Category Archives: Texana

Ka-choo!

Posted on January 2, 2008 | Comments Off on Ka-choo!

Cedar pollen recorded its highest readings of the season Monday and Tuesday, and I awoke sneezing this morning, eyes itching and sinus stuffed. I thought I had "cedar fever" beat this year, since I’d escaped it so far. Now I know better.

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Posted in Texana

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He’s with Fred

Posted on December 29, 2007 | Comments Off on He’s with Fred

Beldar, our favorite "trial" lawyer–even if he is in Houston–says it’s time for us Texans to shell out for our fav GOP candidate, even if it ‘s just $25. In order to have any say in choosing the nominee, that is, since the choice is likely to have been made by the time the Texas primary rolls around. He’s for Fred, of course, and makes a good case. I may be just a little too liberal for Fred since I still like Rudy. But I agree with him that the Reps are going to run the table on the Dems next year, whichever candidate is chosen.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Scribbles, Texana, The War

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Sharp humor ahead

Posted on December 29, 2007 | Comments Off on Sharp humor ahead

Cobb vows to be funnier, skewier, in ’08. I can relate. Also to his dismissal of a certain overcrowded city to our north as Fart Worth. But while I agree that Houston is an armpit, I would disagree that it’s the one of the South. That label still goes to Atlanta, still the place everyone down South has to go through even on the way to hell.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Texana

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People Against Cedars

Posted on December 27, 2007 | 2 comments

Reactions to cedar fever, the annual South Central Texas malady, vary. Some treat the symptoms. Some get the only-partially-successful vaccine. And some just suffer: the itching roof of the mouth, the plugged sinuses, the constant sneezing and watering, itching eyes. But these folks have taken up a quixotic quest. They mean to remove the offending ashe junipers (mountain cedars) from the very landscape. They may have given up, however. The site doesn’t seem to have been updated for several years. Probably too busy sneezing and blowing their noses.

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Posted in Texana

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New folk around the Spoke

Posted on December 21, 2007 | Comments Off on New folk around the Spoke

Developers have been vying for the rutted, bumpy dirt lot around the Broken Spoke honky-tonk in South Austin for at least the last twenty years of its forty-three year existence. Now they’ve got it, but they swear the iconic dance hall that’s reverberated to the music of Bob Wills (he’s still the king) and the Texas Playboys and the Texas Troubadour Ernest Tubb will go on unmolested. We’ll just have to see about that.

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Posted in Texana

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Why yes, they can take your land

Posted on December 18, 2007 | Comments Off on Why yes, they can take your land

A tale of eminent domain in a small Texas town: If they can’t pull the rug out from under your property immediately–with help from the U.S. Supreme Court–they’ll make your bankruptcy imminent by tying you up in court forever:

"Freeport abandoned its plan for a private marina–only to unveil a plan for a public marina that would also need much of the Gores’ land. As ‘Bulldozed’ closes, the two sides are heading back to the courthouse once more."

Bulldozed, the book, available here. Looks like a natural subject for Hollyweird–as the Texas Observer demonstrates–if they can shake their preference for poor-soldier epics and zombie movies. 

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Posted in Texana

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The Gault Site

Posted on December 17, 2007 | Comments Off on The Gault Site

When I used to write about archeology, back in the day, Mike Collins was one of my favorite interviews–not because he was easy to talk to (he wasn’t, especially) but because he was on the bleeding edge of the field, out there with the pre-Clovis theorists. So while I’m not entirely surprised that he cashed in his personal savings to buy 33 acres of the Gault Site, one of the best-known pre-Clovis digs in Texas–he does, afterall, live in an 1840s dog-trot cabin, one of the oldest dwellings in Austin–his personal resolve is nevertheless impressive.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Texana

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