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Readers’ guide.

The National Tour of Texas

Back from the Gulf and along its coastal bend, picture-book towns offer scenes that have nearly vanished from urban Texas, not to mention the most confusing sign, the best noontime stop, and the most Shakespearean site.

New Age Cyrano

While Roxanne is steeped in friendliness, Summer Heat is full of humid clichés; Personal Services is too pleased with itself, but The Big Easy has a hang-loose, big-spender quality.

Singing All the Way

Mary Jane Johnson and Timothy Jenkins live in Amarillo, but they’re at home in the world’s great opera houses.

Behind the Lines

Getting ahead.

Texas Primer: Clint Murchison, Jr.

He was one tycoon who enjoyed the hell out of his money.

Sombreros of the Gods?

For centuries, scientists have searched for the answers to the mystery of Nosehenge. Now—for the first time—the startling truth.

Culture Club

Once San Antonio’s elite took pride in their support of the city’s fine symphony. When the cream of that elite, the Symphony Society board, abruptly canceled the upcoming season, it was time for some soul-searching

The Jeffrey Show

Heads turn when he passes. He’s on half of Houston’s A-party list. Rock singer? Investment banker? Nope. Meet Father Jeffrey Walker, Episcopal priest.

The Party’s Over

In the early eighties, some Dallas savings and loans reaped profits in real estate investments while land was flipped, appraisals were inflated, and property was developed. Now the land deals have flopped, property values are deflated, and there are empty buildings all over town. And some S&Ls are broke

The No Decade

Like it or not, it’s time to start behaving yourself.

State Secrets

Poor school districts strike it rich; nursing homes want more money too; the savings and loans aren’t banking on Bill Clements; a veto for political buttons.

Roar of the Crowd

Prescribing medical remedies; pinching Lone Star pennies; debating the future of a university.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Texas oil patchers bounce back; Houston artist Staley paints the art crowd; goat-gland genius Brinkley’s mansion casts its quirky spell. Plus: Caroline Schoellkopf’s marital woes, Tammy Faye Bakker’s impersonators, and Nancy Negley Wellin’s prodigal daughter.

Screen play.

From the harsh landscape of the Permian Basin, whose residents find their faith in free enterprise tested by hard times; to the subtropical city of San Antonio, whose Hispanic citizens have gone gaga over Goyo-Goyo; into deepest South Texas, where the old times of the Parr machine are not forgotten.

Extreme Imitation

Extreme Prejudice trips over its bloody missteps; Heaven climbs a staircase to the stars; Prick Up Your Ears delivers crisp witticisms and cruisy pickups; Ishtar completely lacks l’amour.

Extra! Penguin’s Alter Ego Wins Pulitzer!

Equipped with only his passion for current events and the simple desire to amuse, Berke Breathed won himself the highest honor in his trade.

Good Vibes

Vibraharpist Charlie Shoemake keeps so busy in L.A. that he seldom strays back to his home state. Fortunately, we can hear him on new recordings.

The Little Black Suit

It’s best accessorized with a shovel, a pail, and a beach blanket.

Behind the Lines

The governor’s unbalanced budget.

New Kid on the Block

The Menil Collection has received so much attention that its opening this month may seem anticlimactic. The only unknown is what the director plans to do with it all.

All Aboard for Copper Canyon

Try North America’s best travel bargain—the Copper Canyon train ride. For $9 you can see Indians who run down deer on foot, Mennonites who speak German, and the most spectacular scenery in Mexico.

Heads, We Win, Tails, You Lose

Highly partisan justices are at the center of the Supreme Court scandal.

Blind Justice

Should a judge’s friendships survive his election to the Supreme Court of Texas?

Every Good Boy Does Fine

In the late seventies, celebrated pianist Van Cliburn inexplicably disappeared from public life. No tortured artist in hiding, Cliburn is having the time of his life sitting around his Fort Worth mansion in his bathrobe.

The Longest Ride of His Life

When Randall Adams was sentenced to death ten years ago, the Dallas community thought a cop killing had been put to rest. But it hasn’t.

Home, Home on the Road

If it fits on your dashboard, you can take it with you.

Coots: A Field Guide

A crusty, cranky, curmudgeonly species of bird is proliferating within our borders. And maybe that’s good.

Hobby may be a Hartbeat from the president; the feds dump nuclear-waste workers on the Panhandle; Cisneros’ future remains rosy; Kath Whitmire’s doesn’t.

Getting an airline off the ground; achieving your children’s education; cruising through adolescence; rambling through the Valley.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Houston ignores its AIDS crisis, Dallas restaurant gossips chew over hard times, San Antonio headline writers get their due. Plus: Chuck Robb’s blooper, Larry McMurtry’s sniffles, and Shearn Moody’s new taste in nightlife.

An initial foray.

Fruit of the Vinyl

A good record store is more than just a supermarket of sound.

Travels through the Trans-Pecos—splendor in the Big Bend, the greening of the Alpine grasslands, today’s version of profitable ranching, escape from the rat race in South Brewster County, innkeeping Indians in Van Horn—to El Paso, way out on the edge of Texas.

Trailer Trash

Everyone in Raising Arizona has a libido for the ugly, and the guys in Tin Men can’t see past their hood ornaments; Hollywood Shuffle loses its hip mind; Street Smart has a crazed, electric menace.

The Old Man and the Vines

My father’s Panhandle grape patch gives him a new cash crop and a new pride as a farmer.

Behind the Lines

Dallas on the couch.

Romancing the Stone

Using a circular saw and a shrewd commercial sense, Plano housewife Sandy Stein chiseled a new life for herself as a sculptor.

High Noon at the Capitol

The biggest legislative bloodbath in 31 years is shaping up between Clements and Hobby. At stake: not only the state’s education budget but the economic and political future of Texas as well.

Cabin Fever

Not in the mood for a plush vacation resort or the rigors of backpacking? Instead, try solitude and starry nights at one of these ten park hideaways.

The Man Who Understands Horses

Buster Welch’s success as a cutting horse trainer is based on a simple observation: when you insult a horse’s intelligence, you hurt his feelings.

Touts

All that glitters is not gold.

State Secrets

Can the Cotton Bowl survive the SMU scandal? a Mexican American major for Corpus Christi—maybe; the water bureaucrats are up to no dam good.

The Prince of Pumps

Buying shoes is a passion for some women. Selling shoes is a passion for Doyle Moody. That adds up to a perfect fit.

Roar of the Crowd

Self-appointed visionaries on the border; self-development seminars all over Texas; self-indulgent behavior at the corner burger joint.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Marty Wender can’t do anything wrong—and San Antonio loves him for it. Joe Russo can’t do anything right—and Houston loves him for it. Plus: pop paraphernalia, naming Henry’s baby, Poppin’ Pigskins, and Who Killed Mark White?

Puzzle

Hot stuff at the cinema.

The Flash Flood

In a land of contrasts, a few hours can mean the difference between drought and deluge.

National Tour

Out of the Valley and into the Borderlands, where the architecture is erratic, the radio is heavenly, and the peso has lost its power.