Though he writes features, the American-Statesman's Patrick Beach is hardly some human-interest zombie spewing petrified prose about lost puppies and platitude-spouting centenarians. No, like recent departee Hank Steuver, Beach is a writer whose features give readers the feel of a story - the smell of an event, the taste of a life, the texture of mystery. In a smattering of breezy but well-chosen words, Beach can present Polaroid-perfect images of a scene and capture a keen sense of relationship between people and setting. It may be a legislative beer bash, where he notes the humorous juxtaposition of Margo Frasier and Drew Nixon under the same tent, or the UT Tower, where he fills in the final moments of a suicide jumper's life, but Beach consistently nails the human element wherein lies the story.
