Texas Monthly

In August, the Texas Book Club Encounters a Prolific Con Man

Texas Monthly — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 20:39:03 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. There’s just something about the dog days of summer that calls for settling in and enjoying a good . . . con artist story. The Texas Book Club’s next read fits the bill. It hasn’t been on shelves long, but Pamela Colloff’s Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast is already a New York Times bestseller. Published on July 14, Catch the Devil tells the story of Paul Skalnik, who at various points passed as an oilman, a terminal cancer patient, an undercover agent, a fighter pilot, and a lawyer. He played the parts all while embezzling money, forging…

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Ken Paxton Is Acting Like He Thinks He Could Lose

Robert Downen — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 17:01:41 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Ken Paxton was feeling good. The day after securing Donald Trump’s endorsement in his primary race against John Cornyn, the soon-to-be-crowned U.S. Senate nominee was onstage at a Katy barbecue joint, riffing like a crowd-work comedian and surveying staffers on potential nicknames for the Democratic nominee, James Talarico. “Six-Gender Jimmy,” one campaign worker suggested. “Low-T Talarico,” chimed another. Paxton liked them all, but had his own: “Tofu Talarico,” he said with a grin. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause. On a television nearby, Fox News played a clip of President Donald Trump speaking to reporters. “TRUMP: TEXANS WON’T ELECT A VEGAN,” read the chyron.This, it…

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Texas Daily: How Texas Cities Plan to Enforce the State’s Newest THC Ban

Taylor Prewitt — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:01:28 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Editors’ note: A version of this story originally appeared in the Texas Daily newsletter. Sign up to receive a collection of stories and news in your inbox each morning here. Texas is taking another shot at banning a form of THC. Beginning today, delta-8 THC will be reclassified in Texas as a Schedule I controlled substance, alongside drugs like heroin, LSD, and ecstasy. The categorization effectively bans the substance in this state and makes possession punishable as a felony. As for how different Texas cities plan on enforcing the latest ban, police in Austin have already stated that they will treat possession of delta-8 or similarly manufactured cannabinoids as…

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Our Review of Round Top’s New Luxury Retreat

Emily McCullar — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Book It recommends a hotel, cabin, or glamping site that’s worth its own trip. Hideaway Round Top, tucked off a dirt road two and a half miles south of downtown, is a luxury retreat opened in January by Austin-based interior designer Emily Seiders and her husband, Rick.The Look: The main three-bedroom farmhouse and two double-queen cottages all have an aesthetic rooted in Fayette County. Filled with antiques sourced from local vendors, photographs of old cowboys, and framed vintage textiles hanging on the walls, all three structures feature an earthy color palette that blends in subtly with the area’s verdant farmland.The Extras: The farmhouse has a full kitchen…

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‘Boyhood’ Is Back in Theaters. It’s Still a Masterpiece.

Dan Solomon — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. There’s never been a film quite like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. That’s not hyperbole, or even due praise, but rather a fact—one that’s only been further backed up in the dozen years since the film’s release. And for the first time since 2014, audiences can assess the evidence on big screens around the country as Boyhood briefly returns to theaters to celebrate its twelfth anniversary. Why twelve? Because Boyhood was shot over twelve years, in Texas, from 2002 to 2013; watching it, the cast ages before the audience’s eyes. Cinephiles have long grasped for a similar work to compare it to. There’s the British documentary series 7 Up!,…

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The Most Famous Cake in Texas Has Changed

David Courtney — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Earlier this year, I placed a call to the Driskill Hotel, in Austin. My daughter’s birthday was approaching, and I was in the market for a cake. The front desk woman on the other end of the telephone told me it would be possible for me to order a cake, but I’d need to speak to someone at the hotel’s 1886 Café & Bakery once it opened the next day. Casually, she mentioned the cake’s recipe had recently changed. “What?!?! That cake is the Platonic chocolate-cake ideal of all chocolate cakes,” I declared, fumbling my words. “It’s the best chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten!” (I don’t…

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He Sees Politics as a Spiritual Battle Against Demonic Forces. Now He’s Advising the Governor.

Robert Downen — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. This month, Governor Greg Abbott raised concerns among voting-rights groups by appointing Nate Schatzline, a two-term Texas House member, to a senior advisory role on “election integrity” policy. Schatzline is a longtime proponent of debunked “Stop the Steal”–style claims: Last year he argued that fraud was central to the theft of the 2020 presidential election and proposed bills that would have further restricted voting access in Texas.But Schatzline is far more than a run-of-the-mill election-fraud conspiracy theorist. During his stint in the Texas House, he was perhaps the most zealous member of a cohort of far-right lawmakers who have used their positions to advance Christian nationalism—the…

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The Daily Crossword: July 31, 2026

Texas Monthly — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000

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Word Wrangler: July 31, 2026

Texas Monthly — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 09:59:00 +0000

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The Mountains South of Big Bend Are Vaster, Wilder, and Even More Spectacular

Forrest Wilder — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. The third or fourth time the van lurches and then sputters to a halt, I begin to wonder whether we’ll make it up the mountain by dark. Around an hour and a half earlier, we had left Boquillas del Carmen, the Mexican village that thousands of Big Bend tourists reach every year by rowboat for enchiladas and cervezas. We’ve gone only ten miles or so in the sweltering Ford, and our destination—the mountain range towering to the east—is another fifty miles on steep roads.Like countless visitors to Big Bend National Park, I had gazed in awe at the Sierra del Carmen, the imposing massif that rises…

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Sharia Law Is Not Coming to Texas, No Matter What Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo, Says

Dan Solomon — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. In four seasons on Saturday Night Live, Rob Schneider created one memorable character. He was the “makin’ copies” guy, whose gimmick was that he sat by the photocopier in an office and tried to befriend his coworkers by giving them nicknames like “the Steve-meister.” It was deeply tedious and annoying, but that was the point. Even in an era when even a moderately popular SNL sketch could lead to a movie deal (remember It’s Pat, the movie? probably not), no one made a Makin’ Copies movie; Schneider was in Surf Ninjas instead. Schneider also played Sylvester Stallone’s sidekick in 1995’s Judge Dredd and the title character in…

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The Daily Crossword: July 30, 2026

Texas Monthly — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000

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Word Wrangler: July 30, 2026

Texas Monthly — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 09:59:00 +0000

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The Handheld Camera That Built a Legendary Austin Photographer’s Career

Michael Agresta — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. This Old Thing highlights the stories behind notable Texans’ prized possessions. Much as a photographer captures his subject, this 1960 Hasselblad 500C captures the career of Dan Winters. The Austin-based photojournalist bought it preowned in early-nineties New York City and with it produced his reputation-making early work. That included some of Texas Monthly’s most iconic images: inmates in Huntsville, gang members in San Antonio, white supremacists in Vidor. Winters worked on those projects without assistants or artificial lighting, using only his Hasselblad. Later, as he became one of the most sought-after celebrity photographers on the planet, Winters began relying on larger-format studio cameras. But he continued to…

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Did Your Favorite Joint Make It Onto the American BBQ Map?

Daniel Vaughn — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. The most important map hanging on my wall at home isn’t about geography or roads. It’s about barbecue, naturally. I purchased an American Barbecue Map from Atlanta-based graphic designer and illustrator Joseph Veazey last year, and it’s since been a mainstay in our spare bedroom (where my barbecue art collection lives). The 24-by-36-inch map features hand-painted illustrations—signs, facades, pitmaster portraits, and, of course, food—from 184 barbecue joints selected by Veazey. “I wanted [them] to be the institutions of American barbecue,” Veazey said. “I didn’t want it to be about personal taste and my favorites.” Years before putting paint to paper, he scoured books on barbecue history, as…

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Texas Is (Probably) Getting a New NHL Team

Jason Cohen — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Houston, we have a hockey team. Or do we? When the hotel, restaurant, and casino mogul Tilman Fertitta bought the Houston Rockets in 2017, the media almost immediately wondered if he might bring the National Hockey League to the city next. Fertitta had reportedly met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman about doing so, and around that time, the Vegas Golden Knights had begun playing as the NHL’s newest expansion team, with the Seattle Kraken joining them a few years later. Giving Texas a second pro hockey club seemed overdue; Houston is the fourth-largest city in America, and the Dallas Stars have always lacked an instate, or even nearby,…

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Greg Abbott’s CAIR Terrorist Designation Looks Awfully Similar to an Anti-Muslim Think Tank’s Work

Nicholas Gutteridge — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. In late November 2025, Governor Greg Abbott celebrated kicking off his fourth campaign for the state’s highest office by calling in to the daily run of The Mark Davis Show, a North Texas radio broadcast popular with conservatives. The discussion quickly moved to what Abbott and host Mark Davis perceived to be radical Islam infiltrating Texas communities. “No governor in America has done as much as I have to address this problem,” Abbott told Davis. “Your religion cannot become a threat to our freedom.” Then, live on the air, Abbott announced what would become the headline of the day: He had just issued a proclamation designating…

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The Daily Crossword: July 29, 2026

Texas Monthly — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000

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Word Wrangler: July 29, 2026

Texas Monthly — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:59:00 +0000

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A Church From China Finds a Home 8,000 Miles Away, in Midland

Lauren Larson — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Shenzhen, China, where the members of the Mayflower Church are from, is a crowded city of more than 18 million. It is humid and subtropical, with trees that seem to climb up buildings and a large urban nature reserve where visitors can walk through a lush canopy on a miles-long winding red bridge. Midland, the oil town where the congregation has settled, has a population just shy of 200,000. There is almost no moisture in the air, and the ground strains to produce tufts of anemic grass. The arid landscape can feel hostile: Gangs of prairie dogs peer suspiciously at passing cars.On a Saturday morning in…

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Mexican Pastries Delivered to Your Door? Sweet!

José R. Ralat — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Every Wednesday at five in the evening, I plop down on my living room couch, a ten-dollar bill neatly folded in my shirt pocket. Then I wait for the song that heralds the arrival of my local panadero, Geovani Marquez Escobar. He roams Oak Cliff, my Dallas neighborhood, driving a white Scion xB. The tune, “El panadero con el pan,” pops and sizzles through the roof-mounted speaker, as if it’s being spun on an old turntable with a worn needle. As the first bars reach my house, I bolt through the front door, leap off my porch, and sprint across my yard to my driveway. Once…

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The Daily Crossword: July 28, 2026

Texas Monthly — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000

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Word Wrangler: July 28, 2026

Texas Monthly — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 09:59:00 +0000

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Inside the Billion-Dollar Industry That’s Keeping Your Beer Cold—and Saving Lives

Lauren Larson — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. For someone whose office has a view of a carnival, Lonny Warner is decidedly unwhimsical. The CEO of Reddy Ice, the largest producer of packaged ice in North America, Warner is tall and broad in slacks and a blue polo emblazoned with a white company logo. He wears a silver-chain necklace and bracelet and has close-cropped hair and condensed facial features. The large windows of his office in Reddy’s Dallas headquarters overlook Interstate 635. Beyond the freeway, on the site of the former Valley View Mall, is the carnival, looking eerie and apocalyptic in slumber. One Friday morning in April, Warner stands at the windows, studying…

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The Texanist: Is a Beach Outing Really Supposed to Be a Leisurely Affair?

David Courtney — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Digital subscribers can listen to this article. Subscribe today for unlimited access to Texas Monthly. Already a subscriber? Log in. Q: When I was a child, we’d drive for hours in my dad’s 4×4 to get to a spot on Padre Island where there wouldn’t be another soul for miles. Even now I associate beach trips with roughing it more than with relaxation. But apparently most people regard going to the beach as a leisurely affair. Is roughing it on the beach a distinctively Texas thing to do? Laura Lysaght, Round RockA: Though the Texanist is a born-and-bred native of our landlocked central territories, he was fortunate to have spent many of his childhood summer days frolicking on the warm sands of Padre Island, a place…

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