The journalists, politicos, and barflies who inhabit Texas Monthly writer-at-large KAREN OLSSON’s first novel, WATERLOO (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), could have strolled right off the streets of Austin, real-world counterpart to the title’s fictional Texas capital. This wonderfully observed tale traces the personal and professional struggles of Waterloo
When people hear I’m a landlady, they tell me I should have my head examined. Yep.
“I’ve had my failures and my mistakes. I don’t dwell on them. So I don’t have anything dragging me down at any given time.”
I am mortified that Texas Monthly would choose the cover heading “And on the eighth day, God created Joel Osteen” [“Prime Minister,” August 2005]. While Joel Osteen delivers a feel-good message and may be a good businessman, please reacquaint yourselves with Genesis, chapter one, of the Holy Bible—any version.
As mythical creatures go, Bigfoot is right up there with the Loch Ness Monster and the Abominable Snowman. But in Jefferson, the search for the hairy, hulking beast with the, er, big feet is big business—and deadly serious.
Take one defunct sandwich shop and strip it down to its architectural skivvies (bare industrial bricks and concrete floor). Add designer elements like found copper lighting fixtures, displays of artisan bread, and Texas mesquite tabletops, and, presto change-o, you have an edgy warehouse setting that has become the place
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
But prepping for war is not the kind of homework I’m used to.
For the residents of a tiny Panhandle town, a horrific accident at the State Fair fifty years ago reverberates still—and will haunt them forever.
These ten bike routes, some easy and some hard, will help you channel your inner Lance.
In this excerpt from Karen Olsson’s forthcoming novel set in a fictional state capital (wink, wink), a reporter for a weekly newspaper watches a rural conservative who “shares your values” announce his candidacy for governor.
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?
How do you get into the state cemetery?
Frozen embryos are destroyed every day in the name of in vitro fertilization. Tell me again what’s so wrong with stem cell research?
Great Houston’s ghost!
The case for flying anywhere I want.
Man, do I hate book clubs.
October—People, Places, Events, Attractions10.15.05In mid-April the world waited patiently for white smoke to billow over Vatican City’s Saint Peter’s Square, the signal that the closely guarded keys to the Catholic Church had come into new hands. Now San Antonio unlocks the two thousand years of history from Saint Peter to
Ann Wolfe pulls no punches.
Writer-at-large Anne Dingus on testing your Texas know-how one riddle, rhyme, and pun at a time.
1. a, 3; b, 1; c, 2 2. d 3. the horny toad 4. c 5. b 6. XIT 7. c 8. 1936 9. a, 2; b, 5; c, 6; d, 7; e, 1; f, 3; g, 4 10. buffalo 11. Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was the second president of the
Associate editor Katy Vine discusses how she pieced together the small-town murder saga for this month’s feature “Girls Gone Wild”.
Executive editor S. C. Gwynne on examining one of the state’s most litigious, at times lethal, MDs.
Senior editor Michael Hall on tackling Mack Brown—UT’s minister to footballers, alums, and Saturday fans alike—who’s made donning burnt orange cool again.
Dig into the archives of some famed Texas music halls, and you may hear history whispering more than just melodies.
Rough Riding, South Texas-Style
“He’s probably stronger now than when we were younger, but I’ve changed that same way. And we’ve probably gotten more conservative as we’ve gotten older.”
Where high school football memories are made.
What happened—and didn’t—when we “fixed” school finance the last time.
Your justification for including me on the Ten Worst list was primarily based on your false assertion that I was to blame for the demise of a judicial pay raise bill [“The Best and Worst Legislators of 2005,” July 2005]. In fact, I voted “present not voting” on
Five years after the Tulia fiasco put the state’s amateurish, irresponsible drug task forces in the national spotlight, more than half of them have been dissolved. That’s a good start.
Best Fests | The month in kolaches.Even if you’ve never eaten a kolache, you’ve surely seen the roadside signs duking it out for the attention of weary travelers barreling down the highways of Central Texas: “Exit now! Get your kolaches here!” “The very best kolaches are here!” Clearly a claim
What to do if your doctor is a quack.
Who knew a suburb could be so sporty? We uncover Round Rock’s athletic side.
Bobbi Jo and Jennifer were young, in love, and on the road, with the wind at their backs and a happy future ahead of them. All that stood in their way was a dead body back in Mineral Wells.
You have to be either crazy or masochistic to do it—maybe both. But for Lisa and Emmett Fox, owners of the new Austin eatery Fino, the benefits of taking the heat far outweigh those of staying out of the kitchen.
By almost any measure of performance, including the sheer number of patients who are crippled and maimed, the medical profession has rarely seen anyone like Houston orthopedic surgeon Eric Scheffey. So why did he get to keep his license for so long?
One hundred simple questions—well, not that simple— stand between you and Texas literacy.
With a pistol in my hand. And a rifle.
And why wouldn’t they be? As the head coach of the UT football team, Mack Brown is responsible for the way millions of Texans feel every day.
To those accustomed to catching bluesman “Little Charlie” alongside the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, it was a surprise in 1985 when the seventeen-year-old CHARLIE SEXTON turned up on MTV (mascara, cheekbones, and all) belting out his synth-pop hit “Beat’s So Lonely.” Sexton has come far since those moments of
Were there such a thing as alt-rock royalty, DAVID PAJO would be swimming in blue blood. Not only was he a member of the influential post-rock deconstructionists Slint, but he also played with Chicago’s jazz-rock champs Tortoise, then lent a hand in Will Oldham’s fabled Palace projects and released a
Like all the best folksingers, ELIZA GILKYSON draws from anger at the way things are. It wasn’t always so; the daughter of songwriter Terry Gilkyson did dabble in the bliss of new-age music. But times change, and Eliza found her way to her folk roots and, eventually, to Austin. PARADISE
My father’s not-so-brief, happy career on horseback.
Why buying a beach house in Galveston may not be the best long-term investment.
The GOP leadership blows it. Again.
From French Quarter Creole Dining to the Perfect Poboy
PANIC (Dutton), Austinite JEFF ABBOTT’s first stand-alone thriller after seven serial detective offerings, is chock-full of the bold twists that make for a tell-your-friends page-turner. The plot is not groundbreaking: Young Houston documentarian Evan Casher finds his mother murdered in her Austin home; he learns that both his parents were
In the wake of 9/11, veteran Texas true-crime writer CARLTON STOWERS was consciously seeking out a story that might recharge his flagging faith in humanity and restore, in his words, “some degree of comfort and innocence.” He stumbled across the Wolverines of Penelope High School (town population: 211), whose recently
The Giddings State School is home and high school to 325 boys and 65 girls who have been convicted of heinous crimes—rape, murder, arson, and the like. But these hard-luck kids caught a break when they were sentenced to this rare youth correctional facility, which genuinely seeks to rehabilitate, not
