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 >>

Florida's Last Sexual Surrogate

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 okay?" she asked, running her fingertips through the lather on his shoulder. He was a burly man, a merchant marine in his forties... full story >>

Your Friendly Neighborhood War Profiteer

Retired Army Officer Louise Morgan stands at a podium, flanked by six flags: one each for America, Minnesota, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.

Two large projection screens float on a wall above her head. She fiddles with a laptop, queuing up a short video promoting the missile launchers, big guns, and ammunition manufactured by BAE Systems, her employer in Fridley.

The video, accompanied by a pulsing and triumphant soundtrack, is a blitz-montage of computer-animated Navy guns firing, real-life missiles launching, and pictures of Baghdad burning. BAE, she... 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 >>

Nonconformity Still Reigns!

In the beginning of our city's love affair with odd ducks, there was Emperor Norton. A businessman in Gold Rush San Francisco who lost his pants on an investment in Peruvian rice, he re-emerged as a grand character of his own invention: "Emperor of These United States" and "Protector of Mexico." He waltzed about town in a secondhand military uniform while newspapers printed his official edicts without caveat and establishments honored his fake currency.

If Los Angeles lionizes its celebrities, San Francisco has always embraced, or at least tolerated, its homegrown eccentrics.... full story >>

Princess Diaries: From across the country they came, all hoping to be crowned a Dream Girl USA

Descending two sets of escalators into the bowels of the Millennium Hotel, one is confronted by the saffron glow of dizzying gold-patterned hotel carpets. Multiple chandeliers light up the ballroom, and in the hallways, there's a buzz. Young girls wearing long, formal dresses with satin sashes, their crowns speckled in rhinestones, scurry to the bathroom to check themselves in the mirror one last time. They hover between panic and exhilaration in their Cinderella-wear. Mothers, too, are frenzied and, of course, doting. Soon, they'll be watching their little princesses... full story >>