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Behind the Lines

The proud and promising Froggies.

Back in the Huddle Again

Dan Jenkins’ new football novel, Life Its Ownself, picks up where Semi-Tough left off; Heat from Another Sun, a dark detective novel, turns on the gore.

Trevino’s Mother

Whistler had nothing on the 22 artists represented in a survey of Hispanic art.

Texas Primer: The Rich Girl

From lacquered debutante to fossilized ol’ gal, her greatest virtue is endurance.

The Politics of Armageddon

W. A. Criswell has spent forty years convincing his huge flock at Dallas’ First Baptist Church that the end of the world is near. He hopes you’ll believe it too.

Feasting on the Oil Glut

So you think that OPEC controls the price of oil and that the glut is hurting everybody in the oil business? Wrong. Traders on the international spot market are pulling the strings and getting rich in the process.

Touts

Hunting gear that even Natty Bumppo would approve of.

State Secrets

Bullock brings a touch of Las Vegas to Texas; two Texas congressmen covet the same plum; an oil company sends a signal to Wall Street; a court fight could cost UT and A&M $20 million; a big man belongs in Houston.

Terminal Education

Most educational software relies on the same old rote drills and other negative techniques—only now kids get nuked for missing a math problem.

Roar of the Crowd

Texas Monthly Reporter

Winners and losers from the Republican convention; a crash course for butlers; biting the bullet in Orange County; the peculiar appeal of the Texas State Guard; a bookie tells his trade secrets.

Puzzle

Half of Me

Steve Martin’s new comedy All of Me is half-baked; The Gods Must Be Crazy is an amiable tall tale with giraffes; Tanya Roberts is sexy-heroic as Sheena, queen of the pulp jungle drama; Last Night at the Alamo is a rowdy last stand.

Is All This News Fit to Print?

Inspired by last summer’s media mania in Dallas, our expert offers a few suggestions for spicing up future nonevents.

Dust to Dust

The cattle are dying, the grass is gone, the ranchers are selling their land. The center of Texas is in a drought that may be the worst in a hundred years.

Hey, This Stuff Ain’t Half Bad

Just the thing to go with barbecue or chicken-fried steak—a good bottle of Texas red. Wine, that is.

Coppini the Great

Pompeo Coppini’s heroic sculptures and European air were just what Texas’ fledgling gentry was hungry for in 1901. Since then his name has faded from memory, but his works endure.

Fathers and Other Strangers

Every son sees his father as his greatest competitor—until the day he becomes a father himself.

Dead Oaks

Texas’ beloved live oaks are falling victim to a creeping fungus, and no one knows how to stop it.

Brahms the Bountiful

A flood of new Brahms recordings that honor the composer’s 150th birthday reveals an oeuvre of surprising richness.

Behind the Lines

Houston catches up with itself.

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.

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.

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.

Heaven on Wheels

Why are we crazy for Cadillacs, silly on Suburbans, passionate about pickups? Because Texans love their cars, that's why.

Touts

It’s all here in black and white.

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.

Roar of the Crowd

Great café meals, dubious political deals, Luckenbach’s ideals.

Texas Monthly Reporter

A new Henry Lee Lucas mystery in Lubbock

Puzzle

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.

Age of Innocents

Remember when children played dress-up in their own clothes? They still can.

Grading the High Schools

UT reports on how well students from Texas schools do.

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.

Behind the Lines

On the Edge of Life

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.

Little D

Dallas, Scotland: the city that’s everything Big D isn’t.

Excuse Me, But Where Can a Free-Enterpriser Get a Drink in This Town

Where to find a life-size statue of businessmen shaking hands, the best right-wing burgers, and other landmarks of Republican life.

Great Moments in Republican History

How Texas became a two-party state in spite of the GOP.

The Way It’s Going to Be

Turn off the TV. Go fishing. Here’s the inside story of what will happen at the convention, complete with Nancy Reagan’s tacky visit to a bowling alley.

The Marfa Art War

Sculptor Donald Judd had the vision. The Dia Art Foundation had the money. Now they’ve had it with each other.

The Eccentric Genius of Trammell Crow

He changed the face of Texas by building warehouses that looked like office buildings. Then he built office buildings that looked like warehouses.

Touts

State Secrets

Aggies and UT play beach brawl; Valero’s gas pains; education bureaucracy shake-up; the truth about those Hines rumors.

Roar of the Crowd

Texas Monthly Reporter

Is Texas shrinking? Are the Kimbell’s spirits sinking? Are Midland and Odessa really linking? Where are Houston’s sports fans drinking?