Willie’s done it seven times. So has George W. Bush. Ross Perot and Troy Aikman have each done it four times. Kinky Friedman has done it three times (twice dressed as a woman). Lance Armstrong, Ann Richards, Rick Perry, and Selena have also done it three times (and pssst:
When Paul Burka was ten years old, his mother gave him a board game called Politics. This is the honest truth. Elvis’s mother gave him a guitar; Paul’s mother gave him Politics. He can still remember the rules. “You tried to capture the states, which were divided into six
Not a funny year. The meltdown kept melting down, the collapsing markets kept collapsing, and the downsizing economy kept downsizing. Texas fared better than most states (see “California, disaster in”), but we weren’t immune. In October, the number of unemployed Texans topped one million. In November, the comptroller’s office
The night I got married we danced for hours at the AmVets Post 65, in Marfa. It’s a large building with sheet-metal siding, a beat-up but gracious wooden stage, dramatic wooden rafters, and an Iwo Jima mural between the doors to the lobby. Like a lot of small-town halls,
Exactly one year ago in this space Evan Smith bid farewell to Mike Levy, founder of TEXAS MONTHLY and its publisher for 35 years. This month I find myself writing you about another profound departure: Last month was the final issue in which Evan’s name appeared at the top
Two years, four months, and 26 days ago, I had a very different view of the world from the one I have as I sit down to write this letter. That was the last day that I wasn’t a parent. March 6, 2007. The next day my son was
To: Mr. John DeStefano Jr., mayor of New Haven, Connecticut; Mr. Thomas J. Moses Sr., mayor of the Village of Hamburg, New York; Mr. Kenneth Rottier, mayor of Seymour, WisconsinDear Sirs,It has come to our attention that the localities of which you are the elected representatives have for many years
One of the notable characteristics of this magazine is that it manages to inspire an equal amount of criticism from all parts of the political spectrum (this will come as a surprise, of course, to all parts of the political spectrum). Since our subject matter is a state, and
Since tax day, when Governor Perry flirted with the idea of Texas seceding from the Union, we have been treated to a full-blown rampage of anti-Texan invective the likes of which have not been seen since George W. Bush decamped from Washington for brushier pastures. “This one state has
This month we’re pleased to bring you the Texas Monthly Brainstorm—a massive collection of ideas large and small, serious and quirky from a diverse group of big-thinking Texans on the topic of how we might improve our state. The notion to bring together all this brainpower came to us
According to T. S. Eliot and a now annual chorus of newspaper columnists, weathermen, bloggers, marketing departments, six o’clock news anchors, drive-time deejays, adolescent poets, and tax-mad accountants, April is the cruelest month. This year, however, January and February each made strong cases that the dubious honor should be
When the idea of putting together a special Texas Monthly style issue was first laid on the table, it was greeted with consternation. Did we intend to dispatch Paul Burka to the fashion shows to analyze the spring lines or Skip Hollandsworth to the nearest perfumery to fill his untutored
On Tuesday of the week that this issue arrives on the newsstand, President George W. Bush will rise from his bed on the second floor of the White House for the last time. According to custom, he will receive President-elect Barack Obama for coffee sometime later that morning. The
With this issue we begin the final year of the Aughts, also known as the Two Thousands, the Zeros, the Naughts, the Ohs, the Oh-ohs, or, as seems recently to be the case, the Oh-nos. Before long we’ll be heading into the Tweens, trying to make sense of the
A. Van Jordan on writing a poem.
The perils of prediction.
These practical accessories of the cowboy lifestyle are some of the world’s most-sought-after Western collectibles—and every pair has a story.
Here is a partial list of the nice people Skip Hollandsworth has written about since he joined the magazine as a staff writer in 1989: Charles Albright, a serial killer in Dallas who removed his victims’ eyes; Marie Robards, a Fort Worth teenager who killed her father by poisoning
