Being Texan
December 1, 1989
A Fool and His Money
Why we are so soon parted.
Longreads
Latest
701-750 of 1153 Articles
Travel & Outdoors
December 1, 1989
Wild Forever
Once the private preserve of an oil executive, the 300,000-acre Big Bend Ranch, with all its desert grandeur, has now entered the public domain.
Sports
November 1, 1989
Hotter’n Hell
Cycling a hundred miles is a hard enough way to spend a Saturday. It’s even harder in Wichita Falls in August.
True Crime
November 1, 1989
Billie Sol Estes Has a Deal for You
The guy whose name is synonymous with swindling is finally a free man—but it may not last.
Sports
November 1, 1989
Can’t Win for Losing
When San Antonio’s Memorial Minutemen took on a crosstown rival, all they had to lose was their chance to go down in history as Texas’ worst high school football team.
Texas History
October 1, 1989
Old Salts and Ancient Mariners
In which a landlubber chronicles the saga of getting his sea legs aboard the good ship Elissa.
Being Texan
October 1, 1989
Vigil at Treaty Oak
To the people of Austin, the poisoning of an ancient tree was more than a crime; it was a blasphemy.
Business
September 30, 1989
The Day Leroy Died
When a small private bank was closed on August 7, depositors lost all of their money, a pillar of the community came tumbling down, and the town’s trusting way of life was shattered.
Art
July 1, 1989
The Temple of Destiny
In downtown Mexico City are the ruins of the great Aztec pyramid, the site where one empire ended and a new world began.
Politics & Policy
July 1, 1989
On the Defensive
Jim Wright’s attorney Steve Susman is living proof that clients may lose, but lawyers don’t.
Politics & Policy
July 1, 1989
The Mommy War
Kids in T-shirts bearing political slogans, ideological confrontations in the supermarket, skirmishes at the PTA. Welcome to the battle between moms who work and moms who don’t.
True Crime
July 1, 1989
How Not to Rob a Bank
Two nice guys with financial troubles thought they found the perfect solution to the bust. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Music
July 1, 1989
The Semi-Reluctant Rock Star
How did shy, sweet Edie Brickell become America’s hottest new performer? By sticking to her vision —and doing what the record company told her.
Business
June 1, 1989
The Long, Strange Trip of Ed Bass
Interesting things can happen when a man with an unusual vision also has an unusual amount of money.
Travel & Outdoors
June 1, 1989
The Perfect Hill Country Weekend
An excursion through the best part of Texas, featuring sleepy little towns, clear little streams, pluperfect biscuits, and two-headed goats.
Business
June 1, 1989
Rock Bottom
A series of terrible decisions and bad breaks ruined Gibraltar Savings. Is rescuing it another mistake?
True Crime
May 31, 1989
The Work of The Devil
The disappearance of a University of Texas student in Matamoros led police to the discovery of a drug-dealing cult whose rituals were not only unholy but unthinkable.
News & Politics
May 1, 1989
So Near Yet So Far
Rice was created to be a “university of the first rank.” Is it? Will it ever be?
Sports
May 1, 1989
The World’s Greatest Poker Player
Johnny Chan became a champion through nerve and dedication—and every now and then a few good hands.
True Crime
April 30, 1989
Poisoned With Love
They were elderly people, flattered by the attention of a nice young man. But sometimes it’s a mistake to depend on the kindness of strangers.
News & Politics
April 1, 1989
Poisoned by Their Own Home
When the St. Johns returned to their house after having it sprayed for bugs, they discovered why those friendly pest-control people are called exterminators.
Critters
March 1, 1989
Buddy Maedgen Is Bugged!
The saga of a man and his helpful insects illustrates the age-old battle between visionaries and bureaucrats.
True Crime
March 1, 1989
Forgery, Texas Style
As Texans’ pride of place rose with the price of oil, collectors scrambled for the few documents of the Texas Revolution. Suddenly there seemed to be plenty to go around. But no one thought to ask why.
Business
February 1, 1989
The Wooing of Chairman Wang
The decision by a Chinese plastics company to build a billion-dollar plant in Texas proves that economic development works—but it comes at a high price.
Texas History
February 1, 1989
The Lost Tribe
They were the classic Texas Indians—fierce, majestic, and free. Today’s Comanches find their lives defined by legends and bitter truths.
Health
January 1, 1989
Dad’s Last Home
It was the hardest decision I ever had to make. Had the time come to put my father in a nursing home?
Politics & Policy
January 1, 1989
God Help Her
How Madalyn Murray O’Hair became the supreme being of the American atheist movement.
Business
December 1, 1988
Zoom at the Top
What kind of woman gets her own skin-care company, a place in Nouvelle Society, and the second-most-eligible bachelor in the world? Meet Georgette Mosbacher.
News & Politics
December 1, 1988
Making the Grade
In Dallas, people call the new superintendent of schools the Messiah. Now all Marvin Edwards has to do is prove they’re right.
Politics & Policy
December 1, 1988
Can Ross Perot Save America?
One day in 1962 Ross Perot read Thoreau’s insight that the “mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” The country hasn’t been the same since.
Texas History
November 1, 1988
Compadres de la Revolución
Though the leaders of Mexico’s revolution all lived short and violent lives, a handful of those who rode with them have survived to a ripe old age in Texas.
News & Politics
November 1, 1988
The War Zone
When crack comes to a neighborhood, it infiltrates, it corrupts, and it destroys—and there is nothing the cops can do about it.
Style & Design
November 1, 1988
Can You Take a Hint?
Heloise, America’s best-known homemaker, has a dirty little secret: she hates to clean house. If you hate it too, she’s convinced that you need her more than ever.
Politics & Policy
October 1, 1988
It’s the Way We’ve Always Done It, Sir
How the Pentagon really works, as told by a Texan who tried to make it work a little differently.
News & Politics
October 1, 1988
Worked to Death
The allure of Galveston Bay is not natural beauty but the determination of nature to survive ugliness.
News & Politics
September 1, 1988
Do I Make a Difference?
A kindergarten teacher tells what she learned in school.
Music
August 31, 1988
Off the Road Again
Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic at Carl’s Corner was the picnic to end all picnics. It did just that.
True Crime
August 31, 1988
A Legacy of Evil
In the town George Parr once dominated, a nineteen-year-old mother was gang-raped by her neighbors. In the aftermath of the crime, the old horrors of San Diego have surfaced anew.
Music
August 1, 1988
The Big Squeezy
Get hip to zydeco, the born-on-the-bayou sound with the accordion accent. Ready for it red hot? Check out a Saturday-night church dance in Houston.
News & Politics
August 1, 1988
The Inventive Mr. Chu
Heat + pressure + yttrium + a politically savvy University of Houston physicist = a formula to change the world.
Politics & Policy
August 1, 1988
Wright and Wrong
The congressional investigation that is focusing on Speaker Jim Wright’s ethics is missing the real problem —his judgment.
News & Politics
July 31, 1988
Full of Woe
You see them on TV, adorable youngsters asking to be adopted. But the dreadful odyssey of the Wednesday’s Child rarely has a made-for-television happy ending.
Travel & Outdoors
July 1, 1988
The Meanest River
Yes, it’s muddy, it’s treacherous, and it smells bad enough to gag a skunk; but it’s also the only thing between us and Oklahoma.
News & Politics
July 1, 1988
Nature of the Beast
A tiger, a zoo, a terrifying death.
Politics & Policy
May 31, 1988
The Self-Destruction of Lance Lalor
Houston’s city controller prided himself on being the most scrupulously honest politician in town. So why did he sign his name to someone else credit card?
Politics & Policy
May 1, 1988
Learning to Love the Bomb
Can a Texas publisher of technical books make a difference in the nuclear powers’ arms race? You bet.
Health
April 30, 1988
Dying for a Heart
For Ted Segal of Waco, the problem wasn’t getting a heart transplant; it was finding a donor. The delay was killing him.
Being Texan
April 1, 1988
Miles and Miles of Texas
The assignment was the chance of a lifetime to see the whole state, once and for all. At times pure pleasure and at times a feat of will, it was always and foremost a writer’s dream come true.
Business
April 1, 1988
What Does H.E.B. Stand For, Anyway?
As the president of Texas’ largest private grocery chain, Charles Butt learned that in order to be nice to his customers he had to be tough on his competitors. And vice versa.
Business
January 1, 1988
Break the Bank!
Don Dixon ran Vernon Savings the way the Romans ran orgies, equating excess with success, until his empire collapsed.