Heaven on Wheels
Why are we crazy for Cadillacs, silly for Suburbans, passionate about pickups? Because Texans love their cars, that’s why.
September 1984
Features
Texas Primer: The Permanent University Fund
In 1883 the University of Texas got stuck with two million acres of West Texas scrubland. Then it hit oil, and the money started rolling in.
My Quest for the Perfect Biscuit
It all started at my grandmother’s when I was seven years old. No biscuit has since measured up, but my lonely search for that sublime confection continues.
Western Art: Pierre Was New in Town and Had Never Really Caught Anything Before
An interpretation of a classic genre.
The Night Crew
There are a hundred of them, and their job is invisibility. They come into giant office buildings after everyone has gone home and, if they do the job right, make the evidence of the day’s work disappear.
Age of Innocents
Remember when children played dress-up in their own clothes? They still can.
Blissed-Out on the Beach of Love
At a slightly wacky hotel in southern Mexico, you can lose your inhibitions and find a little romance.
The Double Life of Paul Thayer
He had it all: a wife and a mistress, a limousine and a motorcycle, the second-highest job at the Pentagon and some good-time Dallas buddies. Then the SEC took an interest in his life.
Columns
Opera For Beginners
The Public Opera of Dallas aimed its first season at opera greenhorns and scored two bull’s-eyes.
How Do You Spell Real Estate?
Roger Staubach finds happiness by swapping Rolaids for real estate.
Tangled Lines
William Humphrey’s Hostages to Fortune tells a sodden fishing story; C.W. Smith’s The Vestal Virgin Room tells of an empty quest for fame; Rosemary Catacalos’ Again for the First Time is an outstanding collection of verse.
Cut From the Herd
“Herd It Through the Grapevine,” a new disc anthology, has the top of the pop crop.
Prince of Wails
Prince’s Purple Rain is short on plot and dialogue but long on fancy anguish; The Bostonians is a namby-pamby treatment of Henry James’ biting novel.
Miscellany
State Secrets
Trauma for Texas hospitals; more trouble (what else?) for Clinton Manges; why Doggett should win—but probably won’t; and real deals in Houston.
