Last Chance To See 600 sq mi: Hidden
Missed Connections: Gefilte Fish...and "Chain Connections"
H-Town Rock
Rock Talk, Vol. IX
Good morning, Houston. You know what today is, right? It's the day before what's apparently the most important book in the history of the world, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is released. If you're a Harryhead and a fan of Katy, our neighbor to the west, you should be delighted to know that Katy has been named the "Harryest" town in Texas — the distinction that goes to the town that pre-ordered the most copies of the book. It's not clear just how many pre-orders it took to get that honor, but KTRK reports that Katy isn't tops on the national Harry list: It's only No. 5, with Falls Church, Va., taking the No. 1 spot. Better luck next time, Katy — oh, wait.
> This just in: It's rained a lot!: We figure you know by now that June's monsoons followed us into July, but did you realize that it's rained 15 of the 19 full days so far this month? It's true, says KPRC meteorologist Anthony Yanez, and the rain is expected to continue through the weekend. The showers are being caused by moisture off the Gulf, so they don't happen at any particular time of the day like the daytime heat-driven rain we had earlier in the summer. Though the rain hasn't caused too many problems in Houston because it's generally moved through the area quickly, rising water is quite a concern for folks living along the Trinity and Brazos rivers. Some areas of Liberty and Brazoria counties are already experiencing flooding, and officials are bracing for more high water when the Brazos crests this weekend. The good news, if there is any: The National Weather Service's Charles Roeseler said Sunday and Monday may be a little drier than we've seen in a while.
>> Now that's just mean: Rosalie Dahl, 87, had just finished doing her laundry at a neighborhood laundromat Wednesday morning when a man approached her and offered to help her put her clothes in her car — and then he knocked her down and stole her purse. Dahl suffered cuts and bruises on her face, and the fall broke her glasses. "My arm hurts real bad and I couldn't sleep last night," she told KPRC. Police said the robbery was a crime of opportunity: Criminals look for the elderly, women walking alone or anyone else who looks vulnerable. They advise always being aware of your surroundings and, if anyone tries to steal your belongings, giving them up willingly and without a fight. Unfortunately, police don't have a description of Dahl's attacker, though they did find her purse and driver's license discarded alongside the Gulf Freeway.
>> This weekend's weather: Wet. Wet. Wet. But what else is new? Expect highs in the upper 80s through the weekend, with a 60 percent chance of rain today, a 50 percent chance Saturday and a 40 percent chance Sunday. Overnight lows will hold steady in the mid-70s. The good news is that there's less of a rain chance the early part of next week — so take the sunshine whenever you can get it.
Abracadabra! Headlines!
- Are Shell and BP going to merge? There are rumors — but there have been before
- Residents of a condemned southwest Houston condominium building have been given an extra day to move out
- Ronnie Courtney, the Texas Southern men's basketball coach for seven years, has been fired
- Is there a Luby's in your neighborhood? There may be soon: The cafeteria chain is planning to build 45 to 50 new locations in the next five years
- Now back on display at NASA: the refurbished Saturn V rocket
- A federal grand jury indicted a Galena Park man on allegations that he distributed child porn
- Houston attorney John O'Quinn has been ordered to pay $37.5 million to more than 3,000 former clients for improperly withholding funds from settlements he won for them
- An 18-wheeler got stuck under an overpass at the North Loop and T.C. Jester yesterday afternoon, causing a huge traffic backup
- Parents of a 4-year-old boy say LBJ Hospital didn't treat the boy right when they rushed him there while he choked on a token
- The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion topped the world in ticket sales for ampitheater concerts in the first half of 2007
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The thing about the "Harryest" cities (who came up with that term? Wasn't there something better they could have used? ) is that it is calculated on pre-orders from amazon.com per capita. So, say a small town with no major book chains (like the B&N or Borders) will receive a great many more online pre-orders (and pre-orders in general) per capita than a larger city. So the data is a bit skewed. But congrats to Katy anyway. :-)
I'll personally be at the Barnes and Noble on Holcolmbe(sp?) in costume. See you guys there!
Jules
If possible, I encourage every one to do their Deathly Hallows shopping at the Alabama Bookstop. That's where I will be tonight. No costume though, just a camera.