April 1983 Issue

Features

Hell on Wheels
In which John Howard, our toughest athlete, goes after a world bicycle record and hopes america will care.

Hail to Thee, George E. Fischer
Most of the time you’re a nice, ordinary businessman. But for one brief, shining moment you were King Antonio, monarch of San Antonio’s Fiesta and semi-beloved ruler of the one Texas city that still loves a good king.
“What I Admire I Must Possess”
Dominique de Menil loves beautiful things and interesting people. In forty years of collecting them she has changed Houston.
Columns
Down with Compromise
Freddie Hubbard’s attempts to play pop music have been disastrous. But when he tackles a pure mainstream sound, he shows what jazz trumpeting is all about.
Oil Rigged
The Great Energy Scam purports to uncover the collusion of the feds and the oil companies, but the real scandal is what the author overlooks. Yet another book on killer Ted Bundy sheds no light on his crimes. Roughneck is a rousing look at America’s most radical labor union.
Have Ladle, Will Travel
Culinary one-upmanship has produced the designer chef, a food whiz who comes from afar to lend prestige and panache to Texas’ ritziest eateries.
Big Wheels and the Silver Spike
It wasn’t business that drew the state’s top politicians to a Trans-Pecos ranch. Their mission: to mark the centennial of the train that linked Texas to the West.
Reporter
Texas Monthly Reporter
Times are tough in Laredo; specialty advertisers are unveiled in Dallas; some very old bones stir things up in Leander; a wild turkey comes back to West Texas; newspapers go wild in San Antonio.
Miscellany
State Secrets
Southwest Airlines’ California gamble pays off - and Texans do the paying: update from Gibgate; why Bellaire is not Park Place; a truly dumb idea from UT.