A Girl Scout troop swimming at Huntsville State Park narrowly escaped an encounter with a roughly fourteen-foot alligator that they later nicknamed Karen. 

A Colleyville restaurant rolled out a $39 State Fair Bloody Mary that’s garnished with a turkey leg, a corn dog, a funnel cake, a caramel apple, grilled corn, celery, and bacon and comes with a beer the customer can drink while waiting fifteen minutes for the “cocktail” to be assembled.

A burglar who apparently attempted to steal a laptop and a rosary from a Corpus Christi Catholic school left a note that read “Sorry, times are hard” and ended up leaving the laptop behind.

When a Whitney High School linebacker bumped into an umpire during a game, the official yanked the player’s helmet off and ejected him, prompting an investigation by the league, which quickly reversed the ejection.

A giraffe at a Glen Rose wildlife center lost its footing and fell on a car’s windshield, terrifying the family inside as well as the giraffe, which eventually managed to get up and walk away, though the car needed to be towed.

Texas A&M’s student senate impeached the student body president for altering the description of a cabinet-level position that his brother, also an Aggie, was being considered for.

A pig estimated to weigh three hundred pounds charged a Kingsland family multiple times, prompting a woman who lived there to defend the home with a hammer and knife and inspiring her disabled mother to confront the pig, which, according to her daughter, “flattened [her] like an accordion.” 

 This article originally appeared in the December 2023 issue of Texas Monthly with the headline “Meanwhile, in Texas.” Subscribe today.