DAVE THOMAS
NOTE: This blog was published on statesman.com in October 2017. I did eat the bugs. When my coworkers ignored this story and failed to promote it on the homepage, I didn't forgive them.
I ate this bug for journalism. At the State Fair, you can eat one, too.
Dawn of the Picnic: 40 years ago Eddie Wilson got Willie off to a steady start
NOTE: This story was published in the Austin American-Statesman in 2013.

An area of Texas expertise: I have attended 20 Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnics since 1995 and covered 10 of those for a Texas newspaper. I have studied the history of the Picnic and written about it extensively.
I don't aim to compete with the old-timers. Anyone who attended one of the large Picnics in the 1970s knows more about that crucial first era than I could ever learn through research and collecting — even if, or perhaps because they can't remember it. But if you want to know about the history of the Picnic as a whole and how different eras compare with each other, I'm your guy.
Please click on the links below to read some of the Picnic stories I've written.