Sexual Healing

Part of him wanted to lay her down on the bed and hold her and make passionate love to her the way they do in romantic movies.

Part of him wanted to get his clothes on and get out of there as fast as possible. And never look back. And never discuss this moment. Ever.

They were covered in soapy bubbles, standing close to each other in the shower of her Fort Lauderdale townhouse. Steam crept down the bathroom mirror.

"Does that feel OK?" she asked, running her fingertips through the lather on his shoulder. He was a burly man, a merchant marine in his 40s who'd... full story >>

The child of a secret underground adoption goes hunting for her past

Out there, in her little house on the mountain, the days passed slowly for Debbie Boursier — much more slowly than they had in Cleveland.

She'd moved to that rural patch of Rapid City, South Dakota, with two toddlers and a husband. She hadn't wanted to go, but Charlie was a second lieutenant in the Air Force. As any good military wife knows, when the Air Force says move, you move.

South Dakota was beautiful, but also isolating. Their ranch overlooked acres of farmland, and from her studio window, Debbie could see her neighbor's horses lolling about the pasture,... full story >>

Bless Us, Oh Lard

The soft cheese taco I got with the "Special Mexican Dinner" at El Fenix on McKinney Avenue in downtown Dallas a couple of months ago mystified me. It was stuffed with cheddar and onions like a cheese enchilada, but the tortilla was steamed instead of fried and covered with chile con queso instead of chili gravy. It tasted sort of like a soggy Tex-Mex grilled cheese sandwich. It's long been a signature item at El Fenix—but why?

Susan Martinez, the former marketing manager of El Fenix, once explained to me over lunch that Dallasites like their salsa mild and their... full story >>

Gospel Journey Teens Dare 2 Share

Nearly 5,000 Christian teens are screaming in anticipation of the Rapture. "Jesus is coming soon!" their preacher yells as he paces and waves his arms, the veins in his neck visible to the jocks, cheerleaders, skaters and goth kids shouting cheers from the front rows. "That's what this weekend is about, to remind us that Jesus is coming soon."

Dressed in a "Jesus Recycles" T-shirt and jeans, 42-year-old Greg Stier still resembles the awkward kid who was preaching in parks and malls around Denver thirty years ago. The founder and president of Arvada-based Dare 2 Share Ministries... full story >>

Temples of Tex-Mex: A Diner's Guide to the State's Oldest Mexican Restaurants

The recipe for chile con queso at Felix Mexican Restaurant predated processed cheese. Before there was Velveeta, old-fashioned queso was made with a flour-based tomato and paprika béchamel to which the cheese and cayenne were added. Felix's queso had an odd gravy-like texture, and it tended to separate as it cooled, but it was one of the state's first Mexican cheese and chile dips and a Houston ­tradition.

Felix Mexican Restaurant was a museum of old-time Tex-Mex. The restaurant on Westheimer, which opened in 1948, was the last remaining location of what was once a... full story >>

How a throwaway idea at the Barkley ad agency became the “Sonic guys”

The assignment was a throwaway: Shoot a rah-rah video for Barkley's biggest client — Sonic Drive-In. The feel-good film would be propaganda for the Oklahoma City-based fast-food chain's 2002 convention of owners and vendors.

The Kansas City advertising agency dumped the project on the creative team of Matt McKay and Pat Piper.

Aw, man, McKay thought. He would rather have worked on almost anything else.

The agency had been pairing McKay and Piper since their first day, in 1998. Before then, their lives ran parallel but never intersected. In Omaha, Nebraska,... full story >>

Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman isn’t afraid to step on a few toes as he waltzes into his second term

It is not exactly elegant — not yet. This is only their first rehearsal, and song-and-dance routines do not come together without sweat.

And both Hallman and O'Connor are clearly sweating this.

It is not every day that a guy gets to dance with the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court, even if that guy is the mayor of Tempe, Arizona. And it is not every day that a former Supreme Court justice gets ready to perform a soft-shoe number that will be seen by hundreds of people.

Hallman is... full story >>

The Principal Matter

Around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 11, a graduating eighth grader on the honor roll took the podium to speak at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School's graduation ceremony.

Standing proud in her red satin cap and gown, the girl thanked her mom, her classmates, her teachers, and, finally, the school's controversial principal Gilbert Cho, who had recently been transferred to a new school by the Board of Education.

"I know MLK will miss him next year," she said, and congratulated Cho for being "a hands-on principal."

She meant it as a compliment, but... full story >>

Earl Mullins has liftoff. Years in the making, his space museum in Bonne Terre has taken flight.

Stepping from the quiet streets of Bonne Terre into Earl Mullins' space museum is like bringing one's eye to a telescope and being struck dizzy with stars. A rocket engine, two feet of sleek metal tubes and chambers, sits on a pedestal near the front door. It's the real deal, an LR-64 that delivers 1,000 pounds of thrust. To the right of it reclines a wooden model of the F-86 Saber jet built by Mercury astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom, not far from the life-size statue of a space traveler's puffy white suit.

In this old lead-mining town an hour's drive south of St. Louis, Mullins... full story >>