Wyoming

Five Reasons You Shouldn't Smoke Pot With Former Aggie QB Reggie McNeal

College footballer with weed -- you're thinking Mack Brown's Longhorns, right? Forget it -- we're talking Aggies. Former Aggies. Former Aggies like quarterback Reggie McNeal, currently a Canadian Football League free agent. Currently a CFL free agent who keeps getting arrested for weed. McNeal was ... More >>

Cowboy Diaries 2013: Chet Johnson, All About Randy Travis

True cowboys are hard to find, but not at the Houston Rodeo. Life on the road leads them here this time every year for the biggest rodeo in the world, where they'll ride and wrangle livestock for cash and glory. Each day, Hair Balls will spotlight one person with enough dirt on his or her boots to c ... More >>

Want Love? Live in Texas? Then I'll See You at Walmart

Walmart has anything you could need. Ninety-eight-inch televisions. Formica bookshelves. Palettes of alcohols. Piles of strollers. All for under $50, and all available just down the interstate. The Waltons have perfected the pursuit of capitalism, 102.7 billion times over. They've timed their sales ... More >>

For Valentine's Day: A Few Musical Bone-Zone Bummers

Today the Internet is awash with song suggestions to help you get your honeys into a sexin' mood, but I've collected some stories from completely real people that I in no way made up to serve as a warning that your Valentine's playlist has got to be foolproof. I've chosen four to prove that with on ... More >>

Bank Security Can Put a Crimp in Your Holiday Travel Plans

If you haven't noticed, many large banking institutions have stepped up their security over the past few years and it's gotten even tighter for the holidays. While this additional security is mostly a good thing -- no one wants their bank accounts emptied right before Christmas -- it can be a seriou ... More >>

App of the Week: Apps That Helped on My Vacation...and a Few That Didn't

A few weeks back, I took a two-week vacation that saw me visit three states and travel by plane, car, shuttle and even by boat for a few minutes. It was all within the U.S., but I found my need for technology surprising. Because I work for myself, I did bring a computer for occasionally catching up ... More >>

The Six Worst One-Game Uniforms You'll See In The 2012 College Football Season

Look good, feel good, play good? Not in these cases. This list doesn't include full-time offenders like Houston, who substituted a perfectly slick design for a blob. Instead, these universities -- some with long traditions -- will subject us to a fashion upchuck on select game days.

Cowboy Diaries: JR Vezain -- Texas Is Rodeo Bliss

True cowboys are hard to find, but not at the Houston Rodeo. Life on the road leads them here this time every year for the biggest rodeo in the world, where they'll ride and wrangle livestock for cash and glory. Each day, Hair Balls will spotlight one person with enough dirt on his boots to call him ... More >>

Cowboy Diaries: Bobby Welsh -- Houston Champeen Defends His Title

True cowboys are hard to find, but not at the Houston Rodeo. Life on the road leads them here this time every year for the biggest rodeo in the world, where they'll ride and wrangle livestock for cash and glory. Each day, Hair Balls will spotlight one person with enough dirt on his boots to call him ... More >>

Cowboy Diaries: Kanin Asay -- A Bucking Bull is His Podium

True cowboys are hard to find, but not at the Houston Rodeo. Life on the road leads them here this time every year for the biggest rodeo in the world, where they'll ride and wrangle livestock for cash and glory. Each day, Hair Balls will spotlight one person with enough dirt on his boots to call him ... More >>

Abe Fiszer: Houston Fire Department Captain Resigns After Kiddy Porn Bust

According to a criminal complaint on file in the Harris County Courthouse, Saul Abraham "Abe" Fiszer, an 18-year-veteran of the Houston Fire Department, had been struggling with pornography addiction for some time. He and his wife had been working through it, and Fiszer had sought counseling. Unf ... More >>

Five Ways to Protect Yourself from Being Victimized Using Social Media During the Holidays

You don't need booby traps to keep criminals out of your house.​Lots of people go out of town for the holidays to visit relatives or to get as far away from relatives as possible. Both are understandable, but in this era of modern social networking, it's important to be careful about how you i ... More >>

Darren Aronofsky's Meth Ads: Anti-Drug PSAs That Actually Might Work

​Last week, we posted a list of anti-drug commercials that not only didn't stop any children from doing drugs, but potentially encouraged such abusing behavior. The famed PSA one-liner, "I learned it from watching you," probably made more kids of the '80s wish they were rolling doobies with th ... More >>

Rocks Off Wishes Wyoming A Happy Birthday

​If you're anything like Rocks Off, you've been marking off the days on your calendar until you could let loose and celebrate Wyoming Statehood Day this coming Sunday. OK, so that's a lie, but here at Rocks Off we do enjoy the lesser known-holidays and putting together playlists to honor them ... More >>

The United States Of Women In Music

​Rocks Off is no He-Man Woman Hater's Club. We like women quite a bit, actually, especially those women brave enough to wade through the rivers of bullshit in the male-dominated music business. If you'll page back a few weeks, you'll remember the discussion of our favorite female artists from ... More >>

Cowboy Diaries: Dusty Tuckness -- Bullfighters Are More Athlete Than Clown

Mandy OaklanderDusty Tuckness, bullfighter​True cowboys and cowgirls are hard to find, but not at the Houston Rodeo. Life on the road leads them here this time every year for the biggest rodeo in the world, where they'll ride and wrangle livestock for cash and glory. Each day, Hair Balls will ... More >>

Cowboy Diaries: Clayton Savage -- Stepped On "Down There" by a Bull

Clayton Savage, bull rider​True cowboys and cowgirls are hard to find, but not at the Houston Rodeo. Life on the road leads them here this time every year for the biggest rodeo in the world, where they'll ride and wrangle livestock for cash and glory. Each day, Hair Balls will spotlight one pe ... More >>

Howard Judah and Greg Jablonski: If They Are Scam Artists, They're Pretty Bad Ones

​Say your insurance agent or financial adviser asks you to invest $25,000 on a sure thing with a "guaranteed" rate of return, with a company you never heard of. Do you cut a check right then and there, without asking a single question? Well, that appears to be what nearly 300 folks in Tex ... More >>

Texas Lousy at Reporting Food Poisoning, Study Says

You'll never know what gets you in Texas​If you live in Texas and eat food, you will probably die, or at least become violently ill. That's what we're taking away from a study that gives the Lone Star state an "F" in reporting outbreaks of foodborne illness. The Center for Science in th ... 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 >>

Comment Of The Day: Don't Overestimate Ted Nugent

​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 >>

Why Notre Dame Will Win The BCS And UT Won't, 2010 Edition: Part 3

Montana: He's back!! Kinda​Time for another of our weekly efforts at explaining to you benighted Longhorn fans why UT won't win the BCS this year, but Notre Dame will.It's going to be difficult to limit the discussion to just the traditional five reasons, but ND fans are all about tradition. So le ... More >>

Why ND Will Win The BCS Title And UT Won't 2010 -- Part 2

Watch out, Wyoming!! UT is comin' at ya!!​Our second annual weekly explanation of why Notre Dame will win the BCS title this year and the University of Texas won't got off to a predictable start this weekend: The Irish manhandled a savage opponent while the Longhorns struggled mightily to eke out ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: The Laramie Project, Jewtopia, The Marvelous Wonderettes

Drive-By Shootings: Texas Is Second Only To California

Better than New York, for sure​For those of you who always get bummed when Texas gets the lowest spots on national rankings for mental health care, children's insurance, and other benchmarks of civilized society, here's a study that puts us at an impressive Number Two: Drive-by shootings.The gun-c ... More >>

The Story of Matthew

Theatre New West conjures horror — and hope — with The Laramie Project.

Judy Shepard

Her son became a symbol for anti-hate legislation

Cowboy Tales From The Rodeo: He's Not A Bum On The Street

Bull rider Tyler Smith. ​Rodeo cowboys basically live on the road, traveling with men and women crazy enough to ride, rope and wrestle live animals for a paycheck. Each day, Hair Balls is asking a different cowboy to tell us a little bit about himself and his wildest story from a life of rodeo. Na ... More >>

Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, write, and write some more

Gettin' Kinda Crowded -- Texas Grows More Than Any Other State In Past Year

​Further proof that we're not being hit as hard in the Great Recession as some -- Texas added more residents in the past 12 months than any state in the union, the Census Bureau reported today.Texas added 478,000 residents in the previous 12 months, beating out California, which added almost 100,0 ... More >>

Five Reasons Why Notre Dame Will Win The BCS And UT Won't: Part 6

​Catch up on previous posts through the links last week.It was a difficult week to gauge the relative strength of the Longhorns and Irish, since both teams had a bye week. The Irish had what is known as a "real" bye week; the Longhorns played Colorado, which is the same thing. (For you non-Buffs f ... More >>

Five Reasons Notre Dame Will Win The BCS This Year And Texas Won't: Part 2

​I admit, there will be Tuesday mornings when it will be difficult to write this item each week. Luckily, today isn't one of them.In Week Two of the college-football season, Notre Dame continued effortlessly along its well-planned path to the BCS title, while UT stumbled badly.It remains to be see ... More >>

Life On The Rodeo Road: Smoking Brakes In The Middle Of Nowhere

Photo by Paul KnightName: Annesa SelfHometown: Valley View, TexasEvent: Barrel RacingI got into rodeo because my mother and my father both did it. My dad roped, so I just kind of followed in his footsteps. I was five years old when I started winning ribbons, and when I got a little older, I was like ... More >>

Life On The Rodeo Road: Follow The Ten-Minute Rule

Photo by Paul KnightName: Luke ButterfieldAge: 24Hometown: Ponoka, Alberta    Event: Saddle Bronc RidingI got into rodeo because my family rodeos, my dad and mother. They have a feed lot up there [in Canada] so I've always been around cattle and livestock. I played hockey all through ... More >>

The John Royal College Football Top 25, Week Five

Five Times August

Five Times August performs Saturday, May 5, at Mojo Risin', 1600 Shepherd, 713-426-1505.

Born to Bruise

Jolie Holland takes it to the river

Apple Cider

Live Sports Cafe

Outta the Box

Letters to the Editor

Homo on the Range

Ledger and Gyllenhaal are cowboys in love in Ang Lee's wrenching Brokeback Mountain

Grizzly Man

Redford grows old gracefully in An Unfinished Life

Shepard's Call

The Laramie Project explores a hate-crime victim's hometown

The Graduates

MFA students present their master works

Best Cast

The Laramie Project

Those Who Knew Him

The Laramie Project tells the tale of a town transformed by tragedy

Skip It

Why the best teen movie of the year, based on a beloved novel, won't be in theaters

Billie's Last Convention Summer

The queen of Texas liberals hands over her reign

Murder Most Fine

A tasty noir treat is rescued from the video heap