The Texanist: How Do You Pronounce All Those Weird Texas Town Names?
A Dallas man is flummoxed by Quitaque. And Danevang, and Jiba, and Study Butte, and Zuehl . . .
A Temple native, David Courtney joined Texas Monthly in October 2005 and in July 2007 debuted his wildly popular advice column, the the Texanist, regularly the magazine’s most-read feature.
In 2017, the University of Texas Press published The Texanist: Fine Advice on Living in Texas, and in 2019, Fox Entertainment optioned the column with plans to develop a television show based on it. At the 37th Annual National City and Regional Magazine Awards, in 2022, the Texanist brought home the highly regarded Herb Lipson Award for Column Excellence. As the Texanist and as himself, Courtney has contributed his talents to such endeavors as the annual Bum Steer Awards, the quinquennial review of the fifty best barbecue joints in Texas, "The 50 Greatest Hamburgers in Texas,” “The 40 Best Small-Town Cafes,” and “Snap Judgment,” a compilation of the ten greatest plays in Texas college football, as well as “The Beachcomber,” for which he walked the entire 65-mile length of Padre Island National Seashore, and “Water, Water Everywhere,” for which he swam buck naked in Lake Travis, outside of Austin.
A Dallas man is flummoxed by Quitaque. And Danevang, and Jiba, and Study Butte, and Zuehl . . .
As the state started shutting down, one man took to the coast in search of a different kind of solitude. And seashells.
A Boerne woman wonders if other Americans are as smitten as we are with the outlines of their states.
A West Texas man seems to be tired of living on Mountain Standard Time.
How to handle the zit-sized pustule that those evil little @$*!%*#@%&!s leave behind.
Raise a Pearl beer to our ten greatest college football plays. Ever.
An Austin man ponders the unthinkable.
The recent, terrifying events in Washington have an Austin man wondering about mayhem closer to home.
A New York man wants to know everything there is to know about Texas toast.
A reader in California wants to know if her mother's colorful expression originated in the Lone Star State.
A few colorful sayings to deploy when those around you are all hat and no cattle.
The ’9 to 5‘ star was a struggling law student at the University of Texas when he met Zachary Scott and became “smitten with becoming an actor.”
Pecan pie, Texas sheet cake, or tres leches, anyone?
Q: When I was a child, my grandfather, a farmer in Ranger, instructed me on how to tell if a watermelon was ripe. He would hit the fruit with the side of his thumb and determine which ones had the deepest “thump.” Are there other techniques? My granddaughter can’t seem
Even if you’re not BOI and you have no idea what a feeder road is, the Texanist is here to help.
Here’s how to prepare for tornado season, which is still relatively low-risk.
An Austin woman married to a British man is looking for someone to defend this delicious and quintessentially Texas dish.
But it’s still too early to say for sure, and the experience should be spectacular regardless.
A Conroe man remembers the glory days of the Ballinger Cats and his hometown Rabbit Twisters.
Long wait times for driver’s licenses can be frustrating, but there are ways to work within the system (including—shh!—under-the-radar offices with no waits).
An investigation into Big D's lack of a big, dusty to-do.
When the sun is high in the Texas sky, Derek Spence be playing King George's songs at a county fair—or somewhere.
As told to David Courtney
The team from Del Rio went on to win the Texas high school golf championship in 1957—and soon will see its story told in movie theaters around the country.
Q: I went to two schools named after presumably notable Texans: James S. Deady Middle School and Charles H. Milby High School. Who were these people?Rick, via emailA: The Lone Star State brims with institutions of public education whose facades are emblazoned with names that are instantly familiar to anyone
Mail your card to this tiny West Texas post office, and its sole employee will hand-cancel it with a charming postmark (for free).
Q: A lifelong dream of mine was to go ranching and horseback riding in the U.S., and finally last year my best friend, Maxinne, and I visited Nashville, Memphis, and New Orleans and had the time of our lives, so in February we’re doing it again. This time, Texas: horses, country
NAACP head Derrick Johnson visited Austin to support preservation efforts at Lions Municipal, the first public links in Texas to desegregate.
A Brenham man wonders why, in contravention of common custom, those Stetsons never seem to get doffed.
Easy to love, if hard to wrap, these Lone Star State–shaped presents will please even the most discerning Texan.
Hunters in Texas kill a lot of white-tailed deer each year. What would happen if they didn’t kill any at all?
In lieu of fall foliage and chilly weather, at least we get to turn back the clocks.
A Texan exiled in Arkansas is baffled by the misnaming of this beloved, meaty treat on a stick.
Beans in chili, the Houston Oilers, and mutton busting: test your knowledge of all things Texan.
The State Fair kicks off today. We celebrated by checking in with the big man himself.
A New York man wants to know the best place to live in Texas, weather-wise, and an Austin man asks for some cold-treat recommendations.
From arid El Paso to the Piney Woods, Texas boasts outstanding links that don’t require an expensive membership.
The California parent of a UT freshman wonders about Bevo’s ultimate fate when the final whistle blows.
. . . When it comes to producing renewable energy, winning golf tournaments, banning books, and closing rural hospitals. Why is Texas so darn great . . . and so darn awful?
A Plano woman wonders why so many small towns have so many big guns.
Guests-only libraries and themed bars beckon lovers of the written word to these three Texas hotels.
It’s time to find out just how much you know about the Lone Star State.
A Weatherford man says we need to channel our penchant for lying into something productive—or at least entertaining.
An Austin man wants to know whether Austin’s Scholz Garten or San Antonio’s Menger Bar can claim the title of oldest continually operating bar in the state.
A New Mexico resident is puzzled by all the female Jimmies and Johnnies.
Author John Phillip Santos’s 2010 “Tejano elegy” explores family secrets that reveal “the deepest mysteries of being human.”
Are you ready to test your knowledge of all things Texan?
Plus, somebody slapped an H-E-B employee and nobody opened a satanic-themed hotel in Plano.
Sarah Wilson's ‘DIG’ combines photos, her grandfather’s Kodachrome teaching slides, and creatively staged paleontological artifacts.
A Port Arthur resident wants to know what’s wrong with “BBQ*GNG” and “EAT@TACO.”
Plus, a man stole tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo and creepy-looking snapper eels turned up near Port Bolivar.
The author of Goodbye to a River and two-time National Book Award finalist helped create the magazine’s Country Notes column.
The magazine’s back-page columnist explains the subtle shifts in his “Fine Advice and Keen Observations,” from 2007 through today.
A San Antonio man is puzzled by a historical marker he encountered while visiting the Pine Tree State.
Some tasty lab-grown barbecue and a Dallas Cowboys postseason appearance may be in our distant future.
We still love our Shiner, Pearl, and Lone Star, but our options are now bubbling over, thanks to hundreds of craft breweries across the state.
A Johnson City man is worried that life is starting to resemble Elmer Kelton’s ‘The Time It Never Rained’ once again.
A Plano man wonders how the likes of Bob Dylan, Sarah Palin, and John Wayne qualified for this prestigious designation.
A Lubbock woman isn’t sure the state’s wildly successful vineyards fit with our Wild West image.
Two Texas Monthly writers go head-to-head on the merits and inferiorities of tacos made with crispy shells vs. soft tortillas.
By David Courtney and Michael Hall