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What’s the Big Deal About Grills?

Hot, hot, hot! Here’s why grills have become the trendiest of the trendy restaurants in Texas.

The Final Gun

In a small East Texas town a black principal and a white coach loved the same woman. First came the gossip. Next came the strange letters. And then there was a murder.

Faces of the West

A collection of black and white portraits that capture the powerful effects of the West upon its people, with an introduction by Larry McMurtry.

Don’t Talk to Strangers

Of course parents do everything they can to protect their children. But at some point they must learn to let go.

Downtown

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a developer with a million-dollar idea or a homeowner with a yen to remodel. You can’t bend any rule at all without approval from the Board of Adjustment.

Behind the Lines

Turn right for heaven.

Back Roads

Skinner Brown, a 63-year-old farmer and business man, was a pillar of his small-town society until he was busted for possessing $12 million worth of marijuana.

How to Make Your Dream House Come True

A guide to getting the most out of an architect and custom-building a home, with grace and aplomb.

The Wee World of Golf

Looking for a sport that offers plenty of cheap thrills and wacky challenges but requires no training, no equipment, and no big bucks? Try miniature golf.

Operator, Give Me Information

It seems practically impossible to choose the best deal from the multitude of services offered by all the new long distance phone companies. But we’ve got their number.

An Aggie’s Revenge

Starting with his alma mater and using little more than charm, Robert Hicks conned the college fundraising industry out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. His name is mud at A&M.

Isle Without End

An early castaway described Padre Island as “a wretched, barren sandbank.” It’s better known today as the Gold Coast of Texas, but its identity is still rooted in wildness and age-old solitude.

Portobello Tricolor in Pesto Vinaigrette

Recipe by Chef Victor Garcia, Cafe Highland Park, Dallas1 large portobello mushroom 8oz spinach leaves 1 Roma tomato (1/4 inch slices) 2oz goat cheeseBrush portobello mushroom with olive oil and sprinkle with 1 ounce chopped basil, salt, and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake in 350 degree oven

On the Menu: Cafe Highland Park

ALL SO OLD-WORLD, the menu is a sort of compendium of the Mediterranean’s greatest hits. Even a standby like Shrimp Scampi, sauteed in a tangy garlic lemon butter sauce, comes off with flair. The delicate phyllo basket stuffed with steamed spinach, mushrooms, crab, and shrimp on a bed of tomato

Touts

Go ahead—thing big!

State Secrets

Every phone a pay phone; look out, Clinton Manges; the GOP donnybrook; party realignment in San Antonio.

Don’t Do What They Did to David Clyde

Though he fought against bad management, bad coaching, and bad habits, he finally struck out at baseball, the victim of too much too soon.

Roar of the Crowd

Taking the plunge; defending Diana; grading the tests; reforming the system.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Hungry ants in the Panhandle; cocky dispatchers in Dallas; tiny trees near San Antonio.

Puzzle

Texas Primer: The Two-step

Forget about waltzing across Texas. Let’s two-step instead.

Post-Modern Times

Triathletes converge upon Lake Lavon to compete in the sport of the eighties.

All in the Family

Prizzi’s Honor is a macabre satire of the two-career marriage; Cocoon can’t burst free of its nice-guy limitations; Pale Rider recycles all the wrong western riffs; St. Elmo’s Fire should have been doused from the start.

Downtown

Houston police chief Lee Brown is doing things right; crime is down, public approval is up.

Short and Sweet

Sometimes the opera is over before the fat lady sings. Consider the successful debut of sixteen brief and eclectic works commissioned by the Texas Opera Theater.

The Pink People

A new recruit to the ranks of Mary Kay beauty consultants struggles valiantly to do his part in reaching the woman of the eighties and keeping the company in the pink.

Behind the Lines

Labor’s nuke.

Back Roads

Through his small, simply produced literary magazine, poet David Yates made his mark—both in Texas and beyond. Peter Applebome

A Concrete Romance

One man’s whim-turned-obsession is changing Houston’s McKee Street Bridge and its faded environs into one of the few really original artistic images of the city.

Texas Primer: “Tex”

It’s the best nickname you could have, even if you’ve never been to Texas.

Music to My Ears

The small-town orchestra has it all: performers who love the music passionately, audiences who lend their wholehearted support, and even occasional moments when all the instruments are playing the right note.

105°

A photographic study on beating the heat.

Char-Grilled Honey-Braised Chicken

Recipe From Kim Son, Houston1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast 2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder honey to taste 1 package rice vermicelli noodles garnish of mung bean sprouts, shredded green lettuce, chopped fresh mint, peeled and seeded, chopped cucumber 2 tablespoons chopped

On the Menu: Kim Son

HANKERING FOR HONEY-ROASTED PIGEON? How about Vietnamese fajitas? With offerings ranging from the frighteningly authentic to the infinitely accessible, Kim Son has paced the Vietnamese food explosion in Houston. Owned and managed by war refugees Tri M. La and family, Kim Son has grown from a hole in a graffitied

Give Me Back My Paper and Pencil

Trying to get a sick word processor fixed is enough to make us think twice about the technological revolution.

Touts

The stars (and stripes) at night are big and bright.

State Secrets

Singing the blues at the Fort Worth Opera; reversing the Texas Supreme Court; computing the damage at TI; cooking with gas at FERC.

Roar of the Crowd

Having fun with Shaggy; just being neighborly; debating the problems of the prisons.

Puzzle

Points of view

Post-Modern Times

Sitcom City on Channel 27

Boffo Brits

The Shooting Party hits the bull’s-eye; Rambo: First Blood Part II makes Viet Nam the Club Med of mass death; A View to a Kill should have considered suicide.

1985: The Ten Best and (Groan) the Ten Worst Legislators

We just rate them. You voted for them.

The Legacy of Citizen Robert

As an heir to the Dallas Morning News, Robert Decherd has vindicated his father’s name, waged and won a newspaper war, and emerged as the new leader of the Dealey dynasty.

No Babies Here

When the time comes for the last child in the family to relinquish her tattered baby blanket, she’s not the only one who’s a little shaky about it.

Downtown

Street barricading in Dallas.

Make It Fresh, Make It Simple, and Make It Good

That may sound easy, but the combined constraints of the marketplace and the refrigerator’s contents make it a neat trick to put a satisfying meal on the table.

Behind the Lines

The dreamiest of the practical decisions.

Back Roads

Cloud seeding in the Hill Country.

The Golden Age of Apples and Oranges

The Kimbell’s exhibit of seventeenth-century Spanish still lifes is dazzling enough to cause a modern photo-realist to look again.

The Desperate Search for Christi Meeks

When five-year-old Christi Meeks disappeared and the police couldn’t find her, her father turned to Bill Dear, one of the most controversial private detectives in Texas.