Before this month's "Houston Pet Peeves" segment on KUHF's Houston Matters, I asked what's bugging people. Here, lightly edited, is some of the grumbling:


Me: The Washington Commanders stole the Houston Texans' claim to worst name in the NFL. I miss being #1.

Jordan Blum: Nah, I still think “Texans” is worse.

Charles Apple: What y’all need is a new name for your team. How about the Houston Turn-Signal Users?

Luis Lemus: Or the Texas City Toxins.

Russ Barnes: I believe it’s close to inevitable that the newly named team will be known as the Washington Commies.

Susan Bailey: I can’t believe Washington named their team after the President’s dog.

Rutger Heymann: Shoulda named ‘em the Emolumen.

Treena Rowan: My gripe is that the Texans didn’t hire Brian Flores.

Gary Woods: Is there some clause in the road workers’ contract that says Shepherd Drive has to be under construction at least 75% of the time?

Jessica Uresti: The MKT bridge closed August 19, 2020. They are just now going to start fixing it, and the estimated completion is late summer. It’s taking two years to fix something so important to many people who bike and walk!

Alan Morlan: People who litter: Where are you going that doesn’t have a trash can?

Susan Elmore: People who don’t pick up after their dogs.

Rebecca Adams Katic: People who put plastic bags in recycling bins!

Brian Grant: People in Uptown/Tanglewood drive Porsches and other luxury sportscars but go 15 mph under the speed limit.

Nick Hall: Recycling pickup has been so jacked up lately. I get it that they’re dealing with staff shortages and stuff, but the absolute opaqueness of when stuff’s gonna get picked up bugs me. People in my neighborhood just set their bins out whenever they’re full and cross their fingers.

Lary Sides: I hate it when I’m eating Whataburger french fries with spicy ketchup, and I forget that I’m wearing a mask.

Nancy Fisher: I had friends in from rural Wyoming, where dirt roads are the norm. They commented on how bumpy and rough Houston streets are.

Leah Lax: Raccoons in our neighborhood are really proliferating, bigger and bolder every year. The other night, they were having a convention on someone’s front lawn, standing on their hind legs like prairie dogs.

Have you ever wondered what your neighborhood looked like before there were buildings on the land? Or what Uptown was like before freeways and the Galleria? What about the Astrodome area? And Alief? And West U.?

Today City Cast Houston’s environmental contributor, Jaime González, explains how Google Earth images allow us to see aerial views of the city as far back as 1945 — which is decades further back than most cities can go. (Thank you, oil and gas exploration.)

Among the surprises: We have more trees now than we did in '45. 

👨‍🔬 Carbon capture isn’t working… yet: Carbon capture is fossil-fuel companies’ favorite green technology. The only problem: More than 80% of carbon-capture projects around the world have failed, mainly because the tech didn’t work or they were too expensive to run. Consider NRG’s $1 billion Petra Nova project: It was supposed to capture carbon dioxide produced by one of NRG’s coal-burning power plants outside of Houston, and then pipe the CO2 to an oilfield where it could be used. Opened with great fanfare in 2016, the system was mothballed last year after low oil prices wrecked the financial model. (Wall Street Journal)

🎨 800-pound dirt bison sculpture, looking for a home: Artist Cindee Klement’s Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus is an 11-foot-long sculpture of a bison, with a hide made of clay topsoil and a shaggy pelt of native grasses and seedpods. Through March 26, it’s on view at the Silos at Sawyer Yards. After that, Klement would love for it to stay awhile in a Houston office building – maybe an oil company interested in carbon sequestration. (Texas Monthly)

🏈 The Texans hire Lovie Smith: No, the Texans didn’t formally interview their assistant head coach and defensive coordinator for their top coaching job. And yes, they did suddenly decide to promote Smith after finalist Brian Flores sued the NFL for discrimination. Said a statement from Flores’ lawyer: “Mr. Flores is happy to hear that the Texans have hired a Black coach.” The Texans’ general manager says that Smith’s promotion has nothing to do with Flores’ lawsuit. (Chron.com, Houston Chronicle)

Jaime González (he's everywhere today) writes that it's time to stop calling sugar hackberries "trash trees." Celtis laevigata are fast-growing native trees that are great for fighting climate change by providing shade in harsh city environments. Plus, their berries are a winter survival food for birds — and also make a tasty snack for humans.