Quick Links

The Stand Up Desk

The Stand Up Desk|
January 20, 2013

Behind the Lines

TALK OF CHANGE AND REFORM has been in the air since the Sharpstown scandals more than perhaps at any time in our state’s history. Such talk is welcome, and, as most of us apparently felt in the last elections, mandatory. One imagines that talk of reform came as uncomfortably, but

By

The Stand Up Desk|
April 30, 1999

Small Talk

ISSUES LIKE YOUR LATEST, “The Best of Small-Town Texas” [March 1999], are why we moved back to Texas.Gary SalyerArlingtonI CANNOT IMAGINE LIVING ANYWHERE ELSE but Hico. I love this town. Everything you said about small towns is so right. The ambience makes up for the lack of malls.Anita MuellerHicoYOUR

By

The Stand Up Desk|
May 31, 1998

Witt and Wisdom

BILL WITTLIFF IS A RENAISSANCE hombre. An author, a publisher, a film producer, and an arts patron, the longtime Austinite is best known for his screenplays, including The Black Stallion, Raggedy Man, Legends of the Fall, and Lonesome Dove; his adaptation of the latter revived both the miniseries and the

By

The Stand Up Desk|
April 30, 1998

A Few Good Men

IT IS SO REFRESHING to know that lawmen who are hardworking and corruption-free still exist [“The Last Posse,” March 1998]. These men set an example in their profession. They seem so down to earth and determined. These men are truly role models.IRENE REYESSan Benito LOOKING AT THE COVER PHOTO, I

By

The Stand Up Desk|
April 30, 1998

An Evan Smithee Production

The first film Texas Monthly deputy editor Evan Smith ever saw was A Boy Named Charlie Brown. That was in 1969, when he was only three. But Snoopy, Lucy, and the gang must have had a potent effect because film has been a steady and powerful presence in Smith’s

By

The Stand Up Desk|
March 1, 1998

Banks a Lot

BEFORE SHE BEGAN putting together finely detailed service pieces for magazines like this one, Suzy Banks was occupied with another kind of construction. “I graduated from college in 1981 with a useless degree in film, but I didn’t want to leave Texas,” says the 39-year-old, who lives in Dripping

By

The Stand Up Desk|
January 1, 1998

Roar of the Crowd

Race MattersI was captivated by paul Burka’s observation in “What’s Black and White and Red-faced All Over?” [December 1997] that “the only way to open the door to more minority students is to broaden—that means reduce—the standards for admissions.” The real question for society is this: Shall we lower our

By

Art|
January 1, 1998

It Ain’t Over Till It’s Overbeek

FOR WILL VAN OVERBEEK, traveling from his home in Austin to Harlingen to shoot the Marine Military Academy (see “A Few Bad Boys,”) wasn’t anything new: Ten years ago he did the same thing (for a proposed photo essay that never got published). In fact, photographing cadets has been

By

Business|
December 1, 1997

Her Home Page Is Her Castle

“I love lists,” says Ann Castle, who got into the listmaking business last year when the online magazine Slate asked her for a roundup of the nation’s biggest givers. “Because of the Slate list, lots of people have contacted me about doing this in their state,” she says, though she

By

The Stand Up Desk|
September 30, 1997

Travelin’ Man

Senior editor Joe Nick Patoski provides readers with what you used to get at your local gas station: full service. Writing so-called service pieces—mini-guidebooks that offer readers do-it-yourself instructions and suggestions for trips and other leisure activities—has taken the 46-year-old resident of Wimberley all over Texas. Says Patoski: “I’ve

By

Art|
July 31, 1997

Ennis Racket

Over the past twenty years Texas Monthly contributing editor Michael Ennis has written about F-16 jet fighters, Houston topless clubs, and the Dallas Apparel Mart. But what he’s focused on mostly is art, as he does in this month’s story about “outsider” artists (see “Folks,”). “I wanted to

By

The Stand Up Desk|
January 1, 1997

School Spirit

THANK YOU FOR LETTING ALL OF TEXAS know what I’ve known for years—that Roy Guess Elementary in Beaumont is a four-star school [“Our Best Schools,” November 1996]. I’ve been happy with our son’s educational environment at Guess, from the teachers and other staff to the building itself. Note that

By

The Stand Up Desk|
January 1, 1997

Testy Mail

IN NOVEMBER WE PUBLISHED A RANKING of 3,172 public grade schools in Texas, giving each school one of five grades, from four stars (the best) to no stars (the worst). This article provoked an unusual amount of mail. Some of the letters were barely restrained victory whoops from people connected

By

The Stand Up Desk|
December 1, 1996

Land Values

THANKS TO PAUL BURKA AND photographer Andrew Yates for capturing the story of the Stoners [“Home on the Range,” by Paul Burka, October 1996] with compassion and respect. As a 57-year-old ranch wife trying to keep my ranch going with my son (the fifth generation farmer-rancher on our land)

By

The Stand Up Desk|
December 1, 1996

Running With the Big Dogs

From Fred Gipson’s fictional Old Yeller to A&M mascot Reveille and Lyndon Johnson’s beleaguered beagles, dogs have always reigned as Texans’ pets of choice. The long line of distinguished dog lovers includes John Graves of Glen Rose, Texas’ writer emeritus, and acclaimed Beaumont photographer Keith Carter, who joined forces

By

The Stand Up Desk|
November 1, 1996

Cheers And Jeers

CHUCK NORRIS STANDS FOR JUSTICE, truth, and right in his portrayal of Walker in the series Walker, Texas Ranger. To many, he is an excellent example. Perhaps a hero. Mr. Norris is an acknowledged master in tae kwon do. However, he and Texas Monthly fail in firearms literacy and safety

By

The Stand Up Desk|
November 1, 1996

Grand Parent

Nature photography is just part of Laurence Parent’s nature. The 37-year-old Austin-area resident, who took the pictures that accompany this month’s article on Hueco Tanks State Historical Park (“Social Climbers”), has long been known for his landscape work, from wildflower close-ups to desert vistas. “My father was in the

By

The Stand Up Desk|
September 30, 1996

Paul In The Family

Anyone who knows executive editor Paul Burka would have a hard time imagining him as a cowboy, so perhaps it seems farfetched that he was the one to write this month’s story about the plight of a small working ranch in Uvalde (“Home on the Range”). “I’m a

By

Art|
August 31, 1996

Gilt Trip

Andrew Eccles has photographed plenty of 24-karat celebrities for Texas Monthly, but his session with Lou Diamond Phillips was a truly golden experience. “In an industry that’s marked by jaded people,” Eccles says, “Lou was a breath of fresh air. He’s down to earth, talkative, enthusiastic—an incredibly sweet guy.”In his

By

The Stand Up Desk|
July 31, 1996

Seeing Stars

In the summer of 1992, when Jason Cohen was a relatively unknown journalist and Matthew McConaughey was an extremely unknown actor, the two met on the Austin set of Dazed and Confused. “He looked so weird,” recalls 28-year-old Cohen, who was writing about the movie for Details. “He had

By

The Stand Up Desk|
June 30, 1996

Skip, a Beat

JUST AS HE WAS FINISHING up “Poisoning Daddy”, his tale of a Fort Worth teenager who killed her father, senior editor Skip Hollandsworth set out to interview the sibling models featured on this month’s Face page. As it happened, one of the sisters, Wende Parks, had been

By

The Stand Up Desk|
May 31, 1996

Swartz and All

We didn’t know it at the time, but there was something karmically appropriate about asking senior editor Mimi Swartz to write about riding around the state with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Victor Morales in his dented white pickup truck (see “Truckin’,”). At first, it seemed to make sense

By

Politics & Policy|
April 30, 1996

Taking Sides

YOU CAN GIVE ME A STANLEY MARSH 3 OVER A WHITTENBURG anytime [“Big Feud at Cadillac Ranch,” March 1996]. Reading and howling about this eccentric old coot’s escapades, I kept wondering, “How can I help this guy stave off those damn Whittenburgs?” I was waiting for a quote from George

By

Magazine Latest