November 2011 Issue
Features
Who Killed Mary Eula Sears?
In 1982 a man named Wayne East was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of one of Abilene’s most prominent citizens. To this day, he maintains his innocence. And one member of the victim’s family believes him.
Feature
Give Me Shelter
Dallas’s ritzy Park Cities is the sort of place where Jerry Jones Jr. can buy a four-story castle with twelve bathrooms and a nine-car underground garage for a reported $8.7 million and some people regard it as a steal. Welcome to the fabulous world of Erin Mathews, the very discreet
Columns
Hunting
Eat, Prey, Love
For decades, a treasured plot of Hill Country land meant one thing to the men in my family: a chance to kill lots of deer. Today, it means something different.
Letter from San Antonio
Dogs of War
Why did the world’s most high-tech military bring along a dog when it raided Osama bin Laden’s compound? A visit to Lackland Air Force Base’s canine training school, in San Antonio, provides a few answers.
Left Behind
Rick Perry’s stumbles on the national stage have inadvertently highlighted the weakness of his opposition back home—Texas Democrats.
The Texanist: If I Hit a Deer With My Car, is It Legal to Harvest and Eat It?
Our advice columnist on roadkill cuisine, zip-up “cowboy boots,” people we may or may not hate, a proud “fourth- or sixth-generation” Texan, and the best place to propose.
Reporter
Old Town Spring
Dozens of charming, century-old homes just north of Houston have been transformed into a historic shopping district, complete with wooden clogs and fried Oreos.
Black Like Him
Fifty years after it first electrified the nation, Dallas native John Howard Griffin’s classic book still has something to tell us.
This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark
Tribute albums have not traditionally fared well in the marketplace, and for good reason. Asking artists—either passionate fans or curious dabblers—to record someone else’s songs is a bit of a gamble, and the people who compile these collections often feel morally (and, let’s face it, financially) bound to use
How to Bake a Pecan Pie
Bud "the Pieman" Royer of Royers Round Top Cafe shares his pecan pie recipe.
Anthony Fiorillo, Paleontologist
Fiorillo, whose fossil digs take him everywhere from West Texas to Australia, grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. He moved to Texas in 1995 to be a curator of paleontology at the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, and he is currently at work on a new dinosaur hall
The Horse's Mouth
Being a Hollywood Extra
Jesse Heiman on signing up at Central Casting, working with Leonardo DiCaprio, and still not paying his own phone bill.
Web
Dagoberto Gilb Returns to Writing After His Stroke
Before the End, After the Beginning, the author's first collection since his stroke, draws on his personal crisis for inspiration.
Web Exclusive
A Q&A With Michael Hall
The senior editor on writing about Mary Eula Sears, talking to relatives of the deceased, and dealing with sensitive issues.
Web Exclusive
Special Condition Z Blocks Wayne East’s Release
Abilene law enforcement officials don’t want the convicted murderer back in their part of the state.
Web Exclusive
An Update to the Mary Eula Sears Case
The convicted killer of a prominent Abilene resident is set to be released.
Recipe
Green Asparagus Risotto With Jumbo Lump Crab
From Executive Chef Maurizio Ferrarese of Quattro at the Four Seasons Hotel, in Houston.
The Drop Everything List
The Big Sing, the Texas Conference for Women, Billy Joe Shaver, and Wurstfest in New Braunfels . . .
Rocky Ascent
Dusty Hill's older brother, Rocky Hill, has been called the "best guitarist you've never heard of," but the recent release of Texas Guitar Legend aims to change that.
The Drop Everything List
Jimmie Vaughan returns to Oak Cliff, UFOs in Laredo, the Cinema Arts Festival, and Stephen King on the JFK Assassination . . .
Diffee Does the Texas Monthly BBQ Fest
What one man overheard at this year’s celebration of the best pitmasters in the state, righteous smoked meats, and passionate ’cue lovers.
Strike Two
With two chances to win the World Series with a single strike, the championship slipped away from the Rangers for the second year in a row.
Web Exclusive
Narrating the Night Sky
San Antonio's Sandy Wood has been the voice of StarDate for twenty years.
The Drop Everything List
Texas Country Reporter Festival, Guy Clark, Dude of the Dead Music Festival, and Girl in a Coma . . .
Cowboys 52, Texans 10
After ten seasons as a major NFL franchise, the Houston Texans are picking up some fans, but the blood of Texas still pumps Cowboy blue.
Web Exclusive
A Q&A With Rick Bass
The author on hunting deer, knowing the land, and writing about his family.
Felix 55
JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS. Making assumptions. Forming snap judgments. Call it what you will, we all do it, me included. So when I found myself at the address for Felix 55, staring at what looked like an upscale bar with a restaurant attached, my first reaction was, Michael Kramer is cooking
Miscellany
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Later this month, one of the great long-standing traditions in college athletics—the annual Thanksgiving game between the University of Texas and Texas A&M—will come to an end. The rivalry between these two schools has lasted so long, and fostered such ferocious passion on both sides, that most people probably
Roar of the Crowd
Roar of the Crowd
Game OnI’m pretty disappointed that you overlooked Texas State University in your “20 Reasons to Love College Football” [September 2011]. It’s a huge school, with nearly 35,000 students. It is moving up to the WAC in 2012, upgrading stadium seats to 30,000, and has snatched up former TCU, Alabama,
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