Politics & Policy
January 1, 1989
God Help Her
How Madalyn Murray O’Hair became the supreme being of the American atheist movement.
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News & Politics
December 1, 1988
The Line
Visitors to the Harris County Jail resign themselves to the hours they must spend waiting in line to get fifteen precious minutes with an inmate.
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.
Business
December 1, 1988
The Battle of the Bubbles
One man’s obsession with kicking Perrier in the derriere.
Style & Design
December 1, 1988
True Stories
What happens when ordinary people put on extraordinary clothes?
Business
December 1, 1988
$3,000,000,000
Now that he’s got it, what does Ross Perot plan to do with it?
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.
News & Politics
November 1, 1988
How Houston Beat the Bust: Real Estate
The resurrection of a former “see-through” office building. How a land developer diversified—into Jaguars. And secrets of the “vultures” who buy up, fix up, and fill up troubled Houston apartments.
News & Politics
November 1, 1988
This Water Is My Water
Cool, clear, and pure, it’s the bounty of the Edwards Aquifer, and if something isn’t done to limit pumping by Hill Country farmers and a thirsty San Antonio, it may also be dry.
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.
Business
November 1, 1988
How Houston Beat the Bust: Branching Out
An entrepreneur captures customers in public rest rooms. A high-tech plant moves from oil to medicine. Space and biomedical manufacturing are finally off the drawing boards. And a former union boss becomes a bingo mogul.
Energy
November 1, 1988
How Houston Beat the Bust: Energy
Engineer Saba Haregot’s love affair with Houston (it’s not just all those job offers). How natural gas is helping to reinflate the economy. And a shuttered plant that tempers oil pipe opens up.
Energy
November 1, 1988
How Houston Beat the Bust (Sort Of)
This story is from Texas Monthly’s archives. We have left the text as it was originally published to maintain a clear historical record. Read more here about our archive digitization project. Once Texans thought the boom would never end. Then they thought the bust would
Style & Design
November 1, 1988
Honorable Toys
Godzilla lives! Just ask any Texas collector of Japanese action figures.
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.
Music
October 1, 1988
One Brick Shy of a Load
Not your run-of-the-mill pickers and singers, these performers are determined to carve out new territory.
Music
October 1, 1988
The Fall of Country, the Rise of Country
As Nashville pandered to the lowest common denominator, Texans found a new audience hungry for old traditions.
Politics & Policy
September 1, 1988
Texas Primer: Bush vs. Bentsen
Eighteen years after their Senate race determined the course of Texas politics, their rivalry may determine the course of national politics.
Style & Design
September 1, 1988
Hot Pots
How did bluebonnets and cacti get that glazed look?
Sports
September 1, 1988
Football? What’s the Big Deal?
As much as I hated playing football, I hate watching it more.
Being Texan
September 1, 1988
Cars? No Thanks, I’d Rather Walk
You pay for interest, gas, oil, repairs, and insurance. I pay for shoe leather.
Being Texan
September 1, 1988
Air Conditioning? Who Needs It?
It’s this simple: people’s teeth should not chatter in the summer.
News & Politics
September 1, 1988
Do I Make a Difference?
A kindergarten teacher tells what she learned in school.
Style & Design
August 1, 1988
Shades of Summer
Let there be light, but leave us in the dark. Long before Ozona knew about ozone, Texans were inventing scads of ways to hide from rays.
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.
Critters
August 1, 1988
They Sting. They Kill. They Destroy. They Mate in Midair. Nothing Can Stop . . . the Ants From Hell
Fire ants are on a relentless march across Texas, maiming, devouring, and stinging the living daylights out of everything in their path. We’ve tried to stop them, and it has only made them stronger.
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
Notes From the Underground
Seven Central Texas caves put on the summer’s best rock show.
Style & Design
July 1, 1988
¡Fiesta Wear!
With these lively Mexican skirts, what goes around comes around.
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.
Style & Design
July 1, 1988
Bargains! Bargains! Bargains!
Attention, tightwads! Act now! Suits to nuts—the big bang for the little buck! Check out our supersavin’, dollar-bustin’ bible of buys! Everything must go! (Offer available in Texas only.)
Politics & Policy
June 1, 1988
Caught in the Middle
On the eve of the Mexican elections, the country’s dwindling middle class prefers fatalism to Fabianism.
Sports
June 1, 1988
Hope and Glory
A salute to Texas athletes trying young: seven hearts set on the Summer Olympics.
Texas History
May 1, 1988
Texas Primer: Texas Guinan
She started out as a wide-eyed Waco cowgirl and ended up a New York speakeasy queen.
Style & Design
May 1, 1988
Don’t Even Ask!
Why is it that your favorite item in every antique store is bound to be the one thing that money can’t buy?
News & Politics
May 1, 1988
Earth, Rain, Wind, Fire
A wet year followed by a dry one made for one hellacious brush with disaster in the ranchlands of West Texas.
Energy
May 1, 1988
It Stinks
Times are rotten for refineries.
Energy
May 1, 1988
No Wonderland
Once an oil-field service boomtown, Alice doesn’t live well anymore.
Energy
May 1, 1988
The Wait for Deliverance
Despite all the mewling from the oil patch, there are still ways to make money at $15 a barrel. Here’s our guide to surviving the terrible teens.
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
Food Feud
For years Jamail’s was the queen of Houston grocery stores. Now the Jamail family is at odds, and two rival chains are getting ready for a major food fight.
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
April 1, 1988
Wonder Plane
Up in the sky, it’s a plane, it’s a helicopter—no, it’s a tiltrotor, the Texas hybrid that will soon revolutionize air travel.
Texas History
March 1, 1988
Texas in the Blood!
Descendants of famous Texans like Sam Houston and Davy Crockett don’t even try to fill their forefathers’ shoes. They just do their best to keep them polished.