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September 30, 2011

The Drop Everything List

A Lonesome Dove Weekend, the Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love, TEDxTheWoodlands, and the 44th Original Round Top Fall Antiques Fair . . .

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The Culture|
September 30, 2011

How to Water Dowse

This blistering summer has left Texas drier than a piece of gas station jerky. It was so hot that planes couldn’t take off from airports and train tracks were bent out of shape. And while Governor Rick Perry prayed for a downpour to end the drought, officials in Llano turned

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Business|
September 30, 2011

Mina Thornton, Ropa Usada Dealer

Thornton opened Tres Hermanos Ropa Usada thirteen years ago in Hidalgo. As president of the 25-employee business, she buys ropa usada, or used clothing, from around the country and resells it in South Texas and throughout Mexico.People always ask, “Does this color look good on me?” I never ask. There’s

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The Culture|
September 30, 2011

Neighborhood Association

Why would anybody take a charming place like Highland Park, tear down the nice old homes, build new fortresses, gradually drain the neighborly spirit, and call that progress? Don’t ask me. I don’t get it either.

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The Culture|
August 31, 2011

Drama King

Less than two years after moving into the Wyly Theatre, the Dallas Theater Center has become the state’s drama darling. Is it the final curtain on the Alley Theatre’s time at the top?

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The Culture|
August 31, 2011

How to Hitch a Livestock Trailer

Hauling Herefords isn’t like towing a sailboat. A loaded stock trailer can weigh up to 30,000 pounds, and if you hook something that heavy to a bumper, you’ll drive away 
without your back end. “Gooseneck hitches are common in livestock operations,” says Joe Lewis, who has worked at Rosenberg-based Discount

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The Culture|
August 31, 2011

Michael Brewer, Clock Repairman

Brewer, who moved to Texas from Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, fixes antique clocks in his Carrollton garage seven days a week. While he has no formal horological training, a 34-year career in rocket science helped him perfect the art of taking things apart. Tick, tock. Tick and then tock. Most people

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Illustration of a man noodling.
The Culture|
July 31, 2011

How to Noodle

Catching a catfish with your bare hands has been a tradition passed down for generations, but it has only been legal in Texas since June 17. That’s when Governor Rick Perry signed a bill that officially permits noodling. “No one knows why it was illegal,” said Houston representative Gary Elkins,

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The Culture|
July 31, 2011

Cheryl Evans, Church Sign Writer

Evans, whose official job title is facilities manager, has lived in Amarillo for 55 years. For the past two decades she’s overseen the building and grounds of the Southwest Church of Christ, including its four-by-ten-foot sign. She changes the message every Monday.You can’t just put up there “You’re all going

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The Culture|
July 31, 2011

Cowgirl Up

The word probably makes you think of rhinestone-studded jeans, floppy-brimmed hats, and Nashville queens, but “cowgirl” ought to stand for the tough pioneer women who built ranches and went on cattle drives and the hardy rural women who are out there today doing their fair share of the work, usually invisibly,

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The Culture|
June 30, 2011

How to Cut the Herd

When Sam Graves and his 22-year-old bay gelding, Old Hub, beat ten other cowboys to win $150 in the first 
advertised cutting competition, in Haskell in 1898, he could not have imagined how the sport would evolve. Today the National Cutting Horse Association, which hosts the World Championship Futurity, in

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The Culture|
June 30, 2011

Jason Macias, Night Police Officer

Macias has served as a patrolman with the San Antonio Police Department for the past seven years. He works the shift that runs from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. (known as the “dog watch”) and is based out of the Central Substation, which oversees downtown and its surrounding area.A police

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Style & Design|
May 31, 2011

How to Wear Spurs

Any rodeo fan can don a Stetson, Wranglers, and a pair of Tony Lamas, but the cowboys in the arena are the ones who wear the spurs. “It’s like a knight in his armor,” says Joe Spiller, who’s been handcrafting them for 27 years and owns Spiller Spurs and Bits,

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Bobby Jones, with a game fowl chicken, raised for cockfightin.
The Culture|
May 31, 2011

Bobby Jones, Game Fowl Breeder

Jones, who lives in Gatesville, has been raising game chickens for almost fifty years. He sells his birds to clients around the world, and in April he testified in Austin before Senate and House committees to oppose a bill that would outlaw the raising of game birds in Texas. Cockfighting, or “harvesting,” as it

As told to

Food & Drink|
April 30, 2011

How to Make Venison Sausage

Watching lawmakers bicker over the state budget in Austin reminds us of the old adage about what politics and sausage have in common. Fortunately for sausage, its approval ratings are through the roof. “It’s become easier to stuff sausage at home, since more places are selling small grinders and stuffers,”

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Style & Design|
April 30, 2011

Chris Treviño, Tattoo Artist

Treviño, who has been tattooing for more than twenty years, is the owner of Perfection Tattoo in Austin. He is known for his traditional Japanese designs, which have earned him an extensive client base in the U.S. as well as in Japan, where he travels four times a year. He grew up in

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