The number of Texans
is projected to double by 2050, to 54.4 million, almost as many people as
California and New York combined.
Texas has
practically no laws regulating exotic animals.
The Humane Society
of the United States estimates that there are more tigers living in captivity
in Texas than the three thousand that are thought to be living in the
wild. Some are kept as pets in
backyards.
For the first time
ever, the United States holds more proved oil reserves than either Saudi Arabia
or Russia. More than half of the U.S.
total is in shale.
The central fact
about boom societies is that they inevitably go bust.
Nebraska has more
millionaires per capita than Texas.
Houston is the only
major city in America without zoning laws.
You can build pretty much anything you want anywhere you want.
Most of the day was spent learning the Texas general firearms laws, which are
more nuanced and confusing than I expected.
One can't carry a gun in amusement parks, hospitals, sporting events,
school buses, bars, a polling place, a court, a correctional facility, or
"within 1000 feet of a correctional facility designated as a place of
execution on a day of execution if proper notice is posted".
Texas has the
highest rate of uninsured people in the nation.
There are more than
six hundred varieties of bird species in Texas, a greater number than any other
state, thanks to its biological diversity and the fact that it sits in the
middle of the central migratory flyway.
Imagine the wealth
and power that would have been Mexico's had Texas remained a part of it.
Bullets from
gunfights in Juarez [Mexico] fly over the border. In 2012, a woman was pushing a stroller in
downtown El Paso when a stray shot hit her in the leg. Bullets from Mexico also struck a building at
the University of Texas branch in El Paso, and another broke a picture frame in
the city hall.
I suppose many
people live in places they're not especially attached to, or that they actually
hate. Marriages are like that as
well. There's a high level of discontent
even in enduring relationships, together with long periods of stagnation and
moments of shocking intimacy. You
acquire a private library of memories.
Arguments are born that last for the rest of your lives among the
touchstones of joy and revelation. The
commonalities draw you together or suffocate you.
