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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.

Tuned Out

Radio Days is a nostalgic doodle; Black Widow needs fewer poses and more cheap lust; Dead of Winter is spookhouse-scary—but schlocky; The Good Wife is soapy yet strangely affecting.

¡Howdy, Señor!

Come to Monterrey, where you can find all the comforts of home: Pollo Frito Kentucky, Super Sietes, and a looming economic crisis.

Alison Cook’s Modern Texas Manners

Bankruptcy and job loss may be closing in, but Texans aren’t sitting home eating Spam. They’re down-scaling, gang-hosting, and improvising a new hard-times etiquette as they go along.

Behind the Lines

An inappropriate practicality.

The Next Picture Show

In Larry McMurtry’s Texasville, the teenagers from The Last Picture Show await their thirtieth high school reunion amid the hard times in Thalia and, as always, the war between the sexes.

The Inside Story

A new breed of home-delivery specialists will bring everything from dinner for eight to a masseur to a dog trainer to your door. Here are more than a hundred to try.

My Sister Is Missing

Had she joined some cause? Was it suicide? Or had she wanted to disappear? After months of searching, I found the answer.

Hey, Mom, Have I Got an Assignment for You

Once kids did their own homework. Now ambitious parents do it for them.

Top Gun

Texas Air chief Frank Lorenzo took an airline with no profits and limited prospects and built it into the country’s largest. How? By betting like the sky’s the limit.

Touts

Staying in Line

A group of dancers from Garland, aged 57 to 90, would rather rock on than rock in a chair.

State Secrets

A busing controversy at the prison system; the high cost of free rent; the GOP goes to town; a well-known private eye loses his license; rotten eggs at Bentsen’s breakfasts.

Roar of the Crowd

Bum Raps.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Sneak a glance at our inaugural notebook to find out why Clements’ speech didn’t fly, which city had the most imperial ball, and who triumphed in the guv’s snub. Plus: Mad Maxian Car #3, space tombs in the sky, and ZZ Top’s song scuffle.

The Quidnunc

Waiting for Perot; sizing up Texas’ legal egos; switching undies with Bobby and Laura Sakowitz.

Puzzle

Blots

C. W. Post

At first he couldn’t stand the strain of trying to get rich. Then he couldn’t stand the strain of being rich.

The Bullock Alumni

Caught between the budget crisis and the power of Bob Bullock, politicos are hiring the comptroller’s savvy ex-employees in self-defense.

The National Tour of Texas

The Rio Grande Valley never had a valley—except in the minds of developers who invented its name.

Epic Embroidery

The action in Platoon is brilliantly sustained, but The Mission falls with a stately thud; The Bedroom Window aspires to be as spellbound as an Alfred Hitchcock, but The Defense of the Realm is the engrossing thriller.

Home Ain’t Where My Heart Is

When I was growing up, Arlington didn’t have air conditioning or Six Flags. But it did have Albert’s Pool Hall and twenty-cent Jax beer, and that made all the difference.

Pardon Me, Boy, Is That Tex Beneke?

At 73, this Fort Worth jazzman still sings “Chattanooga Choo-Choo,” but he wants new songs, more gigs, and younger audiences.

A Human Focus

Newly discovered photographs taken by Russell Lee bear compassionate witness to the lives of Spanish-speaking Texans in the forties.

It’s a Dirty Job, But?

Does the delivery business really deliver? Our author spends three grueling days watching rented videos and ordering pizzas to find out the truth.

Petticoat Junction

All aboard for this spring’s flounciest fashions.

Behind the Lines

Slim Pickens

Boone, T. Boone Pickens’ autobiography, is most interesting when it names names and tells tales, but such moments surface only occasionally and sink quickly.

Momus to Remember

The god of merrymaking spends Mardi Gras in Galveston.

Undertakers of the Oil Patch

The death of an oil well keeps an oil-field service company alive.

ONE Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Will deprivation, humiliation, and confrontation lead the way to a better, more confident you? A new self-help craze sweeping Texas wants you to think so.

The Prophets

The border’s self-appointed problem solvers promise new industry, more jobs, and better schools. So why won’t anyone listen to them?

Madonna of the Maquiladora

While U.S. businessmen and Mexican bureaucrats see her as the answer to their economic prayers, factory worker Graciela Fernández just tries to get by—on about 66 cents an hour.

The Last of the Border Lords

In his dream to create a dynastic empire along the Rio Grande, Chito Longoria went against the wishes of his family and the values of his native land.

The Empress of Fort Worth

Anne Bass married one of the richest men in America. With his money and her ambition she became an important cultural force in Fort Worth and New York. Life was perfect. Then her husband left her.

Touts

Grading on the curve.

State Secrets

A winning ticket for the lottery; the oil bust is a boon for parks; doom and gloom at the Legislature; an early test for Jim Wright.

Roar of the Crowd

Dress for success.

Texas Monthly Reporter

The City That Works isn’t working like it used to. Plus Amazing Cars of Texas #2, revolutionary folk art, and Topic A—what everybody can’t stop talking about.