Thumbs Down: How’s a kid supposed to enjoy Roald Dahl these days? Give his ghost a break. His stories are catching it from the left and right. Across the pond, British “sensitivity” editors have bowdlerized his books by cutting potentially offensive phrases. Augustus Gloop in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is no longer “fat.” Here in Houston, where right-wing cultural warriors are banning books at the slightest hint of any gender bending, Spring Branch ISD announced that it had canceled school field trips to see an adaptation of Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach” performed by Main Street Theater. They cited concerns about its “age-appropriateness” after SBISD parents expressed alarm over a “drag queen’s role in the show.” The theater, which has for 43 years specialized in productions for children, had fewer than eight actors portraying 20 characters. So, yes, they relied on the age-old tradition of cross-gender acting. "Drag is a different art form,” Shannon Emerick, the theater’s marketing director, told ABC13. Though the anti-trans and anti-drag bills that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has rammed through the Texas Senate haven’t made it to the governor’s desk, it seems they’re already having a chilling effect. Fears over cross-dressing “groomers” coming for all our children seem to be nearing the fever pitch of the “Satanic panic” in the 1980s when lurid claims spread from shore to shore of a global cult that sexually abused, sacrificed and even ate their victims. Keep your eyes open for Pentagrams, we were told. Now, it seems, drag queens await on every stage.
Thumbs down: They say social media makes us meaner to each other, more likely to bully someone on Twitter because we know they can’t turn around and smack us like they might do in the grocery store check-out line. But has all that passive aggressiveness made us big wimps in person, too? Just look at the two women who have been dubbed “Astros Mean Girls” after a viral video seemed to capture them at a game mocking TikTok influencer Jackie La Bonita in the background as she poses for a selfie video. No, they shouldn’t have been flashing the middle finger, making faces and laughing rudely at the woman. (And they’ve since apologized for doing so.) But their annoyance at being filmed by a stranger apparently without their permission is understandable, too. Why didn’t they just ask not to be filmed? Why didn’t the TikTok influencer just turn around and call them on their rudeness directly instead of broadcasting their antics to the world with a sad caption inviting TikTok viewers to “watch my confidence disappear after these random girls make fun of me for taking pics.” We know the answer. Petty drama always gets more clicks than good manners and common courtesy: more than 43 million views and counting.
Thumbs Up: Count us among those who hang on Chronicle food critic Alison Cook’s every salivating syllable. Our palettes literally ache upon reading one of her delicious odes to everything from a lemon ricotta dip with spring peas to melty braised pork belly. So count us perplexed, dumbfounded and a little suspicious when she of the pristine palette declared this week that Houston has the best-tasting drinking water in Texas. She was one of the judges in a contest in which an east-side plant took top honors in a blind tasting of 18 samples across the state. We’re not sure what impressed her about the sample. Did this victory really pass the smell test? Perhaps the east side plant has a special recipe that bears no resemblance to the pool-water-and-puppy-breath concoction that comes out of our faucets in other parts of town. As an East Ender, could intrinsic bias have led Cook to root for the home team without realizing it? But that wouldn’t explain other judges’ votes. Cook describes herself as a tap water stalwart who opts for it at restaurants over bottled water so, once again, we’ll have to trust her expert review. Winners Eric Garza, Venus Price, Jin Le and Roberto Amezquita will go on to compete internationally in Canada. We wish them luck and raise a glass of tap water in triumph. This one’s for you! (Not for us. We’ll stick with the bottled stuff, thanks.)
Thumbs Up: It's been a long three years in the wilderness for the Houston Rockets. Ever since James Harden forced his way out of town, the team has undergone a massive rebuild, shamelessly bottoming out with a rag-tag collection of young players and also-rans, helmed by a coach who seemed like a very nice guy, but brought little to the table in terms of X's and O's. Normally, teams with such a bleak outlook have trouble attracting the cream of the coaching crop, but wouldn't you know it, the Rockets were able to lure Ime Udoka, fresh off of a near-championship run leading the Boston Celtics. What a coup! Sure, Udoka was only available because he was fired for allegedly cheating on his longtime partner — actress Nia Long — with a Celtics team employee, but these details are a mere trifle. You may not want to invite the guy over for a dinner party, but Udoka is a heck of a coach who gives the team some serious credibility ahead of a summer when a certain former Rockets franchise player with notable facial hair and taste for the, er, Houston nightlife, is set to become a free agent. With newfound stability and a little luck, the Rockets could soon soar back to contention.
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April 29, 2023 at 05:05PM
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Drag panic, 'Astros mean' girls and Houston's tasty tap (Thumbs) - Houston Chronicle
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