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Objects Simone Biles Could Have Cleared in Her Floor RoutineThis week, in one of the most anticipated moments of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Simone Biles proved yet again why she’s not just the greatest gymnast of all time but is, like, maybe the greatest human being who’s ever done anything a human being can do. That statement has the ring of hyperbole, but let’s consider: Biles, the 27-year-old gymnastics champion from Spring, just outside of Houston, hasn’t been considered an underdog in the gym since she was a young teenager. She has reached heights that were previously considered impossible in her sport. She took two years off from competition after her decision to withdraw from part of the competition at the Tokyo Olympics and then went on to become the oldest female gymnast to…

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Country singer Crystal Gayle is twirling around on her cowboy boot–clad feet when the two young sisters spot her. She’s a flurry of sparkles and kicked-up dust at the Houston Rodeo, and the starry-eyed sisters can’t look away. “That’s when it imprinted on us,” said Sarah Caruth, who owns Fraulein Boot Company with her sister, Margaret Walker. “We thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what is this Western wonderment?’ ”Legacy cowboy boot companies such as Tony Lama and Justin Boots have always catered to both men and women, but women-owned boot companies such as Fraulein are prioritizing unapologetically feminine styles. With daring bright colors and girly patterns, a rising class of female boot designers is shaping soles for the cowgirls of the future. The elder stateswoman of the group…

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Senza Maeso BarTrundling down Farm-to-Market Road 32 between San Marcos and Wimberley, a sign shaped like an inverted triangle may grab your attention. In the center, a stylized blue eye surrounds an orb ringed by a disco ball–like band. The image falls somewhere between space age and Masonic. The name on top, “Senza Maeso,” also offers little clue as to what you’ll find inside. Look more closely, and you’ll see the information you are seeking: a single word—“bar”—nestled deep in the center of the design.As you approach the building with an emerald exterior, you’ll start to get the full sense of Ryan and Jay Gitman’s “space deco” fantasy—a sumptuous Bondian aesthetic that feels like it’s been beamed in from another time, or another planet. Behind the triangular…

The post A Cosmic Roadhouse in Wimberley Spotlights a New Texas-Made Liqueur appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Jennifer Lozano Paris OlympicsGrowing up on the South Side of Laredo, the Lozano kids were taught that the path to a better life was through education. So when Jessica Lozano saw her younger sister Jennifer singularly focused on the sport of boxing, insisting over and over that she was going to fight in the Olympics one day, Jessica tried to be supportive—but also acted as a voice of reason.“We told her, ‘That’s great. As your family, we believe in you—but maybe take a few college courses on the side,’ ” Jessica recalled. “We were like, ‘Jenny, we just want you to have a plan B.’ And I remember vividly when she said, ‘You know I love you. But there’s no plan B for me.’ ”Last October in Santiago, Chile, Jennifer…

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Ben SpencerIt had been two years since Barbara Bradley Hagerty, the award-winning religion journalist and writer, retired from her nineteen-year tenure with NPR. Working as a freelancer now, she was looking for her next project and called up her old friend Jim McCloskey in New Jersey. She’d used McCloskey as a source several times for stories on wrongful convictions. Through his work with Centurion Ministries, McCloskey was an expert on the subject; over the previous 35 years he had helped free 63 wrongly convicted men and women from prison. What was the one case, Hagerty asked McCloskey, that still haunted him after all these years?“Oh, that’s easy,” he replied. “Ben Spencer’s case. There’s probably not a day that goes by that I don’t think of Ben.”In…

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Babson-Diagnostics-Austin-Eric-Olson-Blood-Tests-finger-prickFramed in his office, Eric Olson displays what he calls a “unique piece of history.” It’s a letter informing him of a $44 million settlement in a class action lawsuit involving Theranos, the infamous company based in Palo Alto, California, that claimed it could run hundreds of diagnostic medical tests with just a few drops of a patient’s blood. Below the letter is a check for $46.65—Olson’s cut as a former customer.The lawsuit, filed in 2016, took long enough to conclude that the check was sent this spring to the New York home Olson sold when he moved to Austin seven years ago. The timing of the settlement’s arrival felt serendipitous because he had since built a company that promises to do something Theranos never…

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Partenope RistoranteAs Texans, we can claim a lot of our foods as the best in the country. After all, you wouldn’t rush off to Idaho to indulge in tacos, and you wouldn’t buy a plane ticket to Florida to try some brisket. Pizza—another of America’s favorite foods—has never had strong associations with the Lone Star State, but a couple of recent “best of” lists are proving that is changing.  In June, 50 Top Pizza, an Italian organization committed to promoting the excellence of artisan pizza around the world, listed Partenope Ristorante, in Dallas and Richardson, in the number twelve slot on its annual U.S. pizza ranking. Owner Dino Santonicola was invited to both the national award ceremony, held in New York City on June 25, and the international…

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The Problem with Erik Bonus episode 1This is a bonus episode available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below.“I love helping out people, man. Because everybody gets in a shitty situation, and I want to be there to help them whenever they need it.”—Bryon BrockwayFor our first bonus episode for Texas Monthly audio subscribers, we’re sharing an extended cut of the undercover audio Red recorded for the FBI, as he tried to get Adam Carey and Bryon Brockway to talk about the murders of Bill Lanway and Holly Williams. Red, you’ll recall, is the alias we used in the show for one of the security operatives hired by Erik Maund, who left Nashville before…

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The Problem with Erik Bonus episode 1This is a bonus episode available to TM Audio subscribers only. Connect access to your TM Audio feed to the podcast player of your choice here. To troubleshoot any issues, access the FAQ here. Read the transcript below.“I love helping out people, man. Because everybody gets in a shitty situation, and I want to be there to help them whenever they need it.”—Bryon BrockwayFor our first bonus episode for Texas Monthly audio subscribers, we’re sharing an extended cut of the undercover audio Red recorded for the FBI, as he tried to get Adam Carey and Bryon Brockway to talk about the murders of Bill Lanway and Holly Williams. Red, you’ll recall, is the alias we used in the show for one of the security operatives hired by Erik Maund, who left Nashville before…

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The Renaming of Robert E. Lee Elementary Started a Civil War in My NeighborhoodIt’s been almost a decade since the Austin elementary school my kids attended, the school formerly known as Robert E. Lee Elementary, was the site of an early skirmish in the latest round of American culture wars. From 2015 to 2016, I was in the center of it all, along with my wife and a small group of similarly liberal and left-wing parents who organized to change the school’s name to something less awful.I’ve been thinking about that experience lately, in part because we’re at a potential inflection point in the broader arc of the culture wars. The more extreme manifestations of the “woke” movement have passed their peak, while the right-wing backlash is at full force, leaving us with something like the inverse of…

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