Friday Houston Memories Open Comments

One of the fondest memories I have was looking for the Budweiser plant as we came in on I-10.  Watching the majestic neon Anheuser Bush Eagle flying in the night sky was just cool.  Mom and Dad enjoyed it too because for a couple minutes the three kids in the backseat of the 63 Dodge 330 would shut up.  But alas those days are gone.  The video was from a story about the resurrection of the Bud Medallion at the New Jersey Bud plant.
When INBEV merged with Budweiser and became AB INBEV they decided to do away with the iconic eagle and replaced it with the eagle you see in the picture below.  Mercifully the AB Eagle is making a comeback at some of the US breweries.  Maybe Houston someday.  Maybe.

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78 responses to “Friday Houston Memories Open Comments”

  1. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Part of the 610 loop was complete in 1963? I’d not figured that.
    Mornin’ Gang

    1. GJT Avatar
      GJT

      Doesn’t say a year, just that they were in a ’63 Dodge.

      Mornin!

      1. Super Dave Avatar
        Super Dave

        Yup but Squawk is a couple of years younger than me so it would have to be in the mid to early 60’s.

  2. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    For those of us geezers from the west side, the major landmark was the Maryland Club Coffee plant on the old Katy Road (inside what became the West Loop).
    You could smell it for several miles.

    Farther west, it was the huge rice dryer/grain silos on Lumpkin Road, near what eventually became Beltway 8.

  3. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    BTW; Today is Headshaker’s birthday, spotted over yonder but he’s not commented since 2021. Do any of Y’all keep up with him?

    1. Shannon Avatar
      Shannon

      Lost track of Shakey.
      I remember him dropping by here years ago and sounding like he had made some life changes and was happy.

  4. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    The degree of projection coming from James Comey is staggering.

    ‘Wagner went on to ask if there would be a stress test “unlike any other if Donald Trump is re-elected” and asked what Comey suspects the potential implications would be for the FBI.

    “Oh, serious – and for the Justice Department and the FBI – because Trump is coming for those institutions. He knows their power and I think he has regrets that he didn’t work hard enough to corrupt them last time, so he’s coming for them and that’s a danger for all Americans,” the former FBI director argued.’

    After Comey’s blatantly illegal behavior as head of the FIBers, the above statement would be laughable ifn it weren’t so danged serious.

    1. Super Dave Avatar
      Super Dave

      “he didn’t work hard enough to corrupt them last time,”
      Unbelievable, they were already corrupted by Obama, Hillary and the Deep State. Projection is right.
      Of course al the Deep Stater’s are scared to death that Trump will come after them now that he has some DC experience under his belt.

      1. Bonecrusher Avatar
        Bonecrusher

        The Deep Staters are a treasonous bunch of lowlife bastiges that need some serious prison time or time decorating lamp posts.

    2. Texpat Avatar
      Texpat

      There are a whole lot more folks gunning for the FBI and DOJ than just Donald Trump. Half of the US Congress for example.

  5. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    I remember riding in the car headed to Beaumont to visit out grandparents and seeing them building that giant brewery. I had been to the old Pearl beer brewery in San Antonio, but the new, modern A-B plant was something else. I also recall the Stewart-Stevenson yard across from the brewery and wondering want all that equipment was for.

  6. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Stephen Green pointed out a couple of weeks ago the Belgian company InBev that bought Anheuser-Busch would never have made the Dylan Mulvaney/Bud Light commercial if they had remained in St. Louis and not moved to NYC. They lost touch with the Americans who bought their products.

    It was a solid, Midwestern company at one time and then the Belgians came and screwed it up like everything else they touch.

  7. Dooood Avatar

    I can remember driving by the brewery and loving the smell of the mash doing its thing. Malted barley… mmmmm… what a lovely scent.

  8. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    According to Wiki, the East Loop was approved for construction in 1960. It was completed in 1973 with the opening of the Ship Channel Bridge.

    1. Bonecrusher Avatar
      Bonecrusher

      “Finished” may have different meanings for a lot of people. in 1978 the transition from 610 North Loop to the 610 West loop was a single lane exit ramp and it stacked up to Yale or further.

  9. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Comey belongs in a cell in the Florence, CO SuperMax prison.

  10. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I remember when the Humble Oil Building (800 Bell St.) was built in 1963.
    At 606 feet tall, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Daddy took us down there to go up on the observation deck.
    For a quarter, you could watch an injection molding machine produce a replica of the building for you. That was a real gee-whiz attraction.
    You could see the giant rice dryer/grain silo on Lumpkin Rd. near West Belt, way off in the distance.

  11. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Super Dave. and Shannon
    Well Hell. I goofed, imagine that. I never meant to say 610. Shoulduh been I-10 though 610 did come much later.

    I plumb done forgot the Maryland Club Coffee. But yeah all the way on that one

  12. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Demonized as contributing to climate change, cattle may actually decrease emissions, research shows

    However, research by pro-agribuisness outfits Alltech and Archbold suggests that the thinking on reducing emissions at the source is missing a bigger picture on cattles’ relationship with the land, and possibly, by removing grazing from pastures, emissions will actually go up.

    and,

    Dr. Vaughn Holder, research project manager for beef nutrition at Alltech, and Dr. Betsey Boughton, director of agroecology at Archbold, studied the impacts that cattle production has on the ecosystem on a wetlands pasture at Buck Island Ranch, about 150 miles northwest of Miami, Florida. The researchers found that 19%-30% of methane emissions were from the cattle, but the rest was from the wetland soils. If the cows are removed, their research shows, it actually increases the amount of methane the wetland ecosystems give off.

  13. bsue54 Avatar

    Maryland Club was a much more pleasant landmark – because I LOVED the smell of roasting coffee beans wafting over the freeways… never cared for the smell of the brewery

  14. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    On the northern end of the 610 West loop, there used to be a big bakery and the smell of baking bread was intoxicating. Some rectum decided that was a bad thing and made them move or put in scent scrubbers.

  15. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    The Wiki history of Loop 610 talks about Loop 137 which, in the 1940/50’s, was the basic forerunner of 610 prior to the building of the Interstate system – roughly following the ultimate pathway of the North, West, and South Loops.

  16. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Wasn’t Mrs. Baird’s Bread on Shepherd, well inside the Loop?

    1. bsue54 Avatar

      roughly I-10 and Shepherd, IIRC…. Pretty sure the one at near 610 was Rainbow bread… It was sheer torture to be dispatched to that area when they were baking bread or buns, and you’d caught another transport instead of a lunch break….

    2. Tedtam Avatar

      Bsue is right, it was Rainbow. Hubby’s mentor lived in the area and Hubby told me many times about smelling the bakery.

  17. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    Headline: Man arrested after attempting to steal Balenciaga shoes, holding woman at gunpoint: PoliceThe dude looks like he got a hickory shampoo and tune up.
    Note that this happened in Oklahoma.

  18. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Growing up in suburban west Houston, we never spent any time in the industrial East Side, only driving through it on the way to Beaumont. Our parents never opened any pharmacies on that side of town.
    It wasn’t until I was in my early 30’s, when I drove hot shot, that I really explored that side of Harris County and beyond, finding out just how enormous this town really is.

    1. Bonecrusher Avatar
      Bonecrusher

      WE always referred to the east side as ‘Stinkadena’

    2. Texpat Avatar
      Texpat

      There was a Medic Pharmacy in Baytown. I also remember driving around all one weekend with Dad trying to find a decent location in Pasadena. He never did and I guess Nathan Klein couldn’t find one for him either.

      1. Shannon Avatar
        Shannon

        I forgot about the Baytown store!
        Never set foot in it.

  19. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Count your lucky stars if you live in Texas. Not only the horrible condition of the roads in New Jersey, but the highway designs are insane in some places. There are freeway interchanges designed by monkeys on LSD. I avoid them if at all possible. They don’t know how to bank curves on freeway ramps which is why overturned tank trucks are a chronic problem.

  20. Tedtam Avatar

    When Hubby and I went through our engagement prep weekend, a requirement before getting married in the Catholic Church, Nabisco had a bakery across the street from the Chancery.

    It made concentrating on our discussion topics a little difficult at times. I think I gained give pounds just inhaling the aromas that wafted across the street

    1. bsue54 Avatar

      I’m pretty sure that was the guilty party when certain parts of the med center smelled like peach cobbler – I think it was when they were doing batches of cinnamon graham crackers… ohhhhhhh how quickly that aroma can make a person (famished or just fed) think they are starving!!!!

  21. Tedtam Avatar

    Someday I’m going to take Hillsdale up on some of their online courses. They are advertising a course on the history of classical music now

  22. Tedtam Avatar

    I’m doing better this morning, but still prefer to not talk. The corner of my mouth is still trying to heal, and drawing air over the sutures is uncomfortable.

  23. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Shannon
    I thought Mrs Bairds was/used to be inside the loop. I could be wrong but now they are in two location outside the loop east and west. I bet they don’t hand twist the bread any longer. Mrs Baird had nice buns.

    1. Shannon Avatar
      Shannon

      I was thinking Bairds but I guess it could have been Rainbow.
      Heading southbound on Shepherd, it was just North of that big S-curve that Shepherd makes before you get to W. Gray..
      If my failing memory serves me right.

      1. squawkbox Avatar
        squawkbox

        Man I do not remember and trying to find historical information is really tough. My memory is shot too

    1. squawkbox Avatar
      squawkbox

      Totally beautiful. Thanks Bones

    2. Tedtam Avatar

      She truly is a treasure, and her piece was delightful. I see something like that and wonder why Mhmd had issues with music. And dogs.

  24. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    Tucker exposes abject tyranny on behalf of our current Dept of (In)Justice.
    The death penalty is appropriate for perpetrators of same. Death to tyrants.

  25. Tedtam Avatar

    I managed to get a little gardening done, since I’m feeling better. I used my compost tea buckets to feed my plants and pulled another mess of green beans. I have a huge ‘mater that I think I can pick tomorrow, and maybe a few small ones. The asparagus beans are just busting out all over right now; I picked some today and over the next day or two should have quite a few more. Blanching and freezing for those veggies for now, and when I get my big freezer bag full I’ll start freeze drying some for long term storage. I’ll put those in jars so they won’t get crushed in bags on the shelf.

    I’ve had some pork butt – fat removed and put in a jar for use in cooking – frozen on 3 trays since before my surgery. I had some Ro-Tel tomatoes that I used to fill the 4th tray, and Elsa is working her magic all of that now.

    I stopped because the jaw was starting to act up, what with the exertion. I was warned not to do too much, and I’m not due for more pain meds until 1:00, and I think I’ll make it today without too much discomfort. After I get the pain controlled again, I think I’ll wander out to do some errands.

    It’s good to be better.

  26. Tedtam Avatar

    Here’s today’s C&C roundup:

    Good morning, C&C, it’s finally Friday! First up in the roundup, we examine the New York Times’ latest word weapon, designed to trick us into supporting Biden’s escalatory madness. Then, the Fauci story develops further as it breaks into mainstream media; and Trump rocks the South Bronx in a political earthquake bigger than the New Madrid disaster.

    

  27. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Public Service Announcement from the government via KTRH

    Don’t be snuggling or kissing your chickens.

    No joke. Salmonella can kill you.

  28. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    This is why BSue INSISTS on doing all the cooking

    1. Super Dave Avatar
      Super Dave

      😀

  29. Tedtam Avatar

    Mr. Childers discusses the “debate” within the WH re letting Ukraine fire American weaponry into Russia:

    They are trying to sell a horrible idea. The scheme to allow Ukraine to launch U.S. missiles at undefended, innocent civilian targets in Russia — in other words, war crimes — is literally the worst idea the neocons have ever had, bar none, in a painfully long list of previous terrible, no-good ideas.

    /snip

    Readers rightly reflect: Who’s on which side of this zero-sum argument? Which Biden advisors are like YOLO!! and which ones are like you’re barking mad!! Are they throwing things at each other? Which group does Papa Joe favor today? When does the tribe vote? Has anyone located an immunity idol?

    /snip

    Once we wipe away the fog of confusion, the Times provided only two legitimate White House officials, Blinken and Austin, who weren’t debating each other. Who did the Times say was on the other side of the debate? Nobody.

    Apparently, only the Glorious Leader and policy decider Biden remains to be convinced, along with some unnamed and uncounted anonymous “aides.” Aides? Who on Earth are they?

    So nobody except Blinken is on record favoring this harebrained escalation, based on a frantic hope that Russia will keep ignoring crossed red lines, and won’t mind its citizens being slain with U.S. weapons with the U.S. giving Ukraine explicit approval.

    Reading critically, we discover there is no debate. There is only Blinken, Zelensky, the ghost of Viktoria Nuland, and the pugilistic echoes rattling around inside Joe Biden’s empty skull.

    They are teetering on the edge of a volcano named WWIII and probably the Tide pod eaters are making the decisions.

    Maybe two years’ worth of food isn’t enough…

  30. Tedtam Avatar

    From the C&C comments, someone had a joke:

    Three dinosaurs stumble across a magic lamp.
    They rub it, and a genie appears.
    “I have three wishes, so I’ll give one to each of you,” the genie announces.
    The first dinosaur thinks hard.
    “Alright,” he says, “I’ll have a big, juicy, piece of meat.”
    Instantly, the biggest, juiciest piece of meat he’d ever seen appears in front of him.
    Not to be outdone, the second dinosaur thinks even harder.
    “I know! I’ll have a shower of meat!”
    Immediately, huge pieces of meat rain down around him.
    The third dinosaur, certainly not to be outdone, thinks harder than the previous dinosaurs.
    “I’ve got it!” he cries, “I want a MEATIER shower!”
    -Author Unknown

  31. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    This is not by accident. The TikTok generation is too ignorant to understand the world or its history and will believe any lies told to them.

    Students unable to analyze complex or lengthy texts and lack the context to understand certain arguments or points of view are much easier for administrators and politicians to manipulate and control.

    Can you say “From the River to the Sea ?”

    Many college students don’t read very well, their professors say. And they don’t think they should have to work very hard. “Some struggle with reading endurance and weak vocabulary,” writes Beth McMurtrie in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Others aren’t willing to struggle. 

    Furthermore, “a significant number of those who do the work seem unable to analyze complex or lengthy texts,” say professors at colleges ranging from Wellesley to Cal State LA. Students don’t seem to “have the context to understand certain arguments or points of view.”

    plus,

    Few students or parents worry about college readiness or academic well-being, surveys show. Grade inflation has persuaded them they’re prepared for college work. Look at those A’s!

    “I have a lot of students who think they’ve already mastered the art [of writing], and other students who’ve never been required to really try,” says Gutierrez. He blames minimal writing requirements in high school and “good grades for mediocre work” for the decline in literacy. His students think writing 750 words is too much.

    1. Tedtam Avatar

      I forget which one, but one of the Founding Fathers said something to the point that the survival of our system was dependent upon an educated populace.

      So, if you want to tear it down, dumb down the crowds. 1984.

  32. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Isn’t it amazing how all these studies proving contrarians were correct after all are coming out now ?

    New findings from the University of East Anglia suggest that wearing face masks did not reduce the risk of Covid infection after the initial rise of the Omicron variant. An analysis of official data indicated that the risk factors for infection changed notably when the dominant Covid variant in the UK shifted from Delta to Omicron in December 2021.

    These included wearing a mask, a history of foreign travel, household size, whether people were working or retired, and contact with children or over-70s.

  33. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    We are heading for a worldwide energy production & distribution crisis. I keep harping on this because the threat isn’t being taken seriously enough by the public. Voters need to start asking questions, lots of them.

    “Every time you query the model, the whole thing gets activated, so it’s wildly inefficient from a computational perspective,” she says.

    Take the Large Language Models (LLMs) at the heart of many Generative AI systems. They have been trained on vast stores of written information, which helps them to churn out text in response to practically any query.

    “When you use Generative AI… it’s generating content from scratch, it’s essentially making up answers,” Dr Luccioni explains. That means the computer has to work pretty hard.

    A Generative AI system might use around 33 times more energy than machines running task-specific software, according to a recent study by Dr Luccioni and colleagues. The work has been peer-reviewed but is yet to be published in a journal.

    It’s not your personal computer that uses all this energy, though. Or your smartphone. The computations we increasingly rely on happen in giant data centres that are, for most people, out of sight and out of mind.

    and,

    The world’s data centres are using ever more electricity. In 2022, they gobbled up 460 terawatt hours of electricity, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects this to double in just four years. Data centres could be using a total of 1,000 terawatts hours annually by 2026. “This demand is roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of Japan,” says the IEA. Japan has a population of 125 million people.

  34. Tedtam Avatar

    I can tell it’s hot outside. My garden is going into afternoon wilt mode.

    1. Texpat Avatar
      Texpat

      Tedtam, I stand to be corrected, but I believe that woman is the original organizer of the Bronx rally. She started putting it together before the Trump people got involved.

  35. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    I recommend reading the C&C analysis of the NYT article on the White House and Ukraine. We are a lot closer to WWIII than anybody realizes because Antony Blinken and Victoria Nuland (even though she resigned) are pushing very hard for giving weapons to Ukraine for them to attack civilian locations in Russia. It is insanity.

    Reading critically, we discover there is no debate. There is only Blinken, Zelensky, the ghost of Viktoria Nuland, and the pugilistic echoes rattling around inside Joe Biden’s empty skull.

    Why then did the Times call this a debate? Why try to dress it up as an argument?

    Read critically. This article is propaganda, a weaponized press release, probably drafted by Blinken, a psychological transition tool. Biden fully intends to arm our proxy state Ukraine with weapons that will be used to attack Russia directly — a foolish game of high-stakes chicken that was never even considered at the pinnacle of the Cold War and anti-Soviet mania.

    But because they know it is a terrible idea and nobody sane would ever agree, they must make it sound like Biden struggled with the decision, and in the end only agreed with the greatest reluctance.

    Biden isn’t just crossing a red line this time. He’s rowing across Russia’s red river. And they don’t call it a red line because it’s the color of Valentine’s Day.

  36. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    What the hell?
    Illinois politicians aim to change word ‘offender’ to ‘justice-impacted individual’
    The bill is headed to the governor’s desk

    1. Texpat Avatar
      Texpat

      Illinois is not about to let California be the stupidest state in the nation.

  37. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    The Israel Defense Forces said they discovered nearly 700 tunnel shafts in Rafah, with some crossing into Egypt.

    Israeli Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam explained the findings at the International Court of Justice.

    and,

    “Also present in Rafah,” said Noam, “is an intricate underground tunnel infrastructure that runs underneath the city and provides ample space for operators, command and control rooms, and military equipment.”

    “Nearly 700 tunnel shafts have been identified in Rafah from which approximately 50 tunnels cross into Egypt,” he added. “These tunnels are used by Hamas to supply itself with weapons and ammunition. It could potentially be used to smuggle out Gaza hostages or Hamas senior operators.”

  38. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    This is very, very interesting.

    Two of the world’s most important chip companies can flip a “kill switch” remotely on their most advanced chipmaking machines should China invade Taiwan, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

    The Netherlands’ ASML — Europe’s top tech company by market value — supplies advanced machines to chipmaking companies. They include Taiwan’s TSMC, which produces, by some estimates, 90% of the world’s most advanced processor chips.

    The news of a forced shutdown, or a “kill switch,” on ASML’s chipmaking gear comes amid intensifying rivalry between Washington and Beijing and mounting concerns over a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.

    I knew they were expensive, but I didn’t know these chip-making machines cost this much.

    Taiwan’s TSMC is the largest buyer of these 200 million euro, or $217 million, machines. They print the tiny microchip transistors used to make chips for artificial-intelligence and military applications.

  39. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    In what Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas calls a “border incident,” it was claimed that Russia has removed navigation buoys from close to the two countries’ shared border.

    Estonian border guards said on Thursday that Russian operatives had removed almost half of a total of 50 navigation buoys, recently placed on the Estonian side of the Narva River. The objects are positioned on the border river to direct ships away from foreign waters.

     

    This episode follows hastily altered reports of Russian proposals to redraw its maritime borders in the Baltic Sea. The plans, contained within a draft Defence Ministry document that was linked to briefly online, prompted concern among diplomats in the three Baltic countries, as well as Finland and Sweden—and likely further afield. 

  40. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    UCLA Hamas supporters have an illegal encampment in the campus and won’t leave so they no food or water. They ordered food from some restaurant to be delivered by a ROBOT. The robot shows up, but the cops stopped it on the sidewalk. Hilarious.

  41. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    I went to the store late yesterday to pick up a few things. It was all food items, no non-food, no meat, no chicken, no fish. Peanut butter, eggs, small bag of grapes, some cherries on sale, cheddar cheese, etc. Two small bags of groceries and it was SEVENTY-ONE DOLLARS.

    1. Bonecrusher Avatar
      Bonecrusher

      That can’t be true; Janet Yellin and Screamin said that inflation was transitory. So did all the rest of the lefty moonbats. Mebbe the checker at the store rang you up wrong . . . .

      /sarc off

  42. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    If you didn’t see this story about New Hampshire Governor John Sununu talking about Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom, it’s pretty funny.

  43. Tedtam Avatar

    The Three Amigos on Ksev (Friday afternoons, 4-6) were discussing the squatter issue. Bettencourt is working with his team on legislation. As a landlord, I called in with some comments and suggestions. I am now expected to call his office and set up a time to testify at the hearing.

    BTW – They had been talking about the recently coined term of cadever president, created by ?Bill Maher? I told them that I called Biden a “meat puppet” and they all cracked up.

    1. Texpat Avatar
      Texpat

      So is this hearing in Austin ? Can we get video of your testimony ? What if Dade Phelan has you arrested ? Should we start a bail fund ?

      1. Tedtam Avatar

        Instead of a bail fund, you may want to invest in a guide for me. I tend to get lost, even with the help of GPS.

        It’s a gift I inherited from my mom. Bad teeth from Dad, the inability to navigate from Mom. She was on her way to see me graduate college and instead of College Station, she ended up in Big Thicket, gave up, and went back home.

  44. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    It may not be everyone’s taste, but David Chapelle can be very funny. This is a clip from his “Black Bush” show also including Jamie Foxx as Tony Blair. It’s profane just so you know.

  45. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Anyone removing navigational buoys should be shot on sight.

  46. Tedtam Avatar

    Want some ideas on attaching one thing to another?
    This to That

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