April 1992 Issue

Richard and Nancy Lyon before the murder.
On the Cover

The Killer Next Door

For six years, my landlord and his wife were the perfect neighbors. Then he was accused of murdering her—and suddenly I didn’t know what to believe.

Features


Miscellany


Split Personalities

With the never-ending school finance crisis entering its umpteenth round, Governor Ann Richards and Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock appear to be on a collision course. Richards has decided that the educational problems of public schools should be considered along with their funding problems. Bullock has decided just the opposite. The

The Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup

Photojournalist Jim Cammack was struck by an odd sight at Sweetwater’s annual spring rattlesnake roundup: a man with a tail. No, the man, a Jaycees volunteer, was not participating in a roundup-sanctioned snake-wrestling contest. He was demonstrating one technique for holding the powerful Western diamondback while milking its venom.

Corps Values

As a female member of Texas A&M’s Parsons Mounted Cavalry (“one of the units most determined to remain all male”), I want to clear up some of the misconceptions in Mimi Swartz’s “Love and Hate at Texas A&M” [TM, February 1992]. I have been a Drill and

Columns


Testing Delusions

This year is the twenty-sixth anniversary of the hardest test I ever took. Then, about to graduate from college with an English degree, I had been in school for so long and had liked it so much that I had no particular yearning to go out into the world. Perhaps

Having a Cow

Beyond Beef blames cattle for the decline of civilization—not to mention famine, pestilence, destruction, and death.

Reporter


Aquarena Mermaids

Water acts may ebb and flow, but since 1950 the polyester-clad mermaids at San Marcos’ Aquarena Springs have barely had time to keep their heads above water. Their subaquatic dances are a tribute to the popularity of such swimming celebrities as Esther Williams and Johnny Weissmuller, a testament to

Liquor Licker

Larry Peterman is a revisionist where suckers are concerned. His new tequila lollipop con gusano (complete with the worm) is his take on making hard liquor palatable: “We tried using mescal,” he says, “but it tasted so bad—kind of like burned dirt with rubbing alcohol—that nobody would eat it.”

Web


State Fare: Chicken Tikka With Yellow Lentils and Crispy Pappadums

Avner Samuel has been around. Born in Jerusalem, he earned his chef’s toque at the celebrated La Varenne cooking school in Paris and has successfully navigated the tricky culinary waters of London and Dallas. He did stints at the Mansion on Turtle Creek and at the Pyramid in the Fairmont

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