mkultra25

This isn't true. There is no such ordinance in Houston.

This occurred to me after I posted, and I think there's definitely something to it. I've never had a bad meal there when dining in, but have been underwhelmed by takeout. The other thing that occurred to me is that they've been around for quite a few years, and it's possible that they're coasting on their past glory, when there wasn't nearly the amount of competition that there is now.

I'm curious as to what kind of pizza those who consider Star overrated have had there. I've eaten pizza at a lot of places, and IMO the deep-dish Joe's at Star has very few peers.

Even more challenging: exiting at Bunker Hill and trying to make a right into the entrance that runs in front of Best Buy (well before the stoplight at Bunker Hill). It can be done, but it requires perfect timing, a workable break in traffic on the feeder road, and reasonably hard braking.

Man, times sure have changed. Instead of getting a t-shirt for drinking 10 imported beers (which at the time was probably a decent percentage of all the imports available at the Ale House), now at places like the Flying Saucer you have to taste (n.b. the fine distinction between "drink" and "taste") 200 beers to get your name on a plate in their "Ring of Honor". I miss the Ale House. Spent many a night shooting darts there over innumerable pints.

Nice tractor! I'll bet you have more than a passing familiarity with the Hank's Truck Pictures website. My dad spent the majority of his career working for ETMF, until deregulation upended the freight industry in the 80s and he lost his job in the wake of ETMF's acquisition by ABF.

^^ Mighty Sweet Mini Pies. Great place, been going there almost since they opened. http://mightysweetminipies.com/

Steinway sold its longtime home in NYC, Steinway Hall, last year as well: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/steinway-to-sell-its-famed-showroom-building/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 Followed by the sale of the entire company to a hedge fund (Paulson & Co., after they agreed to pay more than Kohlberg): http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/arts/music/notes-of-sorrow-in-changes-at-steinway.html I'd speculate that these developments may have been related to Forshey's exit as a Steinway dealer.

The referrer parameters appended to the HAR links are breaking them. For anyone who'd prefer not to have to look up the addresses manually on HAR's site, these should work: http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cfm?mlnum=19054623 http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cfm?mlnum=64857294

A former coworker used to talk about how he'd gotten into a disagreement with someone on the freeway one day, and figured he'd intimidate the other guy by pretending that he was about to pull a gun (which he didn't have in his pickup). His scheme almost backfired (pun fully intended) when the other guy called the bluff, pulled his own gun, and started waving it around. Oops.

A few years ago, the Chronicle sent someone up to Austin County to interview Johnny Holmes at the ranch he retired to after leaving office as Harris County DA. At some point he was asked if he missed Houston, and his reply was that he did not, because it was a nice change living in a place where people used all their fingers when they waved at you on the road.

In just over 23 years of active participation in various online communities, the qualities that stand out for me among the communities that I'd consider to have been the most robust and entertaining are: a substantial chunk (if not a supermajority) of the participants had absolute mastery of at least one area of knowledge generally considered arcane or esoteric by the general populacethis group of people could write artfully and persuasively on a wide variety of topics in addition to their area of expertisethey did not suffer fools gladly This combination frequently leads to a discourse replete with strong opinions, in which some folks invariably wind up with bruised feelings. Those who view this as a necessarily bad thing are probably of the generation who grew up believing that everyone gets a prize just for showing up. But I digress. I have on occasion run across Niche's comments on Swamplot. There was one recent observation in particular that was tossed off almost as an aside in the midst of a much longer analysis, yet it was possibly the funniest thing I've ever read on the subject of light rail. Had it been posted here, it would have almost certainly had more than a few people pounding on their keyboards in fits of apoplexy.

The old Northline General Cinema theater closed in 1996 and was demolished in 2001, long before the mall itself closed. After its closure, a 12-screen Magic Johnson theater was opened in 1998 amid great fanfare. It was located where Joske's used to be, and was closed and demolished in 2007 when the mall came down to make way for the new Walmart and the Northline Commons strip center.

Would love to see these. It's nothing short of shameful that the Chronicle doesn't have its archives available online in a more usable format, or the Post archives they own available online at all. If they had something similar to Google's News Archive, it would be amazingly useful: http://news.google.com/newspapers

I don't remember the Britt's sign, but Ward's had a huge neon sign on their roof that spelled out "MONTGOMERY WARD". Can't find any close-up pics of it, but it's barely visible here, near the top left: and the sign's support framework is obvious in this shot taken during the building's demolition:

I'm curious as to what attracted the Phantom Crapper to return to the same house six times.

Wow, did not know that. That explains why the old building has fallen increasingly into disrepair with no apparent interest in fixing it up. Its demolition will mark the end of the Dairy Queen that it once was.

Many thanks - this confirms my foggy recollection of the name and location of Le Petit French Cafe.

Lillard's game-winning 3 last night brought back memories of another dark day in Houston basketball history.

Just read that a new restaurant, Texas Enchilada House, is preparing to open on Crosstimbers, on the former site of the late, lamented Northside Tex-Mex icon Mexicatessen. Don't think they have a website, but they do have a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Enchilada-House/173331192725794

Or Clear Lake/Webster as SoHo.

^^^ OK, I won't tell you that. Instead I'll strongly suggest that you may want to flush your browser cache and have another look at the page.

What a great-looking, classic Montrose bungalow. The Menil Collection has been there for almost 27 years now. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but my memories of what the area looked like before it was built are fuzzy.

The Cineplex Odeon Spectrum on Augusta opened in June 1988 and closed in 2001 when Loews entered bankruptcy proceedings. I miss that place - it was the state-of-the-art of Houston theaters in its day as far as presentation standards, and had several screens with 70mm capability (a relative rarity by the 1990s). Seeing a stunning 70mm print of the 1989 restoration of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA there on a huge screen was one of the most memorable filmgoing experiences I've ever had.

http://tampicoheights.com And for those active on Twitter, dueling accounts: https://twitter.com/tampico_heights https://twitter.com/tampicoheights