West Virginia

It's Time For All These Anonymous People To Back Off Geno Smith

I suppose that news outlets can determine what exactly constitutes news. I'm just one man, one voice in the current events wilderness. With that in mind, allow me to say this: Former West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith's precipitous tumble from potential top ten pick in the NFL Draft to 39th over ... More >>

Mama Tried: Backwoods Electric Country From the Wilds of South Houston

With a name like Mama Tried, you'd expect nothing less than the most quintessential sounds of Merle Haggard in his prime, but this South Houston five-piece is a scruffier, much faster version of the Hag. One look at Blake Plsek (banjo/harmonica) and Jason "J-Bone" White (dobro/guitar) and you'd ... More >>

Survey: Texans Aren't Big on Flossing, Houston Eighth Worst in the U.S.

"Now, take your big ass home and brush that tooth." - Richard Pryor in Harlem Nights. DenTek makes flossing devices, so it isn't really surprising they would commission a survey about it, but what is interesting about this particularly survey is where Texas ended up on the list. And the news is pr ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, The Mea Culpa Edition

First, with Christmas now in the books, I'd like to issue an apology. If you were paralyzed financially this holiday season, unable to buy gifts, and woefully relegated to giving your loved ones esoteric, abstract gifts like "more personal time" or crappy pieces of handmade artwork, it probably mean ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, "Satan Hates Auburn" Edition

I was saddened on Thursday to hear of the passing of legendary college football historian and journalist Beano Cook, who passed away in his sleep at the age of 81. Back in the `80's and early `90's, before the television landscape was cluttered with literally dozens of studio shows all blending toge ... More >>

We're Goin' Streakin!! High School Football Streaker Narrowly Escapes Castration (w/ VIDEO)

I've reached the point with television shows where I rarely watch them in first run anymore. I find it much easier to satiate my TV thirst if I sit down and plow through an entire series on Netflix or DVD over the course of a few weeks. It's what I did with The Wire, it's what I intend to do with Br ... More >>

July 2012 in Openings & Closings: t'afia Is Dead, Long Live t'afia

It's true: t'afia is closed. But only until August 14. That's when -- as chef/owner Monica Pope told us on Wednesday -- the restaurant will be reopened with a revamped concept. It's also true that our beloved Nabi is on the chopping block, as owner Ji Kang confirmed to Eater Houston. However, just ... More >>

Presidents' Sons at War: 13 Service Records, from the Mediocre to the Ultimate Sacrifice

Being the parent of someone fighting in a war is no picnic, even if you're a president. In the modern era, several future or incumbent presidents had sons in the military in wartime. Some of those sons did much, some very little, one paid the ultimate price. Let's look, building up to that ultimat ... More >>

Keith Judd: Texas Prisoner/Presidential Candidate Does Shockingly Well in West Virginia Primary

Majestically mulleted Texas prisoner-cum-presidential candidate Keith Judd has picked up 41 percent of the vote in West Virginia's Democratic primary. (We examined the Keith Judd phenomenon back before he was just a gleam in West Virginia's eye.) The Associated Press reports that Judd, serving time ... More >>

Hispanic vs. Mexican

The 10 Funniest Lines In Recent Extreme-Music Press Releases

Most days, Rocks Off's email inbox is swamped with dozens of messages from industrious publicists eager for us to write something about their artists. That's their job. Hitting the "save" or "delete" button is ours. We certainly have our own lapses sometimes, but we have also been writing (and readi ... More >>

Keith Judd: Totally Qualified Texas Prisoner on Presidential Ballot (Democrat, of Course)

Just when we threw up our hands in despair over the dearth of worthwhile presidential candidates, a federal prisoner in Texas has made it onto the ballot in West Virginia. Keith Russell Judd, who's serving 210 months in a decidedly un-oval office in Texarkana for making threats while on the Univer ... More >>

The Most Hideous "Cinnamon Challenge" Video Ever -- A Zapruder Breakdown

Invention begins with a conversation. I've often said I'd love to have a DVD of the conversations that took place in creating some of the items or concepts that are woven into the daily fabric of our lives. Deep dish pizza, strip clubs, YouTube, pretty much everything started with someone saying, "H ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets

The Flacco Factor: Always keep it in mind​It's the first weekend of football in November. In college football, this means we get into nut-cutting time, weekends that completely weed out the real championship contenders. This weekend includes a quasi-final four in the SEC with the huge LSU- Ala ... More >>

Houston's Bachelors a Prize?

Rankings tell different tales

Comment of the Day: A Hillbilly Responds

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Lingerie-Clad Man High On "Bath Salts" Kills Pygmy Goat (w/ Fantastic Mugshot)

"Almost heaven, West Virginia...."​I understand my responsibility on Hair Balls is to provide sports-related content. But frankly, sometimes a story comes across my desk that is so transcendent in its dysfunction and so detrimental to my faith in mankind that it must be covered in this space, ... More >>

The United States of Beer

Illustration by Monica FuentesFull-size image below.​You asked for it, we delivered. Last week, while many of you were enjoying our map of the United States of Soft Drinks, just as many of you alcoholics were demanding a United States of Beer map instead. And so we hunkered down all weekend, ... More >>

The United States of Soft Drinks

Full-size image below.​In 1998, Nebraska set a precedent for all other U.S. states when it formally declared Kool-Aid to be the state soft drink. Sure, plenty of other states have state foods or state dishes, but a state soft drink? The popular children's beverage was developed in Hastings, N ... More >>

Electronic Frontier Foundation, Others Seek To Protect Texas Masturbators

Karl Hungus wouldn't want German-porn viewers' names revealed​The anonymous masturbators being sued in a Dallas federal court for allegedly illegally downloading porn won't have to reveal their identities if the consumer advocacy groups representing them have their way: the Electric Frontier ... More >>

H.A. McArdle: Long-Lost Battle Of San Jacinto Painting Found In A West Virginia Attic

Found in an attic​Anyone who's visited the Texas capitol in Austin has seen the epic painting depicting the Battle of San Jacinto, where Sam Houston whipped up on the Mexican Army.There was a smaller, slightly different version of it by the artist, H.A. McArdle, but he kept it after a commission p ... More >>

Campaign 2010: 7 Great Moments In Political History

The governor of Texas talks about seceding from the United States of America. Remember when we all thought that was a goofy moment?It turned out to be only a tease for the rest of the political year. When it comes to politics in 2010, things got a whole lot weirder.And we're not even talking about c ... More >>

Sell Your Drum Kit. You Will Never Be This Cool.

​Sure, there are great theatrical drummers in the world. The late, great Keith Moon for one. Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees or Adrian Young from No Doubt are certainly up there in terms of stage presence and watchability. But THE man, the king of all that is awesome in percussion, is a ... More >>

"Debt-Relief" Companies Get Hit By Lawsuit

Robert Lock, slapped with an injunction​The West Virginia Attorney General has sued an alleged debt settlement company we investigated in December. However, one of the company's founders had told us the company -- predicated on the belief that when you get a credit card, the bank owes yo ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. I'm Never Full: Although she uses Twitter as her main communication tool these d ... More >>

New EPA List Of Polluted Cities Leaves Off Houston, To Some Folks' Dismay

The good news is that the Environmental Protection Agency has issued its list of counties that don't meet the agency's standards for fine-particle air pollution, and Harris County is not on that list.The bad news is that the American Lung Association thinks it damn well should be on the list.The EPA ... More >>

The John Royal College Football Top 25, Week Four

College Football Review: Zero Tolerance Helps BYU Win

John Royal’s NCAA Basketball Picks, Take Two

Weekend Music: Carry On, Wayward Sons

The College Football Preview, Week 14: All These Bowls Are Making Us Groggy

Greyhound Racing

Tracks and breeders struggle as attendance declines

Get Your Motor Running

DVDs

Too Late, Baby

The zoo waited too long to feed at the trough

Various Artists

Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly

Starry Lullabye

Ailing Houston-area native David Schnaufer has taken the Appalachian dulcimer to the mountaintop

Brad Paisley

Time Well Wasted

Moot Davis, with Pete Anderson

Sunday, May 15, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999.

Letters

Legally Bland

Tired of boring dates? Don't go out with Tad Hamilton

Get Your Kicks

A Texas filmmaker looks at small-town life through a windshield

Pointy Ears and Predictability

Bat Boy should've stayed in his cave

West Virginia Wild Man

Though he loves to salute them in songs, chickens aren't all that's on the Hasil Adkins diet

The Road Less Traveled

Mother and daughter explore new emotional terrain in the familiar highway saga Tumbleweeds

News of the Weird

Retro Rocket

Sputnik-inspired October Sky runs hot and coal

News of the Weird

News of the Weird

Wild Man Blues

Hasil Adkins drinks too much, screws too much and rocks too much