marmer

Um. Yes. Thanks.

Why don't you toss this link over to Swamplot?

A pity. I remember when the Avalon stopped showing movies in the mid 50s. It sat empty for a few years, until the late 50s when the owners did some paint-up fix-up and started booking road show productions of Broadway plays...

What a great story! Thanks for posting that, Filio!

College pranks that violate the law ought to at least be entertaining and basically harmless. For instance, when some Rice students reversed the direction that the statue of William Marsh Rice faces, that was illegal, it caused damage to the campus, but it was also kind of funny and didn't hurt anybody. One could say that the act contributed to the culture of the campus in a positive way. So I'd be totally cool with it if charges weren't pressed.

This is a totally different case. It is a violent crime committed against people. I don't have much sympathy for the perpetrators.

Oh, yes, the Willy's Statue prank has passed into campus legend. Especially since the perpetrators paid their fine (basically, the cost of having the statue restored to its proper orientation) by selling T-shirts and then donated the extra money to the School of Engineering for a scholarship. I was there, by the way, I saw it. It was turned back by early afternoon, though.

There are plenty of Rice shenanigans which were rather dangerous, though. I remember witnessing (not participating in) bottle rocket wars between colleges, and certainly the use of high-powered catapults called "gazilchers" was fairly common.

As I said in the message above, though, I didn't realize how bad it was. Jumping out of the car and beating up people or shooting at cars on the freeway cannot be defended.

Look, jumping out of the car, throwing people to the ground and kicking them in the ribs, shooting one person four times with a BB gun, this is hooligan behavior and is not even marginally understandable. "They should have known better" doesn't even begin to cover it. This was not a conflict between joggers and drivers, this was joyriding nonsense. They were shooting at cars on the freeway and on Main St as well. Recovering BBs is not all that important, you're not going to get any ballistic confirmation from that, and besides the ladies have already confessed and ratted out their boyfriends.

Caitlyn Barnett, the Rice student, was arrested on either Thursday or Friday according to the Rice paper. She posted bond immediately and was released. As far as I can tell the guys are still in jail.

OK, I didn't make the connection with the beating or the freeway shooting. My bad. No, there's no way to defend that.

A few perspectives from nearly thirty years at Rice:

1. The last statement I saw identified only one of the four suspects as a Rice student, and her arrest was "pending."

2. It doesn't happen very often, but Rice students have been charged and convicted with major crimes. Felony theft and felony arson are two which come to mind.

3. This is in no way condoning any illegal action, but after crossing the jogging track twice a day for many years, I can certainly understand how there might be frustration between drivers and runners. Some runners run obliviously in front of moving cars.

4. Did I read correctly that no BB's or Airsoft pellets had been recovered? Wonder if an air gun could be made to work with small, appropriately sized fragments of the crushed granite surface?

5. While criminal convictions are rare at Rice, stupid college student behavior is pretty much as common there as elsewhere. I can easily see how a college student might not think that plinking a few joggers from a car with an air gun is that big a deal. Again, not saying I agree, just having been a college student and then having been around them for a long time. "You should have known better" is easy to say in hindsight, but if people really did we'd never have to say that, would we?

What would Meijer get you that you couldn't get from Super Wal-Mart and Super Target? Sounds to me like a failure waiting to happen if they tried to move down here.

The thing I like about good deep dish is that its cooked 45+ minutes and its plenty of time for all the ingredients to muddle together into a delicious mess. Houston pizza joints are confused, though, and their deep dish is deep bread rather than deep toppings, so its not that good.

This is exactly right, based on my recent experience with Chicago Pizza in the Heights. It was good, but it was a lot of bread, and not exactly life-changingly good pizza.

It's always comforting to know I'm not the only person in the world who hates deep dish pizza. Sometimes I think I've just been missing something all these years, and then I realize that - no - it's just a crappy lasagna in a soggy crust.

Um....no. Lasagna has lasagna noodles in it. That's where it gets the name. Just so we're clear.

I hear them called mudbugs all the time, and I'm from around here.

I know they're a delicacy and all, at least in certain contexts, but unfortunately for me, I think they're nasty.

Yeah, it was like a modern Super Wal-Mart or Super Target, but we didn't have anything to compare it to. It was mind-numbingly huge. It was also far away from where I lived in Montrose at the time and it wasn't worth going over there just to look around.

Those of us who are a "certain" age (ahem) can remember that it was a little weird to have groceries, especially perishables, and "hard" goods like electronics and furniture in the same store. Nowadays we're used to it but back then it was strange, like brucesw said.

Thanks for that background, Filio! That seems very plausible, especially that the story was politically motivated.

What doesn't seem plausible is the idea of a guy recovering from food poisoning, who thinks he may be having heart trouble, trying to have an illicit sexual tryst. As bad as it sounds like he was feeling, he probably wasn't exactly in the mood.

Yeah, I'm with 20thSt and Red. I rent a few times a year. Netflix would be a waste, and besides, usually it's a spur of the moment decision to watch a movie. I honestly don't understand why Netflix is so big now.

I usually find that Hollywood Video has a better selection of movies, but I have not been able to successfully play a rental DVD in the last several attempts. Either from BB or HV. I know it's not my player because it plays all the movies I own on DVD just fine. I guess it's too much to expect that people won't treat the rental DVD's like coasters or frisbees or something.

And, I gotta say it here: Support your local Audio-Video Plus! One of the last, great, unique stores in Houston.

Jakarta? I'm thinking that with the coastline, the Buddhist statues, maybe even the boat in the tsunami debris. Not ruling out Bangkok though I don't think it's quite that coastal and maybe more crowded. It's not HCM City.

You know, my father died in his sleep after having not felt well (flu-like symptoms) for a day or two. It appears to have been a heart attack.

I wonder if in retrospect Beauford's "food poisoning" was actually an oncoming heart attack?

Purely conjecture, of course.

I'm sorry for the loss of your father, and that was the first thing that occurred to me, too. There's no way to know now, but I'll bet it wasn't "just" food poisoning.

On the other hand, the sickest I've been in my life were two bouts of food poisoning. Wonder if that could trigger a heart attack if someone was already on the brink?

Heh. That last pic looks like it could plausibly be in the Hillcroft/Harwin area.

Tough one. Somewhere where there was a European influence and the kids have enough money for sneakers. And where the cars, what there are, are Asian. That office building looks 80s generic to me.

Not real confident about this, but Ho Chi Minh City.

I didn't know him but I had heard the name around. I don't think he had been active in the Houston musical community for quite a while.

Novartis Human Resources Building, Frank Gehry, completion expected 2009/10. Photo credit: evan.chakroff on Flickr

Basel Bahnhof SBB (train station). 1907. Photo credit: J-Cornelius on Flickr

Rossetti Building, Herzog and de Meuron, 1998-2002. Photo credit: evan.chakroff on Flickr

Vitra Design Museum, in Weil am Rhein. Frank Gehry, 1989. Photo credit: evan.chakroff on Flickr

Tinguely Museum, Mario Botta, 1996. Photo credit: evan.chakroff on Flickr

Schifflaende at dusk. Photo credit: JaMaFi on Flickr

Harpist beside the Rhine. Photo credit: JaMaFi on Flickr

Street graffiti art. Photo credit: beattitude on Flickr

Basel Rathaus (City Hall), built in the early 1500s and extensively remodeled with frescoes in the 1600s. Photo credit: FatihZengin on Flickr

St. Antonius Church, reinforced concrete construction. Karl Moser, 1931. Photo credit: Wolfsraum on Flickr

St. Antonius Church, interior showing stained glass. Karl Moser, 1931. Photo credit: Wolfsraum on Flickr

Street gathering, probably outside the Rathaus. Photo credit: dna75 on Flickr

Rhine River and Muenster Church. Photo credit: monicamueller on Flickr

It's Basel, Switzerland, on the Rhine River. Basel borders France and Germany, and is an important railway hub. It is a major center for the Swiss pharmaceutical and chemical industries.

REHAB Basel, a privately run rehab center for spinal injuries. Herzog and de Meuron, 2002. Photo credit: roryrory on Flickr

Novartis Forum 3 office building, on the Novartis Campus. Diener & Diener, 2008. Photo credit: Belichter on Flickr

Basel Train Station (SBB Basel). Cruz y Ortiz, 1996-2003. Photo credit: artEfactO1984 on Flickr

Schaulager modern art museum. Herzog and de Meuron, 2002-2003. Photo credit: mattward on Flickr

Nice tour, marmer. Good lock-on porTENT. This reminds me I need to go to Buchanan's to restock some of the herbs that couldn't tke the July heat.

Heh. Good one, Porch, or should I call you Sherlock? Want some tomato soup?

Congrats to porTENT, officially the winner, honorable mention to Porchman. porTENT, start choosing your city.

I'm going to leave this with one more image and let the rest of you keep guessing overnight. Tomorrow, time permitting, I'll post the answers.

Good luck!

Yes, but vomit would probably be worse for Pergo, carpet, tile, and the other usual suspects than concrete. I don't know.

Gotta worry about TheNiche a little, though. In another thread he was talking about surviving high fevers and here he's talking about puking on the floor. Hope he's OK.