Behind the Lines
The perfect city revisited.
Former Texas Monthly editor in chief Gregory Curtis was born in Corpus Christi and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He received a BA in English from Rice University and a master’s in English from San Francisco State College. While in San Francisco, he ran a small printing and publishing company. He came to Texas Monthly in 1972 as part of the original staff. In 1981 he became editor in chief, a position he held until 2000. In addition to Texas Monthly, he has written for the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Fortune, and Time. Curtis is the author of three books—Disarmed: The Story of the Venus de Milo, The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World’s First Artists, and Paris Without Her: A Memoir. He lives in Austin. Once an adequate equestrian, he is now an aspiring magician.
The perfect city revisited.
White woman, black woman.
Should we have an income tax?
Getting ahead.
The governor’s unbalanced budget.
Dallas on the couch.
An inappropriate practicality.
The Real Estate Stomach
The law that changed nothing.
The unknown enemy.
The unbudgeted carpet.
Muddling along in Dallas.
A monument to everything money can buy.
Winners of Dallas, at ease!
Turn right for heaven.
Labor’s nuke.
The testing of a test.
The road into town
The dupe’s triumph.
A tilt of the axis.
Clap, clap, clap, clap.
The proud and promising Froggies.
Houston catches up with itself.
Nirvana in unofficial Dallas
Plugging in and Plugging Along
The new work ethic.
I take over Exxon.
Texas in silicon.
Monkeying with the schools.
The Alamo? I can’t remember what that was.
“Light this candle.”
Dropping the aristocratic burden.
Dueling cornucopias.
Playing by the rules.
The burning cactus.
The revelation of the geese.
The tardy teachers.
On the team, off the team.
A day in the country.
Run for the money.
The graybeard at the fat stock show.