The Bellaire Buzz - January 2025

Stayin’ Alive: CPR Saves Lives

New Year, New Opportunities

Running Blind: EyeCan Unplugged Moments

An Air Fryer Skeptic Book-Club Books

A Lyrical Life

70 is Not the New 50 Here Come the ROMEOs Mother-Son

Road Trip in Wales

Mary Shannon McConaty

by Cathy Gordon

EDITOR’S NOTE

As we step into January 2025, my goal is to explore fresh ideas and embrace change. This issue is full of stories that have inspired me to take these steps. Blind and visually impaired athletes including Brandon Adame and Mikey Fields embody resilience by running competitively with the support of EyeCan Alliance volunteers. We spotlight music legend Linda Lowe, whose passion for teaching has nurtured countless aspiring musicians, and we highlight neighbors who have saved lives through CPR. Annie McQueen’s article about “screen diets” has motivated me to put down my phone more often, and Andria Dilling’s piece on air fryers has inspired me to conquer my kitchen-gadget fears (first step: taking my air fryer out of the box –check!). And don’t miss Cindy Gabriel’s poignant 70 is Not the New 50: Thank goodness. As you flip through these pages, I hope you find inspiration, too. Here’s to a January filled with new adventures, creativity, and connection. Happy New Year! joni@thebuzzmagazines.com

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Editor-in-Chief

Joni Hoffman

Publisher Michael Hoffman

Editor Jordan Magaziner Steinfeld

Associate Editor Caroline Siegfried

Design Manager

John Duboise

Staff Writers Tracy L. Barnett

Sharon Albert Brier

Cindy Burnett

Andria Dilling

Angie Frederickson

Todd Freed

Cindy Gabriel

Cathy Gordon

Michelle Groogan

Dai Huynh

Annie Blaylock McQueen

Jennifer Oakley

Ben Portnoy

Pooja Salhotra

Cheryl Ursin

Account Managers

Andrea Blitzer

Leslie Little

Jo Rogers

On our cover: Singer-songwriter Mary Shannon McConaty hones her craft at Writers in the Round, a safe, creative incubator that's been spinning out musical talent in the community for 35 years.

Cover photo by Michael Hart, hartphoto.com

The Buzz Magazines has made all reasonable attempts to verify the accuracy of all information contained within. Advertising claims are solely the responsibility of the advertiser. Copyright © 2025 Hoffman Marketing & Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any portion of this magazine by any means without written permission is strictly prohibited. Printed on recycled paper. Please remember to recycle.

Your letters, thoughts, opinions

Recognized symptoms from Cindy’s story

I am so grateful for Cindy Gabriel’s article A Diagnosis: Can be a Good Thing [Nov. 2024], and then the follow-up article on her recovery from surgery to remove an enlarged parathyroid [Life After Surgery: Cindy Gabriel gives an update, Dec. 2024]. I read the first article and thought, “this is interesting, but it has nothing to do with me.” But then I found myself in the doctor's office hearing I needed the same surgery with the same doctor, Helmi Khadra. I didn’t even know what a parathyroid was before reading the article. It was actually my husband Jeff, who noticed the diagnosis, hyperparathyroidism, was the same as Cindy’s. The story about her positive experience made us both feel so much better. I have recently spoken with Cindy about the pending surgery and promise to keep her updated on the outcome.

Shellie Lewis

Editor’s note: Shellie, we are so thankful to hear that Cindy’s article resulted in you recognizing your own symptoms and getting checked out. A diagnosis can be a good thing. We wish you the very best with your upcoming surgery and recovery!

A sweet experience

What a thrill to have my homemade cookies get a professional photo shoot [Magic and Christmas Cookies: Baking up memories together by Andria Dilling, Dec. 2024]! And what fun to have a chance to bake early this Christmas season with my nieces and serve my father our cookies (even though he prefers Oreos!). Thank you, The Buzz Magazines, for talking cookies and recipes with me. I have loved hearing from many friends about Andria’s wonderful story.

Kathryn Wilson

A good story

Ms. Cheryl Ursin’s article [Doing Good: Being a Good Samaritan, Dec. 2024] is very well written, especially the part explaining that the New York newspapers greatly overstated at first the 40 “do not want to get involved” neighbors in the 1964 Kitty Genovese murder; the part educating on Texas’ Good Samaritan Law, etc.

Unfortunately, we live in different times these days. Although the percentage is very, very small; there are Good Samaritans who stop to assist, and are attacked (assaulted, robbed). Either the accident was faked, or if not faked the victim was a criminal not hurt badly enough to somehow take advantage of his/her savior. So Good Samaritans should therefore be cautious in those few cases in which the situation is not obvious.

Bennett Fisher

Good reminders

Great write, Cheryl! The Good Samaritan Law is always discussed and explained when we have CPR/EAD training. Also, they teach us to never say “someone call 911” but always point at a person and say “you, call 911.”

Life is hard enough, be a good person and help each other.

Barbara Lauren Schmeitz

Editor’s note: Thanks for your comment, Barbara! The notion of designating a person to call 911 in the case of an emergency is referenced in Cheryl Ursin’s feature story this month, Stayin’ Alive: CPR saves lives. The topic was inspired by her research on Good Samaritan laws from our December issue.

From the chef

Dai, so many people have been coming in [to the restaurant, Japanese Ramen Gachi] since your article [Chef’s Corner: Japanese Ramen: Elevated Soup Cuisine by Dai Huynh, Dec. 2024] came out! I was too busy to write to you. Your readers are really good people that we wanted to come. Thank you so much.

Also, I appreciate your article! Thank you for understanding me and my restaurant and introducing us so nicely.

Chef Jesse Ando, Japanese Ramen Gachi

Email us at mailbag@thebuzzmagazines.com. Or send to Mailbag, The Buzz Magazines, 5001 Bissonnet St., Suite 100, Bellaire, Texas 77401. Please include your name, address, phone number and email address for verification purposes. Letters or emails addressed to The Buzz Magazines become the property of the magazine, and it owns all rights to their use for publication. Addresses, phone numbers and email addresses will not be published. Letters are subject to editing for clarity and length. Views expressed in letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Buzz Magazines, and The Buzz takes no responsibility for the content and opinions expressed in them.

We are looking for residents for upcoming articles who:

• Know a Buzzworthy neighbor to feature.

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If this sounds like you or someone you know, please contact us at info@thebuzzmagazines.com or 713.668.4157, ext 102.

by Ben Portnoy, staff writer

Romeos, Without Our Juliets

Retired old men eating out

Tuesday evenings are reserved for us, the ROMEOs – Retired Old Men Eating Out. On Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, Beatle (aka Marvin Beasley) sends a text message stating, “Meet at 6:30 at XX Restaurant. Who’s coming? LMK.” And that’s where the ROMEOs will dine.

It all started around 14 years ago when Howie Derman and Alan Fisherman went out to eat at Garson, a Persian restaurant on Hillcroft. Their wives were not cooking dinner because they were out playing mah jongg. The outing was so pleasing that soon other mah jongg husbands facing the prospect of cooking their own dinners joined Alan and Howie. I was invited by Howie soon after the Garson outing. It did not take long before the group increased to the current size – 13-15 guys. That included some men whose wives did not leave them to play mah jongg, but we let them join anyway.

We were not always known as the ROMEOs. We used to enjoy eating at Rays BBQ Shack on Old Spanish Trail when it was in a Shell gas station. On our second or third visit there, the spirited lady at the counter taking orders greeted us with “Here come the ROMEOs.” And that has been our name ever since. Rays is still on OST, but it is in a new building now, so you have to go elsewhere if you also need gasoline.

An early favorite restaurant of ours was Kelley’s Country Cookin’ on Park Place Blvd. near Hobby Airport. Back then a one-pound hamburger was $8.95, and it could feed several. Of course, no Kelley’s dinner was complete without Frito Pie. This was a foreign dish to those of us born north of the Mason-Dixon line. The beauty of Kelley’s was that we could all sit at a huge round table, share a bunch of items, eat enough to feel stuffed, and end up paying less than $10 each. The prices at Kelley’s are a bit higher now, and we are older and like to eat closer to home. Today’s ROMEOs tend to eat in Bellaire, Meyerland, and maybe as far away as the Medical Center or Montrose area.

Over the years, we have dined at around 95 different places, maybe more. A few establishments were one-time visits eliminated from our list due to less-than-happy experiences. And some have since closed, unfortunately.

Roadster Grill was a favorite dining establishment of ours. It was a cozy place, and it was quiet enough so that even those of us with hearing aids could follow the erudite conversations. It closed a few years back, and we get a horrifying feeling as we drive by the old location on Bellaire and see that it is now, of all things, a Smoothie King. Several years ago, we read that the best fried chicken in town was at Himalaya Restaurant, an Indian restaurant on Hillcroft. We ordered the chicken, but the other items on the menu looked too spicy for our elderly tongues. Howie asked the owner who was taking our order if we could have our dishes less spicy. He said that was not possible. If we wanted to eat his food, we had to accept it as it was offered. The chicken was actually good, but the other dishes . . . Oh my, our Maalox-laced stomachs remember that night.

Barbecue is always a safe choice for ROMEOs. Aside from Rays, we have often been to Goode Company, The Pit Room, Pappas Bar-B-Q on the Southwest Freeway, Luling BBQ, and Hickory Hollow. Blood Brothers in the Bellaire triangle is only open for lunch most days, sadly.

Pizza, you say. Of course, that is a ROMEO staple. Star Pizza is one of our favorite hangouts. We order a few pizzas to fit the general taste requirements of the attendees, and we add salads so that we can feel as if we have had a healthy meal. It seems that no matter how much we order, there are only one or two pieces of pizza remaining. Those go home in a take-out box to a lucky wife.

Julia Child observed, “People who love to eat are always the best people.” I wonder what she would have thought about Buffalo Wild Wings or about us for eating there. Much like Star Pizza, the mountain of different flavored wings is complemented by celery and carrot sticks so that the outing qualifies for a salubrious one. And, of course, we are “the best people” as we stuff our elderly selves and laugh at geriatric jokes. The Irish say, “Laughter is brightest in the place where food is good.” Well, the laughter is certainly bright.

So, if you happen to dine at a place where you see a table of gray-haired and no-haired men (a few with hearing aids) talking about sports, cruises, old times, grandchildren, maybe politics, or simply telling jokes, that’s us, the ROMEOs. Stop by and say hi.

HERE COME THE ROMEOS Pictured are some of the ROMEOs, dining at Niko Niko’s: (left side, from front to back: Henry Peterman, Paul Scott, Lester Klebe, Sandy Weiner; (right side, from back to front): Ben Portnoy, Nachum Dafny, Howard Derman, Marvin Beasley, and Chuck Pehr.

by Annie Blaylock McQueen, staff writer

Unplugged Moments

Reconnecting in a digital world

Family dinners, after-school time, or simply being together are priceless opportunities to connect and create lasting memories. But in many households, the clinking of forks or conversation has been replaced by the beeps or vibrations of technology.

I know this struggle, like most do, all too well. As a mom of four kids under the age of 10, I often find myself juggling texts, emails, ordering groceries, and more, while trying to keep up with my kids’ stories from school.

I have noticed parents seem to be looking at their phones more while out at the mall or park with their children.

I get it. We need our phones. There is no way around it.

I wanted to make a conscious effort to change my phone habits while around my children. I thought to myself, I will start small. I decided to put my phone in a drawer for one hour each evening. No checking it. My goal is to stretch that to two hours and remain consistent. I do it during the time of the day when all of my children are at home (I get not being able to be away from the phone when a child is at a practice or friend’s house). That precious slice of the day where it is just the family, at home, together. I want my phone to be away from all that precious time that I cannot get back.

For many families, including ours, finding balance with screens is a work in progress. For Alli and Clay Tompkins, parents of three, the tipping point came after their household became consumed by debates over screen time. A photographer and a mom, Alli noticed that her kids – Warren, 11, Austin, 8, and Lila, 5, – were spending more time glued to devices than practicing their instruments, completing schoolwork, or playing sports.

Alli and Clay started by limiting their screen time to weekends only, hoping that would help. But one morning, while making the bed, Alli discovered an iPad hidden under the covers. Her child had been sneaking it out of her room, and staying up way past bedtime, racking up hours of screen use after lights out. “It was the last straw,” said Alli. She and Clay called a family meeting and put their household on a “screen

diet” for a month.

“Screens were controlling our household,” Alli explained. They removed iPads, video games, and other devices from the kids’ reach. The only exception was watching a TV show or movie together as a family.

“The kids crave that dopamine hit from screens, over and over,” Alli said. “But their brains don’t have the ability to regulate it like adults do.”

Alli says one of her kids did point out the parents’ phone habits by saying, ‘Well, you’re always on your phones?’

She did address the message by explaining that phones are important for grownups for work and running the household. However, she says they are trying to make a concerted effort as to when they are using them.

LESS SCREENS, MORE PLAY Parents Alli and Clay Tompkins decided to have their family go on a “screen diet” in their household for the month of December, and limit screens more often overall. Their children are Warren, 11, Austin, 8, and Lila, 5.

She hopes the “screen diet” will help reset the family dynamics with screens and help them reconnect with each other.

Another Buzz parent, a mom of three teenagers who opted to remain anonymous, shared a similar challenge. She noticed their family time had become well, just quiet.

To reclaim their time together, they introduced a “phone-free family dinner” policy for kids and parents. The rule is simple: Everyone places their phones in a small box before sitting down to eat.

To keep things lighthearted, they turned it into a game. “We started a tradition where whoever reached for their phone first had to clean

the kitchen,” the mom said. Over time, the phone-free dinners have become a family ritual, benefiting not just the kids but the parents, too.

For the Tompkins, the screen diet has helped their household shift from being ruled by devices to rediscovering the joy of simply being together. “It is not always perfect, and sometimes we make exceptions with family movies,” Alli said. “But the difference is undeniable.”

For me, the journey continues as well. I am determined to keep carving out more screen-free time. As the Tompkins and other families have shown, putting down our phones for just a short hour a day, in a drawer or a box, allows us to pick up what matters most – each other.

C. Bolanos Photography

by Cindy Gabriel, staff writer

70 is Not the New 50

Thank

goodness

The year 2025 sounds so futuristic. From watching The Jetsons cartoon series as a child, I thought we would have our jet backpacks by now. My own relationship with technology is not as effortless as The Jetsons. On the occasion of my 70th birthday, Stan-the-Man treated me to a trip to France. The first day in Paris, jetlagged as I was, I promptly left my cell phone in a taxi.

Thanks to technology, I could see the phone riding around in Paris from my laptop. Thanks to technology, I had the address of where my phone stayed overnight. Thanks to technology, it was impossible to have a conversation with a real human about any of this. You call the cab company and it’s Press 1 for this, Press 2 for that, in French, no less. The language barrier was nothing compared to the technology barrier. The hotel concierge was very helpful, inspired by seeing my cell phone at a particular address with her own eyes. She said the phone was an hour and a half from our hotel while parked overnight. I wasn’t giving up three hours in Paris for that trip.

Alas, by day two, the concierge actually managed to talk to a human – a human who was trained not to improvise, just to read a set of procedures, and send a link to fill out a form. Welcome to the future: where people act like robots and robots act like people.

Twenty years ago, Buzz editor Joni Hoffman asked me to write a column on turning 50. I was a little reluctant, thinking increasing age meant decreasing relevance. But I got over it. It turned into an age-defying piece called 50 is the New 30. We 50-year-olds had tossed aside our mother’s stockings and girdles, gloves with matching bag and shoes, and weekly trips to the beauty shop for our helmet hairdos. We were modern, by golly; wearing bell bottom jeans like our daughters while reminding them that we were the generation that invented them. Oprah Winfrey turned 50 the same year – 2004 – and was at the peak of her power and influence. We were Oprah. We set the scene and made the rules. That, at least, was my take at the time. It occurs to me that I was in my 20s in the ’70s. Now, I’m in my 70s in the ’20s. I’m tired of

trying to be younger than I am. I like myself better with each passing year. We are trained to think aging is bad. Yet when I ask my peers if they want to go back to younger years, I get a resounding no.

In Paris, I realized that all the information I needed for the trip was on Stan’s cell phone, and that he could be the picture-taker. A strange, relaxed feeling replaced my initial panic. I no longer had to worry about losing my cell phone. I just couldn’t lose Stan.

I could actually see France through my own eyes, without the proxy lens inserted between me and reality. After two days in Paris, we boarded a small ship on the Seine River, headed for Normandy.

Even before we entered that sacred ground of 9,000 graves iconically marked by white marble crosses interspersed with Jewish Stars of David, we encountered a countryside of private homes, many with flying flags. Armistice Day had come and gone since our arrival. Perhaps that was the reason. But what struck me was that several of the houses were flying two flags, one French and one American.

It was the first of many moments I teared up. The French have not forgotten June 6, 1944, the day that American-led Allied forces faced a high probability of death as they landed on Omaha Beach. General Dwight Eisenhower led this mission called D-Day after two years of strategizing and planning. It didn’t go as planned so the troops had to improvise on the ground. Improvisation made all the difference.

The United States, England, Canada,

Australia, Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, Poland, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, New Zealand, and Norway joined together in one gigantic “Oh no you don’t” to Hitler and his Nazi troops holding France hostage.

We were back in Paris for our last two days abroad.

“If it wasn’t for you, we’d be speaking German,” said an appreciative cab driver. Me? For the first time in my 70 years, I was being personally thanked for something my country did before I was born. More tears.

From Montmartre, the highest peak in Paris, what lies below is ancient history, of wars, plagues, famines, beheadings, and all manner of suffering. But somehow beauty emerges in the human improvisation. Picasso said his art isn’t about war, but war is in his art. Beauty and pain seem to need each other’s company.

While looking ahead to 2025, it’s nice to remember where we’ve been for perspective, and to remember to always be ready to improvise.

Editor’s note: See this article at thebuzzmagazines.com for a link to Cindy’s Jan. 2005 story, 50 is the New 30: The baby boomerang.

PARIS SEINE-ITY In Montmartre, Cindy and Stan-the-Man imbibe in some perspective from the highest point in Paris.

by Cheryl Ursin, staff writer

Stayin’ Alive

CPR saves lives

Gary Pagtama and Emery Desilets have been friends for years, “gym buddies” who play basketball together multiple times per week.

But one December day in 2022, after the two had played basketball, Gary’s heart suddenly stopped.

Emery, who had gone to the gym’s weight room, saw people running from the basketball court and went to see what was happening. He found his friend seizing on the floor.

He immediately started doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

A 26-year veteran of the Houston Police Department and a member of the security detail for the last three Houston mayors, Emery was trained in how to do CPR but had never had to use it. “I remember thinking when I first got CPR training that I hoped I’d never have to,” he says, “but then Gary went down right in front of me.”

After less than 10 minutes, paramedics arrived and took over. Gary was rushed to a hospital where it was discovered that, even though he was physically fit and seemingly in perfect health, four of his arteries were blocked. He required open-heart surgery.

“Emery is why I’m alive,” Gary says simply.

At the gym at the time, though a crowd of about 40 had gathered around Gary, Emery was the only one who performed CPR.

In 2020, Mark Nitcholas was similarly lucky to have had a person willing and able to do CPR nearby. Mark, a former marathon runner and father of three, had been out for his usual earlymorning run when he collapsed. As was reported in The Buzz soon after [Heart Attack Foiled: When a heroic nurse drives by by Annie McQueen, Sept. 2021], Ashley Miller, a nurse practitioner, happened to be driving by and saw him lying in the street. She directed another bystander to call 911 and did CPR on Mark for six and a half minutes until the ambulance arrived.

Mark says it was never determined exactly what happened to the electrical impulses in his heart, but he was put into a coma and onto a ventilator and a heart pump for 10 days to allow his heart to recover and now has a defibrillator implanted in his chest. (A defibrillator is a device that shocks the heart when it’s beating

abnormally to correct its rhythm.)

At the time of his incident, he says, the doctors were “not very positive about my chances” when they spoke to his wife.

“If it were not for Ashley, I wouldn’t be here,” Mark says.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, is a simple act that can save lives. Receiving “bystander CPR,” immediate CPR from whoever is around, “can potentially triple a person’s chances” when they are experiencing cardiac arrest, says Salil Bhandari, an emergency-medicine doctor and the director of medical education at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. Cardiac arrest is when a person’s heart suddenly stops functioning; the person also becomes unconscious and is either not breathing or is breathing abnormally. It can be caused by heart disease, a heart attack, a heart defect the person never knew they had (as happened recently to Lebron James’s 18-year-old son Bronny, whose life was also saved by someone performing CPR) as well as from accidents like drowning or choking.

to administer. While the general public was once taught to do both chest compressions and rescue breathing (mouth-to-mouth resuscitation), now the guidelines for “bystander CPR,” also called “hands-only CPR,” for adults, is just to do the chest compressions.

Cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death, with more than 400,000 people dying of it each year in the U.S., according to the American Heart Association. According to Gail Gould, it’s been estimated that 100,000 to 200,000 of them could be saved if CPR is done immediately.

Contrary to popular belief, CPR does not restart the person’s heart. Basically, the person doing the chest compressions is acting as the victim’s heart, keeping the blood pumping to vital organs including the brain, until more medical care, such as a shock from an automated external defibrillator (AED), can be provided.

Also contrary to popular belief, CPR is simple

“There are literally just two steps,” says Dr. Bhandari. “Call 911 and put your phone on speaker (or have someone else call) and start pushing on their chests at the rate of about 100 beats per minute.” Often, CPR trainers recommend thinking of the song Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees because the song’s tempo is just right for CPR chest compressions. (There are several CPR music playlists online, including from the American Heart Association. Other songs with the correct tempo include the also-fitting I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor and the less-fitting Another One Bites The Dust by Queen.)

It is still advised to do rescue breathing when doing CPR on children, in a pattern of 30 compressions, then two rescue breaths, because when children go into cardiac arrest, it is most often because of some problem with their lungs and their breathing. The same is true of unconscious drowning victims of any age.

Taking a CPR class is best because you learn all the details of doing CPR,

(continued on page 16)

KEEPING THE BEAT Emery Desilets, right, saved the life of his friend, Gary Pagtama, left, using CPR, in 2022. Emery later received an award from Mayor Sylvester Turner for his actions.

such as exactly where to put your hands. “If it feels soft and squishy under your hands, you’re in the wrong place; your hands should be on the sternum, which will feel hard and bony,” says Gail Gould, Houston’s CPR and Safety Lady, a professional CPR and first-aid instructor with 35 years of experience. You will also learn how to perform rescue breaths if necessary, and how to perform CPR on babies. (You only use two fingers on their chest and you cover both their nose and mouth with your mouth when doing rescue breaths.) When you go to a class, you also get to practice on a specialized mannequin. And you learn and get to practice other skills, such as how to use an AED, which are available in many public places, such as government buildings, malls, and airports, to actually restart the person’s heartbeat and how to do the Heimlich maneuver (abdominal thrusts) when someone is choking. And you will learn interesting tips such as, don’t just call out, “Someone, call 911” to bystanders, but point to a specific person and say, “You, call 911,” to make sure it gets done. Completing a class will make you feel more confident in your abilities if you do ever need to use them.

But even if you haven’t been to a CPR class and you come upon someone in cardiac arrest, do it anyway. As Dr. Ben Bobrow, also of UTHealth Houston, says in a three-minute video called “How to do CPR during COVID19,” “The only way you can mess this up is by not trying.”

For example, according to news reports, a 21year-old man was able to save an unconscious woman’s life in Tucson, Ariz., though he had never been trained. He remembered, however, seeing CPR performed on an episode of the sitcom, The Office

And AEDs, those portable defibrillators in public spaces? They are actually designed so that an untrained person can use them. The machine provides step-by-step instructions, usually spoken, and the device itself determines whether the victim’s heart can and should be shocked.

A common fear is you may hurt the person by doing CPR. When you do the chest compressions, you do them “really, really, really hard,” says Gail Gould. And it is not uncommon to break the person’s ribs. But broken ribs are a relatively minor injury that heals; an oxygenstarved brain does not. And people who try in

good faith to help someone, including by performing CPR, are protected from liability by Good Samaritan laws in every state.

Gail Gould notes that parents of babies treated in the NICU (the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital) learn infant CPR before discharge. “I think all new parents should be taught it,” she says. Mark Nitcholas thinks that everyone should be required to learn it when they get their driver’s licenses. And Dr. Bhandari says, “I still don’t understand why the training isn’t mandatory in all schools. It really, truly should be.” Dr. Bhandhari has special reason to think so. During his high-school graduation, his grandfather collapsed with cardiac arrest and was saved by bystanders who performed CPR.

Both Gary Pagtama and Mark Nitcholas are now certified and ready to do CPR should someone else need it. “You do not want to be twid-

CPR Resources

dling your thumbs not knowing what to do if this happens to someone close to you,” says Mark. Dr. Bhandari points out that approximately 70 percent of OHCAs (out-of-hospital cardiac arrest) happen at home. “If you ever do need to do CPR on someone, the highest chance is that it will be on one of your family members,” he says. A 2022 article in Circulation, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Heart Association, published an astonishing fact: Over 75 percent of the people who did perform bystander CPR did it on someone they had known for more than 45 years.

Gary has also trained in CPR and first aid and has volunteered to be a “floor warden,” one of the people in his workplace who are ready to respond to an emergency.

“I am a survivor,” he says, “and I want to give back.”

Both the American Heart Association (cpr.heart.org) and the Red Cross (redcross.org) maintain online directories that can be used to find CPR courses near you.

Gail Gould, known as The CPR and Safety Lady, teaches a number of classes covering CPR, the use of AEDs and first aid, to a range of groups and individuals, including an infant and child babysitting course. (cprandsafetylady.com) Many companies offer CPR and other first-aid training to their employees, as do many schools and colleges. Search local colleges and hospitals to check for CPR classes open to the community.

Organizations, including fire departments and The Junior League of Houston, offer classes to the public. Some charge a small fee; others are free.

The cost in time is also minimal. A class “takes a couple of hours on a Saturday,” says Mark Nitcholas.

THE BEAT GOES ON Ashley Miller saved Mark Nitcholas's life using CPR in 2020. Pictured, from left, are Scott and Ashley Miller and Mark and Zamara Nitcholas.

by Cindy Burnett, staff writer

Book-Club Books

Reads that will cultivate conversation

Book clubs are a great way to experience and learn about new books while enjoying the fellowship of other readers. One of my favorite aspects of participating in a book club is hearing other people’s thoughts on a book, what stood out to them, and what they gleaned from the story because everyone comes to a book with a different perspective.

Trying to select books in a book club can be an arduous process, and there’s a myriad of ways that clubs decide what they will read. What makes a good book-club selection? Generally, the best ones are books that contain engaging and timely themes to discuss or ones that highlight an unknown place, event, or person.

Curious to learn more about a local book club and what they have recently read and loved, I reached out to the Between the Lines Book Club, a group of women who created their book club in 2023 and live mainly in Bellaire. Most of the women had children who attended Horn Elementary in the 1990s and early 2000s, and they wanted to get together regularly to enjoy each other’s company as well as discuss literature.

The group meets monthly, and each November they gather to set the list for the upcoming year. They make a list and assign a book to each month based on the group’s discussion. In December, they read and enjoyed West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, historical fiction which is inspired by the true story of two giraffes transported across the United States in the late 1930s when the country is still reeling from the Great Depression. She weaves in real-life individuals along with fictional characters to bring this rousing story to life. The books they have enjoyed the most and recommend to other book clubs are:

The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis (historical fiction) – This dual-timeline tale toggles between the 1940s and decades later and centers around two women that are bound by the same vintage wedding dress. As they develop a friendship, they uncover secrets, heal wounds, and come to realize the power of love and human connection.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (historical fiction) – Belle de Costa Greene worked as J.P.

Morgan’s personal librarian and curator of his private library housed in a townhouse off of East 36th Street. While she became one of the country’s most prominent librarians, she hid a devastating secret – she was a Black woman “passing” as a white woman and moreover was the daughter of the first Black graduate of Harvard. The Personal Librarian chronicles Belle’s life and legacy and what it was like to be torn between success and the desire to be herself.

Here are some more selections that will encourage dynamic conversations. I have selected some books that will lend themselves to lively discussions and thought-provoking conversations for book clubs looking for some inspiration. Three of the choices published in the second half of 2024, and the rest will publish in the first two months of 2025.

The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi (magical realism) – Mr. Hirasaka operates a magical photo studio that people visit when they die to select the montage of photos they will experience as they pass on to the next world. His studio also allows them to relive one precious memory before passing into the after-

life. The story follows three vastly different individuals: a 92-year-old woman who lived a wonderful life, a middle-aged man burdened by his troubled past, and a young child who lived a short but grim life. The book demonstrates that every decision, no matter how small, ripples outward to affect others in ways that may never be fully understood by those involved. It is a short book that can be read in one sitting.

I’m Starting to Worry about This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin (fiction) – Lyft driver Abbott nervously accepts an offer of $200,000 cash to transport a woman named Ether across the country with a large black box. But she has a list of rules he must follow: He cannot look inside the box; he cannot ask questions about the box; he cannot tell anyone what he is doing; they must leave immediately; and he must leave all trackable devices behind. As the internet community speculates about what’s in the box as well as sparking rumors that this duo is preparing to launch a terror attack, the tension mounts. The impact of technology and social media on our world are at the heart of this unique and quirky tale.

(continued on page 20)

BETWEEN THE LINES The Between the Lines Book Club, including (pictured, front row, from left) Lydia Companion, Carla Buerkle, Kathy Rundstein-Lopez, Karen Urbani, Hina Pandya, Phebe Chen, Dinah Godwin, Linda Alley, Elizabeth Basler; (back row, from left) Lisa Martin, Gigi White, and Meredith Clarage enjoy the camaraderie and conversation at their book-club gatherings.

(continued from page 18)

The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley (contemporary fiction) –Jane Pyre is the former lead singer of The Lightning Bottles, one of the most popular duos of the 1990s who heads out on a search for Elijah, her husband and the other half of the musical duo. Jane and Elijah shared a deep bond and were both extremely talented, but the pressures of stardom and the music industry cause them to crash spectacularly. When Jane rents a house in rural Germany, she encounters a teenage mega fan who believes that Elijah is alive, and the pair set out to find him. In a cleverly crafted manner, the pair follow clues left in artwork to attempt to locate Elijah. Readers who grew up in this era will revel in nostalgia as they read this book which references maps, call-in shows and countdowns, Walkmans, and music trivia and details from the time period.

Homeseeking by Karissa Chen (historical fiction, publishes Jan. 7) – This deeply personal literary debut illuminates the massive scope of the Chinese diaspora through the love story of Haiwen and Suchi, childhood best friends turned soulmates, and their 60-year journey to reunite with each other. Across dual timelines, Chen takes the reader through the SinoJapanese war and the Chinese civil war, crisscrossing multiple continents while addressing the themes of the trauma of war, love, courage

in the face of hardship, and the immigrant experience as well as what it means to be imprisoned by the past.

Let’s Call Her Barbie by Renee Rosen (historical fiction, publishes Jan. 21) – When Ruth Handler pitches to her board of directors her idea for a doll unlike any the country has seen, she is met with skepticism, but she is undeterred. Unlike the other dolls on the market in 1956 that only allow girls to pretend to be mothers, this new doll looks like a grown women with a fabulous wardrobe and lots of career options. This is the story of how Barbie became iconic and how a strong woman who believed in herself and her dream made it happen. Barbie and her story are having a moment, and this book contributes while explaining her legacy and popularity.

Dead Money by Jakob Kerr (thriller, publishes Jan. 28) – Jakob Kerr worked as one of the first employees of Airbnb and is intimately familiar with the world of start-ups and Silicon Valley, and his experiences inform this twisty, humorous, and clever thriller. The controversial CEO of tech’s hottest startup Journy has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money” frozen in his will. Mackenzie Clyde, a fixer for the venture capital company that invested heavily in Journy, is brought in to consult and help solve the murder, but her help is not welcomed by the FBI. This intelligently

constructed mystery into the wild and wacky world of the tech industry and startups where nothing is as it seems will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell (fiction, publishes Feb. 18) – When Ciara Fay makes a splitsecond decision to grab a few clothes and her two young daughters and flee, she knows that leaving is the right thing to do, but she finds that staying away is much harder than the leaving was. With no job and little support, she struggles to find a home for her girls and herself as her emotionally abusive husband Ryan launches an unrelenting campaign for her to return home. Navigating the broken Irish housing system and constantly second-guessing herself, Ciara bravely fights the odds in this compelling tale of survival and the effects of enduring the long-term consequences of emotional abuse. O’Donnell’s vivid prose brings to life the unsettling brutality of gaslighting and coercive partner control where the bruises are not physical and keeps the suspense taut and gripping.

Editor’s note: Cindy Burnett also writes our weekly Page Turners column at thebuzzmagazines.com. She hosts an award-winning book podcast entitled Thoughts from a Page Podcast www.thoughtsfromapage.com, runs the Instagram account @thoughtsfrompage, and regularly speaks to groups about books.

BOOKS FOR BOOK CLUBS Looking for a good book club selection for 2025? Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell or I'm Starting to WorryAbout This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin would provide lots to discuss.

by Cathy Gordon, staff writer

A Songwriter’s Calling

Celebrating 35 years of Writers in the Round

Linda Lowe remembers the sound of the soft kerplunk as records dropped on her turntable. The hiss when the needle hit vinyl.

Sandie Shaw, Petula Clark, The Shangri-Las. Elvis Presley. He crooned to her nightly in the 1960s, as she faded into sleep, his silky voice running through her like a cool, summer breeze.

“Just think about the treasure trove of music that was playing back then,” exudes poet and singer-songwriter Linda, 74, who babysat for some DJs’ children during her junior high years in San Antonio. The gig was good. She was paid in 45 rpms.

“You want to know what likely got me hooked into music? Most likely, that. Having a record player and having 45s of all the current music,” she muses.

Today, the Arkansas native, who’s released a bevy of her original tunes under her Rollin’ Records label, celebrates a record of a different kind: 35 years of West University’s Writers in the Round (WITR), a community-sponsored, nonprofit concert series she founded in 1990 to bring together some of the nation’s top songwriters in a cozy, smoke-free, casual setting, free of alcohol. A vice “that’s been the takedown of too many musicians,” Linda opines.

The concert series performs at Rice Village’s Main Street Theater, its stage as comfy as a living room.

Musicians play and swap stories. Share gutbusting yarns. They belt out poignant slice-oflife ballads and toe-tap to fun, catchy tunes, concertgoers often singing along. A buoyant bond between artist and audience. Layers of human experience oozing from the stage.

Linda doesn’t just sit back and watch. She has performed with WITR plenty, her repertoire a mix of folk, pop, jazz, and blues. “I write about things that touch my life, things that have meaning for me and hopefully the audience,” says the songbird whose early career in the 1980s had her opening for the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Jesse Colin Young, Donovan, and Loudon Wainwright III.

These days, she especially loves jamming with WITR’s offshoot, Women in the Round, a gang of gal pals – some of whom are WITR board

members – who join her on the road, singing and picking their hearts out.

“We’re soulmates. All my friends in Women in The Round help me run Writers in the Round,” explains Linda.

DUO Singer and songwriter Linda Lowe, the “Lyric Lady,” is handing over the reins as artistic director of the concert series Writers in the Round to daughter Michelle Caillouet. It’s been Linda’s life mission to connect musicians in a safe, alcohol-free performance environment. The concert series, celebrating 35 years, performs at Rice Village’s Main Street Theater.

“We try to do one or two concerts a year if we can and love bringing the new young performers up on stage to showcase them. We’re like The Ya-Ya Sisterhood for all the up-and-coming female songwriters.”

The “up-and-coming” of which she speaks represents an even broader WITR initiative: mentoring a new generation of musicians. The organization has been an incubator for children and adults for nearly 30 years, teaching them to play instruments, sing, and write songs. Linda put friends to work, subsidizing their musical careers as instructors for the program, teaching guitar, bass, ukulele, drums, voice, violin, fiddle, composition, and music theory.

Their longtime teaching hub on Edloe has been home to a troupe of modern-day troubadours, spun into the world.

This month, the organization’s teaching initiative moves to the West University Place Recreation Center, with Linda’s daughter Michelle Caillouet, 39, taking over as WITR’s artistic director. “It’s time for the next generation of Writers in the Round,” says Linda, who isn’t exactly retiring. She plans to stay busy with Women in the Round, write an autobiography, and work on new albums.

Michelle, with a multi-dimensional background in jazz, ballet, tap, modern dance, musical theater, drama, and stage, is more than ready for the role. She will be coordinating a new generation of concerts.

Music has been Michelle’s soundtrack to life. She remembers sitting down at her Fisher Price

table at age 3, tiny guitar in hand, writing the song Maybe My Baby with her mom. Linda sings the song on her Little by Little album. Its refrain: Maybe my baby will come back to me And maybe my baby will go crazy over me again

“I’m so proud of my mom for all she’s accomplished with Writers in the Round,” she says, recalling a revolving door of musicians at her childhood home. Makes sense. Her dad Karl Caillouet, now retired, was a noted sound engineer and producer. It’s how he met his betrothed. Linda went to him to record a demo. He had a recording studio behind their home in The Heights, before moving it to Montrose, adjacent to the iconic folk and acoustic venue, Anderson Fair.

Michelle was lulled to sleep by Trout Fishing in America, long before the duo’s days as Grammy-nominated artists. Violinist Malcolm Smith and renaissance harpist Martha Gay of the band Cantiga serenaded her, crib side.

“Knowing people like Townes Van Zandt, Trout Fishing in America, Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Lucinda Williams… I could go on and on,” says Michelle. “To me, as a little kid, I didn’t know anything about them at all, other than they were just my parents’ friends.”

Houston singer-songwriter Shake Russell has been along for WITR’s entire ride, performing in more Linda-inspired concerts than he can

DYNAMIC

count. “A favorite place to play,” says the artist, known for his unique style of folk-rock. “Her concert series and musical events throughout the years have been a fantastic way for musicians to find and connect with new audiences. The way she educates the next generation of young people is such a great thing. They are taught gently, by fine teachers.”

Bellaire resident Mary Shannon McConaty, 22, is one of those, taught gently.

“Linda is really supportive and lets you learn the way that feels the most comfortable to you,” Mary Shannon says. The budding singer-songwriter, a psychology student at the University of Houston who aspires to become a paramedic, plays guitar and piano. She has toured with Women in the Round. Linda has put on several showcases for her band, Indigo Road, that she performs in with fellow WITR students, Jordan Maat, Kayla Pendleton and Riley Child.

She’s accumulated over five million streams across music platforms. Her song Train Tracks has amassed more than three million streams alone. “I appreciate that Linda has created an environment where people like me can perform and not be surrounded by alcohol and people who are drunk,” stresses the songwriter.

Mary Shannon now teaches guitar and piano

with WITR and leads its Jam Band concerts where students – current and former – come together certain Saturdays to, well, jam.

Linda takes students to unique places to get their creative juices flowing, like the Southside Place Municipal Court building, says Mia Vellano, 17, a junior at Xavier Academy.

“I did a summer program at Writers in the Round at 5 years old,” says the songwriter who plays guitar and piano. “We went to the courthouse, and she passed out our notebooks and we wrote songs there. She loves to unlock kids’ imaginations and creativity that way.”

Mia teaches at WITR in her spare time. She does solo gigs and performs with various groups, like Women in the Round, Jam Band and The Trio, composed of fellow WITR students, Gabriella Rose and Lee Monistere. The prolific songwriter estimates she’s crafted 1,000 songs. “My notebooks of songs won’t fit under my bed anymore.”

Linda was born a poet. She’s been putting thoughts to paper since a young child in Hot Springs, Arkansas. For her, songwriting is poetry, set to music. Family stories supported a fertile imagination. Stories about her grandfather as sheriff of Garland County. How he busted up moonshine stills and chased Bonnie and Clyde down back roads.

In the early 1970s, she became a national time buyer for Jimmy Dean, who co-owned an advertising company in Little Rock, Arkansas, following his prime as a country singer. (Yes, he of Jimmy Dean’s Premium Pork Sausage.) He knew of her poetic prowess. He’d read her musings. One day, a conversation ensued about just what exactly was going on in her head: Jimmy, I’m starting to hear melodies in my head, to go with my words.

Well now, you’ve got the curse. You’re not just a poet, you’re a songwriter.

He instructed Linda to learn guitar.

She took out a loan, bought a guitar, and taught herself to play. Soon, she quit Jimmy Dean’s employ and was playing professionally. She and Arkansas friend Mary Gwin started a duo, packing them in at Little Rock clubs. “We looked like little baby Camelots,” she said of their long flowerchild dresses.

Eventually, she made it to Houston, falling into the scene at Anderson Fair, a bastion for artists, poets, and songwriters who honed their skills on stage before audiences of fellow performers.

“She was becoming acquainted with the Anderson Fair crowd the same time as I was,” says Houston musician and

(continued on page 24)

TENDER TUNES Top left photo: Michelle’s entire life has been music. She and mom Linda wrote the song Maybe My Baby together when Michelle was 3. Bottom left photo: Writers in the Round instructors and students play together at their former location on Edloe. Standing, from left: Linda Lowe and student Nick Distefano; seated, from left: teachers Michelle Caillouet, Fernando Cervantes, and Judi Messina, and student parent Sandra McConaty. Right photo: Rice professor Al Danto and Mia Vellano enjoy a sing-along with others.

(continued from page 23)

audio engineer Rock Romano, aka Dr. Rockit. “I was friends with Lyle Lovett and people before him, like Eric Taylor and Lucinda Williams. Linda was just one of the gang.

“She has a very musical soul, if you will, and she can spot talent,” he continues. “I’ve had hundreds of people in my studio, more like thousands, and a lot of sessions have been with her students over the years.” Rock and Linda co-produced the albums, West U Dreams and Southside Rocks, with songs co-written by Linda and students. Bellaire Bops will be released next year.

“Linda herself is an amazing talent,” says WITR board president Aura Lee Emsweller who performs with Women in the Round. She toured with her high-energy, vocal and comedy band Wildwood in the ’70s.

“She’s totally incapable of any kind of pretense or artifice. It’s ‘what you see is what you get’ and that’s so refreshing,” Emsweller says. “Her lyrics, her guitar playing, her delivery is powerful. World-class performers and writers took note. They understood the quality of what she was doing and respected her and wanted to hang around her, on stage and off. And they trusted her to put these concerts together. That’s how Writers in the Round came to be. From

Linda’s magic and hard work!”

David Amram, 94 – the “Einstein of Music,” Linda says – has composed over 100 orchestral and chamber works, written operas and scores for theater and film, and has collaborated with such notables as Dizzy Gillespie, Leonard Bernstein, and Jack Kerouac. The list of musicians he admires is long. On it is Linda Lowe.

He stumbled upon Linda and her violinist Malcolm Smith at the Kerrville Folk Festival in the early 1980s. “I came up on the campgrounds and I heard this wonderful singer. I found out later that she’d been called ‘The Lyric Lady’ and one of her friends, Robert Palmer, who wound up being a music critic for the New York Times, told me she was the most magical, enchanting, musical person that he’d ever encountered. I see why he said that.”

“He took us on the ‘Amram train,’” quips Linda. “He gathered us up after finding us at that Kerrville campground, and we played with him on stage.” Linda went on to win the festival’s New Folk Songwriting Contest in 1984.

“She’s not only a terrific singer, songwriter, and composer, but skipped the traditional musician path for this wonderful idea of creating a music school that is open to anybody and everybody to learn how to be a better musician, and a better thinking person,” Amram continues.

“And the concerts she’s done, well, what can I say? They’re joyful!”

Linda’s ability to connect musicians to each other is her superpower, say those who know her best.

Amram recalls a WITR concert in 1994, where he joined iconic singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt (the “Bob Dylan of Texas,” says Linda) and Israeli songwriter and classical guitarist David Broza. Broza and Van Zandt were meeting for the first time, thanks to a determined Linda.

The night was magical, he says. Broza and Van Zandt had instant connection.

Townes Van Zandt was something of a cult figure, known best for his song Pancho and Lefty, which was recorded as a duet with Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. Emmylou Harris sang a version as well. But the master lyricist had a troubled soul, his dark folk ballads at times mirroring his own life, explains Linda, who thought of him as a brother. The lifelong alcoholic died in 1997, three years after that WITR performance.

Upon his death, Van Zandt bequeathed unreleased poems to Broza. The result was Broza’s album Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt, with 11 songs penned by Van Zandt. Linda was the conduit that made that post-humous collaboration possible, say friends.

“Townes is a perfect example of why I do what

WHAT’S SHAKIN’ Top left photo: Shake Russell has been a part of Writers in the Round since the get-go, performing with a long list of musicians at all sorts of outings, including concerts at Rice Village’s Main Street Theater. Pictured, from left: musicians William vonReichbauer, Michael Hearne, Shake Russell, Linda Lowe, and student and WITR guitar teacher Gabriella Rose pose at Main Street Theater. Bottom left photo: WITR teacher Fernando Cervantes, center, joins fellow instructor Judi Messina and others in a jam session. Right photo: Singer-songwriters Mary Shannon McConaty (standing) and Mia Vellano credit WITR with teaching them songwriting skills.

LINDA WITH LEGENDS Left photo: WITR creator Linda Lowe has been writing poems since a young child, a talent that led to songwriting and many albums. Here, she graces the cover of her album Little by Little. Top right photo: Legendary musician Townes Van Zandt was like a brother to Linda. He performed in a “magical” 1994 WITR concert with singer-songwriter and classical guitarist, David Broza, a connection that continued posthumously with Broza putting several of Van Zandt’s poems to song in his album Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt. Bottom right photo: Linda and Broza connect on a deep level as songwriters, a friendship that began decades ago.

I do,” says Linda. “I asked him once, ‘Do you think if you could have just played places like theaters and more civilized venues that you would have skipped that whole alcohol thing?’ I know what those dives are like. Club owners would sometimes be so drunk they couldn’t count the money and settle up at the end of the night.”

West University resident Al Danto has great respect for Linda and her calling. “I believe in her cause so much that I donate to it,” says the Rice University professor, 63. A few years back, he was on the brink of death, due to “a crazy culmination” of serious health issues that left him on a heart-lung machine for several days.

Semi-comatose, his eyes fluttered when the music therapist came around, singing and strumming Hotel

California by the Eagles, his wife later informed him. Music brought him back to the world.

Once out of the woods, he vowed: I’m going to learn to play the guitar and sing.

“That was a little more than two years ago, and I’ve taken a weekly lesson ever since,” says Al, who plays with WITR group, Fernando & The Whensdays, with instructor Fernando Cervantes leading. They have performed at Evelyn’s Park, among other places. “I’m filling a bucket list kind of thing.”

He jokes that his wife, perhaps, wouldn’t have been keen on him learning to play Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. But he can strum a pretty solid Hotel California, his let’s-get-out-of-this-hospital ballad.

“I didn’t think I had any kind of natural musi-

Linda’s Legacy

cal ability. But through Linda and her instructors, I found it’s not about that,” explains Al. “It certainly helps, but it’s like any other skill set. In time, you learn how to do it, and it becomes more and more natural.”

Linda loves hearing that.

“It’s all about anybody and everybody celebrating the joy of music,” says the songwriter. “You can’t get that soulful joy anywhere else. A song brings back more than a memory. A song brings you back to the space that you’re in when you’re in that memory. It’s the magic stuff in our lives.”

For more information about Writers in the Round and its 2025 concert series, and WITR’s release party for Shake Russell’s new album, Gold to Me, visit www.witr.org.

Linda Lowe’s Writers in the Round concert series is an important part of the history of the vibrant folk scene that put its stamp on Houston, says archivist and special collections librarian Norie Guthrie of Rice University’s Woodson Research Center.

Guthrie is archiving all manner of materials – photographs, flyers, business records, a whole host of memorabilia – from WITR’s 35-year presence on the music scene. It’s being archived in a collection called “Linda Lowe and the Writers in the Round Concert Series,” part of an overall “Houston Folk Music” archive at Fondren Library.

“Linda’s story is interesting because she was creating something new and what she did was really notable,” says Guthrie. “Organizing musician friends of hers, coming together in a different kind of venue, providing work for her musician friends…this was something different.”

Houston was home to a dynamic folk scene, including Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Don Sanders, Shake Russell, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, and many others, she says.

“It was really such a vibrant scene that started in earnest in the 1960s and went on through the 1980s with Linda booking a lot of the people that she worked with during the 1970s. It’s the story of how folk music didn’t die, and these people didn’t just disappear. They kept thriving and going. Linda is a big part of that.”

by Andria Dilling, staff writer

An Air Fryer Skeptic

New year, new adventure

We all know those people who are early adopters. The ones who regularly wait in line the very day a new iPhone gets released, just to have the latest. Or who were using ChatGPT back when it was released in November 2022. They’re the ones who had Spotify playlists while the rest of us were excited to make our own CD mixes on our computers.

I am not one of those people. My children dread the day I am forced to get a new iPhone or, even worse, a new computer, because they will be fielding complaints for days. The Cloud? What’s that? I will ignore progress in favor of what feels comfortable, even if that comfort takes three hours longer than it could. I’m just fine over here, thank you very much.

That’s why, when my 24-year-old daughter asked for an air fryer as a gift, I had no clue where to start. I also had no idea why in the world she would want an air fryer. She has two perfectly dependable, full-sized ovens at her disposal, plus a toaster. She wanted an air fryer?

Yes, of course she did, and yes, of course I gave one to her. Little did I know I would become a fan.

“This is such a Gen Z thing to say, but I kept seeing people on TikTok and Instagram make these super crispy vegetables in air fryers, and I wanted those veggies,” Lucy explains, when I ask what the attraction was. “There was one recipe in particular, it was for okra, and I love the okra. A woman made this crispy air-fried okra, and it looked healthier and way more doable than actual frying, and that’s when I put an air fryer on my wish list.”

Lucy has been happily air-frying veggies and other things on her own, unnoticed by her uninterested mother. But now it’s 2025: New year, new quest! Unconvinced but curious, if only for the right to say I tried, I asked my Gen Z-er for a tutorial.

Wanting to test both veg and protein, we decided to make steak frites. Specifically, we zeroed in on a recipe Food & Wine published that was written by developer Marianne Williams especially for the air fryer.

I have sat at lunch listening to friends rave that their air fryers can cook dinner in a fraction of the time it takes to preheat a conventional

TIME SENSITIVE An air fryer makes quick work of putting an A-game dinner on the table in steak frites. Writer Andria Dilling cooked up this easy and delicious dinner with the help of her Gen Z daughter, Lucy Frankfort. Previously skeptical of the air fryer’s popularity, this method of cooking steak frites – in particular, the frites – persuaded Andria that there’s good reason to use this trendy kitchen tool.

oven. I wasn’t prepared for just how true that is. Lucy and I seasoned a beautiful 1 ½ pound ribeye and put the air fryer to the test. “This steak feels too large to cook in that amount of time,” Lucy doubted. But in 16 minutes plus a 12minute rest on the countertop, we had a gorgeously browned and crisp-edged steak, pink inside, almost like something we could have ordered at a restaurant. “For me, a 24-year-old girl who does not cook steak, it was perfect,” Lucy said.

But the star was the frites. Golden and crispy, we had never enjoyed fries like those at home, because neither of us is ever going to actually fry potato sticks and smell the oil for days when we can go to Whataburger. But will we make air fryer fries again? Oh yes. And that means both of us. (Pro tip: Lucy says the truffle salt was a “game-changer.”)

In the context of books and movies and performers, I always say if something is wildly popular, there’s a reason. I guess that’s true for more than pop culture. I will be adding air fryers to that list. And I will be borrowing my daughter’s

very modern gadget, even if I am the last to get excited about it.

Air Fryer Steak Frites

Very slightly adapted from a recipe written by Marianne Williams for Food & Wine

Air fryers are different; you might need to adjust the cook time based on yours.

1 ½ pound bone-in ribeye steak, about 1 ½inches thick

2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 teaspoons thinly sliced fresh chives

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

¾ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

½ teaspoon garlic powder

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

14 ounces frozen hand cut-style fries

½ teaspoon sea salt or truffle salt

Pat the steak dry using paper towels, and place it on a wire rack-lined baking sheet.

Andria Dilling

Sprinkle both sides and the edges of the steak evenly with 1 ½ teaspoons of the salt. Refrigerate the steak, uncovered, for at least 8 hours or up to 48 hours.

Meanwhile, stir together the softened butter, chives, thyme, rosemary, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and ¼ teaspoon of the salt in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. (Alternatively, place the butter mixture on parchment paper or plastic wrap, and roll it into a log. Seal the edges, and refrigerate until ready to use.)

Remove the steak from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking. While the steak comes to room temperature, preheat the air fryer with 1 large, flat perforated basket to 400 degrees. Brush the steak evenly with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Place the steak in the basket of the air fryer; cook it, undisturbed, until it is golden brown on top and an instant-read thermometer registers 125 degrees for medium-rare or 135 degrees for medium, 10 to 12 minutes or until the desired degree of doneness (continue cooking and checking the temperature every 2 minutes).

Remove the steak from the air fryer and place it on a cutting board. Sprinkle it with pepper, and let it rest while preparing the fries (do not cut into it).

Place the frozen fries in a large, heatproof bowl. Pour any remaining juices and fat from the air fryer over the frozen fries. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the frozen fries, and toss to evenly coat.

Heat the air fryer to 400 degrees. Add the frozen fries to the air fryer basket, and shake to evenly distribute them. (Save the bowl for tossing the fries after cooking.) Place the basket in the air fryer and cook, shaking the basket every 4 to 5 minutes, until the fries are golden brown and crispy, 14 to 15 minutes. Remove and transfer the fries to the same large, heatproof bowl. Sprinkle them with the sea salt or truffle salt, and toss to fully coat.

Carve the rested steak from the bone, and cut it into ¾- to 1-inch slices. Place the steak on plates, and pile the fries alongside. Spoon or slice 1 ½ tablespoons of the compound butter over the sliced steak, and sprinkle it lightly with a pinch more kosher salt. Serve immediately.

Crispy Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts

Lucy says these are so quick and crispy, she will never roast brussels sprouts in the oven again.

1 pound brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut in half

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Hot honey

Preheat the air fryer to 375 degrees. Dry the brussels sprouts with paper towels. Toss them

A Few Basic Air Fryer Tips

with the olive oil, salt, and pepper, then place them in the basket of the air fryer. Cook for about 5 minutes, then shake the basket. Cook another 5 minutes and shake again. If they need to cook a bit more, repeat checking and shaking every 2 minutes.

Transfer the brussels sprouts to a serving bowl, drizzle with the hot honey, and serve immediately.

• For even cooking and consistent crisping, be sure you don’t overfill the air fryer. Food needs the air to circulate around it

• Watch the cook time the first few rounds of using the air fryer. If things cook faster (or slower) than expected, you’ll know how to adjust for future recipes.

• Be sparing with oil – part of the air fryer’s appeal is that it crisps food up without the need for conventional frying. Less is more for coaxing out crisp in an air fryer.

• Spray the basket with a little oil or nonstick cooking spray.

• Shake the basket occasionally during cooking to ensure an even cook and all-around crisp.

• When cooking meat, use a thermometer to test doneness. While the outside might appear browned and crispy, the inside might still need more time.

CRISPIER Brussels sprouts cooked in an air fryer turn out crispier – and with less oil – than those roasted in a conventional oven.

Lucy Frankfort

by Pooja Salhotra, staff writer

Running Blind

EyeCan Alliance helps visually impaired athletes

Every Saturday morning before the sun rises, Adam Smooke darts out of bed and drives to Memorial Park. Though it’s still dark outside, a group of like-minded runners wearing matching orange t-shirts gathers at mile marker zero on the park loop, no signs of lethargy in their quick steps.

While they stretch and warm up, the athletes plan their morning’s route. Once they know where they are headed, volunteers like Adam grab a bungee cord and use it to attach their arm or waist to that of a visually impaired or blind runner. For the course of the workout, the two will move in lockstep, the guide using verbal cues and soft nudges to ensure the runner’s safety and success.

The weekly ritual is organized through EyeCan Alliance, a nonprofit organization started in 2016 to help blind and visually impaired athletes across the country compete in athletic

events including marathons and triathlons. Runners are currently gearing up for the 2025 Aramco Houston Half Marathon that takes place on Jan. 19, but the Saturday workouts happen year-round.

“Every Saturday morning, like clockwork, we are there,” said Adam, a dentist who lives in Memorial. “Even in the heat or the middle of summer.”

As dawn begins to turn to day on Saturday, Adam and other guides serve as the eyes for runners from across Houston who can’t see, helping them navigate around bumpy terrain, puddles, and crowds.

Watching blind runners work hard to train and compete at the highest level motivates Adam to show up each week to offer his support.

“They obviously need us, but we need them in a way too,” Adam said while jogging in Memorial Park on a recent Saturday morning. “Running is already in and of itself a great

endeavor, and it’s so hard. To be able to run 13.1 miles blind, it’s just such an inspiration.”

Completing

a half marathon blind was never what David Adame had in mind for his son Brandon, who lost the limited vision he was born with one day when he was 15 years old, at the time a student at Lamar High School.

“Literally he went to bed Sunday evening and he was seeing some dark spots,” David said. “He woke up Monday morning and was in total darkness.”

A sequence of events starting in middle school put Brandon on the path to compete internationally in paratriathlons, a triathlon for athletes with physical disabilities, and led the Adame family to create EyeCan Alliance to help others achieve similar goals.

When Brandon was in middle school, he ran a couple of two-mile races with the help of a teacher who offered to be his guide. Then, dur-

HITTING THE TRAILS Volunteer guides and visually impaired runners with EyeCan Alliance train together on Saturday mornings at Memorial Park. Pictured are (back row, from left) Louis Ditta, Mikey Fields, Nicole Small, Brandon Adame, Adam Smooke, Amanda Forner, Mark Mayo, Adam Boutté, Eric Garibay; (front row, from left) David Adame, Tjuana Richardson, April Taylor, Madison Smooke, Phoenix Brown, Jennifer O'Shea Bratkowski, and Marilynn Adame.

ing high school at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austin, he ran on the school track team.

“They did things like a standing long jump and a 400-meter run, competing against other blind schools in Louisiana and Arkansas,” said dad David.

Brandon’s long-distance running career took off post high school when he was back home in Houston after graduating. His dad took him to the gym where he frequently played racquetball and his wife Marilyn took exercise classes. David put his son Brandon on a treadmill next to middle-aged women taking a treadmill class with instructor Mary Lowe. He set the treadmill to a roughly 10-minute mile pace and left to play racquetball. When he returned, Brandon was still running strong.

The following week, the exercise instructor, Mary, came up with an idea.

“She said, ‘why doesn’t the whole family go run the Houston Half Marathon, and I’ll guide Brandon,’” David recalled.

“I liked to train people to have goals,” said Mary, who now lives in Beeville. “You’re at the gym every day, you should set a goal.”

Mary had never guided a visually impaired runner, but Brandon taught her how to lead effectively.

“We just started meeting at the park, and Brandon would run holding my shoulder,” Mary recalled. “Brandon would tell stories the whole time.”

Brandon, who is now 42, completed his first half marathon the following year – in 2006 –running with his hand on Mary’s shoulder and his parents and sister Jacqueline also running at their own pace.

Over the past two decades, Brandon has grown increasingly competitive, racing in dozens of half marathons, triathlons, and Ironman events across Texas and even internationally, all with the help of different volunteer guides. Occasionally, David said he served as his son’s running guide, but eventually, Brandon became too fast. At one point, Brandon ranked 19th in the world among all blind and visually impaired paratriathlon participants, David said. All the while, David said he has been awed by his son’s athletic ability and the volunteers who have made his goals achievable.

“All these people were putting time, energy, and effort in our son’s life and by extension our family’s life, so how are we gonna give back?” David said. “How is that going to work?”

Through a series of conversations in his household, David decided to launch EyeCan Alliance, which would create an organized group of guides to help athletes like his son.

The organization has become an anchor for visually impaired people nationwide trying to find their athletic niche. David has formed relationships with other organizations with a similar mission, such as the Sailing Angels Foundation, which introduces sailing to children with special needs. He’s been able to pair blind athletes with the group that fits them best.

“If you want to go snow skiing, we can get you in the right spot for that,” David said. “If you want to do mountain climbing or trail running or endurance sports or sailing, we have people who do all those different kinds of things. The main thing is to find the thing an individual has an interest in and try to work from there.”

Whennew guides first begin volunteering with EyeCan, they are blindfolded, or put on blackout glasses, to get a taste of running blind while tethered to an experienced guide.

“That’s how they train you to become a guide,” Adam said. “You have to have empathy and understand where they are coming from.” That experience helps guides understand just how dependent the runner is on their support. New volunteers join the EyeCan Alliance through word of mouth – or because they’ve seen a pack of runners in orange t-shirts who look like they are having fun while working hard.

That’s how native Houstonian Louis Ditta became a volunteer guide. The trust and estates lawyer has been running at Memorial Park for years. After seeing EyeCan runners several Saturday mornings, he decided to approach David about joining.

“He looked like the one in charge, so I approached him and said I’d like to join,” Louis recalled. “He said ‘great, give me your number,’ and the next weekend I was out there. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Serving as a guide is not always easy. When he first started, Louis had a couple of slips –while he was guiding a blind runner, the runner fell down, tripping over a curb or other obstacle he missed.

“You really have to pay attention to what you’re doing,” Louis said. “You always have to be cognizant of other runners, changes in terrain, and things that come up that the runner can’t see. The goal is to have the runner not have to worry about any of that.”

Over time, Louis and Adam say they have grown increasingly com-

(continued on page 30)

TETHERED TOGETHER At left: Louis Ditta guides Mikey Fields as they train together. At right: Adam Smooke, William Greer, and J.J. Rodriguez sport their EyeCan Alliance tees at the 2024 Houston Aramco Half Marathon.

fortable as guides and are looking forward to the upcoming half marathon. Both of them will be paired with runners from out of town who run at a similar pace. They won’t meet the person they will be tethered to until the day before the half marathon, when they’ll do a practice run.

EyeCan has turned the half marathon into an entire weekend affair. Runners arrive in Houston from as far away as Florida or North Carolina on Thursday evening and gather for meals and other group activities to get to know one another on Friday and Saturday before Sunday morning’s race. David also finds families to host runners if they don’t have a place to stay for the weekend.

“The whole premise is, if I’m out here doing this, how would I want my son to be treated?” David said.

The organization ensures that the blind runners are paired with two guides who can run at their same pace. One person is tethered to the blind runner and the other assists with crowd control, grabbing water or anything else that comes up.

Whenthe Adame family looks back, they say it is hard to fathom just how much EyeCan Alliance has grown and just how many lives have been touched, all because different individuals – from Brandon’s middle school teacher to an exercise instructor at the gym –offered him a helping hand.

Back then, when Brandon first started running, he was one of the only blind runners participating in the Houston Half. Now, blind runners flock to Houston from thousands of miles away, in large part because of the welcoming environment created by EyeCan.

“It’s inspiring to see how people who maybe didn’t think that they could ever do something like the half marathon gain the confidence to do the training and complete it,” said Brandon’s mom Marilyn.

In total, EyeCan Alliance has served about 100 blind athletes and includes a roster of around 300 people who have volunteered as guides in various athletic events over the years, David said.

“When you set a goal, you attract people to you that will help you accomplish that goal,” said Brandon. “Once you accomplish that goal, you never know who you will inspire to then go do something greater than they thought they could ever do.”

EyeCan has fostered new friendships and communities, too. Adam invited Brandon and family to his daughter’s bat mitzvah. And the group regularly gets together for dinners or other workouts during the week.

“I’ve really enjoyed connecting with the athletes, even though they are all older than me,” said Madison, Adam’s 16-year-old daughter, who recently began running, too, and plans to serve as a guide for her first time during the

Houston 5K. “Running with a group also motivates you to go faster.”

The organization is a win-win. The guides are inspired by the people they serve, and the blind and visually impaired athletes get the support they need to accomplish a goal that would otherwise be impossible.

“In our house, the real heroes are the guides,” David said. “The people like Dr. Smooke who give up time, energy and effort –sometimes leaving their warm, cozy bed early morning – so they can help some blind person accomplish something that they couldn’t do if it weren’t for them.”

BONDED BY RUNNING Top photo: Adam Smooke and his daughter Madison Smooke join Brandon Adame and dad David Adame for a Saturday morning training run. Bottom photo: Madison Smooke (right) practices guiding Brandon Adame.

. by Cindy Burnett, staff writer

Buzz Reads

Five picks for January

Buzz Reads is a column about books by reviewer Cindy Burnett. Each month, Cindy recommends five recently or soon-to-be released titles.

Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin (fiction) – This delightful tale centers around nonagenarian Eddie Winston who stays busy by volunteering at a charity shop in Birmingham, UK, where he sorts through the donations that arrive to the shop, occasionally selecting sentimental items to take home in case the owners return for their items. When 24-yearold Bella visits the shop to donate her recently deceased boyfriend’s belongings, the two strike up a touching friendship. Once Bella learns that Eddie has never been kissed, she sets out to change that by aiding him in signing up for a senior dating app and serving as his wingman. The relationship between Bella and Eddie is so endearing, and I loved that Cronin flipped the standard generational roles so that Bella was the one dealing with the loss of a loved one and Eddie was looking for his first kiss. Eddie has cemented his spot as one of my favorite fictional characters, and readers will be wishing they had an Eddie in their life. Chock full of humor and beautiful characters, Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love is a gem from start to finish. This one will appeal to those of all ages who like stories about found family and finding community as well as the importance of human connection.

Head Cases by John McMahon (mystery/thriller) – The Patterns and Recognition team (“PAR”) at the FBI, derogatorily referred to as the Head Cases by other FBI agents, is hunting a killer who is slowly murdering other serial killers and leaving clues and riddles for the PAR team to decipher. Their intelligent leader, Gardner Camden, is neurodivergent and often struggles to effectively interact with others. The unit is composed of outcast agents, all misfits who have been assigned there because something they worked on previously went sideways, but each is also incredibly bright. The quirky characters are well crafted, the mystery is a puzzler, and the twists and turns are so engaging. And while the focus is on finding the killer, McMahon does a wonderful job weaving

WHAT TO READ This month’s selections include two historical fiction titles, a compelling mystery, a heartwarming novel, and an engaging family drama.

in details about the characters’ personal lives and what makes them tick. This is the start to a new series, and I am already excited for book two. Head Cases is a good fit for people who like intelligent mysteries with unique protagonists.

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis (historical fiction) – In each of her books, Fiona Davis selects an iconic building in New York City as the setting, and The Stolen Queen takes place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This fast-paced dual timeline tale is set in 1936 Egypt where Charlotte Cross is participating in an archaeological dig. While there she discovers historical artifacts connected to an ancient female pharaoh, but when tragedy strikes, she leaves Egypt, planning never to return. In 1978 Manhattan, Charlotte is the associated curator of the Department of Egyptian Artifacts at the Met, tasked with working on the Met Gala, where things go awry when one of the museum’s most valuable pieces goes missing. Teaming up with Annie, a personal assistant to Diana Vreeland who is chairing the gala, Charlotte realizes she must return to the one place she swore she never would. Davis tackles numerous timely topics including how women have been marginalized in history, the importance of reclaiming their contributions, and the repatriation of stolen or looted artifacts and the issues that result. The behindthe-scenes glimpses into the Met’s operations and collections is fascinating, and the strong sense of place for both Egypt and the museum will transport the reader to both locales. Historical fiction fans and art lovers will thoroughly enjoy this one.

The Unexpected Diva by Tiffany L. Warren (historical fiction) – Narrated in the first person, The Unexpected Diva is a fictionalized account of the life of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, a Black opera singer in pre-Civil War America. Raised in the safety of Pennsylvania’s Quaker community, her life drastically changes when her white adoptive mother dies and her family disputes Eliza’s inheritance and wins. Her extraordinary three-octave voice allows her to defy societal norms to pursue her dream of becoming a professional opera singer, gaining acclaim as “the Black Swan” in the United States and Europe. While the book’s main focus is Eliza’s story, it also depicts what it was like for Black citizens in pre-

Civil War America, regardless of where they lived. Black patrons were often not allowed to attend Eliza’s concerts even in the North and, when they could, protestors were out in full force. Slave traders came from the southern states to trap slaves or other Black people who had fled the south – anyone who was Black (even free Blacks) could be grabbed by these traders and sold to plantations. Choosing to tell the story from Eliza’s perspective was effective, making the story feel deeply personal and allowing readers to glimpse how Eliza perceived her success and travails. This book will appeal to anyone who likes to learn about someone forgotten by history as well as those who love to be transported to another time period.

What Happened to the McCrays? by Tracey Lange (fiction) – The queen of compelling family dramas returns with her best novel yet, a story that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Several years earlier, Kyle McCray fled his hometown of Potsdam, New York leaving his ex-wife and father behind. When his father suffers a stroke, Kyle reluctantly returns to help, but dreads his homecoming after abandoning his family and the town. As the story toggles between the past and the present, Kyle’s life with his wife Casey unfolds in both timelines. While home he also gets drawn into coaching the middle-school hockey team, and these scenes in the story are standouts. Lange’s relatable, everyday characters who struggle to make their way in the world will resonate with readers who will see themselves in the people she writes. The themes of grief, mental health, relationships, aging, and community that are woven throughout the book are evergreen and relevant to everyone. Have tissues ready, because What Happened to the McCrays? is a tearjerker at times. It will be a great fit for fans of family dramas and compelling stories.

Editor’s note: Book reviewer Cindy Burnett also writes our weekly Page Turners column at thebuzzmagazines.com. She hosts an award-winning book podcast entitled Thoughts from a Page Podcast www.thoughtsfromapage.com, runs the Instagram account @thoughtsfrompage, and regularly speaks to groups about books.

TRAVEL

. by Tracy L. Barnett, staff writer

Travel Buzz

Reversing

Roles in Wales:

A

Mother-Son Road Trip

For years, it was Natalia Cokinos Oakes who drove her young son Leopold through France, Greece, Istanbul, and countless other destinations, checking the rearview mirror to watch him marveling at the sights. On the winding roads of Wales, it was Leopold who glanced sideways to catch his mother’s reactions from the driver's seat.

"She used to take me to the D-Day landings... and she was happy if I was happy," Leopold recalled. "And now here we were doing the same thing, and I was just happy that she was happy."

A legacy of travel

For mother and son, travel had always been their special bond. "We were just a gruesome twosome," Leopold said, "and we really liked to travel together."

Between ages eight and twelve, Leopold accompanied his mother, now a state district court judge in Houston's Juvenile Court, on ambitious adventures. "Any time for spring break or Thanksgiving breaks or anything, we would do these big trips," he recalled.

Their wanderlust took them across continents. In Istanbul, Natalia gave her young son surprising freedom. "My mom makes jokes about letting me run around the streets at night to go get a kebab," Leopold said, "and she looks back, and she's like, 'I can't believe I let you do that when you were so young.'"

They explored Japan with his grandmother, and frequented Greece, where they would visit the tiny island of Kythira, staying with family friends from Natalia's time living there.

A new chapter

Their Welsh journey in late July 2024 came about through a combination of celebration and serendipity. Leopold, now 34, had just completed his master's degree at London's Royal College of Arts, and Natalia planned to attend his exhibition. A friend put a bug in her ear about visiting Wales. "Of course," Natalia said. "It's the land of King Arthur.”

They began their journey by taking the train from London to Cardiff, the Welsh capital.

There, they discovered a city where ancient and modern seamlessly mixed. The castle dominated the center, but around it spread a vibrant modern city. "They have rock concerts at all these castles," Natalia observed. "They're not an isolated museum. They're incorporated into the life of the community." The city hummed with energy, its streets lined with outdoor cafes, its marina lively with activity, and its promenades filled with people enjoying the seaside air.

From Cardiff, they followed the south coast to Swansea, legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas's hometown, where they found a stretch of beach called the Mumbles. Their next stop was Tenby, a darling medieval walled city by the sea. There, they stayed in one of the Victorian homes-turned-hotels that lined the shore. "The rickety floors, you know, some were slanted," Natalia remembered fondly. "It was just very genuine. I loved it." Leopold rose early each morning to jog and swim on the beach while others were just beginning to stir.

Ancient paths, new discoveries

Wales revealed itself as an undiscovered gem, with Natalia declaring it "the best-kept secret." The landscape enchanted them, with its deep hedgerows creating atmospheric tunnels along the narrow roads.

"There's no shoulder," Natalia explained. "It's a hedgerow." The dense greenery formed natural walls along their route, occasionally opening to reveal glimpses of the rugged coastline that reminded her of Brittany, with its "craggly and rugged and emerald green" shores.

Their path led them to Fishguard, a small harbor town that served as a gateway to the northern coast. In St Davids, they discovered a town

deeply committed to both heritage and innovation. The cathedral drew them in with its carved oak ceiling, and they happened upon an Evensong service.

"It's like a break in the day, the end of the day," Natalia explained. "It's beautiful and solemn... almost like a meditation, except it's a choir."

The town’s commitment to sustainability impressed them. Restaurants mapped their local suppliers on the walls and offered unique dishes made from foraged ingredients – seaweed brownies, pepper dulce burritos, and even a signature “bug burger.” Natalia learned about seashore foraging walks where visitors could gather “sea spaghetti, lava bread, and truffle-like pepper dulce, which is the caviar of seaweed.”

Castles and memories

History seemed to rise from every Welsh hillside – “we saw six castles in five days without even trying,” Natalia marveled. In Cardigan, they explored a castle that hosted a medieval art contest where winners received chairs – a high honor in times when only kings and masters had such furniture.

These Welsh castles reminded Leopold of childhood trips, particularly their visit to France's D-Day sites. “My mom, bless her heart, took me through the trenches of Normandy and Verdun,” he recalled. They happened to arrive for a signif-

IN THE LAND OF MONTY PYTHON Leopold Oakes, left, and his mother, Natalia Cokinos Oakes, took a road trip together through Wales, stopping at Kidwelly Castle, which was featured in the first scene of Monty Python and the Holy Grail

TOOLING AROUND WALES Top left photo: Leopold takes a peek at another of the many castles in Wales. The castles tend to be integrated into daily life rather than being isolated museums, Natalia noted, saying that they host rock concerts and are "a part of the community." Bottom left photo: The

Hotel in

dates back to 1432. It's located on the town's High Street, named Britain's best in 2018. Right photo: Many of the country roads they drove down had no shoulder; instead, they were lined with dense, lush hedgerows, some of which have stood for centuries.

icant anniversary: “We were there June 6th on the 70th anniversary, and the place was just, it was like an invasion. There were all these reenactors and tanks, and it was just incredible... and I'm this little kid, just loving it.”

The road ahead

In Crickhowell, they stayed at The Bear Hotel, which Natalia noted dates back to 1432. The town charmed them with its award-winning High Street, where window boxes overflowed with flowers. Even the pubs had evolved,

now calling themselves "gastropubs" and offering elevated versions of traditional fare. Everywhere they went, they encountered a Wales both ancient and newly assertive of its identity. Road signs appeared first in Welsh –full of consonants that made Natalia wonder if she “was having a stroke or what?” until she realized it was Welsh – then in English. The red dragon flag, created in 1958 as a symbol of Welsh independence, flew proudly.

“I would say my favorite part was being able to take over and drive for my mom,” Leopold

Tips from Our Travelers

said. “I felt like I was the queen’s bodyguard. She didn’t have to do anything except enjoy the view, and take pictures.”

As their Welsh adventure drew to a close, Leopold offered advice to others who might follow in their tire tracks: “To all the sons and daughters, you should be doing this because just, you know, take advantage of it while you have it now.”

The ancient roads of Wales, it seemed, had led this mother and son to rediscover not just a country, but each other, in a whole new way.

From Leopold Oakes

Worth the splurge: Odd cocktails with seaweed.

Don’t miss: Swimming in the freezing Atlantic. It's good for you!

Packing: A good rain jacket.

Don’t forget: Your attitude becomes your reality; you decide how enjoyable a trip is.

Safety tip: Watch out for slick steps in the castles! Not really worth the trouble: Anytime there is a Ferris wheel.

From Natalia Cokinos Oakes

Local favorite: Welsh Cakes, like biscuits but cooked on a griddle like pancakes. Lots of locally sourced food and local products. They take care of their environment and their marine life. Wales is great hiking country.

Bear

Crickhowell

SportzBuzz SPORTS

. by Todd Freed, staff writer

In the wake of a spectacular senior season, St. John’s Mavericks running back Cole Allen was named the Greater Houston Private School Offensive Player of the Year. Allen received the award at the Touchdown Club of Houston’s 13th annual Private High School Awards Dinner.

Allen rushed for nearly 2,600 yards this season while accounting for 51 touchdowns to cap off a sensational career for the Mavericks. His regular season rushing and touchdown totals this past season also ranked Allen among the nation’s top running backs. Over his remarkable four years, Allen rushed for just over 5,000 yards while scoring 119 touchdowns.

“This truly means so much to be recognized alongside all these great players who had their own great careers,” said Allen. “It’s not a me thing. My teammates and coaches have supported me the entire way. My offensive line worked hard and put in so much effort to be successful. It’s also about the whole St. John’s community coming together.”

Allen’s contributions to the Mavericks’ football program extended well beyond the playing field according to Mavericks head football coach Kevin Veltri. “From the very first practice, we knew he was going to be special. Cole has been the embodiment of what we strive for as a Maverick football player. He is a natural leader and the player that every coach dreams for the chance to coach.”

A team captain in football, basketball, and even lacrosse, Allen will play football at the next level in the Ivy League while attending Harvard University. “I’m excited for it,” said Allen. “The great thing about Harvard is that they not only want to play football at a high level, but the academics is just as important. My mom was really worried about academics, so I think we really got the job done with that one.”

For the SPC Champion Kinkaid Falcons, it was nearly a clean sweep at the Private High School Awards Dinner with the Falcons winning awards in four of the six categories including Defensive Player of the Year recipient Jackson Staley. “To win the Defensive Player of the Year

for private schools means that my hard work throughout my high school career and development as a Kinkaid player was appreciated and acknowledged by all involved in the Houston area private school football,” said Staley.

The Falcons defensive end, who also put in double duty on offense as a tight end for the Falcons, also praised the strong support system he’s had at Kinkaid. “I attribute my success to my defensive line coaches Brandon Layhew and Ameer Mustafa, my tight end coach Owen Daniels, offensive coordinator Lucas Peters, and head coach Nathan Larned. I also couldn’t have done it without my teammate Alexander Donnelly, who pushed me to be my best self.”

In addition to Staley, Kinkaid had a pair of other Player of the Year winners. Falcons senior Kristopher Carlson received the Lineman of the Year Award while senior Cooper Chambers was named the Ironman of the Year. In addition, Falcons head coach Nathan Larned was named the Private School Coach of the Year.

Withthe Second Baptist Eagles advancing to the TAPPS Division II state finals, seven of its players were finalists at the private school awards dinner. “This senior class is pretty special. These guys represented our school extremely well, so I’m really happy they’ve been honored,” said Second Baptist head football coach Beck Brydon, who himself was a finalist

for the Coach of the Year award.

The Eagles Player of the Year finalists included a trio of linemen in R.J. Lee, Lucas Mensing, and T.J. Walker as well as Defensive Player of the Year finalists Bryce Butler and Ethan Dishman, Ironman finalist Cash Harris, and Specialist finalist Felan Li

The awards dinner took place just three days before the Eagles first berth to the state championship final since the 2001 season. It also marked the fifth state final appearance for the Eagles since the school started its football program in 1989. “It’s special, but it also would have been a disappointment had we not made it this far,” said Brydon.

“During the off-season we knew we had the tools to make it to week 14 this season. We just had to put things together and not stub our toe. We started the season by flying to Chicago for our opener, which was unique and fun. We won a nailbiter and played in quite a few close games throughout the season, but ultimately our team responded quite well.”

Editor’s note: Todd Freed is the host and executive producer of H-Town High School Sports, which airs Saturday at 10:30 p.m. on CW39 and Monday-Thursday on AT&T SportsNet SW. To submit high school sports news for possible inclusion in SportzBuzz, please email todd@thebuzzmagazines.com.

MAGNIFICENT MAVERICK St John’s senior running back Cole Allen received the Offensive Player of the Year award at The Touchdown Club of Houston Private High School Awards Dinner. Allen will next play collegiate football for Harvard University. Pictured with Allen is St. John’s football coach Kevin Veltri.

Touchdown Club of Houston

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Sign up to find out what we’re buzzing about at thebuzzmagazines.com/morning-buzz.

. by Annie Blaylock McQueen, staff writer

SportzBuzz Jr.

Welcome to SportzBuzz Jr., a column spotlighting neighborhood athletes in elementary and middle school.

Tiny dancers

Juniors from The Dance Barre HTX recently performed their solo dances to set off their 2024-2025 dance competition season. The competition was held at Tremaine Dance at the Westin in the Houston Galleria. The group of hard-working young ladies including (pictured, from left) Caylee Canonico, Annabelle Frierson, Cameron Wang, Sophie Everaard, and Phoebe Emden, had two days of dance convention as part of their inaugural competition experience, which included choreography from well-renowned dance artists in a variety of dance styles, including jazz, ballet, boogie, musical theater, hip hop, and tap. Coach Michelle Maldonado spearheaded their solo presentations with the support of The Dance Barre HTX faculty and parents.

Tournament winners

Congratulations to the West University Softball Association 10U Wave. After an exciting round of games, the team recently won the 4TS State Tournament. The 10U Wave were 6-0 on the weekend among a field of 19 teams and had several come-from-behind games and a few walk-off moments. The team played through rain and demonstrated grit and determination. Pictured (front row, from left) are Izzy McKenny, Talia Wright, Isla Shaftel, Danica Rajevac, Reagan Grimm; (middle row, from left) Brooke Stewart, Annabelle Whitley, Gemma Baird, Nina Dawson, Mylah Grigsby; (back row, from left) assistant Sam Stewart , assistant Lacey Grimm , head coach Miranda Rajevac, assistant Ali McKenny, and Madison Beleiff. Regular registration is open for the WUSA Spring recreation season. Late registration closes Jan. 8. See wusa.org.

Swim-bike-run

After a lot of training, determination, and some fun, a group of young athletes including (pictured) Jacob Everaard , 7, a student at River Oaks Baptist School, completed a triathlon race. The Otter Tri Team recently participated in the Captain Kids Triathlon at Moody Gardens in Galveston where young athletes from the ages of 6-15 swam in the lazy river, biked through the resort, and finished with a run through the tropical gardens. The Otters practice in the Houston and Bellaire area year-round to train for the yearly event. Other participants included Caylee Canonico , 9, Sophie Everaard , 9, and Kinley Canonico , 7.

Editor’s note: Send your best high-resolution photos and behind-the-scenes stories about young local athletes, in both team and individual sports, to SportzBuzz, Jr. at info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Include all contact info, names, ages, grades and schools. Featured athletes must live in Buzz-circulation neighborhoods. Items will be published on a space-available basis.

When IRAs and trusts collide

Concerned that Americans weren’t saving enough for retirement, the 2020 SECURE Act sweetened IRAs for workers with the means to contribute longer and withdraw later. To make up the lost income tax revenue, the lifetime stretch IRA was replaced for many beneficiaries with a 10-year rule that accelerates distributions, income, and taxes that previously were spread out over the beneficiary’s life expectancy, often decades.

Surviving spouses can still enjoy a stretch IRA (for life), as can minor children (until the age of majority), disabled and the chronically ill, and beneficiaries not more than 10 years younger than the deceased owner (think siblings). Spouses are the only heirs that escape the SECURE Act unscathed. Most people inheriting a traditional IRA after the owner’s required beginning date now have to take minimum distributions in years 1 to 9, and the balance in year 10.

The initial rules were so convoluted and incomplete that penalties on most 10-year rule violations were waived for 2021-2024. Final regulations resolving many, but not all, the hardest questions were published only in July of 2024.

The conundrum: a trust for successful children funded with a $500,000 IRA can conceivably attract 40% to 50% more income taxes than before, a cost for trust benefits, such as creditor and divorce protection, that a mature adult may not need. Yes, there’s exceptions for minor children, but many grown children need a trustee, too. Will yours?

Worse, when a charitable organization is the remainder trust beneficiary, the SECURE Act can impose a 5-year rule that wastes not just the charita-

ble remainder, but also the children’s or grandchildren’s share that comes first.

Most estate planners’ template forms are now updated to provide maximum flexibility to the non-spouse beneficiaries of trusts holding retirement plan assets. The rub is that “maximum flexibility” can still be too expensive relative to the trust benefits. Is an extra $50,000 in income tax over 10 years worth it if the expense could be avoided by designating a mature, adult child as contingent beneficiary rather than a trust? The answer will vary with the size of the estate, the children’s age, maturity, and resources, and the family’s enthusiasm for complexity.

The best advice for married U.S. couples is still to name the other as sole primary IRA beneficiary. The trustee under the owner’s will used to be the best contingent IRA beneficiary, in case the children were minors or spendthrifts. Now, if the children are at least 25, or maybe 30, it can make more sense to name the children as contingent IRA beneficiaries.

We write wills and go to probate court. Foreign nationals and international families welcome.

Russell W. Hall, J.D., LL.M. (Tax), Board Certified – Estate Planning and Probate Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization, 6750 West Loop South, Suite 920, Bellaire, Texas 77401, 713.662.3853, bellaireprobate.com/blog

by Dylan Doucet, age 10

Buzz Kidz

MDYEING TO BE NATURAL Dylan Doucet, a fifth grader at Condit Elementary School, wants to urge lawmakers to take strong action against artificial colors in food.

True colors: Prohibit artificial food coloring

y name is Dylan Doucet and I am a fifth grader at Condit Elementary. I have a goal to eliminate artificial food colors found in my favorite snacks because they are harmful to our bodies. Artificial colors in food are the number one disruptor of our gut microbiome, which is the body’s foundation to good health. Artificial colors are even worse for your gut microbiome than sugar, which is the second biggest disruptor.

As a person with ADHD, artificial colors are further detrimental to my health as they have been proven to cause hyperactivity. I personally have felt these effects since some of my favorite snacks (Doritos, Gatorade, Skittles, Cheetos, M&Ms) contain artificial colors. I no longer eat these snacks and urge you to stop also. This includes Red-40, Yellow-5, Yellow-6, Blue-1, and

Blue-2. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods offer many alternatives for these snacks that are just as tasty and do not contain any artificial colors.

Many other countries, such as the UK, have banned these artificial colors given the harmful effects. In these countries, the food companies are forced to produce the same products, just without the artificial colors. The taste is the same; however, the colors are not as bright as they are in the US. Personally, I do not think our food needs to have bright colors. I’d rather they not contain harmful chemicals. Currently, California is considering a bill to ban six artificial colors from being served in schools. I think the rest of the US needs to start making changes also.

Given the harmful effects of artificial colors in food, I created an online petition with

Change.org to gather signatures to show the FDA and Congress that we need change. Please consider signing the petition and helping me get these chemicals eliminated. It takes about 30 seconds to sign. I am also planning to meet with House Representative Lizzie Fletcher to discuss ways to get a bill passed. Your support will help kids have easier access to safer snacks! Sign my petition at chng.it/GdhnMNqD8R.

Want to be a Buzz Kid? Email approximately 350 words, a high-resolution photo and caption to info@thebuzzmagazines.com.

Hypoallergenic dogs

Most pet lovers are quite attached to their dog(s) and say their four-legged companions are members of their family. Sometimes, one or more of the human family members become allergic to the dog family member(s). What about “hypoallergenic” dogs? This term means “not allergy inducing” to the lay person. To physicians (especially board-certified allergists) it means “less likely” to trigger allergies.

Allergy to dogs is caused by proteins found in the animals’ dander (skin flakes), saliva, skin, and urine. Think sneezing fits, runny nose, itchy eyes, or possibly even an asthma attack.

The most common allergen from dogs is a protein called Canis familiaris allergen 1 (Can f 1 for short). It is found primarily in saliva and urine. (There are several other important allergy proteins such as Can f 2, 4, 5 and 7, for example.) The misconception that some breeds are hypoallergenic stems from the belief that certain dogs shed less. This belief led to the misconception that certain breeds are less likely to cause allergic reaction due to the breeds’ coat qualities. Think Poodle, Portuguese Water Dogs, and certain terriers, which are all said to shed less hair and dander than other breeds. Unfortunately, shedding less does not mean a dog is “allergen-free.”

Studies show that the levels of the Can f 1 protein can vary widely not just between different breeds but also within the same breed. One published study found no significant difference in the amount of allergens in the homes of so called “hypo-allergenic” dogs compared to homes with non“hypoallergenic” breeds. It is also known that breeding a poodle with Golden Retriever or Labrador Retriever does not always lead to offspring

with the desired coat characteristics. (The litter may contain dogs there are not low shedding or some that are less shedding but still others that shed as much as a non-“hypoallergenic” dog. There can be differences in such qualities within the same litter.) And of course, all dogs drool, urinate, release skin flakes…. So alas, allergens aplenty. The amount of dander produced can also vary. Factors such as diet, the dog’s environment, and their overall health significantly influence the production of allergens.

So if you or a human family member are sneezing or wheezing when around the four-legged canine family member, come see the board certified allergy specialists at The Allergy Clinic so we can help make a plan to keep you well and in good graces with your fourlegged bestie. Hypoallergenic dogs. Alas, Maggie is nudging my leg – she is ready for an overdue walk.

No one nose allergies like we do.™

Note: Information contained in this article should not be considered a substitute for consultation with a board-certified allergist to address individual medical needs.

Anthony J. Weido, M.D., The Allergy Clinic, 7707 Fannin, Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77054, 713.797.0993, *1200 Binz, Suite 1400, Houston, Texas 77004, 713.522.9911, www.allergyclinic.com, *Operating as Houston Allergy and Asthma Clinic

Accurate Diagnoses and Compassionate Psychiatric Treatment for

Struggling Adolescents and Teens

We partner with parents to identify behavioral and mental health challenges that prevent children and adolescents from thriving at home, in the classroom, and in social settings. Dr. Jon Stevens is triple board-certified in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Adult Psychiatry, and Obesity Medicine. His experienced team will design a personalized care plan that may include the following services:

• Psychiatric Consultation and Diagnosis

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PETS Neighborhood Tails

Cloudy B. Jones, age 8 months, Silver Tabby, Valerie St.

Hi – I’m Cloudy! I live a pretty cush life these days, but things weren’t always so easy for me. I was born into the feral life on the streets of Bellaire, but when I was still a little kitten, my family found me when they were out on an evening walk along Newcastle. Lucky for me, they couldn’t resist my cries when I ran out of the bushes. Now my days include loafing about the house, dragging my toys around, and making at least one batch of muffins per day. I am very cuddly and like being carried around like a baby so I can show off the spots on my tummy. I also like to trick people into feeding me at least five times per day. Sometimes I’ll just scream/meow and run around the house for no reason at all because I do what I please. Just living my best Bellaire baby cat life!

Got a cute critter? Email a picture of your pet with approximately 150 words to info@thebuzzmagazines.com or mail it to The Buzz Magazines, 5001 Bissonnet, Suite 100, Bellaire, Texas 77401.

Congratulations to our 2024 Pet of the Year Contest Winners

Congratulations to Lavish, The Buzz Magazines 2024 Pet of the Year! We’re hoppy to say that this little guy is the very first bunny to win first place in our Pet of the Year Contest – what a trailblazer!

The Buzz will make a donation in Lavish’s honor to Houston PetSet, a local nonprofit that works to end animal homelessness.

We’d also like to send many excited woofs to our second-place winner, Ruby Red, and our third-place winner, Lina.

Buzz readers cast nearly 67,000 votes in this year’s contest – although we only crown the top three winners, all our furry, feathered, and scaled friends are champions to us. We’re wishing every Buzz pet a year full of treats, belly scratches, and zoomies – happy 2025!

Jonathan Wolfe and 1st-place winner Lavish

“I would like to thank all of my loyal supporters and extended human family for voting right until the very end. As for me, I will keep doing what I do best…being adorable!” – Lavish (Dwarf Dutch Bunny)

Jessica Robicheaux and Zach Crow, their son Owen and 2nd-place winner Ruby Red

“Hi friends, Ruby Red here! Thank you so much for voting for me and helping me win second place in the Pet of the Year contest – I couldn’t have done it without your love and support! I’m so excited to explore more of my new neighborhood, and I hope to see you on my walks soon. With 364 days to train for Pet of the Year 2025, I won’t let you all down – let’s do this!”

– Ruby Red (Golden Retriever)

Mary Maxey and 3rd-place winner Lina

“I’m honored to be on the podium with Lavish and Ruby Red. My wish for 2025 is that all homeless animals find their forever homes!” – Lina (Lab Mix)

To have your pet considered for Neighborhood Tails in 2025, please submit a high-resolution photo and 150 words from your pet’s perspective to info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Pets who appear in Neighborhood Tails are automatically entered into our Pet of the Year Contest.

. by Angie Frederickson, staff writer

Buzz About Town

Stella’s sparkle squad

St. Thomas’ Episcopal School (STE) preschool students Emmie Boisaubin and Stella Trevino (pictured, from left) participated in the MD Anderson Boot Walk to End Cancer as members of the Stella's STE Sparkle Squad team. Along with nearly 70 other teammates, the girls walked 1.2 miles through the Texas Medical Center to raise funds for cancer research. Last summer, Stella was diagnosed with nephroblastoma, a rare, cancerous kidney tumor, and her school family wanted to do something to help. STE preschool director Vanessa Lopez and Emmie’s mom Amanda Boisaubin, STE communications manager, worked together to design and sell a team t-shirt made with Stella’s favorite colors, bright blue and pink. Emmie and Stella have been friends since they began STE together in the toddler class in 2022, and moms Amanda and Sarah have served as room moms together. STE families from many different grade levels joined the Sparkle Squad to show their support for Stella during her treatment.

Missing Pieces 5K for pregnancy loss

Missing Pieces Support Group co-founders Emily Gamboa and Jamilah Robinson (pictured, from

left) attended the nonprofit’s inaugural Life After Loss 5K Run/Walk at MacGregor Park. Missing Pieces supports families experiencing pregnancy loss, and the event raised awareness and funds in honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. Along with race committee members Skai Shadow and Ariana Ford and race ambassadors Weijiang Tang and Francis Leulliette, the co-founders started the morning with group stretching and Zumba, and then laced up their sneakers with other supporters who ran or walked in support. After crossing the finish line, participants enjoyed a live auction followed by the awards ceremony.

Texas crime stoppers

Gala co-chairs Michelle and Jonathan Zadok (pictured) helped raise more than $2 million to support Crime Stoppers of Houston. The Zadoks worked alongside fellow co-chairs Elizabeth McIngvale-Mackey and Matt Mackey and strategic chairs Vanessa Ames and Jordan Seff to put together Raise ’Em Up for Texas, the Texas-themed gala at The Revaire. More than 400 supporters, including elected officials and law enforcement, packed the ballroom to raise funds for Crime Stoppers’ Safe School Institute

to help keep kids safe in schools across the region. The evening started with words of welcome from media icon Dave Ward and Houston Mayor John Whitmire, and then Crime Stoppers CEO Rania Mankarious spoke about the organization’s work to keep kids safe at school. She also presented the inaugural McIngvale Family Humanitarian Award to The John M. O’Quinn Foundation, represented by board of trustees chairman Rob Wilson. At the end of the program, guests viewed a special video message from Oscar award-winning actor and Crime Stoppers friend Matthew McConaughey who congratulated the organization on its recent accomplishments.

A survivor by your side

Michael Wiesenthal and radio personality Sam Malone (pictured, from left) participated in CanCare’s 31st Annual Golf Classic event. Beyond the Tee raised more than $250,000 to fund the organization’s mission of supporting cancer patients by pairing them with a survivor to offer hope and assistance. Wiesenthal served as this year’s golf chair and shared his own journey with CanCare to fellow supporters on the course. After the round,

(continued on page 46)

Jacob Power

SiVo Photography

participants enjoyed the After Par-tee with a live auction led by Malone, silent auction, and raffle drawing. “We couldn’t have asked for a better day,” said Wiesenthal. “The support we received today helps ensure that CanCare can continue to provide critical emotional support to cancer patients and their loved ones. Every swing on the course made a difference in someone’s life.”

Junior gourd artist

Challenger Early High School freshman Brant Randle (pictured) earned the Best of Division (Category Y-4) award at the 29th Annual Lone Star Gourd Festival and Art Show in Dripping Springs, Texas. Brant is new to gourd artistry and his winning creation, “Turtle Flow,” was only the second gourd he has painted. This type of creativity has a dedicated family of artists, many of whom are members of the Texas Gourd Society, a nonprofit organization that promotes creating art from gourds and hosts annual competitions for the artists. Brant learned this unique skill from family friends and former neighbors Blanche and Roy Cavarretta who are now gourd artists with Gravel Road Arts in

Hallettsville, Texas. Art has always been a relaxing hobby for Brant and an enjoyable break from studying. Last year, he helped design and create a paper mâché entry for the 2024 Houston Art Car parade.

Birthday gals give back

Birthday gal Linda Mendeloff (pictured, center, with birthday hat) celebrated her 70th by organizing a volunteer event benefiting Second Servings of Houston. Second Servings retrieves unsold fresh foods from events and local grocery stores including Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods Market, Kroger, and Oak Farms Dairy and delivers to nonprofit organizations that feed people in need. The day was extra special because one of the volunteers, Linda’s mom and birthday twin Sylvia Schultz, was celebrating her 95th birthday. Linda sponsored a “pop-up grocery store” event at Julia C. Hester House in the Fifth Ward and joined her mom and 50 of her friends and other family members to unload and arrange more than $20,000 worth of perishable groceries to feed members of the community. Once the food was organized, the birthday ladies and the other volunteers assisted 150 shoppers as they made their selections from the donated food.

Twain fifth graders under the stars

The Mark Twain Elementary School Class of 2025 fifth graders (pictured) enjoyed a campout under the stars on the sports fields at Pershing Middle School. The annual event was a memorable way for students to celebrate their last year as Twain Tigers and make memories as they prepare to graduate from elementary school. Beloved former Twain teacher assistant Obinna Obichuku (aka Mr. Obi) led the students in an afternoon of fun and competitive games, followed by pizza and s’mores, a visit from principal Michele Rawson, and a movie and popcorn on the lawn. After a good night’s sleep, the fifth graders enjoyed fresh donuts and kolaches at sunrise.

Home safe home

supported Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse (AVDA) at the Home Safe Home gala. The event brought more than 270 guests to The Post Oak Hotel and raised a record-breaking $725,000 for survivors of domestic violence, including funding legal representation and trauma counseling. This year’s (continued on page 48)

Jordan Seff, Kristen Cannon, Vanessa Ames, and Courtney Harmon (pictured, from left)

Daniel Ortiz

event, chaired by Caroline and Matthew Monday and Julia and John Stallcup, began with a cocktail hour with live music. The highlight of the program was the presentation of the Heart of Houston Award to Mark Russell, former board chair and a current AVDA board member. Russell has been an advocate for domestic-abuse prevention after losing his niece to intimate partner violence in 2008. The program concluded with the house lights lowered and candles lit for all guests to “be the light” that brings domestic violence out of the shadows.

Beyond the classroom

Pin Oak Middle School’s eighth-grade students (pictured) recently traveled to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks for the annual field-study trip. The journey was led by Bellaire High School’s IB/AP Geography and Environmental Sciences teacher Ann Linsley, along with Pin Oak's Texas History teacher Shelly Hulbirt and World Cultures teacher Eric Meyer. Students spent five days exploring some of the country's greatest geological treasures, learning about human and physical geography, geology, ecology, and biology of the Yellowstone region while collecting data for a long-term study on local streams.

Helping hands

Two community-minded organizations came together to help Houston’s homeless commu-

nity. Led by students Michael Pandya, Jenny G-Young Park, and Patricia Hsing, the members of Cub Scouts Pack 130 and Horn Elementary School’s Helping Hands community service club (pictured) assembled 100 care packages for patients of Healthcare for the Homeless Houston (HHH). Each package was filled with essential daily supplies to help community members who receive free health services from HHH. The students gathered at Bellaire United Methodist Church to work

together, creating the care packages for HHH patients who are living on the streets or in shelters. In addition to the helpful hygiene and comfort supplies, each care package included a personalized card written by the young students to offer hope to the patients.

Be seen in Buzz About Town. Send your high-res photos and community news to info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Items are published on a space-available basis. Also share your upcoming-event listings on thebuzzmagazines.com.

. by Andria Dilling, staff writer

Back Porch

Thinking About a New Year: Pop culture insights

The start of a new year always has me thinking – about the ups and downs of the past year, and the challenges and opportunities of the coming year. What could I be doing that will make me feel more connected, more productive, more energetic, more grounded?

Maybe it’s just me, but the past couple of new year thresholds have felt rushed and reactive instead of anchored and reflective. Why that is, I can’t say. Maybe the whole world feels too chaotic, maybe it’s just my tiny part of it that seems to be spinning fast. Maybe I can take a little time this year to slow it down.

A few years ago – when we (thankfully) flipped from 2020 to 2021 – I was feeling inspired by Matthew McConaughey’s bestselling book Greenlights. In it, McConaughey writes that, many times, challenges and changes that we perceive as negatives eventually turn into blessings. It’s all, he says, “a matter of how we see the challenge in front of us and how we engage with it.” As the book’s name suggests, he writes about “greenlights,” the little signs that show themselves daily, moving us to act. “We sometimes miss the greenlights around us,” he explained on an episode of Jay Shetty’s podcast “On Purpose.” “They’re there. Are we in a place to receive them? Are we in a place to be patient enough to…see why they came to us? Then, are we courageous enough to act on them?”

Which brings us to the flip from 2024 to 2025, when we see the beloved cookbook author Ina Garten’s smile and story seemingly everywhere as she promotes her own bestseller Be Ready When the Luck Happens. And that’s what has me – and so many others – thinking in this moment.

Named a Best Book of the Year many times over, Be Ready When the Luck Happens at first feels like an easy, happy read about the life of America’s favorite warm and ever-engaging cooking show host. In fact, in the midst of election turmoil last fall, a group of friends and I began reading (and listening to) it as our first book on our “only happy things” list. But it’s more than that. It’s a book about careers, and how Ina left a White House job and pivoted 180 degrees when she bought a specialty food store

with zero experience. It’s about business, and the ways she likes to negotiate by leaving something on the table, so that everyone feels like they win. And it’s a book about working hard, in order to be prepared for whatever opportunities arise. Even when you have no clue what they might turn out to be.

Ina writes, “Sometimes it’s important to control things, but sometimes the opposite is true – you have to be open and let the universe reveal itself. My favorite example of this is how Steve Jobs reserved a blank space on the iPhone for apps before he had any idea what they would be or how people would use them.”

As we begin a new year, I wonder if an extended moment of stillness –something I know I haven’t created for myself in a long time – could set us on the path of noticing the greenlights, as Matthew McConaughey would say, and being ready to take action when they pop up.

for a new year, she shared a quote she loves from the 2011 movie New Year’s Eve:

“If I could go back and tell my thirty-year-old self one thing,” Ina writes, “it would be this: it’s those risks you take, and the courage you have to take them, that will be the making of your life.” This is the most recent on the list of many life-lesson quotes I’ve shared with my youngadult daughters, usually to be met with eye rolls. But at any age, can’t we still be making choices that make our lives?

As I visited with a friend about all of these swirling thoughts, and we talked about prepping

Before we pop the champagne and celebrate the new year…stop and reflect on the year that’s gone by…Remember both our triumphs and our missteps, our promises made and broken, the times we opened ourselves up to great adventures, or closed ourselves down for fear of getting hurt. Because that’s what a new year is all about. Getting another chance, a chance to forgive, to do better, to do more, to give more, to love more, and to stop worrying about ‘what if,’ and start embracing what will be.

So much to consider, and also to celebrate. Cheers to 2025 and what will be.

READY, SET, GO A new year brings new opportunities, new choices, and new chances.