Mecom Fountain may light up again soon

What the Mecom Fountain looked like before vandals cut the lights off.

The lights of Mecom Fountain, one of Houston's showiest landmarks and a bright spot on the city's grandest thoroughfare, have been dark for seven months. Last fall, someone stole the fountain's 264 light bulbs and the bronze canisters that encased them.

Why?

"Hard to say," says Mark Ross, deputy director of facilities for the Parks and Recreation Department, which is responsible for the fountain's upkeep. "Precious metal theft is in vogue for sure."

But what began as an elaborate act of vandalism has grown into a community effort to bring light back to the fountain's three immense bowls.

A photo from one of the recent Iraq War protests.

"It's our Trevi Fountain, our Golden Gate Bridge," says Peter Brown, the exasperated city councilman at large who's been fielding complaints ever since the fountain went dark. "It's the urban icon that helps define this city."

Sanford Criner, board chair of the Hermann Park Conservancy, calls the 1960s fountain "one of the most, if not the most, beautiful and recognizable civic landmarks after dark in the city."

This is my part of town. We lived just south of the Texas Medical Center from the time we returned to Houston, from Treasure Island, Florida, in 1993 until two months ago when we moved to West University (just west of the TMC skyline; I photo'd here).

This fountain is precisely what Councilman Brown says it is.

When it broke a few years ago and sat silent and empty for a long period of time, it was as sad a time then as it is now at night. Rumor had it at the time that an anonymous benefactor wrote the city a $1 million check for the repairs after learning that the fountain might not work again for years, if ever.

This time all it needs to be re-lit is $100,000 (and some security guards to keep the bronze vandals away from it).

Clemens to make comeback as Bush's war czar

There's just too much irony for me lately to take things seriously ...

After trying in vain to enlist a traditional military man to assume the bizarre post of “War Czar,” President Bush announced today that he had “pitched” the job to Roger Clemens, who has accepted.

Bush had to outbid the New York Yankees for Clemens, who will now be the highest paid employee in the United States Government, at $32 million per year.

The president wasted no time in anointing Clemens with a patented Bush nickname to reflect his new role, in this case “Clemenza.”

Indeed, Bush is counting on the intimidating presence of Clemens, known as “The Rocket,” to singlehandedly defeat the war on terror. As the president, himself a former owner of baseball’s Texas Rangers, put it: “anyone willing to throw splintered bats, and 96 MPH fastballs at people’s heads, is just the kind of sonuvabitch we haven’t had around here since the departures of Rummy and Wolfowitz.”

Clemens also has certain perks in his contract, including only having to show up to work every fifth day, and not making any of the long road trips to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Even with such limitations, the consensus is that Clemens’ effort and performance will far exceed that of all other Bush appointees put together.

Bush has also promised to give Clemens the use of the private jet now utilized by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Clemens, for his part, was quite honest in admitting that his decision was strictly “about the money” — “after all, unlike with the Yankees, it’s obvious that here I have absolutely no chance of winning.”

Art Car Parade Saturday

This is one of Houston's don't-miss-it events.

Always attracts a couple of hundred thousand spectators.

Very few of them Republicans.


These are pictures of parades past. This year's will be even better.

When: 1-3 p.m. Saturday

Where: Begins at Allen Parkway and Taft, turns around on Bagby downtown and ends at Eleanor Tinsley Park.

Cost: Free

Also: Art Car Weekend begins Friday with the free "Shop Talk,'' the Art Car Symposium, 6-9 p.m. at the Art Car Museum, 140 Heights. Live music, illuminated art cars and films by Aurora Picture Show.