Since I’ve been in Texas, I’ve been eating lots of big ol’ hunks of meat in various forms.

Last night, for instance, I went to Luther’s BBQ, which is a Houston chain. It’s not the kind of place you go for the absolute best BBQ, and in fact you shouldn’t go for BBQ at all. You should make it. But that’s beside the point here.

The point is that the place isn’t absolutely the best. It’s more like a work-a-day BBQ, if there’s any such thing. They have a drive-up take-out window. You can get some decent BBQ on the way home from work, instead of cooking. That kind of thing. While Luther’s is consistently good, it’s not where you take someone who wants to have the best BBQ in Houston.

The very first day after I got here, I went to Luther’s. It’s kinda close to where my parents live. I made the mistake of ordering the BBQ chicken sandwich, which I’d never had before, and I felt betrayed by one of the few consistently likeable places in town. OK, ‘betrayed’ is too strong. But I kept meaning to go back and give Luther a chance to redeem himself. And last night this happened. I’m not sure how or why, but it was one of the best BBQ experiences I’ve had.

I was at the Westheimer/Gessner location. The guy took my order incorrectly, and I had to iron that out. Then the cashier machine was messing up the orders. Plus I was in line after a cop, which always makes me think of this guy I know who’s a cop and a bodybuilder and a not-very-good philosopher. We both waited patiently while the checkout machinery was disemboweled and given a thermal-paper-ectomy.

I had sliced beef and potato salad and pinto beans. Big ol’ glass of iced tea. Some white bread from the condiments line. You use the white bread instead of napkins while you eat. Later, you sop up the remaining sauce with some more bread.

They had the air conditioning turned up to make the place into a refrigerator. Back in the kitchen, I can see doing this, but if you’re going to make a hot meal, allow it to remain hot while it’s being eaten. I went out onto their patio area, since it wasn’t really all that hot outside, and ate in complete and satisfying loneliness, auto traffic whizzing by on Gessner. Eventually, I was sopping up the sauce with my bread.

The irony is that there’s a Benihana restaurant right next door. This is a fancy, expensive place. My parents took me there once, for my birthday. I think I was 13 or 14 or so. They made me wear a tie, in fact.

That whole shopping center has changed, but Benihana and Luther’s remain. What was once a movie theater (first thing I saw there: ‘Damnation Alley‘) is now a discount girlie-clothing shop. The D&D/comic book shop is something so respectable as not to be memorable.

The thing I like about Seattle is that it doesn’t give me culture shock every time I step out the door, something I don’t even have to walk out the door to get in Houston. And somehow sitting on the patio of Luther’s with a plate full of brisket and sauce turned all that around… For a moment this city wasn’t an insane exercise in everything that’s wrong with America. I could grin a nostalgic grin and convince myself that I really was part of the North American culture that brought you BBQ, and be content within that truth. The sauce was just tangy enough. The iced tea cooled against the warm air. The meat threatened to fall apart as I raised it to my mouth on the fork… The cuisine of Texas.

I’m linking to the following because it’s amusing, and because I know certain readers will instantly appreciate it:

Swimming To Mexico: The Skinny on Dipping in Texas or You can leave your hat on, but you’re going to have trouble with those boots. 10 Rivers, 7 State Parks, 2 Creeks and more Springs than an old mattress

The premise is to start in Austin and swim in every river down the coast to Mexico. Regarding the San Marcos:

The river with its constant temperature of 71 degrees is the only place known where Texas wild rice grows. Two rare species of fish dwell here, as does a large 10-12 inch prawn. I read it in a book; I’ve never seen one, so I’m not sure if it means there’s just one prawn that’s 10-12 inches or if there’s hundreds of thousands. Swim here and look for the prawn.

Etc.

It’s connected to a site called TexasEscapes.com, which is a pretty decent online travel magazine, dealing mostly in Texas’ many historic sites. They even have an historic trees section.

I’m looking at it because I’m considering a trip down the coast, Aransas to Corpus Christi.

I’d just like to take a moment and mention that

Xanga sucks.

Don’t try to use the new photo editor thing on a Mac running IE 5.1. Don’t try to use *anything* on a Mac running IE 5.1, but especially not Xanga’s photo thing, because Xanga is too stupid to serve you pages you can actually use.

I get the banner ads JUST FREAKIN’ FINE, thank you very much, but it’s too FREAKIN’ bad I can’t get anything DONE, isn’ t it?

Addendum. Just to be clear:

IT USED TO WORK. NOW IT DOESN’T.

If a person is developing software for the web, they shouldn’t cripple the functionality of their software AT THE EXPENSE OF older standards. Which is to say:

HOW FUCKING HARD IS IT TO SNIFF BROWSERS AND USE THE OLD SYSTEM FOR OLD BROWSERS?

And if you’re too lazy to investigate that kind of thing, or if you’re too lazy to ensure compatibility for older browsers which are still in widespread use, then YOU SHOULDN’T BE IN THE BUSINESS OF WRITING SOFTWARE FOR THE WEB.

I’m not the villain here for using an old web browser on my parents’ old Mac. If Xanga wants to make it a requirement that you have a new browser, then they’re kind of violating the guiding principle of the web, aren’t they?

New features are neeto and swell, and I’m glad to see them. But if it means that I can’t get at my photos at all, unless I get in the car and go to a cybercafé, then they aren’t really features, are they? They’re stumbling blocks.

A friend here in Houston invited me to go see ‘The Power Of Nightmares,’ which was showing at the Museum of Fine Arts.

It’s a BBC documentary, originally a TV series and now repackaged into a movie specifically for Cannes. The basic premise is to track the origins of both Islamism and Neoconservatism, and to show how much they have in common, and how they’ve both manipulated fear within their countries to benefit politically. The second half culminates in a sort of exposé of the absurdity of the war on terror. Sample assertion: ‘Al Qaeda’ as an organization was sort of dreamed up in order to prosecute WTC bombers in 1996, and include Osama Bin Laden in the prosecution, using an organized crime model. Later, OBL picked up the term since it had already struck fear in the hearts of westerners. Wikipedia says this about it, citing ‘The Power Of Nightmares.’

What’s really funny about this whole thing, however, is reading the right-wing reaction on the web. Here’s the National Review Online bit. It’s full of misconceptions and hand-waving. NRO has to defend it’s ideology at all costs, though, and conservatives in America have long ago given up integrity in this cause. Example:

I am no expert on Strauss, but I know enough about him to be aware that much of his thinking was influenced by his first-hand observations of life in Weimar Germany. Curtis’s narrative cleverly fails to mention this point, portraying Strauss and his followers as responding to the wickedness of American suburbia.

…Except that’s completely incorrect, and you’d have to be on drugs to have read it that way. The whole article is a bunch of misrepresentations, handwaving, and arguments of authority, none of which address the factuality of the assertions, and amount to some guy who hasn’t seen the whole thing saying, “How dare you! Don’t you know who Leo Strauss is?”

Anyway. The moviehouse of the museum was sold out, and it warmed my cockles to see Houstonians this involved in the discussion. The filmmaker answered questions afterwards, pointing out that it was up to Americans to come up with a new vision for their country that wasn’t based on manipulating fear. The minds of many people in the audience had clearly been blown… They were in that tender stage of not knowing if what they had just seen was a lie or the truth. I love to see people in that frame of mind; it gives me back a little hope.

Now: If only we could come up with something to replace the fearmongering big-enemy rhetoric, and start making the country a better place.