No PAL of Mine

The doors indeed will close on a respected program

Comments (0) By Richard Connelly Thursday, Jun 10 2004

...continued from page 1

We're just surprised anyone forced to endure a semester of Brown lectures actually had enough human spirit left to voice a criticism.

One person who dealt with Brown over the years recently asked a Rice administrator how they could hire the guy. "He rolled his eyes and told me, 'We're no longer letting him teach, we're not paying him any money -- we're just letting him use an office,'" says the former colleague, who did not want to be named.

The horrors of female urination can be mitigated.

Lonely Lanes: It's 9:30 on a weekday morning. Do you know where your traffic is? It's not on the new Westpark Tollway. After $260 million, five weeks of operation, two floods and the temporary closing of a key exit, the tollway's open for business. Such as it is.

More About

Brown is researching a criminal justice book. Just as he has been all throughout the explosion of bad budget news he left in his wake, he was unavailable for comment.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Kyrie O'Connor was brought in earlier this year as a Houston Chronicle editor to rejuvenate the paper's tired features section. So far that's meant a lot of "breaking news" featurettes, such as laugh-free Top Ten career suggestions for whoever just got booted off a reality show.

As a Zeitgeist Queen, she's also offering a daily "cultural blog" on the paper's Web site. The only words that can describe its bizarreness are her own; here are some actual selections from the past few weeks of the blog, minus the links to whatever sites she's found:

I'm sorry about the Iran earthquake. But if you want to avoid earthquakes, don't go to Iran…And I love the idea that people step back and think. My buddy Joy's mother asked the other day, "What is the purpose of squirrels?"…It's just another sign of devolution that nobody uses the excellent words "dirigible" or "zeppelin" anymore, and opts instead for "blimp," which is also a good word, come to think of it…There is nothing more frightening than watching a dozen dogs eat a doggy birthday cake…Does it bother anyone else that [The Bachelor] Jesse chose Jessica? That if someone yelled "Jess!" they'd both turn around?…Phyllis in "Gasoline Alley" has died…Absolute favorite weird new product: Newman's Own dog food…As you may know, I am obsessed with names that are complete sentences…

And it goes on (and on) like that. Luckily there's no need to read the actual blog -- here are some upcoming entries for July and August:

Are your sneakers smelling worse to you these days? Mine are…When they outlaw Peeps, only outlaws will have Peeps…Ever notice how just when you think you're getting too self-obsessed, something great happens to you that you simply have to share with the world?…Dog lovers unite! Because then we could all get together and talk about dogs…Did you know that if you have a blog, all you have to do is check other blogs to come up with interesting links? But I guess that's a trade secret…Boy, those Astros are frustrating…Remember those toys or jingles from your youth? I do…