Cragg Hines Says We're World Class!
We get a two-for-one from Cragg Hines in the Comical today -- cheerleading for rail as an end in itself and open contempt of Tom DeLay:
In fact, the city also seemed more manageable. Not that mass transit is the sine qua non of urban vibrancy, but name a great city where buses and cars (and the resultant freeways) remain the sole means of self-propulsion. Even Los Angeles gave in. Now, a touch late, Houston has begun to get on the program.Hines's argument for rail comes down to, other cities have it, so we should too. It's a variant of Lee Brown's "World Class" argument, which is devoid of any discussion of costs/benefits (a discussion, as Owen has pointed out repeatedly, doesn't favor Houston rail advocates).Metro light rail seems off to a good start, bar the motorists who want to play a sure-to-lose game of chicken. The only thing that would have improved my ride from downtown to the southern terminus and back would have been Tom DeLay splayed to the front of the train as a figurehead.
I'm sure Hines and apparently his editors think it's cute to conjure up images of Tom DeLay "splayed to the front of the train," since they hate the man, but is it really that hilarious one day after the Danger Train took out a wheelchair, the latest of its 30 collisions? I don't think so.
Tasteless columnist, terrible newspaper.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/28/04 10:37 | Danger Train | Technorati
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Comments
Kevin,
What amuses me is how Hines brings up LA's rail system, which has become a running gag in the region.
I remember particularly an episode of Futurama where Fry and Leela had gotten their ship stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits. Then they pick up something on their radar, and Leela shouted:
"It's some kind of hollow tube, devoid of human life. HUHHH! The Los Angeles Subway, we can blast our way in and escape!"
http://pawell13.by.ru/tlz/s...
Hilarious... And Hines can't really argue that nobody got the joke, either. Rail in LA has been a hideous failure.
Posted by Owen Courrèges @ 12:50 on 03/28/04
At the end of Hines' piece there is this mystifying line:
"If I've lost a million pounds by the next time I'm in Houston, I plan to continue my search for the perfect chicken-fried steak and engulf it immediately before going to the Houston Grand Opera."
Why, and perhaps more intriguingly HOW, is he going to "engulf" a chicken-fried steak? I assume that what he really wants to do is eat it...? According to the Oxford Desk Dictionary, to engulf is to "flow over and swamp, overwhelm."
BTW, thanks Kevin for the welcome. I enjoy the blog immensely.
Posted by Ethan @ 15:20 on 03/28/04
It's difficult to blame some people for wishing injury to Tom DeLay, not that I condone it.
Not that I'm a fan of Hines or the Chronic.
Posted by TP @ 09:08 on 03/29/04
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