Former Houston Oilers football coach Oail Andrew “Bum” Phillips Jr. has died at age 90. It’s pretty much impossible for anyone who didn’t grow up in Houston during the “Luv Ya Blue” era of of the Earl Campbell Oilers to tell you how much Phillips meant to the city. He may be the most beloved NFL coach never to even reach a Superbowl. Bud Adams firing Philips (and then trading Campbell to New Orleans for a sack of doorknobs) was one of the many, many, many things Oilers owner Bud Adams did to earn the enmity of the city he would eventually deprive of the Oilers.
Philips was an ornery cuss, but a classy one, and 100% Texan. He will be missed.
My story “Novel Properties of Certain Complex Alkaloids” will be appearing in the Rayguns Over Texas anthology edited by Rick Klaw that’s to be published for LonestarCon 3, the 2013 San Antonio Worldcon. It’s sort of a Greg Egan story by way of Timothy Leary and H. P. Lovecraft…
It’s that time of year again. Texas is having it’s annual tax free weekend this weekend, August 17-19, for back-to-school goods like clothing under $100, school supplies, etc. And this year, the previously tax-free but now-tax-covered Amazon is participating as well.
You may remember my mention of Robert Ben Rhodes (the truck driver accused of torturing, killing and raping as many as 50 women) who was awaiting trial in the same Big Spring, Texas jail that also housed child-abusing polygamist Warren Jeffs.
Rhodes has been sentenced to life imprisonment rather than the death penalty. This is disappointing, since he was already serving a life sentence for murders committed in Illinois and if any U.S. criminal currently behind bars in the U.S. deserves the death penalty, it’s Rhodes. But he’d been awaiting trial since 2009, which suggests there was some problem with prosecution evidence. And since he’s already 66, there was a good chance Rhodes would have died behind bars before the sentence was carried out anyway…
Federal scientists confirmed Friday that Texas had its driest year on record in 2011.
The statewide average rainfall for the year totaled just 14.88 inches, according to the National Climatic Data Center, beating the previous low of 14.99 inches set in 1917.
And keep in mind that it was even worse than it seems, as several inches in that final tally only turned in the last few weeks of the year where, as welcome as it was, it did jack-all for farmers.
For the first time since it rained about five minutes one night three or four months ago. And before that it might have been another three or four months.
A good thing, too, since it’s been so dry here the cacti have been dying of thirst:
I took that picture along the Rattan Creek greenbelt earlier this week…
We interrupt your usual SF geeking to note the arrival of the NFL Season, starting tonight. As such, it’s time to vote for your predictions on the Texans season. With the return #1 rushing back, #1 receiver, and what should by all accounts be a vastly improved defense over last year’s abysmal effort, I think the Texans are primed for a run to the playoffs (and to win me $100). So vote on what you think this year’s regular season record will be.
