One of you Houstonians should email Mark Purdy (the above mercurynews article author) and tell him you'll drive him around and show him cool stuff. For him to base the boringness of Houston on Antowain Smith's comment is ridiculous. If anything, he was being hospitable to teammates coming to his hometown. And he complained about the weather. It's cloudy and rainy. REALLY? Look outside. As far as I know, it's been perfectly clear and sunny for the past few days. Yes, it's cooler than expected, but it's tolerable - try freezing weather in the Northeast.
If you think the bashing is bad now, wait until these same reporters come back in JULY for the all star game.
My response: Wow, how long did it take you to come up with such a fresh and witty title. Your head probably hurts after that one to even take a step out of your hotel room. Because if you did, you'd undoubtedly find numerous clubs, restaurants, and bars to frequent. If that's not your thing, Houston's one of the only cities in the nation to have home companies in theatre, opera, and ballet. If you're not cultured enough for that, there's shopping everywhere. Of course, you sound like you're too tired from that 10 minute drive which is downtown to Reliant. Or downtown to the Galleria. Or the Galleria to downtown. Phew, that's rough. By the way, tell your employer thanks from this Houstonian, by the way. That hotel room he/she's paying for is helping to pay for our three amazing stadiums, which is two more than the crap stadiums in the Bay Area, Pac Bell not included, of course. Of course, those stadiums are all separated by miles and miles of endless freeways, something that you seem to believe is unique to Houston. Go take a quick look at an atlas, turn to the couple of pages that have mapped out California, take a look at the Bay area. Those green lines, and there are many of them, are freeways. You may not like Houston, but there are about four million people in the metro area who disagree with you, including numerous athletes from all sports from numerous teams. So, you can go back to your wonderful town, one with a ridiculously high cost of living, in a state run by idiots who've sent it down the budgetary road to hell, one that is now headed by Arnold freakin' Schwartzenegger. And you have the nerve to talk trash about Houston. Well, get used to it. Houston will be in the Super Bowl rotation before you know it. I'm sure your employer could start giving you that week off every five years. Blake Gifford, Proud Houstonian P.S. It's been sunny and cool the since Sunday. The only rainy day was Saturday. Beats earthquakes.
I paid 1.71 a gallon at the AM/PM on the corner of NY and Lake in Pasadena this morning. I think you may be going to the wrong station.
I'm just pissed off that I forgot to mention what a "beautiful" town San Jose was. If he was from Frisco, I could take it, but outside of the mountains, San Jose is much uglier than Houston.
San Jose is not much different than Houston. Houston has much better looking women, but much worse weather. San Jose is a sausagefest, but only 45 minutes from the beach in Santa Cruz, or the greatness that is San Francisco. Not to mention, it's within driving distance of Lake Tahoe.
RM95 - Did you actually email that? I still think it would be cooler to just show the guy the town and give him a Houstonian perspective. In any case, great response.
Did they shut down the Bayer plant? That and the Exxon plant were considered 2 of the worst polluting plants in the state. They were up in the top 10 or so from what I recall. I'll see if I can find the article. Oh, and yeah, I've been out to Baytown a few times as a teenager... oy... talk about a drive.
It seems that these people came here with intention of being miserable. I was reading "The cold reality of Houston" on ESPN and the guy, Bill Simmons, is upset because he had to wear a jacket to Media day. He's even mad cause he "...has to share the same city with both Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens." "People are psyched here. On Monday night, they threw a huge celebration at the Reliant Center, capped off by Nolan Ryan symbolically passing a football to Roger Clemens, who was standing a few feet away. Sadly, Ryan can't throw 100 mph anymore. Alas. Clemens caught the ball, searched it to make sure there wasn't any cash stuffed inside, told the football that he would never throw it to anyone else because he wanted to retire with the football, then threw it to his buddy Andy Pettitte. And everyone went crazy. Apparently it was a great moment -- I couldn't see it that well with the blood pouring out of my eyes." He did seem to enjoy The NFL Experience a little.
Yup. Baqui, San Jose is uglier for it's "skyline" alone. Sure, once you get south to Los Gatos then over the hill to Santa Cruz, it's nice, as is the proximity to Frisco and Tahoe. That doesn't change the fact that San Jose is extremely unattractive.
Fvcking epic RM95!!! You put that b*stard in his place. And seriously..... he cant find anything to do?!?!? Its the Super Bowl..... Get off your ass, drive around to any bar or restaurant and try to squeeze out a good time.
Well, I do feel kinda hypocritical. I'd move out there in a second if I could afford it. Of course, I could rationalize it by saying I simply want to move closer to my sister...which I do.
RM95! Nice response. I especially applaud your decision to not include any references to your zeal for all things Titanic, which might have lessened your credibility... Seriously, though, well done.
Don't worry my American/Canadian friend, I was staring at my framed pic of Kate Winslet while typing.
Ahhh....I had forgotten about the Bayer plant....easy to do since it is way out in Mont Belview...I guess you could consider it Baytown since it is way out in the boonies right near the line between the two areas. I'm not going to argue that Exxon is a huge polluter, Im not a fan of Exxon's and anytime a politician starts talking about regulations to repeal the grandfather clause in the EPA emmission standards...I support them.....but even that taken into account..... I doubt it comes near to the combined emissions of the entire Pasadena area... My point there is that to point the finger at Baytown as being the big pollution area...when the true answer is south of the channel is flatout unfair to the nice little community that Baytown is. It must not be that bad to be out here since in the 10+years I have been out here....the new home and new business construction has been almost continuous..I havent seen the census numbers...but I guarantee you that the population has increased by a more than normal amount. now....onto a point I keep seeing raised that also isnt true.. I keep seeing in these articles about Houston being nothing but concrete.....why is it that when I look out from a high building or from the top of the two huge bridges....I see alot more tops of trees than I do buildings....Last time I checked...trees and concrete dont bear the slightest resemblance to each other...
"penis envy?" First of all, why must you equate everything to UT? I swear, some of you Longhorns think of yourselves as being God's gift to Texas college students. Open up your eyes and realize that this state does not revolve around the University of Texas. You guys are starting to resemble Cowboy fans. As the city errr town of Austin is concerned, sure its a cleaner, safer town, but thats because it is just that: a town. Comparing Austin to CITIES like Houston, New York, LA, and even Dallas to name a few is like comparing apples to oranges... To sum it all up, if constantly playing the "penis envy" card is the only lame attempt for a comeback that you can come up with, then go right ahead...what ever makes you feel better about your little town is alright with me.
I don't care where you're from -- the Sports Guy entry this morning is hilarious. The Faulk/McFarland bit is the funniest thing I've read in my entire life. Instant classic. Some other quick hits from the past few days: # Houston isn't so bad. The unintentional comedy is pretty much off the charts. It's the kind of place where the sports anchors have names like "Ric Renner." The ABC station runs commentaries from someone named Marvin Zindler, who's a cross between Andy Rooney and Robert Evans, but with the hideous toup to end all toups. He's fantastic. When I'm running ESPN6 some day, I'm giving him a "Rome is Burning"-type show. There's also a movie show on Saturdays that's like Siskel and Ebert, but with two Texans who are either heavily sedated or playing the best practical joke of all-time. Their named are Gordon and Gary -- part of me is convinced they're really Will Ferrell and Chris Parnell with tons of makeup. At one point when they were wrapping it up, Gordon looked right into the camera and said, "And always remember to leave your lobby light on because it probably is." I can't wait for next Saturday -- I might just transcribe the entire show and make that my Saturday posting. The strangest feature of the city is this Metro Rail they built -- a new-wave version of the trolleys in Boston and San Fran that run right on the street. One of my readers (James from Houston) warned me about it last week, saying, "What's the Vegas over-under for how many people the new Light Rail will hit during Super Bowl week? This is right up there with first horrific Slam Ball injury and how many times will Doug Christie make that hand gesture as thing you should be allowed to bet on. Am I the only one who sees this??? Or am I just crazy???" Well, he wasn't crazy. If you're not from here, and if you're lost and driving/walking around at night, it's really, really, really easy to careen into the train. Like creepy-easy. I can't imagine what they were possibly thinking here. They even have to run commercials on the local channels urging people not to take a left-hand turn into the trains. It's like an "SNL" skit. They should just go the other way. From the producers of "Look Out, You're Driving Right Into The Light Rail!", the city of Houston is proud to introduce ... Henry, the world's first robotic crossing guard programmed to wobble right into moving school buses! # I forgot to mention this. During Media Day, I snuck behind Kevin Faulk and Anthony McFarland to hear what they were talking about. There weren't any cameras or anything -- they were just sitting there watching the scene and making conversation. Nobody said anything. And then this happened: Faulk: How's yo' mama? McFarland: "Mama good." Followed by about 10 more seconds of silence. You have to love Media Day. # Questions you keep hearing out here: Who has the best barbecue, best steaks, and who has the best, um, gentleman's clubs? After consulting various people out here and quickly sifting through some e-mails -- and I can neither confirm nor deny whether I leaned on personal experience to make any of these selections -- here are the winners: Best barbecue: 1.) Goode Company Barbeque; 2.) Pizzatola's; 3.) Otto's. Best steak: 1.) Vic and Anthony's; 2.) Sullivan's; 3.) Pappas; 4.) Morton's. Best, um, clubs: 1.) Men's Club; 2.) Rick's; 3.) Treasures. As an added bonus, on Monday night, many of the Sacramento Kings and Donovan McNabb were enjoying the entertainment at Treasure's. I wasn't there, but some friends of mine were ... and let's just say that McNabb's ribs are doing much better.
Heard Jim Nantz on 610 this morning with john and lance... he brought up the fact that the chronicle had printed some of the disparaging articles that belittled houston...he was appauled and seemed almost to tears of anger as he basically said that he would confront all 4 writers face to face. he ended by stating the fact that as the head anchor on cbs' broadcast of the superbowl, with an audience of hundreds of millions, he would have the last word in this matter... As a houstonian Nantz is such an asset to this city!!!
