Country Notes
March 1, 1982
Texas Primer: The Tumbleweed
It’s only a humble weed, but just try to imagine West Texas without it.
More Stories
Movies
March 1, 1982
Marriage In The Combat Zone
Shoot the Moon is about domestic warfare with tenderness and humor between the skirmishes; One From the Heart succeeds as art but fails as real life; Willie Nelson is just one of several good reasons to go see Barbarosa.
Libations
March 1, 1982
BYOB
When liquor by the drink went into effect in 1971, Texas changed forever.
Libations
March 1, 1982
Drinking
Saint Paul said that a little wine is a fine thing. He must have known something.
Being Texan
March 1, 1982
The Very Rich Life of Enrico di Portanova
Hugh Roy Cullen found the oil and made one of Houston’s great fortunes; now his grandson is spending his inheritance like there is no tomorrow, and suing for more.
Dining Out
March 1, 1982
Hot Pasta
From their antipastos to their cannoli, three restaurants are leading Texans to the pure, simple pleasures of classical Italian cooking.
Classical Music
March 1, 1982
The Score In Houston
Two young conductors are rousing audiences in Houston and making motions toward becoming the country’s finest maestros.
Church
March 1, 1982
The Soaps Get Religion
Another Life, the Christian Broadcasting Network’s born-again soap, hasn’t discarded the essentials of the genre: sex, crime, and violence.
Behind the Lines
March 1, 1982
Behind the Lines
Dignity and groovy threads.
Books
March 1, 1982
The Writer Stumbles
Celebrity is Thomas Thompson’s flawed venture into fiction; The Last Texas Hero deserves a twenty-yard penalty; Peeper is to be read only to find out who the real Tom is.
News & Politics
February 1, 1982
Waiting for Mommy
If you leave your child at a day care center, you are hardly unique. If you know what your child does there all day, you are indeed unique.
Business
February 1, 1982
The Beer That Made Armadillos Famous
For years no one would drink Lone Star beer because rednecks did; then one enterprising man figured out that if it was marketed right, everyone would want to drink Lone Star precisely because rednecks did.
Being Texan
February 1, 1982
Way Out West in the Land of Cotton
People still think of cotton as a Dixieland crop, but the heart of the nation’s production is on the dry, flat, and windswept High Plains of Texas.
Lifestyle
February 1, 1982
I Was A Hostess At A Tupperware Party
All the carefree young bachelor wanted was a few pieces of Tupperware. He never dreamed of what he’d have to go through to get it.
State Secrets
February 1, 1982
State Secrets
Selling the streets of Laredo; the next big oil play; the bar breaks up over a Supreme Court race; it’s true what they say about office Christmas parties.
Roar of the Crowd
February 1, 1982
Roar of the Crowd
Over the river and through the swamp.
Reporter
February 1, 1982
Texas Monthly Reporter
A lawyer takes aim at handgun makers; Texas journalism gets hugh on society; politicians see red over fire ants; Dallas tries to master its aversion to master plans.
Texas History
February 1, 1982
Texas Primer: The Hughes Drill Bit
This clunky piece of machinery made Howard Hughes very rich. It is the first in our series of things that every Texan should know.
Politics & Policy
February 1, 1982
Little Oil
Big Oil no longer holds political sway in Washington, and wildcatters are celebrating a new Texas independents’ day.
Movies
February 1, 1982
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
In Pennies From Heaven Steve Martin gets serious, which is too bad--until he jumps into his dazzling dance numbers, which are too good to be true. Four Friends is about pals, and it palls. In Sharky’s Machine Burt Reynolds tries to mix gore with mush. Rollover defaults.
Feature
February 1, 1982
The Book of the Century-And-A-Half
Governor Bill Clements lassoed James Michener to write a tome about Texas. It’s due out in a couple of years. But that’s too long to wait, so we decided to write a version of our own.
Church
February 1, 1982
The Lord Giveth And The Lord Giveth
Evangelist Kenneth Copeland has good news: the faithful don’t have to wait for heaven to reap their reward. An Eastern Orthodox congregation in Austin is strict about performance of the liturgy but lax about getting to the church on time.
Behind the Lines
February 1, 1982
Behind the Lines
Out on the outskirts of town.
Architecture
February 1, 1982
Burnet’s Milestone
A winning design for the Burnet Civic Center shows why regionalist architecture is still going strong in rural Texas.
Business
January 1, 1982
Trust Me. Just Sign Here.
Whenever you buy or sell a house, hundreds of dollars of your money goes for something called title insurance. Title insurance is a great deal—for the title company.
Health
January 1, 1982
The Saint of Falfurrias
Supplicants in the Valley worship at the shrine of faith healer Don Pedrito Jaramillo, more powerful in death than he was in life.
Politics & Policy
January 1, 1982
The Lord’s Work
Rusty Hardin is a prosecutor. Most of the time, his job is to put people in jail. This time, he wants a man dead.
Touts
January 1, 1982
Touts
Between a rock and an art place.
Puzzle
January 1, 1982
Puzzle
Rolling stock.
Behind the Lines
January 1, 1982
Behind the Lines
The perfect city.
State Secrets
January 1, 1982
State Secrets
Poor Bunker Hunt; hogging the airwaves; why the establishment likes Hightower; worries in the Hobby camp.
Roar of the Crowd
January 1, 1982
Roar of the Crowd
Hearing the call of the Word, the wild, and the hogs.
Reporter
January 1, 1982
Texas Monthly Reporter
Football fever in Wink; political prognostication in Houston; gustatory grotesquerie in Austin; building bonanza in Fort Worth.
Politics & Policy
January 1, 1982
The Party’s Over
Time was when Texas Republicans had to stand united. But now their party's in power and there's rivalry in the ranks.
Movies
January 1, 1982
Big Frogs, Small Pond
Screen greats Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn embarrass themsevles in the namby-pamby On Golden Pond. Ragtime is a clinker. Absence of Malice has prescence--Paul Newman's.
Bum Steers
January 1, 1982
Bum Steer Awards 1982
In which we salute the folks who made Texas the bizarre, flagrant, preposterous, funny, and endearing place it was last year.
Church
January 1, 1982
Stumpers in the Pulpit
Potlicking in Houston churches is nothing new for a lot of black Baptist preachers. It just comes with the territory.
Art
January 1, 1982
Miss Van Buren Comes To Texas
An evocative American portrait is one of 75 masterpieces from the Phillips Collection now on display in Dallas. A photographic exhibit in Austin on family life covered just about everything but the family.
Business
December 1, 1981
Let’s Get Serious About Toys
They used to be virtuous and wooden and they were good. Now they’re commercial and plastic and they’re great.
Touts
December 1, 1981
Touts
Have yourself a merry Texas Christmas.
Theater
December 1, 1981
Our Son, The Murderer
Dallas’ Stage #1 proves it’s worthy of its name with a gut-wrenching production about a family torn apart.
State Secrets
December 1, 1981
State Secrets
Dreaming Democrats; juicy news about the News; shake-ups brewing in UT; whey Reagan can’t decontrol gas.
Roar of the Crowd
December 1, 1981
Roar of the Crowd
The high and the flighty.
Reporter
December 1, 1981
Texas Monthly Reporter
Robots take over Dallas; sports talk shows take Houston by storm; border bridges take forever to get built; John Tower takes the lead in the defense debate; a Corsicana bakery takes the fruitcake.
Puzzle
December 1, 1981
Puzzle
The bottle-cap gambit.
Music
December 1, 1981
Rockers, Kickers, and Hepcats
Texas music is wide open these days. You can stand by old standbys like Willie or take a chance on nuclear polka and Caribbean funk.
Movies
December 1, 1981
Rage of Cajuns
Southern Comfort bathes the bayou in blood; Chariots of Fire sets no track records; Quartet is a marvel of misdirection; True Confessions’ trespasses are forgivable; Time Bandits steals the show.
Lifestyle
December 1, 1981
Kids and Money
Children today understand brand names like Izod and concepts like “rip-off,” but they don’t understand that some things—the best things—can’t be bought.
True Crime
December 1, 1981
The Black Striker Gets Hit
The life—promising beginning, overripe middle, bloody end—of Lee Chagra, the biggest drug lawyer in El Paso.
Church
December 1, 1981
Time of Repentance, Season of Joy
On Yom Kippur, Jews in Dallas mark the Day of Atonement; on Christmas Eve, Episcopalians in Houston gather for a night of adoration.