Specwriter

Specwriter loves this vid too.

The old tanks aren't the problem. It's the soil around the tanks into which the gasoline has leaked that needs to be removed. Filling the tanks with sand certainly didn't take care of the stuff that had leaked out over the years.

Yea! Yea! and YEA!!! My parents also live near the McMahon/Landmark Chevrolet site. If for no other reason than it will lessen the run-off from those acres of paving I am glad to see it go. It was an awful eye-sore too. So a tractor and farm implement dealership is coming in its place. That is interesting. The smaller showroom building immediately next to the motel was originally Magnusson Volkswagen. The owner was a customer of my father's as was the owner of the Datsun (Nissan) dealership across I-45 near Canino.

I'll always cringe for sure. It's just "too made up" and so much a rip-off of SoHo. I read somewhere long ago, and I don't remember where or why, that Sam Houston's last name came, of course, from his father's ancestry. Apparently a distant antecedent in Scotland was credited with founding Hugh's Town. Don't quote me on that though.

Good point, UtterlyUrban. All of us who support this need to step up at whatever level we can. The great thing about grass-roots support is that philanthropies recognize it and add their support as well. The vice president for development at my alma mater repeatedly reminds the alumni that those numerous $50 and $100 dollar contributions are a major part of what influences foundations to make those $100,000 and $500,000 grants.

Thank you, Purpledevil. All this writing about beignets has caused me to need a fix too.

Thundercloud Subs from Austin though you would have to find some hippies to run the place. A fine alternative in Seabrook is Neptune Subs; been there over 35 years.

It doesn't have to be any of those mentioned but perhaps one or more of the newly minted multi-millionaires in the city could step up.

I was distressed to see that the B-EP was going away but much more upset to learn that Palace Lanes would also be no more.

I know inflation has been pretty flat for the last decade but even if that has not been taken into account this chart looks pretty encouraging.

Sad to learn about this. For a beignet place to be successful it has to have a steady stream (almost a torrent actually) of customers like Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Beignet have absolutely NO shelf life. Like a doughnut, only more so, they are best eaten as soon as they cool down enough to put them in your mouth. I used to patronize the beignet shop in Clear Lake near Bay Area Blvd. and Space Center Drive. The pastries were made as they were ordered. Having them made up and sitting under a heat lamp simply would not do and the owner/manager or whatever of the shop understood this. Unfortunately, those patrons satisfied with going into Shipley's down the street and getting what had been sitting on a tray for an indeterminate amount of time weren't in the mood to wait 3-5 minutes for what has to be one of the most delicious treats I can think of. Too bad.

Nice work JLM. Thank you. You've got my interest piqued.

When the grid for the City of Houston was laid out by Gail Borden thoroughfares including Texas, Rusk, Prairie, and all others running parallel to those were designated "avenues." Those running perpendicular to Texas, e.g. Main, Travis, Fannin, etc. were designated "streets." I had the interesting experience of driving through the old part of Texas City earlier today. Thoroughfares there are numbered in both directions with avenues running in one direction and streets in the perpendicular direction. That can be confusing. Imagine being at the intersection of 25th Street and 25th Avenue and trying to decide how to reach 1601 34th Street.

My great-grandfather had a rural loft but he called it a barn.

New Yorkers refer to the street in the south part of Manhattan, from which the SoHo district derives its name, as "House-ton Street." Obviously the 'e' is silent and we all know the common term for a (usually) single-family residential structure rhymes with 'mouse' not 'new.' Yet SoHo is pronounced with two long 'o's (?). Edo, as it is written in English, is the ancient name for modern Tokyo and seems generally to be pronounced Eh'-dough. Any similarity to the Japanese megalopolis and the area immediately east of the Houston CBD evades me.

How about "NoWeDon't?"

The Texas Room of the Houston Public Library and libraries at Rice and the University of Houston may also be good places to search for information.

Well, I like both Darby and Katherine and think they both do a fine job reporting on the traffic. They are both Houston natives and seem to have a genuine affection for the city. I wish them both the best.

many floors?

I was introduced to Colleen through her sister, Lucille, who was also my neighbor at the time. I would never ask Colleen why she located her store where she did - I don't think that would have been polite but her sister told me that the location turned out to be very convenient for her out-of-town customers of which she had several. They could fly into Hobby, take a cab to her store (less than a mile), get their book(s), and be back at the terminal in no time. This also gave them the opportunity to browse. Remember Colleen not only sold books she was a locator of rare books as well.

NOT by the side of the road from an ice chest in back of a pickup truck!

I know the book store in the Rice village to which you may be referring. I cannot remember the name but it was (is?) in the same building as the Briar Shoppe. There are a few others on Bissonnet (2300-2400 block), Murder-by-the-Book and Brazos Book Store. Brown Book Store downtown sells primarily technical books and manuals. Another very cool (but no longer in existence) book store was Colleen's on Telephone Road at Airport. Yes, that's the right location. Colleen Urbanek sold used, antique, and rare books mostly in the subject area of political science and history. She sold her inventory several years ago (I believe she was in her early 80's at the time) to a buyer on the east coast and has since passed away. Ironically, there was an article on Colleen's in the Houston Press 18 years ago this day, June 13, 1996. http://www.houstonpress.com/1996-06-13/news/old-and-rare/ . As far as independent bookstores are concerned, apart from those mentioned above, I am at a loss. Sub, I don't know how old you are but I am just a couple of years away from being AARP eligible. Reaching awareness of such things like which store sold what in the 1970's I remember the shopping mall as the place to buy books and magazines other than the tabloids. Walden Books and B. Dalton were the major stores then. Bookstop and Borders came along a little later. Now it seems Amazon, along with Kindle, is ringing the death knell for those as well.

When the Fiesta at Wheeler and San Jacinto first opened I wouldn't have guessed it would have remained so popular. One thing I noticed about Fiesta stores early on is that they seem to alter their inventory particular to the area. The Fiesta on the North Freeway at Airline is different than the one on Wheeler or that on Mykawa. Oddly (or not), the two Fiesta stores I remember failing were those at the Gulf Freeway and NASA Road 1 (loved the hydroponic display) and one on 1960 at (I believe) Kuykendahl. BTW, If I lived in Eastwood I would consider the H.E.B. at Gulfgate for my grocery shopping.

"Early adopters" in the east side will have to put up with a few "inconveniences" at first. I had about 30 minutes to kill the other day so I drove around the area bounded by 288 on the west, I-45 on the north, Scott on the east, and Elgin on the south. The contrast between the new, three-storey townhouses and the abondoned shacks was startling. most streets still have open ditches, are in poor repair, and are very narrow. Elgin has been redone though and can certainly handle what may come with future development. To my mind the major inconvenience is the lack of grocery stores in the area. A nice, well stocked, well run superette or two would be a very good thing. All that said, a search of HAR shows there are some tear-downs and vacant lots that can still be had for a reasonable price though I doubt that will last much longer.

Wish I could help. My favorite back in the mid-1990's was the Rhino Room (R.I.P.) on Richmond (Shepherd Square). It was dark, cool, and quite inside - totally no nonsense. It was a great place to enjoy a couple at the end of the workday.