>> Wintry mix blasts Panhandle, North Texas with sleet, snow: They came from the north and helped freeze your tootsies. Yep, those darn north winds are to blame for the uber chill around town today writes Meteorologist Tim Heller on the Houston Weather Blog. The same system that blanketed North Texas with nine inches of snow and caused Dallas-Ft. Worth airport to cancel 200 flights will share its chill with Houston. "This type of......

Good morning, Houston. When it comes to politics, we suppose there's a lot to be said for the shock factor — which is why Brian Klock, a candidate for Congressional District 22, is getting some attention. Klock, one of 10 people vying for the Republican nomination for CD 22, has put up a billboard showing downtown Houston being destroyed by a huge explosion. "The Threat Is Real," the billboard reads. "Ask Brian Klock." And......

Many of the NBA’s so called pundits have dismissed the Houston Rockets’ accomplishments in achieving a 10-game winning streak, by exclaiming that until the squad beat a team of true substance, they were simply taking advantage of an undemanding schedule. Talking heads around the nation have stated that Houston’s road match-up against the Western Conference leading New Orleans Hornets would be the true test to determine if the Rockets were legitimate playoff threats. Wonder......

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey may have been the busiest man not involved in a presidential election over the past two days. Less than 24 hours after trading Bonzi Wells and Mike James to the New Orleans Hornets, Morey was at it again. In what can only be dubbed as a swap of malcontents, the Rockets shipped Kirk Snyder and a 2nd round draft pick off to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for......

In a classic case of keeping up with the Joneses the Houston Rockets executed a player swap late last night with less than 24 hours before the expiration of the NBA’s trade deadline. As their Western Conference cohorts have made headlines over the last three weeks with the acquisitions of All-Star talent such as Shaquille O’Neal (Suns), Jason Kidd (Mavericks), and Pau Gasol (Lakers), the Houston Rockets found their crusade to climb in the......

The 2008 NBA All Star team starting lineups were announced yesterday, and Houston’s very own Yao Ming proved to be a fan favorite. The Rockets’ big man was voted in as the starting center for the Western Conference squad, ahead of such luminaries as Amare Stoudemire (2nd leading vote-getter amongst Western Conference centers), reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year - Marcus Camby (3rd), and Pau Gasol (6th). Yao was selected to start in the......

Houston, Rockets, basketball, McGrady, NBA, All Star...

Houstonist found this week's crop of Missed Connections sweet & torid but relatively dull until we found the Springer-tastic posts listed below. Looking for ROBIN - m4w - 52 Robin, we dated in 1991/1992 and then lost track of each other. You are from New Orleans, worked at the VA hospital and lived on South Main. I was living in Pasadena and worked at the Transco tower. We met at an Olive Garden because......

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • An HPD rookie officer was busted for selling 50 pounds of pot in an undercover sting. If convicted the officer could face two to twenty years in prison. • A frustrated Mom left her 10 year old daughter and 8 year old son at a Cy-Fair fire station Friday afternoon. According to fire station officials, the kids were told by the mother......

::Flash Yo Stache at Vinyl Ranch:: It's back all you Urban Cowboys and Girls: Vinyl Ranch at Leon's Lounge. And this time a little twisted (at the edges). Tonight's 4th installment of the honky tonk party at Leon's Lounge brings a whole new level to the shindig. Local charity Mustaches For Kids will team up with Vinyl Ranch creator, Dave Wrangler, to create a meeting of the 'staches! How perfect is this? Be on......

Some pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty cool stuff opening this weekend, kids. Check it out: Jeanne Cassanova / Reginald Rachuba The Joanna Gallery "Those in attendance can be assured a multi sensory onslaught of 'image spillage'." Oh, really. We have to admit, the term "spillage" sort of scares us, but the image at right is so cool, we're willing to risk it. Both Cassanova and Rachuba pull from contemporary images and create narratives woven between each other......

Not that this performance will get him the kind of endorsement dollars that Reggie Bush has gotten since they both came into the league last year, but Mario Williams just plain clowned Bush yesterday. Super Mario had six tackles including four of The Greatest Running Back Ever himself. Reggie's stat line for the game: 34 yards rushing on 15 carries, and 2 fumbles. Take that, draft pundits. Of course, the real big story from the......

Indie/hip-hop fans will enjoy tonight's line up at Warehouse Live, headlined by Aesop Rock. Tomorrow night, check out local rock band Days Drive at Rudyard's. Originally from New Orleans, but transplanted to Houston after Hurricane Katrina, the Rebirth Brass Band always puts on a horn-filled funk show - catch them at the Meridian Friday night. Songwriter/guitarist Anne McCue lands at Dan Electro's Guitar Bar Saturday night. The alt/rock band Brand New is playing two......

New Orleans' alt-rock band Mute Math may have been named a finalist in Spin.com's 2007 Artist of the Year Award, and yeah, they might have recorded that theme song you heard in the new Transformers movie last summer, but that's not what we think makes this band cool. No, we give a spirited high-five to Mute Math's singer Paul Meany for rocking the keytar! Meany's voice sounds a lot like Sting, but when you add......

The big question heading into the Texans matchup against the San Diego Chargers has nothing to do with Matt Schaub's hip, Andre Johnson's knee, or Gary Kubiak's recent coaching decisions, but when and where the game will be played. As you're no doubt aware, George Bush started a series of fires in Southern California to distract attention away from the Iraq war, and a lot of people around the San Diego area were forced......

Ok, so it’s been like eight years since American Pie came out. Can you believe it? We know, we’re so old. It was a totally different decade then. A forgotten, distant time in our culture. An innocent age when we’d not yet seen Tara Reid’s, well, pretty much everything. A time when most of us had never heard the term MILF. A time when Eugene Levy had not yet sold his once funny soul to......

Mother Nature has been teasing us – toying with us even. Here it is, late October and nary a sweater touched, a wool sock adorned, a scarf wrapped. The hair is still frizzy and the a/c continues to crank. But, by golly, the optimist in us has gone into full-fledged autumn-mode: dining al fresco. Every year, about this time of year, Houstonist wills the weather to get cooler by changing our dining strategy to all-al-fresco-all-the-time.......

It's that time again. Basketball is back, people -- well sort of. The Houston Rockets will be arriving today in Austin for their second straight year of training camp at the University of Texas. The team will remain there until Oct. 7 when they will be returning to Houston. Sorry folks, all of the workout sessions in Austin are closed to the public, but have no fear; you will have your chance to see the......

Houstonist recently kept you abreast of the “Humberto Incident”, where a low pressure system in the Gulf strengthened in less than 24 hours and slammed ashore, with sustainable wind gusts of 85 mph as a Category 1 hurricane, near High Island, causing power outages, localized flooding and wind damage. When storms give you little warning – the choice is already made for you to shelter in place. The media here is rife with preparedness information......

Good morning, Houston. As you might have noticed, we passed the night sans Humberto — but our friends in the Beaumont area weren't so lucky. The sudden hurricane made landfall early this morning and battered Beaumont with winds up to 62 mph and Orange with gusts of up to 85 mph, the Chron's Eric Berger reports. From across Southeast Texas came reports of knee-deep water, downed power lines and damaged buildings, including an apartment......

In our Retailist weekly feature, we share local places to satiate your shopping needs and feed your consumerist tendencies. Have a great place for us to get addicted to? Email us and let us know! Oolala Gifts (833 Studewood) is the kind of happy-place that makes you want to celebrate obscure holidays, if only for extra excuses to s.h.o.p. We file Oolala in with our favorite Heights shops - as it has the funky......

Triple Threat Edition So we couldn't decide on one event for tonight, so we're giving you three. We are so damn generous some times. Besides, this week has been so long we figured you needed an extra long Friday to make up for it. Well, of course there's the Txt Me L8r SPIN Party at HCP that we'll all be at. Two of your favorite Houstonist contributors (wait, you have favorites, right?) will be participating......

Callaloo, among the top literary magazines in the country, is sending four writers (all faculty from Callaloo's Creative Writing Workshops) to read in Houston for one night only. Terrance Hayes, Mat Johnson, Tayari Jones, and Tracy K. Smith will give a public reading Thursday, August 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the Ensemble Theatre, located at 3535 Main Street. These four writers have won more than a dozen national awards and fellowships; they are at......

Victor Montano, a sixteen-year-old Houstonian, was hit and killed by a police vehicle in New Orleans. He had been visiting the city for about two weeks. Police caught Montano spray painting along the floodwall last Thursday afternoon. When he saw the police, he took off running and the officer followed in his SUV. The officer said it appeared as though Victor was going to jump over a fence, but when tripped and fell in front......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness – we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

We knew there had to be some history behind Houston's opening its doors to hurricane evacuees from New Orleans a couple of summers ago — and now, thanks to the Chronicle's addictive Bayou City History blog, we know what it was: Early in 1949, the Houston City Council annexed the city of New Orleans. So, hey, all you transplanted New Orleanians: Welcome home! It all started Dec. 31, 1948, when Houston annexed more than......

Good morning, Houston. Where do you go when you want to get away? The Chronicle asked some of its readers that and published their answers Friday — and it's not such a bad list, with day trips, museums and natural attractions. (Also on the list: the mausoleum at Forest Park Westheimer cemetery, which definitely takes a certain kind of person to enjoy.) The suggestion we're most interested in checking out is ex-state Rep. Debra......

Good morning, Houston. Do you remember the May issue of Texas Monthly? Many people are finding it hard to forget. The magazine featured a cover story about nutty astronautess Lisa Nowak and the headline "Astronaut Sex!" Many people were upset by the prominence of the word "sex" on the cover, and that made for the second-worst newsstand seller in the magazine's more than 34-year history. TM Editor Evan Smith said he initially thought the......

After Krispy Kreme donuts left the Houston market early last year, finding a satisfying piece of fried dough got a little harder. Enter the beignet. Now, we’re not saying that the beignet is a substitute for the Krispy Kreme. Nor is the Krispy Kreme a replacement for the beignet. But if you happen to crave something sweet, doughy and fried, the beignet fulfills all three requirements. In a perfect world Café Du Monde would expand......

Good morning, Houston. So what was the last bonus gift you got at work? A fruit basket? Maybe an engraved Space Pen? Well, if you worked for La Porte-based Texas Stress, you might have ended up with a Harley: Gary and Joni Hagar, the owners of the company, rewarded each of their top 10 employees with $21,000 and told them to pick out their own hogs. "I've never heard of a boss doing this......