Ups, downs
It’s all about shopping and deals after Turkey Day.
Forget Clé or Anvil. The place to be on Thanksgiving was Cleburne’s cafeteria. The line to dine on turkey under the heat lamp stretched down the street and around the block. You’d think Beyoncé was serving up green bean casserole and blue jello dessert. At least they got a hot meal. Hundreds lined up on Thanksgiving in preparation for Black Friday sales. You know you can buy stuff on the internet now, right? ‘Tis the season for giving, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is ringing it in with a $97.5 million donation to homeless services charities across the nation. Close to home, the Salvation Army of Greater Houston and Houston-based nonprofit SEARCH Homeless Services each received a $5 million grant from the Bezos Day One Fund. Bezos adds more than $10 million to his net worth each hour. His donation to the two Houston charities is the equivalent of the average worker giving about $25 to help our homeless. C’mon, World’s Richest Man, don’t be a grinch. You can afford to write a few more zeros on those checks. So long, farewell and thanks for all the music — it looks like the Day for Night festival is going out of business. The annual downtown arts show has been canceled after creditors announced they were selling their stake, in addition to other “assets and financial interests” of festival founder and Free Press Houston editor and publisher Omar Afra. The festival, which combined visual artistic installations along with concert shows, was once touted as the future of music festivals. Now it joins Rendez-vous Houston and the Westheimer Street Festival in Houston’s history books. Here’s some Texas history worth remembering: The ubiquitous “Don’t Mess With Texas” originally began as an anti-littering campaign. So keep that in mind when we ask: Could it be that beloved Whataburger has been messing with Texas? Environmental groups are asking the San Antonio-based fast food chain to eliminate its use of foam cups. Polystyrene foam, commonly known as Styrofoam, doesn’t biodegrade. McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts have promised to stop relying on the semi-permanent polluter, and Whataburger should follow. Texans should want their favorite fast food joint to have a legacy of doublemeat, double-cheese with extra pickles, not garbage that sticks around almost forever. Hop off the bus, Gus, and put a robot in charge. Metro is starting an autonomous vehicle pilot project at Texas Southern University. The first step involves a selfdriving shuttle for oncampus trips, beginning in January. If that goes well, the next step will move to nearby Cleburne Street.