Lyndon Johnson

Grace Kelly, Super Guppies & Men Who Shouldn't Wear Cowboy Hats: Great Old Photos Of NASA's 50 Years In Houston

Arcadia Publishing is a company specializing in affordable picture-filled books on local history across the country. They've done books on such Houston institutions as the downtown Foley's, and now they've tackled the institution-alist Houston institution of all, NASA. See Also: - "Tatooine" Disco ... More >>

Photo-Mashing Old & Modern Houston, Volume 6: Astrodome Edition

For our sixth installment of vintage photos mashed with their present-day locations we entered the doomed Reliant Astrodome with photos from a 1968 Astrodome tour guide. It highlighted numerous events the dome accommodated for. It opened in 1965 as the Harris County Domed Stadium. From being the hom ... More >>

Last Night's Veep Debate: Raaawrrr Biden Angry! Biden Smash!

Put that grin away, Joe Biden. Thing's loaded. Last night at the vice presidential debate, Biden, ebullient and smirking, did everything Democrats wanted him to do. He was a jerk. He was aggressive. And he wouldn't let Paul Ryan get away with anything. Also, he said the peculiar word "marlarky" a l ... More >>

Let's Get Ahead Of Ourselves: Romney Wins, Dies, And Paul Ryan Takes Over? Introducing Paul Ryan's America

For a moment, let's talk fantasy. Let's say Mitt Romney somehow overcomes all of his apparent weakness -- Bain Capital rapaciousness, tax-record speculation, rich-guy aloofness -- and somehow ekes past President Obama in November in one of the narrowest victories in recent American politics. Democra ... More >>

6 Songs for LBJ Day... One's About His Dick

Today is officially Lyndon Baines Johnson Day here in the state of Texas. The late 36th president's birthday was hallowed in his home state after he died in 1973 of a massive heart attack at the age of 64. He would have been 104 today. Johnson ascended to the presidency from the vice-presidency aft ... More >>

Flaming Young

Ten food-related words you need to stop misspelling

The Texas Chefs Hall of Fame: 1981 and Now

Assistant music editor Craig Hlavaty recently purchased a 1981 edition of The Genuine Texas Handbook, a guide to all things Texan. It's an often-tongue-in-cheek look at the people, places, outfits, songs, foods and more that made someone Texan 31 years ago. Incidentally, the book and I are the same ... More >>

10 Best Modern Political Speeches

We'll be hearing a lot of great speeches this election season, but lets take a second to remember the true giants of political rhetoric. 10. Martin Luther King: I've Been to the Mountaintop King delivered this speech in Memphis, Tennessee the day before he was assassinated. After talking for a whi ... More >>

Crossing the Line: Welcome Back, Jim Crow

New laws in dozens of states could take out Barack Obama this fall.

JFK At 95: What If He Lived?

Had he not been felled by assassins bullets back in 1963, President John F. Kennedy would have turned 95 years old this week. That's if old age and some tragic and wacky Kennedy curse accident wouldn't have done him in first. Would he and Jackie have spent their entire lives together, or would the ... More >>

Michael Martin Murphey: "I Was Always Proud of Texas"

Michael Martin Murphey will not get off the phone. The Texas singer-songwriter, arguably America's foremost ambassador and scholar of traditional cowboy ballads and trail songs, is the kind of person who has answered two or three other questions by the time his interviewer is ready to ask another on ... More >>

Friends Like These

Woman sexes hospitalized pal's teen.

LBJ & the Houston Chronicle: Paper's Support Signed, Sealed & Delivered

The latest volume of Robert Caro's epic Lyndon Johnson biography is out -- The Passage to Power covers 1958 through 1964 -- and Amazon has happily delivered our copy. A quick check of the index shows there's not much Houston-related content except for one episode describing how LBJ got the Houston ... More >>

Houston Scores Big-Time In Latest Edition Of Encyclopedia Of Country Music: Part 4

Our fourth installment of Houston-area country-music pioneers honored with inclusion in the second edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Music details the last of an amazing group of local musicians from the '30s, '40s, and '50s who left their brand on the people's music. While the Appalachian and ... More >>

For President's Day: The Best Movie Portrayals of 15 Presidents

Portraying presidents on screen is always tricky. Crass imitation makes the thing look like a comedy skit, but completely ignoring the mannerisms and voice that people know doesn't work either. There have been some laughingly inept acting jobs when it comes to the 44 people who have been the countr ... More >>

Great News, Texas: Robert Caro's Newest LBJ Volume Comes Out In May

A new perspective on this odd couple​It's been -- as always -- a long wait between volumes of Robert Caro's masterful, majestic and compulsively readable biography of Lyndon Johnson. News has finally come of the new volume, and even better news is that it won't be the last. The new book, Pass ... More >>

Wine of the Week: A Rosé from the Texas Hill Country

​The more I read about Texas Hill Country winemaker and San Antonio endocrinologist Richard Becker, the more I am intrigued. Any doctor-cum-vintner who quotes readily from one of my favorite 20th-century American poets, Wallace Stevens, sounds like someone who puts more thought into the art an ... More >>

Texan Sails Across Atlantic to Mark a U.S. Government "Cover-Up" of the USS Liberty Incident (Update)

Courtesy of Jean Garst(From L to R) Larry Toenjes, Sherry and Joe Wagner aboard their 39-foot sailboat.​Larry Toenjes was living a pretty nice life in Clear Lake Shores, Texas with his wife Jean Garst. Then, in April, the 74-year-old retiree decided that he would ditch his comfy existence to s ... More >>

KTRK Ad From 1971: Typewriters! Reel-to-Reel Tape! Bullfights! Who Wouldn't Tune In?

This is an advertisement for Channel 13's Eyewitness News circa 1971, and it is magnificent. In our view, it represents a serious lack of judgment that news stations no longer use one-minute ads set to the Mission: Impossible theme, with constant cuts to the space-age state-of-the-art equipment tha ... More >>

The Five Horniest Presidents America Has Produced

Warren G. Harding, sex machine​The Reelz channel finished up its Kennedys mini-series last night, the production that was chased from the History Channel because JFK fans hollered about inaccuracies or too many dramatic liberties. The series itself seemed rather rote, although Greg Kinnear wa ... More >>

President's Day List: Five Biographies You Need to Read

Dutch received undeserved scorn​President's Day is a time to reflect on the people who've lived in the White House, and how best to learn more about them. Presidential biographies have always been a huge industry, with a staggering amount of trees felled for books both incredibly dense and an ... More >>

Top 10 Musical U.S. Presidents

"The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music." - Gerald Ford gwu.eduWhen else are we going to use this picture?​Today is President's Day, and if you'll think back to high-school U.S. History, you'll remember that potential Commande ... More >>

Cravings for Chili Rise as Temperatures Fall

jamiepatra​Hallelujah! For the first time in nearly five months temperatures will not reach above 80 degrees, and lows tonight will be in the 50s. Overjoyed locals will inevitably seize the opportunity to debut their fall fashions, suffering in cable-knit sweaters, tights and wool scarves beca ... More >>

They Were Kinky Before Kinky Was Kinky: Musicians Who Have Held Public Office

From Ted Nugent to Bruce Springsteen to those adorable Dixie Chicks, "Masters of War" to "George Bush doesn't care about black people," musicians have never been shy about voicing their political opinions. But when it comes to putting their money where their mouths are and filing the necessary pape ... More >>

Five Decisions That Took Less Time Than Bill White Figuring Out If He'll Run For Governor

​Bill White brought the Texas political world to a standstill yesterday when he convened a press conference to make the momentous announcement that....he was going to take some time to think about running for Governor instead of Senator.In a little over a week, he said, he'll make up his mind.Some ... More >>

Montrose Is One Great Neighborhood, Experts Say, Despite The Things That Are Gone

Photo by @Hella​The American Planning Association, an organization that no doubt takes planning very seriously, has named Montrose one of the ten "great neighborhoods" in America.Says the APA: One of Houston's original streetcar suburbs, Montrose has a sliver of everything. Eclectic and urbane, th ... More >>

Cutout Bin: The Goldwaters' Liberal-Baiting Folk Songs

The Goldwaters Sing Folk Songs to Bug the Liberals (1964, Greenleaf)​The 1964 presidential election was a pivotal point in our nation's history. After years of the liberal leadership and acronym names of JFK and LBJ, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater sought to take the country in a new direction ... More >>

Jack Valenti, Gay Blade?

Was the late Jack Valenti -- famous Houstonian, former Lyndon Johnson aide, former head of Hollywood's MPAA, namesake of the Valenti School of Communications at UH -- as gay as a Sondheim song?We don't care one way or the other, but it appears the FBI did.The Washington Post reports this morning tha ... More >>

Terrible News For Lovers Of Texas History, Or Just Biography In General

Anyone who considers themselves a Texan -- one that likes to read, at any rate -- should be federally mandated to read the three volumes in which Robert Caro traces the life of Lyndon Johnson.The first book, Path to Power, is a fascinating primer on the Hill Country, on Sam Rayburn, on farm life in ... More >>

The Secret Life of Bees Is All Honey, No Sting

Buzz Kill

Ike, You Are A Sadistic Bastard

Bubba Roese, the Mayor of Graball, Speaks of BBQ

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Spike Lee’s look at Hurricane Katrina might be his most important work yet

Boogie for Bush!

Dubya and Franz Ferdinand have made it okay for white guys to dance

Hail to the Turd Blossom

A SXSW film takes a look at Karl Rove, a.k.a. Bush's Brain

Rationality Will Not Save Us

In the latest documentary from Errol Morris, Robert McNamara considers the lessons of war

Foregone Conclusion

Even those who don't remember the Cuban missile crisis will know how it ends, long before Days does

Deep-Fried Greenhorn

Only a dupe believes in such a thing as the "best chicken-fried steak in Texas"

The Private Trial of Donald Davis

A Houston attorney who specialized in saving killers' lives couldn't handle his own. So he took it.

Combination Plates

Legendary restauranteur Felix Tijerina mixed Mexican food and Texas politics

Virtual 'Cue

Lyndon's Pit Bar-B-Q serves an excellent approximation of the real thing

The Good, the Bad, the Imprisoned

Houston's best politicos were not always the ones elected -- or the ones who stayed in office

Brave Talk, Bleak Prospects

Outgunned county Dems feast before famine in 2000

The President's Analyst

The Insider

The Insider

Lost in the Cause

In the early 1960s, Eldrewey Stearns was a powerful force for integration in a segregated society. Then he forgot his way, and history forgot him. Until, that is, he met writer Thomas R. Cole.

Letters

Sayles' Pitch

The Year of Living Anxiously

Are We Having Fun Yet? Or is it just the jangly buzz of advanced urban stress syndrome?