Chip Gaines of Fixer Upper, has purchased author Larry McMurtry’s historic Archer City bookstore, Booked Up Inc. No.1, for fine rare & scholarly books. You hear about celebrities putting their names on tequila, hot sauce, clothing, movie theatres, salad dressings, stretchy things to make us look skinny, and lemonade, but a bookstore to me, is real news. Larry McMurtry was one of the greatest Texas authors of all time with Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment, The Last Picture Show, Streets of Laredo, and so many, many more great Texas books. McMurtry was born in Archer City, returned in the late 1980s, and lived in the 1,600-person town until his death in March 2021. Gaines grew up in New Mexico, but his parents and grandparents were from Archer City, where he spent summers riding horses, mending fences, and learning farm and ranch life. Chip Gaines is a reader, so if the Archer City townspeople were ever concerned about the future of this incredible book collection, I feel assured it couldn’t be in better hands and will be treated with great respect. A catalogue of about 400 of McMurtry’s more personal items are set to be sold in an auction on May 29, everything from typewriters, a bed, grand piano and even cowboy boots held together with duct tape. I bet Chip gets some of the good stuff, too.
Shop Local. Eat Local. Spend Local. Enjoy Local. It takes YOU to start the trend. Support local businesses who support the area where you live, work and play.
This is probably NOT important to just anyone out there, unless you love Disney, are getting married, or if you just know of someone that loves princesses with all their heart. Well, I guess that’s just about everyone. (Any man worth anything has had a princess tea party with a little girl…). Disney just unveiled a collection of 21 brand new princess-inspired wedding gowns. The collection also features nine bridesmaid dresses. You can also get married at a wedding venue on a Disney property, including Disney cruises and Aulani Disney Resort in Ko Olina, Hawaii, along with vow renewals, engagements, and honeymoons. Just imagine how Snow White, Aurora, Tiana, Rapunzel, Pocahontas, Jasmine, Cinderella, Ariel, and Belle must be feeling about this. All gowns are available in sizes zero to 30 and start at $1,799.
On the beach and in the seas, animals do not leave trash; humans do. Please behave like animals.
As climate change melts away the icy habitat of hungry polar bears, sometimes they are left stranded from their regular food sources, so instead of filling up on seals and ocean fish, polar bears are now supplementing their diets with garbage. The pictures are pitiful. The bears are starving, and it is so very sad and disturbing. No food means no strength to hunt when they have a true opportunity. Definitely another growing threat to a species.
The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. – Robert Swan
After you boil eggs, potatoes, or other vegetables, don’t pour the water down the drain! Save the cooking water (be sure it’s salt free), let it cool, and use it to water your garden plants to give them an extra dose of nutrients. I’ve been doing this for the past several months since I’m still working hard to have no waste in my kitchen. This past week, I needed to reuse the pot after boiling potatoes, so I just poured the boiling water on weeds in the cracks of my sidewalk. No more weeds. Waste not, want not.
Brew on the Bayou Saturday, March 25. Beer and Wine tasting, pontoon boat rides, birds of prey show, live music, silent auction, food trucks. www.gcbo.org or 979-480-0999.
NestFest Beach Cleanup. Bolivar Peninsula on Galveston Island, Follet’s Island, March 14, 9am -12 pm. Coastal cleanup for beach-nesting birds and sea turtles.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Actor Laura Dern is 56. Musician Sergio Mendes is 82. Singer Melissa Manchester is 72. Actor-model Marisa Berenson is 76. Actor Jane Seymour is 72. Actor LeVar Burton is 66. Kunta Kinte in Roots. Rapper-actor Ice-T is 65. Comedian Dame Edna aka Barry Humphries is 89. Football player-turned-actor Jim Brown of The Dirty Dozen is 87. Actor Rene Russo is 69. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips is 61. Comedian Larry the Cable Guy is 60. Vocalist Yoko Ono is 90. Actor John Travolta is 69. Game show host Vanna White of Wheel of Fortune is 66. Actor Marta Kristen is 78. Best known as Judy Robinson, oldest child of Professor John and Maureen Robinson on Lost in Space. Singer Mitch Ryder is 78. Devil with the Blue Dress. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain of Journey is 73. Singer Michael Bolton is 70. Actor Joanne Woodward is 93. Paul Newman died of lung cancer in September 2008 at 83.
Actor Bernadette Peters is 75. Guitarist Neal Schon of Journey is 69. Singer Johnny Van Zant of Van Zant & Lynryd Skynyrd is 63. Singer Josh Groban is 42. Singer Sam the Sham is 86. Known for his camp robe and turban, and hauling his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse with maroon velvet curtains. Wooly Bully, Li’l Red Riding Hood, Yakety Yak. Singer Roger Daltrey of The Who is 79. Actor-director-dancer Tommy Tune is 84. Singer Cindy Wilson of The B-52′s is 66. Actor Rae Dawn Chong of The Color Purple is 62. Author Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler is 53. Country singer Jason Aldean is 46. Singer-actor Harry Belafonte is 96. The Banana Boat Song. Actor-director Ron Howard is 69. Actor Catherine Bach of The Dukes of Hazzard is 68.
Don’t forget to vacuum your mattress. We tend to forget about those creepy-crawly dust mites.
Get ready to Pawty! Remember how much fun it was to gather for a slumber party when you were younger? Stay up late, eat junk food, play silly games, and hang out with your buddies! Imagine doing all of this and more, all the while snuggling with your favorite shelter animals while they’re waiting for a human of their own to go home with. On Sat. March 25 the SPCA of Brazoria County is hosting a 24-Hour Shelter Slumber Pawty and you are invited. The National Shelter Slumber Pawty is a collaborative fundraising event that brings together shelters from across the nation (and beyond) to help raise funds and awareness for shelter pets. Amazing animal lovers (like yourself) can spend 24 hours at a shelter; eating, sleeping and pawtying with shelter pets while raising money for their favorite shelter. email: nicole@spcabc.org. If you can’t spend the night, then be sure to do what you can with donations of your time, money, or supplies. Teller says PLEASE.
A few weeks back, I was helping a friend who was in charge of doing the opening night party for Murder on the Orient Express at The Center. I taped down crime scene diagrams of murder victims on the floors, and then called around to see if I could buy an abundance of fortune cookies to put on her food tables – which China Star Restaurant was kind enough to sell to me – 350 cookies for less than $30 a box. Make sure you think of them the next time you have a hankering for Chinese food buffet. So, after the party, I brought the remainder of the box to the office for us to give to customers. I had finished cleaning the office on Saturday evening, and Teller and I happened to be sitting on the sofa resting and talking. Well, I talk. He listens. I decided to grab a fortune cookie off the conference table and share it with him. He likes anything that has a crinkly wrapper. That comes from living on the street for so long and having people feed you out of a crinkly brown sack. So, there I was, getting ready to read my fortune about gaining wealth or money, romance, good luck, or words of wisdom. Instead, my fortune said, An old broom knows where the dirt is… Hmmm. Old broom.
If you want to see something that (I promise) will make you smile from ear to ear, then YouTube Alaskan Puppy Bus. Your heart will want to watch it several times. So sweet. Mo Mountain Mutts – doggie day care at its finest.
The Jonas Brothers announced that they will have a five-show limited Broadway engagement at the Marquis Theatre March 14-18 and each concert will highlight a different album. I like those boys. The musical Moulin Rouge is playing in Houston right now and it is fabulous. If you love theatre, you will find that this show is one of the best ever. I think it may be my new favorite. The sets, actors (Conor Ryan – male lead and outstanding voice), funny storyline, and great songs. It will be at the Hobby Center in Houston until March 12.
March 8th is International Women’s Day, a day to honor social, political, economic, or cultural achievements of women, and a day to promote women’s rights. Until 1848, single women could own property (say inherited), but once they were married, control of any real estate or property was transferred to their husbands, then they could not acquire property once they were married. These laws slowly changed when New York passed the Married Women’s Property Act, which allowed married women to own property and most states had adopted this law by 1900, but it took about 50 years.
• In 1918, Loretta Walsh became the first female to enlist in the military. A 1948 law made women a permanent part of military services, but it wasn’t until 1976 that President Gerald Ford signed Public Law 94-106 which allowed women to attend service academies. The same year the Secretary of Defense eliminated the policy of involuntarily discharging female soldiers if they became pregnant (because after all, it is still the woman that must bear the full responsibility of a pregnancy. (How’s that male birth control coming?)
• The first female students were admitted to West Point in 1976.
• States slowly allowed women to sit on a jury with Mississippi finally becoming the last state to legalize it in 1968.
• Women had access to some banking products in the 1960s, yet many banking institutions wouldn’t let women open a checking account, get a credit card, or apply for a loan or mortgage without a male co-signer until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974.
• Sally Ride became the first female astronaut to go up into space in 1983.
Have you ever heard of the Pink Tax? Me neither. It’s not actually a government tax, it’s the practice of discriminatory pricing on goods and services marketed to women. For instance, why does it cost more to have a woman’s shirt ironed at the laundry than a man’s shirt? Hmmm. Just asking for a friend. Hygiene and health care products seem to be the most common… shaving cream, razer cartridges, hair care.
When it comes to sales taxes on purchases, states typically set the rules. There is a real tax nicknamed the Tampon Tax because many states (Texas) still charge tax on menstrual products (tampons, pads, menstrual cups, etc.) because feminine hygiene products (not medically necessary) are considered luxury items and therefore taxed. On a closing note, I might add that if you decide to grab a Snickers bar from a vending machine, then decide to run down the street to pick up your prescription for Viagra, both will be tax-free. Another small, yet meaningful change that we need to make. I feel confident that if a man ever had a period, many laws, along with attitudes would change. We’ve come a long way, but we can, and will go further. Do your part to raise your daughters, sons and grandchildren to all be equals. We will get there, it’s just a slow road. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the sunshine and the blooming flowers. Thanks for reading and shopping in The Source Weekly.
Lisa
Send comments to Lisa Baker at lisa@thesourceweekly.com
