Archive for March 4th, 2011

Y’all say what?

Friday, March 4th, 2011

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is getting underway again this year.

But there’s been a change: the rodeo is no longer a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association sanctioned rodeo. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a professional rodeo, or that there’s not money on the table ($1.75 million, according to the HouChron), just that winnings in the Houston rodeo aren’t officially counted by the PRCA, and don’t impact PRCA standings.

If I understand the story correctly, this doesn’t make Houston unique; some of the larger Canadian rodeos aren’t PRCA sanctioned, either, and it sounds like Houston may be trying to start up a competing rodeo circuit:

It already has signed a deal with Fox Sports to air the Super Series finals and Super Shootout, whereas past finals were aired only through the PRCA on pay-per-view. And bigger plans are in the works.

The goal is to become the top international invitational championship in the world.

It isn’t that I’m a huge rodeo fan (I’m not), but the situation is interesting. Lawrence made a good analogy to the whole CART/Indycar situation, which (as I see it) seriously damaged open wheel racing in the United States.

Posted in Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

Truffle trouble.

Friday, March 4th, 2011

It would fill my heart with delight if someone managed to grow truffles reliably in the United States.

I know there are many people working on the problem (supposedly including one person out near Dripping Springs; this article is from 1984, and I haven’t been able to find anything more recent in Google) but it seems that the growing of truffles is more difficult than you might expect for something that’s basically a fungus.

All of this is by way of introducing today’s NYT article about two truffle growers in North Carolina who’ve been engaged in a lengthy legal battle.

Important safety tip:

Local chefs give North Carolina mixed reviews.

“They don’t seem to have a lot of quality control,” said Andrea Reusing, chef and owner of the Lantern restaurant in Chapel Hill. And actually getting them can be maddening.

“We need to start calling them wacky truffles on the menu,” she said. “There is a certain kind of spaciness to whole thing.”

Posted in Clippings, Food | Comments Closed