Just came back from a quick 32 hour trip to Houston. Went there to gather with the other refugee resettlement agencies to meet with Governor Jay Markell, President Biden's person who is heading up "Operation Afghan Allies Welcome." After a slow start, we (RST) have already welcomed over 1,000 Afghans to our sites across Texas in the last two months. And things are just now picking up.
I am the old white guy on the right. OK, one of the old white guys. Governor Markell is in the middle. I was excited to meet Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Neither of whom are old white guys.
I came in for the day Friday, spent the night, and then headed home today. Since I was staying way SW, near Harwin, I decided to take a trip down memory lane and see some cheap, Chinese-made plastic crap in one of the 2,382 stores. [Jill-I didn't buy anything].
I did find this, and it is problematic for so many reasons.
It's a set of knock-off Chinese made cheap plastic Disney Princess dolls. Sleeping Beauty and Belle are there, of course, but also Skanky, Sleazy, Pestilence, and Ivana T. Notice the tagline at the top "The more you play with me, the happier I will be." Not sure who the "I" is there, probably Skanky.
Then, of course, there is the promise that this is "The Best Welcome Gifts for the Children." I asked if they could donate a few thousand for our newly arriving Afghan families, but got a hard no.
I would have bought a few myself, but the sets were $79,97 each. High quality Chinese plastic crap.
Having satisfied my Harwin itch for another 15 years, I went to the Houston antique mall on Hempstead. I am a collector of stereoscopic pictures - cool, 3D pictures from the late 1800's and early 1900's. When I visit other cities, I sometimes sample their antique malls, both to look for stereoscope pictures and to interact with cranky old white people. [Makes me feel better about myself.]I didn't find any steroscope pictures, but there was this:
Now I remember why we left Houston. All the damn bears and zombies. I am safely back in Austin, where we may be weird, but not like that.
