Lather up for a little cleanup and spacemaking, yo.
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: TOURISM, THE FINAL FRONTIER “Let’s face it, if you’ve ever been to Space Center Houston, it’s mostly geared towards elementary school field trips. It wasn’t til just a few years ago, one of the *real* crown jewels of America’s leftover space hardware, a complete friggin Saturn V, was even given a roof to protect it from the elements for posterity. I love NASA and remember being able to run around all over the campus with nary a locked door as a kid, but JSC simply hasn’t kept up with being a top toursist destination, domestically or internationally. Much like other ‘attractions’ in Houston, people see them incidentally when here visiting relatives or on business, they’re not destinations in themselves. I swear I think more people come down 45 and 59 from other states to see Galveston than Houston. Maybe we need to build that giant dome over the Loop after all to get some tourist cred.” [SL, commenting on Why No Shuttle for Houston? Because Space Center Houston Isn’t So Big with the Tourists]
ROUTE 44 CHERRY LIMEADE FROM MASON RD. SONIC DRAWS OUT FBI FUGITIVE 
Why did an accused child rapist from Oklahoma come out of his hiding place of 5 days along the Brazos River in Stephen F. Austin State Park? “Because he was tired and thirsty and wanted a Route 44 cherry limeade from Sonic,” Charles Dyer apparently told authorities after he was captured near Pecan Grove carrying the drink in a cooler. As a shirtless pedestrian in a Richmond drive-in, Dyer may have aroused suspicion at the Sonic at 9835 S. Mason Rd. But it took someone spotting the former Marine blocks away to call the authorities. Over the last couple of years, Dyer has posted a series of YouTube videos (as July4Patriot) documenting his views about and problems with the government, as well as the various criminal charges filed against him. A member of the Oath Keeper militia movement, he has claimed that the rape charge was concocted as part of a government conspiracy. [KHOU 11 News; Instant News Katy] Photo: NEDSCO
If y’all had come to Space Center Houston, they’d have built a home for a retired space shuttle there. Well, maybe. Today’s report of the NASA inspector general points out a few details in the story of how Houston lost out in the retired-space-shuttle home sweepstakes. At a presentation given to NASA administrator Charles Bolden in November 2009, 4 out of 5 options being considered at the time by the agency’s recommendation team would have given Houston a shuttle. And Bolden says Houston was a sentimental favorite for him, too. He told investigators
that if it had been strictly a personal decision, his preference would have been to place an Orbiter in Houston. He noted that “[a]s a resident of Texas and a person who . . . spent the middle of my Marine Corps career in Houston, I would have loved to have placed an Orbiter in Houston.â€
So what happened?
Just how far down the road does the Texas Dept. of Transportation want to take its court battle with a Houston romance novelist, her publisher, and a bookstore? Yesterday a federal judge in Austin denied TxDOT’s request for a restraining order that would have required all 35,000 copies of a new book to be recalled from distributors and destroyed — and be given a new title. Christie Craig’s shirtless-hunk-filled novel, Don’t Mess with Texas, was released on Tuesday. TxDOT complained that the book used the agency’s trademarked slogan for a statewide anti-littering campaign as its title without permission. But under questioning, TxDOT’s attorneys had conceded that none of the trademark registrations for the phrase “Don’t Mess with Texas” specifically covers books. In his decision, Judge Sam Sparks found that point significant, and noted that the costs of recalling the book would likely be very high.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU GO RIGHT AHEAD “When I first visited Texas in 1980, the TxDOT signs said ‘Drive Friendly.’ I thought this was a charming sentiment, so when the opportunity came to move here, I looked forward to ‘driving friendly’ with all the other Texans. Imagine my surprise when I got here, and went looking for those ‘Drive Friendly’ signs, only to find they had been replaced by ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ . . . whoa. OK. My then-new husband told me that just meant that a gunrack gives you the right-of-way.” [Claire de Lune, commenting on Don’t Mess with Don’t Mess with Texas]
Judges and their staff from the 1st and 14th state courts of appeals won’t move in until next month, but a restored and rejiggered version of the 1910 Harris County Courthouse at 301 Fannin St. downtown was opened yesterday for a rededication ceremony after 5 years of construction. PGAL and Vaughn Construction directed a $65 million renovation that undid all sorts of alterations to the building begun in 1953. The original building was designed by an architect from Dallas, Charles Erwin Barglebaugh, on the site of 4 previous county courthouses. Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia brings back this photo tour:
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Houston burger fans, In-N-Out wants to pack your meat in Fort Worth. No, the California-based burger chain hasn’t announced any Houston locations yet, but clearly they’re on the radar: Only a few months after opening its first Texas location, In-N-Out is asking the city of Fort Worth to lower city taxes by $840,000 over 10 years so it can build a regional distribution center and meatpacking facility near DFW “that would support expansion across Texas and possibly into neighboring states.”
- In-N-Out Burger seeks abatement for regional distribution center [Star-Telegram, via Eater Houston]
Photo: Mike E. Perez
RED-LIGHT CAMERA SWITCH: OFF The latest signal change in the ongoing saga of Houston’s on-again, off-again traffic-light cameras: City council has just voted to turn off the red-light cameras, again. [Houston Politics; background; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST MESSIN’ WITH YA “More than once, a non-Texan has cited ‘don’t mess with Texas’ to me as an example of what they perceive as Texans’ aggressive, arrogant superiority complex. I love the sheepish look I get when I tell them, ahem, it’s an anti-littering campaign, and not something we made up to sound like bad-asses. . . .” [Katk, commenting on Don’t Mess with Don’t Mess with Texas]
CLEAN YOUR OWN DAMN TOILET 
The rent ain’t so bad — just $350 a month for a 600-sq.-ft. single-bedroom house steps from Heights Blvd. and I-10. But you’ll be renting this place “as-is,” and these pics are here to help you figure out what that means. [HAR, via Swamplot inbox]
TRACKING SUGAR LAND’S SUGAR AND CHEESE 
Where Sugar Land’s Cupcake Cafe couldn’t hold on, macaroni and cheese is going in. The owners of the Jus’ Mac mac-and-cheese-is-all restaurant on Yale St. in Sunset Heights have announced they’re ready to expand to a second location: 16525 Lexington Ave., in a strip center at the corner of Austin Pkwy., behind the First Colony Mall. Expected completion date for the cupcakes-to-pasta makeover: November. [HAIF; previously on Swamplot]
Who’s upset about a new romance novel called Don’t Mess with Texas and its “numerous graphic references to sexual acts, states of arousal, etc.”? TxDOT, which owns the trademark for the book’s title, and has now filed a lawsuit seeking a restraining order against Hachette Book Group (the book’s publisher), Barnes & Noble, and Houston’s Christie Craig (its author). The book’s official publication date is today. Rifling through a few pages previewed on Amazon, the Houston Press‘s Richard Connelly finds one of them steamy sex scenes — but no reference to the evils of littering along state highways. A TxDOT spokesperson tells Connelly the state transportation agency has succceeded in a similar lawsuit before. Win or lose, Craig may be hoping the ensuing publicity will help spur sales of her upcoming how-to book, Wild, Wicked and Wanton: 101 Ways to Love Like You Are in a Romance Novel.
- Don’t Mess with Texas [Katy Budget Books]
- Texas Sues Over
PornSteamy Romance Novel Entitled Don’t Mess With Texas [Hair Balls] - Texas sues author over ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ romance novel [Houston Business Journal]
- Christie Info [Christie Craig]
