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Anne Dingus

Anne Dingus's Profile Photo

Anne Dingus was born and raised in Pampa and attended Rice University. After graduating in 1975, she worked as a journalist at NASA and in the oil industry. In 1978 she joined the staff of Texas Monthly, first as a fact-checker and then as a writer. She wrote on a variety of topics, particularly history, popular culture, and humor. Her 1994 article “More Texas Sayings Than You Can Shake a Stick At,” which contained 662 Texas rural expressions, was by far her most popular article and quickly became a book. Dingus left the magazine in 2005 after more than twenty years on staff.

293 Articles

Texas Primer|
February 1, 2001

King Vidor

What Galveston native filmed the black and white scenes in The Wizard of Oz?

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Book Review|
February 1, 2001

David Searcy

Gardening won’t seem like such an innocent pastime after you read this first novel by Dallasite David Searcy, which gives the term “stalking” a nasty new horticultural slant. An elderly Walter Mitty- esque widower, afret over a gopher invasion that has threatened his pride-and-joy roses, orders some exotic flora guaranteed

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Book Review|
January 1, 2001

Jon Kalb

This is a genre-buster if ever there was one. Austin paleontologist Jon Kalb set out to chronicle his seven years of fossil hunting in Africa in the seventies, but the final product is far more than “science adventurism” (his term). The subtitle, though a bit daunting—The Race to Discover Human

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Book Review|
December 1, 2000

Christopher Cook

In one sense this earthy first novel by Austinite Christopher Cook is a feel-good book: Compared with the title characters, you can’t help but feel good about your own relatively decent self. In Robbers two aimless outlaws, Ray Bob and Eddie, hook up and, in a sort of quien-es-mas-macho contest,

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Texas Primer|
December 1, 2000

Sam Rayburn

Whose picture did Sam Rayburn always hang in his office?

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Art|
November 1, 2000

The Searcher

Photographer Kurt Markus spent years tracking down modern working cowboys for his new book, ‘Cowpuncher.’ He corralled the genuine article at several Texas spreads.

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Books|
November 1, 2000

Whodunit? Who Cares?

Anne Dingus has a few bones to pick with the modern mystery novel, which she says has been decomposing in recent years. Stepping up to defend the genre: none other than Texas’ queen of murder and mayhem, Mary Willis Walker.

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Texas Primer|
November 1, 2000

Old Yeller

What was the real name of the dog that portrayed Old Yeller?

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Book Review|
September 30, 2000

Joe R. Lansdale

Nacogdoches boy Joe R. Lansdale is a veteran purveyor of horror and crime fiction, much of it pulpy at best. Still, all that writing has paid off in his latest novel, The Bottoms, which lands firmly in the mainstream-fiction category. Relax, phobe-o-philes—he still delivers a full dose of fear, East

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Travel & Outdoors|
September 30, 2000

Cameron Park Zoo, Waco

If Waco’s zoo were a book of the Bible, it would be Revelation. The famously Baptist town is home to a large and handsome zoo, one that deserves the full name “zoological park.” Covering 52 acres along the Brazos River, the Cameron Park Zoo was relocated and renovated—transformed, really—in 1993,

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Travel & Outdoors|
September 30, 2000

Texas Zoo, Victoria

Victoria’s zoo includes only critters native to the state, many of them threatened or endangered. But the hundred or so different species represent a surprisingly diverse spectrum of the animal kingdom, and when I visited on a peaceful August weekday, the residents were all out and about, clearly enjoying the

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Travel & Outdoors|
September 30, 2000

San Antonio Zoo

Since 1929 the San Antonio Zoo has charmed every Texan within a hundred-mile radius. To avoid the Saturday and Sunday throngs, try arriving first thing in the morning during the week before the school groups (and remember, there’s no law saying you have to take your own kids). The lack

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Travel & Outdoors|
September 30, 2000

Houston Zoo

I nominate the Houston Zoo, the state’s most popular, for a most-improved award. In addition to the vast new children’s-zoo area, which opens this month, many new walkways and viewing platforms make it more appealing than ever. The zoo is 78 years old, and many of its exhibits were designed

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Travel & Outdoors|
September 30, 2000

El Paso Zoo

Kudus—I mean kudos—to the landscapers and horticulturists at the El Paso Zoo. Their careful plantings, which manage to block sun but not wind, helped make a midsummer visit almost cool. Still, baking visitors gratefully entered the indoor displays: In the nocturnal exhibit, my friend Isela gazed for a long time

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Travel & Outdoors|
September 30, 2000

Austin Zoo

The fledgling Austin Zoo is basically a big, no-frills barnyard full of exotic jungle beasts as well as miscellaneous domestic breeds. Situated on the city’s southwestern edge, it started out in 1992 as a petting zoo for small fry and has since expanded to include 106 species, from Shetland ponies

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Book Review|
August 31, 2000

The Devils Tiger

Texas novels come in all stripes, but leave it to veteran writer Robert Flynn of San Antonio to introduce the species of the tiger tale to this neck of the woods. Collaborating with the late Dan Klepper, Flynn has released The Devils Tiger, a wild story about a Russian veterinarian

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Book Review|
July 31, 2000

The Eye of Horus

Set largely during the reign of King Tutankhamen, this treasure-filled mystery will have other writers regretfully murmuring, “Tut, tut.” The third novel by Austin’s Carol Thurston, it brims with mummies, gods, and pharaohs, providing a mega-fix for Egyptophiles and a great read for everyone else. The Eye of Horus begins

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Book Review|
June 30, 2000

Hot Books

If time, money, or other constraints prevent you from answering the call of the open road this summer, you can still take a long trip—at least vicariously—with Larry McMurtry. Roads, his latest effort, is a look at America’s highways, and in a way, a larger-scale version of In a Narrow

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Book Review|
May 31, 2000

World of Pies

Some authors dream up bizarre murders and other aberrations to thicken their plots. World of Pies proves that even the simplest of stories can leave readers fully satisfied. The first novel by Austinite Karen Stolz, World of Pies is about coming of age in a small Texas town—specifically

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Book Review|
April 1, 2000

A Twist at the End: A Novel of O. Henry

HI, SAYLOR Austin’s grisly past.IN AUSTIN IN 1885 the talk of the town was the series of unsolved ax murders of eight people — most of them maids or young mothers — by unknown fiends who were dubbed the Servant Girl Annihilators. Today Steven Saylor’s fictional take on the crimes

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Feature|
April 1, 2000

Can Doodle

From the fabulous, furry Gilbert Shelton to the hypercaffeinated Shannon Wheeler, these celebrated Texas cartoonists will surely draw you in.

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Feature|
March 1, 2000

Mission Collectible

Cuff links? A commemorative plate? For Alamo hobbyists like me, rule number one is, Never surrender or retreat from the chance to snag a few iconic tchotchkes.

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Book Review|
February 1, 2000

The House of Gentle Men

In this quaintly addictive tale, the house of the title is a sort of anti-bordello for women, where the male residents provide lovelorn ladies not with sex but with solace, sweetness, and romance. The adroitness with which Kathy Hepinstall carries off this surreal premise is all the more impressive given

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Book Review|
January 1, 2000

Gypsy Songman

Gypsy Songman (Woodford Press) is the 57-year odyssey of Ronald Clyde Crosby from Oneonta, New York, to Austin, Texas, with whistle-stops for rowdy intoxication, music-making, and, ultimately, sobriety and happiness. You might know him as Jerry Jeff Walker. Précis: He lived it up, he’s living it down. by Mike Shea

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Book Review|
January 1, 2000

Art of the Boot

Tyler Beard is Texas’—and thus the world’s—top authority on Western wear, and his latest tome is this kicky compendium on the sole of the American West. The author, who lives on a ranch near Goldthwaite, tracks the history of the cowboy boot, tips his hat to 28 custom bootmakers around

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Feature|
January 1, 2000

Annie, Get Your Gals!

Various specimens of that celebrated species, the Texas woman, captured on film by photographer Annie Leibovitz, who used to be one herself.

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Texas Primer|
November 1, 1999

Mickey Leland

DURING THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES, emotional issues abounded—civil rights, the Vietnam War, women’s liberation. But what outraged social activist Mickey Leland the most was hunger, and the fact that it existed in his own Houston neighborhood. Early on, Leland’s passion for helping the common people catapulted him into the spotlight.

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Texana|
September 30, 1999

Dead Beat

For an outing that’ll make you go stark graving mad, visit Texas’ peaceful old cemeteries—and experience the esprit de corpse.

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Texas Primer|
July 31, 1999

Sharon Tate

On which two sitcoms did Sharon Tate have a guest-starring role?

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