Arts & Entertainment
October 21, 2015
Voice of the Pines
In search of the mysterious, absurdist, and lyrical East Texas writer William Goyen.
Feature
January 20, 2013
Before and After
For some residents of Mount Pleasant, the April 16 immigration raid on the local chicken plant was no more than a segment on the evening news. For others, including many legal residents of the tiny East Texas town, it was the moment everything changed.
The Culture
August 31, 2009
Why Are Tortilla Chips So Damn Good?
Is it the crispiness? The crunchiness? The saltiness? Thankfully, a small cadre of researchers in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M has spent much of the past thirty years munching on this question.
The Culture
July 31, 2009
Jim Adler, Personal-Injury Lawyer
Adler, who grew up in Dallas, has been a personal-injury lawyer for 36 years. He is the founder of the Houston law firm Jim S. Adler & Associates and appears in television ads in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. I started out doing law enforcement work for the Texas State…
Feature
May 31, 2009
Presidential Detail
Location: College Station and Austin What You’ll Need: Pork rinds, Fresca First, a caveat: The exhibits at presidential libraries are to history what the White House press office is to daily news. They burnish rather than analyze their subjects. But what the museum portion of a presidential…
Politics & Policy
March 31, 2009
Capitol Affairs
Nadine Eckhardt married not one but two legendary figures in the Texas liberal pantheon. And lived to tell the tale.
Web Exclusive
March 1, 2009
Scenes From a Mall
It was a gorgeous day at the outlet mall. The sun shone brightly on the Tuscanish facades, on parking lots that an optimist would have called half full, on the strip of patio and water feature called Gondola Park (though its narrow pool was devoid of gondolas), and the pretzel…
News & Politics
April 30, 2008
No Place Like Home
Bienvenidos a Farmers Branch, the headline-worthy Dallas suburb where the biggest hard-liner on illegal immigration could soon be known as Mr. Mayor.
Feature
March 31, 2008
The Final Frontier
Karl Gebhardt and Gary Hill, two astronomers from the University of Texas at Austin, are racing to solve one of the greatest mysteries in science: What is dark energy? How does it work? Can it explain the origins of the universe? There’s only one problem. Dark energy may not actually…
News & Politics
October 31, 2007
Keep Out!
Which is worse: looking the other way as millions of illegals stream across the border or building an unconscionably expensive and impractical fence that few in the Valley (a) want or (b) believe will make a difference?…
Feature
May 31, 2007
Human Mate Selection Is a Many-Splendored Thing
David Buss understands how Stone Age hookups made us who we are—but can that help me get a date?…
Feature
December 1, 2006
Eating A Dead Horse
Even if you’ve never dined on the delicious remains of a noble steed, you probably have an opinion on whether the state’s two slaughterhouses should remain open. Boone Pickens does. And Charlie Stenholm. And Bo Derek. Not to mention the many traders and “killer buyers” for whom business is business.
Karen Olsson
July 31, 2006
The Old College Try
The mayor of El Cenizo is 23, is still in school, and lives with his mother. But he’s serious about making life better in his impoverished border hometown.
Feature
September 30, 2005
Keep Waterloo Weird
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.
Politics & Policy
April 1, 2005
The Buck Stops Nowhere
Is the Texan who oversaw Abu Ghraib a hero, a villain, or both?…
Politics & Policy
January 1, 2005
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.
Karen Olsson
September 30, 2004
Party Crashers
If we had more than two big-time candidates, maybe we could have a genuine presidential race in every state. Even Texas.
Feature
July 31, 2003
About a Girl
Audra Thomas can't read these words and, in a few months, wouldn't remember them anyway. Nevertheless, she has an extraodinary sense of the world around herand of herself.
Politics & Policy
November 1, 2002
Mr. Right
The line on James Leininger is fairly simple: He's a doctrinaire conservative who spends millions supporting candidates and causes he likes—and opposing those he doesn't. That makes him one of the most influential players in Texas politics in the post-Bush era.
Feature
May 31, 2000
The Evolutionary
What do you do when you win a $295,000 MacArthur “genius” grant? If you’re biologist David Hillis, you keep teaching at the University of Texas as if nothing happened, and you keep chasing frogs.