Add Your Favorite
The staff of the beauty salon is in Austin today visiting with some of our favorite people- hi Tanya, Ron, and Cyndi.
I have some thoughts today but I want to start with this. Ten Reasons Why Texas is Utopia
There are some I would add – the Big Thicket, Houston’s theater district, tubing the Comal or Guadalupe river, Fredericksburg peaches, Luling City Market, Lyndon’s Library, Galveston in the winter, and San Antonio, the whole damn city.
Texas folks – feel free to add your own and folks from foreign states – eat your hearts out.
Cruz, Gohmert, Oops, and Paul Sr. and now you’re trying to sell me on Texas?
1Bluebell Ice Cream
2I was a bit disappointed that Alamo Draft House only rated a mention under Anne Richards.
Of course if you are in Austin, I highly recommend Esther’s Follies for an evening of humor, magic, and some of the best political parody in Texas.
3Lost Maples State Nature Area. Lovely in the fall.
And yea, San Antonio, the whole darn city.
Just saying…. (I live here.)
4Hal! Wake the hell up! Bluebell was on the list.
5Molly Ivins and all the other great authors from Texas.
6Wyatt_Earl, we may have horrendous politicians, absolutely assinine rednecks spouting off or shooting off, and some damn upsetting laws…but we also have Tex Mex, Wildflower season, some of the friendliest damn people you’ll ever meet, and a diverse and abundant state. These are why we love Texas – not the politicians or the heat, but the rest of it.
7Small towns with courthouse squares….how can you live without a square?
8The best breakfast I have ever had (and probably ever will have) was at restaurant in Fredericksburg. It was pure, unadulterated, cholesterol-drenched luxury. Absolute heaven. I still remember it with great fondness, and that was thirty years ago. I didn’t need to eat again for a week.
9Azalea season in East Texas. Along with the dogwood and wisteria. I’ll never forget when, as a freshman spending the spring semester in Lubbock, coming home to Tyler and for the first time realizing why visitors always said that Tyler was so pretty!
10Wildflowers were mentioned in the list, but not the cultivated bloomers!
We furriners know there are great things about the Lone Star State but you’ve been working overtime to let us know that it might be hard to enjoy them without Kevlar undies to protect yourself from your fellow Texans or a Constitutional Legal Defense Team to protect you from your duly elected politicians. jus’ sayin’
I’ll be working hard to make sure Steve King is not elected the the Senate so Texas can keep it’s bat-shite crazy crown.
11# 19. “More species of bats live in Texas than anywhere else in the U.S”
Okay, now Texas’s particular bat-shite brand of crazy is starting to make sense.
Take all this in fun. I do like Texas even though I used to live in Corsicana.
12I would have put the Barton Creek Greenbelt ahead of Barton Springs. I don’t know of any other place you can get as far from the city and be in the middle of one, but then he couldn’t have mentioned Dobie and Bedichek, I guess.
Also, sunrise on the estacado. Kansas and South Dakota and some other places can do empty too, but there you are always driving into or away from the sun. Only in Texas do we get to watch it while driving north or south.
13My life has only gotten better since I moved to the great state of Texas. Despite attempts to the contrary by various and sundry villians.
Harold Cook http://www.lettersfromtexas.com/ once told me (he was describing dealing with an invasive species in Alpine, but it also follows my experience as a transplant with Texans…)
“First they try to kill you off,
Then they completely ignore you.
Then they decided you might be ok.
Then they claim you as native.”
Which oddly enough, follows a Gandhi quote.
God Bless Texans, every last one of ’em. Bless the dumb ones twice, they need it.
14Yep, we are waiting for 7-15 inches of snow.
15Texas sounds good right about now.
Don’t live in Texas, but it’s good to know that I’m only a three hour drive from Luling City Market, five and a half from Smitty’s, six from Franklin’s, and seven from the Taylor Cafe. Don’t tell my wife, but I have gotten up early, driven to Lockhart, and come home as though it was a normal workday, just to eat some good Texas BBQ. Nothin’ on earth like it.
Still like Lousiana best, though. Just sayin’. 😉
16People safely walking around, having fun, in downtown Fort Worth on a Friday night. Michael Murphy sang about it: There’s a red and blue tatoo on the muscle of my arm and it says Foat Wurth, ah luv yew!
17Surprised Lyle Lovett didn’t make handsomest Dudes category.
18Bill Moyers – he was born across the border but got here as quick as he could.
Drs. Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley, and the Texas Medical Center – if you or any of yours ever had your ticker tinkered with, you lived because of their work in that place.
19Gruene Dance Hall!!
20Funny, TexMex was on the list, but BBQ wasn’t?
What? No mention of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys? Or their offspring Asleep at the Wheel? Really? sheesh.
21I’m not coming back – like Stevie Ray, I couldn’t stand the weather. (And yes, we’re supposed to get two feet of snow tomorrow and Saturday. It’s STILL better than Houston in August.) But even after 20 years up here, I miss Barton Springs and bluebonnets and Seis Salsas (is it still there?) so bad I could cry.
22Texas BBQ didn’t make the list??? Are they mad??
23John, I hate to tell you this, but that’s not the real Luling City Market you’ve been going to. The real one is in Luling, and the one in Houston isn’t connected to it. Probably the closest great barbeque place to you is Snow’s, which is in Lexington, about sixty miles north of Austin, but after your drive, the difference between there and Luling/Lockhart won’t be noticeable.
Anyway, you get to eat good etoufee and decent jambalaya without having to cook all day yourself, and we can hardly ever find live crawfish is central Texas
24Well, as a visitor (visiting for 8+ years now), I have to say my favorite things about Texas have been:
1)Cooper Farms Sweet Fire Butter Pickles & Peppers.
2)Bernies Burger Bus, Hubcap Grill & Niko Nikos.
3) And Juanita Jean Herownself. Along with Bubba, Truman, Momma & the entire WMDBS Inc. because humor is a reqirement if living in Texas.
25Jimbo,
Thanks, I am aware that Luling in Houston is not the Luling in Luling. But the Luling in Houston, while not GREAT Texas BBQ, is very good Texas BBQ, and that makes it great pretty much anywhere outside of Texas. Plus, it’s only three hours from my house, so my wife and I can get there and back for dinner if the craving really hits (and we’ve done it).
I have to disagree with you, though, when you say you have to go 60 miles north of Austin to get GREAT Texas BBQ. Smitty’s in Lockhart, Taylor Cafe, and Franklin’s in Austin are all GREAT, and distinctly Texan (as opposed to Memphis, Carolina, or KC style BBQ).
I actually wrote my doctoral dissertation on BBQ, and I have to say that Texas ‘cue has become my favorite. There is nothing on earth better than a well-executed Texas brisket or sausage. Texas could otherwise be the worst place in the world, and the quality of the ‘cue would still make it one of the best places in the world.
26Palo Duro Canyon – Not as big as the Grand Canyon, but not as pretentious either.
Cadillac Ranch – come on!
Pretty bars – or, something that rhymes with “pretty.”
Ron “Tater Salad” White – b. 1956 in Fritch, TX
The Texas Rangers – the lawmen, not the ball team, founded in 1823 by (hats off, gentlemen) Stephen Austin, the father of his country.
Stephen Austin – kinda like saying “Randolph Scott” in Blazing Saddles.
Sam Houston – badass.
Longhorns vs Aggies.
Amarillo’s Stockyard Cafe – best. burger. ever. Prolly because it just ran through the Amarillo Livestock Auction (next door) 5 minutes prior.
27One more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8gfvDLjRxZE#!
-b
28It’s February and right now at my house in Austin it’s 83 degrees and sunny.
But unfortunately the legislature is also in session, which takes all the fun out of this.
29Stanley’s Famous Pit Bar-B-Q in Tyler, Texas
30http://stanleysfamous.com/
Please go to Marfa, Fort Davis, Alpine, and the Big Bend. Getting there is half the fun.
31My friend Jason Stanford caught a great one. Sarah Weddington and Roe V. Wade should absolutely be on this list.
32The #1reason is San Antonio. We have it all, including the Castros.
33Dooley’s in Fredricksburg, and now Sprouts Farmer’s Markets to rival Whole Paycheck. Love HEB’s Meal Deals and the girls who scrape the paddles for the nopalitos. Happy, happy that Fiesta was mentioned, too.
As for the BBQ, I’m sorry, but Texas beef will never top Carolina pork. And we also lay claim to Sweet Tea, the House Wine of the South. But I’ll give you that the Whataburger in Georgetown has the BEST ONION RINGS EVER. And no Threadgill’s–wtf? Or Los Cucos in Katy???
Stephen Austin is also ours, having been born & raised about 20 minutes down I-81 from where I currently live (see Austinville, VA). And I’ll never forget Ann Richard’s visit to Roanoke, VA–first thing she said was how nice it was to be among folks who didn’t have an accent (that’s because we live in the part of Virginia where the word “quit” has 3 syllables–Ka–Wee–It)
Still own property in Cotulla, too.
34I like the folks of Texas. That’s my favorite.
35Athletes: How could the authors have omitted the gymnastics winners?
36Just about any little rural place in the Lone Star (Robertson County, currently) where you can escape the sulfur lamp poisoning and see the sky at night…diamonds have nothing on the Milky Way, and when it looks like God dumped it out on black velvet just so I could see them all and take my pick – haven’t ever seen that anywhere else.
Also San Luis Pass, at any time of the year. Like timber rattlers, wild, beautiful and possibly fatal. What a combination!
These two parts of Texas compete with the southern shore of Lake Superior (the Big-Sky-Water and source of wild rice!) for favoritest places! The stars at night, are big and bright …
37Nobody’s mentioned Dan Rather. I used to watch CBS on election nights because Ol’ Dan was off script. Here are a few gems from his wikipedia page:
“This race is shakier than cafeteria Jell-O.”
“Things are getting hotter than a Times Square Rolex.”
“This thing is as tight as the rusted lugnuts on a ’55 Ford.”
“This race is tight like a too-small bathing suit on a too-long ride home from the beach.”
I’m open to other names, but I nominate Dan Rather as the PG Wodehouse of Texas.
38Cooper’s in Llano.
Mexicano in Jarrell.
Bluebonnets, firewheels, winecups, prairie primroses, and the return of the scissortails. Purple martins. Baby jackrabbits.
The monarch butterfly migration every fall.
39Rhea: I just ate at the Texas Wodehouse the other day!
But seriously, folks, where else but at TWMDBS can you even GET a Wodehouse reference? Anything Goes!
Aggieland Liz: Southern Shore of Superior…YES! My early courtship of daMrs included visits to Duluth, about which she still raves. The Romance of Duluth? Don’t knock it, folks, ’til you’ve tried it.
40Desert sunsets, especially when reflected on the Franklin Mountains. Never saw “purple mountains majesty” until we retired to El Paso.
41The Children’s Medical Center (Dallas) Holiday Parade, The Adolphus, The Melrose, The Gaylord Texan, Magnolia Hotel and its Pegasus, Whistlestop’s 3.5 million Christmas Lights in Cleburne’s Hulen Park, a pedicure at the Beaumont Ranch in Grandview, TCU Horned Frogs (where else but Texas?), First Mondays in Canton, and Tex-Mex @ Joe T. Garcia’s in Ft. Worth.
42I like the Balmorhea spring-fed pool. It’s warm and you can feel the current and it’s perfectly clear.
Chicken-Fried steak strips at Buddy’s drive-in in Andrews where the car hops still take your order. The windmill farm outside of Big Springs. Llano estacado Winery. Barbara Jordon.
The rest of you really don’t have Homecoming Mums as big as your head? When I was at A&M, the boys gave their dates mums at every game, do they still do that?
43