A new study coming out of the Baylor College of Medicine suggests that the Texas Public School Nutrition Policy has led to real improvements in the way that the state’s middle school students eat. The findings, published in this month’s American Journal of Public Health, analyzed lunch records in south Texas middle schools before and after both district- and state-wide changes took place. The research team found that school lunches after the 2004 policy was......

What we have here is supposedly a rare video of U2 performing in a Houston bar. While Houstonist can't vouch for the validity of this video, we can take note that this is probably from the Rattle & Hum era of the band's career. If anyone can shed some light on this rare video, please do so by leaving us a comment. We'd like to know where and when this video was taken. In......

A furniture store? For a date? Yes. Ikea is not only filled with strangely attractive objects with names like Kroby, Dekad, and Tostarp, it has two restaurants and entertaining people-watching. While Houstonist cannot be held responsible for the consequences of attempting Ikea for a first date, once that special someone has had sufficient time to realize you aren't a complete cheapskate (or has come to terms with it), it can be a novel, unexpected......

Has the world gone nuts? No, it’s just those crazy Canadians and their love for banana hammocks blimps. Currently there is an “Art Intervention” project (guess we aren’t cultured enough?) going on to place a geostationary banana over Texas. The helium-filled banana will have gyroscopes to propel the blimp-like structure in a boomerang pattern over Texas for about a month. While Houstonist loves a good banana hammock as much as the next guy girl, we......

For many Houstonians, the search for a superlative slice of authentic New York-style pizza can be a frustrating and dangerous lifelong quest, fraught with deceiving dead ends and hordes of zombies. While Houstonist can definately commiserate, we suggest plead demand that you go try the Chicago-style Buffalo Chicken Pizza at BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse (from $9 for a mini to $22 for a large that feeds four guys). It is one of the most......

While Houstonist took a post-holiday trip to a local warehouse retail outlet, we noticed several shoppers with carts filled to the rim with cartons of cigarettes. Then, we remembered why: As of yesterday, it will now cost smokers an extra dollar to buy a pack of cigarettes. That’s due to a new law that went in effect state-wide, raising the price of cigarette taxes from 41 cents a pack to $1.41. The American Cancer Society......

Houstonist spends December either crazy busy or stupid tired, what with all of the parties, shopping, home decorating and general Christmas season ilk going on. We discovered these, "on accident" and even though we are pushing all of our limits, we simply cannot bring ourselves to endorse pre-cut, refrigerated cookies that come with their own icing. There is something so wrong with it, our sensibilities are offended. We may kill ourselves, figuratively, but the cookies......

While we were enjoying our turkey and getting a head start on shopping for the holidays, fellow local bloggers brought to our attention a new board game we can get our friends for Christmas: Your Best Life Now: The Game. Why buy the game of Life when you can buy Your Best Life Now, right? Hmm. The board game takes you through "The 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential." Our favorite is Level......

While Houstonist believes in preparedness and Tropical Storm Chris continues to churn in the Atlantic, it isn't time to start boarding up just yet. That having been said, the National Hurricane Center continues to monitor Chris and has yet to downgrade him to a tropical depression as had earlier been predicted. Chris continues to survive depsite many estimations and is aiming directly for Cuba with winds currently around 40mph. Current forecast models keep Chris on......

While Barry Bonds finally, after 13 days and 40 plate appearances, hit homerun number 714 this weekend in Oakland - what Houstonist really wants to know is: Who cares? All the major media outlets have acknowledged this "achievement" of sorts, but it comes with heavy thought. Is it really 714? Does he deserve to pass The Babe? What counts? ESPN went so far as to calculate how many homeruns Bonds has hit free of......