Books
January 22, 2020
A Ross Thomas Adaptation Rethinks the Border Noir
'Briarpatch,' a new show on USA Network, portrays a West Texas rarely seen on TV.
Briarpatch
News & Politics
January 31, 1974
Briar Patch
WELL, I’LL BE A DIRTY BIRDThe two Kids Kounty stores in Houston (think of the confusion had they been named Cids County) are the result of an original merchandising idea of the Lachman Rose Company. The stores are large windowless boxes each containing about 34,000 square feet of floor space
News & Politics
January 1, 1974
Briar Patch
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF LUNAR ROYALTYIT WASN’T EXACTLY ONE GIANT step for womankind, but from all reports this was one exploration NASA’s Director Christopher Columbus Kraft found not worth smiling about. Odds are that 1973’s Lunar Landing Festival Beauty Contest was not only the first such endeavor by NASA’s
News & Politics
December 1, 1973
Briar Patch
TEXAS ON THE POTOMACTHE TOSTADAS WERE (LET’S BE honest now) kind of stale, and the chile con queso was soggy, but, well what the hell, it sure was good to find some real Tex-Mex food.Purists could grumble if they wanted to and point out that the frijoles were little more
News & Politics
November 1, 1973
Briar Patch
RETURN OF THE OLD PUCKERTHE ASTRODOME HAS REALLY OUTDONE itself. They had the help, though, of Hollywood press agentry and one of the bigger mouths in professional sports, so the Dome can’t take all the credit. Irregardless of culpability, it was an impressive show, that King-Riggs tennis match, and it
News & Politics
September 30, 1973
Briar Patch
MAYBE BABYABOUT THREE YEARS AGO, DR. Joseph Goldzieher, a researcher at San Antonio’s Southwest Foundation for Research and Education, set out to determine if numerous side effects reported by women using oral contraceptives might be psychological in origin.He recruited 76 women to use as a control group, some of whom
News & Politics
August 31, 1973
Briar Patch
CARRASCO REVISITED(IN AUGUST,TEXAS MONTHLY PUBLISHED an account of drug trafficking between Mexico and San Antonio. Much of that article concerned the activities of Fred Carrasco, at that time at large. Since then, he has been apprehended. Our correspondents sent us this account of his capture.)Around midnight July 22 a portly,
News & Politics
April 30, 1973
Briar Patch
THE GETAWAY THAT DIDN’T LASTON A COOL EVENING IN late spring, Mark Jones and Francisco Perez entered Joseph’s Foodliner, a small market in northwest San Antonio specializing in homemade egg rolls (4 for a dollar) and fresh Chinese snow peas. Young, longhaired, bearded, they had apparently charted an ambitious career
Travel & Outdoors
April 30, 1973
Touts
Comic Relief The 1970’s have Peanuts, the 1860’s had Dickens’ latest novel, but in the 1920’s and ’30’s nothing could quite match the goings-on in Krazy Kat, George Herriman’s celebrated comic strip. Millions of inveterate fans (including President Woodrow Wilson) followed the daily adventures of the noble-minded, simple-minded Kat, his cynical,
Travel & Outdoors
April 1, 1973
Touts
Hello, ColumbusTWO EGGS. A PATTIE OF HOMEMADE sausage as big as a hamburger. Three large homemade biscuits. Grits. All the butter and jelly you want. Coffee. Add up the bill for that breakfast, if you could even order it, at The Holiday Inn, Nickerson Farms or any of a hundred
Texas History
April 1, 1973
Briar Patch
IF FORTUNE MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS, the fortunes of death make the strangest of all. In the state cemetery in Austin, J. Frank Dobie, Ma and Pa Ferguson, and Big Foot Wallace lie within a 30-yard radius of one another. Their graves are near the top of a small hill which
Travel & Outdoors
March 1, 1973
Touts
Revolting FilmsIf you liked Che Guevara, you’ll love the Third World Film Series being shown at the University of Texas in Austin. There is nothing Hollywood about these films, and their technique leaves something to be desired; but if you want to know what filmmakers from the Third World are
News & Politics
March 1, 1973
Briar Patch
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIESPERSONALS—SEVEN-STORY BUILDING ON well-traveled Dallas corner. Within easy walking distance of County Courthouse, John F. Kennedy Memorial, Dealey Plaza. Once used to store books; now empty. Has potential for use as historical museum, or can be torn down and land converted to other use. Need advice on
News & Politics
February 1, 1973
Briar Patch
HARD-SCRABBLE NOTES1. The Once & Future Larry KingA FEW YEARS AGO, IN a brief but characteristic moment of reflection, Larry King attempted a survey of all that he had mastered, and he was not greatly reassured. “Success and I are strangers,” he said. “Failure and I are such old friends
Travel & Outdoors
February 1, 1973
Touts
THE EARTH MOVEDIf an elderly gentleman approaches you in a bar and offers to bet the price of an evening’s drink that there is a connection between the surface temperature of Venus and Noah’s ark, you might be inclined to make the wager. But do not bet, my child, for