The Texanist: Isn’t the Summer Heat Great? Or is That Just Me?
In the midst of a cold, wet winter, an Abilene woman longs for the dog days of August.
A Temple native, David Courtney is a graduate of the University ofTexas at Austin. He joined Texas Monthly in October 2005 and in July 2007 debuted his wildly popular advice column, The Texanist, regularly the magazine’s most-read feature.
In 2017, the University of Texas Press published The Texanist: Fine Advice on Living in Texas and in 2019 Fox Entertainment optioned the column with plans to develop a television show based on it. As the Texanist and as himself, Courtney has contributed his talents to such endeavors as the annual Bum Steer Awards, the quinquennial review of the fifty best barbecue joints in Texas, “The 50 Greatest Hamburgers in Texas,” “The 40 Best Small-Town Cafes,” and “Snap Judgment,”a compilation of the ten greatest plays in Texas college football,as well as “The Beachcomber,” for which he walked the entire 65-mile length of the Padre Island National Seashore, and “Water, Water Everywhere,” for which he swam buck naked in Lake Travis, outside of Austin.
In the midst of a cold, wet winter, an Abilene woman longs for the dog days of August.
A Texas Tech undergrad makes the case for the breakfast taco's not-so-poor relation.
A 39-year resident of Houston is gearing up for his first experience of the greatest road trip Texas has to offer.
When the early Texas rancher Charles Goodnight invented the chuck wagon, in 1866, he didn’t just presage today’s food trucks; he solved an immediate problem, which was how to keep cowboys on the remote parts of the range well-fed. During the rough-and-tumble frontier days, Texas demanded such…
A California transplant wonders if the Texas Rangers exist only on the small screen.
A Flatonia man thinks Tim McGraw can afford a better looking cowboy hat…
A dedicated carnivore wonders how to handle his wife's request to lead a meat-free existence in 2018.
A Dallasite wonders how something so tasty, so filling, and so pre-Christian came to be a holiday staple.
The Mistress of the Elements occupies second place—for being really, really mean to Texas.
A San Antonio woman smells trouble.
A Dallas man wonders why one good finger doesn't deserve another.
A Tyler man is feeling a little hot under the collar.
A West Texas native wonders if umbrellas are for sissies.
The Texanist advises a person who wants to pass off professionally cooked briskets as homemade.
We sat down with our former staffer to talk about his new book, 'American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West'.
How to handle the zit-sized pustule that those evil little @$*!%*#@%&!s leave behind.
Menudo for the crudo.
Let's settle this once and for all.
By David Courtney and Charley Locke
A truck-driving woman meets a Jetta owner at a Ray Wylie Hubbard concert.
The Texanist generously shares his world-famous dove recipe.
We lost a lot. But there are some things we’ll never lose. Texas will be okay. …
It's known as "the Texas stop sign," but can the Illinois chain really claim the Lone Star State?…
Being a good football fan means being able to find optimism no matter the circumstance.
Several of my colleagues have pointed out that tucking your jeans into your boots looks ridiculous. I disagree.
The Texanist addresses contentious BYOMeat gatherings.
A New Yorker thinking about moving to Austin says one thing is holding her back: flies. The Texanist weighs in.
Has the old-fashioned beer joint given way to noisy sports bars?…
And the proper placement of horseshoes over doorways for the best good luck.
Can you really overdo Tex-Mex? And how to cope with lowdown bleeping tackle crooks.
Getting to the bottom of the baffling backstory of Lubbock’s legendary lemony libation—one refreshing sip at a time.
Over a year after its removal from the University of Texas at Austin's Main Mall, the controversial Jefferson Davis statue has found a new home on campus.
The butt was tender and yielding. Or was it? Confessions of a veteran fact checker.
After being removed from the University of Texas at Austin's Main Mall, the Jefferson Davis statue has found a new home on campus.
The future of Austin’s Lions Municipal Golf Course lies in its historic past.
Gambling on a ride aboard the Aransas Queen.
It’s time someone had the courage to ask the most controversial question in the state: To bean or not to bean?…
Forty years ago I built forts on Bird Creek, raced at the roller rink, and watched my dad run for mayor of Temple.
Why tailgating with my family and friends (and a million other fans) is my favorite part of college football.
Welcome to Camp Honey Creek for girls, where the years tick by but time stands still.
Our estimable advice columnist answers this burning question: What’s it like to be the Texanist?…
Our estimable advice columnist on saying “I do” to a potbellied pig, bidding farewell to supper, giving your regards to Texas, and complaining about cold tortillas.
Forget about Batman vs. Superman. Our advice columnist referees spring vs. fall, Strait vs. Wills, Oatmeal vs. Bacon, and restaurant vs. patron.
Our estimable advice columnist on firearms, weekend getaways, and how to properly eat a tamal.
Our estimable advice columnist on putting a Tennessean in his place, adding Topo Chico to everything, learning to love a rusty jalopy, and naming Possum Kingdom Lake.
Our estimable advice columnist on the pronunciation of “Fort Worth,” the pros and cons of spring break south of the border, the best way to deal with the brisket illiterate, and the Texan who mistook himself for a Floridian.
Our advice columnist muses on the seeming futility of horse apples, the finer points of knives, the downside of going vegetarian, and whether it’s possible to love a Willie-hater.