Some weeks, I must ‘search’ for information that I think will be entertaining for you to read, then other weeks it’s everywhere I look. Hope you enjoy this week.
Oh, NO. Did you hear that Whataburger sold a majority stake in their company to a Chicago-based investment firm? Chicago is known for hot dogs and deep-dish pizza not burgers. The same week, Schlitterbahn announced the sale of their water parks in Galveston and New Braunfels to a corporation in Ohio. Ohio is known for Buckeyes. What the heck is a buckeye? Whatadisgace. Chicago and Ohio are so, not Texas. J.J. Watt, urged his more than five million followers on Twitter to “all chip in and buy Whataburger back and add kolaches.” Hmmm. One man tweeted, “182 men didn’t die at The Alamo just so we could give Whataburger over to Chicago.” Schlitterbahn did sell leaving the Henry family with an extra $261 million in their pockets, so that’s understandable, but still…Don’t Mess with Texas.
On a happy note, Texas Monthly has a new billionaire owner. Her name is Randa Duncan Williams and Forbes ranks her as the 290th wealthiest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $6.4 billion. Williams is a Houstonian and will take over Texas Monthly on June 30. At least someone from Texas is buying the magazine instead of Maine, Louisiana or China. Long Live Texas Monthly.
There was a ‘Love or Money’ survey. 8/10 people prefer love over money. My mother always said, “You can love a rich man just as easy as you can love a poor man.”
Remember ‘The Brady Bunch’ which aired from 1969 to 1974? Of course, you do. “Very Brady Renovation” is a new HGTV special that will be aired sometime in September. The Brady house was built in 1959 and is located in what should be a quiet neighborhood in North Hollywood, if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s ‘one of the most photographed houses’ in the country. For the original sitcom, the famous house was used only in exterior shots and all interior scenes were filmed at a studio. But for this special project the entire home will be renovated to look just like it did in 1969. Orange kitchen counters, open staircase and much more to reminisce about. In addition to Marcia, Peter, Cindy, Bobby, Jan and Greg, they will be joined by HGTV stars Steve Ford and Leanne Ford – Restored by the Fords, Jasmine Roth – Hidden Potential, Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak – Good Bones, Jonathan Scott and Drew Scott – Property Brothers and Lara Spencer – Flea Market Flip. The 2,477-square-foot home that sits on a 12,573-square-foot lot in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley was first listed last year for $1.88 million, but because it is a part of Hollywood history, there were many offers. HGTV was in a bidding war with former ‘NSYNC member Lance Bass and ended up paying $3.5 million for the home.
Facebook announced that it plans to launch a cryptocurrency called Libra. The digital cash will use encryption technology to make it secure and plans to work like Bitcoin, but with a stable value. A separate company, Calibra, is supposed to keep Libra users’ financial information separate and safe from the social network. Facebook hopes to recruit at least 100 partners who are willing to pay $10 million each to be a part of the Libra venture. Just recently, Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, stated that Facebook is too big. Hmmm. Facebook won’t run Libra, but will form a nonprofit called Libra Association, headquartered in Geneva, that will oversee the new currency and its use.
A judge announced that the trial for Dimitrios Pagourtzis, the suspect accused of killing eight classmates and two educators during the May 18, 2018 Santa Fe High School massacre, has been moved to Fort Bend County. Attorneys filed a motion in January requesting a change of venue, saying their client could not receive a fair trial in Galveston County because of pretrial publicity. Trial is scheduled for early 2020. I can’t imagine how changing the location of ‘this’ trial could change anything.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Composer Lalo Schifrin is 87. Theme from Mission: Impossible, Dirty Harry, Starsky and Hutch, Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt. Rock singer musician Ray Davies is 75. The Kinks. Country singer Kathy Mattea is 60. Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses. Singer Barry Manilow is 76. I Write the Songs. Copacabana. Actress Frances McDormand is 62. Movie director John Korty is 83. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Pop singer Tommy DeVito is 91. The Four Seasons.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is 70. Rock Musician Jeff Beck is 75. The Yardbirds. Rock musician John Illsley is 70. Dire Straits. Actress producer Mindy Kaling is 40. Singer Solange Knowles is 33. Singer Peter Asher is 75. Peter and Gordon. Actress Lindsay Wagner is 70. Jaime Sommers in The Bionic Woman. Actress Meryl Streep is 70. Singer Alan Osmond is 70. He was the oldest of the seven siblings who could sing, as the two oldest brothers, Virl and Tom, are hearing impaired. Baseball Hall of Fame Lou Brock is 80. Recognized for being one of the most prolific base stealers in baseball history with 938 steals.
Sir Paul McCartney is 77. (can’t be...) Actress Isabella Rossellini is 67. Actress Gena Rowlands is 89. Actress Kathleen Turner is 65. Actor Bill Cobbs is 85. He was Reginald, a security guard on the verge of retirement in Night at the Museum. Boxing Hall of Fame Roberto Duran is 68. Actor Danny Aiello is 86. Moonstruck. Actor John McCook is 75. VERY handsome actor known for The Bold and the Beautiful, Magnum, P.I. and The Young and the Restless. Rhythm & blues singer Lionel Richie is 70. Rock musician Michael Anthony is 65. Van Halen. Rock singer Grace Potter is 36. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals.
Best-selling author, Judith Krantz, died at the age of 91. She will be remembered for her racy romance novels, Mistral’s Daughter, I’ll Take Manhattan, Scruples and many others. Before she became a novelist at age 50, she was a writer at Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal and Cosmopolitan.
Claus von Bulow, known for being convicted and then acquitted of trying to kill Sunny, his millionaire, American heiress socialite wife in 1979, died at 92. This left her in a temporary coma, as well as insulin overdose in 1980 which left her in a persistent vegetative state for the rest of her life. The 1990 movie and book were called “Reversal of Fortune” and the book was a very good read.
About 23 years ago (I was pregnant with Gage so that’s how I remember,) I drove to Waco and brought my granddaddy back to LJ. My grandma had just died, and I needed to spend some time with this special man. H.I. Tipps was a barber in Waco and growing up I realized that he knew just about everyone. We had the best conversations as we traveled through every little town, each one leading him to a memory about the people that he had met through the years. It was great, and I mean REALLY, exceptional great. We ate, antique shopped and stopped at a roadside stand to buy a watermelon. He told me everything to look for in a perfect melon. Either I wasn’t listening, or I didn’t think it was important or I wasn’t a very enthusiastic learner…whatever, but I now wish that I had listened to what he was trying to tell me. After three bad watermelon purchases last month, I Googled it. 1.) If the stem is green, it was picked too early. If the stem is brown, then the melon ripened on the ground. Perfect. 2.) Look for obvious yellow spots where the melon was allowed to bathe in the sun to ripen. The bigger the yellow (not white) spot, the better the melon. 3.) Press on the yellow spot and if it has a little ‘give’ to the melon, then it’s ripe. If the melon is too hard, it’s not ripe. 4.) Tap or thump the melon – if it sounds hollow then it’s high-water content and will be super sweet and juicy. If it doesn’t sound hollow, then it is not juicy. I do remember that Granddaddy was a great thumper. I sure wish he was still here because I would listen hard and take notes. He was one of the smartest, most gentle, loving men I have ever known. (Don’t forget your saltshaker.)
Garden and Recycling Tip: In the heat of the summer, it’s hard to keep a garden alive in South Texas. Fill an empty gallon milk jug (water, orange juice, iced tea, soda bottle) with water and set it next to your thirsty garden plant. Take a safety pin and puncture 2-3 holes in the bottom close to the plant that needs watering. Do this in the evening then go do something else. The jug will slowly water your plant, so the water doesn’t run off. I guess you could add your fertilizer to the jug too. You might want to put a little pea gravel in the bottom to keep the jug in place until you water again. In the past, I have taken my jugs and put nail-size holes in the bottoms of the jugs, then buried all but the lid of the jug, close to the new plant, then just fill the jug up with water. It’s a perfect size hole for the water hose. This method tends to water deeper for plants that need deep roots, but both ways are good. One source said to punch a single hole at the top, so the jug doesn’t constrict. Another source said to be sure to put the lid back on to prevent excess evaporation and it will help keep mosquitoes from laying eggs inside the jug.
Four years ago, Kentucky expected to bring high-speed internet across the state. Because of delays, cost overruns and “ravenous squirrels” that have chewed through quite a bit of wiring and cables, company representatives are asking for an additional $110 million to finish the project. Yikes. In Texas, we just feed corn, acorns and peanuts to our squirrels.
We all love the “Grand Ol’ Christmas Show.” Greg Essington, Zack Kibodeaux, Catherine Clark, Will Hearn, Claire Kibodeaux, Kirsten Gatewood and many, many others are rehearsing right now to entertain us with a new show called “The Grand Ol’ American Radio Show.” Their tour of Texas begins this weekend at the Clarion in LJ. Blue Water Highway band will be backed by the Liberty Radio Orchestra & Gospel Singers celebrating the culture and music of a feel-good American summer. The music is great. www.GoShowProductions.com/tour. Remember that it’s THIS Saturday and Sunday.
Thank you to the 2 sweet ladies that weeded and trimmed the roses at the entrance of my subdivision last week. It looks great! I am working to get the city to put down some mulch for weed control. Thank you, Ray Jess, for reading this column and commenting. Thanks again to Cora for always smiling when she checks me out while I’m buying cat litter at Walmart. I’m on a journey to find the BEST cat litter in the world 😊. Thank you to the checker at Nordstrom Rack that gave me a wad of paper towels on Saturday because an incredible rain came while I was in the dressing room and I had left my windows cracked. Thank you for the manager at Home Goods who went ahead and gave me store credit for the pillows I returned. I swear, the receipt was in my hand when I left the house.
Chip and Joanna Gaines have introduced a $10.4 million plan to expand shopping at The Silos in Waco. They are calling it a new retail village at The Magnolia Market and will feature more shops, a whiffle ball field, a historic church that will be relocated to the area and some other attractions. This area draws around 30,000 visitors a week and construction has started. Wow. It is fun to see how they have single-handedly changed the Waco that existed 10 years ago. It sure makes it hard to find an affordable hotel room now, but Waco desperately needed something like this.
Dr. Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck just received her PhD; writing her dissertation on unusual names. Her aunt said that cannabis was everywhere in 1972, the year that Marijuana was born and after smoking, her parents enjoyed cooling off with a sweet, fizzy can of Pepsi. So, when you think you’ve got it bad, please remember Marijuana Pepsi. She could have changed her name, but she didn’t. By the way, her older sister is named Kimberly and her younger sister is Robin. Go figure.
Thanks again for reading this. Don’t forget to give your Granddaddy a kiss and a hug (from Lisa.)
