Meanwhile, in Texas: Forget About “Playing Possum”—This Possum Wants to be a Player
A brief and highly selective look at what just happened, from a stray possum’s big game in Lubbock to a rookie quarterback’s big game in Houston.
Arman Badrei is an assistant editor at Texas Monthly, where he primarily works as a fact-checker. A born and raised Houstonian, he has written about the city's Westheimer Road, critical race theory, a death row exoneree, Gen Z conservatives, and the Rothko Chapel. Arman is a former intern and joined the magazine after completing a fellowship with the Texas Observer. He graduated from Princeton University, where he wrote his senior thesis on how to build trust in the media. He lives in Austin.
A brief and highly selective look at what just happened, from a stray possum’s big game in Lubbock to a rookie quarterback’s big game in Houston.
By Arman Badrei
Plus, a cocktail that carnivores can get behind and a pig you’ll get way behind, if you know what’s good for you.
By Arman Badrei
Plus, a harrowing vehicular encounter with a spear and a harrowing vehicular encounter with a cornfield.
By Arman Badrei
Plus, expired paperwork brought a great westward journey to an end, and an interdimensional portal did not open.
By Arman Badrei
Plus, an aggressive hawk kept postal employees from their appointed rounds and a cross-dressing bank robber brought new meaning to word “stickup.”
By Arman Badrei
Plus, a woman sank her teeth into a Lufkin security guard, and a family of ducks sank without a trace.
By Arman Badrei
Archaeology and architecture groups banded together to bring a mudhif, a town hall for the Marsh Arab tribe of Iraq, to Rice University.
By Arman Badrei
Plus, a Houston bakery added a family-size croissant to its menu and a man fleeing from the police decided he was really, really hungry.
By Arman Badrei
Plus, a man and his parrot made the scene at Whataburger, and someone really, really wanted to catch a Megan Thee Stallion show.
By Arman Badrei
Texas Southern University's cheer team went to the competition confident they'd come home champions. Mission accomplished.
By Arman Badrei
The 19-mile Houston road isn't the kind of place tourists appreciate. But it's everything I love about my city.
By Arman Badrei
Long before it became a meme stock, the Grapevine-based video game retailer lodged itself in the hearts of a generation entranced by the storytelling it found inside those plastic boxes.
By Arman Badrei
Amid a crowded field of conservative youth organizers, Run GenZ is supporting young candidates for local office across the state.
By Arman Badrei
School board meetings in Texas's most Republican large county have devolved into shouting matches about curriculum, leaving many teachers worried about the academic year ahead.
By Arman Badrei
No Googling allowed.
By Vanessa Ague and Arman Badrei