It’s the event where hundreds of people sit in the broiling Texas heat to watch a high stakes verbal sparring match of puns, words and wits. That’s right, we went to the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championship in Austin, Texas!

Everything is big in Texas. And, in Texas history, nothing may be bigger than the Alamo (or should it be “The” Alamo?) so, the story of Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson offers some interesting insight into the legend and legacy of that famed siege. She’s got quite a story herself as we learned on a Nerd Trip to her house in Austin.

As we finish our tour of the O. Henry museum in Austin, our tale now turns to embezzlement, prison and the birth of “O. Henry.”

Before visiting the O. Henry museum in Austin, my knowledge of this famed American writer could be summed up in just a few words: “The Gift of the Magi,” the tale of a financially strapped young couple who, through a clever plot twist, discover the true meaning of gifts and giving.

But if this sentimental short story was my only impression of O. Henry, we got quite a plot twist as we learned about the writer himself, a hard-living and colorful character worthy of any story he could write.

The O. Henry museum sits on prime real estate in downtown Austin.