FilioScotia

Say what? Hey don't blame me. You're shooting the messenger. I said nothing about anything in this discussion. I only dug up the Chronicle article about what Allstate and other insurers are doing. The article from last September said Allstate would stop selling homeowners insurance in coastal counties, and would not renew policies on wood and stucco homes in the second tier counties. That's what KHOU breathlessly reported the other day as "new news". If there is anything in that article that is not true or accurate, we would appreciate it if you would share your unique insight with the rest of us. As usual, you're shooting your mouth off for the wrong reason, and blaming the wrong person. There are plenty of good reasons to avoid doing business with Allstate, but don't take your hatred of Allstate out on me.

I think what you heard was another report about Allstate and other insurance companies' decision to stop selling homeowners insurance in areas right along the immediate coast, and not renew existing policies in those areas. That's old news. In fact, here's a story about it in the Houston Chronicle from last year. Sept. 15, 2006 Insurer to end some policies on coast State Farm Lloyds says 6,000 Texas customers won't be covered Thousands of State Farm Lloyds customers along the coast will lose their property insurance starting next year. The state's largest insurer said Thursday it plans to not renew 6,000 personal and commercial policies on properties within 2,500 feet of coastal waters or bays, on a barrier island or peninsula. That means nonrenewals for about 780 policies in Harris County and 3,200 policies in Galveston County, according to company spokeswoman Sophie Harbert. "Reducing our waterfront exposure will allow State Farm to meet the needs of more customers elsewhere in the coastal market that we might not otherwise be able to write at all," Harbert said. Consumers can shop around for new insurance, but many may be forced to find windstorm insurance with the state wind pool. State Farm also plans to not renew about 70 apartment and condo association policies on properties east of U.S. 59 and Texas 288 in Harris County. Those policies are concentrated in Southeast Houston, but Harbert could not say how far north the nonrenewals would extend. The company has about 230 apartment or condo association policies in Harris County. State insurance regulators, who are butting heads with the company in court over its homeowner rates, said they would give the move close scrutiny. "Somebody's got to look out for all the homeowners," Jim Hurley, a spokesman for the department, said. The move comes as more companies are cutting back how much they insure along the coast and as condo associations and apartment complexes in the Houston area face scarce and more costly coverage. Some condo owners in southern Harris County will ask regulators at a hearing in Austin on Tuesday to expand the state windstorm association into their area. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, which tends to have lower rates for windstorm coverage, sells only to residents in coastal counties and a sliver of Harris County. If its coverage area is expanded, the association may be able to pick up the wind coverage State Farm drops. But the association and insurance industry oppose an expansion because, they say, it would only compound problems for the woefully underfunded association. Allstate Texas Lloyds, the state's second-largest home insurer, said earlier this year that it would drop wind coverage upon renewal of some 65,000 homeowner policies along the coast and not renew about 16,000 nonbrick homes in counties once removed from the coast. Several smaller insurance companies also said they would cut coverage along the coast this year. State Farm will continue to sell new home insurance and windstorm coverage for homes more than a mile inland in coastal counties, but homes will have to meet certain new requirements, including obtaining a building code certificate from the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. Customers with homes between the 2,500-foot mark and a mile will be able to renew, but the company will not sell new policies. The requirement won't apply to its renewal business, but State Farm Lloyds hopes it will encourage greater use of and more enforcement of building codes along the coast, Harbert said.

Sorry you had a bad experience with ARS. I guess a company as big as ARS would have a few horse's ARS'es working for them. (sorry. I couldn't resist) Speaking only for myself, I've had good experiences with them. I don't want this to sound like a commercial for them, but they're a lot like a convenience store. Yes they do charge a bit more, but that's because they're there when you need them. They work 24-7 and they don't charge extra for after hours or weekends. One Saturday evening, a pipe sprung a leak under the sink in our bathroom, and an ARS guy was there 45 minutes later. You won't get that kind of service from anybody else. And they can fix just about anything in your house, from AC and heating to plumbing and appliances.

Don't forget the dog-walker who "pooped" out. Or the basketball player with diarrhea who "dribbled" out. Sorry. I seem to be stuck in the bathroom.

And a hair stylist would have "wigged" out? Come on let's keep it going.

Actually, my wife and I lived in Lufkin from 1979 through 1988. I worked at KEEE/KJCS from 83 through 88. I commuted in every day to do the news on KJCS. Heck it's only 18 miles and it took me only 20 minutes to get to work. I may have been there the day you came through on your tour. Schools were always bringing classes in on field-trip tours. I was the funny looking guy in the small news room.

They grew up studying music and one instrument or another, but somewhere along the line they chose medicine over pursuing a music career. You're right about doctors using music as an outlet for the stresses they face every day, but not for Dr. John Hill. Hill was a plastic surgeon, and an accomplished pianist who could play popular or classical. Tommy Thompson wrote in Blood and Money that Hill kept a grand piano in his office suite in the old Hermann Professional Building. He used it to serenade rich middle-aged women, to soften them up so he could use his enormous personal charm to persuade them to get plastic surgery. It's how he got rich.

I worked at KEEE/KJCS Radio at the time, and I was out on the street covering that fire live on the radio. It took out most of one side of the downtown square. Our studios were on the second floor of a bank on the other side of the square, so we had a ringside seat. And BTW, Channel 2 didn't "cover" the fire. The Lufkin TV station shared its video of the actual fire with TV stations all over the state. Out of town TV reporters came to Nacogdoches the next day to get "day after" shots of the damage. I remember a bunch of news helicopters flying in from all directions and landing in the parking lot behind Stone Fort Bank.

It sure was. Dr. Denton Cooley played string bass, and equally noted cardiologist Dr. Grady Hallman played trumpet, I think. About a dozen other Texas Medical Center doctors alternated in and out on various instruments. These guys were very good musicians, and played at any number of notable public and private events. They even cut a record sometime in the 70s. I saw them one July 4th in the gazebo at Sam Houston Park. They recruited about a dozen other musicians from around the medical center and did patriotic music for a couple of hours. It's an interesting phenomenon that many doctors are also accomplished musicians. The Texas Medical Center has a performing orchestra right now that's made up almost entirely of doctors, nurses and medical students. They even have their own website. http://www.doctorsorchestrahouston.org/pre.../p2_articleid/2 My own sister in law -- A BCOM graduate who studied under some guy named DeBakey -- was a surgeon for 35 years and a professional quality flutist in her spare time. She's now retired from medicine, and she makes her living performing flute with orchestras and teaching it at the college level.

Actually, the Gulf Stream flows north and northeast along the Texas coast and follows it east across the mouth of Mississippi to the eastern gulf, and then out through the Florida strait into the Atlantic. There it turns north to Cape Hatteras NC and and then slowly veers out into the north Atlantic. We can thank the Gulf Stream for keeping the effluent of the Mississippi away from the Texas coast. Someone else here has pointed out that our waters are so dirty looking because the water is so shallow and the bottom is always getting churned up by the currents.

http://www.tsarp.org

I shat you not. Shatner Wood Street is in Copperfield Westcreek Village, in the neighborhood north of Langham Creek HS. Key Map 407-L.

Clematis is a very beautiful flower and I think it's a fine name for a street. Check them out at http://clematis.org/ I have no idea where the name Gasmer comes from. I'm guessing it was probably the name of someone involved in the development of Westbury back in the 50s. Residential developers have the privilege of naming their streets. In my neighborhood in Copperfield, the developer was apparently a movie and TV buff. The streets are named after actors. We have Hudson Oaks, Chamberlain, Garner Crest, Hamil Wood, Saxon Court, Hayward Court, Mason Ridge, Landon Oaks, Gable Point and, brace yourself, oh my god, here it comes, grit your teeth, are you ready? -- Shatner Wood.

That's a great story. Sounds like something I would have done. I mean I would be the drunk who gets into the wrong car. I think I did that once upon a time. Anyway, You're thinking of The THIEF Who Came to Dinner, with Ryan O'Neal and Jacqueline Bisset. It was filmed in Houston in 1973, just three years after BMcCloud. A little over 20 years ago, when I lived in a small town in east Texas -- Lufkin -- I was active with a community theater group that was based at the local community college. It was there that I met a young college student named Dean Goss Jr. He looked just like his dad, had his dad's dry sense of humor and personality, and he appeared to be following in dad's footsteps. He was only a freshman and he was already an agent for almost a dozen students in the drama department. He had signed contracts. I don't know if any of his clients ever succeeded, but I thought it was funny that junior was trying so hard to be just like dad. I have no idea how he turned out or what he's doing now.

I think -- correct me if I'm wrong -- but Star Furniture may be the only serious competition Finger's would have on I-10 west. I can't think of another furniture store of comparable size in the I-10 corridor outside the Beltway. So you think Finger's should just cede that area to Star? Star has always struck me as more "up-scale" than Finger's. Sort of like the difference between Dillard's and Sears. I think Finger's and its ability to cater to both middle and upper income buyers could give Star a serious run for the money on the west side.

West, North and NW Harris County are the fastest growing areas around. Lots of new homes going up all the time, and lots of families moving in. Families need furniture. This will give Finger's three stores on the North side. Deerbrook, Greenspoint, and now Willowbrook. I wonder when the West side will get one. I'm puzzled by the fact that Finger's has only one store on the west side -- in Sharpstown. I think a store in the I-10 corridor, say, somewhere between the Beltway and Katy would be very successful. A helluva lot of growth going on out there.

"Mutual parting of the ways" is code for "he was fired." "Not at liberty to say" means KHOU probably agreed to pay off his contract, with the stipulation that he not talk about it to other local media. That way he can make a graceful exit, which will help him land a new job somewhere. The first law of leaving a job is to never EVER burn the bridge. I'm also willing to bet that his entry on the Wikipedia was copied word for word from his resume. It looks like a resume. I don't enjoy seeing someone lose their job, but I doubt that he's hurting financially. Guys like Walton always land on their feet somewhere. With that list of awards he'll do fine.

Believe it or not, watching a movie in the Astrodome worked better than you might think. The screen was big enough, and the sound system was good enough to make us feel like we were in a huge theater. We were able to forget we were in (at that time) the most cavernous indoor space on the planet Earth. Hey!! There's an idea. Turn the Dome into an indoor drive-in theater. I'd go. Somebody get the County Judge on the phone.

Oh it was a stinker. I had several friends who were hired to work on the production crew and they were there for all the filming. They told me that as the movie went along, they watched the dailies every night at midnight in the old Delman Theater on Main at Wheeler. They had to wait till after the last movie of the night, and the owners let Altman use it for free. Altman's film was a fable of a young social outcast who lashes out, and it looked really good while it was being made. They were all expecting it to be as good as MASH, maybe even better. Unfortunately, when the filming was done, and all the film was in the cans, Altman had to pack up and leave for Canada to start filming McCabe and Mrs Miller. All the unedited film was shipped to Hollywood, where studio boss Robert Evans took charge of the editing and cut it to pieces. For openers Evans didn't like Altman, and worse, he hated the whole Brewster McCloud project. Evans didn't understand what Altman wanted the movie to say, and didn't care, so he edited everything good out of the movie and released it. It was a huge flop, and Altman never spoke to Evans again. It wasn't a flop in Houston though. They held the world premier in the Astrodome. Try to visualize the Dome, with a huge movie screen about 100 feet high and several hundred feet wide, hanging over the outfield bleacher seats stretching from left field to right field, pretty much covering up the old scoreboard. The projector was on a platform somewhere out around 2nd base. VIP's and invited guests sat in folding chairs arranged in rows across the outfield and infield. We groundlings had to sit in the stands. (an interesting reversal there) It drew a pretty big crowd. I'd guess somewhere around 20 thousand people, and the whole event was the tackiest thing you ever saw. I can't remember if Robert Altman was there or not, but a handful of his cast members showed up, mostly some no-name supporting actors. But not to worry, because every 2nd and 3rd rate politician, showbiz wannabe and hanger-on within 500 miles of Houston showed up in limos, tuxes and minks, for the obligatory "this is a great day for Houston" and "oh I'm so proud to be here" interviews with the gushing local TV reporters and gossip writers. There was Houston, in all its "local-yokel" glory, and it - was - awful. My wife and I had seats up in the upper level somewhere above first base, and, you know how you can't take your eyes off something that's just spectacularly and unrelentingly embarrassing to watch? That's how it was. Not the movie mind you. It was bad enough, but the whole god-awful premier scene was a local nightmare I will never forget.

It had short scenes all over town, but mostly in and around the Dome and the Hermann Park Zoo. In the chase scene, the cars go airborne going over the railroad crossing on South Rice at Westpark. I worked in the Galleria area at that time, and I remember they closed South Rice all day so they could shoot that scene. "But officer! I work right over there! I'm gonna be late." "Sorry kid. Fugitaboutit." That conversation really did happen. Oh yes! If you look quick, you'll see Sally Kellerman skinny dipping in the Mecom Fountain. I think they shot that one just after the crack of dawn one weekend morning when there was NO traffic anywhere in sight.

That was one of the "voices" Gardner used for the characters in his funny southern stories, but I don't remember that he ever gave the voices a "name". He just did them. The one we're talking about here was a dead-on perfect imitation of Butterfly McQueen as "Prissy" in Gone With the Wind. He used that voice a lot. "James Louis!! You get away from dat wheel barrah. You don't know nothin bout machinery!"

You're right, it's still funny, to a southern white boy like me who remembers the world as it was before the Civil Rights era. But in this day and age, I feel a little uncomfortable laughing at stories that get laughs by making fun of black stereotypes. Even so, I still love listening to my old Brother Dave LP's, in private, with old friends. Guilty as charged. You're not going to believe this, but a one man show about Dave Gardner opened in Greensboro North Carolina last week. The actor has been doing this show for nearly three years. Here's a link to a review: http://www.thetimesnews.com/onset?id=2249&...te=article.html Tickets on sale blap blap.

Not just Newhart. Two Brother Dave Gardner albums were also recorded there. Those albums were on RCA Victor and were produced by RCA's Nashville office, which at that time was run by Chet Atkins. Atkins liked Houston, and he always came to the Tidelands Club when he was in town. He was friends with the manager, so sometime in 1959, Atkins asked if he could bring an unknown comedian in for a show that would be recorded for release on an album. The manager said sure, why not, nothing to lose, and the rest is history. They had to use the best bits recorded over several nights, but the Newhart album was so successful they didn't need to come back to the Tidelands for the next one. They recorded that one in a bigger and more well known club somewhere. It was at about the same time that Atkins brought Dave Gardner to the Tidelands. Gardner had already done his first album -- Rejoice Dear Hearts -- in a Nashville nightclub, and it was a hit. For reasons I've never been able to fully ascertain, Atkins decided to record Gardner's followup albums, Kick Thy Own Self and It's Bigger Than the Both of Us at the Tidelands. Much later on in 1969, when his popularity was seriously fading, Gardner returned to Houston for a show at Jones Hall. By that time his white southern humor was politically incorrect years before that term ever came along. Racial stereotypes just weren't funny anymore one year after Martin Luther King was assassinated. Gardner died in 1983. Anyway, the huge success and popularity of those early comedy recordings put the Tidelands Club on the map. They didn't get very many more live recording gigs, but it became a popular stop for comedians on the national nightclub circuit. This was long before "comedy clubs" even existed, and comedians had to compete with singers and musicians to get gigs in nightclubs. Life was a lot harder and tougher for comedians in those days, and only the very best survived.

It's better than honorable. It's classy. Cecilia has her priorities straight. She knows what is really important in life, and she's doing the right thing, knowing she may not get another shot at prime time TV news. That's not nearly as important as the path she's chosen. My hat is off to you Cecilia.

Sorry you feel that way about her. For me, Lucy Noland is one of the most professional local anchors I've ever seen. She delivers the news with solid authority, unlike her predecessor, who just sat there and read it off the teleprompter for however many years she was there. She's raised the energy level and the tempo of her newscasts, and it's been a little funny watching Greg Hurst, who had to crank up his own energy level to match hers. He's done it though, and together, with that great staff of KHOU reporters, I think they do the best newscast in town. The most noticeable thing about Lucy, for me, was the way she fit right in on the first day. We saw none of the typical and amateurish "new kid in town" mistakes and stumbles with local street names and various parts of town. She sounded like someone who'd been living here a long time. That shows she took the time to learn the local layout before she went on the air, and that's a sign of a true professional.