Email Author John Nova Lomax

2009 Stories by John Nova Lomax

• Some Old A**hole Is Swiping The Sunflowers Of Montrose

  published Aug 10, 2009

  Saturday afternoon Hair Balls was rolling up Van Buren Street in Montrose when we spied this apparently wind-blown note tangled high in a tall sunflower, which was one of dozens in a vacant lot. Upon ... More >>

• Houston 101: A Notorious Montrose Murder's (Alleged) Connection To The Deaths of JFK and MLK

  published Aug 06, 2009

  At first, it seemed like a routine call to Houston cop C.M. Bullock. On June 23, 1965, a concerned relative of elderly couple Fred C. and Edwina Rogers had asked the police to check on the couple, as ... More >>

• Pretty Vacant: The Trouble With Houston's (Newly Award-Winning) Skyline

  published Aug 04, 2009

  Forbes Traveler has a new list up -- called alternately "the 13 greatest urban silhouettes" and "the world's most stunning city skylines."Here is what makes a skyline great, according to the article: ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  The Ten Least Intimidating Athletes In Houston History

  published Aug 04, 2009

  There have been some tough guys in Houston sports history -- native sons George Foreman, Nolan Ryan, and Roger Clemens (even if you factor in his chemically-aided roid rage) -- all come to mind. Anybo... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Houston 101: Rice University's Twisted, Tangled Birth

  published Aug 04, 2009

  r Rice University's foundation story is amazingly checkered and includes spousal double-dealing, a secret will, a lengthy court battle, and finally, murder. A murder committed by the butler, no l... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Houston 101: Magnolia Gardens -- Houston's Rockin' Little Riverside Beach

  published Jul 29, 2009

  It may not look like much today, but back in the '50s and '60s, Magnolia Gardens was the place to be if you liked country music and rockabilly. The open-air dance hall/bandstand on the banks of the Sa... More >>

• Produce Company Sues HISD, Alleging Bid-Rigging

  published Jul 29, 2009

  Who gets to provide HISD with this year's supply of turnip greens, spinach and potatoes is at the heart of a lawsuit in Harris County District Court.Plaintiff Schoenmann Produce Company alleges that t... More >>

• Love in the Time of Leprosy: Leprosy Lives On

  published July 30, 2009

  Today, leprosy seems both antiquated and exotic, a disease if not extinct, then certainly foreign to the Houston area. According to dermatologist... More >>

• Love in the Time of Leprosy: The Critter Connection

  published July 30, 2009

  Along with humans, only one other creature on earth is susceptible to leprosy: the nine-banded armadillo. Leprosy thrives in cool conditions,... More >>

• Love in the Time of Leprosy

  published July 30, 2009

  Everybody thought college would be a breeze for José Ramirez. A starter on his high school football team, he was voted most popular in his... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Houston 101: The Smallest Cemetary, Right Next To The Tire Store

  published Jul 24, 2009

   Way out Long Point, at the corner of Pech Road in the heart of greater Spring Branch, there stands one of the most surreal sights in a city full of them: a tiny Old German cemetery tucked in... More >>

• Bronx Cheer: Black Music Allowed at Rice Village Bar. Black Peopler (Allegedly) Not So Much.

  published Jul 22, 2009

   The weekend visit to Houston had been going well enough for Army Sergeant Mohamed Sesay. Now stationed at Killeen's Fort Hood, he'd been back in the States for less than a week, after serving fo... More >>

• Why Rename Hillcroft Only Oncer A Modest Proposal

  published Jul 20, 2009

  View Larger MapThe proposal to rename the stretch of Hillcroft  that courses through the heart of Little Bombay is ginning up a surprising amount of aggro in the blogosphere. (Or is it a surprisi... More >>

• The Hanging Oaks Of Houston

  published Jul 17, 2009

  Way up Bagby near the bayou, there stands a live oak that was old when the Allen Brothers arrived here and perpetrated the real estate scam of the Millennium. One of the few trees to have escaped the ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Houston 101: An Elevator's Last Ride In The Montrose

  published Jul 16, 2009

  Some bands are just fated to live fast, die hard and live a pretty corpse. Maybe no Texas group ever exemplified that credo better than the 13th Floor Elevators, perhaps the first and certainly ... More >>

• Girl Found In Canada Might Be A Missing Child From Houston

  published Jul 13, 2009

  The FBI, the United States Embassy and child welfare authorities in Houston and Hamilton, Ontario are investigating a strange case that possibly involved a missing local girl.  According to th... More >>

• Houston 101: That Weird Building Out On The West Side

  published Jul 10, 2009

  Houston 101 is a new running feature seeking to educate the ignorant masses on some of the more offbeat bits of our town, whether it's long-gone music places, bizarre murders, political trivia or ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Frenchy's Celebrates 40 Years

  published Jul 02, 2009

  Some restaurants epitomize the soul of their cities. There's Brown's Diner and the Pancake Pantry in Nashville, cheese-steak joints like Pat's and Geno's Steaks in Philly, and many a corner pizzeria i... More >>

• Mein So-Called Kampf: Downtown Houston Edition

  published Jul 02, 2009

  Few might have noticed, but a scene that would not have been out of place in the tail end of Germany's Weimar Republic unfolded on the streets of downtown last Saturday, with Neo-Nazis and anti-f... More >>

• Willie D Arraigned, Pleads Not Guilty in Wire Fraud Case

  published Jul 01, 2009

  William James Dennis, the 42-year-old rapper best known as Willie D. of the Geto Boys, was arraigned on June 15. According to court papers, the pioneering Southern hip-hop MC pleaded not guilty to 15 ... More >>

• American-born Cajun With Checkered Past Deported From Houston To Honduras

  published Jun 24, 2009

  Diane Williams has had a pretty rough life. Over the past 20 years, the 34-year-old black-haired, olive-skinned Cajun of partial Native American ancestry has been arrested numerous times here and her ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  True Lifetime Movie Network Tales: Juicy Divorce in Spring

  published Jun 24, 2009

  Here is the inaugural installment of True Lifetime Movie Network Tales, in this case ripped from court papers down at the 1st Court of Appeals. The names are being withheld out of sympathy for ... More >>

• The Most Dangerous Neighborhoods in Houston, Not As Dangerous As Dallas

  published Jun 24, 2009

  Using exclusive, apparently rigorous data from the real estate Web site Neighborhoodscout.com, the personal finance Web site walletpop.com has come up with a list of the 25 most dangerous neighborhood... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Houston's Alleged Amnesiac, Coming Soon To Inside Edition

  published Jun 19, 2009

  The case of the Curmudgeon and the Amnesiac Drifter has legs. Inside Edition, the hard--hitting news program that launched blowhard Bill O'Reilly on an unworthy America, has picked up the story, ... More >>

• They All Look Alike To The Chronicle

  published Jun 18, 2009

  Perusing the "Hot Ticket" spread in this week's Chronicle's Preview section, we came across this little doozy of a mislabeled photo:The caption reads, in part, "Trombone Shorty (pictured here in Guita... More >>