The West University Buzz - May 2022

Stuart amd Anne Coco

Gardento-Table Making Birthdays Sweeter Setting Sail

Wit and Wickets

Sunday Morning Breakfast

by Cathy Gordon

Ice Houses and Beer Gardens College Pickup: Embrace the Mess Tied to Bow Ties Mother’s Day: What Moms Really Want

Houston, TX

Voyage to Antarctica

Permit No. 2047 PAID US Postage PRSRT STD

Traveling with Baby

PUBLISHER’S NOTE As we were heading to our photo shoot for Cathy Gordon’s story on local croquet players, I admit my first thought was that of stuffy Hampton-esque types named Biff and Buffy. Instead, I found a group of colorful, relatable characters with a Cheers-like camaraderie, constantly kidding each other and cracking jokes about each other’s playing ability, the plethora of back and knee injuries, and of course, age.

Croquet’s appeal may skew towards weekend warriors who are no longer in peak physical condition, but whose minds are still sharp-as-a tack, or wicket in this case. While less physically demanding than most sports, croquet is equally, if not more, demanding strategically. Club member ages range from mid-30s to 90s, so I’m right in the sweet spot. Could this be my sport? I’m also intrigued by Cindy Gabriel’s story on Dr. Ben Portnoy, whose retirement also includes that of his beloved collection of more than 250 bow ties. I’ve worn bow ties throughout my life and each time I attempt to tie one, it’s like Groundhog Day. Perhaps I should master tying the bow tie before I embarrass myself publicly at croquet? michael@thebuzzmagazines.com

THE BUZZ MAGAZINES BELLAIRE • WEST UNIVERSITY • MEMORIAL • TANGLEWOOD/RIVER OAKS Published by Hoffman Marketing & Media, LLC 5001 Bissonnet, Suite 100, Bellaire, Texas 77401 info@thebuzzmagazines.com • p: 713.668.4157 • f: 713.665.2940 Follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter thebuzzmagazines.com Editor Publisher Associate Editor Editorial Assistant Design Manager Staff Writers

Contributing Writers Account Managers

Joni Hoffman Michael Hoffman Jordan Magaziner Steinfeld Caroline Siegfried John Duboise Tracy L. Barnett Sharon Albert Brier Cindy Burnett Andria Frankfort Angie Frederickson Todd Freed Cindy Gabriel Cathy Gordon Michelle Groogan Dai Huynh Annie Blaylock McQueen Jennifer Oakley Pooja Salhotra Cheryl Ursin Claudia Feldman Andrea Blitzer Leslie Little Jo Rogers

On our cover: Anne Coco, a master tactician at the sport of croquet, relishes time on the court with husband Stuart.

Cover photo by Dylan Aguilar 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 © 2022 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.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 4

Your smile can last forever

Anna Maria Salas, D.D.S., M.S. Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics

3642 University Blvd., Suite 102 Houston, TX 77005 www.westuortho.com 713-481-4885 WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 5

MAILBAG

Your letters, thoughts, opinions From the filmmaker and grandson The piece [Naomi at 100: Champagne and kazoos by Cheryl Ursin, March 2022] is really lovely, Cheryl. Thanks for stitching her life [Naomi Friedman] together into a cohesive tale. There’s so many stories in her life, I didn’t even attempt to approach her past in my film . . . well, I tried in [the] interview and then just left it on the cutting room floor to focus on the present.

Michael Koshkin Editor’s note: Michael Koshkin’s award-winning short film, “Ode to Joy,” features Naomi and her kazoo band. See thebuzzmagazines.com to read about Naomi and watch Michael’s film.

15 minutes of fame at 100 Cheryl Ursin did a wonderful job capturing my personality. Never would I have imagined being featured in a magazine, at any age. I am indebted to Cheryl for her effervescent article and to Nikky LaWell for the great photography.

Naomi Friedman

Inspirational centenarian I lead art history discussions at several senior communities around Houston and have had the privilege of Naomi Friedman being one of my regular “senior peeps.” She is quick, bright, and an inspiration with her great attitude and interesting perspectives.

Thank you so much for highlighting this amazing senior citizen.

Hopefully this article helps folks realize how much our older population can contribute to our lives!

Wendy Adler

A special story We wanted to thank The Buzz for writing Our Brother Jake: Siblings helping siblings [by Michelle Groogan, April 2022]. It really captured our message and goals. The article has helped us gain opportunities and raise awareness for our nonprofit, Special Siblings Connect, and its book, By Siblings, For Siblings. It also meant a lot to us personally. We’ve had many neighbors and friends reach out to support us after reading the article. You share so many wonderful stories about Houston, and we’re glad to have been one.

Nicole and Natalie Hampton

On the pickleball court Just a little shout out from the pickleball story in last month’s issue [A Big Dill: Pickleball is on the rise by Jennifer Oakley, April 2022]. Several people have reached out to me at the Bellaire Recreation Center and are glad to see me playing again. After a group lesson there, my confidence has increased, and I’ve been trying to follow my own advice for injury avoidance. So far so good!

Dr. Barry Zietz WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 6

Crawfish fans Andria, I love the crawfish boil article [Crawfish Boils: Bringing the party to Houston by Andria Frankfort, April 2022]! You really captured the spirit of our crawfish boil and Becky’s [Eisenberg]. My phone has blown up from people telling me how much they enjoyed your article. Everyone I know is now asking for an invitation to our annual boil! Thank you!

Laura Favaloro

Disconnecting to connect Thank you so much for sharing the family adventure story, “Unplugged at a West Texas ranch” [Travel Buzz by Tracy L. Barnett, March 2022].

For several decades now, guests have visited Chandler Ranch to enjoy the great outdoors and excellent hospitality, but today the experience is more meaningful than ever as people need that time to reconnect with their families. Our fast-paced world makes that such a challenge.

Nan Chandler Send letters to info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Please include your name, address, phone number and email address for verification purposes. Letters are subject to editing for clarity and space. 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.

What’s your story?

We are looking for residents for upcoming articles who: • Know a Buzzworthy neighbor to feature.

• Have a unique hobby.

• Have a compelling travel tale.

• Have special summertime traditions.

• Have a sweet multi-generational story.

If this sounds like you or someone you know, please contact us at info@thebuzzmagazines.com or 713.668.4157, ext 12.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 7

Jasim @ Snappr

DINING

by Dai Huynh, staff writer

Ice-cold Beer Quenching a thirst at beer gardens and ice houses

T

here is an old Celtic saying: Good people drink good beer. Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson made this adage famous, and today, it’s a popular quip among beer fans at the bevy of suds-centric establishments around town, from taprooms and sports bars to pubs and breweries. However, we are showcasing beer gardens and the modern ice house-beer garden hybrid for brevity’s sake.

Ice houses and beer gardens are open-air communal concepts that serve beer. But traditionally, ice houses are scruffy one-room watering holes sans the grassy backyard, food, and lawn games typical of beer gardens.

Inspired by their 19th-century predecessors, beer gardens often are named using some variation of the classic German biergarten, but these days, this isn’t always the case. Instead, many Texas operators have married the best parts of a beer garden and an ice house. Take Kirby Ice House, with its one-acre backyard and hip patio furniture.

Traditionally, ice houses are bare-bones, slightly ramshackle hangouts. One of Houston’s most iconic watering holes is West Alabama Ice House. It opened in 1928 as an ice house, selling ice blocks for home refrigerators. Soon, ice took a backseat to ice-cold beer. West Alabama and other ice houses are a Texas phenomenon.

The Lone Star State can also lay claim to the oldest beer garden in the country, Scholz Garten in Austin, which opened in 1866.

Unlike ice houses’ rough-and-tumble settings, beer gardens are often verdant expanses.

During the Gilded Age, Czech and German immigrants introduced the beer garden to Americans. The “biergarten” concept originated to circumvent a local law in Germany forbidding beer production during the summer because of fire hazards. Thus, breweries planted gardens above cellars in Bavaria to keep lagers cool enough to store and ferment underground.

Some realized they could use these outdoor spaces to serve beer and food.

Beer gardens differ from dark, intimate pubs, taprooms, and bars because of their sunny surroundings, grassy knolls, trees, backyard games, and communal seating. But what they all have in common is beer, which is among the five WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 8

most consumed beverages in the United States. The No. 1 thirstquencher is bottled water, followed by carbonated drinks, tap water, coffee, and beer.

Beer, however, is consumed more than milk, tea, and sports drinks, and it is way ahead of wine and spirits.

According to research FUN AND FUNDRAISING Memorial Trail Ice House was the setting for a and marketing firm recent crawfish boil benefiting the Nick Finnegan Counseling Center. Houston Statista, wine and spirits native John Shaeffer opened 5,000-square-foot Memorial Trail Ice House in the historic 1930s Juergen Family General Store building and expanded the space hold 2.3 percent of the with a half-acre outdoor patio.

U.S market, while beer on an onion-thyme bun with a bacon-porkboasts 10 percent. venison patty, fried onion strings, American Many Houstonians prefer to sip their lagers cheese, and jalapeño ranch. Sprawling pecan and ales – the two classifications for beer – in trees provide ample shade for visitors comopen-air spaces. Just ask the patrons at recentmuning around weathered picnic tables. Rose ly-launched Terminus beer garden at the bushes and vegetable-and-herb plots line the Railway Heights Market food hall (8200 acreage adjacent to a statuesque Victorian Washington Ave.), Heights Bier Garten (1433 manor. Some of the herbs are used in the brewN. Shepherd Dr.), and King’s BierHaus (2044 ing process. This six-year-old brewery produces E. TC Jester Blvd. and 828 W. FM 646, League diverse styles, from cream ale to bock.

City). Here are a few other beer gardens and ice East End Backyard (1105 Sampson St.). house-beer garden hybrids to explore: After the success of Pitch 25 (a beer garden and Axelrad Beer Garden (1517 Alabama St.). soccer bar), former Houston Dynamo Brian Monday is movie night, and afterward, around Ching decided to open this 20,000-square-foot 8 p.m., a free comedy show starts at this happyspace surrounded by colorful murals. A rotating go-lucky beer garden in the shadow of downlineup of one to three food trucks offers bites town. That’s just the start. Axelrad is an daily. The bar boasts about 25 beers on tap, event-driven venue, from live music to tango including selections from Southern Star Brewing lessons. It just depends. You can take it all in Company, Saloon Door, Karbach Brewing from a colorful hammock or patio chair in the Company, Saint Arnold, and 8th Wonder. At back of this century-old, restored grocery store the center is a 1930s Tiffany-blue bungalow, that belonged to the Axelrad family in the refitted into a bar with a granite countertop and early 1920s. Axelrad has about 30 beers on high-tops made from recycled antique bicycles. tap. A food truck or pop-up always is around Outdoors, customers and their pooches lounge to fill empty bellies. Patrons also go to Luigi’s around on brightly-hued hammock weave patio Pizzeria next door. chairs and porch swings beside picnic tables. A City Acre Brewing Co. (3418 Topping St.).

3,500-square-foot dog park is booked frequently Kegs and eggs, anyone? Egg sandwiches, sourfor canine birthday parties. dough French toast, and fried chicken and wafKarbach Brewing Co. (2032 Karbach St.). fles highlight weekend brunch. However, this When you create a beer in honor of Rockets baschill beer garden is famous for its pulled pork ketball, you must step up to (continued on page 10) and queso tater tots and Urban Cowboy burger

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Dai Huynh

Michael Anthony

Leo Spin Photos Saint Arnold Brewing Co.

HAVE A PINT Craft beers rule the day at (pictured, clockwise, from top left) Railway Heights Market's Terminus beer garden; Patterson Park Patio Bar; Lazy Oaks Beer Garden; and Saint Arnold Brewing Company. (continued from page 8) the line, and Karbach’s

Clutch City Lager is a three-pointer, with its crisp, citrusy zing. It pairs perfectly with spicy foods, like Karbach’s crispy, sweet, and tangy Korean fried chicken layered over fresh red chiles, carrots, red onions, and avocado over white rice. The restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating, but you’ll want to make a reservation for outside on breezy afternoons. The hightop tables overlook bocce courts and lush landscaping, so they go fast. But that’s OK. Get food to go and turn the corner to find plenty of room at the beer garden that accommodates up to 2,000 people.

Kirby Ice House (3333 Eastside St. and 1015 Gessner Rd.). Get here early, especially on Friday and Saturday evenings, because the crowds converge on these two ice houses with vast backyards. The two locations attract about 5,000 people a week, according to the website.

On one recent Saturday, parents and their kids swarmed the one-acre backyard at the Kirby location, and a passerby could hear their laughter a block away. It offers about 50 beers on tap, while the Memorial site has 60. Both emphasize Texas brews. Usually, one or two food trucks are on-site at the Kirby location. You can find out who is cooking on Kirby’s website, or if you’re at the Gessner location, stroll over to Torchy’s Tacos.

Lazy Oaks Beer Garden (10158 Long Point Rd). At night, lights twinkle above the fenced WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 10

patio and lawn at Lazy Oaks in Spring Branch.

The crowd, like the beer garden, is easy-going and relaxed. Conversations are low and respectful, allowing folks to enjoy a women’s basketball game on two large TVs. Inside, a couple happily chomp on juicy burgers and homemade onion rings coated with a crispy batter spiked with Funyuns (which makes all the difference).

About 20-plus beers on draft accompany the full menu of A-plus sandwiches, salads, and fried chicken wings.

Memorial Trail Ice House (6202 Washington Ave.). This open-air bar boasts a 20,000-square-foot dog park in the Rice Military area. Meanwhile, the owners are busy playing lawn games. The ice house has 20 beers on tap, plus wine, cocktails, and pop-up Heavy Weight Tacos provides the vittles.

Patterson Park Patio Bar (2205 Patterson St.). The three-level “treehouse” concept recently opened across lush woods and mature oak trees. This is a family affair with restaurant veterans Lonnie and Candice Schiller teaming up with their daughter, Caroline, and husband, Brendan Murphy, to create a woodland oasis anchored by a 5,000-square-foot patio overlooking White Oak Bayou. The dog-friendly deck and indoor lounge are accessorized with 40-plus oversized TVs, colorful artwork, and board-andarcade games. Offerings from various food trucks complement cocktails and brews on tap.

Post Oak Ice House (5610 Richmond Ave.).

At this 12,500-square-foot neighborhood hangout, patrons play cornhole and other lawn games in between sips. About 15-plus beers are on draft, plus more than 35 canned options.

Rotating food trucks serve this crowd, but Wednesday is always steak night.

Social Beer Garden HTX (3101 San Jacinto St.). The beer list features 40 taps, including Eureka Heights, 11 Below, and Buffalo Bayou.

Food trucks, from barbecue to vegan, serve the Midtown crowd. People weave in and out of the two-story building loaded with arcade games, dartboards, and billiard tables. Hammocks, picnic tables, and Adirondack-style chairs frame a green turf outside.

Saint Arnold Brewing Company (2000 Lyons Ave.). This massive beer garden attracts thousands of visitors weekly and worldwide. In 2018, founder Brock Wagner opened the indoor-outdoor beer garden, and this quintessential modern take on the beer garden hasn’t missed a beat. The open-air metal building frame affords a panoramic view of the surroundings. Imagine taking in the view of the downtown skyline as the sun sets while eating a coalfired pizza or homemade amber-ale bratwurst on soft pretzel bread while sipping Saint Arnold Summer Pils, with its delicate, sweet maltiness.

Life is beer-perfect.

Editor’s note: See this story at thebuzzmagazines.com for links to these local beer gardens and ice houses.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 11

NEIGHBORS

by Cindy Gabriel, staff writer

Bow Ties Retired doc still keeps old ties

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 12

Aimee McCrory

D

espite his Harvard/Johns Hopkins education, Dr. Ben Portnoy is anything but stuffy. In his waiting room sat a sign, pointing to his portrait. “Would you buy a used car from this guy?” Among the patient “giveaways” were black matchbooks that read “Keep smoking, it’s good for business.” Inside his own office, pigs – plastic, glass, stuffed, large, small – covered his desk and floor.

Before Ben became my primary-care physician, he, wife Cookie, and their three daughters were my next-door neighbors. Sadly, with his retirement in 2020 came the retirement of his bow tie collection. Gladly, among his many talents, Ben is a storyteller, who now has more time to commit some to paper. In this column, I want to share his thoughts on bow ties, but I wouldn’t be able to say it better than Ben himself.

By the way, I showed my ignorance by asking Ben the definition of a four in hand tie as referenced below, suspecting I was setting myself up for some delightfully twisted response. What sartorial ignorance!

For those sartorially ignorant like me, it’s just the standard long tie. I had to look up sartorial too. You’re on your own on that one. Here’s Ben. Everyone has their own style, I suppose. Most people probably are not aware of their style and simply dress in a way that reflects the current fashion.

You do not see many men now wearing bowler hats.

It would be odd for a woman to go to a party wearing a hoop skirt, unless, of course, it was a Halloween party. We just deck ourselves out in a way that looks about right. I mostly fall into that category, but there is one exception – bow ties.

Ties are an item of clothing that appear to be going out of fashion. In hospitals, long before Covid struck, it was decreed that ties should not be worn.

The fear was that the four in hand tie would dangle freely from the doctor’s neck, touch a patient, and become contaminated. Then it would serve as a vehicle to spread infection. So, male doctors quickly shed their ties.

Among men in other professions, I note that ties are also disappearing. On television, it is not odd to see a reporter or talking head with an open collar shirt.

I have always favored bow ties and wore a bow tie daily. Bow ties are a bit sassy I think, and that is

RETIREMENT DILEMMA Dr. Ben Portnoy ponders the future of his bow ties.

what has appealed to me. Over the years, I have bought many bow ties and have been gifted a fair number. I now have about 250 bow ties hanging uselessly in my closet. It is painful that after retiring I no longer wear a different tie each day. Formal events are now rare due to Covid, and, even at those rare formal events, I note that open collars are more in style. Does one wear a bow tie to the opera, to the theater, out to dinner, or to the synagogue? No one says that I shouldn’t wear a bow tie to these places, and a tie is generally tolerated, but it feels funny if no other man is similarly dressed.

I am 77 years old now, and, inevitably, at this point in life one thinks about death. Questions like how long I will live, how I will die, and have I done all I want in life come up. But I barely pay attention to these questions. Whatever will happen will inevitably happen. But I do think about my ties.

Should I pick out one to be tied around my neck after I am dead? No, that doesn’t work either. We Jews are buried in a plain shroud, and traditionally coffins are not open for viewing. So, there’s no use for a bow tie in this circumstance.

Oh, the troubles one faces in this life! Decisions are often hard to make, and what to do with my bow

ties is certainly one of the most difficult. I will face this with my usual solution . . . procrastinate. The bow ties will remain hanging in my closet, and I will visit them there. Even not tied around my neck, these old friends make me happy.

What? Ben feels funny being the only one in a bow tie? Ben – who shows up for Christmas parties in a red and green yarmulke? At Halloween – the meat cleaver through his head?

As an Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease doctor, something about the bow ties, pigs, and funny matchbooks brought levity to those facing serious health issues. Ben was among the first doctors to treat Houston’s earliest AIDS patients.

In 2009, I mentioned to Dr. Portnoy that I noticed I was walking slower and that I couldn’t ride a bike anymore. An MRI revealed a brain tumor the size of my fist, a benign meningioma, followed by a 10-hour brain surgery by Dr. David Baskin at Methodist Hospital. Dr. Portnoy’s frequent visits to my nervous waiting family in bow tie and jacket were a great comfort, my father said.

“You’ll be fine,” Dr. Portnoy reassured me before the surgery. He was right.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 13

NEIGHBORS

by Andria Frankfort, staff writer

Dorm Rooms Beginnings and endings

H

ere we are again with these darn endings. I know – endings make way for beginnings. That doesn’t mean I need to be graceful about them.

Three years ago, I wrote about picking my first child up after her freshman year at college.

What I realized then was that I hadn’t considered the end when we were anxiously beginning.

(Not quite as bad as my sister-in-law who wanted to put an ad out for her daughter, heading to college in August, reading, “My mom and I are looking for a roommate…” But close.)

As a first-time college mom, I had never experienced a full nine months away from my daughter. I was sure I hadn’t finished teaching her everything she needed to know to survive.

It was so much easier to make the dermatologist appointments, dry cleaning runs, and daily lists myself, even after my daughter was old enough to do these things and so much more. I couldn’t imagine my little person living hundreds of miles away, with strangers, in a strange room.

This wasn’t summer camp – nobody would make her wash her sheets at least once a semester.

This time, it wasn’t going to be funny when I picked her up and the little dove was still crisply embossed in the bar of soap.

So I did the only thing I knew: I stocked that dorm room. Just like when I was eight and a half months pregnant, when I bought every brand of diaper (who knew which one would fit best?), all the bottles, all the fuzzy animals. Like a person going into hibernation. I never programmed that the stores would still be open, just around the corner, once the baby came.

As a freshman mom, I never programmed that stores exist in college towns. I never pictured my daughter, then 18, driving her car to one of them. Because my head was so full of monogrammed towels, first aid boxes, sheet sets, headboards, extension cords, desk lamps. Babies R Us had nothing on Bed Bath & Beyond’s college checklist.

Nine months later, my freshman was ready to come home. My daughter had washed her sheets, and if she didn’t do it as often as I would have liked, well, she still made it through freshman year. I had long forgotten about the BB&B WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 14

DORM ROOM TRUTH Their room was in perfect shape on move-in day. Bottom left: A perfect desk set to begin college at move-in. Bottom right: What the author faced the night before moving her daughter out, nine months later.

checklist, all the things I so furiously (lovingly) stashed in her room. Until pick-up day.

Nobody could have prepared me for what I walked into the Friday evening I went to pick my daughter up at school. It was around 6 p.m.; we had to check out of the dorm at noon the next day. But when I walked into the room, the one I had pieced together so perfectly, I saw: half-drunk water bottles, various dispensers of Carmex, piles of clothes that should have been hung up, pictures and trinkets still on shelves and…my favorite, a karaoke microphone buried in the unmade bed. Right next to the Mardi Gras beads, also in the bed. The other half of this tiny room was fairly well organized and boxed up, this being because my daughter’s roommate’s father told her if she wasn’t packed by the time he arrived Saturday morning, he wasn’t paying for next year’s football tickets.

Now I know better.

I also know this: all that mostly unused stuff was nothing more than my attempt to set my

child up as best I could. It was the only control I had over the next nine months.

In the end, we gave so much of that stuff to the staff (hopefully they’re still enjoying their brandnew microwave and the lovely faux hydrangeas), and added a lot of it to a giant pile of donations in the dorm’s lobby. All was not lost – I had my daughter for the summer!

This time, as this freshman year ends, I like to think I’m wiser. I didn’t leave this daughter’s dorm room quite as packed with periphery as I did her sister’s, and I’m thinking about using next year’s football tickets as a bribe/threat for her to be semi-packed when I come to bring her home.

Also, this time I don’t think I’ll mind as much if I have some heavy work ahead as we move out of the dorm room. Now it’s the end of my youngest child’s freshman year, the last of our dorm room endings. Thank goodness bright beginnings are on the horizon. I’ll just be taking a little extra pause to appreciate the ending this time.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 15

FOOD

by Claudia Feldman, contributing writer

Sunday Morning Breakfast Family dishes up eggs, bacon, and tradition

T

he other day I asked my kids what they most remember about Sunday morning breakfast, a family tradition we oldsters have celebrated for almost 50 years.

“There’s so much to say and so little,” said Manda, the 33-year-old who lives in New York.

“It’s so simple.”

Set the table. Make bacon, eggs, and coffee.

Love the folks (family and as-good-as-family) who haul themselves out of bed and show up.

That’s it.

And yet, it’s an oddly complicated and emotional ritual. We could tell the history of our multi-cultural family in Sunday morning breakfast episodes. The births and deaths. The weddings and babies. The laughter and tears, too.

Once, Mom cried because everybody was savoring the details of the most recent Thanksgiving dinner, and she couldn’t remember any of it. Her mind was sharp but her memory, Swiss cheese.

There were other teary breakfasts that Manda started to tick off but stopped.

Remember the one and only unbreakable rule at SMB, Manda said. What happens at Sunday morning breakfast stays at Sunday morning breakfast.

We joke about the invisible Cone of Silence that hovers over the dining room table - except we mean it.

After Manda, I talked to Sam, the 36-yearold who also lives in New York. What did he remember about SMB? During Sam’s childhood, his grandmother and grandfather hosted the weekend breakfasts.

Then his grandpa passed away. And his grandma struggled to keep up the tradition. One Sunday morning she asked Sam to distribute the eggs she’d just scrambled. The skillet was too heavy for her to lift. Even her coffee cup was too heavy for her to lift.

Seemingly calm, Sam divvied up the eggs.

T

he tradition started in the mid-1970s, when my brother, sister, and I were graduating from college and setting up apartments. Mom and Dad still wanted to see us on a regular basis.

Voila, Sunday morning breakfast.

While they cooked, our job was to slide into

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 16

our chairs at 9 a.m. sharp, regardless of any hijinks that might have occurred the night before.

Talk at the table revolved around new jobs and new work friends, some of whom became favorites around the breakfast table.

Boyfriends, they were a different story.

Once my dad told me: “Claud, I’m not going to like any boy you bring home.”

And, the feeling was mutual. My folks were old school. What guy would want to show up at any parental house at 9 a.m. on a Sunday?

I married the THE ESSENTIALS Sunday morning breakfast hosts Claudia Feldman and husband Don one who did.

Mason offer up coffee and bacon.

It’s a constant, “I will take appropriate action,” Dad said.

Manda says of SMB. “Continuity.”

They went to get ice cream.

But the kids didn’t always get off so lightly. hen our kids were little and bringing There was a seventh-grade year when one young friends to SMB, that was a sweet spot. teen in particular was usually grounded. But as My parents could still lift skillets and hear the she and her cousins knew, the thought of having conversation – often, multiple conversations at youthful transgressions discussed around the once. The sandwich generation seemed stable breakfast table – with grandparents listening and happy, and the kids were joy. closely – was incentive to behave.

Sure, they got in trouble sometimes. Once Sam During those years we had our share of health mooned his pals at summer camp. Even though catastrophes and that many SMBs at nearby his little rump was covered by underpants, the hospital cafeterias. camp director still wanted to talk to Grandpa.

It was healing for the patient, we all thought.

(Yes, we were working parents, and the senior And it gave Dad the chance to pound home one set frequently picked up an assortment of grandof his favorite theories: children at the end of the camp day.)

It’s not what lays you low. What counts is your Dad listened as the director ticked off Sam’s sins.

W

SAY CREAM CHEESE! Left: The breakfast crowd sits for an automated self-portrait – along with visiting dog, Juneau, who since has found a permanent home. Front row, from left: Allie Caruso, Gabbi Feldman, Suzanne Ludlow, Mesie Black; back row, from left: Andrea Farrar and husband Reji Farrar, Claudia Feldman and husband Don Mason, Helena Cheng, Charmaine Jackson Feldman, and husband Dave Feldman. Right: Raising a java toast at Sunday breakfast are (from left), Reji Farrar, Andrea Farrar, Suzanne Ludlow, Dave Feldman, and Helena Cheng.

recovery.

SMB changed again as the four Houston cousins and their friends graduated from high school, college and established outposts of their own. Unfortunately, they lived too far away to be lured home with the promise of coffee and a bagel.

N

ot long after Dad died, we shifted SMB to our house.

Mason, my husband, was already making the bacon because Mom didn’t like to get the stove dirty. Brother Dave was cooking, too. The path to Mom’s heart was grilled chicken, so he grilled chicken. Lots of it.

Mom had Parkinson’s, and at the end, she often fell while she was trying to stand. So SMB came to her, and we took charge of the kitchen.

We knew things were awful when she told us one morning not to worry about the Thanksgiving turkey; she’d already bought it.

I peeked in the refrigerator.

No turkey.

Mom was gone within the week.

That was September 2015. By then my sister was a long-time Ohio resident, and masterminding SMB fell to Dave, me, and our significant others. Our numbers shriveled, but we carried on. Then Covid struck, and the vaccines were

still beyond reach.

We tried to save SMB by moving it outdoors.

Finally, the sun was too hot and the health risks too great.

Like families everywhere, we were split up by a worldwide pandemic.

Temporarily.

T

oday, we’re back together and attendance is up. The leaf is permanently installed in the dining room table, and we often cook for nine or 10 or more if there are special guests.

Only one member of the youngest generation has returned to Houston and the SMB roost – my niece Gabbi. But friends and neighbors-whohave-become-family help fill in the empty spots.

They bring homemade bread, sausages, bagels, energy and enthusiasm.

As always, we talk about everything and nothing. Football. Politics. Work. Kids. Dave and I tend to tell rambling stories seemingly without a point or an ending. But, just the other day, he told a yarn so sweet and compelling that he actually got a standing ovation. Yes, at breakfast.

These days we are all colors, a melting pot, a blend of beliefs. Also we are business folk, medical folk (I overheard this sentence floating in the air last Sunday: “I told her Botox was not an

emergency!”), tradespeople, retirees, and a lawyer, again dear Gabbi. At 28, she is the youngest of the cousins and decades younger than everybody else at the table.

When she was a little girl, Sunday mornings included dessert, and it was Gabbi’s job to slip into the kitchen with her grandmother and bring out the sweets with a flourish.

These days Gabbi still has a special role.

She’s the hippest, the fastest, the best debater.

Advice from Gabbi you can take to the bank.

The other day, I asked her in so many words – do you still like to come? I worried until I got her eloquent text.

The short answer: Yes. The tradition, routine, and stability mean more to her than ever. She understands that the SMB crowd would do anything to help her – any time, for any reason.

Gabbi described SMB this way: “It’s a living organism that expands and contracts and re-organizes itself to make sure everyone in attendance has a place to sit and to share and to listen. A recognition and preservation of the idea that fellowship need not take itself too seriously in order to be essential and influential in one’s life.

“Also the bacon is made in the oven, as God intended.”

Oven-Baked Bacon

by Don Mason I had always prepared bacon in a frying pan on the stove top until a few years ago when my son mentioned that one of his colleagues recommended the oven. A quick online search produced numerous raves about cooking bacon that way, and it turned out that method is preferable.

The bacon cooks evenly to the crispness you desire. It doesn’t splatter grease from the pan all over the stove. It frees you from constantly tend-

ing the skillet. And it allows you to cook more bacon at a time.

Most of the online directions I found are about the same as mine: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spread the bacon slices in a single layer on parchment paper or foil in a suitable pan. (I use a 12by-18-inch roasting pan inherited from my mother, which enhances the historical family vibe.) Put it on the lowest oven rack for 15-20 minutes.

The Sunday morning breakfast crowd likes crunch so I usually crank the oven to broil for the last minute, keeping a close eye on it to avoid burning. When the meat matches your style, drain it on a plate covered with a paper towel, transfer it to a clean plate, and prepare for the plaudits.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 17

John Craddock

SPORTS

by Cathy Gordon, staff writer

No Rest for the Wicket Competitive croquet takes strategy

P

laying tennis two days straight, match after match, takes its toll. John Brown’s knee was paying the price in stiffness and crunching pain.

“I could barely walk, my knee was so swollen,” recalls John of the errant hinge that buckled at the most inopportune times, thanks to a decadesold lacrosse injury. So, as he hobbled away from the Bayou Bowl tennis tournament here in May 2011 – a Bayou Club annual event – his wife, Georgia, suggested a sports alternative.

There, on a court of well-shorn grass in Memorial Park was a smattering of people, dressed in brilliant white, sending balls through staked wickets with a whack of a mallet. The Bayou Bowl also included competitive croquet.

Doesn’t it look fun, she offered?

“If you ever catch me on a croquet court, I’ll have to leave you. That’s the most emasculating, unathletic thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” John deadpanned. “Don’t ever suggest it again.”

A few months passed and Sweet Georgia Brown, as he affectionately calls his betrothed, suggested they attend an exhibition game at the Bayou Club during its annual Croquet Week.

“His knees were just so bad. I thought, ‘Come on, already! This could be a fun sport!’” recalls the avid equestrian, determined to lead this horse to water. But would he drink?

They went to the Friday night match that October. John sat, riveted, his former image of croquet dissolving with the setting sun. “He’d viewed it as an old person’s sport. The sport of last resort,” quips Georgia. “By the time we left, he was hooked.”

She signed him up for the member-only club’s weekend tournament.

Typically, players take lessons from the club’s visiting pro the week leading up to the tournament. John took no such lessons, receiving a few tips from the instructor an hour before competition. He was paired with a different doubles partner for each match, experienced teammates who taught him the rules along the way. He won all his matches. And was named Player of the Weekend.

“Croquet? He crashed right through the gate and out the back fence,” Georgia says of his unexpected obsession for the sport. “And he’s WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 18

still going.”

C

ompetitive croquet. It’s not that anything-goes childhood game where players gleefully ignored rules, whacking opponents’ balls into the hedges. Players spent most of their time wrestling the nine flimsy coat hanger-like hoops that refused to stay staked to the ground. It was a fun backyard romp, little DAPPER DUO John Brown (right) and doubles partner Bob Pulitzer (left) placed second in the doubles championship at the 2022 Mission Hills Invitational, in Palm thought to strategy.

Springs, Calif. The pair won the 2021 USCA Club Teams Championship, making No, this is mega-cere- them the top duo in the country that year. bral and structured Croquet Association is a member club of the American Rules six-wicket croquet, a calculated USCA and plays on the croquet lawns in sport of smarts, skill, and timing, with a series of Memorial Park. strategically placed, immovable, narrow steel Tournaments are divided into flights, with each wickets barely wide enough to get a ball flight containing a reasonable number of players through. It’s played on a regulation size court. of approximately the same ability. For example: Two forms of the game, association croquet and third, second, first, and championship flight. golf croquet, have rules that are agreed upon It’s a healthy mix of camaraderie, strategy, internationally and are played in many countries and outdoor fun. And you better bring your A around the world. The United States has its own game, says John, named Rookie of the Year by set of rules for domestic games. the USCA in 2012, just months after his introThe sport is played between two sides – the duction to the sport. blue and black balls versus the red and yellow “Boy, was my initial idea about croquet balls. In singles, each competitor plays two balls; wrong,” admits the championship-flight player in doubles, each player plays the same ball and newly elected president of the 95-member throughout the game. The object of the game is Houston Croquet Association. His unabashed to maneuver the balls through the course of wickenthusiasm has served him well. He practices – ets in both directions, and into the center stake. a lot – and has the trophies to show for it.

Played by young and old alike, the sport is Among some of his wins, the Texas State gentle in terms of bending and flexibility. It’s Championship in 2016 and the 2021 USCA primarily a mental competition with equal Club Teams Championship at the National opportunity to get pummeled by savvy oppoCroquet Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. that nents. Participants must think strategically, he won with teammate Bob Pulitzer, making plotting moves ahead of the competition. A them that year’s top duo in the country. sprightly 25-year-old can get schooled by an 85John, 63, had replacement surgery on both year-old and never see it coming. knees a few years back. Having hinges that don’t Players travel the country, competing in tourzig when you want to zag is a mental boost, says naments sponsored by the United States the Royden Oaks resident. (continued on page 20) Croquet Association (USCA). The Houston

Walker Cain Dylan Aguilar

Dylan Aguilar

Dylan Aguilar

Dylan Aguilar

SMARTS AND SKILL Pictured, clockwise from top left: Camaraderie defines these dedicated croquet players, top-notch Houston competitors in the sport of six-wicket croquet.

(From left) Stuart Coco, John Watson, John Brown, Anne Coco, and Lee Hamel. All’s quiet on the court as referee Bill Hixon – a former Texas State Champion – and spectators watch player John Brown at the 2014 Bayou Bowl croquet tournament. Player Lee Hamel lines up a shot as former Houston Croquet Association president John Watson looks on. The steel wickets are barely wider than the ball. Stuart Coco plays under a brilliant blue sky at the Memorial Park courts. Anne Coco, known for her strategic skills at croquet, has the championship trophies to show for it.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 19

Dylan Aguilar

TOP OF THEIR GAME Left photo: John Brown (on left), president of the Houston Croquet Association, and John Watson (on right), past president for 14 years, show off the club’s honor as 2021 Club of the Year, bestowed by the United States Croquet Association. Right photo: John Brown lines up his shot on the Houston Croquet Association’s regulation court at Memorial Park as (left to right) Anne Coco, John Watson, and Lee Hamel look on. (continued from page 18)

“Croquet is attractive to a lot of older people who might have joint, knee, hip, or whatever else issues. It’s easier on the body. But knowing that my knee isn’t going to do something funky on me helps my peace of mind. You’ve got to stay sharp out there. I never ever would have imagined that I would elevate to national standing status in this game.”

He credits mallet maven Anne Coco as a mentor. “She’s one of the best tacticians in the game,” he says.

“Well, I’d better be good,” quips Anne, 65.

“I’ve been playing 27 years.” She has a trophy room of championship flight accomplishments as testament.

A

nne, a pint of a woman at 108 pounds, is quite the force. “Croquet is like chess and billiards,” she explains. “You must think a lot, but you also have to do the shot making. You have to keep track of all of that in your brain and use your strategy at the same time.

“I’m not going to let those boys run all over me,” she wisecracks. “John says I’m the best tactician in town? Well, the reason he says that is because they do all these big full-roll shots across 100 yards. I can’t do that. I’m little. My strategy has to be different than their strategy because I have to think outside of the box.”

“Anne taught me everything I know. I might not have all the trophies she has, but I have my trophy wife,” jokes husband Stuart, also adept at the sport, and vice president of the Houston Croquet Association.

Anne is a champion in more ways than one.

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease seven years ago, she allowed herself a 15-minute cry, then went about battling the ailment with the same top-game determination and strategy she employs every time she takes the court. She took WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 20

a seven-year sabbatical from tournament play and recently had deep brain stimulation surgery to reduce the disease’s symptoms.

“I immediately felt 40 percent better,” she explains. “It took care of these movements in my left leg and left arm and the stiffness in my arm. Those symptoms were causing me great anxiety and that anxiousness, of course, affects your play.”

The croquet veteran is back to tournament competition, recently playing in the Club Teams tournament in West Palm Beach. “I did pretty well!” she says. “I won one out of four games, but I was playing against -4.5 handicaps and I’m a 2.5+, so it was like playing against Tiger Woods. I’m happy with it!”

They say that tango and boxing are good for Parkinson’s patients, Anne adds. “For me, it’s croquet!”

Retired attorney Lee Hamel is a longtime player, too.

“I was smitten with the sport of six-wicket croquet from day one,” the accomplished first-flight player says of his introduction to the sport in the early 1990s. He saw a tidbit in the newspaper about the Houston Mallet Club, the predecessor to the Houston Croquet Association, and went to check it out. Players were practicing on a polo field. The city had no croquet courts then.

He chaired a committee to find a croquet venue, rallying for courts to be built at Memorial Park. “I got wind that the fairways and greens at Memorial Park were being expanded and it would be a natural time with the equipment in place to add a couple of croquet courts, at the end of their work on the greens. We talked to the parks department and the players were willing to put up the money for the contractor to do it.”

Those courts were in use for more than two decades. Two new pristine croquet courts, 105 by

85 feet, recently replaced them in the park, overlooking the final 50 yards of the 10th golf fairway.

“It’s just beautiful out there,” says the 81-yearold who has won several first-flight regional tournaments over the years.

John Watson, a successful first-flight player who just retired after 14 years as Houston Croquet Association president, says it’s best to shelve the emotions while competing. “My advice: if somebody’s trying to knock you out of a wicket, don’t take it personally. It’s the way the game is played.”

There aren’t many injuries in croquet, he adds. “This is a sport you can play when you’re old that doesn’t screw up your knees and back.

We’ve had some people hit themselves with a mallet in the foot or ankle, but other than that….”

Indeed, the main injury could come from intense sun, thus the sport’s forgiving all-white garb.

John Brown – he who first balked at the mention of croquet – recalls “getting thrashed” by a woman who could barely move about the court when he first started playing at championship level. “That’s the beauty of croquet,” he says. “It’s the great equalizer. It’s not that you must be strong.

You must be a good tactician, steady and smooth.”

Oh, and be prepared to stand out if you don’t change out of your all-whites at the tournament’s end. “One time I got on my plane home but didn’t have time to change,” he recalls. “I’m pretty sure everyone thought I was a painter or worked in a psych ward.”

The public is welcome to watch the 2022 Texas State Championship tournament, May 19-22, at the Memorial Park Croquet Courts, located behind the Memorial Park Tennis Center near the 10th fairway of the golf course.

For more information about American sixwicket Croquet, visit croquetamerica.com.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 21

Dylan Aguilar

SPORTS

by Angie Frederickson, staff writer

Setting Sail Family fun on Galveston Bay

A

s each weekend approaches, Rocco Thomas, 6, excitedly asks his favorite question: “Are we going to the bay?”

The answer is usually a resounding “yes!” from his parents Jane and Travis Thomas. When Friday arrives, Rocco and his little brother Tynes, 4, hop in the car and after an easy 45minute drive south from their Memorial home, it feels like they are a world away as the family boards their sailboat named Ranch Water.

The Thomas family is part of a sailing community that few Houstonians know much about.

Even though Galveston Bay is less than an hour away, the idea of captaining a boat and competing in sailboat racing leagues seem like things that happen in far-away places.

S

ailing is a Thomas family tradition. Travis, an oil-and-gas chief financial officer, is a thirdgeneration sailor. Along with his brother, David, he was born into a sailing family and spent much of his childhood on boats in Galveston Bay and running around the Houston Yacht Club with friends. “That was our thing, growing up,” said Travis. “Sailing gets into your blood and, honestly, it has defined my entire life.”

His childhood summers were spent learning how to sail in the club’s Ragnots youth program, following in the footsteps of his parents Larry and Cheryl Thomas, and grandparents Tynes and Sissy Sparks. Travis’ mom, Cheryl, also grew up in the Ragnots program where she earned the nickname “Skipper” that lives on today as the name her grandchildren call her.

This summer, Travis and Jane, a realtor, will introduce Rocco to the Ragnots program where the Hunters Creek kindergartner will learn to sail his own one-man sailboat called an Optimist. Up until now, the young Thomas boys have spent their boat time learning the basics and helping their parents on Ranch Water.

“There’s a big learning curve with sailing,” Travis says. “You have to learn about the weather and the wind and the physics involved, and then there is a whole vocabulary of words people use.” In addition to feeling comfortable around water, Rocco and Tynes have learned to help with every aspect of sailing. There is some sibWEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 22

FOR LOVE OF SAILING Travis and Jane Thomas, with their sons Rocco and Tynes, are third and fourthgeneration Thomas family sailors. Spending time on Galveston Bay aboard their sailboat, Ranch Water, is the family’s favorite activity.

ling rivalry involved in determining who gets to drive, trim the sails, put the fenders out, and help dock the boat.

Jane Thomas learned about sailing as an adult.

“I had no sailing background until Travis took me on a boat for our second date,” she said. “He had a 44-foot sailboat at the time, and we went to a regatta. We even ended up getting engaged on a boat.”

Jane admits to being more competitive than Travis when it comes to racing. “Travis couldn’t care less about winning. He just enjoys it,” Jane said.

W

hen kids get older, there is plenty of opportunity to up their game when it comes to competitive racing. Addison Scott, 15, a freshman at Memorial High School, claims sailing as her sport and is committed to spending time on the bay. She and her brother Ryan, 13, a seventh grader at Spring Branch Middle School, have grown up sailing with their parents Morgan Scott, a veterinarian, and Zach Scott, an energy trader. They are regulars on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway making trips around Galveston Island and down to Matagorda Bay.

Addison started sailing at age 9 and does both traditional and competitive sailing. On a typical weekend, she spends entire days with other kids and their coach perfecting technique on the water. “I really enjoy the sport and the time I get to spend on the water. I don’t have super competitive goals for the future, but I do race and I wouldn’t mind being on a college team someday,” said Addison.

She balances school, sailing, and friends with some good time management. “I study in the car on the way there and back, and the practices are during the day, so I still have Friday and Saturday nights at home with friends,” Addison said.

Sailboat racing spans a full spectrum from casual hobby to serious, time-consuming activity, depending on individual preferences. The something-for-everyone quality is what draws many into the sport. “On the larger boats, if you’re hardcore into it, you can be as competitive as you want,” Zach said. “You can be assigned a handicap, just like in golf, and compete on racecourses all over the place.”

Ryan Scott spends most of his after-school

Dylan Aguilar Peter Atherton

Dylan Aguilar

LEARNING TO SAIL Starting at a young age, kids can learn the basics, captain their own boat, and participate in competitive racing leagues. Top left: Rocco Thomas helps his dad, Travis, navigate around Galveston Bay. Top right: Brothers Tynes and Rocco enjoy a sail on the family boat. Bottom left: Ryan Scott, 13, captains a skiff and prepares for a fun race with other kids. Bottom right: Older kids captain Laser class sailboats around a race course.

time on the baseball field but has also become a talented skiff sailor. Skiff sailing is a different experience than traditional sailing. Skiffs are shallow, flat-bottomed boats that are perfect for doing tricks. His mom, Morgan, says the difference between traditional and skiff sailing is like the difference between skiing and snowboard-

ing. “It’s classic versus free spirited,” she said.

“Addison’s sailing is very serious. When Ryan does a race, it’s about being as goofy as you can with stuff like doing handstands on the boat or fitting as many kids on the boat as you can.”

People outside the sailing community are always surprised to learn that the Scott kids sail.

Morgan is used to questions about how it’s possible to find the time to spend at the bay and why they want to drive so far. Morgan is both a baseball mom and a sailing mom, and she says her sailing title is much better. “We have driven to plenty of baseball tournaments that are two hours away and then have to sit on (continued on page 24) WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 23

Peter Atherton

Dylan Aguilar

ON THE WATER The Scott family spends weekends on the bay where Addison, 15, and her brother Ryan are competitive sailing racers. Left: Morgan, Ryan, and Zach Scott, with Addison (not pictured) sail around the bay and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Top right: Kids learn racing techniques aboard Laser sailboats. Lower right: Addison Scott practices each weekend and competes in sailing competitions around the region. (continued from page 23) the bleachers in the heat.

I’d much rather drive 45 minutes and get to spend time by the water with a breeze, or inside the club with air conditioning,” she said, laughing.

Both Zach and Morgan say the confidence and independence kids learn while sailing are valuable life skills. “Youth sailing is self-directed, in a

way, because they run their own boat. There are other kids out on the water, and the coach is there for safety and instruction, but it’s up to each kid to make decisions on the water,” Zach said.

The Scott and Thomas families both say sailing is in their blood, and they feel fortunate to have a lifelong activity the whole family can do

together. “We are thrilled the boys have caught the ‘bay bug’ and that they are living the same dream as the generations before them,” said Travis Thomas. “I fear that one day when they grow up, we will get to the bay and find the boat missing, along with both boys and their passports.

At that point I will know we raised them right.”

Sailing Lingo Learning to sail comes with a new vocabulary. Here are a few terms to get you started.

Dinghy: a small boat typically crewed by one person Optimist (aka “Opti”): a small, single-handed “first boat” for kids learning to sail Sheet: a line used to control a sail Trim: to adjust the tension in the line that controls the sail Daggerboard: a retractable underwater fin used to counteract the wind’s force WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 24

Tell-tale: a piece of ribbon or string on a sail that indicates how the wind is flowing over the sail Fender: a bumper used to protect a boat from damage while docking Hike: to use your body as a counterweight to the wind’s force to level the boat Heel: the leaning of a sailboat as it goes upwind Puff: wind coming across the water on a calm day, visible by rippling water Bullet: first place in a sailing race

lawellphoto.com

FOOD

by Jennifer Oakley, staff writer

The Icing on the Cake Making birthdays extra sweet

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ristina Rodriguez carefully pipes chocolate icing in the shape of boulders up the sides of a three-tiered cake. Once complete, she places six golden dinosaurs among the iced ledges. It’s a prehistoric world come to life, complete with leaves, giving off jungle vibes. On the highest layer, Cristina positions a glittery placard that reads “Sandra.” It’s the perfect crown atop a birthday cake which 5-year-old dreams are made of.

As a volunteer with nonprofit For Goodness Cakes, Cristina is helping make birthday wishes come true, one cake at a time.

I

t’s an act of using your hands and is such an act of love for someone to make something for you,” says Cristina, who is a partner at Hogan Lovells law firm. “And who doesn’t like cake?!

It’s amazing and I love this so much because just honestly, the joy of hopefully making a child smile and their mom or dad smile is huge.”

For Goodness Cakes is a national organization that started in southern California in 2016.

The founder was motivated by a friend sharing a memory of never having a cake baked for them, says Cristina.

Creating smiles via cakes resonated with Michelle Synhorst, who brought For Goodness Cakes to Houston in 2019. Michelle had seen a post on Instagram from a girl she went to high school with that caught her attention, talking about the Phoenix chapter and how she had made a cake to donate. “It was a very brief thing, but I thought it was so cool,” says Michelle. So cool, in fact, that Michelle was inspired to apply to open a Houston chapter, which was approved in late 2019.

Michelle, a corporate attorney, had been wanting to volunteer in the community but had not found her niche because of work constraints.

Her passion for baking combined with the desire to help children made For Goodness Cakes the perfect pairing.

“We have heard that for some of the teenagers, this is the first cake they have ever received,” says Michelle. “And one of the most emotional cakes for me was for a child who had recently lost his mom and it was his first birthWEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 26

day not long after his mom died, and we were able to bring him a cake.”

Volunteers need not be expert bakers. “It only takes a few hours to make a cake and drop it off, but it has an outsized impact relative to how much time it takes.” In fact, Michelle notes, the impact on the DYNO-MITE! Cristina Rodriguez finishes icing a homemade dinosaur-themed cake she bakers and the baked for a birthday recipient through nonprofit For Goodness Cakes. recipients alike is ilies who cannot afford parties. overwhelmingly rewarding.

Cristina loved the idea. She wasted no time Although the Houston chapter got a slow getting involved, immediately scouring sales at start due to Covid, Michelle is happy that they paper goods stores to stockpile everything from have never had an unfulfilled request. “In party plates to favors. Over the past two years, October of 2020 we delivered our first cake, and she delved into becoming a regular Birthday we recently delivered our 500th!”

Bundles volunteer – something that has become Michelle is hopeful more bakers will get on board. invaluable to her.

“We bake cakes for any kid that needs extra “When I turned 50, my husband Mark made love and support,” she says of the group’s mission bundles in my honor to donate,” says Cristina, to provide birthday cakes for underprivileged noting that they had different themes and were youth. “We bake for children at domestic viofilled with plates, napkins, hats, birthday banlence shelters, for homeless kids, for foster kids. ner, balloons, and Funfetti cake mix and frostWe are very narrowly focused: we just want to ing. “My mom in Miami is always on the lookmake kids feel special and a lot of them have not out for items for holiday bundles and she will gotten that.” send them here. I keep a bin filled with items to Cristina notes that the cakes she has made – make bundles. I have roped in the family. It’s everything from a pink princess one with a sparkdefinitely a family affair.” ly crown to a giant sheet cake football field – have Through her involvement with Birthday been meaningful to her. “Every child deserves to Bundles, she noticed that sometimes, the bunfeel special all the time,” says Cristina, mother to dles included beautiful cakes. On social media, two daughters, Ana Maria, 20 and Ally, 15. “But Erin would tag For Goodness Cakes. especially on their birthday.”

Intrigued, Cristina followed For Goodness Cakes on Instagram (@forgoodnesscakeshq) and n March 2020, Cristina read Better Birthdays: then went to the nonprofit’s website. “When I Donating leftover party supplies, by Deborah went to the website, I saw a sign that read ‘Join Lynn Blumberg in The Buzz. The story featured our Sprinkle Squad’ and I thought: This is what Erin Koren’s then newly created charity called I want to do when I retire.”

Birthday Bundles for Kids. The local organizaTurns out, Cristina was so moved by the idea, tion collects leftover party supplies to create she decided not to wait until retirement age. themed bundles and then donates them to fam-

I

MADE TO ORDER Cristina Rodriguez bakes birthday cakes that are wished for by children benefiting from For Goodness Cakes. Volunteers bake and deliver cakes to nonprofits across the greater Houston area. Organizations can apply to be a cake recipient. Clockwise, from left: an Avengers cake, a princess cake, and a butterfly cake.

When 2022 came along, she decided it was time for her to join the Sprinkle Squad. Cristina says she loved baking as a teenager and now baking is that much sweeter for her because of the mission involved. “You do not have to be a pro,” says Cristina with a smile. “You just have to do your best to bake a homemade, delicious birthday cake.”

Michelle points out that the birthday boy or girl gets to choose their kind of cake.

“The philosophy they adhere to is that you must honor the child’s wishes for flavor, icing, and filling – that is non-negotiable – and on the décor, you do your best,” says Cristina. “Another philosophy is that you have to include the child’s name, so I try to order from Etsy for everyone their name in glitter letters.”

Cristina says volunteering as a Sprinkle Squad member is efficient. The For Goodness Cakes’ website has easy sign ups – but first, all volunteers must take an online baking safety class. “The training does a good job about how you have to be super careful about food safety,” says Cristina. “You have to do quizzes as you go and have to do things like certify that you will bake with a mask on, certify that your kitchen

is clean, that you wash your hands up to wrists for 30 seconds. You have to comply with all requirements to be super sanitary.”

Once bakers have completed the online class, which takes approximately an hour, the volunteers go to the website to choose their cake.

“I check the website every day and it’s easy, you just go on the calendar, and you pick what you can do. I look for a date and the location that fits with my needs, then you click, and it belongs to you.”

Cristina’s husband helps with the deliveries.

“It’s so wonderful that Cristina bakes cakes for these amazing kids,” says Mark Rodriguez, who is a partner at Beck Redden law firm. “I have been lucky enough to drop off the cakes a few times. It’s a wonderful feeling to see the smiles on the families’ faces when they receive them.”

For Goodness Cakes delivers cakes across the greater Houston area, benefiting nonprofits such as Houston Angels, Birthday Bundles, Birthday Bash Box, Communities in Schools, The Bridge Over Troubled Waters, and Mission of Yahweh.

Organizations can apply to be a cake recipient; Michelle is always looking for new groups that

would benefit from these special birthday cakes.

M

ichelle says memories of her own childhood birthdays help inspire her to keep baking for others. “Every year, my parents always made a huge deal about my birthday,” says Michelle. “My mom always baked a cake for me.”

And so did Erin Koren’s mom. “I grew up middle class in suburbia Ohio,” says Erin, who applied her Birthday Bundles group to be a cake recipient nonprofit as soon as she learned of Michelle’s Houston chapter. “On my birthday, my mom made sure I was queen for the day. I would get a balloon on my chair and a Betty Crocker cake. It was all so delicious, and I want to give these children the same feelings and traditions and memories that I had growing up.”

Michelle says it is bakers like Cristina and partner volunteers like Erin who help make the kids’ birthday wishes come true.

“We do not require people to be professional bakers,” she says. “We just want the birthday cakes made with love.”

For more information about For Goodness Cakes, see forgoodnesscakes.org or follow the organization on Instagram at @forgoodnesscakesHQ.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 27

NEIGHBORS

by Andria Frankfort, staff writer

Garden-to-Table alexandersportraits.com

Growing what you eat

A NOURISHING GARDEN Laura Moore created a thriving training garden in the middle of the Medical Center for students at the UTHealth School of Public Health.

Anyone can work in Nourish’s garden as a volunteer, with the added perk of being able to bring home produce to their own dinner table.

T

ell someone you’re going to a “farm-totable” restaurant, and you might get an eye roll in response. The phrase – along with others like locally sourced, curated, handcrafted – has been overused to the point of becoming a trendy buzzword.

Still, some people in town truly are eating what they grow. Like Sarah Vitenas, who calls growing herbs and vegetables “therapeutic.”

“After moving from a high-rise building in Greenway Plaza to a house down the street, I wanted to enjoy the house immediately,” she says. That meant having two above-ground, wooden garden beds built in her front yard. “I liked them so much,” she says, “I added a third a month later.”

Sarah, who grew up gardening alongside her WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 28

parents but stopped during college and high-rise living, uses the beds to grow everything from flowers to cucumbers to watermelons to eggplants. But her favorite crop is herbs. “My husband uses them for cooking daily,” she says, explaining how they combine store-bought and home-grown ingredients. “He stops by the store on the way home from the office most nights and returns with a protein and a few vegetables.

We love having fresh rosemary year-round and basil in the spring. The arugula we grow in our beds is zesty and so much fresher than anything we can get at the store.”

Sarah and her husband Alex, a real estate investor, like to entertain using all the fruits of her gardening, both in their menus and as decor.

“I enjoy growing cutting flowers…and can pre-

pare really gorgeous and unique centerpieces [with them],” she says. “My favorite thing is to make flower ice.” By that she means oversized ice cubes with garden flowers frozen inside. She tucks the flower ice into clear bowls and ice buckets to chill wine.

While last year’s freeze killed the Vitenas’ citrus trees, they are replanting now. “We used to have a mandarin orange tree, and my favorite was having Meyer lemons. They pair beautifully with halibut and are lovely in salad dressings.

“We’ve grown tomatoes in massive amounts.

And in the summer our sunflowers actually got up to 10 feet tall! It’s just beautiful to look out the window and watch everything grow with the seasons,” Sarah says, adding that even Zara the German Shepherd loves to sunbathe next to her garden.

IN THE WEEDS Sarah and Alex Vitenas and their dog Zara like to spend time in the garden she built. Sarah had raised beds installed for her garden. The sunflowers in Sarah's garden grew to be 10 feet tall.

A

Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef with a master’s in nutrition, Laura Moore has created a large-scale garden with benefits beyond her dinner table. Through the Nourish Program and the Nourish garden she established at Houston’s UTHealth School of Public Health, Laura and her team educate healthcare students and professionals on how to grow produce, how to prepare healthy and delicious meals, and how to talk to their patients about food.

“I’ve always been interested in gardening, but I never really had the space,” Laura says. “My grandmother was an amazing cook and gardened until her very last day. I have videos of my dad, who grew up on a farm in Little Rock, showing me how to cook vegetables. When we built the garden at school in 2015, it became my life. I use it as my own garden.”

Laura says she was bothered by the realization that her public health students didn’t know about food. “They needed to be trained in food, cooking, how to talk to patients about prevention, which is key.” With that, she raised $1.5 million in grant money to start Nourish, beginning with the garden, a 3,500 square-foot plot in the middle of the Medical Center. “My students train in this garden,” Laura says of the 24 students in the Nourish Program. “They learn what to grow, seasonally, how to grow it, how to plant crops. They learn about spacing, different

ways to manage water: Do you use a drip? Is it manual watering? They learn mulching, composting, pest management, harvesting, and handling produce.”

Once they harvest the food, Laura and her Nourish team bring students into the School of Public Health’s teaching kitchen, where “we teach them how to make healthy food taste good.”

Anyone can work in Nourish’s garden as a volunteer, with the added perk of being able to bring home produce to their own dinner tables.

(There’s also a young farmer/chef camp happening in June, where kids 7 to 12 will learn about gardening and nutrition; they’ll make lunch from their harvest. Go to nourishprogram.org for information.)

Not a gardener? Not a chef? Not to worry.

How Good Food Works from Seed to Plate is the gorgeous new cookbook that’s not only a fundraiser for Nourish but also a guide for beginning gardeners and chefs looking to create their own true “farm-to-table” experience.

“The book describes the program, there’s a section on the garden, and there’s a wonderful selection of recipes,” Laura says. “I have to admit, I had no idea of the time it took to write a cookbook.

We must have tested each one of the recipes five times, and proofreading was whew!” Even so, she’s delighted with the result. “We’ve got interesting ways to add flavor to salads – herbs, herbed oils, different seasoning blends. My two favorites are

‘Take Out’ Sweet Chili Cauliflower, which is a spicy, sweet cauliflower roasted in the oven, and a Weeknight Broccoli tossed with seasonings and popped in the microwave. It takes no time at all and is just delicious.”

For gardeners just getting started, Laura recommends taking baby steps. “Start with a container for lettuces or herbs,” she says. “They’re easy to grow from seed pretty quickly using compost from any gardening store, and they’re easy to take care of.”

Once you reap the harvest, Sarah and Laura have both shared favorite recipes to put all the flora to good use.

Sarah and Alex Vitenas’ Herb Salmon and Garden Salad For the Salmon: 1 turnip, peeled and roughly chopped 1 bunch golden beets, quartered, greens discarded 2 shallots, sliced thin 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided Salt and pepper 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves 1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves 1 center-cut, skin-on salmon filet For the Salad and Dressing: 1 small box baby spring mix salad greens ½ tomato, sliced into thin wedges (continued on page 30) ½ avocado, sliced WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 29

Debora Smail

alexandersportraits.com

GARDEN TO TABLE Pictured (clockwise, from top left): Laura Moore (far right) and her team educate healthcare students and professionals on how to grow produce and how to prepare healthy and delicious meals. Sarah and Alex Vitenas grow herbs and veggies, like these eggplants, and utilize their produce in their daily cooking. The Nourish Program's new cookbook How Good Food Works from Seed to Plate offers recipes to cook from the garden, like this Sweet Chili Cauliflower. Sarah loves creating flower ice – ice cubes with garden flowers frozen inside – as a beautiful way to chill wine while entertaining.

½ cucumber, peeled and sliced into rounds 2 Tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard ½ teaspoon balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar Juice from ½ Meyer lemon ½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

(continued from page 29)

Make the salmon: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the turnips, beets, and shallots in a zip-top bag with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a little salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the chopped rosemary and tarragon, press out the excess air, and seal the bag. Set aside.

Pat the salmon dry and season with a little salt and freshly ground pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in an oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Place the salmon skin-side down in the skillet and sear for 4 to 5 minutes.

Flip and repeat on the other side. Move the salmon to a plate and set aside.

Place the contents of the zip-top bag into the skillet and sauté for 2 minutes. Add 1/3 cup water to deglaze the pan. When the water has WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 30

mostly evaporated, place the salmon, skin-side up, on top of the vegetables. Roast in the oven for 12 minutes.

Make the salad: Place the greens, tomato, avocado, and cucumber in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil, Dijon mustard, vinegars, and the juice from ½ a Meyer lemon.

Add some thyme, salt, and freshly ground pepper and whisk to combine.

Serve the salmon and vegetables alongside the salad, dressed with the dressing.

“Take Out” Sweet Chili Cauliflower From How Good Food Works from Seed to Plate 2 Tablespoons canola oil 1 Tablespoon sesame oil 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 Tablespoons honey 2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons ground chili paste (recommended sambal oelek chili paste) ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 1 cauliflower head (about 1 pound), cut into equal-sized florets For garnish: 1 Thai chili pepper, thinly sliced

¼ bunch green onions, thinly sliced or cut into 3-inch pieces Sesame seeds Red chili flakes Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the canola oil, sesame oil, garlic, honey, chili paste, and salt. Mix well. Pour over the cauliflower florets.

Spread the cauliflower evenly on a baking pan lined with parchment paper, making sure not to overcrowd. Roast in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

Remove and place in a large bowl. Add the oil mixture and gently fold until evenly coated.

Garnish with Thai chili slices, green onions, sesame seeds, and red chili flakes to taste.

Editor’s note: See this story at thebuzzmagazines.com for more photos plus recipes from How Good Food Works From Seed to Plate by Laura S. Moore, John Wesley McWhorter, and Joseph R. Novak. Purchase your own copy at howgoodfoodworkscookbook.org.

Proceeds from the sale of this cookbook support The Nourish Program and its community outreach efforts.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 31

KIDS

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by Annie Blaylock McQueen, staff writer

Buzz Baby

Traveling with kids

Buzz Baby is a column about life with babies.

Writer Annie McQueen is a mother of four children 7 and under.

S

ummer is approaching, and for many families, travel plans are on the horizon.

Embarking on an out-of-town adventure – whether by airplane or car – with small children takes patience.

A lot of people say, traveling without kids is called a vacation. Traveling with kids is called a trip.

I remember a trip to Colorado my husband and I took when our now 7-year-old twins were just 10 months old. We packed so much gear and I had done so much research on what to bring, how to handle feedings on the go, and traveling in general with infant twins, but no research could have prepared me for an unexpected, very delayed flight. We spent more than six hours at the Denver airport.

My husband and I set up an area at an empty gate to wait. The twins were in the crawling phase, so we were exhausted chasing them around the gate area. As I changed a diaper on one of the twins, I peered in the bag, realizing it was our last one. That is when I learned that airports do not sell diapers. Lesson learned.

That trip certainly did not stop us from traveling again and again with our children; it just helped us be more prepared for the next one.

Buzz mom Allison Schaffer has two boys, Ezra, 2, and an infant, Archie, 6 months. Last summer, Allison learned the ropes of traveling with a small child (and while 7-months pregnant).

She and her husband Mack took a 10-hour drive to Seaside, Fla. with Ezra, then under 2, and their two Shih Tzus. Even though traveling with kids is difficult, she says it was an important milestone for her. “I grew up taking road trips to Florida, so I was so excited to do the same with my kids,” said Allison.

Toddlers have a tough time sitting still – let alone being strapped in a car seat for hours.

Allison hatched a plan. She had snacks, readyaccessible diapers, and a clean change of clothes for Ezra, an iPad as a last resort plan. They decided to leave town early around 4 a.m. to beat the WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 32

PACK YOUR PATIENCE Many say that traveling without kids is called a vacation – traveling with kids is called a trip. But venturing out of town with little ones is usually well worth the extra planning. Pictured: Mack, Allison, and Ezra Schaffer, plus their two Shih Tzus, on the road to Seaside, Fla. last summer.

traffic and make it to the beach by lunch, making most of the drive while Ezra was sleeping.

They broke the drive up into two parts. “We packed the car up early in the morning, woke up our toddler for a quick diaper change then got him in the car while he was still drowsy,” said Allison. “He slept until we made it to the border of Texas and Louisiana.” She said they stopped for lunch and let him move around, then brought out his favorite snacks for entertainment.

She also made plans to stay comfortable on the long road trip while pregnant. She chose to drive the entire way, which she says helped her with nausea. She brought a special wedge pillow to use behind her back. She also recommends staying hydrated to help with nausea and circulation.

Her other tip for traveling with kids is to get in the right frame of mind. “Go into it with the mindset that ‘you will get there when you get there,’” said Allison. “We went in knowing that we may have to stop or we may have to swap drivers or we may even have to turn around and go home, and that put us in the right frame of mind to handle any issue that could have come our way.”

Allison recommends talking about the road trip or flight to your toddler ahead of time. “It helped. We talked about how long it would take in terms of snacks and naps. [Like] we get to eat

breakfast and snacks in the car and take a nap there too, and then we will be there.”

They packed a few essential pieces of gear for their Airbnb: an inflatable bathtub (Amazon has them for around $14), a lightweight umbrella stroller, and for sleeping overnight in the room, a “slumberpod” – a lightweight, portable pod that pops open, darkening their sleeping area but still allowing air to flow. She says the slumberpod was a gamechanger.

The Schaffers used a portable wagon to get to and from the beach. The drive back home was difficult as it rained the entire way. They made a stop at a Chick-Fil-A and had a “car picnic” and let Ezra pretend to drive the car (with the engine off). “It was one of the most hilarious meals we have ever had,” laughed Allison.

The Schaffers will check off their first hotel stay as a family with an upcoming wedding in Austin and are planning their first plane ride soon. Allison says she will approach the plane ride with the same mindset, but she is excited to see Ezra’s reaction to looking out the window at the airport at a real airplane.

No matter where you’re heading this summer and how you’re getting there, just remember to enjoy the ride. And take it from me – if you’ve got little ones in tow, pack plenty of extra diapers.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 33

ARTS

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by Cindy Burnett, staff writer

Buzz Reads

Five picks for May

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

B

loomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner – In 1950s London, Bloomsbury Books, a bookstore that sells new and rare books and that has existed for over a century, is run by men and guided by the general manager’s 51 rules. But following World War II, Vivien, Grace, and Evie, three strong women working at the store, strive to modernize the store’s ways and chart their own paths in a male-dominated world. Interacting with literary greats such as Daphne du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Peggy Guggenheim, and more, these three women push the boundaries of the early 1950s. I loved everything about this one from the literary setting to the characters to the book’s resolution.

Buses Are a Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider by Charles Person and Richard Rooker (paperback release) – Buses Are a Comin’ should be required reading in the U.S. because this personal history of the Freedom Rides of 1961 is quite an amazing story. The bravery and strength of the individuals who participated in these rides to secure equal rights for all in the face of incredible opposition is awe-inspiring. The fact that some people were so upset by integration that they would wait for buses to arrive just to torment and attack the riders is hard to fathom for most people today. The book provides the context for and the build-up to the Freedom Rides and the clever strategies the riders eventually used to prevail in their mission to desegregate interstate buses. I partly read, partly listened to this one, and I highly recommend both. The audiobook is fantastic, and the book includes some amazing photos from the Freedom Rides.

Cover Story by Susan Rigetti – NYU student Lora Ricci’s internship at ELLE Magazine introduces her to the cutthroat world of fashion and the wealthy people who populate the industry.

When Cat Wolff, a contributing editor to the magazine and daughter of a wealthy mogul, takes Lora on as a mentee, Lora is initially thrilled. She agrees to become Cat’s ghostwriter and drops out of school to focus full time on WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 34

writing. As the two begin working on the book, Lora soon realizes that all is not as it seems; Cat comes and goes at all hours, and bills seem to go unpaid.

The book and its format (emails, FBI reports, diary entries, and more) are fabulous, and I recommend going into it with little knowledge of the story to ensure nothing gets spoiled. It is a wild and crazy ride and just so well done.

The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani – Based on a true WHAT TO READ This month's picks include a clever thriller, two historical fiction books, a ripped-from-the-headlines novel, and a paperback release about the 1961 story, this dual- Freedom Rides. timeline saga spans storm settles in, Wylie finds herself stuck in the 100 years while chronicling four generations of house, haunted by its secrets and her own strong, fierce Italian women and their loves, secrets. When she heads out to walk her dog, she losses, secrets, and heartaches. Relayed through finds a small child alone in the snow right outthe matriarchs’ flashbacks, the story depicts the side the house where she is staying. She brings fallout from the sinking of the Arandora Star by the child inside for warmth and safety and then a German U-boat and all that follows as a result. begins to hunt for the parents. The twists and As the two timelines come together, long-buried turns were a lot of fun in this one and while I and surprising secrets are revealed as Trigiani figured a few things out, there were enough suraddresses the universal themes of identity and prises to keep me madly reading until I got to belonging. This is a beautiful read that kept me the end. It was a page turner with a highly satiscaptivated. fying resolution.

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf – The premise of this thriller Editor’s note: Southside Place resident Cindy hooked me from the beginning. While staying Burnett also writes our weekly Page Turners column at a remote farmhouse, true crime writer Wylie at thebuzzmagazines.com. She hosts the Thoughts Lark ends up snowed in as she is trying to write from a Page Podcast, is co-creator of the Houston her latest book. The location would be ideal, literary event series Conversations from the Page, except that decades earlier, at this same house, runs the Instagram account @thoughtsfromapage, two people were brutally murdered and a girl disand regularly speaks to groups about books. appeared and has not been seen since. As the

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 35

TRAVEL

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by Tracy L. Barnett, staff writer

Travel Buzz

Voyage to the bottom of the world

S

eeing the world has always been a top priority for Adam and Jennifer Kramer and doing it with their two sons has made it extra-special. Hayden, their eldest, got his first passport stamp when he was just three months old – Costa Rica – and they’ve traveled internationally with the boys ever since.

By the time Hayden and Dylan were teenagers, they’d already been to six continents – only Antarctica remained. For Adam, a sustainability manager for KBR Inc., the opportunity for his family to connect with one of the world’s last unspoiled wilderness areas had been calling to him for some time. Jennifer wanted to go too but she wanted to wait until the boys were old enough to really appreciate and remember it.

They started making plans in late 2019 – but then the pandemic hit. Jennifer, an epidemiologist, was on the wary side; throughout the pandemic, the globetrotting family stayed stateside. “But I just kept thinking, in two years things will be better.” So the family began planning the epic adventure.

T

he best way to see Antarctica is through a cruise, but most require a day and a half trip through the Drake Passage, one of the world’s most treacherous voyages. Adam, notoriously prone to seasickness, wanted to find a way around that.

A handful of cruise companies were offering fly-cruise packages, and Silversea Cruises became the first luxury cruise line to do so in 2019. That enabled them to fly directly to King George Island, on the edge of the Antarctica continent, for a six-day cruise.

But first, they planned an important stop along the way: the spectacular Torres del Paine National Park in Chile’s Patagonia. Known for its crystalline glacier lakes, soaring mountains, and vast wildlife-filled pampas, it had been on their bucket list for some time. They chose an adventure resort called Explora, which they’d also stayed in a few years before when they went to Easter Island.

All the pieces were falling into place – but as their trip approached, omicron hit. They all had WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 36

PICTURESQUE PATAGONIA The Kramer family made a stop on their way to Antarctica to check off another bucket-list experience: Torres del Paine National Park in Chile’s Patagonia. Pictured, from left, are Dylan, Jennifer, Adam, and Hayden Kramer. “Torres” means towers in Spanish, and Paine means “blue” in the native Mapuche language.

their vaccines, so they decided to stay the course.

“We hadn’t left the country in two years,” she said. “I was very wary; I wanted to be vaccinated, I wanted to be responsible.” So, she studied and followed all the requirements – “I likened Chile to Fort Knox. You had to upload your passports, your vaccine cards, and a negative PCR before you left, and then you had to get another PCR test in the airport. Then you had to go to the hotel room and quarantine until you got the results of that test.”

They landed in Santiago, Chile on Dec. 16 at 8:50 a.m. and headed straight to their hotel.

It was 6 p.m. when they got their negative Covid test results, and they went up to the rooftop bar and enjoyed a drink.

“I got teary-eyed being back in the saddle of international travel,” Jennifer said. “Finally, we’re outside of the country seeing the world again.”

They ended up having six Covid tests throughout the trip – there was a small outbreak on the cruise ship, and the cruise line flew a medical team to Antarctica, who tested

everyone before letting them return to Chile.

They were lucky: all the tests were negative.

“I know other people who went to Mexico, and they ended up testing positive and getting stuck there,” she said.

T

orres del Paine was about as far from Cancun as one could get.

“It was magical,” said Adam. The Explora lodge was at the heart of the park on a river, at the edge of a waterfall, with breathtaking views of the Paine Massif Mountain range. The sky was crystal clear. “It just looks like you would want the sky to look,” he said.

But best of all were the outings. “What’s great about Explora is it’s like camp for adults,” Adam described it. They were outfitted for two treks a day and immersing themselves in nature was the focus.

“It was just alive, with animals running around, and there’s such a huge amount of plant life there,” said Adam. The park is home to pumas and condors, endangered huemul deer,

ON TOUR IN ANTARCTICA Left: Dylan commemorates the exploration of his seventh continent. Right: The family gets their first glimpse of Antarctica at a broaddaylight midnight landing at the Chilean research station on King George Island.

an ostrich-like bird called the Darwin’s rhea, and a llama-like creature called a guanaco, among many others. For Adam, spending time in landscapes like this one, far from the city, is one of the most meaningful things in life.

“There’s a feeling of deep peace…and I see it in my wife and children, too, there’s a calmness you get from being outside,” Adam reflected. “The trees, the mountains, the water, all these things are symbiotic and working together to provide this life force for all of us. It’s really great to see it.”

Soon it was time to head to Punta Arenas, where the cruise started. They were fitted with parkas, waterproof pants, boots, and backpacks. They awoke early and prepared for the journey, and then waited at the hotel for word from the crew – because nobody knew what time they would fly.

“You just wait for the best conditions of weather to break, and for us it was 10 p.m.,” said Jennifer. “But remember we are in Antarctica in the summertime – so it’s still broad daylight.”

They had a meal on the hour-and-a-half flight and then were told to don their gear before landing on King George Island at nearly 11:30.

T

hey landed in an “Martian-like” landscape on the Chilean Air Force Base, as Jennifer tells it, and set off on a mile-and-a-half walk,

single-file, through the wind and snow and midnight sun, to the beach. They were given life jackets and divided into groups of eight and whisked away on Zodiacs to the ship – where a hot buffet awaited them.

The next day they began their exploration of that otherworldly landscape, usually two landings a day, stopping at a series of islands, on an ice shelf, and finally on the mainland itself.

It was indescribable, but Adam gave it a try.

“It’s a huge amount of beautiful snow and ice, really sculpturesque, with all the extremely blue ice from the huge glaciers in the water.”

He had taken the family to Greenland, which he expected to be similar, but it was “totally different.” Greenland is home to the world’s second most productive glacier. “But that’s like kids’ play when you go to Antarctica. There you see icebergs several times the size of ships – and that’s the small ones, and only the top part, because almost 90 percent of the iceberg is below the water.”

The Kramers were there over the December solstice, right at the height of the Antarctic summer, and the constant light makes for a strange feeling. “No one’s tired; there’s a lot of energy,” said Adam. It felt a bit like being on the moon, he said – like nothing any of them had ever experienced.

“It’s an enormous continent, as far as the eye can see, and you don’t see human populations – you could call it desolate, but I enjoyed that feeling, like no one had been there before.

That was the special nature of it; it gave you the feeling it was not of this world.”

Then there was the wildlife, of which there was plenty – seals, dolphins, humpbacks, orcas, birds, and above all the penguins.

“There were thousands of them. It was just massive,” said Adam. “There were penguins as far as you could see, and they were hatching all these little babies – and we were able to get very, very close, about five to six feet away, so it looks like you’re right next to them.

“They don’t care that you’re there – there are no predators on land so it’s like going to the Galapagos. You can go right up to them.”

Normally penguins live in the sea, but in the summertime, they are nesting, and it’s quite a spectacle to see them, walking single-file along the “penguin highways,” paths that lead from the nests to the beach. They catch fish and eat them, then head up to the nests, where they regurgitate the fishy mass into the throats of their fluffy babies. On the first day, they were able to see babies less than a week old, sitting with their parents and being fed.

Each day a trail is dug (continued on page 38) WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 37

PENGUINS AND ICEBERGS Clockwise, from upper left: The Kramer family with a gentoo penguin colony on the shores of the Antarctic peninsula; more gentoos make their way back and forth from the coast to their nests on what the locals refer to as a “penguin highway,” while their human observers traverse a path the naturalists dig out for them every morning before the day's outing; Hayden and Jen strike a pose in front of a giant iceberg; a mother gentoo penguin with her two babies. (continued from page 37) through the waist-deep

snow for the human visitors. People are instructed to stick to the trail and never cross the penguin highways.

“The funny thing is the penguins start jumping on your pathway because it’s a really nice pathway,” said Adam. “They start hopping up the steps, and you have to wait for them, and then you are allowed to walk behind them.”

The second day they did a cruise on a Zodiac among icebergs and ice formations, marveling at their size and at the “gorgeous sapphire gradations of the water,” in Adam’s words; another day they were chasing whales and watching them breach.

Another day the captain drove a mile from the coast and wedged the vessel into a 20-foot-thick shelf of sea ice, taking them out to explore.

“The water was so clear, you could see into the depths how thick the sea ice is,” said Jennifer.

They learned about the Antarctic treaty, which prohibits military activity except in support of science. Every day there was a briefing from the team of scientists – naturalists, geologists, and other specialists in a variety of areas.

They learned a great deal about global warming WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 38

and its effects on Antarctica, which has enormous implications for the rest of the planet.

T

he Antarctic Peninsula has been warming rapidly, five times faster than the global average, and faster than scientists had predicted.

Between 1992 and 2017, the continent lost more than 3 trillion tons of ice. The Kramers were able to see some of the dramatic evidence of collapsing ice shelves, caused by warming.

“Because the ice is changing so much, we were able to get to places people aren’t ordinarily able to get to,” said Adam. “That’s for reasons that unfortunately are not conducive to life in the long term, but it allowed us to see the changes – what it looked like before, and after.”

The issue has been very present for him, as sustainability director of his company. “These are not future problems, these are yesterday problems,” he said. “We are behind in the game.

We’re going to have to work harder and harder to bring us back to a balanced environment.”

Overall, the experience was an awe-inspiring one, putting them in direct contact with nature and deepening their consciousness of its fragility. For the boys, it was even more engag-

ing than their parents had expected.

Fifteen-year-old Hayden “is an adrenaline junkie and a video gamer, but the nature was so good for him,” said Jennifer. “I thought he would get bored and say, ‘I’ve seen enough penguins.’ But no – he would take out his camera and get hours of footage. He just kind of soaked it all up; he was in love with the whole trip.”

For Dylan, 13, the adventure marked a milestone: his parents had decided on this trip as his Bar Mitzvah gift.

“It started out as a mission to check off his seventh continent,” said Jennifer. “But it ended up being an epic journey that he will remember forever.”

For Adam, it was a strong reminder of the importance of the work he does every day. “I just think we need to appreciate the world and remember how fragile things are,” he said. “Even with a continent the size of Antarctica, as massive and grand as it is, we need to be careful.”

Editor’s note: Buzz travel columnist Tracy L. Barnett is a Lowell Thomas travel journalism award winner and longtime travel and environmental writer. Email her at info@thebuzzmagazines.com to share your own travel tales.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 39

SPORTS

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by Todd Freed, staff writer

SportzBuzz I

t was the greatest season in school history for the Stratford Spartans girls soccer team, which captured its first-ever district championship at the Class 6A level, while also advancing to the Class 6A Region III tournament.

“It means the world to have this type of season,” said Spartans head coach David Walters.

“We won a district title in Class 4A back in 2013, but this was our first championship in Class 6A. Since the beginning of the season, the girls set their sights on beating Memorial and then winning a district title. I’ve received numerous compliments from other coaches on how our girls battle and never quit. They hustle and fight for every loose ball and it’s just testament to their work ethic. I couldn’t be any prouder.”

As good as Stratford was doing the regular season, the team took its game to an even higher level in the post-season playoffs while defeating a trio of opponents to earn a spot in its first regional final four. In addition, the Spartans were ranked among the state’s top 15 teams in Class 6A soccer. “That’s a first for us to have that high of a ranking,” said Walters. “To have that recognition from your peers is really special.”

“We have great chemistry on this team and we’re very close, which is another big reason for our success,” added Stratford senior Hope Coltrin. Spartans junior Rileigh Toner shared similar sentiments. “This team just has a great connection. It’s been an amazing experience to play with these girls.”

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n wrestling, it was another triumphant season for the St. John’s Mavericks, who captured their fourth consecutive Texas Prep State Wrestling Championship. In a field of 21 teams, the Mavericks finished first by a dominating 94 points over second-place Episcopal. A week earlier, the Mavericks had also secured their eighth SPC Wrestling Championship.

“We had finalists in eight of the 14 weight classes at the Prep State Championships, which is pretty remarkable,” said Mavericks head wrestling coach Alan Paul. Of those finalists, John Perdue (220 pounds), Sebastian Grannen (132 pounds), and Nick Plana (126 pounds) were crowned state champions, while five other WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 40

MIGHTY MAVERICK St. John’s Mavericks senior John Perdue capped off a sensational wrestling career by becoming the school’s first ever two-time National Prep All-American. Perdue is pictured here after his victory in the finals of the SPC Championship Meet.

Mavericks (Mason Lum, Barrett Mossman, Matthew Perez, Luke Romere, and William Suttle) were state runners-up.

“This was also probably the most fun group of all the championship teams we’ve had,” said Paul.

“Some of the guys have been competing together since kindergarten and I even taught some of them first grade P.E. It’s a very close-knit group.”

As for Perdue, the Mavericks senior capped off a sensational wrestling career as a two-time state champion while also becoming the only two-time National Prep All-American from St. John’s. “Not only is John the greatest wrestler in St. John’s history, but he’s also the greatest allaround athlete to come through our school,” said Paul. “John was our star quarterback and last year when the wrestling season was suspended due to Covid, he then goes out and joins the swim team where he breaks the school record in the 50-yard freestyle. It was amazing.”

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he Houston Christian Mustangs girls basketball team capped off a perfect undefeated 33-0 season by winning the SPC Championship. The Mustangs rolled over Episcopal 87-43 in the SPC final to capture its first SPC championship in girls basketball.

“It’s super exciting,” said Mustangs senior

Kayla Mackel. “We’ve been preparing and building this program up since I’ve been a freshman.”

Leading the way for the Mustangs in the SPC final victory was star junior Loghan Johnson, who scored 28 points in the win. “This team was amazing,” said Johnson. “It’s not an easy task at all to go 33-0.” Another star player for the Mustangs was junior D’Asia Thomas who, like Johnson, will play major college basketball.

“Being the first girls basketball team to win SPC from Houston Christian is so exciting and special,” said Thomas.

The Mustangs went undefeated this season behind an enormously talented lineup. “Four of our first five starters can play major division one college basketball,” said Mustangs head coach Ryan Bickham. “We have another girl off the bench that’s also a Division 1 recruit. The talent level is unbelievable and fun to coach. Plus, there’s lots of togetherness on this team. The ‘we over me’ mentality was great.”

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 MondayThursday on AT&T SportsNet SW. To submit high school sports news for possible inclusion in SportzBuzz, please email todd@thebuzzmagazines.com.

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SPORTS

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by Angie Frederickson, staff writer

SportzBuzz Jr. W

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

Big sisters at BLL Players on the West University Softball Association (WUSA) Eclipse team (top photo) strike a pose while watching their brothers play in Bellaire Little League (BLL) games. Caroline Moncrief, Madison Wade, Diya Gidwani, and Kate Kruger (from left) are third graders at Horn Elementary and River Oaks Baptist School and are playing together for the second season in a row with WUSA. In addition to playing their softball games, one of the best parts of each Saturday is hanging out together at their brothers’ games. Little brothers Bennett Kruger, Anderson Moncrief, Mason Wade, and Shail Gidwani are following in their sisters’ footsteps and enjoying a great spring season.

Basketeers on the court Savannah Beinart, Emily Dabney, Lexi Cohen, Devon Dobbs, and Ellie Roth (middle photo) wrapped up a successful basketball season with the Bellaire Recreation Center. The Condit Elementary third graders are members of the Basketeers team, and this was their first season to play together.

Even though the basketball teams in the Bellaire Rec Center league do not keep score during the games, the players still learn skills, strategy, and teamwork. The Basketeers had a great season while learning more about basketball and developing their abilities in passing, blocking, and shooting. The final scores didn’t count, but the girls had a great “winning” season.

BLL American League Orioles including Charlie Dabney, Evan Zager, Eli Hudson, Gabe Zadok, Jonah Salazar, and Jacob Tzeng (bottom photo) run through the giant inflatable tunnel at the 2022 opening-day celebration. Opening day was a big success for Bellaire Little League.

Players and families were thrilled to be able to participate in the beloved tradition after a pandemic hiatus. This year, BLL celebrated its largest player enrollment with 49 teams ranging from 4-year-old t-ball teams to the oldest age group of 12-year-olds. The formal ceremony included a special performance of the National Anthem by the 84-member choir from Horn Elementary School, a flag ceremony and the Pledge of Allegiance from Bellaire Scout Troop 549, and special recognition of the district teams including the 2021 10U team that won the Texas East State Championship title last July. After the formal ceremonies, families enjoyed carnival games, face painting, a rock wall, a mechanical bull, baseball games, and the homerun derby.

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.

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Dee Zunker Photography

Opening day is back!

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QUARANTINE POEMS Zacharia Ali Mir, a seventh grader at Presbyterian School, started writing poetry during quarantine more frequently, to relieve stress and boredom.

KIDS

by Zacharia Ali Mir, age 13

Buzz Kidz

Going places with poetry

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ello, my name is Zacharia Ali Mir. I am a seventh grader at Presbyterian School.

My interest in poetry began in fifth grade, when my teacher gave me a website to use, which would improve my poetry. I practiced my poetry online, especially when quarantine started. Most of the time, I would make poetry on problems happening in the world.

Quarantine was a terrible time, so what I would do when I was bored is write poems and send them to my fifth-grade teacher. I would read the poetry to myself every time I was stressed out from staying at home too much. When I wrote poetry, it was like I was in the story itself, experiencing things that I liked to do before Covid. From now and forever, I will keep on writing poetry especially when I am not feeling well because poetry is like meditation for me.

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Houston Houston The modern city where I lived Happy and content For seven years The bustling smelly city Where I rest relaxed on my leather couch In my magical house Thousands of diverse cars and trucks Speeding along the cracked bumpy highway Called I-610 In Houston I smell horrible gas And immense factories I hear diverse people Cheering loudly for The baseball team called the Astros I see

Dinosaur-sized black and gray Looming towers Forming incredibly beautiful Downtown Houston In this tragic Coronavirus Pandemic I am happily writing this exhilarating poem So I can vividly remember thriving Houston during Covid-19 Want to be a Buzz Kid? Email approximately 350 words, a high-resolution photo and caption to info@thebuzzmagazines.com. Or mail it to The Buzz Magazines, 5001 Bissonnet, Suite 100, Bellaire, Texas 77401.

Enter The Buzz 2022 Photo Contest Win a Couples Staycation Package at The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa

Entries are now being accepted for our seventeenth annual Photo Contest. Entry deadline May 15.

Our grand prize winner will receive a couples staycation package at The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa. This luxury weekend package includes a Friday and Saturday night stay in one of the hotel’s newly renovated suites, a “TEX-LEX” dinner for two in the private Wine Room of TRIBUTE restaurant, two day passes to Trellis Spa’s Soaking Pools & Garden, and complimentary access to the prestigious Houstonian Club. Winning photos will be published in our July issue and online beginning July 1.

To submit photos, and for contest rules and prize details, visit thebuzzmagazines.com/photocontest.

You can also view our 2021 winners online.

Sponsored by

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 45

PETS

Neighborhood Tails Cupcake, age 4, Shih Tzu, Maroneal St. Hi! My name is Cupcake Bennion and I’m new to Houston. I was nervous to move here. I was used to the cacti, tumbleweeds, and dust in my eyes in West Texas, but it turns out Houston is awesome! The first day I moved here I decided to go exploring… I ran so fast I think my owner and I are ready for the Houston Marathon. Oh, and I love the food here! The leftover lamb from that French place is my favorite. When my owner isn’t looking, I steal it off the plate. They taught me not to do that in dog training school, but it just smells too good. Oh, and that Indian food. I’m not sure how they knew I got that… maybe my yellow curry mustache? My owners, Olive (8) and June (4), tie me to their scooters and we explore Houston. I can’t wait to see more!

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.

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Too much of a good thing: Overuse of albuterol For over 30 years asthma rescue medication therapy has been based on using albuterol, previously sold under the brand names Proventil, Ventolin or Proair HFA. But overuse of albuterol actually makes asthma worse.

Albuterol works by attaching to a ‘beta receptor’; however, using too much albuterol makes this receptor disappear, and asthma becomes much harder to control.

At the same time, tremendous advances have come along in other asthma inhalers as well as injectable biologics for patients with uncontrolled moderate or severe asthma. The combination inhaler, Symbicort, combined a long-acting version of albuterol with an anti-inflammatory steroid. It was a huge improvement over Advair because Symbicort’s bronchodilator went to work as quickly as albuterol’s did, about 5 or 10 minutes versus 30 minutes for Advair.

We have known for 15 years that using Symbicort as the rescue inhaler on top of something like Symbicort as a maintenance inhaler provides better outcomes than using albuterol as the rescue inhaler. In this month’s Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology: In Practice, a group studied asthma outcomes in patients who had severe asthma and used albuterol as the rescue medicine for asthma attacks. It confirmed previous findings that medications like Symbicort are preferable to albuterol.

Easy enough, right? We prescribe Symbicort, Dulera, Breo or Trelegy as your maintenance inhaler and prescribe generic Symbicort as your rescue inhaler. However, since Symbicort is not FDA approved for rescue therapy, insurance companies will not pay for more than one unit of the combination WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 46

inhalers per month. Symbicort going generic is a good first step, but it has only been generic for a short time, so the cash price using GoodRx is still expensive. As I write this on March 30, 2022, the least expensive price for Symbicort on GoodRx is $140 at Walgreens. Meanwhile, the least expensive cash price for albuterol is $12 at Randalls. In a few years, when a lot more generic manufacturers produce generic Symbicort, its price should continue to fall.

Since it is off patent, don’t look for the drug company to pay for any studies to get it FDA approved for rescue therapy, but hopefully insurance companies will see the benefit and their accountants will convince the medical directors to allow doctors to prescribe Symbicort as rescue therapy.

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.

David B. Engler, 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

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Social Security survivors benefits Social Security isn’t just a retirement program. Some of the Social Security taxes you pay go toward survivors benefits for workers’ families.

The value of the survivors benefits under the Social Security program is often greater than the value of individual life insurance.

If you die, certain members of your family may be eligible for survivors benefits, including surviving spouses, divorced spouses (if married 10 years), children, and dependent parents. Stepchildren and grandchildren are sometimes eligible, too.

The number of years worked to qualify your family for survivors benefits depends on your age when you die, but no one needs more than 10 years of work. Under a special rule, if you’ve worked for one and one-half years in the three years just before your death, benefits can be paid to your children and your spouse who is caring for the children.

How much your family can get depends on your average lifetime earnings.

The more you earned, the more their benefits will be. Check your Social Security Statement to see an estimate of survivors benefits. It also shows an estimate of your retirement and disability benefits, and provides other important information. Create a my Social Security account online to review your Statement.

Surviving spouses that lived with the deceased (and some that were separated) receive a $255 one-time payment. Monthly benefits may be available to, among others, a surviving spouse 60 or older (age 50 if disabled) and a surviving spouse of any age caring for the deceased’s child who is under 16 or disabled. The deceased’s unmarried children may be eligible, too, if i)

under 18, ii) 18 or 19 but hasn’t graduated high school, or iii) any age with a disability that began before 22.

When a relative dies, apply for survivors benefits promptly. For some claims, benefits are paid from the date of application, not from the date of the worker’s death. You cannot report a death or apply for survivors benefits online. To report a death or apply for benefits, call 800-772-1213. Have the decedent’s Social Security number handy. If the surviving spouse or children were not already receiving Social Security benefits, an appointment is needed to speak to a representative at a local office. Look for the online Office Locator for the phone number. Visit www.ssa.gov or call first to determine the documents to bring.

If the deceased was receiving Social Security benefits, you must return any benefit received for the month of death and later. For example, if the person dies in July, you must return the benefit paid in August.

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

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NEIGHBORS

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by Angie Frederickson, staff writer

Buzz About Town

Michael Portal, a graduate of Lamar High School and a current Ph.D. candidate in Texas A&M University’s department of philosophy, received the prestigious Fulbright scholarship.

The highly competitive award has a lengthy and rigorous selection process. Michael, son of Ellen Friedman and Marc Portal, was initially nominated by Texas A&M and was successful in additional rounds of evaluation before being named a Fulbright scholar. He will spend the 2022-23 academic year conducting interdisciplinary research at the Universiteit Antwerpen in Belgium as a research fellow in the Institute of Jewish Studies, the Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change, and the Urban Studies Institute. Michael’s project explores the Flemish emphasis on samenleven (“living together”) and its significance for Antwerp’s Jewish communities. The research asks: “What is it that unites these distinct Jewish communities?” and extends scholarship on community formation and maintenance. Michael is grateful to his parents for their invaluable advice and support during the process.

Wedding in Houston, honeymoon in Thailand After a proposal at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, Jonah Jacobsen and Cassandra WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 48

Watkins (pictured, from left) will marry in June at the Church of St. John the Divine. Jonah created an elaborate story about having dinner with his boss to make sure Cassandra was dressed up.

Then, the boss had to “cancel,” and the stage was set for the engagement at the same spot they had enjoyed an earlier date. Jonah, who is originally from Kansas City, and Cassandra, a native Houstonian who attended St. Thomas’ Episcopal School, met at a mutual friend’s birthday party at a tiki bar in 2019. After a successful meeting Mark Simmons, Marco Wang Photography

Hometown Fulbright scholar

morning walk along their favorite trail at The Houstonian, Kase popped the question. Megan says the moment was the first time she was truly surprised in her life. After Megan said “yes” and caught her breath, the newly engaged couple returned home to a surprise gathering of their closest family and friends, including parents Jan and Michael Pappert and Robin and Billy Orgel. Megan and Kase met through mutual friends during their sophomore year at the University of Texas. Kase, a Houston native, attended The Emery/Weiner School. Megan grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, where the couple plans to marry in February 2023.

Speech-and-debate success

they went on their first date a couple of days later. The first date started off a little rocky when Jonah mistakenly showed up at the wrong house to pick up Cassandra. Romance led from there, and the couple was excited to celebrate their engagement with their siblings and parents.

After the wedding, Jonah and Cassandra will honeymoon in Thailand.

A surprise engagement Megan Orgel (pictured, left) was surprised when her boyfriend of seven years, Kase Pappert (pictured, right), proposed. While on a Sunday-

St. Agnes Academy speech and debate team members celebrated big wins at the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) South Texas District Tournament held at Clear Falls High School in League City. The talented young women competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate, public forum debate, congressional debate, original oratory, domestic extemporaneous speaking, informative speaking, dramatic interpretation, humorous interpretation, duo interpretation, and program oral interpretation.

Several students finished as finalists at the end of the multi-day event. Melinda Dae qualified for the NSDA national competition in program oral interpretation, and Ella Huang is a national-tournament alternate in Lincoln-Douglas debate. The team members (continued on page 50)

(continued from page 48) are (top row, from left):

Anna Frederickson, Megan Cung, Kyra Ezikeuzor, Blair Middleton, Ella Huang, Alexis Voisin, Mack Young, and Rebecca Bi; (bottom row, from left): Kiran Mehta, Catalina Martinez, Sophia Shebay, Dawn Earles, Gabriela Clinton, Bella Varghese, and Ada Aneke; not pictured: Melinda Dae, Anika Shethia, Abigail Little, and Courtney Shopoff.

Music of the night

Natural Expressions

Congregation Emanu El Sisterhood’s annual fundraiser focusing on inclusion in the theatre arts brought together 450 in-person and more than 50 at-home viewers for an evening of music. This year’s event, titled Music of the Night, A Masked Affair…a little bit of Purim, a little bit of Broadway began with a video tribute and performance by Temple leadership, Sisterhood

members, and choir honoring Dolores Wilkenfeld, and a welcome from Kathy Parven, event chair and Sisterhood fundraising vice president. The show began with stars Andrea McArdle and Adam Pascal, accompanied by Seth Rudetsky. Together they performed more than a dozen Broadway songs before being joined by the students from TUTS’ The River program, which provides affordable, accessible arts education to people with disabilities. Parven and Sisterhood president Carol Sue Zionts presented generous checks to The Actors Fund, The River, and the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to support Ukrainian humanitarian relief efforts. The concert ended with a touching rendition of “Tomorrow” from Annie by Andrea McArdle, who shared that she is of Ukrainian descent. The performers are (from left): Jake Hurst, Abby Yadan, Mateo

Villareal, Seth Rudetsky, Riley Neal, Andrea McArdle, Jessie Vance, Adam Pascal, Lia Zitvar, Mariah Cooper, and Brennan Emeka.

CIS helps kids stay in school

Mary Craddock, gala chair, and Bonner and George Ball (pictured, from left) were among the 600 guests who enjoyed the Stay in School gala benefitting Communities in Schools of Houston (CIS) at the Post Oak Hotel. The benefit honored the life and legacy of Julie Croswell, CIS board member and longtime supporter who mentored CIS students at Lamar High School and Wisdom High School.

Following dinner and a program of speakers, guests hit the dance floor with the ’80s tribute band the Spazmatics. Thanks to the generosity of donors, the CIS of Houston gala raised $730,000 to support students with the assistance and resources they need to be successful.

Charity Guild welcomes provisional members The Charity Guild of Catholic Women is celebrating its 100th anniver- (continued on page 52) WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 50

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sional members. President Ginger Niemann and president-elect Elizabeth Jordan, along with Charity Guild’s chaplain, Father James Murphy, CSB, welcomed the new class, which is one of the largest provisional classes in the guild’s history. These women, from all over the greater Houston area, will join the almost 600member Charity Guild to serve Houston’s children in need through revenue raised at the Charity Guild Shop consignment store.

This year’s event, Clays for Kids, was held at the Greater Houston Sports Club and was presented

by Castaway Rods. Even though the weather CatchLight Group

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Kids and robots

was chilly, the enthusiastic attendees had a great day of shooting and raising money for abused and neglected children who are under the supervision of Child Protective Services. Clays for Kids set a new fundraising record for BEAR, with more than $145,000 raised.

Happy 100th birthday!

New centenarian Damon Slator celebrated his

Elementary-school students Anika Krishnan, Ariyan Engineer, and James Volpi (pictured, from left) competed in a First Lego League robotics competition. As an after-school activity, they attend the Kids Robotics Academy in Bellaire where they learn STEM-based material and applications. The talented trio formed a team called the Texas Vibers and competed against other teams in the event held at Willis Middle School. As part of the challenger division (ages 9-16), the Texas Vibers engaged in research, coding, and engineering as they built and programmed a Lego robot. The team placed first in the Core Values category and third, overall, out of 23 teams in the challenger division.

Clays for Kids Mac DeLaup, president of Castaway Rods, Judy Lakin, and Chris Tiemann (pictured, from left) enjoyed clay shooting for a cause at the annual BEAR (Be A Resource for CPS Kids) fundraiser.

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100th birthday with family and friends.

Granddaughter Che Rickman Crawford, sonin-law Holland Young, daughter Helen Young, Damon, great-granddaughter Sway Crawford, daughter Dorothy Paterson, and son-in-law Malcolm Paterson (pictured, from left) gathered at Damon’s home at the Village of River Oaks to honor the milestone. In recognition of the special day, Damon received a proclamation from the mayor’s office that February 26, 2022 was “Damon Slator 100th Birthday Day.” Several weeks before the birthday, Damon’s daughter Dorothy made a request via a Facebook post for friends to send cards to her father. The goal was for Damon to receive 100 cards for his 100th birthday, and they greatly exceeded the goal. According to Damon, the keys to longevity are keeping a positive attitude and sense of humor, dancing with passion, loving your family, and drinking scotch.

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.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ MAY 2022 53

NEIGHBORS

by Andria Frankfort, staff writer

Back Porch

What moms really want

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ear Dads (and Kids, and Other Family Members), In case it’s slipped off the radar, we’re putting it back out there: Mother’s Day is May 8!

I say that not to invoke panic in anyone. We moms know this special day can be fraught. How can you adequately celebrate someone who has literally handed over her body to her children, plus fed them, bathed them, carpooled them, and told them three times a day to keep their elbows off the table and put their napkins in their laps?

This is the person who goes to the bathroom with the sole intent of creating a few minutes of me-time, only to be interrupted by pudgy little hands on her knees and big eyes asking for some eggs. Please? (Ever seen the book Didn’t I Feed You Yesterday? It’s real.)

Let’s be clear: Mother’s Day is fraught for us too. Believe it or not, we truly want to adore whatever way you choose to celebrate us. It’s just not always easy.

Breakfast in bed? Lovely. We will definitely tell the children we love we wish they would make those pancakes of theirs (a.k.a. batter encased in a somewhat-cooked shell of a pancake, smothered in a half-bottle of syrup) for us every day! And serve it to us in bed! Inside, though, we’re wondering if we’ll be able to smell maple on our sheets when we go to bed tonight and wishing someone would whisk us to the Skeeter’s breakfast buffet.

Flowers? Candy? So, so sweet. But if that’s what we get the morning of Mother’s Day and then we turn around to spot a diaper needing changing, there’s not a big enough bouquet to make us feel any different than any other of the 365 days a year we are bound and faithful.

A couple of other things we don’t want: 1. Balloons on a stick. One soft-spoken, loving mother’s husband showed up every year with a sweet smile, their three boys, and a “Happy Mother’s Day!” balloon on a stick. Last year, the mother told her husband if he ever brought home another balloon on a stick – for any reason – she was going to stick it somewhere unpleasant.

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2. A husband who plays baseball inside and breaks the window in the French door. A little specific, maybe, but you get the point.

Now for what we do want. One mom has a tradition of choosing an activity for the family that would make her happy – and that wouldn’t happen any day other people are allowed to have opinions.

“I already have plans to visit the THE REAL DEAL Even when Mother’s Day isn’t all roses and rainbows, it can still be sweet.

Arboretum,” she says. “That’s one of their least favorite things to Dewberry Jewels do.” I got the feeling part of that joy came purely From The Junior League of Houston’s Stop & from being able to tell her family what to do and Smell the Rosemary having them actually do it.

Another checks into a hotel every year – by ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temherself. “It’s not even lavish hotels,” she says. perature “It’s just the peace of being alone, and not 1 ¼ cups sugar hearing some form of, ‘I need help!’ all day 2 large eggs, at room temperature long.”

2 cups all-purpose flour Basically, it boils down to this: Every other 2 teaspoons baking powder day of the year, we are in charge, all-in, never ½ teaspoon salt off. Mother’s Day is the one day we hope to call ½ cup milk in and relax. Moms want a day off from mom1 ½ cups fresh dewberries, blueberries, blackming. berries, or raspberries Until…until our kids get to the age when 4 teaspoons sugar they put their own napkins in their laps and drive their own cars to school. And we don’t Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease need a minute to gather ourselves in our batha muffin pan. Cream the butter and sugar in a large rooms, because nobody needs a grilled cheese bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, right now. beating well after each addition. Sift the flour, bakThen…well, then we want a day on. ing powder, and salt into a small bowl. Add the For the dads and older kids, these Dewberry flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating (or any berry) Jewel muffins are a sweet way to with milk. Fold in the berries. Divide the batter start Mother’s Day morning. Just be sure to bake evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with them all the way – and clean up the kitchen. sugar. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.