More Stories

Touts

Breaking up is hard to do.

State Secrets

Mark White’s campaign promises come back to haunt him; Arthur Temple gets rich(er) off Time Inc.; who got burned when the torch was passed at First City; a Pyhrric victory for the oil industry.

The America’s Team Caper

Someone had done in the Cowboys and I had to find the killer, but there were too many suspects.

Roar of the Crowd

Galveston as it is, dammit; and the Post as it will be, maybe.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Great expectations for oilmen; sartorial bargains for Brownsville; a medical controversy for Alpine; vexing questions for hunters; the ultimate who’s who for chickens.

Puzzle

You are what you eat.

Texas Primer: The Texas Timex

Ever since LBJ’s gold Rolex appeared next to his gall bladder scar in news photographs, Texans have been buying the pricey timepieces by the carload.

Silkwood’s Blight

Dread is the main character in Silkwood; To Be or Not to Be can’t make up its mind; The Dresser is a fussy failure; The Man Who Loved Women doesn’t.

Lasting Love

In honor of Valentine’s Day, a gallery of folks who found the real thing.

Behind the Lines

The Alamo? I can’t remember what that was.

Venetian Finds

Five Texas artists are among those selected for “Paradise Lost/Paradise Regained”, this year’s American entry into the Venice Biennale.

A Museum That Works

Edward Larrabee Barnes’ quietly elegant new Dallas Museum of Art is a delight for museumgoers and curators alike.

Love and Death in Silicon Prairie, Part I: Candy Montgomery’s Affair

Urban refugees fleeing high-tech Dallas have created ersatz rural communities in the nearby countryside. This isolated, pastoral life sometimes erupts into adultery and murder.

Gambling on the Gamblers

Jerry Argovitz made himself unpopular with NFL management as an abrasive player’s agent. Now that he owns Houston’s new football team, he finds himself on the other side of the table—and the issues.

All the Better to See You With, My Dear

Are eye surgeons miraculously changing the lives of folks with glasses as thick as Coke-bottle bottoms, or are they just making themselves rich ?

Touts

Have these glamorous goblets come to the aid of your New Year's Eve Party.

Caravan of Pipe Dreams

From the city that brought you the Stockyards and Billy Bob's Texas comes a bizarre nightclub run by the shock troops of the avant-garde.

State Secrets

Storm damage from Alicia may include the public's right to use the beach; Texas pecan growers go nuts over the feds; Mexico's ruling party turns up the heat on the opposition; why there may be an NCAA football play-off sooner than you think.

Roar of the Crowd

A better Dallas, a wider conspiracy, a madder Wichita Falls.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Damming the Rio Grande; cruising the streets of Houston; building the nation's biggest organ; remembering the Alamo.

Puzzle

Box score.

Texas Primer: The Collins Purse

In the sixties a small company in Medina produced a wooden box decorated with rhinestones. It became a Texas tradition.

The Godfather Goes Slumming

Al Pacino carries on the gangster tradition in Scarface; the mystery in Gorky Park is not whodunit but who'll survive the investigation; Tentl is a Barbra Streisand tour de force.

Unabridged Webster

You may not have heard saxman Ben Webster when he was around, but his recordings with Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, and Gerry Mulligan are a treasure trove not to be missed.

1984 Bum Steer Awards

Presenting Carolyn Farb, worthy to Dolph Briscoe, Farrah Fawcett, J. R. Ewing, Mike Martin, and Jackie Sherrill as Bum Steer of the Year—and 107 other fascinating foibles.

Behind the Lines

“Light this candle.”

That’s a Metal Building?

The greening (and redding, and yellowing, and blueing) of the prefabricated warehouse.

Pancho Villa’s Last Gasp

In death as in life, the Mexican revolutionary is still causing trouble. This time the border skirmish is over his death mask.

Touts

The halls are alive with the sound of music.

State Secrets

More trouble ahead for Jim Mattox; oil pipeline for sale—cheap; the EPA gets dumped over toxic dumping; raindrops on GTE’s head at Braniff Place.

Secrets of a Deep, Dark Game

Listen up, you Monday morning quarterbacks. How much do you really know about the classic triple option?

Roar of the Crowd

Banks play domino, Presidio plays it cool, Beaumont plays to win.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Masons in trouble; Wally in wonderland; vice in Amarillo; vitamins in Mount Pleasant; Czechs in print.

Puzzle

Perforations.

Texas Primer: Christmas on the Range

Yes, Virginia Sue, Texas really does have its own holiday traditions.

Terminal Endearment

Terms of Endearment features a Houston setting but also drab cinematography and cramped direction. The sickening Star 80 goes too far; the impressionistic Rumble Fish reaches too high.

The Proof Is in the Piano

Fabled Texas pianist Peck Kelley appears, at last, on a gold mine of an album. There’s lodes more with Red Garland, Pete Petersen, and other jazz whizzes.

Pearl Harbor Christmas

December 1941 in Clarksville was a time to celebrate peace on earth amid the rumblings of war.

The Texas Food Manifesto

Fie on the cilantro fad, greaseless barbecue, and indiscriminate mesquite-grilling. Let’s hear it for Frito pie, catfish plates, and other gems of Texas’ true cuisine

The Courage of Their Compositions

These days the Houston Symphony Orchestra isn’t playing the same old thing. Conductor Sergiu Comissiona battles boredom by playing brand-new works and little-heard older ones.

Good Christian Pageant Fans, Rejoice

Houston’s First Baptist Church wants to be number one in Texas, and an eye-popping Christmas spectacle is one way it beckons the faithful.

Behind the Lines

Dropping the aristocratic burden.

Another Pilgrim’s Progress

The last book by native Texan William Goyen, Arcadio is a weird and wonderful fable about a search for self-acceptance and peace.

Twofers

They are the quirky enterprises that offer two things under one roof—like shrimp and guns, steaks and loans, or eggrolls and gasoline.

Fantasy Island

It’s a high-rise developer’s dream. Houston’s old guard wants to turn 34 acres of downtown warehouses into an island of classy shops and pricey condos. They thought they had it wired, until Kathy Whitmire was elected mayor.

The Wild Ones

Quick! Get out your furs before it gets hot again.

Touts

The Palace of Pros

With The Palace of Amateurs, the Plaza Theatre brought a sparkling Mariel Hemingway to Dallas and a lofty new theatrical standard to Texas.

Local Menu Makes Good

Here’s to the unsung heroes of Eastland: my grandfather and his V.C. menu.

State Secrets

The Supreme Court scores one for Texas against the Yankees; blame the recession on InterFirst; why Phil Gramm makes a great Republican; an oil squabble matches the greedy little independents against poor, starving Big Oil.