The West University Buzz - February 2024

Ben and Carrie Bradshaw

Forever Valentines Meet Cutes

For the Love of Running

From Book to Screen A Puzzling Puzzle Cindy Gabriel: Noticing Love

by Pooja Salhotra

Groundhog Day Adventures in Argentina Online Dating Houston, TX Permit No. 2047

Buzz Baby: Sentimental Gifts

PAID US Postage PRSRT STD

Buzz Reads

EDITOR’S NOTE “Meet me at Marix Tex Mex in Santa Monica. Bring a cute friend from your office.” This arrangement was 36 years ago with my college friend. We both agreed it would be fun to meet each other’s coworkers. Several of us had moved to Los Angeles right after college to pursue various career dreams. I was working at a TV station, and she was working at an ad agency. Little did I know the friend that she brought would become my life partner. Yep, it was Michael Hoffman. We connected over margaritas. Not even good ones. But good enough to encourage him to ask me out for a date. This was way before dating apps and text messages. Cell phones didn’t even exist yet. Which is a good thing. I love good stories, especially love stories. And this issue is filled with Buzz-area couples sharing their compelling stories of how they met, how they too were meant to be, and how they have stood the test of time. joni@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-in-Chief Publisher Editor Associate Editor

Joni Hoffman Michael Hoffman Jordan Magaziner Steinfeld Caroline Siegfried

Design Manager Staff Writers

John Duboise Tracy L. Barnett Sharon Albert Brier Cindy Burnett Andria Dilling Angie Frederickson Todd Freed Cindy Gabriel Cathy Gordon Michelle Groogan Dai Huynh Annie Blaylock McQueen Jennifer Oakley Cheryl Ursin Ben Portnoy, Pooja Salhotra Andrea Blitzer Leslie Little Jo Rogers

Contributing Writers Account Managers

On our cover: Even after undergoing two hip replacements, marathon runner Carrie Bradshaw has continued to race. By her side is her husband Ben, who supported her through the recovery process. Cover photo by Nikky LaWell, lawellphoto.com The Buzz Magazines has made all reasonable attempts to verify the accuracy of all information contained within. Advertising claims are solely the responsibility of the advertiser. Copyright © 2024 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.

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Persian Garden

Featuring New Paintings and Sculptures by Maryam Lavaf February 3-29, 2024 OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, February 3, 2024, 5-8 p.m. Complimentary Valet Parking and Light Refreshments Archway Gallery | 2305 Dunlavy, Houston,TX 77006 | 713.522.2409 Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10-6 / Sunday, 1-5 archwaygallery.com | Artist Owned and Operated Since 1976

maryamlavaf.com | mlavaf@yahoo.com

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MAILBAG

Your letters, thoughts, opinions On track with New Year’s resolutions Ben Portnoy's [Jan. 2024] article, It’s that Time Again: Reflecting on New Year’s resolutions, brought to mind a New Year’s resolution list I developed years ago to resolve the very problem that Mr. Portnoy addresses; namely, failing to keep them. I offer it here: I resolve to gain at least 12 pounds. I resolve to exercise less. I resolve to reduce my donations to worthy causes. I resolve to meet fewer interesting people. I resolve to flip off more drivers who cut in front of me. I resolve to accept my wife's invitations to watch those Hallmark channel movies instead of Astros games. I'm pleased to report that this list has stood the test of time. Happy New Year! Dennis Fehr

First-class article and writer What a pleasure to work with The Buzz Magazines on First-Class Dog Rescues: Father-son duo flies paw-sengers to forever homes [by Karen Vine Fuller, Jan. 2024]! I know Stuart and Jay were excited to get the word out about the pilots and the rescue organizations they work with. So often these unsung heroes don’t get the recognition or support they need to carry on their endeavors. We have enjoyed reading The Buzz for years. The magazine always contains interesting, community-based articles written by quality journalists. Indeed, our villages are enhanced by The Buzz. Additionally, we were honored to work with Karen Vine Fuller. Karen is an easy-going, detail-oriented journalist who works diligently to get her story. Thanks for allowing Karen to tell our story. Perhaps more dog rescues will result from the community awareness The Buzz will bring. Julie Jackson

Fun 15 minutes of fame Thank you for giving my daughter, Sophie Bach, a chance to share her passion for cooking [in A Passion for Cooking: Starting young by Andria Dilling, Jan. 2024]. She was so excited to be in the magazine to share something that she loves to do. We had such a fun time choosing recipes and cooking for you. It has been a special experience receiving texts from friends who read the article and are trying the zucchini crisps. Much to my delight, one of our Kolter students asked if I would be back at work now that I was famous. This will be something Sophie and I will always remember doing together! Pam Morris

Back Porch fan Over the years, Andria Dilling’s authorship of the Back Porch column has always been a “go-to” for me. Great recipes submitted by her loyal readers, funny stories about Halloween adventures, summer jaunts, etc. Andria engages her readers and invites them “in” to be a part of her story. The recent article sharing the bonding and love of a large puppy who WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ FEBRUARY 2024 6

grew up to be a huge dog bringing joy and some not-so-joyful times to his family [Saint: The Best Hanukkah Gift, Dec. 2023] resonated with many of us who have loved and lost family pets. Saint, her beloved dog, has had a proper encomium and the readers have had a good, albeit perhaps a tearful, laugh. Thank you. Kathryn Rabinow

Back Porch evoked emotion I've cried a puddle of tears reading about your not-so-Saintly Saint [in Andria Dilling’s Dec. 2023 Back Porch column] and the impact he made on your family (as well as your neighbors, kitchen counter, vet’s office, and so many other places). Reading about Saint and his life with you and the girls brought back memories of my family's own terror – Rawley, who we lost this past April unexpectedly. Our Rawley was practically a Saint (pun intended) compared to the escapades of your fur baby. But, no matter how challenging they are, we find a way to seize the memories of pure joy and companionship they've brought to our lives. He was truly the best gift at the right time in the right place – with your family. Karen Edelman 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: • Have any special spring traditions. • Love to read and are interested in sharing book recommendations. • Know a buzzworthy neighbor to feature. • Have a compelling travel tale. • Have a milestone life event to share. If this sounds like you or someone you know, please contact us at info@thebuzzmagazines.com or 713.668.4157, ext 102.

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NEIGHBORS by Cindy Gabriel, staff writer

Heart to Heart Perhaps love is just waiting to be noticed

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teenage son Arthur, a twin, died suddenly after a fall from a cliff. In a recent interview with Krista Tippett on her podcast On Being, Nick said, “I don’t see the world the way it was before. It’s much more complex and fragile.” Cave said he just acted in his grief without thinking, doing whatever arose in him. One result of this is a website called The Red Hand Files (theredhandfiles.com). Here he invites anyone to ask him a question of any kind. Some are submitted from fans of his band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Others are from those dealing with loss and grief, and still others are looking for his NATURE HAS A CRUSH ON YOU Paul Bulencea, the friend who helped Jaime Westendarp see she was surrounded by mushrooms, took this picture in wise insights into the Transylvania, Romania. dilemmas of our current die” is the last line in a poem called September times. 1, 1939, the starting date of World War II, writOne questioner asked about how to live in ten by W.H. Auden at another frightening time. our age of cynicism and cruelty. Kind of like the Perhaps the only counter to extreme hate is mushroom story, Cave sees a different reality. extreme love. Perhaps love is just waiting to be …I think we are living through a frightening and noticed. Perhaps it’s been here all along. Perhaps deeply uncertain time, and though there are dementwe will find ways to love as if our very lives ing and cynical voices out there, which are being depended on it. emboldened and amplified by social media — that I made a point today of noticing people loony engine of outrage — they do not represent the laughing, hugging, and basically being kind to voice of the many, or the good. My experience of each other. It actually does happen over and actual people in this time is overwhelmingly positive over on a daily basis. The vast majority of us — there is a great deal of love and mutual regard want the world to be a peaceful, loving place and community. I think most of us understand that and try to be peaceful, loving people. What we in order to rise above this particular moment, we don’t see is the power of that. We seem to have must pull together and act with civility, generosity lost our ability to see our own collective inner and kindness. We have a monumental task ahead of power. Love is stronger than we think. But it’s us that will require vast reserves of energy…. mysterious and sneaks up in interesting, creative Negative, cynicism and resentment will not do. ways. In us, love is everywhere, like those mush‘We must love one another or die.’ rooms in the forest. It’s the truest reality. That last line “We must love one another or Paul Bulencea

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tan’s 31-year-old niece, Jaime Westendarp, a gifted writer, poet, and nature lover, recently found herself in the middle of a forest in Transylvania, Romania, of all places. On that day in the woods, Jaime said her Romanian friend showed her how to spot a particular kind of mushroom growing on the ground. First the friend showed her a single mushroom, then asked her to look back at the forest floor. “All of a sudden that same mushroom was everywhere,” Jaime said. “I was surrounded by mushrooms; I just couldn’t see it until I recognized that one.” That realization in the Romanian forest inspired her to write a few verses. Nature has a big fat crush on you. She wants you to check her out, notice her many outfits and feel her naked. Flirt with her, dance with her, playyyyyyy with her. When she shines and when she fades; when her tenderness entices, when her titan force terrifies; say wow over and over and over. Offer up your only real resource: presence. Sacrifice your lifeblood: time. The reward? A feast of sensory delights; a holding, a merging, satisfying the true craving underneath all that humans crave; life nourishing life. Yum. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For you are paying whether you pay or not; for your caress of her, is also hers of you. – Jaime Westendarp Every February I think, great, I get to write about love. But then I think, wow, this is hard. Lately I’ve been noticing my thoughts, examining my motives, and keeping my mouth shut until my motives improve. Yep, I’m feeling edgy. What’s fascinating about Jaime’s mushroom story is that nothing changed in her surroundings, just her perception about what was actually there. Perhaps the world isn’t as dark as it seems. The truest reality is that the mushrooms had been there all along. Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. – Rumi, a 13th century Sufi poet Nick Cave, an Australian singer/songwriter, speaks and sings with a kind of dark compassion that has emerged from the devastating loss of a child. Back in 2015, Nick and his wife Susie’s

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Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

ARTS by Cindy Burnett, staff writer

From Book to Screen Adaptations that work and why

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istorically, most die-hard readers have been firmly in the camp of “the book will always be better than the TV show or movie.” With the advent of streaming platforms and the need for additional content, production companies are choosing to adapt more books to the screen than in the past. These days, with more competition to own a piece of the market, the shows are often much stronger than they used to be. Allowing books to be translated to the screen through limited series – which usually run 6-10 episodes – versus movies, which often top out at 2 to 2.5 hours, has given companies more leeway to develop stronger versions of the books as well. Bonnie Garmus’ massive bestseller Lessons in Chemistry is a good example of an adaptation that landed well with many readers. The show ran on Apple TV+ over eight episodes last fall, and Brie Larson starred as the main character, Elizabeth Zott. The story is set in the 1950s, and obvious care was taken to make sure the clothing, music, and locales were accurate for that time period. Bringing Elizabeth’s cooking show to life was another aspect of the TV version that stood out to me; I am such a visual person and watching the cooking show versus reading about it was a true standout for me. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is another bestselling book that was adapted for the screen on Amazon Prime Video last year, running over 10 episodes. Since the story is about a fictional rock band, the show creators had to write songs for the show as well as bring the band and its shenanigans to life. The book is told through a series of interviews, and the show’s creators made sure they kept that aspect of the book, which translated well to the screen. In addition, they also made sure that the clothing and the ’70s atmosphere were accurately depicted. The show has received numerous Golden Globe and Emmy nominations. While I am usually a fan of reading the book before I see a screen adaptation, last year, I watched Silo on Apple TV+ before I realized it was based on Hugh Howey’s Wool trilogy. This trilogy is set in the future in underground silos after the world above has been contaminated

COOKING UP A FAVORITE Apple TV+'s recent adaptation of the wildly popular Lessons in Chemistry contains a strong cast and attention to setting, which resonates with viewers.

and become uninhabitable. It follows several main characters as they begin to understand that everything is not as it seems. After finishing the show and loving it, I read Wool and really enjoyed comparing the two. Silo covers just a small portion of the story in Wool, which runs over 500 pages, and I found it fascinating to see how the show’s creators depicted life in the silos. After watching the show and reading the first book, I decided that sometimes it can work to watch a show first, but I feel that the Silo/Wool situation is most likely unique. Anytime I hear of an adaptation coming that I want to see, I track down the book to read it before I watch the show or movie. Sometimes the initial screen adaptations do not land well, at least for those that are fans of the original book(s). Two examples are the Jack Reacher movies (2012 and 2016) starring Tom Cruise, based on the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child and the Percy Jackson movies based on the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. Regarding the Jack Reacher movies, the main quibble readers expressed was the casting of Tom Cruise as Reacher, a man who is described as “hulking” and is 6’5” tall. Cruise clearly does not fit the bill, and readers, myself included, felt that miscasting Tom Cruise as Reacher made it difficult to take the movies seriously as valid interpretations of the books. The Percy Jackson movies chose to age up the main characters by 6 or 7 years as well as poorly depicting the setting and storylines. Recently, both book series have been adapted again in the limited-series format to much greater acclaim. Season 1 of Reacher on Amazon Prime Video was a huge hit for the platform last year, and Season 2 recently released. Alan Ritchson, a giant of a man, is cast as Jack Reacher this time, and readers have loved his depiction of the title character

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as well as the series itself. Percy Jackson recently came out as a limited series on Disney+ to positive reviews and a much closer following of the books. If you are looking for more screen adaptations, other books that have had successful limited series or movies in recent times are Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (Apple TV+), the Bridgerton book series by Julia Quinn (Netflix), The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk (Netflix), The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Hulu), and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. More screen adaptations are coming in 2024 including one of my all-time favorite books, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Showtime), as well as A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (BBC Three), and The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver (which will be entitled Tracker) (CBS). One of the most talked about upcoming adaptations is Argylle by Elly Conway, which published on Jan. 9. The author’s bio is vague including language that “she lives somewhere in the United States” and there has been a lot of speculation that the author could be Taylor Swift, something even the publisher has played into. Adding to the idea that it could be Swift is the quick adaptation to a movie, which is out this month, and that the adaptation has a starstudded cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Katherine O’Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, and John Cena. While it seems odd that this spy thriller would be written by Taylor Swift, it has done wonders for the book’s popularity. Now, back to the question: Is the book always better? It seems it depends on the book, the adaptation, and the reader. We’d love to hear what you think.

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NEIGHBORS by Ben Portnoy, contributing writer

Groundhog Day Photo by Steve Wrzeszczynski on Unsplash

Do we really want winter to end?

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ince moving to Houston more than 50 years ago, it has always made me sad that we pay such little attention to Groundhog Day. I grew up in Ohio, and February 2 – Groundhog Day – was of some importance. By then, we were usually tired of all the snow and ice. The tradition is that on that day, the groundhog comes out of hibernation and looks around. If it is a clear day and he (or she) sees his/her shadow, he/she will return to his/her den, and winter is said to last another six weeks. If the day is cloudy and the creature cannot see his shadow, then winter is said to draw to a close sooner, and we all get to enjoy an early spring. I know that February has some other holidays like Presidents’ Day and Valentine’s Day, so maybe Groundhog Day gets crowded out. Or maybe it’s because in Texas we just don’t care when winter will end. Come to think of it, after last summer, we probably are hoping winter will last longer. Still, I like to observe Groundhog Day. It’s nice to know what the groundhog will predict for our friends up north. Groundhog Day has a long history. Germanspeaking Pennsylvania Dutch observed the day beginning in the 16th century. In Europe, the animal observed was the badger and, in some places, a bear or a fox. In 1886, the Punxsutawney Spirit, the local newspaper of a town in western Pennsylvania, reported on February 2 that the groundhog had seen his shadow. The next year, a group of Punxsutawney citizens marched to a place called Gobbler’s Knob in their town and began the annual ritual of observing the groundhog’s behavior on February 2. Only in 1961 did the index animal get the name Punxsutawney Phil. Why February 2, you ask? It turns out that in ancient Roman times a ceremony was conducted on that date to honor the god Februus. There would be processions of citizens holding candles. Celtic populations observed cross-quarter days. These are days that fall halfway between a solstice and equinox. The Celtic holiday, Imbolc, later became Candlemas, a day for a candle procession. It is observed on February 2, and the days of the holiday are halfway between the winter solstice (around December 21) and the

IT’S NOT A TEXAS THING Ben Portnoy, who grew up in Ohio, laments the irrelevance of Groundhog Day here in Texas. Pictured is a Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Tradition bears that if the iconic groundhog Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, winter is forecasted to last another six weeks.

spring equinox (around March 21). Winter weather prediction became associated with Candlemas, and the badger and its descendant groundhog were adopted as the predictors. The 1993 film Groundhog Day is considered a classic, but personally, I am troubled by the plot. It has cast a false meaning to this important yearly celebration. The movie depicts events happening over and over again, and that really has nothing to do with the deep historic significance of Groundhog Day. Some use the term Groundhog Day to scorn events that repeat over and over. Please dismiss that meaning from your mind if it was ever there. What of the groundhog? It is more formally known as Marmota monax, and others call it a woodchuck. Last spring, I was in northern Ohio birdwatching during migratory season. It was getting late, and I was walking by a creek looking for a purple gallinule that had been spotted by others. This would be a most unusual bird for that area. Something moved, and I was ready to spot my bird when a furry creature larger than a squirrel popped out of some reeds by the creek. Another birder was standing by me, and I asked, “What in the world was that?” He informed me

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that I had just seen a groundhog. Life goal completed. This all may seem silly to you, and I’ll admit that it probably is silly, but keep in mind that there are lots of days designated for even sillier things. Take November 14 for instance. That is National Pickle Day. What you are supposed to do on that day is clear, but what if you prefer olives? A personal favorite is National Bow Tie Day. That is August 28 for you four-in-hand guys. July 11 is National Swimming Pool Day. It’s a good thing that is not in February. If you don’t like swimming, then the first Wednesday in June is Global Running Day. Probably the day we should all observe is May 11, since that is National Eat What You Want Day. You are officially given permission to indulge in anything you want, even a bag of M&M’s. But I go back to Groundhog Day. It is coming up, and we will then know if 90-degree weather will hit us in March or April. I wonder, though, whether we should put our trust in a groundhog. Maybe an armadillo would be better for us Texans. And if that confuses you, I am here to inform you that February 2 is also World Ostrich Day. No kidding.

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SPORTS by Pooja Salhotra, contributing writer

Beating the Odds From recovery to marathon training

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arrie Bradshaw barely made it down the block of her West University neighborhood when she felt a sharp pain erupt in her left hip. It was Halloween night in 2022, and Carrie was dressed in her cozy skeleton onesie – the same one she wears every spooky season when she goes trick-or-treating with her family, an annual tradition for the mom of two. That night, Carrie’s husband Ben and son Theo wore matching Michael Myers costumes while her daughter Poppy opted for a firefighter getup. As the Bradshaws continued down the street, Carrie felt the pain in her hip intensify. It was a pain that Carrie, then 40 years old, had grown accustomed to over the past two years. But this time, the discomfort was even worse. It felt like bone was grinding against bone. And as much as Carrie wanted to ignore the feeling and press on with her family, she simply couldn’t. As Carrie hobbled her way back home, she lamented that she couldn’t celebrate Halloween with her family. She wondered: Is this the kind of life I want to live? Almost a year earlier, Carrie was diagnosed with congenital hip dysplasia in both hips, a developmental abnormality where the hip joint does not properly fit into the socket. Severe cases of hip dysplasia are often diagnosed in the first few months of a baby's life and can be treated using a harness. Less severe cases can go unnoticed for years. But when it goes untreated, dysplasia often causes arthritis. That’s what had happened to Carrie, who said she had no idea what hip dysplasia was when she was diagnosed with it in December 2021, when the pain was so bad she decided to see a specialist. Since then, Carrie had spent hours researching the condition on the internet. She had visited numerous doctors and taken their advice: physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, platelet rich plasma therapy. Those treatments were like band-aids. They were short-term fixes that failed to get at the root of the problem. As the arthritis worsened, Carrie was running out of options. While hip-replacement surgery had always been on the table, Carrie felt apprehensive about the

READY TO RUN Within six months of receiving two hip replacement surgeries, Carrie Bradshaw, a marathon runner, returned to training. She hopes to qualify for the Boston Marathon again soon.

invasive procedure. Doctors advised her to wait as long as possible to do the surgery, because the research was not clear on how long hip replacements would last. Doctors also told her that if she opted for surgery, she might never run again. A marathon runner, Carrie could hardly imagine her life without running. “I think the lowest I’ve ever seen Carrie is when doctors were telling her she might not be able to run,” Ben recalled. She was willing to suffer some amount of pain to continue with her passion. So while Carrie tentatively scheduled surgery for November 7, she was not yet sure she’d actually go through with it. She was considering canceling it. “It felt like I was getting a piece of my identity stolen from me,” Carrie said. “I was willing to work on accepting the fact that I might never run long-distance again, but I wasn’t going to give up on it.”

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Late into the night, Carrie would scour the internet trying to find other women runners who had had hip surgery and successfully gone back to marathon running. She couldn’t find anyone like her. And so as November 7 approached, she wasn’t quite sure she’d follow through. “Carrie is someone who always does her due diligence,” Ben said. “She’s not someone who makes rash decisions.” Back at home on Halloween night, Carrie suddenly realized that it was time for her to take action. She’d have the surgery she had been weighing for months. “I took it as a sign from God that I just needed to do it.”

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orn and raised in Houston, Carrie has always been a determined athlete. She played Varsity soccer for all four years of high school at Klein – even after tearing (continued on page 16)

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THE BEST CHEERLEADERS Carrie’s family has supported her through two intense surgeries, and they are often cheering her on from the sidelines during her races. Top left: Poppy, Carrie, Ben, and Theo enjoy family time in the park. Top right: Ben and Carrie enjoy running together. Here, they're pictured after completing the Aramco Houston Half Marathon in 2015. Bottom left: In December, Carrie ran a 12-mile race in preparation for the January Houston Half Marathon. Bottom right: Carrie and her son Theo celebrate after Carrie completed a 10-mile run in The Woodlands in 2017. (continued from page 14) her ACL – and she ran

her first marathon while in college at The University of Texas at Austin. At first, running was a hobby that kept her active after she stopped playing sports competitively. Eventually, Carrie became hooked on

racing, and it became more of a lifestyle. She ran with her partner Ben, a fellow UT alum whom she met in her late 20s at a New Year’s Eve party. The couple moved to Brisbane, Australia in 2010, where Ben got a job in oil and gas, and Carrie took her fitness regimen to a new level.

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Though she studied accounting in college, Carrie always wanted to be a personal trainer and help others reach their fitness goals. In Australia, she took a course to get certified, and she started running bootcamps for women. She launched her own company (continued on page 18)

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STRONG FINISH Carrie has completed 10 marathons and more than 50 half marathons. Left photo: Carrie runs the Chevron Houston Marathon in 2014. Her time qualified her for the Boston Marathon. Middle photo: Carrie completes the Boston Marathon, one of the most well-known races in the world. Right photo: Carrie runs the Chicago Marathon. (continued from page 16) called

“Sweat in the City,” a play off of Sex and the City, the popular television series whose lead character is also named Carrie Bradshaw. In the meantime, she continued running and set an ambitious goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon, one of the most well-known marathons in the world. Ben, also a runner, thought Carrie was being overzealous. He felt that Carrie still had a long way to go before she would be fast enough to qualify for Boston. He encouraged her to take things slower. “I was like whoa, baby steps,” Ben said. “I remember thinking to myself that she had set herself up for disappointment.” But Carrie defied Ben’s expectations. She created a training plan and stuck to it. Soon, she was winning local 10K races, accepting medals right and left. Ben could no longer keep up with his wife, and he watched in awe as she ran the Houston marathon in 2014 – fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. “She trained her butt off and turned herself into an elite runner in a matter of a year,” Ben said. Over the past two decades, Carrie has run a total of 10 marathons and more than 50 half marathons. She’s run across multiple continents, from Vietnam to New York City, and she even ran a full marathon while she was seven months pregnant with Theo, now 7. She qualified for the Boston Marathon a second time in 2017, but she got pregnant with Poppy, who is now 5, while training for it. Hip dysplasia has prevented her from running a full marathon ever since. “It’s been affecting her demeanor and her soul,” Ben said. “Fitness releases endorphins and

puts you in a good mood – it’s kind of like her medicine. You take that away and she doesn’t have that release.” Carrie says the activity has shown her what she is capable of and helped her develop the confidence and fortitude to navigate life’s challenges – including the two hip surgeries she’d eventually have to endure.

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eading up to her surgery in November 2022, Carrie visited the clinic for pre-operative testing. She recalls seeing other patients, all of whom were decades older than her. Their goals for postsurgery seemed so far off from her own. They wanted to return to low-impact activities like gardening or playing with their grandchildren. Carrie, meanwhile, wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon again. And she still had Theo and Poppy to take care of at home. She felt out of place and wondered if she was making the right decision. She followed through with the surgery, though, and afterwards, she stayed in the hospital for three nights. She remembers intense pain and having difficulty with basic activities, like getting in and out of bed in the morning or putting on her shoes. Once she got home, her son Theo was afraid, watching his mom use a walker to get around. “It was a shocker for all of us,” Carrie said. “And I got depressed because most people who have hip replacement don’t have young kids.” As soon as Carrie started to recover and transition off the walker, she noticed her other hip acting up. She recalls standing in the bathroom feeling a shooting pain down her right leg. This time around, she knew what she was in for. Not wanting to wait until she reached a

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breaking point again, Carrie decided to go ahead and schedule the second surgery. Initially, Carrie and her doctor, Gregory Stocks, thought she would wait a couple of years before the second surgery, but the arthritis seemed to be worsening more quickly than anticipated. This time, the surgery was even more challenging. After the procedure, Carrie had excruciating pain in her hip flexor due to tendinitis, which is not uncommon after hip replacement. It was so bad that Ben had to carry her to the car. The recovery was even more arduous than the first time around, but Carrie is finally pain free. Since her surgeries, she has run three 10K races and two half marathons, including the Houston Half Marathon in January. Soon, she’ll start training for a marathon. She hopes to build up her speed and stamina to eventually qualify for Boston again. Friends and family say that Carrie is uniquely optimistic, a quality that has carried her through the recovery process. “I think going through these tough surgeries and recoveries helped her become stronger,” said Mary Ellen Firat, a close friend of Carrie’s who lives in Houston. “I think she’s realized that since she has overcome these two surgeries with flying colors, she can take on everything.” Ben says he’s loved seeing Carrie come home after a run with a grin on her face. It’s like she’s slowly returning to herself and rediscovering the joy of running all over again. This time around, Ben has no doubts that his wife will qualify for Boston. “I’m expecting it now,” Ben said. “Just let me know when we’re going.”

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NEIGHBORS by Pooja Salhotra, contributing writer

Meet Cutes From first glance to forever love

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ou know a meet cute when you see one. They are those classic Rom-Com scenes where two people meet for the first time under unusual, funny, or embarrassing circumstances. The two people – whether they immediately feel drawn to one another or take ages to connect – ultimately fall in love and live happily ever after. In this story, you’ll learn that meet cutes aren’t just things of movies. They are part of many of our neighbors’ lives. Here are the stories of four Buzz couples whose meet cutes were made for the big screen. Adam Morales was at Home Depot with his dad when his phone rang. “Adam, it’s Misty from anatomy lab,” a voice on the other side said. “I’m stuck on the beach, and I need to get out of here.” It was cold and rainy, and Misty’s friends had planned to camp on the beach. Misty was miserable. Adam, a native of Corpus Christi, knew this was his opportunity to impress Misty Menger, who he had met in anatomy lab two months earlier. The two were juniors at Texas A&M University, and Adam felt that he had gotten lucky when he was assigned to partner with Misty. You never know who you’re going to get paired with, and Misty – a cute brunette with sharp, purple-rimmed glasses – had caught Adam’s eye. Even better, the two complemented each other perfectly. While Adam took control of the scalpel, Misty was happy to skip dissecting and read Adam the instructions. It was in anatomy lab that Misty discovered she was not cut out to do surgery. Now, Misty was calling Adam asking for help. Misty was camping on the beach in Corpus for Spring Break. Adam had figured it was a bad idea – it’s typically cold in the South Texas beach town in March – so he offered to help if she needed anything while in his hometown. He secretly hoped she would. Adam dashed out of Home Depot and came to Misty’s rescue. He took her to his favorite surf club downtown and then dropped her off at the airport, leaving Misty impressed and grateful. “After that, I started paying more attention to him,” said Misty, who grew up in Houston. “I remember thinking he went out of his way to help me.” That summer, Misty and Adam found them-

selves together again on campus. Both were biochemistry majors and had decided to take microbiology during the summer. They signed up for the same lab – on purpose – and soon became inseparable. Adam would stop by the Mexican restaurant where Misty waitressed, and she’d save him breakfast tacos. During class, they’d stealthily work on crossword puzzles together. Afterwards, they’d go swimming, play volleyball, go for runs, or study together in the library. “Once we kind of hooked onto each other, we never really left,” Misty said. The two Aggies shared a commitment to school and learning. Both LAB PARTNERS AND LIFE PARTNERS Adam and Misty Morales met while they were hardworking were lab partners in an anatomy class at Texas A&M. Top photo: The couple lives in and preferred quiet Memorial and has been married for almost 18 years. Bottom photo: Adam and Misty enjoy watching basketball games together. Here they’re pictured outside the Toyota nights in over club Center for a Rockets game in 2003. nights out. In the ensure her Spanish language skills would stick. fall, Adam applied to medical school and Misty Today, she runs her own law practice. accompanied him across Texas for all of his Three years after they started dating and one interviews. day before Adam was scheduled to take a competAfter graduation in 2003, Adam started meditive medical exam, Adam popped the question at ical school at UT Houston and Misty went to the Four Seasons Downtown. Misty was shocked Rice University to study Spanish. She wanted that he would propose the day before a pivotal to teach Spanish before going to law school to

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LOVE IS IN THE AIR Cody Plummer met now-wife Caroline Plummer on a flight from Houston to Baton Rouge. They both attended Louisiana State University but had never formally met before the flight. Top left: Cody and Caroline enjoy a walk through the streets of New Orleans in January 2020. Bottom left: Caroline and Cody attend an LSU football game at Tiger Stadium in 2019. Right photo: Caroline and Cody have been together since 2016 and now live in the Bellaire area, near where Cody grew up.

exam. But Adam simply couldn’t wait any longer. “I remember thinking, what am I waiting for?” Adam said. “Am I really going to delay my future with this woman that I love? And then it just dawned on me. I need to propose.” The happy couple has been married nearly 18 years and lives together in Memorial with their three daughters: Meadow, Milan, and Monet.

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n the terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Cody Plummer spotted a cute girl who looked familiar. He’d seen her around campus at Louisiana State University, where he had graduated from two years prior and was currently completing a master’s degree. And the girl had been on his flight from Baton Rouge to Houston two days earlier. On that flight, she sat next to a guy who could’ve been her boyfriend. This time, Cody noticed she was flying solo. With a two-hour flight delay, Cody knew this was his window to make a move. He mustered the courage to strike up a conversation and introduced himself to Caroline Geiger. The two

began chatting about Greek life at LSU, and they quickly realized they shared a mutual close friend. The easy conversation made time fly, and soon it was time to board the plane. Caroline took her assigned seat near the front of the plane in Economy Plus, and Cody begrudgingly took his middle seat in the rear. Wanting to continue the conversation with Caroline, Cody asked a flight attendant if he could move up. “I was like, I was just talking to this really cute girl in the terminal, and I’m pretty sure there’s an empty seat next to her. Do you mind if I sit next to her?” The flight attendant proved to be a good wingman and let Cody move to the front. Caroline was immediately taken by Cody’s confidence, intelligence, and charm. “I remember being impressed by him,” Caroline said. “There was an instant connection.” When the flight landed in Baton Rouge, Cody was supposed to get picked up at the airport by his roommate. As luck would have it, the roommate failed to answer his phone, and Caroline offered Cody a ride home. That gave

Cody the perfect opportunity to ask for Caroline’s number – and to ask her on a date. At the time, Caroline had her sights set on graduation. She wanted to move back to Houston and had sworn off dating. She didn’t want to start a new relationship in Louisiana only to have to cut it off in May. But she said yes to Cody anyway, and within a month, the two were seriously dating. “It’s kind of funny how the universe works,” Cody said. “As soon as you stop looking for something or wanting it and trying to make it happen, things just fall into your lap.” Caroline and Cody both moved to Houston after graduating in 2017, and they got an apartment together in 2020. They made it through the Covid-19 pandemic together, with Cody – who works as a consultant – taking his work calls from the master closet and Caroline, a manager at CenterPoint Energy, setting up shop at a Rubbermaid table in the living room. On New Year’s Eve of 2020, Cody proposed to Caroline in Costa Rica – a fitting move for a couple who met on an air- (continued on page 22)

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FOREVER COPILOTS Shelly and Chris deZevallos met at West Houston Airport, which Shelly's family owns and where Chris was storing his airplane. Left photo: Chris and Shelly met about two decades ago and have been married since 2006. Top right: Flying brought Shelly and Chris together, and they still love being copilots together. Bottom right: Shelly and Chris have twin girls Katharine (left) and Sarah (right), who are now 14. The family enjoys flying together. (continued from page 21) plane.

“I was sitting on this ring for months trying to find the right opportunity to propose, and the stars kind of aligned because Covid restrictions finally were lifted,” Cody said. “It was the perfect time.”

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he first time Shelly Lesikar saw Chris deZevallos she accused him of stealing her water. Shelly’s family owns West Houston Airport, where Chris was storing his small airplane, and Shelly noticed that he was using a garden hose from her airplane hangar to wash his plane. “She’s driving past me and says, ‘do you always use my water to clean your plane?’” Chris recalled. “‘Because I have a wash rack on the other side where you can wash your plane.’” Chris said he wouldn’t do it again and made it his mission to get Shelly’s phone number. “Obviously, I had to get the name and phone number of the good-looking woman with a dog who lives in an airplane hangar.” Chris called the airport, and Shelly’s dad gave his daughter’s home and cell phone number – and offered to pay for the first date. Shelly was 34 years old at the time and had no intention of getting married. She was happy with her dog, two cars, airplane and hangar. At

age 30, she had even bought herself a “single and happy” ring. So when her dad heard a fellow pilot was interested in his daughter, he was excited. Maybe this would be a match. Chris and Shelly dispute when their first date happened. Chris says it’s when he asked Shelly to fly with him one night. Chris flew Shelly to Austin to go to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants called Guero’s. “When a guy asks you out for dinner and flies you there in an airplane, most people would consider that a date,” Chris says. But Shelly argues that it doesn’t count. “I’m a little old fashioned, and you ask somebody two or three days in advance to go on a date,” Shelly said. “This was a ‘hey, you want to go fly with me tonight?’” Shelly thought Chris was simply asking for a co-pilot because it was nighttime, and Shelly had significantly more flying hours than Chris. Chris works as a real estate developer but had recently learned to fly and purchased an airplane. Regardless, the couple’s shared love of flying, dogs, and the outdoors brought them closer together. Their early days were filled with hikes around Austin, weekend trips in the plane and other outdoor adventures.

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Eighteen months after they met, Chris asked Shelly to dinner, and they again flew to Austin to go to Guero’s. This time, it was undoubtedly a date. On the flight over, Chris asked Shelly to marry him. The couple had their wedding reception in the airport hangar, with the couple taxiing in on an airplane. And they even lived in the airport hangar until 2019. Now the couple lives in Memorial but continues to fly on the weekends – they’ve been to Washington, Maine, California, the Bahamas. And they often travel with their twin, 14-yearold daughters, Sarah and Katharine. Shelly hopes one of them will become a pilot. “It’s amazing how small the country is when you get to fly in a small plane,” she said.

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he first time Teddy Niedermayer made a move on Emily Boyce, during his sophomore year at Colby College, he was rejected. Plain and simple. Teddy asked Emily to dance at a party, and Emily said no – she was on her way out, headed to an off-campus fraternity party. “I just gave up,” Teddy said. “Emily wanted to go live her fun college days and shot down the nice guy who was chasing after her.” But Teddy wouldn’t actually give up so easily.

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COLLEGE SWEETHEARTS Teddy and Emily Niedermeyer met while volunteering as youth soccer coaches as students at Colby College. Top left: Teddy and Emily enjoy time together at the Colby Student Union. Bottom left: Teddy and Emily went to Chile for their honeymoon in December 2023. Here, they're pictured in Valparaíso. Right: Emily and Teddy on their wedding day in October 2023 in Portland, Maine.

About a month earlier, in the fall of 2012, Teddy had met Emily when the two signed up to volunteer coaching youth soccer in Waterville, Maine. Teddy went out of his way to spend time with Emily and one of her friends, hitching rides with them instead of with his guy friends. “I was like, here are two cute freshmen girls. I’m going to make excuses to hang out with them,” Teddy said. In the spring, after the dust had settled from Teddy’s rejection, Emily and Teddy once again found themselves in the same place at the same time. Emily – who sang in choir while she was a student at St. John's School in Houston – joined an a cappella group, and Teddy was part of another singing group. The community was small and close-knit. Emily and Teddy started eating lunch together a few times a week. And Teddy, wanting to spend more time with Emily, made up clever excuses to see more of Emily. He accepted an internship at a Latin American company in the summer and asked Emily, who was studying Spanish, if she

could help him translate the HR documents and tutor him in Spanish. Teddy did not mention that he was already fluent in Spanish. “I just kept finding these little opportunities to go bother Emily,” Teddy said. The friendship turned into a romance over the summer when the two found that they were texting each other incessantly. Emily, a native Houstonian, visited Teddy in Miami, and the two spent so long on the beach that Teddy got the worst sunburn of his life. It was so bad he had to skip work the next day. By then, Emily was falling for Teddy, too. “He says exactly what he’s thinking, so there’s no guessing, and that’s really refreshing,” Emily said. “That is still something I like about him.” And, lucky for Teddy, Emily’s parents liked him too. They had met when they visited from Houston one weekend and offered to take all of Emily’s friends out to lunch. “Emily’s dad and I got along really well because we had a mutual love of airplanes,” Teddy said. “So even before we were dating, I

knew I got along pretty well with her parents.” After Teddy graduated, the two lived in different states. Emily was still at Colby, but Teddy visited often. He was on campus so much that underclassmen were in disbelief when they found out he wasn’t a current student. The couple then spent three years in NYC together – Emily as a teacher and Teddy working for JetBlue, before they moved to New Hampshire where Teddy started business school at Dartmouth and Emily found a new teaching job. After the pandemic, the two were on a trip to France together, where Teddy planned to pop the question. He had had a ring for nearly a year, but hadn’t found the right opportunity to propose. On the second to last day of the trip, Emily and Teddy sat in a park and Emily confided that all of her friends were getting married, and she was ready to plan a wedding too. Teddy chuckled to himself and proposed the very next day. They now live in Philadelphia with their dog, Azula.

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NEIGHBORS by Cathy Gordon, staff writer

Forever Valentines Love and laughs, 51 years later

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he memory evokes a wild roar of a laugh, the kind that simmers as a giggle, erupting into full-blown howls. Bellaire High School sweethearts Steve and Donna Palmer, just a few years married at the time, had accepted a neighbor couple’s invitation to a marriage retreat. “We really had no idea what it was, but our neighbors, older than us, had just come from one,” recalls Donna, whose buoyant energy fizzes from her like bubbles on a soda. “They said it makes good marriages even better and we would absolutely love it. We were game to try anything fun and thought it sounded like a great weekend getaway!” Once there, husbands and wives were corralled into separate rooms, unable to communicate, then asked to write in a notebook, with this prompt: What is your biggest problem together and how do you solve it? Attending couples were to be herded together at exercise’s end. Time to share. Steve sat with blank pages, nothing to write. He seriously longed to retreat from the marriage retreat. Um, what are we doing here!? “This was more about marriages that were in trouble. We didn’t understand what it was about,” he says. His marriage was fine. Way better than fine. “We’re like, ‘What can we make up?’” says Donna whose notebook was blank, too, save a few doodles. They slinked out the back door, never to return, giggles and snorts their only takeaway. “Just the hilarity of us being there… I mean, we didn’t know what we were getting into!” Donna says, laughing.

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he couple celebrates 51 years of marriage on May 20. When they feel an urge to write about each other, it’s likely in the form of a love note. Voluminous romantic missives and mementoes have been preserved through the decades. “I’ve kept every card and letter he’s ever written to me. The house might look neat, but don’t open the drawers!” Their playful banter tells all: “What is it you always tell me when we are out together? I know it isn’t true, but it’s so sweet that you always say it.” “That you’re the prettiest girl in the room.”

“And I know I’m not. But Steve is so sweet. So so sweet.” “It’s the medicines.” “We never stop laughing,” Donna says. “But no marriage is perfect. I don’t want to give that impression. That doesn’t exist.” Through the rumbles and bumbles of life, good times and bad, their bond instinctively defaults to its original factory setting: Love. Respect. Laughter. They never take their marriage for granted. She and Steve grew up watching June and A LASTING LOVE Bellaire High School sweethearts Donna and Steve Palmer Ward Cleaver on Leave share a mutual respect for what each has brought to nearly 51 years of marriage. it to Beaver, the happy Included in that? Lots of laughter. suburban parents of the doesn’t have to be where romance goes to die. 1950s who made marriage look like pure bliss At least four times a year, Steve whisked her without effort. “Steve and mine’s parents had away for a weekend getaway when they became strong marriages, too,” she explains. parents. “You must remember life before kids So, it rocked them to their core when a couand make it about each other. It’s not always ple, about 15 years their senior – “total role modeasy to do,” stresses Donna. els to us, affectionate, loving” – suddenly And pick your battles. announced plans to divorce. “Those marriages where there’s petty bicker“We were in our late 20s, and it inadvertently ing back and forth? I can’t stand being around caused us to hold each other a bit tighter and that, and neither can Steve. He always brings up planted seeds that probably helped us to not take that saying Men are from Mars, Women are from our marriage for granted,” Donna explains. Venus,” she says of the classic book. “We have Those seeds have cultivated respect and to remember that we don’t always see things the admiration for what each brings to the union. same way.” “We have passions that we share together. She laughs at a long-ago note she wrote to But we also love that each of us brings separate Steve, on his 19th birthday, recently posted to passions to the marriage. Steve loves that I love Facebook: “Well, here we are, another year has to have fun with my girlfriends, and I love that gone by and it’s birthday time again. We’ve been Steve loves to play golf with the guys. It’s so through a lot together, both good times and bad healthy,” says Donna, 71, born a day apart from times, and all these times only seem to bring us closer Steve, 72. August-born Leos. together. Have a wonderful 19th year and always “Strong, strong, strong personalities,” she says, remember that I love you.” “but not in confrontational ways. It just works.” She posted it for its comedy. “No real bad times to She stresses the importance of couples taking be had at 19! We didn’t know what bad times were!” time for fun, spontaneous getaways. Parenthood

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SENTIMENTAL SNAPSHOTS The couple’s legacy of love is captured through the years. Left: Happiness and hugs during the University of Oklahoma ZBT fraternity formal. Middle: Donna and Steve’s wedding day in Austin, May 20, 1973. Right: The fun pair are hoisted into the air while seated on chairs at daughter Erika Mandel’s wedding, part of the joyful hora dance traditionally performed at Jewish wedding receptions.

But a reply to the post from school friend April Sherman Hiller reveals just how hopelessly smitten Steve was: “I knew junior year in high school he was going to marry you! Steve and I were in Spanish class, and you walked by. He leaned over and whispered to me, ‘I am going to marry her.’” In a follow-up conversation with Donna recently, April confides, “I thought he was totally crazy because he said it with such conviction!”

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es, the chemistry ignited in high school, but they met as middle-schoolers, the age of armpit farts, changing bodies, and searching for your identity. At Johnston Junior High. “This is how far we go back,” says Donna. “I looked at him at the pool one day and went ‘Aghh! You’ve got a hair on your chest!’ How’s that for a visual!” And another visual: Steve, in his first afterschool job at Burger King, getting off work and making a beeline to Donna’s house. “The third night of this, Donna said ‘You know, you smell like a hamburger,’” he recalls. Faster than you can say Whopper with cheese, he quit to take another job. It’s the same Steve that burned up the road between Norman, Okla. and Austin “pretty much every weekend,” during college years. He was a business major at The University of Oklahoma, Donna at The University of Texas, on her path to becoming a teacher. He transferred to UT. “Ran out of money for gas,” he says, chuckling. It’s also the same Steve that couldn’t bear being apart when Donna took a summer counselor job at North Carolina’s Blue Star Camps. “Between camp sessions one and two, the counselors had a three-day break,” she explains. “I’m sitting outside and suddenly, I see this car driving down the road, leading to the camp. Without telling me, Steve got a job there, too.” “That’s Steve. He was part of us, is part of us,”

says Donna’s sister, Susan Magaziner. “He’s been in the family basically since I was a little kid. He was over every weekend, and every day after school. He was always part of our life. “They still call each other cute,” she continues. “Donna will say, ‘Oh he’s so cute!’ and Steve says to me all the time, ‘Boy, that sister of yours…’ I mean, after 50 years of marriage and a thousand years of dating, they’re very, very happy! I think they know they have a gift that’s not that common. Just look at the divorce rate in today’s world.” “My sister Susie is like a sister to him,” says Donna. “And my brother Mark was 4 when we started dating. He thinks of him as a brother. And we lost Dad early, so I think he also thinks of him as a father figure. I have a picture of Steve holding my brother when he was that 4-yearold. How precious is that?”

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ndeed, family is important to this couple. Steve has built a family legacy company, Creative Blinds, a residential and commercial window covering business, that he started in 1976 with a $10,000 inheritance from his grandmother. He treats employees like family and has hired plenty of actual family over the decades who saw the company hit new heights of success. “My mom died early, age 47. My father retired a couple of years afterward. He had nothing to do,” recalls Steve. “He came to me, 57 at the time, and said ‘Can I do anything?’ And he stayed for 26 years.” “My experience watching my dad at work is so eye opening because he gives people a chance, sometimes a second chance, third chance,” says daughter Erika Mandel. She and husband Jed are proud parents to Jack, 10, Max, 8 and Sonny, 5. “We’re madly in love with them,” Donna says of her grandsons. “My mom and dad have such generous hearts. I think that both recognize the effect that each of them has had on their communities, in such a

real way, naturally, organically,” continues Erika, who is often approached by people telling her how much her mother – who first taught in Houston’s Fifth Ward, then The Shlenker School, and 30 years as an award-winning kindergarten teacher at St. John’s School – profoundly impacted their lives. Donna retired in 2020. She keeps up with many of her former students. Steve and Erika recently encountered a realtor at a client’s house who told them that Donna “literally changed my kids’ lives.” “We hear that all the time,” says Steve. “She always gave everything she had to her teaching career, a gift beyond belief. She’d sprint out of bed and practically run to work. She was so excited to get there.” “She made a big impact, hands down one of the best educators in the country,” says son Dustin. “And when things hit the fan, Donna Palmer is the first person to show up for you. Genuinely. Dad is the most selfless person I know, and Mom is the first to show up when things are hard. If there’s one trait I want from them, it’s those. “They were a solid team in decision-making and always there for after-school events, sports, whatever,” he continues of his parents whose “love was written in the stars.” His dad, always the captain of his baseball teams, traveling to his golf tournaments in high school, was a strong father figure, known for his “Palmerisms,” Dustin adds. “He always says ‘Every day ends in Y,’ which means ‘What’s the difference between Monday and Saturday? Make each day a great day.’’’ “The sun’s coming up the next day. Whatever happened the day before?” It’s over, Steve affirms.

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have never met a man, or woman, with attributes that Steve has. He’s the most resilient man ever,” enthuses Donna. “Resilient to the core. A solution to every problem.” And Donna, barely 5 (continued on page 26)

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FAMILY FUN The couple’s love for each other is a template for how marriage should be, say their grown children, Erika Mandel and Dustin Palmer. From left: Jed Mandel with wife Erika and Dustin join Steve and Donna on one of many fun family outings. Top right: The couple say they are “madly in love” with (from left) grandsons Jack, Max, and Sonny Mandel, Erika and Jed’s children. (continued from page 25) feet, is as steady a person

as you could know, even in her heels, say family and friends. This pint of a women, fit and petite, rocks them as if they’re comfy slippers. Her mom, at 94, likes to heel it up too. She recently purchased a glam pair on Amazon. “I joke that I’m going to have ‘Donna Palmer was more than her heels’ put on my tombstone,” she quips of the footwear she was known for during her teaching years. “We loved every minute of teaching,” says Susan Spitzberg, Donna’s teaching partner at St. John’s School and formerly married to Steve’s cousin. “We couldn’t wait to get to work each day! It was the most amazing experience! “Donna and Steve have the biggest hearts and are the most generous souls to walk this earth,” she adds, telling a favorite story: a surprise birthday party that Steve threw for his young wife at Houston’s Swensen’s Ice Cream parlor decades ago. “He wasn’t sure who to invite, so he invited pretty much everyone off the street. Donna is always dressed to a T. She’s beautiful. But she walks into this place, and she wasn’t dressed at all for a party. And he’d invited a lot of people that maybe she’d only said ‘hi’ to once! Her face! We have laughed so much about that over the years.” “Yeah, I’m always lipstick ready. This time, I wasn’t lipstick ready,” Donna recalls. “There were tons of people there I really didn’t know!” Steve’s a much better party planner these days, pulling off a surprise anniversary “This is

Your Life” nostalgia tour during their third decade of marriage, a driving excursion past all their old haunts: homes, schools, restaurants, and hangouts, many that no longer exist as the places they once frequented. “Included in that tour was where the police caught us parking!” says Donna. She recalls a particularly special 50th birthday surprise at The Brownstone in Houston that included all her dearest friends. “My sister Susie, the dearest human on earth, had arranged for a piano player to be there and she gave him all this information about me and helped him script the lyrics about me. And Erika, who had been off at college – and I missed her terribly – was sitting on the piano bench. I mean for Steve and my sister to surprise me like that….”

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teve was madly in love with her from the get-go,” says their friend Teri Straus. Steve knew Teri before Donna did, as neighbors. “He was this fast little kid on his bike, and I used to throw rocks at him.” No rocks were thrown on their wedding day at Austin’s Sheraton Crest hotel. Donna, “always beautiful,” was particularly lovely as she walked the aisle on May 20, 1973, though a tad uncomfortable due to sunburn. “In our infinite wisdom, we girls decided to lay out by the pool for four hours before the wedding,” Teri says. “Smart.” Oh, the stories Teri can tell. Like the time Donna didn’t put a lid on the popcorn and it pelted to the ceiling. Steve was laughing in

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shrieks. And the time Donna, always stylishly put together, called and asked to borrow a “boring” dress. “Oh my gosh, yes. I had something to go to where I needed something conservative! I meant conservative!” laughs Donna. “Donna and Steve have a lot of fun together. They respect each other, admire each other,” Teri says. “They’re the real deal.” “Donna is really the matriarch of the family and provides the glue for all of us sticking together. She’s the rock of our family,” boasts Steve. “She has the strength, grace, and unwavering dedication that’s brought us over 50 years together. So many countless memories… She’s been one great partner and mother to our kids! I could go on and on….” “He’s a sweetheart. He made it easy,” replies Donna, laughing at a conversation her mother had with her decades ago. “She said ‘You never marry your first love, Donna.’ Scratch that! I’m glad she wasn’t right about this one! And she loves him!” “The fire’s still burning,” says Steve, who jokes about a glaring difference between him and his wife. She springs out of bed like it’s on fire, sheets and covers thrashing about everywhere. He slithers out like a snake, covers smoothly in place. You can scarce tell he’s been there. “Uncanny,” says Donna. “And one more thing I’ve got to mention. He never fails to squeegee the shower. That’s a love language in any marriage!”

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NEIGHBORS by Andria Dilling, staff writer

A Puzzling Puzzle Assembling a behemoth

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ittle did his neighbors know, Bob Doty had a major project brewing in his home this fall. The retired attorney and judge – described by his daughter Kirsten Polyansky, also an attorney, as “kind of quiet, kind of studious” – was working away on a puzzle. But this was not your average family puzzle. This was an 18,000-piece behemoth, the likes of which Bob hadn’t attempted over a lifetime of puzzle-solving. Kirsten, who gave him the giant puzzle as a birthday gift, laughs: “This wasn’t a Hey, let’s sit down at the kitchen table and do a puzzle puzzle. “It was a fluke purchase,” Kirsten says, explaining that she was waiting in line at Kuhl-Linscomb buying a baby gift when she spotted the giant puzzle on the shelf. “It weighed a ton and came in a gigantic box,” she says. “As I stood in line, everybody was like Wow I’ve never seen a puzzle that big, and I was like I know, that’s why I’m buying it! It hadn’t dawned on me that if you take a 1,000piece puzzle and multiply it by 18, it’s kind of like giving somebody a puppy. I hadn’t appreciated how big the project would be.” Kirsten and her siblings Robert Doty and Morgen Hool are always on the hunt for difficult puzzles for their puzzle-loving dad. “We’ve gotten him round ones, clear ones,” Kirsten says. But this puzzle turned out to be a different kind of challenge. “The biggest puzzle I had ever done was maybe 2,500 pieces,” Bob says. “Now I’ve got 18,000 to deal with. “It came in a box containing four plastic bags; each bag was one-quarter of the puzzle. So I did it one-quarter at a time. But even one-quarter was too big for the table I have in the room I use to do puzzles in. I had to build a platform on top of that table big enough to fit one of the quadrants.” “It’s bookshelves,” Bob’s wife Barbara says of the picture on the puzzle, “and you would think that would make it easier. But every little piece of this one . . . once in a while I can put a piece in a puzzle, but with this one we could hardly fit any. You’d think, well, here’s a cat, and you’d know where it would go, but I was not very successful.” The bookshelves theme was fitting: “Bob has always loved reading and he reads all the time,”

PUZZLE SOLVED Kirsten Polyansky gave her father Bob Doty a birthday-present puzzle that was such a big commitment, she said it was "kind of like giving someone a puppy."

Barbara says. “He’s always at the library, and he keeps track of all the books he reads in a year.” It took about a month for Bob to complete each quadrant. When he finished one, he would

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cover it in a layer of cardboard and start the next quadrant on top of that. Bob’s wife Barbara says it was an exceptionally difficult puzzle. Then, Bob says, came (continued on page 30)

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There was no space for all four quarters to be put together in Bob’s puzzle room – yes, he has a place dedicated to puzzles in an upstairs playroom. “I had to figure out how to package it to get it out of the room, down the stairs, through the doors.” After two weeks of thought, including some middle-of-the-night musings, Bob devised a plan. He would cover the stacked quadrants, separated by cardboard, with another sheet of cardboard. Then he would clamp it all together to be carefully transported. But there was still a problem: Even if he got it into the garage, where would it rest? “That was another week worrying,” Bob says. “Our air hockey table is 4-by-7. So I got big sheets of peg board and tacked two or three sheets of that together to the size I wanted overall – 9 ½-by-6 ½.” Ultimately, Robert helped his dad move the puzzle to its new platform. “It went very smoothly,” Bob says, “but it took some advance planning. Turned out, that was the hardest part of the puzzle.” Bob has been solving puzzles since he was a boy. “I have a certain system,” he explains. “I sort out the edge pieces to begin, then by color groupings or shapes, and I always start with the edge pieces to get the border completed. Then I go from there. There’s a mental process to it, and I enjoy that. “It’s kind of an escape, like TV or running or whatever people do to get their mind off stress. All that goes away and I’m in my own little encapsulated zone. The kids can be in the playroom running around while I’m doing this, but I don’t hear them. I’m concentrating on finding the pieces.” That says a lot because Bob and Barbara pick up at least one of their seven grandchildren, ranging in age from 18 months to 14, from school daily. While the family – all of whom enjoy doing puzzles – didn’t help put this puzzle together, Kirsten found her dad’s frequent puzzle updates to be a fun change from talking about kids. “There aren’t that many 18,000-piece puzzles out there,” Kirsten says. “You know how people climb all the mountains? My dad is likening this puzzle to that. He suspects he’ll just have to do them all.” While Kirsten has bought all the giant puzzles she could find and is keeping them in queue for gifts for her dad, Bob has found one to beat them all. “It’s 8 feet tall and 29 feet long, 60,000 pieces,” Kirsten says. “That might be Dad’s Everest.” For now, the question is what happens to the completed puzzle. “There’ve been suggestions I glue it together and hang it on a wall, but my wife says no,” Bob says. “Eventually after a period of lying in state, I’ll take it apart and keep it. Maybe do it again someday, maybe the family will do it, maybe I’ll donate it to an organization to keep people busy. But I’m not going to throw it away. It was too much work.”

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(continued from page 28) the “mental gymnastics.”

THE BIGGEST PUZZLE Puzzle enthusiast Bob Doty shows off the three-dimensional Titanic puzzle he put together, complete with lights in the cabins. His daughter Kirsten Polyansky upped his puzzle game with the gift of an 18,000-piece bookshelf-themed puzzle.

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KIDS

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by Annie Blaylock McQueen, staff writer

Buzz Baby

Sentimental gifts

Buzz Baby is a column about life with little ones. Writer Annie McQueen is a mother of four children under the age of 9.

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hen baby gifts are sentimental, they can become a coveted treasure. Whether it's a brand-new personalized baby blanket, or a family heirloom passed down through the generations, gifts with a special meaning can strengthen the connection between the child and the gift giver. They are an expression of love. They can also help pass on family stories in the form of a tangible keepsake. For one Buzz family, a sterling silver baby rattle was passed down from generation to generation when it was opened at a baby shower. The rattle, now slightly tarnished, is almost 100 years old. The rattle had previously been used for the family’s newest baby’s great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, and aunt. Nowadays, the rattle is carefully displayed on a floating acrylic shelf for safekeeping. Buzz mom-of-three Caroline Kennedy stumbled across a creative idea for a sentimental gift to her children. After her third child was born, she decided to pursue it. Caroline had held on to the pink-and-blue striped receiving blankets from each of her three children’s deliveries. Caroline knew she wanted to save them for sentimental reasons but was unsure what to do with them. “They were just sitting in a box,” she said. She saw a recommendation from a local Facebook group about a lady named Danette Hames who does something extra special with baby blankets. Danette and her mom, Elena, hand make stuffed animals using the material from the blanket. Caroline loved the idea. She thought it was unique and the perfect gift for her children to showcase something she wanted to always hold on to. She contacted her via her Facebook page (DD Designs) and they started brainstorming and planning out the designs. She chose three different animals: one was made into a bear, one was made into a bunny, and one was made into an elephant. Caroline was pleased with the out-

come and gave them to her children as a gift for their rooms. “Now each child has their animal, embroidered with their name and birthdate, sitting in their bedroom,” said Caroline. “It is such a better use than sitting in a box. She did a remarkable job on the seams, matching them up perfectly.” Gifts can be sentimental during times of celebration – from a baptism to a birthday to a bris. For one family, a hand- AN UNFORGETTABLE GIFT This past Christmas, Sarah and Will Loweth asked made gift was Sarah’s sister, Ellen Cairns, and her husband Jeff (pictured, from left), to be godparents for their youngest son, Owen. They presented them with a special hand-painted bottle given at a time of champagne with a special message on it: “Be my Godparents.” when one very embroidery line together called Winkel. It is important question was asked. their favorite hobby to adorn baby items with Buzz mom-of-three Sarah Loweth and her personal touches. husband, Will, recently welcomed their fourth For this special occasion, Sarah commissioned child, Owen. As new parents, they received an artist and started to plan. Sarah and Will premany lovely gifts for Owen’s arrival, but in this sented Ellen and Jeff with a hand-painted bottle case, the new parents became the gift-givers. of Veuve champagne and paired with it monoThe family gathered at Christmas like they grammed cocktail napkins made by Sarah. The always do for the holidays. Between Sarah and bottle had a special message on it. her sister Ellen, there are seven young cousins Sarah had Stratford High School alum under the age of 10. The kids were all playing, Katelyn Valdez hand-paint the bottle with a dressed in their Christmas attire. Sarah and Will blue bow for baby boy Owen and it read, “Be my had decided to ask Sarah's sister, Ellen Cairns, Godparents” with Owen’s name signed. Ellen and her husband, Jeff, to be Owen’s godparents. and Jeff were over-the-moon excited. As the They planned to surprise them at the family final baby in both families, Owen's arrival is a gathering, so they had a personalized gift made shared joy for the Loweth and the Cairns famito mark the occasion. lies. Now they have a wonderful gift to keep the Sisters Sarah and Ellen have shared a passion memory alive of that special evening when they for personalized gifts and monogrammed baby became his godparents. items since they became moms. They started an

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Cindy Burnett

ARTS

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by Cindy Burnett, staff writer

Buzz Reads

Five picks for February

Buzz Reads is a column about books by reviewer Cindy Burnett. Each month, Cindy recommends five recently or soon-to-be released titles. Dixon, Descending by Karen Outen (fiction) – Dixon Bryant was deemed the “good” brother from an early age, and his parents relied on him to be a role model for his charismatic older brother Nate. But when Nate suggests they jointly attempt to become the first Black Americans to summit Mt. Everest, Dixon cannot refuse his brother, even though their family and friends disapprove. During the climb, the weight of their decision to tackle Everest weighs Dixon down as Nate develops increasingly serious health complications. After things go horribly awry, Dixon returns home a changed man, constantly replaying his decision to climb the mountain. As he attempts to return to his job (from which he took a semester off to climb Everest), tragedy strikes, and Dixon begins to understand that to deal with the present he must confront his past. Outen’s detailed accounts of climbing Everest are so engrossing, and her depiction of grief and the many different forms it takes and the burdens it creates are compelling and insightful. This is a story I will not soon forget. Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (mystery/thriller) – This delightful and hilarious book stars Ernest Cunningham, who breaks the fourth wall by narrating the story to the reader, constantly inserting his own thoughts and comments into the tale. Looking for material for his second book, Ernest participates as an author in the 50th Australian Mystery Writers’ Society festival, which takes place on the Ghan, a train traveling through the Australian desert. Soon after the trip begins, one of the six authors at the conference is murdered, and the other five begin trying to solve the crime while Ernest sees the perfect opportunity for some inspiration for his novel. One of the best parts of the book is the way Ernest engages the reader, offering up “clues” to help solve the murder such as revealing how many times the murderer’s name will be mentioned and periodically stopping to provide a tally for each character as the story progresses. Stevenson incorporates some phe-

nomenal twists and turns WHAT TO READ This month’s picks include a debut about two brothers who as well as so much humor seek to be the first Black Americans to summit Everest, a clever and funny mysinto the story while also tery, and three historical-fiction books, one about the women who served in Vietnam, one about Hattie McDaniel, and the last set in 1990s Texas and bringing the reader along Japan in the pre-World War II era. on the journey of trying to ing life as a Japanese war bride and the importance put all the clues together along with Ernest. The of turtles in Japanese society. Through these stomystery itself is outstanding, and I highly recomries, Lia gains an understanding of her grandmothmend this one. While this is technically the second er’s pain and sacrifice and realizes that she too in a series, it reads as a standalone, and there is more must deal with her troubles versus just avoid them. than enough detail to get readers caught up with the This is a gorgeously written and heartwarming previous story. debut novel about history, family, intergeneraThe Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate tional relationships, love, heartbreak, and the (historical fiction) – The Queen of Sugar Hill opens strength it takes to persevere through hardship. with the night Hattie McDaniel becomes the first The Women by Kristin Hannah (historical ficBlack woman to win an Academy Award for her tion) – The Women chronicles the story of Frankie role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind and follows McGrath, a young, wealthy woman who enlists to her life until her death from cancer at age 52. While serve as a nurse during the Vietnam War. Once “in Hattie believed that winning this historical Oscar country,” Frankie quickly learns that she is ill-prewould change her career for the better, both the pared for the injuries and death that result from role and the award created more problems for her such a grim and gruesome war. Hannah effectively instead. Many Blacks despised her for her depiction portrays the grueling days the various medical perof a subservient Black slave to the point that the sonnel endure and how physically and emotionally NAACP waged a full-blown war against Hattie exhausting it was. But coming home from Vietnam and other actors they felt portrayed Blacks negais just the beginning for Frankie as she realizes that tively, and whites disliked her for being too Black. many people in the U.S. do not understand nor In the midst of the attacks on her, Hattie continued support the war nor those who served there; her to fight for more roles for Black actors while also parents do not even welcome her home. The govtackling housing discrimination and navigating ernment is not accurately reporting the casualties, numerous fraught romantic relationships. Tate and civilians have no idea what conditions are like brings Hattie McDaniel to life in a sympathetic but in Vietnam nor the trauma that results from time honest manner that had me rooting for her even there. One of my favorite parts of this book was the when I didn’t agree with her decisions. This is such music – Hannah constantly weaves in the popular a fascinating time period in Hollywood, and I headsongs of the era as a backdrop to the action taking ed down numerous rabbit holes researching the place in the story. As a music lover, this really respeople and events contained in the book. onated with me – so many great songs come from Historical-fiction fans will love this one. the Vietnam War time period. This stellar book is The Turtle House by Amanda Churchill (hisperfect for those who remember the war and those torical fiction) – Texan Amanda Churchill’s who know very little about it. debut novel is a beautifully written gem centering around family and coming to terms with the past. Editor’s note: Southside Place resident Cindy Toggling between World War II-era Japan and Burnett also writes our weekly Page Turners colTexas in the late 1990s, a grandmother and grandumn at thebuzzmagazines.com. She hosts the daughter bond as they grow to understand each award-winning Thoughts from a Page Podcast, is other better while dealing with the secrets that co-creator of the Houston literary event series trouble them. While I thoroughly enjoyed the Conversations from the Page, runs the Instagram entire book, Mineko’s tales about her early life are account @thoughtsfromapage, and regularly speaks filled with glorious descriptions of Japan and to groups about books. Japanese society before and during the war includ-

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TRAVEL

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by Tracy L. Barnett, staff writer

Travel Buzz

Argentina: Adventure at the Bottom of the World

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hen Nishi Kothari and Ravi Amin began their global love story, their first trip was to Prague and Budapest. Nishi, thinking of her childhood with parents who took her and her siblings on non-stop action-packed expeditions across the globe, asked Ravi how he liked to travel. “And he told me, ‘I like a mix of seeing the sights, but also relaxing and immersing ourselves in the food and the culture.’ And it’s really changed the way I travel,” says Nishi. Ravi is more of the outdoorsy type, looking for beautiful hikes along the way – something that was never a priority for Nishi. But that, too, has changed. “The real test was our honeymoon in April of 2017,” recalls Nishi with a laugh, glancing at Ravi. “We did a 13-mile New Zealand hike. I think it’s the longest hike I had ever done in my life. And ever since then, I think you've gotten me on a hike every single time we've traveled.” Something Nishi’s closest friends can hardly believe. And Nishi, for her part, has introduced Ravi to the world of fine dining, with a twist: Nishi is a long-time vegetarian. And she’s found that with just a little research, it’s usually not necessary to sacrifice sampling great local food, since many chefs offer exquisite vegetarian options. Even in the steak-heavy culture of Argentina. “I would have never thought to look for really nice restaurants that cater to vegetarian diets,” said Ravi. “And she's done a great job of continuously finding them and not just finding good restaurants, but world-class restaurants that are started by some of the topmost chefs in the world. Especially in the last few years, there’s been this renewed focus on healthy living, healthy eating, and more vegetarian, plantbased diets. And it's reflected in some of the cutting-edge cuisines and dishes that some of these top chefs are making.” When Nishi, a Houston native and personal injury attorney, and Ravi, a software developer, talk about their recent travels in Argentina, the conversation reflects the travel style they have evolved in their journeys together over the years. In their 10 days there in the Southern Cone, they sampled the best: the highlights of

A PIECE OF PATAGONIA Ravi Amin and Nishi Kothari pause in their trek on Circuito Chico, one of Bariloche’s most popular hikes, at a viewpoint overseeing Mt. Capilla.

Buenos Aires, the wine country capital of Mendoza, and the epic landscapes of Patagonia and Iguazú Falls – and left wanting more. They went to Argentina last fall (springtime in the Southern Hemisphere) and decided to only explore Argentina, and not to hit the highlights of neighboring Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil, for example. There was one exception – seeing the other side of Iguazú Falls, in Brazil for half a day – but otherwise, it would be an entirely Argentine experience. Nishi and Ravi try to take one big trip a year and have mostly succeeded in the nine years they’ve been together (Covid halted their travels for a couple of years). They’ve been to Portugal and to Mexico, explored a little bit of Europe, and have jetsetted to New Zealand and Australia. Separately, they have both been to Costa Rica, and Nishi has been to Peru. But aside from Mexico, they’d never traveled together in Latin America. Nishi has a friend from Argentina who talks about the country often, and Nishi began to bring those stories home. One day last summer, Ravi surprised her with a Lonely Planet guide to Argentina and a bottle of Malbec. “He was like, ‘Look, you've been talking about it. Let's just put pen to paper, really think

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about it and get it done.’ And then we just decided to go for it,” she said. They figured they’d go to Buenos Aires and Patagonia. “And as we read about it more and more, we just realized, it's such an amazing country. It's so massive. I think most people don't think about it like that.” As they planned their itinerary, the list of must-sees began to grow. Finally, they settled on a plan. Their arrival, Oct. 21, was the day before a contentious presidential election, so at their friend’s advice, they took a direct flight to Buenos Aires and then booked a national flight straight to Iguazú, the wondrous falls that span the border between Argentina and Brazil and left Eleanor Roosevelt famously lamenting, “My poor Niagara…” Indeed, as a point of reference, the three majestic falls of Niagara span about 1,060 feet and a height of 167 feet; Iguazú’s 275 falls span around 1.7 miles and the tallest, Devil’s Throat, is 269 feet tall. Most of their time was spent on the Argentinian side, where they stayed in the lush Loi Suites Iguazú, surrounded by the Iryapú rainforest and just minutes from the falls, and took a boat tour right up to the edge of the Devil’s Throat (wear a swimsuit, warns Nishi, you will get

WONDERS OF THE NATURAL WORLD Clockwise from left: Nishi and Ravi on a guided hike on the Perito Moreno Glacier, stopping at a tiny pond; a scenic view of Mt. Fitz Roy on the way into El Calafate; at the edge of Devil's Throat from the Brazilian side of Iguazú Falls.

wet). They went to the Brazil side to get the grand panorama view of the falls in all their vastness. After two days, they headed to Buenos Aires to see for themselves how this city of 15 million earned the moniker “Paris of South America.” Some of Nishi’s friends expressed their skepticism at how she would fare in this beef-heavy culture. They needn’t have worried. Nishi has made it her mission to disprove the old food stereotypes, and especially in recent years, she’s found many allies, among the top chefs wherever she goes. “The main thing to do in Buenos Aires is to eat and drink,” writes Nishi in her detailed trip writeup (see the online version of this story for more). “The wine is superb and the food is phenomenal…. And you probably are wondering, what can she recommend in BA, the capital of steak?” Just for starters, the two of them were blown away by the restaurant called Martí, run by Chef Germán Martitegui, who ran one of the most successful fine dining restaurants in Buenos Aires, and now runs a fully vegetarian restaurant in a lush and beautiful garden that also happens to produce much of the restaurant’s organic food. Nishi called it “one of the best meals of my life.” And Ravi elaborated: “That was an amazing experience. It was all organic ingredients that they grew on premises, and they created it right

in front of you, which was a pure experience just to watch them. From the moment you order to the moment you get it, you see your chef – who also happens to be your waiter, because of the way the restaurant was situated – prepping it, cooking it, and then serving it to you.” They stayed in the beautiful centrally located Recoleta neighborhood, near tourist attractions like Eva Perón’s tomb and the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s version of the White House. They walked rather than taking taxis, finding the city to be much more enjoyable on foot with all the parks and charming architecture and peoplewatching. Their two days in Buenos Aires were over before they knew it, and then it was time to head to Patagonia: El Calafate, the Perito Moreno glacier, a trek up to see Mount Fitz Roy, and a stay in the beautiful mountain town of Bariloche, “like something right out of the Swiss Alps,” as Ravi put it. This is where the couple donned their hiking shoes and set out to enjoy Ravi’s favorite activity: hiking. “All of my friends would make fun of me for not being a hiker,” Nishi said with a laugh. “But now they all make fun of me because for the past seven years, every single one of our trips has ended in a big hike. And so we've been hiking all over the

world now. And all of my friends are like, ‘who have you become? This is not you at all!’” “That was the only thing we didn't get to do too much of in Argentina,” mused Ravi, seated at her side in a December Zoom interview. “We did a short hike in Patagonia.” “The ‘short hike’ was – what was it, four or five miles?” shot back Nishi, teasingly. The hike was up a mountain on a cold and windy day in the snow and the rain. But the reward was rich. As they reached the placid waters of Laguna de los Tres, the famous glacier lake that normally reflects Mount Fitz Roy, or El Chaltén, and two other magnificent peaks, and turned to head back down, the clouds parted, and they got a glimpse of the famous “mountain that smokes,” as it is known by the locals. “It’s the quintessential Patagonia experience,” as Nishi put it – one of Patagonia’s most impressive trails, according to the Voyagers trekking group, in the “Argentine capital of hiking.” “I think [the trip to Argentina] definitely broadened our perspective on the world in the sense of, this is not maybe an area of the world that a lot of people feel like, oh, I have to go to,” said Nishi. “I think the tendency, especially in America, is to look to Europe and those kinds of countries. And maybe you (continued on page 38)

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SIGHTS, SOUNDS, AND TASTES OF ARGENTINA Clockwise from upper left: Enjoying a fantastic lunch at Bodega La Azul in Mendoza; fantastic all vegetarian dinner at Martí in Buenos Aires; a night out at a tango show at El Viejo Almacén situated in the historic San Telmo district of Buenos Aires; and an overview of Iguazú Falls from the Brazilian side. (continued from page 37) would expect that the lan-

guage barrier would be a reason to not go.” Nishi speaks “broken Spanish at best,” and Ravi doesn’t speak Spanish – but neither of them found it to be a barrier, as many people speak English and those who don’t are patient and kind and try their best to understand.

Ravi was moved by the way that Argentines take care of their environment, and it’s stayed with him long after he left. “I found myself walking around somewhere, maybe in the zoo, and I noticed there was a wrapper on the pavement, and I picked it up and I threw it into the nearest trash bin. I don't think

I would have done that before I saw people in Argentina taking pride in their natural beauty.”

MORE ONLINE Nishi and Ravi’s Argentina experience was filled with delicious details, which Nishi relates in her minitravel guide, available online at thebuzzmagazines.com.

Tips from our Travelers Nishi and Ravi share tips on travel in Argentina. Worth the splurge: The Gran Aventura boat ride and truck ride in Iguazú Falls. There's one main company that runs it. You can buy tickets at the gate or ahead of time. Don't forget to bring your bathing suit and a towel – you will definitely get soaked! Also worth the splurge is the mini trekking adventure on the Perito Moreno glacier. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Don’t miss: Bariloche, Iguazú Falls, and Patagonia Favorite restaurants: Martí in Buenos Aires, El Mallín in Bariloche; Pura Vida in El Calafate Currency exchange: Check bluedollar.net for current rates, but the Argentinian Peso is currently around 800 pesos is $1 USD. Your credit card tends to give you pretty good rates as well, so if you don't want to carry a lot of cash, use your credit card. Most places will accept cards. Keep cash for tips, and cab rides in smaller towns. Packing: Don’t forget: layers! Different parts of Argentina have different climates. When we went in October, Iguazú was hot and humid (just like Houston!), Buenos Aires was more moderate (around 60-70 degrees), and we had snow in Bariloche, and close to freezing temperatures in the early mornings of Patagonia. They say in Patagonia especially you can hit almost every different type of weather even in the span of one day! Layers are your friend. Tourist trap: In El Calafate, there's this one "tourist attraction" called La Leona Petrified Forest. It's pretty overhyped and I wouldn't recommend it. The small little cafe that's run by a local family is nice and a good stopping point for coffee, pastries, and souvenirs if you want to stop on your way to El Chalten from El Calafate. Also clean restrooms for customers. Unexpected hit: Food walking tour in Buenos Aires! It's all-you-can-eat-and-drink and you'll eat some of the most delicious food. Come hungry! WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ FEBRUARY 2024 38

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Spencer Klein, UW

SPORTS

by Todd Freed, staff writer

SportzBuzz J

ust two years removed from his playing days for the Lamar Texans football team, defensive back Jaivion Green returned home to a much grander stage on the gridiron, where he suited up for the Washington Huskies in the College Football Playoff National Championship game against the Michigan Wolverines. “This is really special to me,” said Green, who was the only Houston-area player on the Washington or Michigan roster. “I never dreamed I’d be in this kind of spotlight. I traveled a long way to play college football and I’m just grateful to be back home to play for the national championship.” “Jaivion was everything you’d want in a student athlete,” said Lamar Texans head football coach Mike Lindsey. “He had offers to play at Ivy League schools such as Yale and Dartmouth. He’s a fierce and passionate competitor and also a great human being on and off the field. To watch him play an important role in Washington’s national semifinal win over Texas and then return home for the national championship final at NRG Stadium is just an incredibly proud moment for all of us at Lamar. It’s just been a lot of fun to text him after games and watch him excel at the next level.” In his first season with the Huskies last year, Green received the Travis Spring Most Outstanding Freshman Award. His emergence as a standout defensive back continues a rich tradition of great defensive backs to come out of the Lamar Texans football program over the years including current NFL player D’Shawn Jamison and NFL alumnus Holton Hill. “Two seasons ago we had 12 defensive backs playing college football and over 30 collegiate players overall,” said Lindsey. “Our defensive coordinator Ernie Saldivar and defensive backs coach Gerrick Green have done a tremendous job.” “We definitely had great coaches at Lamar,” said Green, who prior to going to Lamar attended and played football at Pershing Middle School. “I think we just work harder than everyone else and our coaches have done a really good job of helping produce talented defensive backs.” The national championship game also afforded the Huskies sophomore his first opportunity to play a football game at NRG Stadium. “We

PRIDE OF LAMAR Former Lamar Texans defensive star Jaivion Green returned home to Houston to play in the College Football Playoff National Championship game. The Washington Huskies sophomore is pictured here in an earlier season victory over California.

played a lot of playoff games when I was at Lamar but didn’t make it deep enough in the playoffs to get a shot at one of the NRG Stadium playoff games. I went to a lot of Houston Texans games growing up so to play here is really a dream come true.”

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he girls’ soccer season kicked off with high expectations for the Memorial Mustangs. “We’re excited about the season ahead,” said Mustangs head coach Lindley Amarantos. “We have a real good mix of players from all four grades including some talented young players with three freshmen on varsity. I believe we’re sounder defensively than we’ve been in recent years. We also have some real good athletes with lots of speed and great work ethic.” Those athletes include three-year senior captain Cara Chaffin. “Cara tore her ACL as a sophomore and we’re excited to have her back for a full season,” said Amarantos. “She’s a super smart defender who provides great leadership for our team.” Another senior leader and captain for the Mustangs is Molly Oldham. “Molly orchestrates great things on the field for us,” said

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Amarantos. “She’s been on the back line for us for three years and brings a lot of experience and positivity to the lineup.” Offensively, the Mustangs welcomed the return of senior forward Indya Dotson. “Indya is also a track star who competed at the state track and field meet in the long jump. She has explosive speed and an amazing work ethic.” In addition, Amarantos had high praise for sophomore midfielder Talia Camin and freshman forward Bella Youssef. “Talia is an extremely creative midfielder. She played virtually every minute of every game last season and does a great job for us. As for Bella, she’s an amazing technical player with awesome footwork and speed. Bella is a great addition to our lineup, and I am excited to see what she can accomplish on offense.” Editor’s note: Todd Freed is the host and executive producer of H-Town High School Sports, which airs Saturday at 10:30 p.m. on CW39 and Monday-Thursday on AT&T SportsNet SW. To submit high school sports news for possible inclusion in SportzBuzz, please email todd@thebuzzmagazines.com.

“For all the things my hands have held, the best by far is you.” - Andrew McMahon Photographing treasured moments for over 25 years A Portrait Remembers 713.523.4916 nikky@lawellphoto.com www.lawellphoto.com

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SPORTS

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by Annie Blaylock McQueen, staff writer

SportzBuzz Jr. W

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

World-class ballroom dancer Adyson Preston (pictured, at right), a seventh-grade student at Presbyterian School, and competitive ballroom dancer, recently competed in the Houston Dance Classic. She was invited to train under Shirley Ballas, nicknamed the Queen of Latin Ballroom, out of the United Kingdom. Adyson’s coaches, Natia Kuprava and Viktor Shumylo (pictured, at left), are both world Latin Ballroom champions and relocated from Los Angeles to Houston to train Adyson and other ballroom dancing students at The Dance Barre HTX. Since Adyson has been training under their leadership, she has won many ballroom dancing competitions including ProAm Full Silver J1 International Latin Multi Dance Event, ProAm Full Gold J1 International Latin Multi Dance Event, American Open DanceSport Championship, ProAm Closed Silver Championship, and ProAm Closed Silver Scholarship.

Eye on their goal The Emery/Weiner School Jaguars middle school girls’ soccer team, led by Coach Amber Gaudet, had one of their best seasons yet in the school’s history. The team is made up of a talented group of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade girls. They worked hard at practice and managed to earn an undefeated status midway through their ongoing season. Win or lose the district title, their hard work has earned them a memorable season both on and off the soccer field. Pictured (top row, from left) are Anslee Marlin, Renana Machol, Julia Zorrilla, Ellie Hill; (middle row, from left) Hailey Lane, Georgie Bruskoff, Noa Karakowsky, Carolina Mayer, Liby WeiszHubshman; (bottom row, from left) Hailey Sutin, Sarina Harris, Teddy Bruskoff, Claire Guidry, Elise Fishel, Milena Szvalb; and (not pictured) Avi Gross, Sarah Levy, and Darya Domakhina.

Lady Chargers champs In volleyball news, the Pin Oak Middle School Lady Chargers took home a big title from their season. The eighth-grade girls’ volleyball team worked hard throughout their season, showing tremendous talent and improvement on the court. They came out in the end with the title of District Champions. The season's record, including tournaments, concluded with an impressive 18-0. Pictured (from left) are Ella Cumagun, Jillian Dorsey, Gracie Erskine, Grace Jackson, Greta King, Kaleigh McSorley, Eve Puzon, Miranda Rappazzo, Madelyn Spain, Sofia Subinski, Hallie Taaffe, Ileana Valenciano, Madison Wasaff, coach Alexis Willis, and team manager Zoe Newman. 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. WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ FEBRUARY 2024 42

Get Your Morning Buzz Every weekday morning, enjoy your coffee + the buzz in your inbox. Our e-newsletter, Morning Buzz, features buzzworthy stories about neighbors every day, Monday-Friday. Sign up to find out what we’re buzzing about at thebuzzmagazines.com/morning-buzz.

WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ FEBRUARY 2024 43

KIDS

ARC TOWARD JUSTICE St. John’s students Lorna Morris, Kai Gomez, Aaron Wu, Mark Vann, Nia Shetty, and Mateo Ramirez-Valentini (pictured, from left) attended the Student Diversity Leadership Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.

by Nia Shetty, age 14

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Empowerment through diversity

n a crisp Wednesday morning, instead of heading to the first class of the day, six St. John’s students, including myself, accompanied by chaperones Coach Virgil Campbell and Señora Edma Margarita Serrano, took a slight detour to St. Louis, to attend the NAIS Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC). SDLC is a multiracial, multicultural gathering for high school students from across the U.S. and abroad. It aims to cultivate community among students eager to learn about social justice, foster awareness of diversity and inclusion, and give students valuable knowledge about equality to bring back to their communities. After we arrived at the convention center, we brushed off our exhaustion for our first activity: peer facilitator training. In just two hours, I met

students from all over the country, learned about their experiences, and was welcomed into the community that lies at the heart of SDLC. Along with fascinating speaker presentations, engaging activities helped us think outside the box; in one activity, “Cancel or Counsel,” students were read a prompt and had to decide whether to “cancel” or “counsel” the individual in the situation. After a long day, students would gather into their shared affinity groups. I was part of the South Asian affinity group where we talked about our experiences. We discussed topics such as colorism and mental health and created skits to appreciate our culture. It was amazing to be in a space with others who had so much in common with me. We ended our time together with a dance party, celebrating our identities.

As the conference was wrapping up, we met with other students and teachers from Houston to discuss how to further diversity and inclusion in our community. The conference not only broadened my perspective, but also provided a platform for me to connect with like-minded individuals from diverse backgrounds. As we bid farewell to St. Louis, we knew that we would carry what we learned with us as we strive to make a difference in this world. Editor’s note: Nia originally wrote this piece for our School Buzz blog. 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.

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Prepaid funerals When your family goes out, do the children expect you to pick up the tab? If they can’t pay for dinner, who pays for your funeral? Your bank accounts will be frozen, it’s fraud to use a decedent’s credit or debit card, and that little burial benefit from work won’t pay in real time. Consider a prepaid funeral contract. Texas allows consumers to finance and sometimes freeze the cost of certain funeral and burial expenses. A typical contract guarantees the cost of the casket and funeral home, but does not guarantee the flowers, obituary notices, and cemetery fees. It usually makes no provision at all for a grave or monument, although those can be purchased if not financed ahead of time. For model forms and helpful explanations, visit prepaidfunerals.texas.gov/content/faqs. Do not sign a contract without confirming the seller’s permit and comparing the contract to the model form. Prices are not regulated, but funeral homes must provide price lists on request, so it’s possible and free to shop around. If you move, the funeral home still honors the contract, but only if your family pays to transport your remains. Cremains are cheap to ship, an intact body is not. A funeral contract can be cancelled to fund different arrangements elsewhere, but Texas allows 30 days to complete the refund, and may require probate to even initiate the request. Texas prepaid funeral contracts are funded by placing your payments in a restricted bank or trust account (trust-funded) or else using them to buy an insurance policy or annuity payable to the funeral home (insurance-funded). An insurance company designated to fund your contract has 30 days to

issue the policy or refund all your payments. Insurance-funded funeral contracts may not be worth the risk of rejection if death is imminent. Hospice is probably a little late for anything but a trust-funded contract. Trust-funded contracts have the disadvantage of creating an income tax liability on the earnings that are never paid to you. Insurance-funded contracts are income-tax free unless paid directly to you or your estate. If you cancel a trust-funded contact, 90% of your payments are refunded. If purchased after September 1, 2001, 50% of the net earnings are also refunded. When an insurance-funded contract is cancelled, 100% of the cash surrender value is refunded. Whatever you do, survivors inevitably face some expense that cannot be prepaid. Consider leaving money in a joint bank account without right of survivorship. The surviving owner(s) can make withdrawals for funeral and estate expenses, and whatever’s left passes according to your will. 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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PETS

Neighborhood Tails Teddy, age 5, American Cocker Spaniel, Rice Blvd. Hello, my name is Teddy and I live in West U. My typical day consists of waking up early… and then hopping back into my parents’ cozy bed for a few more hours. Then I like to go outside and hunt for squirrels, lizards, birds, and butterflies. Although I very rarely actually catch anything, I still try! I enjoy the thrill of the hunt. After another lengthy nap, I like to lie down and look out the front door to guard the house from all the dogs and strange people that constantly walk by the house. I’ve had a long day, so I take another nap. When my parents return home, I am ready to play with all my squeaky bunny toys. Squeak, squeak! After dinner, we all like to walk to Tiny’s Milk & Cookies to get my favorite treat: a spoonful of strawberry ice cream. I am always excited to meet new friends! 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.

Create a buzz for your biz.

Est. 2002. Mailed to 58,000 homes monthly. To advertise in The Buzz Magazines, contact us at 713.668.4157, ext. 101 or advertising@thebuzzmagazines.com

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Expensive generics, rich middlemen Drug prices are a major problem for Americans (even with “good” insurance). There are many factors (and not enough pages in The Buzz). One recent medicine development has brought up an egregious problem in our system. Flovent, an inhaled steroid for asthma, will no longer be made by its manufacturer as they switch to making an “authorized” generic. (Authorized generics are the exact same as the branded product.) First thought: great. Generics are cheaper! However, herein lies the complexity. Drug makers are limited in price hiking; there are penalties to try and curb excessive hikes. So, switching to an authorized generic lets the manufacturer start over with a clean slate (free to pursue future hikes). Furthermore, the generic will not necessarily be covered by many insurance plans. This means patients may have to pay out of pocket or switch to some alternative medicine (thus doctor visits to monitor response). Another problem driving the cost of medicines in the USA are PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers). PBMs are not pharmaceutical companies. They do not research or develop medications. They are middlemen. PBMs were intended to facilitate the delivery and manage the cost of drugs between manufacturers and health plans. Initially, they played a vital role in providing small regional insurance companies with added leverage to negotiate with large pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately, with mergers/consolidations, PBMs have become the most influential part in the drug supply chain. PBMs develop “formularies” (lists) of drugs covered by a health insurer and negotiate rebates to the PBMs mostly, not to lower prices for the patients. PBMs are paid rebates to include a drug on the formulary so a drug becomes

preferred not necessarily because it is better or cheaper, but because it offers the PBM a higher rebate. Each new drug in a coverage class must cost more than its predecessors to become preferred, causing a vicious cycle of higher prices. According to J. Allen Meadows, M.D., Director Advocacy & Governmental Affairs for the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, “This insanity continues when expensive branded drugs are preferred over cheaper generics.” PBMs control almost 90% of the market. The biggest pharmaceutical company in the world brings in less than $80 billion a year. The three biggest PBMs each bring in more than $100 billion a year. And again, PBMs do not research or develop any medications. So, the middleman is doing better than the manufacturer. We have a problem. We can’t control drug prices, but we can help your allergies and asthma. No one nose allergies like we do.™ Note: Information contained in this article should not be considered a substitute for consultation with a board-certified allergist to address individual medical needs. Anthony J. Weido, M.D., The Allergy Clinic, 7707 Fannin, Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77054, 713.797.0993, *1200 Binz, Suite 1400, Houston, Texas 77004, 713.522.9911, www.allergyclinic.com, *Operating as Houston Allergy and Asthma Clinic

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Hicks Production

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by Angie Frederickson, staff writer

Buzz About Town TUTS at the Championship

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National

Before the Washington Huskies football team took on the Michigan Wolverines for the College Football Playoff national championship title, local Houston performers hit the field. The Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) Musical Theatre Academy Ensemble (pictured) sang America the Beautiful in front of a packed house at NRG Stadium and thousands more who watched on ESPN. Led by TUTS education director Jacob Shideler, the performers included: Nicole Blanco, Jazlyn Bonilla, Nathan Bryant, Glenn Carter, Jackson Chavis, Kai Desel, Megan Edwards, Leah Elliott, Brennan Emeka, Duckie Frederickson, Haley Griffin, Jacob Hurst, Daniel Karash, Savera Karia, Toni Kendrick, Riley Korfhage, Sarah Leal, Newt Meek, Riley Neal, Olivia Nobles, Gwyneth Parrish, Courtney Smith, Jayden Strawn, Jessie Vance, Madison Weaston, Zoe White, Audrey Wilder, Kenzie Woolridge, Abby Yadan, Ellie Yarbrough, and Meskerem Zgirdea.

Ruben Vela

The 2024 ReelAbilities Houston Film and Arts Festival chair Caroline Rosen Funk, co-chairs Jeffrey Feinstein and Allison Feinstein, and chair Karen Harberg (pictured, from left) are preparing for the event that takes place Feb. 428. Funk and Harberg served as co-chairs for last year’s ReelAbilities Festival. The annual event promotes inclusion through award-winning films, music concerts, and art shows featuring the work of people with disabilities and is produced by the Jewish Family Service Houston Alexander Institute for Inclusion, in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities. The 2024 Festival kicks off on Feb. 4 with the ReelArt Opening at Sabine Street Studios, followed by engaging

activities and events for the entire month. All art, film, and music events are free to the public. For more information and to register for events, visit reelabilities.org.

Lunch with Santa St. Jude Houston Christmas Luncheon chairs Amal Zakhem-Nassar and Jenny Raffoul (pictured, from left) welcomed a sold-out crowd to the Junior League of Houston for the annual fundraising event. More than 200 generous supporters including Fox26 anchor Melissa Wilson, whose son is a cancer survivor, enjoyed lunch while raising funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to provide pediatric treatment at no cost to families. The afternoon festivities included a three-course meal, champagne toast, and silent auction, as well as a special appearance from Santa and a presentation from a St. Jude patient who celebrated her 10th year of being cancer-free.

The Health Museum goes to Casablanca Dave Rossman Photography

Mark Katz

ReelAbilities Festival is back

Dr. James Flowers, Tonda Beard Chapman, and Michael Beard (pictured, from left) celebrated with more than 200 (continued on page 50) WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ FEBRUARY 2024 48

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(continued from page 48) other supporters of the

John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science (The Health Museum) at the Casablanca Gala. Guests packed the Four Seasons Hotel and raised $300,000 to benefit The Health Museum’s education and community programs, including funding for the DeBakey Cell Lab, Discovery camps and field trips, and the Global Teen Medical Summit for high school students. Chaired by Dr. Flowers, the annual fundraising event included dinner, dancing, a tribute video, a live auction led by auctioneer Mike Greer, and a special performance by Doppelganger Band.

Alejandro Montoya

Culinary stars shine

Willis, Lisa Lim, Lorie Jacobs, principal Rita Graves, Sook Miller, Lori Black, Allison Teheng, and Leslie Wubbenhorst.

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An emerald evening

Baylor College of Medicine’s Culinary Stars Shine for Cancer Research event raised $6.2 million to support cancer research at Baylor's Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. More than 230 guests, including David Wuthrich, Margaret Alkek Williams, Dr. Paul Klotman and Dr. Mary Klotman (pictured, from left) attended the event at POST Houston. The evening’s festivities included cocktails, dinner, live auction, and entertainment from The Fab 5. Guests enjoyed food prepared by local, award-winning chefs, mixologists, and sommeliers including Paul Qui, Tom Cunanan, Christopher Haatuft, Nicolas Nikic, Jarmel Doss, and Timothy Contreras. In addition, partygoers heard from speakers Dr. Paul Klotman, president, CEO and executive dean of Baylor College of Medicine and Dr. Pavan Reddy, professor and director of the Duncan Cancer Center.

left) enjoyed the 2024 awards gala in the Post Oak Ballroom at the Omni Hotel Houston. The Houston Treasures award, created by Warner Roberts in 2004, honors people who contribute to the community through philanthropy, volunteerism, medicine, arts, business, sports, politics, and media. This year’s gala, An Emerald Evening, celebrates 20 years of the award. Roberts opened the evening by welcoming guests and then introduced Reverend Mary Gracely, who gave the evening’s invocation. More than 200 guests brought toys to donate to the children at the Mission of Yahweh and then enjoyed a champagne reception and four-course, seated dinner.

Run for the House

Houston Treasures honoree Cheryl Byington and former honoree Beth Wolff (pictured, from

Lamar PTO celebrates the holidays The Lamar High School executive PTO board gathered at Alyson Rooney’s home for their December meeting and celebrated with an endof-the-year holiday celebration. After taking care of official PTO business, the team celebrated their accomplishments during the first semester of the school year and then enjoyed tamales, homemade by parent Catalina Pastore. It was a great way to wrap up the first half of the year and get ready for the spring semester. The PTO board members are (back row, from left) Catalina Pastore, Louise Downey, Zobeida Sanchez, Michelle Cook, Beth Lane, Alyson Rooney; (front row, from left) Stephanie WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ FEBRUARY 2024 50

The 14th annual Trafigura Run for the House, benefiting Ronald McDonald House Houston, brought nearly 800 runners downtown to Sam Houston Park. Professional MMA fighter and event grand marshal Raufeon Stots, emcee Katherine Whaley, RMH Houston chief executive officer Cristina (continued on page 52)

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(continued from page 50) Vetrano, Santa, and local

run participants (pictured, from left) were among the festive race crowd that raised more than $490,000 for RMH Houston, which serves as a home away from home for families with seriously ill children who are being treated in the Texas Medical Center. The event included a wide range of participants from competitive runners to families with children in strollers and dog walkers, and groups from schools including Poe Elementary.

Jenny Antill/Texas Children’s Hospital

A night for the children

for the much-anticipated student talent show. Fifty-one students auditioned to perform, and 27 acts (pictured) were invited to compete in the show organized by music and theater teachers Alex Perez and Kerri Cobb. Volunteers from the PTO worked to coordinate the school event that principal Scott Disch praised as “a showcase of diverse, high-quality talents.” The impressive list of acts included student Austin Woerner who sang while playing his own piano accompaniment, and Naara Liu who performed a rhythmic gymnastics ball routine.

Mah jongg and lots of laughter

time goes on. When the group first began, ladies met at Eileen Barrett's home, but after her standard poodles took car keys out of purses and ran off with the toilet paper, they relocated to the upstairs room at Central Market. More recently the group began alternating homes each week for evenings of camaraderie and laughter. Pictured are mah-jongg players (top row, from left) Claire Daum, Becky Katz, Peggy Blum, Laya Bloom, Marcia Katz, Jill Reichman; (bottom row, from left) Eileen Barrett, Gloria Gordon, Roberta Grossman, Helene Zadok, Orna Feinstein, and Thelma Rubin.

Orna Feinstein hosted a potluck mah-jongg party to celebrate the holiday season and Roberta Grossman's birthday. The Wednesday-night group has been meeting for 15 years with some changes in members as

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.

Chita and Lane Craft (pictured) were among the 300 guests donning festive holiday attire at the Ambassadors for Texas Children’s Hospital holiday party. Chaired by Holly and Steve Radom, the event was held at the Montrose Collective where supporters enjoyed Merry Martinis and live music from SPINPHONY. Dr. James Versalovic, Pathologist In-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital and Lifetime Ambassador, thanked fellow ambassadors who raised funds in 2023 to support Texas Children’s Behavioral Health program. The 2024 Ambassador funds will support Texas Children’s Pawsitive Play, an animal-assisted therapy program. Surprise guests of the evening were Crosby and Angus, facility dogs from the Pawsitive Play program.

So much talent! Families, friends, teachers, and staff gathered in the West University Elementary School cafeteria WEST UNIVERSITY BUZZ FEBRUARY 2024 52

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NEIGHBORS

by Andria Dilling, staff writer

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Online Dating: Swiping toward disaster or love?

alk to a 25-year-old long enough, and you’re likely to hear some mention of online dating. That’s because more than half of the under-30 crowd has created a profile, at some time or another, on a dating app, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center study. Like the 30-year-old who moved back to Houston a couple of years ago and saw it as a way to meet new people. “I had a friend who suggested it, so I downloaded the app and made a profile,” the young man says, as he asks not to be identified. “The app” he refers to is Hinge, which is geared toward connecting 20- and 30-somethings. It’s one of several dating apps belonging to the Match Group, which launched the ubiquitous Match dating app back in 1995, the very beginning of online dating. Today, one in 10 couples met through a dating app. Of couples under 30, that number rises to one in five, according to that same Pew Research study. But the consensus is still out: Do users love or hate the apps? The young man, initially open to the idea of online dating, is a detractor after two dates that started on the app. “I did end up dating the first girl I met online for over a year,” he says. “But the other one was a disaster.” “The first one, we talked on Hinge, then we exchanged numbers and talked a good amount on the phone, then we set a date.” You could call that date a success; they stayed together for over a year. “But the second one was just Let’s go on a date, straight to it, so I didn’t get to know her first. “As soon as we met, I felt like I was in an audition,” the young man says. “It was a Saturday night, and we’re out for drinks.” He remembers the conversation being one-sided and his date seeming bored. “Then two of her friends show up, and they’re like Oh, what a coincidence, but I’m not buying it. They were there to rescue her. “Now a guy shows up and sits with us. What do you think happens? Everyone’s now on my [bar] tab. I end up spending over $200 there, then

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we get into an Uber and go to a fancy restaurant, and next thing I know I’m eating bone marrow. Then the check comes, and me and the other guy wind up splitting a $400 tab. After that I got in an Uber like I was running for the hills. I could not have gotten out quicker. “Unless I’m really impressed, I can’t see myself going on an online date now.” But there’s another side to that coin: Lots of 20-somethings have left their online profiles and come away with real connections. “Online dating is a fulltime job,” a 24-yearold woman who works in marketing says. “You’re committed to putting yourself out there, updating your pictures. It takes A LITTLE HELP FROM MOM A mother's perspective on online dating can be a lot of work and a lot of just the thing needed for success. scrolling. half hours. Coffee doesn’t take two-and-a-half “I was complaining to my mom about how hours. I called my mom and said I was contough it was,” the woman, who also asked to fused…I liked him, but he wasn’t what I thought remain anonymous, says. “Finding someone in I liked.” person was never going to happen, the way our Eight months later, coffee has turned into generation is with social media. But I’d scroll much more: The couple has joined a church and scroll for hours, and it was so frustrating.” together, visited each other’s families in differ“Finally, my mom was like Just give me the app ent hometowns, and is looking forward to what and let me swipe. I taught her how to swipe yes, comes next. The woman says, “I’m extremely no, and she was on it for 15 minutes when she confident there is a future [with us]. showed me a picture and said This guy’s cute. He “Ultimately my mom got me to get out of my was clearly in med school, and I was saying what own way and just go on one date rather than if he’s nerdy, he’s from a small town, he’s not my ruling someone out because of a tiny little type…I was coming up with reasons not to interthing. It’s easy to just move on on an app. But act with him.” you might as well be open-minded and just see The mom encouraged her daughter to just what happens. give her pick a try. “We had coffee on our first And it’s true, mother knows best.” date,” the woman says, “and it was two-and-a-

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