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Those Raucous Babylonians

This spring both of Texas’ top symphonies staged the late William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Fest. Dallas held back, but Houston made merry with the splashy biblical spectacle.

Behind the Lines

The tardy teachers.

A Knell for Eric

An Abilene man recalls the pluck and pain of his stricken son in This Is the Child. An El Paso professor creates a lovably uncool detective in Dancing Bear. An Austin meteorologist blows hot on Texas Weather.

Lady on the Edge

Photographer Carlotta Corpron moved to Denton in 1935, and the burst of avant-garde work she produced is, so far, unsurpassed in Texas.

For Names’ Sake

Life is tough all over, but especially for Juniors.

It’s Just Another Day

Kids, house, husband—these are the natural enemies of a well-ordered day.

Phantom Cat of the Valley

Meet the ocelot, not as pet, not as fur coat, but in its best role—an elusive remnant of Texas’ wild past.

Funky Riviera

Discover another side of the Texas coast—its peerless beachcombing, legendary beer joints, odd birds (feathered and otherwise), and lovable year-round scruffiness.

Touts

Hit the deck, shoot the breeze.

State Secrets

Big banks have interest in Delaware - but so far no principle; a price-fixing suit puts realtors out of commission; why some teachers don’t deserve a pay raise; a new kingmaker emerges in South Texas.

Roar of the Crowd

Texas Monthly Reporter

Hard times in Port Arthur; the lost art of nasty correspondence lives on in Big Spring; the woes of Kathy Whitmire; the Newlywed Game comes to Midland; gloves off in the book business.

Puzzle

Stoned at home.

Texas Primer: The Name Belt

Wearing one won’t make you a real live cowboy, but it sure will brand you as a modern Texan.

The Sphinx Who Sings

Austin blueswoman Angela Strehli is an enigma, but there’s no secret to her success: she writes great material and sings it with unbeatable style.

Three Feet Six, Blue Tights, Red Cape

Forget firemen and cowboys, Today’s kid wants to be a superhero.

Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest

For many of Texas’ mental patients, the world outside the state hospital is what’s keeping them sane.

The Long Boyhood of George H.W. Bush

Like the hero of a boys’ novel, George Bush moved from the East to the wild and woolly West. He wanted to prove himself, by golly, to Yale, Procter & Gamble, and the old man.

Midland on a String

From out of the West Texas plains comes the rich, beautiful sound of the Thouvenel String Quartet.

Behind the Lines

On the team, off the team.

The Retrograde Sophisticate

Danny Williams of Dallas has a clear grasp of the modern masters and unequaled ambition and skill.

Larger Than Life

Tom Lea, the grand old man of Texas painting, grew up among giants. No wonder he always used a big canvas.

The Cow’s in the Corn

Or, my life as a Texas gardener.

Mark White’s Coming-Out Party

The new governor’s first hundred days were great theater, but now come taxes.

Touts

Of loaves and fishes.

State Secrets

TV’s path to riches for Robert Caro’s The Path to Power; a big Texas howdy to PCBs; Reagan and Castro’s map wars; another prison reform idea turns sour.

Roar of the Crowd

Gun-shy Baptists, isolated inmates, poor doctors.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Taking stock of the Dallas mayoral election; defrocking the Legislature’s worst bills; buying stocks in the Trans-Pecos; unlocking the mysteries of the Arklatex; rocking the boat in Odessa.

Jesus and Mead’s Fine Bread

I sang gospel music for God, a bakery, and $6 a week.

Puzzle

Cell division.

Texas Primer: The Water Tower

Sure it means water. It also means pride.

Double Jeopardy

What’s Exposed is the worlds of fashion and terrorism and the curves of Nastassia Kinski. Blue Thunder is nothing but noise; Tender Mercies, on the other hand, is practically a silent.

The 89 Greatest Texas Bars

No Matter where you are, there’s someplace to be nowhere.

The Bar Bar

It’s a noble institution, especially if you can master all its subtle skills: not being there, the second call, holding forth, and another thing...

Man Over Mortarboard

Some colleges help seniors with placement. Others settle for career counseling. For liberal arts majors, the difference is getting a job.

Happy Birthday, Franz and Igor

Both Haydn and Stravinsky marked special anniversaries last year, but music lovers got the presents: a shower of fresh new versions of their works.

A Monument to Making It

It’s a Xanadu of condos, restaurants, gardens, and gyms, a high-tech haven that can outritz nearby Dallas. It’s Las Colinas, a home for corporations that appreciate the finer things in life.

Behind the Lines

A day in the country.

The New Rustlers

Today’s desperadoes are in the bays of the Texas coast, roping redfish and cursing the Parks and Wildlife Department.

Hell on Wheels

In which John Howard, our toughest athlete, goes after a world bicycle record and hopes america will care.

Hail to Thee, George E. Fischer

Most of the time you’re a nice, ordinary businessman. But for one brief, shining moment you were King Antonio, monarch of San Antonio’s Fiesta and semi-beloved ruler of the one Texas city that still loves a good king.

Touts

Miniature madness.

Big Wheels and the Silver Spike

It wasn’t business that drew the state’s top politicians to a Trans-Pecos ranch. Their mission: to mark the centennial of the train that linked Texas to the West.

State Secrets

Southwest Airlines’ California gamble pays off - and Texans do the paying: update from Gibgate; why Bellaire is not Park Place; a truly dumb idea from UT.

Roar of the Crowd

Taking lives and saving lives.

Texas Monthly Reporter

Times are tough in Laredo; specialty advertisers are unveiled in Dallas; some very old bones stir things up in Leander; a wild turkey comes back to West Texas; newspapers go wild in San Antonio.

Puzzle

Measure for measure.

Texas Primer: The Farm-to-Market Road

The last best way to see the real Texas.

Scotch, Neat

Local Hero is undiluted pleasure. Lianna is a little watered-down.

Down with Compromise

Freddie Hubbard’s attempts to play pop music have been disastrous. But when he tackles a pure mainstream sound, he shows what jazz trumpeting is all about.