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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

pickup truck illustrationQ: Two pickup trucks approach a short, one-lane low-water crossing from opposite directions. They reach the ends of the bridge at the same time, and the drivers make eye contact. What should happen now?John Stanford, CastrovilleA: Texas is blessed with an abundance of rivers, creeks, streams, canals, bayous, bogs, and brooks. We are also very rich in roads, with more paved thoroughfares than any other state in the union. When all these waterways and roadways intersect, they sometimes do so at narrow, low-water byways. So it’s a good question you’ve posed here, Mr. Stanford. The Texanist also appreciates the dramatic way in which you have laid out this tableau; he’s a little surprised that your return address is Castroville, not Tinseltown. In fact, your query is rendered in…

The post The Texanist: Who Has Right-of-Way on a Narrow Bridge? appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Holiball“Melted snowmen, slayed Santas, roadkill Rudolphs”—that was the bleak picture of existing inflatable lawn decor that the Houston-based founders of Holiball painted during their pitch on the venture capital reality show Shark Tank back in 2020. Whereas most inflatable decor needed constant air and electricity to avoid slumping into a sad state, their reusable products—glossy, oversized ornaments—only had to be inflated once a season and, they argued, looked twice as good. The pitch worked. Real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran and fellow Texan Mark Cuban joined forces to invest $150,000 for a 25 percent stake.Four years later, Holiball has become a multimillion-dollar company, with its decor featured in fountains at the White House and Prada window displays. Celebrities Kacey Musgraves and Tori Spelling have added the…

The post How Three Houstonians Turned Holiday Inflatables Into a Multimillion-Dollar Business appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

yellowstone season 5 stillCostume designer Johnetta Boone is all about accuracy. Her work on the hit TV show Yellowstone demonstrates a deep familiarity with the ins and outs of ranch life and an extensive knowledge of Western fashion. Having done horseback riding in Virginia and Maryland as a teen, the designer came onto the project already fluent in the visual language of the show—an advantage she says allowed her “a bit of freedom” in crafting the look of the series that creator Taylor Sheridan once called “The Godfather in Montana.” Her styling process involved working closely with local artisans, Indigenous tribes, and real-life cowboys to create a verisimilitude that can only be achieved through building relationships with the real communities that populate this fictional story. Boone credits the…

The post ‘Yellowstone’ Is Over. The Wardrobe Johnetta Boone Created Will Outlive It. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Viva-Tejano-Episode-7-Linda-EscobarTM Audio subscribers have access to this episode one week early. Visit our FAQ page to learn how to link your subscription to your podcast app. Linda Escobar, this week’s guest on Viva Tejano, is an absolute pillar in the world of tejano music. She is one of the defining female voices in conjunto and helped spread the music globally, alongside her late partner, Kenji Katsube. Her hometown of Alice is known as the birthplace of tejano music, and she grew up as a child star in the conjunto world, touring on a “caravan of stars” alongside her father, famed singer and guitarist Eligio Escobar. The 1965 hit that launched Linda’s career, “Frijolitos Pintos,” was a song the artist and her dad wrote together.(Read a transcript of…

The post TM Audio Exclusive: How Linda Escobar Became the Queen of Conjunto appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

trump tariffs photo illustrationTexas has a long and complicated history with tariffs. Over its decade of existence, ending in 1846, the Republic of Texas generated more than half its income—almost $1.3 million—from import taxes. Efforts by the young nation’s lawmakers to enact new tariffs were often thwarted by presidential vetoes from the likes of Sam Houston and Anson Jones.Most of today’s state officials have so far stayed silent about the new border taxes that their fellow Republican, President-elect Donald Trump, has vowed to impose on foreign nations, including Texas’s biggest trading partner, Mexico. Most economists warn that the proposed tariffs, combined with another of his major campaign promises—the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants—could hit Texas harder than most other states. These policies may kneecap two key legs of…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

For more Bum Steers coverage, read about commercial airlines, Elon Musk, Ken Paxton, John Whitmire, and our Bum Steer of the Year, Jerry Jones. For some of this year’s more uplifting moments, check out the Best Things in Texas. There were many days in 2024 (okay, two . . . maybe three) when our biggest problems were nothing more than a drunkard unicycling naked down Main Street or a food truck accidentally baking a lizard into a tamale. But to a more shocking degree than usual, it was our well-credentialed institutions, not our inebriated brethren, that let us down. A hospital, an energy company, an airline, a state commission, a rural county constable’s office, and, of course, the Dallas Cowboys—if it has a human resources…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

For more Best Things in Texas coverage, read about the Texas Olympians who dominated at the Paris Games, the greatest show over Earth, the issue that brought Republicans and Democrats together, the horny toad’s likely comeback, and the Man of the Year, Brisket Powell. For less dignified behavior, read the 2025 Bum Steer Awards. Some famous Texans (Beyoncé! Megan Thee Stallion! Simone Biles!) outdid themselves in 2024, but that’s not the whole story. Countless kiddos, critters, and common folk did our state proud, whether they were winning spelling bees, fending off rattlesnakes, or raising money for veterans. Contemplating their kindness, tenacity, and bravery made us smile—which these days is no small feat. If anyone asks what makes the Lone Star State special, tell them it’s…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

For more Bum Steers coverage, read about commercial airlines, Elon Musk, Ken Paxton, and John Whitmire. For some of this year’s more uplifting moments, check out the Best Things in Texas. In the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel Interview With the Vampire, the title character, Louis de Pointe du Lac, describes with a sad triumphalism the experience of witnessing one final sunrise before he joins the legions of the undead. “I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time as if it were the first,” he said. “And then I said farewell to sunlight and set out to become what I became.”   More recently, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also shared some thoughts about the sun. After wide receiver CeeDee Lamb complained…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

For more Bum Steers coverage, read about commercial airlines, Ken Paxton, John Whitmire, and our Bum Steer of the Year, Jerry Jones. For some of this year’s more uplifting moments, check out the Best Things in Texas. To my family and friend,This year, seeing utility in a faith that prioritizes procreation, I stepped out as a “cultural Christian.” As such, I have prepared a Christmas newsletter to more directly disseminate my warm tidings, since my analytics suggest that 99 percent of my loved ones have attempted to mute me on X.This year I enjoyed growth in several sectors: personal, professional, and populational. For instance, I told Don Lemon last spring, on a talk show supported by X, that I would never donate to a presidential…

The post The Musk Family 2024 Holiday Newsletter* appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

For more Bum Steers coverage, read about commercial airlines, Elon Musk, John Whitmire, and our Bum Steer of the Year, Jerry Jones. For some of this year’s more uplifting moments, check out the Best Things in Texas. Bum Steer runner-up Ken Paxton has had a hell of a year or two. In a September 2023 impeachment trial, our ethics-adjacent attorney general was acquitted by the Texas Senate on sixteen counts of corruption and bribery related to his cozy relationship with Nate Paul, a disgraced Austin real estate mogul. Buoyed by that victory, Paxton endorsed dozens of challengers to the House Republicans who had earlier voted to impeach him. Many of those insurgents won their races in 2024—and have promised revenge against Paxton’s remaining enemies during…

The post Ken Paxton Is—Zzzzzz—Our Bum Steer of the Year Runner-Up appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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