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Written by: Super User

Category: Blog

Published: 28 December 2015

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Did you know that if James Earl Ray hadn’t shot him in 1968, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr (who presumably still holds the record for the most pre- and post-nominals ever) would have been 80 this year?

We, along with the rest of the US, celebrated his birthday on Monday. Martin Luther King, Jr Day is observed on the third Monday of January, which is near his real birthday of January 15th. Interestingly, although he was assassinated in 1968 it took until 1986 before this holiday was observed, and even then it was not recognised properly everywhere. Its only for the last 8 years that all 50 states have called it by its proper name. Even now, unlike other official holidays, this day is not a day off for all. Although its a Federal holiday (so schools are off) only about one third of the businesses give this day off to their employees.

As if a Federal holiday wasn’t enough, Tuesday was all taken up with the inauguration of 44th President of the United States. That’s Barack Obama, in case you hadn’t heard, or you’re a Texan Republican (actually, that’s pretty much the same thing) who can’t believe McCain didn’t get in.

Its not clear yet whether this day will be best remembered for the inauguration of the first African American President or for the fact that the actual swearing-in ceremony was bungled so badly that it had to be repeated the following day. This is only the third time this has had to be done - Chester A. Arthur (No 21, 1881-1885) and Calvin Coolidge (No 30, 1923-1929) were the other two.

US Presidents giving speeches and answering press questions brought back fond memories of Not The Nine O’Clock News and their sketch on this:

 

 

Had Starbucks been around in the early ‘80s when this show was originally airing, the quote “Harmony, Democracy, Freedom, Cup-cakes, Crumbly-Candy-Bars” may have been modified somewhat. Indeed Starbucks celebrated the inauguration in their own way, with special cardboard heat sleeves in red, white (well, cardboard colour) and blue with famous quotes from previous Presidential inaugurations.

There’s the one above, which is from JFK’s address in 1961 - “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country” and then there’s FDR’s from 1933 - “...The only thing we have to fear is feat itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”.

The FDR quote “nothing to fear but fear itself” is best remembered (by me at least) as being part of the lyrics to “The Weapon” by Rush, from their 1982 album “Signals”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I suppose there were many others but there’s only so many cups of coffee you can drink in one week...

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Written by: Super User

Category: Blog

Published: 27 December 2015

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The period between Christmas Day and Twelfth Night was traditionally known as Christmastide and has long been a time for over indulgence in all manner of ways.

But how’s it done Texas Style? Well in our case...

On the first day of Christmas, we...

Saw our neighborhood light up with Christmas lights that would make Chevy Chase (in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) envious, such as these:

Despite the poor state of the economy, it was clear that the electricity industry would not be suffering.

On the second day of Christmas, we...

Won prestigious awards from the Woodlands Masters Swim Team at their annual Christmas Party:

On the third day of Christmas, we...

Watched “Its a Wonderful Life” (again). Fortunately Frank Capra’s seminal taste of “Capra-corn” is still well worth another watch.

This film didn’t even earn enough to cover its costs when released in 1946 (it cost $3.7M and made $3.3M) but has since been established as a Christmas favourite and has been voted highly in many industry polls, such as “#1 most power movie of all time”. Apparently there’s no truth that the muppets Bert and Ernie got their names from two of the characters in this movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the fourth day of Christmas, thankfully no one got...

Burger King’s new fragrance, called Flame.

Flame is being promoted as "the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broilled meat". Burger King’s advertising says "Flame by BK captures the essence of that love and gives it to you. Behold ... now you can set the mood for whatever you're in the mood for."

Now who wouldn’t want to smell like cooked meat?

On the fifth day of Christmas, we...

Went to Six Flags Fiesta theme park in San Antonio.

More Christmas lights, but this time seen at high speed and at great heights. If you go, do try the Boomerang, Superman and Goliath.

And since you asked, the name Six Flags theme parks take their name from their first park (in Dallas) and the reference to the six national flags that have flown over Texas since it was explored by Cortez in 1519. And here are the flags themselves:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spain: 1519-1685 and 1690-1821

France: 1685-1690

Mexico: 1821-1836

Texas Republic: 1836-1845

Confederacy: 1861-1865

USA: 1845-1861 and 1865-Present day

 

 

 

 

On the sixth day of Christmas we...

Went to Austin, the capital (or capitol) of Texas.

This is Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin, home to the largest urban bat colony in North America (estimated at 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats). People come from miles around to see the bats coming out to feed each night. Unfortunately they are only here from mid-March to November, when they go to Mexico for the Winter (as well as presumably buying prescription drugs and coca-cola, two other reasons why people go from the US to Mexico - apparently drugs are a lot cheaper there and coke is still made with sugar rather than corn syrup so connoisseurs go there to get the “real thing” [(c) Coca Cola Company]).

On the seventh day of Christmas, we...

Went to Old Town Spring.

Old Town Spring was once a trading post and grew in the 1870s when the International & Great Northern Railroad made its way there. Spring gets its name from the fact that the Railroad construction reached there in the Spring after a particularly hard Winter (Something that’s hard to imagine given the 70-80 degree weather we experienced here in Spring in December). Originally called Camp Spring (three years later the “Camp” was dropped), there were 200 residents by 1903. Now (or at least as of the last census in 2000) there are over 36,000 residents (including us four) in an area of 24 square miles (about the size of Guernsey).
Old Town Spring is now home to a variety of shops (note that the term antique appears to mean junk here in the USA), restaurants, museums and art galleries.

On the eighth day of Christmas, we...

Got some sausages from Elgin. I realise this may seem like a random act in the middle of Christmastide. Surely Elgin is only famous as producing a nobleman that stole some marbles from the Greeks (or at least didn’t give them back when he’d finished playing with them).

However if you were driving back to Houston from Austin on highway 290 you would have passed through Elgin which claims to be the Sausage Capital of Texas (as well as the Brick Capital of the Southwest - and you wouldn’t want to get them mixed up).

 

 

 

 

 

We got the “deluxe sampler: a 1 lb package each of: beef smoked, garlic, smoked, smoked hot, smoked Mexican with jalapeno, Jalapeno with cheese, original summer sausage and jalapeno summer sausage.” Summer Sausage, by the way is made in the Autumn during the hunting season (you can take your deer to Meyers for “processing”
if you like). Its called Summer Sausage because it can be kept without refrigeration.

On the ninth day of Christmas we...

Did some Ice Skating

Once again the future of the local electricity company was secure as the Woodlands area north of Houston erected (if that is the correct term for constructing an ice rink) their traditional ice rink requiring vast amounts of energy to maintain a frozen area in a state that rarely gets below 0 degrees.

On the tenth day of Christmas we...

bought a Black and Decker Leaf Hog.

The Sisyphean task of sweeping up piles of leaves from the garden (sorry, its yard here) only to watch more start falling shall be no more.

Well, it still takes a long time, effectively hoovering the garden but I suppose even Sisyphus would have appreciated something to help roll his boulder up that hill in Ancient Greece. [This is a good point to remind you to listen to Chicago’s “Stone of Sisyphus” album, otherwise known as “Chicago XXXII”]

On the eleventh day of Christmas we...

Watched the ball drop in Times Square.

Well, we watched it on TV at least:

In fact we watched it twice. Once at midnight Eastern Time and then again at midnight Central Time when they seemed to want to pretend that it was happing for the first time.

This annual ball dropping has been going on since 1907 when New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs wanted something that would draw attention to the Square (which he managed to have renamed for his newspaper three years earlier - it was before that known as Longacre Square).

In an unusual energy efficient effort (perhaps to make up for the energy required in Texas for the lights and ice rinks) the new ball was made with LEDs and now consumes the same amount of energy as 10 toasters (which those of you who are married will be familiar with, as you will have received 10 toasters as gifts).

On the twelfth day of Christmas we...

Had some beer.

Surely no Christmastide would be complete without lashings of beer, ginger or otherwise (usually otherwise).

First its Big Woodrow’s, winner of various awards such as “Best Outdoor Bar”, “Ultimate Sportsbar” and one of the “Top 5 favorite places to watch an Astros game”.

We made it in time for Happy Hour (BW was nominated for Best Happy Hour in 2001) and I’m pleased to report that we got our money’s worth (but in a similar way to Las Vegas Casinos they more than got their money back as we pressed on long after Happy Hour ended).

Next it was off round the corner to the Richmond Arms, a one of those “traditional British pubs in America”. As usual his means a menu that includes a few token gestures amongst a menu that wouldn’t look out of place in TGI Fridays (I don’t remember my mum ever making “Jalapeno Meatloaf” for instance). Note to pub owner: Covering the walls with old British number plates can’t hide the fact that its not a traditional British menu.

Worse still they had the nerve to sell Newcastle Brown Ale on draught. This would be a serious offence anywhere in Britain, and probably punishable by death in Geordieland.

 

 

 

 

 

There were two redeeming features for the pub:

1. They had a Sunderland AFC scarf on the wall.

2. They had a great jukebox ($2 to play a 20 minute track by Rush is great value!).

 

 

 

So there you go, 12 Days of Christmas, Texas Style. Roll on the next holiday...

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Written by: Super User

Category: Blog

Published: 27 December 2015

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From Toronto its on to Ottawa, or more specifically Kanata, the high tech town to the west of Canada’s capital city.

Unlike in the USA, people in Canada seem to walk around a lot more (we enjoyed a brisk walk to Kanata’s “Local Heroes” bar and grill; it was -16C outside).

Whilst it may seem that Canadians are obviously keen on health and fitness as well as recycling there may be a simpler reason for their choice of transportation:

So how nice would it be in this weather to find a Starbucks for a nice hot cup of coffee? Well its not as easy as you might think. Whilst Starbucks in the USA seem to locate their stores a few feet apart there aren’t nearly as visible across the border. In fact whilst there are (subject to pending closures due to the recession) about 11,000 Starbucks in the USA there are only about 500 in Canada.

So what do the Canucks do for their caffeine fix? That’s where ex-Hockey star Tim Horton comes in. He opened a coffee-and-donut shop back in 1964 in Ontario and it has since expanded to account for over 60% of the Canadian coffee market (and Starbucks is second but a long way back at 7%).

There are about 2,800 Tim Horton’s in Canada and 400 or so in the USA. Amazingly there’s also a Tim Horton’s in Afghanistan. This (I’m reliably informed by my local correspondent, otherwise known as the man sitting next to me in the bar last night) is there to keep the Canadian troops stationed there happy. Since its so risky the staff are well paid to go there.

After Kanata its time to go back home to Houston, via Toronto. Unfortunately this doesn’t go to plan.

When travelling from Canada into the USA you actually have to go through US customs and immigration in Canada (This I suppose avoids the US customs having to have checkpoints at all the US airports that Canadian airports link to and also allows the airlines to fly into domestic terminals rather than international ones). Once you go through customs you are technically in the USA (even though you are still in Canada).

So the idea was:

Get off flight from Ottawa to Toronto

Collect bag in a special baggage collection area (a kind of no-man’s land between Canada and the USA)

Go through US customs and immigration checkpoint

Board flight from Toronto (the US part) to Houston

This idea would have worked fine had Air Canada checked my bag through to Houston. Unfortunately after waiting for it in “no-man’s land” I was told it wasn’t there and should go and collect it from the domestic baggage collection area.

OK, just leave no-man’s land...errr....no, can’t leave the way I came in, security won’t let me...they say I have to go through US customs and immigration...go there, and get turned away...back into no-man’s land and finally get routed to Canadian customs and immigration...so despite having come from Canada I have to fill a customs form in and go through Canadian immigration (I did get a stamp in the passport though!)...now I can get to the domestic baggage collection (after a brief attempt to turn me back by security there)...and there is my bag (with a few others that presumably suffered the same fate)...unfortunately now its too late to catch the flight to Houston...and of course there’s no flights until tomorrow....

Thankfully a helpful Air Canada ticket representative sorts me out with a new flight and a hotel room for free. So not quite the same as getting home but its better than being stuck in no-man’s land...

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Written by: Super User

Category: Blog

Published: 27 December 2015

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Until September last year the CN Tower in Toronto was the World’s tallest building at 1,815 ft high (as usual nothing is straightforward as that - there has been much controversy over this title, since the tower is not officially a building, so it has been named “World’s Tallest Freestanding Structure”, “Tallest Tower”, “World’s Tallest Freestanding Tower” and so on).

Anyway, if you’re the kind of person that thinks such records should only go to buildings (or structures, or towers, or freestanding towers or structures) that are finished then it still is the “World’s Tallest...<insert your preferred non-controversial term here>” (the Burj Dubai is currently over 2,300 ft high but it isn’t finished yet - who knows, the builders might run out of tea, go on strike and it will never be finished).

By the way, the CN tower was originally built to house a TV/radio transmitter and CN stood for Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower.

It seems that Toronto has a few “almost the biggest” things. Here for instance is “The World’s Biggest Bookstore” in downtown Toronto:

Unfortunately it isn’t anymore. That record goes to a Barnes and Noble store in New York City and if Dubai finds out then it’ll be there soon (well it will at least be under construction).

There may still be one “large” record in Toronto: The Eaton Centre in Toronto may well still be the largest downtown shopping centre in North America (and Dubai will never beat that record).

However the Eaton Centre may be more famous for a law suit by artist Michael Snow.
His sculpture “Flight Stop” consists of a number of fibreglass geese (a “skein” presumably, since they are flying, if you can use the term for flying fibreglass geese) hanging from the ceiling.

One Christmas the shopping centre decorated the geese with ribbons. Snow got upset and sued. The court ruled in his favour and the shopping centre had to remove the ribbons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, here are some recommendations if you go to Toronto:

1. Go up the CN tower when the weather is nice. This was the view from 1,122 ft today:

2. Have a few Steam Whistle Pilsners. The brewery is walking distance from the CN tower in the John St. Roundhouse, former home of the Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive repair shop:

    3.Don’t have too many Steam Whistle Pilsners if you want to ride on the Toronto Subway. I spent a while wandering round Union station looking for a ticket machine but all I could find were machines that you use to cancel your ticket (actually take off one journey from your multi-journey ticket). I gave up eventually and walked.

Here are some interesting facts about Toronto:

    1.They spell a lot of words that Americans spell “differently” (or “wrong” as its spelled in England) the same as in England: “Centre” is “Centre” not “Center”, “Defence” is “Defence”, not “Defense” but they do still spell some words the same as the Americans (“tyre” is “tire” for instance).

    2.They sell petrol in litres (approximately 75c per litre today) and they spell that right too.

    3. They are quite keen on recycling. Well, not as much as the Swiss but if you live in Switzerland you can’t move in your house for different recyling containers - that’s why they remain neutral in wars - because they spend all their time sorting through their garbage. But Torontonians certainly are more aware of recycling than their cousins across the border in the USA.

    4.They have black squirrels rather than grey or red: