Ups, downs

Godspeed, Oppy; stoners save a tiger.

Cannabis appreciation day, known as “4/20” holiday, apparently came early this year in Houston for a duo of stoners who, looking for a place to smoke marijuana unencumbered, stumbled into an abandoned home in the Harrisburg/Manchester area only to find a rotund black-and-orange striped feline locked in a cage. Luckily the potheads kept their heads — and their actual heads — and contacted 311 to report the wild animal stuck in inhumane conditions. Or, as New York magazine put it: “All Hail the Stoner Who Unwittingly Saved a ‘Chubby Tiger.’ ” We hope the city rewarded the good Samaritans — perhaps a lifetime supply of Funyuns would suffice. The Cougars at UH, however, are anything but chubby. The men’s basketball team is a lean, mean, game-winning machine. They defeated the UConn Huskies on Thursday and are ranked ninth. How much longer do we have to wait for March Madness? The Rice University women’s basketball team has been on a tear of its own. The Lady Owls remain undefeated in conference play and extended their winning streak to 14 games on Thursday with a 76-44 victory over the Florida International University Golden Panthers. Rice has a winning sports team. Who knew? After nearly 15 years exploring Mars, the Opportunity robot finally sent its final message home. NASA formally ended its mission this week after the solarpowered rover got caught in a massive dust storm and didn’t reawaken after the weather cleared. Oppy, as it was affectionately known, was designed for only a 90-day mission but far exceeded those original plans and ended up traveling more than 28 miles across the surface of the Red Planet. Alongside its twin rover, Spirit, which stopped operating in 2010, Oppy helped us discover evidence that Mars once had water. Godspeed, brave little rover. The word Texas is supposed to mean friendship, but the crowd at President Donald Trump’s rally in El Paso this week was anything but friendly. A BBC cameraman was attacked by a MAGAhat-wearing Trump fan in the middle of the president’s speech. What is the rest of the country supposed to think about Texas now? And what are our friends across the pond supposed to think about the First Amendment? “None of us goes into journalism expecting a grateful public to be throwing rose petals in our path as we walk along, or carrying us aloft as conquering heroes,” BBC’s North American editor Jon Sopel wrote. “But in a healthy democracy surely we ought to be able to report a president’s speech without — literally — having to look over our shoulder.” At some point, we’d like to give the president a thumbs up for condemning this kind of aggression — and meaning it.