Every year in reporting and writing about our beloved state, we come to know ourselves as Texans a little better. Accordingly, every year we come to better understand what we’re just not willing to mess with anymore.
The Washington Post has been telling us what’s in (bathroom fridges) and what’s out (cottage cheese) around New Year’s since 1978. And in the past few years on social media, the turn to January has meant a flurry of personalized and screenshotted Notes App “in/out” lists assigning tired trends (eating while standing up) their doomed fate, while heralding the future (medium-length socks).
While we’re far from Texas’s ultimate tastemakers, we know a thing or two about the state’s cultural dips and turns. We know, for instance, that there’s a particular brand of fatigue reserved for a billionaire in a cowboy hat, and that nothing satiates the soul quite like a lunch-hour swim. Read what we’d like to see more and less of in 2024, below—and don’t let us catch you saying “howdy” ironically ever again.
In for 2024
- Saying “howdy” as a greeting unironically
- Lunch-break swimming hole dips
- Weird bugs
- Goats as landscapers
- Reading print magazines*
- Avocados with human names
- Repurposing private land as parkland
- Bolo ties
- The golden rule
- Arriving on horseback
- Yetis (sorry, Stanley)
- Men wearing jorts
- Old Texas country music
- Quality gas station food
- Parades
- Calling your representatives
- Taking your allergy medicine every morning like you would a vitamin
(*“In” every year since 1973)
Out for 2024
- Dinner reservations
- Manicured lawns
- Brand new boots
- Banning books
- Complaining about newcomers
- Cosplaying cowboys
- BBQ at weddings
- Party Airbnbs
- Saying “Texas is back”
- Waco traffic
- Triple-digit
daysmonths - Big dumb hats
- Celebrity alcohol brands (sorry, McConaughey)
- Ted Cruz at sporting events
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