Blogs

So Congressman Gene Green’s media person, Jesse Christopherson, sends out an e-mail to web editor Keith Plocek saying the Houston light-rail system has finally won federal funding.

To the tune of $10 million. Which, in the inexplicably expensive universe of light-rail construction, is a micron of a drop in the bucket.

Keith forwards the e-mail to me, including a quote from Green saying, “We’re going to need more than $10 million to get this project done.” Unimpressed, I reply, “No fucking shit.”

Except, as is my distressing habit, I send that reply to Christopherson instead of Plocek.

Comedian Mike Robles isn't laughing about his August 1 show being canceled. As a matter of fact, he sounds a bit miffed. Robles sent us this note announcing the cancellation and directing fans to call the Houston Improv for more info. He promises he'll be back to Houston, but not at the Improv.

Bestselling author Jeffery Deaver is known for his series of suspense novels starring Lincoln Rhyme, the quadriplegic investigator based in New York City (The Bone Collector, The Vanished Man and The Twelfth Card to name a few). Despite his disability, Rhyme is able to sort through all manner of dastardly deeds with his partner and love interest, Amelia Sachs.

And in fact both Rhyme and Sachs make brief appearances in this novel.

But in The Sleeping Doll, Deaver has picked up a secondary character introduced in his 2006 Lincoln Rhyme novel The Cold Moon and made her the main character of this story.

This week in Café we contemplate the similarities between the food stalls in the Komart Korean grocery store on Gessner with the street vendors of Asia. Some Asian street vendors’ creations, like tapioca tea, which was first sold from a cart in Taipei, have gone on to become international sensations. The last Korean crossover is a toasted sandwich. After gaining popularity at street vendor stalls, bacon and egg toasts, pepperoni pizza toasts and other such sandwiches have become the foundation of a new fast food restaurant category in Korea. No doubt one of the Korean chains — Sukbong Toast, Isaac Toast or Toastoa —will soon open a franchise on Long Point. – Robb Walsh

Looks like the fiasco in Katy – or at least one of them, we’re sure there are others – is over. Shelby Sendelbach, a.k.a. that girl who wrote “I love Alex” on the wall and got sent to an alternative school and wound up being all over the national media, now only has to write a letter of apology, according the Chron.

We gotta agree with some of the commenters on the Chron’s story who think Sendelbach got off a little too easy. After all, we all know “Alex” is actually code of Al Qaeda.

When the spectacular “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend” show came to the MFAH in 2002, Kelly Klaasmeyer reviewed it, starting off her piece by describing a denim-and-olive-green quilt made by Loretta Pettway, one of 45 African-American female artists from Gee’s Bend, Alabama whose work was on display. “It looks like a Joseph Albers painting if Albers were less anal and handy with a needle and thread,” she wrote.

The Old Grey Lady doesn’t like to think of herself as sensationalist. She’s the newspaper of record and prefers to stick to sober facts and objective truth when covering a story. Except, of course, when that story takes place in the thick backwoods of East Texas. When writing about Texas, it’s just too hard to resist calling an aquatic fern a “lake-eating monster” in a headline.

Lake Caddo — home to Eagle’s drummer Don Henley — has been infested with a weed called Salvinia molesta, which, according to the Times, has the “ability to double in size every two to four days and cover 40 square miles within three months, suffocating all life beneath.” Sounds pretty bad, but “a lake-eating monster?” That’s the kind of headline that will get a story lodged on the 10 Most Emailed Articles for weeks.

Looks like former Houstoned editor Steven Devadanam is doing good things in this world.

He and his wife Amy have adopted a pup most likely used as a bait dog in a pit bill fighting operation, according to the Chron.

We’re all about seeing our pals written up anywhere and everywhere, but we have to wonder if the Chron did a little selective editing of Devadanam’s words.

Our jaws kinda dropped over the weekend when we saw the Houston Chronicle’s obit of Norma Gabler. The paper picked up a story from the Longview News-Journal, the woman’s hometown paper, and ran it unquestioningly.

Here’s the lede: “Norma Gabler dedicated much of the last 46 years of her life to the facts and to making sure textbook publishers get them right.” The headline was “Gabler Fought For Textbook Accuracy.”

That description of the Gablers (Norman worked with her late husband Mel) is like an obit saying “Rush Limbaugh – He Fought For A Better America.”

No doubt that, for many Houstonians, losing Marvin Zindler is like losing a member of the family. A somewhat odd-looking family member, perhaps, but also one whose integrity and genuine concern for the little guy made you feel so good. According to KTRK’s online statement, Zindler was responsible for creating the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Consumer Fraud Division. With decades’ worth of good Samaritan work, it’s hard to point to the penultimate example, but establishing a fraud division shows that this was a guy who truly cared about the people of Harris County. Zindler had a passion for justice, whether it be sticking up for a little old lady or for starving kids. He’ll never be replaced, but he’s left behind countless examples of how we can step up to the plate and help others when we see them wronged. Looking down on us through those blue sunglasses, Zindler’s spirit probably expects nothing less. – Craig Malisow

Don your sturdiest running shoes whilst entering the downtown Houston tunnel system these days. With the chronic rain, the burgeoning population is starting to outnumber the folks who (just like Paris Hilton) "discovered" Jesus in jail.

No celebrity sightings down here, however, unless you count an uncanny Bill Maher lookalike the other day. But because he didn't have one hand on a joint and the other inside his zipper -- said to be Maher's famous stance off-camera -- who can really say?

You ever walked into a dilapidated bingo hall and stared at all the old people drinking and smoking and thought, “Hey, this would make for great TV!”

Probably not, and that’s why you’re not a big-time TV exec or whoever the hell it was who came up with National Bingo Night.

No worries. At least you can still be on the show. Tryouts are tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jillian's (7620 Katy Freeway). Be there, be square. – Keith Plocek

We were going to digest this article and give you the highlights, but we were too busy reading a very important e-mail from a Nigerian general. Pretty sure it has something to do with how Houston is one of the country’s most "e-mail addicted cities.” And be sure to forward this to at least 500 people, or else Bill Gates will give your cell number to telemarketers. -- Craig Malisow

Okay, just to be clear: First there was astronaut sex. Then that little spelling gaffe. Then the drunk astronauts. And now there’s…[wait for it]...[wait for it]....sabotage!

NASA is investigating the apparent sabotage of a computer set to be flown up to the International Space Station, the BBC reports.

"The damage is very obvious, easy to detect,” an administrator told reporters.

Daniel Silva is among the best spy novelists around these days. His reading and discussion of his latest title, The Secret Servant, at Murder by the Book, will show you why.

Intense and electrifying, The Secret Servant follows Gabriel Allon, a sometime officer of Israeli intelligence who stumbles on to a plot to kidnap an American ambassador's daughter. Speeding off to thwart the plan, Allon arrives just in time to see the young woman being pushed into a van and the chase begins. Sure that she will be killed by the Muslim extremists holding her, Allon will follow them through England, Germany and to the ends of Denmark trying to save her, always, it seems, arriving just a little too late. Traipsing through CIA, MI-5 and NSA territory without bothering to ask permission doesn't make Allon very popular with the law enforcement set and when he kidnaps the wife and son of one of the extremists as a bargaining chip, even his own Israeli cohorts balk.