Talk Like a Texan: What Do You Call Your Grandparents?
Is it Mammaw and Pappaw? Oma and Opa? Abuelo and abuela? Or something else entirely?
John Nova Lomax has been an oyster shucker in Tennessee, a landscape gardener and British Telecom mail clerk in Lancashire, and a field hand on a kibbutz in the Arava section of the Negev in Israel. He is also the author of Houston's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Bayou City, a guidebook to Houston dive bars, and co-author of Murder & Mayhem in Houston: Historic Bayou City Crime, a compilation of notorious Houston crimes.
Lomax has been a full-time journalist in the Bayou City since 2001. He spent eleven years at the Houston Press as a music editor and staff writer and is proudest of helping discover Hayes Carll, rediscover Lil’ Joe Washington, and winning an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 2008. With future Marfa city councilman and justice of the peace David Beebe, Lomax walked a total of more than 200 miles of Houston streets on about a dozen different trips, writing about the adventures as part of the “Sole of Houston” blog series. After leaving the music beat, Lomax covered crime, courts and culture for the Press. His work has also appeared in Spin, the New York Times, the Village Voice, and LA Weekly. He has been a senior editor with Texas Monthly since January 2015.
Articles by John Nova Lomax
Talk Like a Texan: Feeder Roads
What do you call that little road next to the great big freeway?
How a New Generation Is Reviving Small-Town Texas
Dismayed by sky-high rents and yearning for a slower-paced lifestyle, a new generation of Texans is ditching the big city and fostering a Rural renaissance across the state.
There Are Six Ways to Say ‘Pecan,’ But Only One That’s Right
In the inaugural episode of our new Talk Like a Texan podcast, we explore the proper pronunciation of our state nut.
Goodbye to Anthony Bourdain, a Chef Who Understood Houston
Through the food he sought out, Bourdain recognized the particulars that made a city unique, rather than what the city aspired to be.
Why San Antonio Is the Best City in Texas for Artists
Artists Ana Fernandez and Cruz Ortiz on finding inspiration in their hometown.
The Astros Are Back and Better Than Ever
Houston Astros fans offer their outlook on the team’s first season as the defending world champions.
How the Alamo Got Its Hump
The “ridiculous scroll” didn’t top the structure until after the Battle of the Alamo.
Talk Like a Texan: The Pronunciation of Bowie Knife, Jim Bowie, and David Bowie
A pronunciation investigation involving two Bowie men known for living large.
