Closings

What you need to know about dining in Texas this week.

9 Texas Bands That Could Make an Impact at SXSW

Though South by Southwest is bringing big names like Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z this year, here are picks from showcasing Texans, from the obvious to the relatively obscure.

Notable Openings and Closings

What you need to know about dining in Texas this week.

My Favorite Shoes

Style blogger Jane Aldridge on her top ten all-time picks.

See Jane Shop

Style blogger Jane Aldridge on where she likes to go in Texas to get her goods.

Get Cooking

Recipes from the ten top restaurants in Texas.

Notable Openings and Closings

What you need to know about dining in Texas this week.

Notable Openings and Closings

What you need to know about dining in Texas this week.

Texas Food Lovers

Twenty chefs and restaurants make the James Beard semifinals.

New + Noteworthy

Grady's Line Camp Steakhouse and Texas Spice.

Plane Management

Where to Eat Now 2012

White tablecloths. Street food. Small portions. Lots and lots of innards. The only thing the ten best new Texas restaurants have in common is a willingness to prove that there is no such thing as a “Texas restaurant.” But when the escargots with fennel purée are this good, who cares?

Luv and War at 30,000 Feet

Somehow, as every other major airline went bankrupt, slashed its workforce, or grounded planes, Southwest Airlines kept flying high. Today, Southwest is the country’s largest domestic carrier. So how does a feisty underdog vanquish its competitors and dominate a thoroughly beleaguered industry? One Kick Tail-a-Gram at a time.

Notable Openings and Closings

What you need to know about dining in Texas this week.

Notable Openings and Closings

What you need to know about dining in Texas this week.

A Cook’s Tour

A slide show of scenes from the ten restaurants you should be eating at right now.

A Q&A With Patricia Sharpe

The senior editor on beer gardens, communal dining, and escargots.

A Q&A With S. C. Gwynne

The senior editor on understanding Southwest Airline’s culture, hearing jokes about plane crashes from a flight attendant, and making a business story interesting to the average reader.

Trite and True

We have met the enemy, and they are Good Christian Bitches.

Contributors

Wyatt McSpadden, John Phillip Santos, and Skip 
Hollandsworth.

New + Noteworthy

The Bird & the Bear and Bistro 31.

Campo

Dallas

This Is a Robbery

Were Bonnie and Clyde just a couple of crazy kids?

Being a Navy SEAL Sniper

Chris Kyle on using his first gun to shoot birds and squirrels, wondering if he would be able to kill someone, and feeling like a secret agent.

Need Some Gift Ideas?

We got you covered. Representatives from three independent record stores in Texas recommend recent releases from local artists to give as gifts to music fans.

A Dallas Church Preserves Robert Johnson’s Legacy

First Presbyterian Church's plan to renovate 508 Park Ave., the building where the legendary bluesman recorded almost half of his famous discography, has music lovers and historians cheering.

New + Noteworthy

One Art and Private Social.

Velvet Taco

Dallas

The Keys to My Heart

For decades, I had an on-again, off-again love affair with the piano. Today, my ardor is once more in bloom—to the envy of even my husband.

Father Knows West

Is it time to revisit Larry McMurtry’s Berrybender Narratives?

Liza Richardson

The disc jockey and music producer on hanging out in Deep Ellum, working on the TV show Friday Nights Lights, and keeping up with Texas music.

Eddie “Lucky” Campbell, 34

Meet the bartender.

Rocky Ascent

Dusty Hill's older brother, Rocky Hill, has been called the "best guitarist you've never heard of," but the recent release of Texas Guitar Legend aims to change that.

An Update to the Mary Eula Sears Case

The convicted killer of a prominent Abilene resident is set to be released.

Cowboys 52, Texans 10

After ten seasons as a major NFL franchise, the Houston Texans are picking up some fans, but the blood of Texas still pumps Cowboy blue.

New + Noteworthy

Le Chat Noir Eatery and Dough Pizzeria Napoletana.

Contributors

Annette Gordon-Reed, Jason Sheeler, and Dagoberto Gilb.

His Big Year

Is Owen Wilson finally turning into—gasp!—a serious actor?

Jaap van Zweden’s Piano

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra conductor shows us some of his tools.

Anthony Fiorillo, 53

Paleontologist

Give Me Shelter

Dallas’s ritzy Park Cities is the sort of place where Jerry Jones Jr. can buy a four-story castle with twelve bathrooms and a nine-car underground garage for a reported $8.7 million and some people regard it as a steal. Welcome to the fabulous world of Erin Mathews, the very discreet real estate agent to the very, very rich.

Peter Gent, 1942-2011

The author and former Cowboys wide receiver died in his hometown of Bangor, Michigan, on Friday at the age of 69. Our coverage of North Dallas Forty (both the novel and the movie) through the years.

Contributors

Prudence Mackintosh, Brian Johnson, and Justin Clemons.

For Real, Y’all

What does a rash of new reality TV tell us about the Metroplex?

The Art Lover’s Companion

More than sixty art insiders gave us their list of favorite works of art to see in Texas. So grab your notepad, sketchbook, or iPad and take the ultimate tour of must-see art in Texas.

Texas Treasures

My journey in early Texas art began while I was a student at Southern Methodist University, where I studied Frank Reaugh pastels and met Jerry Bywaters. After 24 years at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, curating exhibitions and traveling the state, I’ve come up with a list of greatest hits.

Texas Treasures

My journey in early Texas art began while I was a student at Southern Methodist University, where I studied Frank Reaugh pastels and met Jerry Bywaters. After 24 years at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, curating exhibitions and traveling the state, I’ve come up with a list of greatest hits.

Offering Fine Advice Since 2007

Neighborhood Association

Why would anybody take a charming place like Highland Park, tear down the nice old homes, build new fortresses, gradually drain the neighborly spirit, and call that progress? Don’t ask me. I don’t get it either.

Straight From the Art

From the Menil in Houston to the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas museums are home to some of the greatest paintings and sculptures in the world. But what are the best within our borders? Come along on a guided tour of the ten works of art you must see before you die.

Drama King

Less than two years after moving into the Wyly Theatre, the Dallas Theater Center has become the state’s drama darling. Is it the final curtain on the Alley Theatre’s time at the top?

Big D-Vide

Another South Dallas politician is under investigation for corruption. Why can’t the city seem to change its script?

Strange Mercy

A new album by St. Vincent.

Benny and the Boys

Designated Rivalry

Should the Astros join the Rangers in the American League West?

A Q&A With Michael Ennis

The writer-at-large on the development of West Dallas, Big D’s need for an urban middle class, and what a standout twenty-first-century city looks like.

Arch of Triumph

Dallas’s almost-finished Calatrava bridge may be an emblem of the city’s status. But the smart urban plan for the small neighborhood it leads to says more about the city’s future.

Offering Fine Advice Since 2007

Spousal adjustments, fly abatement, soccer parenting, and the truth about creased jeans. 

Marquee Grill and Bar

Dallas

T. Boone Pickens’s Office Cabinet

T. Boone Pickens’s office cabinet.

The Margarita Variations

On the rocks or frozen? Salt or no salt? And what tequila is best? So many questions, but these four recipes make it easy for you to shake up the best margaritas around.

New + Noteworthy

Pondicheri and Malai Thai-Vietnamese Kitchen.

Extreme Makeover

Is Mark Cuban our next charming reality star?

Royal Chef

Dallas chef Darren McGrady on cooking for Princess Diana and her family, selecting the royal wedding menu, and making Prince William's favorite thing to eat.

Alma

Dallas

To Have and to Hold

Can the T. D. Jakes brand go mainstream—and live to tell the tale?

1–25

From dinosaurs roaming the Paluxy in Glen Rose to Lance Armstrong joining his first cycling team in Richardson

1–25

From dinosaurs roaming the Paluxy in Glen Rose to Lance Armstrong joining his first cycling team in Richardson

Edie Brickell

On two new albums, Edie Brickell and The Gaddabouts, and more.

Dean Fearing’s Closet

The chef shows us his boot collection.

Dealey Plaza, Dallas

A visit to the spot where, on November 22, 1963, Abraham Zapruder recorded President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Where to Eat Now 2011

Jalapeño sausage–stuffed quail, lemon-pepper-marinated fried chicken: The trend for most of the best new restaurants last year was comfort food with pizzazz. But then along came Uchiko to wow us with its mouthwatering take on Japanese fusion. Who says you can’t buck a trend?

New and Noteworthy

Whiskey Cake Kitchen and Bar and Olmos Park Bistro.

Lucia

Dallas

Paint by Numbers

How Jerry Jones made Cowboys Stadium into one of the state’s best art galleries. Seriously!

Monahans

Singer Greg Vanderpool on the band's new online song series and more.

Mary Anne Reed, 66

Marriage Counselor

Beating a Dead Horse

Nearly 25 years after SMU received the death penalty, the Mustangs are finally on the trail to success. But an ESPN documentary reminds us how far the team had fallen thanks to ego, greed, and the religion of football.

Steer Pressure

Rich Man, Poor Man

The tragic culture clash that led to the murder of a governor’s son.

The 2011 Bum Steer Awards

It was a year of appalling analogies, bare-naked Badu, collapsing Cowboys, dim-witted Daughters of the Republic of Texas, egregious Ethics Commission, felonious fishermen (not to mention frisky firefighters), G-rated (not) guards, hilarious headlines, imperial incumbents, jackass judges (as always!), klutzy kat rescuers, legendarily lame and losing Longhorns, mind-boggling menus, noncompliant Nugent, outré overtimers, pajama-clad politicians, queso quarrels, rude representatives, scuffling strippers, toilet paper–free Texas A&M, unacceptable uniformed urination, vent-escaping vipers, woefully wrongheaded wide receivers, X-asperated Xanax-heads, yuk-yuk yeggs, and zealous Z-cups.

An Interview With George W. Bush (Audio)

October 26, 2010, Dallas.

Former’s Almanac

What Bush could learn from Nixon, Carter, and Clinton.

Bush 2.0

Two years after leaving office under a cloud of controversy, with a historically low approval rating, George W. Bush is reentering the spotlight and, with the groundbreaking of his library, launching his post-presidency. The question is, What will he do now?

Let’s Have Mex-Tex

Where’s the best place to get a perfect plate of enchiladas? A chile relleno to die for? A salsa you’ll never forget? Come along on our tour of the fifty greatest Mexican restaurants in Texas, from Hugo’s, in Houston, to Tacos Santa Cecilia, in El Paso. This is not your father’s Tex-Mex.

Don’t Mess With Exes

An Interview With George W. Bush (Transcript)

October 26, 2010, Dallas.

New and Noteworthy

Fuego, at Stephan Pyles, and House Wine.

John Carter & Bobby Bradford

A self-titled three-CD compilation.

Justice Is Served

Listen to senior editor Pamela Colloff discuss the release of Anthony Graves with KRLD's Mitch Carr and Scott Braddock.

New and Noteworthy

Phil’s Texas Barbecue, Houston and Dive Coastal Cuisine, Dallas.

Symbolyc One

On collaborating with Rhymefest and Kanye West and more.

Wouldn't You Like to Be a Pepper Too?

For your viewing pleasure: vintage Dr Pepper commercials from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image. Produced in Dallas, these sixties ads feature American Bandstand’s Dick Clark and the Dallas Cowboys’ Don Meredith.

The Grand Theatre: Volume One

A new album by the Old 97's.

Offering Fine Advice Since 2007

School yard bullying, game-day taunts, gambling etiquette, and children who dislike bones in their meat.

Smokin’

Can your backyard brisket taste as good as the meat you’d get at your favorite barbecue joint? Bill Karau, a native of Pittsburg, thinks so. There’s only one catch—you’ve got to use one of his pits.

New and Noteworthy

Brownstone Restaurant and Lounge, Fort Worth and the Meddlesome Moth, Dallas.

I Believe I Can Fry

How a mild-mannered database analyst from Dallas became the undisputed king of extreme competitive deep-frying in Texas—which is to say, the world.

Who’s That Girl?

Who are Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato?

This Is Series Business

The trouble with Texas TV shows.

Where They're From

A memorable hour-long radio special based on the June issue of TEXAS MONTHLY, a co-production with KUT 90.5 FM.

Old Testament

I had never thought about my identity as both a Jew and a Texan until my grandparents told me their stories about growing up in South Dallas in the forties.

Erykah Badu

Dallas

The Big D

How a German Basketballer of the Year became the pride of the Dallas Mavericks.

Mr. Bridge

He’s the greatest player in the world—maybe the greatest player ever— of a card game that fewer and fewer people know how to play. But Bob Hamman doesn’t care. He’s too busy probing my mind.

Thanks

Exxon’s generosity.

Three Hot Texas Stocks

Three hot e-commerce stocks.

Cat & Mouse With Tom & Jerry

How much do Tom Hicks and Jerry Jones pay themselves for the privilege of owning the Dallas Stars, the Texas Rangers, and the Dallas Cowboys? That and more in a revealing joint interview.

Herb’s Flight Plan

For 28 years Herb Kelleher has run Southwest Airlines as a low-cost, short-haul carrier that’s fun to fly on and even more fun to work for. But there could be changes on the horizon.

Texas Sound Bites

Twelve garage rock songs you must hear before you die.

The Texanist

The trouble with black beans, an unnatural attachment to Texas license plates, the perils of striking up a conversation in the restroom, and the discomfort of two men riding together on the same Harley.

Texas Nuggets

The secret history of garage rock in the Lone Star State.

Three Chords and A Station Wagon

In the years before anyone had heard of Woodstock or Altamont, teenagers across Texas started bands in their parents’ garages, banging out earnest rock songs on cheap equipment and hoping to hit it big at the local skating rink or VFW post. For some, those dreams won’t fade away.

Alex Jones Is About To Explode

Does the country’s most popular conspiracy talk radio host really believe that 9/11 was an inside job? That global warming is a plot cooked up by the World Bank? That an elite cabal wants to kill most of the people on the planet (including you)? Two million listeners think so—and they’re hanging on his every word.

The Bucket List

Driving the River Road, in far West Texas; having a drink at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, in Dallas; fishing for bass in Caddo Lake; eating a chicken-fried steak in Strawn; searching for a lightning whelk along the coast; and 58 other things that all Texans must do before they die.

Good Eats

A slide show of images featuring our state’s top ten restaurants, from Il Sogno, in San Antonio, to RDG + Bar Annie, in Houston, to Samar by Stephan Pyles, in Dallas.

Where to Eat Now 2010

You had to be brave to open a restaurant last year. Or you had to be a genius. Or, like Robert Del Grande, whose revamped Houston eatery tops our list of the ten best gastronomical debuts of 2009, you had to be both.

Ray Wylie Hubbard

Big D & the Women

Reality (TV) bites Dallas women.

Louis, Louis

The CEO of Louis Vuitton’s North American division talks about the new store at NorthPark, Marc Jacobs, and knockoffs.

Tomorrow People

Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Shoes for Tomorrow (TOMS), talks about traveling around the world, shoe drops, and expanding the business.

Gift Giving

Ginger Reeder on gift giving.

People We’ll Miss—2009

A fond look back at 22 Texans who died in 2009, from Farrah Fawcett and Walter Cronkite to Brandon Lara and Joe Bowman.

The Art of Getting Groomed

The opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center was three nights of award-worthy performances, champagne, and, of course, ambitious frocks.

The Champs

How mixed martial arts went from what one senator called “human cockfighting” to an event that draws record crowds and millions of pay-per-view buyers.

Gone to New York

Bud Shrake’s letters to friends back in Texas during his years in New York show the late novelist in all his ribald, freewheeling glory. And never more alive.

Dove Hunting

How to dove hunt.

The Judgment of Sharon Keller

Her decision to close the door on a death row inmate’s final plea has earned the state’s top criminal judge lasting infamy and a misconduct investigation that goes to trial this month. But was she wrong?

The 50 Greatest Hamburgers In Texas

On our first-ever quest for the state’s best burgers, we covered more than 12,000 miles, ate at more than 250 restaurants, and gained, collectively, more than 40 pounds. Our dauntless determination (and fearless fat intake) was rewarded with a list of 50 transcendent burgers—and you’ll never guess which one ended up on top. Check out our Best Burger section.

Being a Multimedia Journalist

The CNN contributor and syndicated columnist talks about the future of media.

Cool Cocktails

A few of the state’s best mixologists share their secrets to making delicious drinks.

That’s the Spirit

Not that you’re looking for an excuse, but these five original cocktails concocted by Texas bartenders using local liquors are a thoroughly acceptable reason to pour yourself a drink. Or three.

Henderson Avenue, Dallas

Henderson Avenue, Dallas.

Josh Hamilton’s Locker

Josh Hamilton’s locker.

Art of the Weekend

This Man Is Having So Much Fun!

For Steve Kemble, having as good a time as humanly possible as often as humanly possible is very serious business.

Game Over

Sure, sure, the newspaper business is dying, and this is bad for freedom, accountability, and democracy itself. But worst of all is what’s happened to sportswriting.

Still Life

A violent tackle in a high school football game paralyzed John McClamrock for life. His mother made sure it was a life worth living.

Dan Branch’s Bookcase

State representative Dan Branch’s bookcase.

Real Estate

Ebby Halliday, real estate agent.

Styles and Styles of Texas

The thirty Texans with the most iconic, unforgettable, eye-popping looks, from Davy Crockett to Beyoncé.

Updating Your Closet

Ken Downing on updating your closet.

Golden Oldies

Afghan artifacts in Houston; Texas Biennial.

Hostile Makeover

Nobody told me an eyebrow plucking would hurt this much!

Saturday Night

From a honky-tonk in Odessa to a Catholic church in Houston, there’s one night of the week when you’re guaranteed to find Texans at their snappiest.

Here Comes the Neighborhood

Preston Hollow gets its Bush back.

Chamber Made

El Paso’s Chamber Music Festival, Hallettsville’s domino championship.

Our Economy

Dallas Fed chair Richard Fisher on our lame economy.

The Show Goes On

The Texas Ballet Theater; Olafur Eliasson; Art Guys in Abilene.

The Exonerated

Thirty-seven men, 525 years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. Thanks to DNA testing, their claims of innocence have finally been proved—but what happens to them now?

Andy Mullins

Andy Mullins, midway barker.

Return of the King

Tut’s treasures; aural art; the poetry of Laurie Anderson.

Music, Maestro

The Dallas symphony; The Color Purple; the Nasher at five.

Tony Romo Is the Greatest Cowboys Quarterback Since...

Die-hard fans of America’s Team are debating that very question as we speak—and also wondering if the kid from Wisconsin with the buxom distraction can take them to the Super Bowl any faster than, say, Gary Hogeboom did.

Dallas, Our Dallas

Dallas in Austin; base ball in Buffalo Gap; gorging in Canyon Lake.

Honorable Mentions

New and noteworthy

Villa O, Dallas and Trattoria Lisina, Driftwood

BBQ08

Eighteen hungry reviewers. 14,773 miles driven/flown. 341 joints visited. Countless bites of brisket, sausage, chicken, pork, white bread, potato salad, and slaw—and vats of sauce—ingested. There are only fifty slots on our quinquennial list of the best places to eat barbecue in Texas. Only five of those got high honors. And only one (you’ll never guess which one in a million years) is the best of the best.

The Kitchen Is Closed

Forty years ago, Pete Dominguez and his Mexican restaurants were the toast of Dallas. Now he’s alone, broke, and nearly forgotten.

TM Talks: Herb Kelleher

Southwest Airline's co-founder on the FAA, smoking, and deplaning.

Bolla

Dallas

Child’s Play

Summer vacation is right around the corner, but that doesn’t mean you should panic. We’ve rounded up 68 of our favorite things to do with your toddlers, teens, and every kid in between. Dance the hokey pokey. Rope a horse. Eat way too many hot dogs. Zip down a waterslide. And yes, feed the animals.

Let There Be Light

J. M. W. Turner in Dallas; Discovery Green in Houston; Fiesta in S.A.

This Old House

Jim Atkinson changes out his insulation.

New and Noteworthy

Café Pita, Houston and Rise no1, Dallas

Avery Johnson

Avery Johnson on how to be an NBA coach.

Rating the Major Dailies

Choosing the best features of Texas newspapers is a thankless job, hard on the spirit, and difficult for all the wrong reasons.

Deadline in Dallas

One Dallas paper clings tightly to tradition while the other, with a new editor, looks for something to cling to of its own.

The Great Airline War

Will Texas International Airlines's “whiz kids” fizzle?! Will sexy Southwest conquer all?! Will Braniff lose its routes?!

Who Was Jack Ruby?

If you thought you knew, you were probably wrong.

The Dean of Fearing’s

Live from Fearing’s in Dallas, the state’s best new restaurant.

Where To Eat Now 2008

Yes, the setting is ritzy and the food remarkable. But what really makes the state’s best new restaurant sizzle is something less tangible: the (Dean) Fearing factor.

New and Noteworthy

Merchants Grand Café, San Antonio and Charlie Palmer, Dallas

The Man Who Saw Too Much

Hugh Aynesworth can’t escape what he witnessed in 1963.

Third Grade Social Studies

They may only be kids in third grade, but you’re looking at the future of Texas.

Toilet Tales

In summer months, Houstonians are drinking ice cold . . . toilet water. Courtesy of Dallas.

Appetite for the Future

What will dining be like in decades to come? We asked the state’s top chefs and foodies.

The New Conservative

Can Jim Atkinson change the world?

Robots

David Hanson on robot love.

Who’s Next

Who’s the next Willie? The new Selena?

Keep Art Here

Katrina Moorhead; Teatro Dallas; Design Life Now.

The Class of 2017

The future according to third-graders.

Eat Their Words

What will dining, both out and in, be like in decades to come? We asked the state’s top chefs and food folk, from Dean Fearing and Hugo Ortega to David Bull and Charles Butt.

Ort Varona

37, Boutique retailer, Dallas

Dave Stephenson

42, sports marketer, Dallas

The Last Drop

Texas has the country’s most precise state water plan. So how is it that every one of our major cities is still on track to run dry in the next fifty years?

Clayton Kershaw

19, pitcher, Dallas

Ben Fountain

49, fiction writer, Dallas

El Gobernador

The first Hispanic to lead Texas will be a Basque jai alai phenom, Dallas attorney, and Democratic state representative whose election, in 2018, will relegate the GOP to semi- permanent minority status. Wanna bet?

Tomorrow Never Dies

The perils of prediction.

The Old Bowl Game

I wish I were in the land of Cotton (Bowl).

Contributors

C. F. Payne, Cecilia Ballí, and Gregory Curtis

Fed Up

The pall over Dallas City Hall.

Fashion at The Park

Dallas

Still on the Case

Assassination buffs come in all shapes and convictions—archivists, technologists, mob-hit theorists, and more—but they are all obsessed with Lee Harvey Oswald, and his crime is the focus of their lives.

Why Do They Hate Us So Much?

A great man was dead and an outraged world desperately wanted someplace to lay blame. It chose Dallas and changed the city forever.

The Legacy of Lee Harvey Oswald

Twenty years ago he thrust himself into our lives; he is there yet.

The Fastest Nice Christian Boy in the World

Bobby Morrow was America’s most celebrated Olympic athlete in 1956. Today he wishes he’d never left the starting blocks.

American Dreamers

These six entrepreneurs are members of a unique Dallas program that is bringing the promise of microcredit to the Untied States: one small business at a time.

Corny Dogs

Every corny dog has its day.

The Unbankables

All over Dallas are working-class dreamers with more will than wallet, would-be entrepreneurs who’d start their own businesses if only they had savings, good credit, home equity. That’s what brings them to the PLAN Fund.

Endless Summerall

What the double-breasted buffoons in today’s broadcast booths can learn from a legend of the game.

Grounds for Suspicion

Conspiring minds want to know …

Craig’s List

Of the many things the first black district attorney of Dallas County is doing, none is more important than rethinking the concept of guilt and innocence.

The Longest Ride of His Life

When Randall Adams was sentenced to death ten years ago, the Dallas community thought a cop killing had been put to rest. But it hasn’t.

Behind the Lines

Conover Hunt and the Sixth Floor Museum.

Leppert Colony

In the ninth-largest city in America, boring is the new exciting.

A Boy and His Airline

No kid ever had more fun with his favorite toy than Herb Kelleher has in running Southwest Airlines.

Behind the Lines

The case against conspiracy.

I Was Mandarin...

Clues left behind by a former Dallas cop convinced his son that he killed President Kennedy—but that’s just the beginning of the mystery.

Ad Men at War

How the battle for the Southwest Airlines account turned into a long-awaited showdown between Texas’ two top agencies.

Can Hollywood Solve JFK’s Murder?

Director Oliver Stone may not be sure who did it or how, but he is sure he knows why.

“I Knew I Had Been Hit”

In a chilling excerpt from his autobiography, the late John Connally offers his close-up account of the Kennedy assassination.

See No Evil

Dallas police say Charles Albright is the coldest, most depraved killer of women in the city’s history. To me, he seems like a perfect gentleman. Maybe too perfect.

How They Do It

How Jim Wright schoozes, George Foreman bruises, ZZ Top trims, and Janet Evans swims, plus the straight skinny on everything else from nearly fifty other Texas celebrities.

Shape Up

Vain Glory

Jerry Jones may have the biggest ego in football, but don’t bet against him. Even without Jimmy Johnson, he still has the best team.

ASKed Out

My third year organizing the JFK assassination conference was one year too many.

Roads to Nowhere

The myth of the NAFTA superhighway.

Down and Out

My firsthand experience with the hard times that himbled my hero, former Dallas Cowboys star Golden Richards

Nerdysomething

Lisa Loeb eyes stardom.

Alternative Weakly

Texas newspapers go to war.

The Real Medical Crisis

For reformers of the nations health-care system, ground zero may be Dallas’ Parkland Memorial Hospital, where the crush of uninsured patients with non-urgent complaints is affecting everyone’s care.

Crude Awakening

There’s black gold in the South American rain forest—lots of it. Can the oil companies get it out without ruining the jungle and the way of life of the Indians who live there? The perils of drilling in the heart of darkness.

Hostile Makeover

Mary Kay Ash and Jinger Heath have made fortunes getting women to buy and sell their beauty proucts. But no lipstick or powder can conceal the ugliness between these Dallas cosmetics queens.

No Choice

Jane Roe flips for a preacher.

The News About Jim Lehrer

Once an accomplished newscaster and reporter in Dallas, he’s still going strong—and now solo—on PBS.

The Removal Men, 1995

Basking in It

If the literary novel is dead, then why is Baskerville Publishers in Dallas flourishing?

Texas Twenty: Catherine Crier

No longer judged a lightweight.

Texas Twenty: Don Henley

Crooning for Caddo Lake.

Texas Twenty: Tom Luce

Head of the class.

Texas Twenty: Mel White

Preaching tolerance.

Texas Twenty: Dick Armey

The man of the House.

In the Drink

Drunken boaters have turned a popular lake near Dallas into deadly waters.

A Perfect Mess

Can a suburban Dallas house-wife who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder ever overcome her fears? She doubts it.

Of Mats and Men

At the 1995 state high school wrestling championships, pinning wasn’t everything. It was the only thing.

Hit Picker

Each week, record promoters flock to see Redbeard, the Dallas radio programmer with an ear for the best new music.

Big Wheel

Once he raced cars; now he builds them. Even at 72, it seems, Carroll Shelby can’t slow down.

Pine and Agony

Race Matters

Ron Kirk is ready to be Dallas’ first black mayor. But is Dallas ready for him?

“I Shot to Kill”

When burglars targeted my Dallas business for repreated break-ins, I felt violated—and I fought back.

Roe v. World

Twenty-five years after Norma McCorvey joined the flight to legalize abortion, the battle is still raging—and so is she.

Family Plot

For Dallas writer Carlton Stowers, Sins of the Son is more than just another true crime story. The son is his own.

The Art of Running for President

Phil Gramm is a world-class fundraiser, but it will take more than money to carry him to the White House in 1996.

Gramm Watch

Chipping Away

Cyriz is dueling industry-gian Intel in a showdown for the fastest computers in the West.

Start Your Engines

All the Dead Horses

The Humane Society wants to rein in Beltex of Fort Worth, one of the nation’s largest slaughterhouses.

State of Innocents

The DA and the DNA.

Shopping for A Wedding Gown

Lela Rose on buying a wedding dress.

Great Mexpectations

How will the Mexxico bailout affect Texxas? Experts say it’s just what we needed.

A Bloody Game

When Bush Comes to Shove

Big Talker

Jailed right-wing Dallas radio host Tom Donahue protests he’s a political prisoner. The IRS says he’s a crook.

Fast and Loose

Bugs Henderson doesn’t lhave an “act” — he’s simply one of the best blues guitarists around.

Closing the Circle J

A final farewell to the Hill Country spread that for more than thirty years meant everything to me and my family.

Brush With Fame

As a curator and in his own work as a painter, Jerry Bywaters left a lasting legacy of Texas art.

Barry Switzer Gets the Last Laugh

The rookie Cowboys coach has turned out to be exactly what all the critics said he wasn’t: a winner.

Critter Bidders

High-tech meets down-home in Texas’ latest ranching trend: a video auction of emus, elk, and other exotic animals.

Go Fire Yourself!

It’s the best thing Jerry Jones could do for the Cowboys.

Eating Myself Alive

Ten foods to gorge on in 2007.

Failed Coup

News you’d Rather not use.

Where to Eat Now 2007

Well, first and foremost, Dallas, since four of the year’s ten best new restaurants—including the top three—are there. But if you’re hip and hungry in Houston, Austin, or San Antonio, my list won’t disappoint.

Bedtime Story

Give yourself the slip.

Groovy Girl

Senior editor Michael Hall on spending time with Dallas musician Erykah Badu.

The Real World

Writer-at-large Michael Ennis on writing about politics and culture.

Getting Fit

Kenneth Cooper on getting—and staying—fit.

Home Girl

Most people from Dallas who make it big in the music business get out of town as soon as they can. “That’s what celebrities do,” Erykah Badu says. “I never wanted to be a celebrity.”

Coal Hard Facts

Facing an energy crisis, Texas is on the verge of a solution that will belch about five billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the next forty years. Breathe deeply—while you still can.

Par Excellence

The best golf holes in Texas, according to the legends of the game.

Here Comes Trouble

Dan Patrick is causing nervous breakdowns of various size and duration—and he’s not even in the Texas Senate yet.

The 2007 Bum Steer Awards

It was a year of aggrieved actors, banned boobs, Cuban commodes, DeLay denial, errant Elmo, frisky floaters, grouchy governors, hung hoopsters, immigration insensitivity, job-seeking judges, klobbered Karl, Longhorn lushes, miffed musicians, nude no-no’s, ousted Osteens, peeved passers, quarreling queens, riled Rangers, subpar sheriffs, tiny “terrorists,” unseemly URLs, vice presidential violence, wiseacre W., x-asperated x-wives, youthful yakkers, and zoo zeal.

The Mighty Metroplex

Just a few years after nearly being written off the map, the region has become a roaring engine of growth and social transformation.

Texas Myth# 31

Did The Texas Chainsaw Massacre really happen?

Around the State

The Hungriest Coach

Three years after he replaced Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson is giving Dallas Cowboys fans something to cheer about—and his critics are eating their words.

You Can Go Home Again

Come home, Dixie Chicks.

Thank God It’s Friday

And Saturday. And Sunday. The arrival of fall means weekends spent watching football, up close and on-screen, and yet another opportunity to love the greatest game on earth for all the usual reasons. Forty-nine of them, in fact.

Water, Water Everywhere

From kayaking on Town Lake to mountain biking around Joe Pool Lake, from bass fishing on Lake Fork to horseback riding on the shores of Lake Whitney, here are some of our favorite things to do in, on, and around Texas lakes.

Hoop Dreams

The Spurs versus the Mavs.

The Links That Bind

For Texas’ Kuehne kids, excelling at golf is par for the course—and the least their father will accept.

Heavenly

The heavenly hits of God’s Property.

Armey of One

By trying to have it both ways in the coup against Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey hurt the Republican party—and himself.

Environment • Phyllis Glazer

Waste not.

Total Exposure

Is there such a thing as privacy on the Internet?

Sea You Really Soon

State Fare

Dallas’ Seventeen Seventeen has mastered the art of the catfish taco.

Food Fright

Eating a peanut shouldn’t be a particularly memorable experience, but for Dallasite Mona Cain and countless other allergic Americans, it’s a matter of life and death.

Where Are They Now?

Whatever happened to the 1971 Super Bowl–champion Cowboys?

Turn Out the Lights

The Dallas Cowboys old-timers reunion is over, but for one evening it was possible to remember when pro football was fun, players were loyal, and even a sportswriter could fall in love with his team.

Terrence McNally

Hurricane

A couple of indie film producers.

Fan Fare

A Texas football magazine that scores.

Affair of State

A Dallas lawyer’s roman à Clinton.

CD and Book Reviews

Grand Hotel

Why do reviewers from Condé Nast Traveler to the Zagat and Mobil guides swoon over Dallas’ Mansion on Turtle Creek? I wanted to find out, so I checked in.

Corporate Makeover

EDS, the company Ross Perot imbued with his own conservative image, is designing Internet sites for magazines like Elle. What a tangled Web we weave.

Hang Like a Bulldog

Boone Pickens no longer wears a tie. Herein lies a tale.

Punkytonk

The state prison name game; Dallas alternative-country band the Old 97’s is feeling no depression.

Sloane, Alone

Dallas’ Sloane Simpson was a society queen who enchanted New York, seduced Mexico City, and turned Acapulco into a jet-set getaway. But when she died last year at age eighty, she was almost completely forgotten.

The Curse of Romeo and Juliet

The patriarchs of Texas’ leading Gypsy clans have been embroiled in a furious feud for more than two decades. And now that their children are in love, it’s only getting worse.

Fly-boy

A Wylie computer programmer flies high.

Artbeat

Charting the state’s museum-building boom.

Mission Accomplished

Voice of Amerykah

Whether or not Erykah Badu is the Billie Holiday of hip-hop, her uplifting songs and soulful singing are winning fans from coast to coast.

State Fare

Walnuts, Gorgonzola, and chutney make for an upscale fish dish at the Grape in Dallas.

Mexican Revolution

New restaurants in Dallas and Houston are serving up authentic interior-style Mexican dishes that turn the tables on Tex-Mex.

Babes in the ’Hoods

Thought the competition between Texas cities was over? Until my daughter was born in Dallas and a friend’s was born in Austin, so did I.

Blowin’ in the Wind

Itchy eyes, sore throat, runny nose: It must be allergy season. But what causes allergies? How do you pick a doctor? And what’s the best treatment? An in-depth look at an affliction that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Sundance Across Texas

Tenor of the Times

Dallas sax player Marchel Ivery has impressed jazz greats like Red Garland and Art Blakey. So why isn’t he more famous? For one thing, he won’t blow his own horn.

CD and Book Reviews

Making Headway

At the Texas Woman’s University Aphasia Center in Dallas, a promising new treatment is helping stroke victims learn to read, write, and speak again.

Blue Period

Thanks to his wildly popular bluebonnet paintings, Dallas artist W.A. Slaughter is living on easel street.

Road Show

Our guide to finding Texas wildflowers that stand out in their fields.

Ink Big

Tex Rated

summary: What’s the best hotel in Texas? (Hint: It’s not the Mansion on Turtle Creek).

CD and Book Reviews

The Ice Bats Cometh

Even when they’re not winning games, minor league hockey teams like Austin’s are winning fans by the thousands. Who’d have thought skaters would score in Texas?

Bob Schieffer

What a Hall!

Rock, don’t run, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, where Texas greats from T-Bone Walker to Sly Stone get their due.

Smokin’!

Sowing the seeds of the hemp craze.

Bonnie and Clyde

To whom were Bonnie and Clyde really married, and whose saxophone was found in their car?

CD and Book Reviews

So Much to Learn, So Little Time

Today students at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas are expected to master more hard-core science than ever before. Yet after graduation, they’ll have to keep studying, and be counselors and business experts too. A hard look at the way we teach our doctors—and why it has had to change.

Beaming

Beaming over a new aircraft landing device.

Belo the Belt

Reading the Arlington newspaper war.

No Contest

If Bill Clinton wants to get elected president, he’ll have to do it without Texas—just like in 1992.

Ball Player

CD and Book Reviews

Proving Their Medal

Bread Winners

Upper-crust bakers in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin are turning out heavenly handmade loaves that make store-bought seem stale by comparison.

Bone Dry

From water rationing to stricken crops, the current drought may be as devastating as the one in the early fifties—the time it never rained.

Blown Away

Ninety-four years after the Goliad Tornado killed 114 people, why do we still ignore the warnings until it’s too late? A reflection on Texas’ worst twisters.

Wende, Becky, and Kelly Parks

Why Can’t Steven Phillips Get a DNA Test?

For that matter, why can’t any incarcerated man or woman with a good reason get one?

The Lawsuit from Hell

How an East Texas attorney spawned the most massive products-liability case ever— one that has cost millions of dollars and involved thousands of plaintiffs and might never end.

Cheril Santini

Sure Shot

Now Hear This

The surprising sound of the Internet.

Riffs on Roy

Oak Cliff native Roy Hargrove may not have the depth and seasoning of Wynton Marsalis, but the 26-year-old prodigy could still be one of the great jazz trumpeters of our day.

CD and Book Reviews

Her Three Sons

For the Wilsons of Dallas, taking pictures was a family affair. Today the mother is a successful photographer and her boys are hot Hollywood commodities. Here’s a look at Laura Wilson’s personal album.

Arlo Eisenberg

Mitch Pileggi

Blow by Blow

The art of throwing punches, the science of skipping rope, and other reasons why boxing is a hit with me.

Right On

Primary color: Dole on a roll, a report card for the Religious Right, and other fallout from Election Day.

War, Inc.

Brown and Root goes to Bosnia for the Pentagon—and cleans up.

The Far Right Stuff

Wyatt Roberts says he’s simply crusading against sin, but critics contend that the Christian activist is trying to usher in a new era in Texas: the anti-gay nineties.

CD and Book Reviews

Interview With The Vamp

After twenty years as the reigning queen of the soaps, the essential truth about Morgan Fairchild remains: She’s not a bitch, but she plays one on TV.

The Fourth Tramp

A new book about Lee Harvey Oswald reveals that conspiracy theorists are still straining to repackage old news into something new.

Not a Pretty Picture

Dallas and Houston have done it; Beaumont and Corpus Christi have too. So why hasn’t Austin built a respectable art museum? It comes down to three things: money, management, and mission.

Burnin’!

A Dallas soccer team burns up the competition.

Spin Control

Vertigo isn’t just the stuff of Hitchcock thrillers—it’s a debilitating disease, as Dallas radio talk show host Kevin McCarthy found out the hard way.

Stephen Stills

In God We Bust

Since the late eighties, dozens of big churches in Texas have put rapid growth ahead of financial health. Austin’s Great Hills Baptist is only the latest to pay the price.

Media Circus • Michael Irvin

Drugstore Cowboy.

Theater • Lou Diamond Phillips

It’s good to be King.

Television • Chuck Norris

Lone Ranger.

Design • Anthony Mark Hankins

Fashionably affordable.

Sports • Michael Johnson

The running man.

Ryan Shams

Shocking

The gospel according to Michelle Shocked.

Disunion

The Texas film industry’s labor pain.

The New Fat Cats

Meet the newest Texas fat cats - the well-heeled contributors financing political campaigns in and out of our state.

Golden Oldie

After playing for years in relative obscurity, 57-year-old Ronnie Dawson is the latest cult hero in the cultish world of rockabilly.

Thrill Killers

Now that the crack epidemic has leveled off and gang violence is down, urban Texas is being terrorized by a new type of criminal: the superpredator. He murders without motive, feels no remorse, and worst of all, seldom gets caught.

Jimmy King

Principals, Not Heels

Why good schools have clean bathrooms and principals who don’t wear high heels.

Roar of the Crowd

King Lear Jet

The feud between billionaire Harold Simmons and his daughters is worthy of Shakespeare.

Texas Primer: The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

How much are the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders paid per game?

Pulpit Fiction

The D-Files

Signs of intelligent life in Dallas.

CD and Book Reviews

The 1998 Bum Steer Awards

A year of altered antlers, bawdy broadcasters, comedian corrections, dining detectives, emancipated emus, fossilized felines, gullible Gore, hemline harassment, insatiable igniters, jazzed-up jewelry, Kay’s kennelwear, lottery loonies, metric madness, numerous nudes, 007 oenophiles, poultry protesters, questionable quizzes, revengeful revenuers, Spam slingers, tie tirades, unallowed uniforms, variant videotapers, warning! water, x-humed x-mascots, yanked Yvonne, and zodiac zombies.

Guy Mezger

Ku Klux Klowns

There was something comical about the plot by four Klan members to blow up a chemical plant in Wise County— and that was before their own Imperial Grand Wizard turned them into the feds.

Joan of Art

Less than a decade ago, she was a homemaker and an arts volunteer, but today the Arlington Museum of Art’s Joan Davidow is the most imaginative and adventurous museum director working in Texas.

Primary Color

Handicapping the Republican primary: Will far-right might carry the day?

The Entertainer

How has Jacksonville native Neal McCoy, a self-described “easy-listenin’ kinda guy,” managed to sell five million country CDs and cassettes? It has little to do with his singing.

Ramblin’ Roses

Texans are rediscovering antique roses, the hardy, neglected beauties that decorate old graveyards and abandoned houses across the state. Whether you buy them from a nursery or rustle cuttings from the wild, here�s the dirt on how to grow your own.

Jensen Ackles

Day Careful

A Dallas company’s virtual child care.

Arts and Wozencraft

Cheryl Clark

A Stand-up Guy

Plano’s Steve Harvey has been a successful comedian for years. Now he’s a sitcom star too.

Whodunit?

The mysterious murder of a small-town mayor.

Miller Time

After years of attacking members of the Dallas City Council, journalist Laura Miller wants to be one.

Jazzed

Can yet another independent label survive in today’s rough- and-tumble music business? The young founders of Dallas’ Leaning House Records sure hope so.

Soul Survivor

His mentor, Sam Cooke, is long dead, but Dallas’ Johnnie Taylor is alive and well and still living at the top of the charts.

The Handmades’ Tale

These twelve Texas artisans herald the victory of man over machine, carefully crafting wood, metal, or stone into items for your home and hearth that are tomorrow’s heirlooms today.

State Fare

From Chef Pat, Tarantino’s, Dallas.

Watch Out

Advice for the new coaches of the Dallas Cowboys and the UT Longhorns.

Lee Trevino

Which soft drink’s quart-size bottle did Lee trevino use as a golf club?

CD and Book Reviews

The Eyes Have It

An anxious, alcoholic, stressed, and depressed Dallasite. A suicidal San Antonian. For each, a seemingly visionary treatment.

BUSINESS • Thomas O. Hicks

Hello, good buy.

SPORTS • Dennis Rodman

As the Worm turns.

RADIO • Tom Joyner

The host with the most.

FOOD • Stephan Pyles

A recipe for success.

MULTIMEDIA • John Romero

Game Boy.

RELIGION • T.D. Jakes

A blast from the pastor.

Class Acts

Long before they were chart-topping musicians, Erykah Badu and Roy Hargrove made the grade at an arts magnet school in Dallas.

Scorched Earth

This summer’s hot topic? Weather.

This Year’s Model

Fame of Hall

You might not recognize actress Irma P. Hall on the street, but you know her from her films. And thatÕs just how she likes it.

Pay Check

Michael Dell earned nearly $34 million in 1997. Was he worth it? Find out in our roundup of the most overpaid and underpaid CEOs in Texas.

Kristen Link and Lindsay Long

Start Here

The childhood homes of nine famous Texans.

Foxx, Whole

With feature-film roles, a chart-topping album, and a successful stand-up career, sitcom star Jamie Foxx is laughing all the way to the bank.

Abraham Zapruder

How much did Life pay Abraham Zapruder for the rights to his assassination film?

Conspiracy Dearies

The Lone Gunman

Why the Warren Commission was right.

The Evidence

The magic bullet, the president’s jacket, Oswald’s camera, and other artifacts from the National Archives.

The Witnesses

Nellie Connally, Red Duke, and others remember November 22, 1963.

The Two Oswalds

It’s the most intriguing theory of all: two men with the same identity, one a patsy and the other a murderer who got off scot-free.

Saigon Surprise

Conspiracy theories: The Vietnam Theory.

Conspiracy A-Go-Go

Conspiracy theories: The Shadow Government Theory.

Friendly Fire

Conspiracy theories: The Secret Service Theory.

Cuba Libre

Conspiracy theories: The Cuban Exiles Theory.

The Cuban Connection

Conspiracy theories: The Castro Theory.

Hoover’s Endgame

Conspiracy theories: The FBI Theory.

The Red Scare

Conspiracy theories: The KGB Theory.

Et Tu, Lyndon?

Conspiracy theories: The LBJ Theory.

Married to the Mob

Conspiracy theories: The Mafia Theory.

The Conspiracy Theories

JFK was killed by (a) the mob, (b) Castro, (c) the FBI, (d) the CIA, or (e) none of the above? Decide for yourself.

Plausible Deniability

Conspiracy theories: The CIA Theory.

The Assassination at 35

A handsome young president, a convertible limousine, a sniper, three shots (we think), and our lives were changed forever. A special report on what is, for many, the defining event of the past fifty years.

CD and Book Reviews

Addicted to Sex?

Even if you’re not, many Texans are: Sex Addicts Anonymous has 61 chapters across the state, tending to the tattered psyches of exhibitionists and other tormented souls.

The Real Troy Aikman

His dreams. His fears. The truth about his love life. A candid chat with Texas’ most misunderstood sports hero.

Six Brothers

The tragedy of the Von Erichs—the state’s first family of pro wrestling—is well known not just to fans of the sport but to the many groupies who oohed and aahed at the matinee-idol athletes over the years. Still, you haven’t really heard the story until it’s told by the sole surviving sibling, whose eldest son may be the next one to step into the ring.

Flipping Out

The letter-sweater-wearing, pom-pom-shaking, pep-rally-leading girl next door has been a beloved Texas icon for generations. So why do so many people today— lawmakers and lawyers, preachers and feminists—think cheerleading is the root, root, root of all evil?

Non-Issues

Greece, lightning, and other non-issues in last month’s election.

Familia Feud

In Laredo, a conservative revolution is upending the city’s old patronage politics.

The Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog

In Texas the ultimate arbiter of good taste has always been Neiman Marcus, the Dallas-based department store that marks its ninetieth birthday next year.

Still ZZ After All These Years

So what if they’re not cranking out hits and selling out concerts the way they used to? After nearly three decades, no one makes better blues rock than ZZ Top.

The Killer Cadets

David Graham and Diane Zamora were intelligent, young, and in love. And they shared a secret: They had brutally murdered Adreianne Jones.

All-American Troy

America’s Marketer

Bad News

Does the Dallas Morning News discriminate? Plus: Bill Clinton between the covers.

CD and Book Reviews

CDs by Doctors’ Mob and the American Analog Set, plus a tribute to Bob Wills; booksby James Lee Burke and Louise Redd.

CD and Book Reviews

Playing for Keeps

The truth—what we can discern, anyway—about Tom Landry’s leukemia.

How Many of You Have Heard of Zig Ziglar Before—Or Is This Your First Time-uh?

From Harvard to Hesitation Hill, the nation’s most motivated motivational speaker is much in demand. And he’ll still see you at the top.

Garden Variety

From antique benches to cast-iron planters, a selective guide to the yard art of your dreams.

For the Children

Slime Time!

An Addison snail breeder gets fresh with the world.

Race Value

Rating our primary concerns.

Pale by Comparison

“Michael Jackson’s disease” sounds like a punch line, but the pigment-robbing skin disorder is no joke. Just ask Dallas County commissioner John Wiley Price.

The Jones Gang

You know the real reason Texas Stadium has no roof? So Jerry Jones can get his head inside. (Or, how the Cowboys owner’s ego makes it hard to root for America’s Team.)

Texas Food Conquers the World!

How to cook up a culinary craze: Mix talented chefs, native ingredients, classical techniques, and good publicity. Name result “Southwestern.” Let spread across globe.

Also-runs

Wacky White House wannabes.

Cutthroat Island

Once upon a time, Galveston was an isolated island with few big-city problems. Recent flaps over civic corruption, press bias, and race suggest those days are over.

Texas, Paris

Two mythic cultures, one great love affair: How France has taken us to heart.

Does DaRoyce Mosley Deserve to Die?

A young black man with a spotless record is facing a controversial death sentence for the murder of four whites. An East Texas town remains divided.

Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson

Shots in the Dark

Two grim incidents involving guns, three dead teenagers: Reflections on self-defense.

Rush to Justice

Kim Wozencraft meant to spend her life putting drug pushers behind bars—until she became an addict. Now, more than a decade later, she’s fighting against the justice system she once embraced.

Good-bye to a Friend

Smooth Operator

You might say Tarek Souryal is the most important Dallas Maverick: He doesn’t score or rebound, but he reconstructs million-dollar ankles and knees, and that makes him a real team player.

Hot Potatoes

Is it possible to have a low-fat chip that tastes good? After three years of top-secret tinkering, Frito-Lay thinks it has hit upon the ultimate snacker’s delight.

Powers Boothe

Old-timers’ Day

Duking it out, after more than fifty years of friendship, over Ann Coulter, Terri Schiavo, the appeal of golf, and, inevitably, the decline of the Cowboys.

Me and Him

Once upon a time I thought it was cool to question God’s existence. Not anymore.

Date Line

The world’s largest online love line.

Al, Gored

Can Al Lipscomb survive both the ballot box and the jury box?

Ardor in the Court

Working out of his two-man firm in Dallas, plaintiff’s attorney Kip Petroff is doing something his peers around the country can’t: He’s bringing a major drug company to its knees.

Ice Guys Finish First

Hockey in Texas? And the team is good? Don’t laugh. The Dallas Stars could win it all this year, and sports fans across the state could soon be drinking Shiner Bock from the Stanley Cup.

Tex Mecca

What are tens of thousands of Muslims doing in Arlington? Adjusting to life in America, debating the merits of assimilation, and trying to convince the world that they’re not terrorists.

David Hale Smith

Shakespeare in Lufkin

Y’all, the world’s a stage.

Suburban Renewal

How three Dallas area developers are beating back the threat of soulless sprawl by restoring a sense of community.

State Fare

Shellfish? Swellfish. One bite of miso-glazed shrimp at Dallas’ Green Room and you’ll be hooked.

Take Note

Texas-friendly tips for watching the Grammys

Child’s Play

The state’s reigning piano prodigy is a nine-year-old from Carrollton? No kidding.

A Strike Against You

If your family has a history of cancer, are you doomed? Even though many of his relatives—including his famous father—succumbed to the disease, Mickey Mantle, Jr., didn’t think so. Then he got sick.

Thanks a Million ’98

Make that around $275 million. A roundup of last year’s top Texas philanthropists, from Tex and Buzz to Manny and Heavy Cat.

Return to Splendor

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.

CD and Book Reviews

News Makers

Coming January 1 to a small screen near you: A round-the-clock, Texas-specific, CNN-style cable channel. Its creators will be watching. Will you?

Deep Dish

Which Hollywood legend is “the bitch of all time”? Which comedienne’s daughter was a dope addict by age fourteen and came to Houston to get unhooked? Texas’ top gossips tell all.

Teenage Wasteland

With its optimistically broad streets and oversized cantilevered homes, Plano is the suburban ideal taken to its extreme, and its exaggerated scale often gives rise to exaggerated problems. Heroin addiction is only the latest.

1999 Bum Steer Awards

A year of asking-for-it Aggies, badass broccoli, contraband coffee, Death Row decor, extrapolating elephants, faux feet, god-awful gimmickry, humongous heavyweights, incomparable ironers, judicial jimjams, kaput kowtowers, lame-brained liberals, moping millionaires, NASA ninnies, off-putting officials, prize-winning pignappers, quasi-comic quipsters, red-handed rapscallions, scarfable sod, theoretical thongs, ungodly ungulates, vomiting vegetation, wild-eyed window-breakers, xenophobic Xanthippes, Yankee yahoos, and zapped zealots.

Michael Martin Murphey

Pop Art

How 7 UP is trying to win back its share of the soft drink market, one commercial at a time.

The Games Game

Houston and Dallas go for the gold.

The Gay Non-Issue

The election of a lesbian sheriff in Dallas County is a reminder of how far we’ve come, in a very short period, on the question of sexual orientation.

Sunk

How the Texans who organized the Swift Boat Vets capsized John Kerry’s presidential campaign.

Tour Of Duty

Peri, Trouper

Waco, Houston, Dallas, Austin, London, New York, Hollywood: Peri Gilpin was all over the map before finding stardom on NBC�s hit sitcom Frasier.

Malled

Wealthy school districts think they’ve found a way to shield millions of dollars from the state’s Robin Hood law. Are they about to get malled?

The Kids Are Alright

Fourteen-year-old country prodigy LeAnn Rimes is singing a Blue streak. But she’s not the only Texas teen tearing up the music scene.

Death and the Matrons

What could drive a suburban housewife to murder? The bizarre cases of Rowlett’s Darlie Routier and Fairview’s Candy Montgomery hint at the answer, and it may be closer to home than we’d like to think.

Cowboy Family Values

Serious athlete. Devoted father and husband. Savvy businessman. On game day he may be Prime Time, but out of the spotlight, Deion Sanders is the squarest player on the Dallas Cowboys.

And Justice for Some

How the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals mistakes toughness for fairness—and gives the state a black eye.

Arlington's Team

Why isn't the new Dallas Cowboys stadium going to be in, er, Dallas? Blame the collision of an irresistible force (Jerry Jones) with an immovable object (Laura Miller).

The Magnificent Seven

Meet a diver, a high-jumper, and five other Texas athletes who hope to put the pedal to the medal at the 2004 Olympics.

Peace be with you. And also with you. Unless you're gay.

The battle for the soul of the Episcopal Church, being waged aggressively in this state, is not only about the ordination of homosexuals. It's also about the future of the denomination.

No Fuss

"It's still easy to walk around New York unrecognized. I'm kind of nerdy and not fashionable, so people don't give me a second look."

The Pedophile Next Door

How do you know when a child molester is cured? Are you willing to take his word for it? David Wayne Jones hopes so. Thirteen years ago he was convicted of preying on little boys at the East Dallas YMCA, but he could soon be out of jail and back on the street. Your street.

Family Man

To his suburban Dallas neighbors, Todd Becker was a doting husband and devoted father. They had no clue that he led a secret, lucrative life as a safecracker.

Where to Eat Now 2004

Now serving: the best new restaurants in Texas, including a glamorous international kitchen in Dallas, a hot sushi spot in Austin, and—the best of them all—a drop-dead room with a globe-trotting menu in Houston.

The Witness

For forty years Nellie Connally has been talking about that day, when she was in that car and saw that tragedy unfold. She's still talking—and now she's writing too.

A Ride for Mrs. Oswald

On November 22, 1963, I was working as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when I answered the phone—and got a close encounter with history.

Mother of the Decade

Lee Harvey Oswald's mother wants to tell the world how she got out from under Jackie's shadow.

Tom Landry: Melting the Plastic Man

Behind the mask is a man of God, a man devoted to the all-American goal of winning the all-American game as few have done before him.

Perilously Plump

Texans love to say that everything’s bigger here, but when it comes to the waistlines in one in four of our largest cities, that’s nothing to brag about.

Mack McCormick Still Has the Blues

His cache of unpublished interviews and unreleased recordings is unrivaled—but both collector and collection are showing signs of age. Who will save the legacy of the man who saved Texas music?

Life of the Party

Night of the living Democrat.

The Franchise

Is the Dallas Mavericks' Mark Cuban a pushy billionaire with a lust for publicity, or is he an energetic owner who has saved the team? Do we have to choose?

Stanley Marcus

Mimi Swartz sizes up the legacy of Stanley Marcus.

Tuning in Dandy Don

Don Meredith brings football and TV into focus.

Drew Carries On

Sixteen years after a car crash ended his football career, former Cowboys star Drew Pearson is a team player again—in the XFL.

Video Killers

Why the state's programmers are voting for gore.

Poster Boy

Artist Frank Kozik has been called a "rock-poster genius," creating jarring, macabre images for bands like the Butthole Surfers and Sonic Youth. So why did he leave Austin for San Francisco seven years ago? He had his designs.

Taste for Trouble

When San Antonio restaurateur Mario Cantú died last November, he left behind a legacy of political activism along with fine Mexican fare.

Hello, Mr. Chips

Texas Instruments looks to cash in on its chips.

Around the State

Dallas rolls out the red carpet for dance, theater, sports, and opera. Plus: San Antonio puts photographer Kathy Vargas on display; Beaumont gushes about the one hundredth anniversary of Spindletop; Mission juices up its Texas Citrus Fiesta; and East Texas shines under the lights of Broadway.

The Man Who Loved Cat Burgling

For years Dallas’ most prolific jewel thief robbed the mansions of socialites like Nancy Brinker and Annette Simmons. If not for his girlfriend’s crack use, he might have gotten away with it forever.

About Faces

W is for "Whew"!

The former stripper, the tabloid, and George W. Bush.