Most Memphis Tigers fans consider tonight's game against Houston just another bump in the road to a perfect season, but to Houston head coach Tom Penders, tonight's match-up against No. 1 Memphis could be the key to unlocking their ticket to the NCAA Tournament with an upset win. Houston (18-4, 7-1) travels to Memphis (23-0, 9-0) to meet for the second time in two weeks. Although the Cougars are off to their best start......

Darrell Green, a product of Houston's Jones High School, was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this past weekend. Green, who was selected No. 1 overall in 1983 by the Washington Redskins, played 20-years with the same team, an NFL co-record with the Rams' Jackie Slater. During his 20-year career, Green was arguably the greatest cornerback of his time. He intercepted 54 passes for 621 yards and returned six of them for......

The Houston Astros have announced they have come to terms on a one-year, $1 million contract with incentives with Darin Erstard. Erstad, who can play outfield and first base, is a two-time All-Star (1998, 2000). Last year with the Chicago White Sox, Erstad batted .248 with four home runs runs and 32 RBI in 87 games. His career year came in 2000 with the Anaheim Angels when he sported a .355 average with 25......

Good morning, Houston. One thing about the holiday season: You hear Christmas music everywhere you go (and if you haven't been hearing it, just tune in to Sunny 99.1 — you'll catch up quickly). With that in mind, we were interested to check out ASCAP's list of the most-played holiday songs this year. It was released on Dec. 4, but by that time, the group reported that 1,562 different holiday songs had already been......

Good morning, Houston. So you say you're a Dynamo fan, eh? Well, here's your chance to prove it: The back-to-back MLS champs are auctioning off a chance to get close to the team's two MLS cups — literally. If you win the auction, the cups will be dropped off at your house on Christmas Eve and picked up Dec. 26; in between, you can do whatever you want with 'em (within reason, of course).......

Good morning, Houston. Have you ever wondered why our freeways have multiple names — for example, I-45 south of downtown is also called the Gulf Freeway, the section through downtown is the Pierce Elevated and the part north of downtown is the North Freeway? Yeah, we have, too — and it seems we're not alone: The Chronicle's Tex-Arcana column tackled that question this weekend. The answer? In Houston, at least, the names tell where......

Good morning, Houston. It's no secret that Texans like fried food — so it's no wonder that the Big Tex Choice Awards, the taste-test contest at the State Fair of Texas, focuses on fried concoctions. But this year's Big Tex winner for the best-tasting new food might surprise even the most jaded connoisseur of fried delicacies: It's fried cookie dough, created by Abel Gonzales Jr. The fried cookie dough is a cookie base with......

Good morning, Houston. Pardon us, but we seem to have lost our phone number. Can we borrow yours? Yeah, we know — it's lame. And apparently we're not the only one with a bad pickup line: Houston is the country's 14th best city for singles, according to Forbes magazine. We lag behind Dallas-Ft. Worth (No. 9) and Austin (No. 12), but we're far ahead of San Antonio (No. 28). On the bright side, Houston......

Good morning, Houston. Time for the results of another sex study: This one, from two UT-Austin psychologists, looked at the reasons people have sex. No. 1 on the list, as you'd expect, was attraction — but there's more to it than that. Among the 237 reasons Cindy Meston and David Buss cataloged: "It seemed like good exercise." "The person was a good dancer." "To get rid of a headache." And perhaps most odd: "I......

Good morning, Houston. Noticed a sharp increase in the number of mosquitoes this summer? You will, observers say — and now, Harris County's first confirmed 2007 human case of West Nile virus has been reported. Break out the insect repellent, check up on the West Nile symptoms and do your best not to get stung — although, these days, we guess that's about like saying "stay out of the humidity." >>A break in Gearen......

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......

You may remember that we talked last fall about the Texas Medical Center testing its buildings for the effects of stray current from the MetroRail line — electricity leaks that Metro says are inconsequential, but that observers worry could be weakening the foundations of nearby buildings, bridges, roads and other structures. Well, the preliminary results of those tests are back, and they show worrisome levels of current at three sites. Does that mean buildings are......

The eyes of Texas will be upon Houston this weekend as the No. 1 ranked Rice Owls (52-12) set to battle No. 6 Texas A & M (48-17) at Reckling Park for a birth in the College World Series. These two Texas baseball teams have been doing battle since 1914 with A & M leading the all-time series at 173-86-2 and also a 2-0 record to sport this year against Rice. But don't let......

Good morning, Houston. We initially kicked off the day with a story about warnings of tainted fish in Clear Lake, but it turns out it's not the Clear Lake around here — it's one in Panola County, East Texas. Two Clear Lakes? Who knew? (We would have, had we checked online. Oops.) So you'll be happy to know that there aren't any seafood warnings out for our area, but that doesn't mean we're not......

The Get Off Your Lazy Butt List Hey there, Houston, look outside. No, you haven't died and are now seeing heaven — it's our fair city with sunny skies, low humidity and a cool breeze. In light of that, don't do anything inside that you don't have to. As soon as you leave your office/jail, head outdoors and stay there. Houstonist would like to offer our suggestions for your afternoon activities. Because we are......

If you haven't already made lunch plans, why not go ahead and have that triple cheeseburger, large order of fries and milkshake? And why not wash it down with a giant dessert? A celebration is in order, you see: Houston has slipped to No. 6 in the Men's Fitness annual ranking of America's fattest cities. Looks like Mayor White's Jazzercise really paid off. In this year's MF rankings, Las Vegas takes the coveted title of......

Good morning, Houston. Today, the world is a little less colorful: Political columnist and legendary wit Molly Ivins died Wednesday evening after a seven-year battle with breast cancer. She was 62. Ivins was a diehard liberal whose folksy charm and pointed wit won over people on both sides of the aisle — and, of course, where better to practice political punditry than Texas? "Naturally, when it comes to voting, we in Texas are accustomed......

In Houstonist's adolescence, we didn't have the Internet — we were forced to amuse ourselves by playing Connect Four, watching "The Facts of Life" and finding creative things to do with sticks and mud. But these days, kids can do almost anything on the Internet — including tattling on their classmates, thanks to an anonymous email-based system in place at several local schools. The system is run by AnComm, a company based in Oxford, Miss.,......

Well, it looks like the morally upright have temporarily abandoned their crusade against Harry Potter in schools in favor of something far more worthwhile: trying to ban a book about the dangers of censorship. It's happening in Conroe, where a 10th grader and her folks are trying to get Fahrenheit 451 removed from Caney Creek High School's curriculum. Yes, that's right, Fahrenheit 451 is the classic book about a society in which reading is banned......

The Chronicle checks in today on a slew of city ordinances that seem to be going largely — or totally — unenforced, including a ban put into effect last year on "pocket bikes," quick little motorcycles that councilmembers said were a nuisance and a hazard. Though riding the cycles on public streets was already illegal, City Council spent three meetings and hours of debate before passing an ordinance banning them in May 2005, a move......

So a couple of weeks ago, when we heard that ex-TSU President Priscilla Slade's Memorial Park-area manse had been sold, there was one thought foremost in our mind: "God, we hope someone famous bought it." And we're not disappointed: The new owner of 203 Terrace Drive is none other than Mario Williams, the Texans' controversial No. 1 draft pick. Williams bought the 6,000-square-foot house for $1.5 million, short of Slade's asking price of $1.8 million.......

>> World: British health food stores will sell tea spiced with hemp flower syrup and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. "Iced Cannabis Tea" is also sold in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. >> Nation: Another crazy poll verifies something we never expected. This time, the U.S. is the No. 1 patriotic country out of 34. Venezuela comes in second. >> Texas: The Supreme Court's decision to uphold much of 2003's......

We're admittedly still sick over this story about a 14-year-old boy allegedly stabbed and beaten to death by a female member of a rival gang, 15, in a Montrose park. The boy and his friends were attacked with baseball bats, knives and other assorted makeshift weapons over turf at the park. Houstonist wonders if this could have been avoided if only the teens had taken part in gangs that wouldn't get them killed. For......

So Houston has made the list from another pointless survey, but this time we're actually No. 1 — and it's a good No. 1. Sorta. The survey, conducted by Verizon Information Services, found that Houston is the cleanest city in America. The cleanest cities list is based on the number of cleaning services advertised on Verizon's SuperPages.com site. Thank God — we were starting to worry this was a scientific survey! If you're curious how......

So you've probably heard about the recent spate of alligator attacks in Florida, right? Yeah, nasty stuff. Fortunately, if you should find yourself be-bopping through some wetlands in the near future, KHOU has some tips on how to keep yourself from becoming gator food. After what we're sure was hours of research, Channel 11 offers the following advice based on a visit to Brazos Bend State Park, which has some gators of its own:......

We were wondering the other day whether anyone else was noticing what seems like an unusually large number of bank branches being built these days — and then we found out that yes, bank robbers have taken note of that — and it's making their heists a lot easier. The AP notes that a growing number of branches, plus customers' growing need for accessible banking, is creating challenges for banks that don't want to be......

Baseball fans winter is over and spring is here! Opening Day is officially starting and so are the festivities! Today kicks off NL Champions Week with a street festival that begins at 11 a.m. and lasts until 5 p.m., which should give you plenty of time to get in your seat or favorite spot before the 6:05 p.m. first pitch. Hurling tonight will be Roy Oswalt, who's making his fourth consecutive opening day start......

Talk about your inexplicable magazine lists: Houston has ranked No. 42 on Prevention magazine's list of America's top 100 walking cities. Huh? Prevention and the American Podiatric Medical Association recognize the country's most walker-friendly cities each year using a formula based on the percentage of adults who walk for exercise, the percentage of residents who walk to work, percentage of adults who participate in sports and/or ride public transit, the number of parks and walking......

Last week, Houston landed, yet again, on one of those offbeat national polls. This time, we have the coveted number five spot on the Wild, Weird, and Wacky Street Names Contest, sponsored by Mitsubishi. J.D. Montfort submitted the intersection of Clinton Drive and Fidelity Street, located in east Houston near the Ship Channel, and he’ll receive a life-size replica of those signs for his winning submission. If he’s a Republican, we're sure he’ll proudly......

The 2006 Winter Olympics ended Sunday. Did you notice? Apparently, not many Americans concerned themselves with their skiing, skating and curling brethren: According to Nielsen, nightly television ratings for the 2006 games were the lowest in recent history. NBC and its cable networks pulled a 12.2 Nielsen rating and a 19 share for its nightly coverage of the Olympics — an average of 20.2 million viewers per night. That's down from the 19.2 rating and......