Newcomer to brick-and-mortar retail, Vevor, will officially hold its grand opening on Monday, 9th, 2026, at 10:00 AM. Located at 10951 Farm to Market 1960 Rd W, Houston, TX 77070, the store held a soft opening about a month ago and has since operated while continuing to build out operations. While focusing on hardware, the store does stock a broad selection of items similar to those on its website. In addition to tools and gardening ...
WASHINGTON—In an effort to provide a “more hearty, spoonable drinking experience,” the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday a sweeping new initiative to make all U.S. tap water chunkier by 2030. “For too long, Americans have had to put up with thin, dull water, but we’re going to cut through all of the unnecessary red tape and give people delicious water that you can chew,” said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, adding that the agency would soon begin introducing naturally occurring by-products into municipal water systems to produce nutrient-rich lumps, globs, and other satisfying clusters in drinking water. “This is a win-win for everybody. You’ll get thick, refreshing water that keeps you hydrated, our industries won’t be oppressed by silly water-safety regulations, and we’ll no longer waste billions in taxpayers dollars each year on needless de-chunking treatments.” The agency confirmed it was already in talks with major chemical manufacturers that it hopes can expedite the water-clotting process by offloading industrial waste directly into rivers.
WASHINGTON—Having abandoned his pledge not to let construction interfere with the plane’s existing structure or aerodynamic design, President Donald Trump defended on Thursday his decision to add a “magnificent” neoclassical ballroom to Air Force One.
Trump, who appeared dismissive of photos that showed an excavator ripping into the famed Boeing 747, told reporters that demolishing portions of the aircraft was necessary to add a 90,000-square-foot reception hall to its port side. Critics, however, argued that the sprawling addition embellished with gold chandeliers and gilded Corinthian columns would dwarf the plane’s 231-foot metal fuselage, and that the removal of the propulsion system, landing gear, and an entire wing had gone forward without proper oversight or permits.
“I am pleased to announce that ground has been broken on the new, big, beautiful Air Force One Ballroom,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, adding that the crystal floor lamps, checkered marble floors, and coffered ceiling with gold inlays would pay “total respect” to the original aircraft. “Air Force One was a cramped, tiny structure with Small Windows, Low Ceilings, and Terrible Bathrooms. It was nothing to look at. But soon the ugly engines and fuel tanks will be replaced with something spectacular!”
“Many people loved the wing,” Trump added. “But I could not sacrifice a gorgeous ballroom just to hold onto a single, past-its-prime wing.”
The project, which is expected to cost over $300 million, is one of many high-profile renovations Trump has planned for Air Force One, including the addition of two towering flag poles to the plane’s nose and tail, the replacement of the aluminum alloy exterior with more “aesthetically pleasing” statuary marble, and the construction of a massive stone patio to host outdoor events at elevations of 30,000 feet.
At a private dinner given for the aircraft ballroom’s biggest corporate donors and attended by executives from Alphabet, Lockheed Martin, Comcast, and Coinbase, Trump said that the project would be “in keeping” with the plane’s highly technical design, but that he did not need approval from the Presidential Historical Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration, or the U.S. Air Force to make changes.
Renderings provided by the White House reportedly contained various errors such as ballroom windows that opened into the aircraft’s sewage tanks and a set of boarding stairs that led straight into a brick wall. However, Republican senators were quick to defend the president’s plans, claiming that contrary to the “fake news” manufactured by Democrats, the 1,350-person ballroom would not only improve the plane’s aesthetics, but also its aerodynamics, fuel efficiency, and nuclear-attack readiness.
“I’m no aviation expert, but if Trump wants to remove an engine or a windshield or a traffic collision avoidance system, he has the right as president to do so,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who added that the structural integrity of the commander-in-chief’s official aircraft was by no means “sacrosanct.” “Since when have Democrats known anything about lift? Or torque? Or physics? They’re just mad that every time they look at Air Force One they’re going to see an enormous, beautiful ballroom with Trump’s name in an elegant script font across the side.”
“This is going to benefit every American,” Johnson continued. “And hey, Democrats, if you ever win back the presidency, you can use it, too.”
The justices are considering the constitutionality of a 2013 law in a lawsuit brought by environmentalist and indigenous groups against the General Land Office and Cameron County.
Gael Stack, a worldly and accomplished Houston painter with a long career as an educator, died on Tuesday, February 24, at age 84 following a long illness.
Betty Moody, Ms. Stack’s longtime Houston gallerist, remembered her as a well-respected artist inside and beyond Texas. Throughout her career, Ms. Stack presented more than 50 solo shows, including 16 such exhibitions at Moody Gallery between 1990 and 2020. In 1997, she was named Texas Artist of the Year by Art League Houston.
Gael Stack in 2010. Courtesy Moody Gallery
Of Ms. Stack’s work, Ms. Moody said, “Gael’s paintings were absolutely exquisite. They were not only beautiful, but they were historically well based, well thought out, there was meaning to them.” She pointed out the artist’s love of Lapis Lazuli blue pigment, and her interests in the perspectival confluence between Japanese woodcuts and medieval European paintings, as well as her adaptation of historical monuments from around the world, and her general preoccupation with communication, specifically how conversations can generate differing meanings and understandings in their participants.
Gael Stack, “Forget-me-nots #3,” 2013, oil on canvas, 70 x 60 inches.
Courtesy of Moody Gallery
Originally from Chicago, Ms. Stack earned a BFA from the University of Illinois in Urbana, and her MFA from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. She moved to Texas in 1973 to teach at the University of Houston (UH), hired by George Bunker. During the 2004-2005 academic year, she served as Director of the UH School of Art, then remained at the school as the John & Rebecca Moores Professor until achieving Professor Emeritus status in 2022.
Aaron Parazette, a Houston painter and Professor at the UH School of Art, taught alongside Ms. Stack for more than 20 years. He recalled his longtime colleague as “serious and tough” as a teacher, who offered much to her students whether they “clicked” with her or experienced friction with her straightforwardness.
Student portraits of Gael Stack, by Olga LaMont (at left, circa 2008) and Charlene Scott (at right, circa 2014). Courtesy of Aaron Parazette
“She said that when she was young, she didn’t know what she was going to be, but she knew that she wanted to be an expert,” Mr. Parazette told Glasstire. “And so she became an expert at painting and art, and she truly was that, and she had a deep belief in her assessment of art.”
Melinda Laszczynski studied with Ms. Stack from 2012 to 2015, and considered her a mentor. “She was very blunt, which I really appreciate,” Ms. Laszczynski said. “She would tell you exactly what she thought.” Ms. Stack had tried and true strategies for “unsticking” a painting, Ms. Laszczynski said. “She would say, if a painting is stuck, ‘Add five pink things to it and then see what it needs.’”
Caroline Gray, who also studied with Ms. Stack from 2012 to 2015, concurred on the “five pink things” advice, and recalled that Ms. Stack’s encouragement arrived at a fortuitous moment. Ms. Gray had been making paintings of installation images of other artists’ work installed in galleries, paying strict attention to achieving accurate details of their works. “The first time I met her,” Ms. Gray said, “she saw me working on these big paintings of different installation images, and she said, ‘Would you do mine?’” The eventual painting, of a Moody Gallery installation image of Ms. Stack’s well-known blue paintings chosen by the artist, won Ms. Stack’s approval — and sold immediately to a collector of Ms. Stack’s work.
Caroline Gray, “Gael,” 2015, oil on canvas, 41 x 60 inches. Courtesy of the artist
“It was so validating for me to have her” as a teacher, Ms. Gray said. “She was really supportive, and I admired her painting so much. She was really a painter’s painter.”
Following school, Ms. Laszczynski had difficulty transitioning to life as an independent artist and found Ms. Stack’s encouragement essential. The experienced artist told her of moving from the Midwest to Houston as a single mom, and simply having to make things work. Her advice proved important for Ms. Laszczynski continuing as an artist. Ms. Stack told her, “‘You just have to work with what you have. Just keep painting. That’s the most important thing.’”
Mr. Parazette credited Ms. Stack with building the foundation of the UH School of Art program, and said she was instrumental in creating “The Block,” a course of study that had graduate students working in their studios two full days per week, which continues to this day. She was also instrumental in hiring Rachel Hecker in 1992, who would go on to join Ms. Stack as Professor Emeritus in 2025.
Ms. Hecker recalled her former colleague and friend as “formidable,” but noted that she also showed a vulnerable side, and revealed a dry wit. “She often said she never had parties because she was afraid no one would come,” Ms. Hecker said, laughing at the memory. She recalled Ms. Stack as a dogged pursuer of her causes, a passionate and true connoisseur of painting, a lover of Southern literature. Ms. Hecker added, “She was so colossal in so many ways, as an artist, as a thinker, as a scholar, an educator, a feminist. She was bigger than life.”
Gael Stack in her studio in 2011. Courtesy Moody Gallery
Despite sustained, lifelong success, Ms. Moody said Ms. Stack was unassuming about her stature. “Gael had a marvelous career … an enviable career by most standards,” she said. But self-importance “just wouldn’t have occurred to her,” Ms. Moody told Glasstire. “It was important [to her] that she be recognized … but none of this ever went to her head.”
Other institutions featuring Ms. Stack in solo exhibitions include the Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois (1998); the Galveston Arts Center (1997); the Amarillo Art Center (1992); the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Gallery at the University of Houston (UH) and Dallas Museum of Art (1989); and the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi (1977); along with galleries in Chicago, Boston, New York City, and San Francisco.
Ms. Stack’s work was included in group shows at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston; the El Paso Museum of Art; the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso; the Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University in Waco; the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont; the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio; the Beeville Art Museum; the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; the Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin; the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut; the San Antonio Museum of Art, and many other venues. Her work is in the collections of many of the above institutions, and additionally in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Gael Stack, “Forty-one Songs #14,” 2010, ink, graphite, oil on vellum, 11 x 8 1/2 inches. Courtesy of Moody Gallery
One international show influenced Ms. Stack’s approach to her work, Ms. Moody said. Prior to an invitation to participate in a 1996 three-person exhibition at the Centro Cultural Borges in Buenos Aires, Argentina, her paintings were large, generally 48 by 60 inches or larger. However, for the Argentina show, all works had to fit in a handheld diplomatic pouch, so Ms. Stack generated a series of small works on paper. She continued to make smaller works on paper and paintings on canvas, Ms. Moody said, which eventually resulted in a show called Untitled (Tinies), of five-by-three inch paintings.
In recalling the blue paintings for which Ms. Stack is best known, Ms. Gray said the color is reminiscent of Yves Klein’s famous signature blue pigment, as well as the blue hues in illuminated medieval manuscripts. In the paintings, she said, that blue becomes “massive planes of cobalt and ultramarine … bright and translucent at the same time.” The saturated color “is one of the many qualities that make Gael’s paintings so special to me. It is both perishable and fragile, yet completely loaded with strength and wisdom,” she said.
Moody Gallery will hold a memorial for friends of the artist in April, with details forthcoming.
As Glasstire celebrates our 25th anniversary, each month we’ll be publishing thematic content by our editors and contributing writers. Over the course of the year, our themes will touch on our early years, art schools and places of nontraditional learning, creativity in times of crisis, and more.
In addition to newly written content, we are also mining our archives. Over the past 25 years, Glasstire has published more than 18,000 articles. This month, our theme — Texas Topographies: Examining Place & Practice — provides a lens to look back at writings about Texas as a place and how the state’s unique cultures and geographies shape the arts. For your reading pleasure, we’ve gathered some of these articles below, including opinion pieces, reviews, and more.
Mel Chin, “Rough Rider,” 2002, barbed wire and steel, 38 x 29 x 23 inches. Photo: John Lucas
Last summer, Fort Worth-based independent curator Maggie Adler penned a reflective piece about how her perspective of arts and culture in Texas has shifted over a decade of living here. She wrote about once being an “ardent Texas apologist,” attempting to dispel the stereotypes outsiders held about the state, and noted that over time her understanding of Fort Worth and Texas has changed.
“In this age of divisive politics, I am beginning to own my hard-won Texas ennui. Like the proverbial boyfriend that I have been crazy about but of whom my friends disapprove, I’m starting to see that I might have been overcompensating. I am coming to the realization that no matter how much I try to dress Fort Worth up to represent the best aspects of what it is, the naked truth of it without the dressing is not what I’ve promoted it to be.”
Also in 2025, Joseph Staley poetically mused on how the interplay between architecture and climate in Houston shapes the city.
“In a city where heat kills, storms redraw coastlines, and booms vanish midsentence, adaptable buildings outlast declarative ones. Houston’s brutalism demonstrates rather than declares: stains that map a storm, patches that confess care, an overhang that saves a passerby at three. Value gathers in behavior, not silhouette — mass that damps the thermal pulse, shade that scripts congregation, thickness that practices civic care.”
Charisse Pearlina Weston, “un- (anterior ellipse[s] as mangled container; or where edges meet to wedge and [un]moor,” installation view in the 2024 Whitney Biennial. Photo: Ben Davis/Artnet News
In 2024, Glasstire’s Publisher Brandon Zech questioned the lack of representation of Texas artists in the Whitney Biennial. Throughout the essay, he lays out a case for the significance of the state’s artists and outlines why Texas art is often overlooked. Zech’s arguments echo those of Glasstire’s founder Rainey Knudson in her 2016 essay decrying the lack of Texas artists in Texas museums and recognizing the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the Galveston Arts Center, which were notably showcasing art from Texas.
“It is a travesty for a show that describes itself as a “‘dissonant chorus,’ unharmonious in its collectivity,” as the 2024 Biennial does, to omit representation from Texas, which as both an ideology and a place is as dissonant as they come.”
Following a trip to El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Jessica Fuentes wrote about the 2024 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza 2024, hosted at institutions in each of the cities. Like the cross-institutional exhibition, the review spoke to the diversity and connectivity in the region. The following year, Fuentes returned to the area and wrote about community art spaces and cross-border support of the arts.
“The border region is many things to many people, most of whom would prefer that the defining line of the border itself be as invisible to the world as it is in their minds and hearts.”
Women artists from New York at the Durr Ranch near Dumas, Texas, Spring 1960. (Photographer unknown.) From the collection of Carolyn Fitz. Third from left, Elaine de Kooning; third from right, Louise Nevelson; seated to the left of Nevelson is Martha Jackson
In 2023, Leslie Thompson spoke with author and professor Amy Von Lintel about how New York artist Louise Nevelson’s visits to the Texas High Plains influenced her work.
“We don’t have her saying that directly. What we have is that both of her biographers note that Nevelson’s sister discloses that she talked about her gold pieces as being inspired by the faucets in Texas ranch houses. Because they were gilded.”
In 2022, Sean J. Patrick Carney wrote a two-act narrative essay on the history of Texas’ Messiahs, tying the phenomenon to the life, work, and ethos of Donald Judd.
“The creative self, Judd believed, eclipsed art for social good. And through abstracted formalism, by fabricating specific objects, Judd sought communion between the individual and the divine — a very Protestant, and Texan, attitude. No doubt, the paradoxical aura of West Texas — rugged individualism and ambient paranoia; wide open ranges sewn into private tracts by barbed wire — had infected the artist.”
In 2016, on the heels of Texas’ “open carry” handgun law going into effect, Glasstire’s then Editor-in-Chief, Christina Rees, shared a crowdsourced grouping of Texas artists who have made works featuring guns.
“A couple of weeks ago, we ran a piece titled ‘All of Our Guns, Part 1,’ which due to the current political conversation ruminated, through images, on the depiction of guns and gun references in art… This kind of image mining takes one down a rabbit hole in the sense that it can almost feel easier (or more limited) to name contemporary artists who haven’t used gun imagery in their work than it is to name all the ones who have. This isn’t true, of course — not even in Texas — but it shouldn’t surprise readers to know that Texas-based artists might well confront and pull from this aspect of our culture.”
In 2005, Eric Zimmerman reviewed Terrestrial Arcs, an exhibition at Plan B Gallery in Austin that was curated by Bill Gilbert and Chris Taylor, founders of the Land Arts of the American West program at Texas Tech University. Though the program and the exhibition reach beyond the geographic borders of Texas, the review captures a moment in the history of the renowned Land Arts program.
“Gilbert and Taylor … define Land Arts practices as ‘including everything from constructing a road, to taking a walk, to building a monument, to leaving a mark in the sand.’ Combining studio artists from the University of New Mexico and design students at The University of Texas at Austin, Land Arts immerses its participants within a travel experience based on ancient and contemporary land art sites. Living in tents and traveling throughout the southwest, nomadic Land Arts students must not only create their work, but also engage with a variety of sites, guest scholars and artists from fields as diverse as their destinations.”
“Before the Fall: The Architecture of Vulnerability, a solo exhibition by internationally recognized artist Ray Smith, examines contemporary social realities through reflection, distortion and repurposed materials. Ray Smith (American, b. 1959) was born in Brownsville, Texas, and raised in Central Mexico. This upbringing continues to inform his bicultural American and Mexican perspective. With family roots in the Rio Grande Valley and the recent opening of an additional studio in this region, this exhibition carries personal and symbolic significance. It grounds Smith’s work in a borderlands perspective shaped by history, movement and lived experience.
Smith’s practice draws from early studies of fresco painting with traditional practitioners in Mexico. His influences also include Surrealism, Pablo Picasso and the politically-charged legacy of Mexican muralism. Through hybrid figures, he reflects on family, politics, culture, war and the human condition. These themes often appear within cycles of birth and death. Before the Fall: The Architecture of Vulnerability brings together two bodies of work. One consists of large-scale dream-like oil paintings created between 2000 and early 2001. The second, produced in 2018, uses mixed media and vivid color applied to discarded plexiglass mirrors assembled into wall partitions. Painted years apart, the images echo contemporary uncertainty and the fragility of systems once assumed to be stable. Visitors are encouraged to consider how experience, identity and vulnerability are shaped and reimagined through perception and lived space.”
Sable Elyse Smith, “Pivot I,” 2019, powder-coated aluminum, 56 x 56 x 56 inches. Courtesy of the artist; Bortolami, New York; and Regen Projects, Los Angeles
2. Sable Elyse Smith: Clockwork The Contemporary Austin March 6 – August 2, 2026 Opening reception: Friday, March 6, 5-7 p.m.
From The Contemporary Austin:
“Sable Elyse Smith (b. 1986, Los Angeles; lives and works in New York) is the 2026 recipient of the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize. Featuring works spanning the past five years, Clockwork marks the artist’s most robust institutional exhibition to date and her first solo exhibition in Texas. Presenting newly commissioned work alongside selected key series in sculpture, video, neon, and works on paper, the exhibition has been thoughtfully designed by the artist to bring these distinct, interconnected bodies of work into dialogue.
Smith’s conceptually-driven practice examines systems of power, tracing how they operate not only as infrastructure but as psychological and cultural conditions that are often hidden in plain sight. The exhibition title, Clockwork, evokes the mechanical precision of the systems Smith interrogates — cyclical, seemingly inevitable, and often imperceptible — underscoring their quiet but persistent operations in everyday life.”
Soledad Salame, “Fast Fashion Atacama I, II, III, IV,” 2025, archival print on canvas with hand work and embroidery
“Soledad Salamé is a Chilean-American artist who proposes a poetic form of intervention marrying art, research, and re-invention. Locating moments when nature’s resilience meets human resourcefulness, she works with an evolving team of scientific and ecological collaborators to create works as repositories of labor, resistance and reflection. A subject and location she has returned to frequently is the Atacama Desert in northern Chile as a beleaguered site of pollution. It is most notably the site where millions of pounds of disposable textiles, often called ‘fast fashion,’ are dumped and piled — to the degree they have become an uncanny part of the region’s topography. Her new body of work, Camouflage, is contextualized by past work she has created in Chile and other locations further afield — all unified by the sensitive and hopeful appraisal of environments forever (re)shaped by acts of humanity.”
Eva Gabriella Flynn, “For No Man’s Land,” 2025, printed polyester, wooden dowel, and aluminum bracket
“Contemporary Art Month San Antonio presents The Things We Carry, curated by CAM Board Members Casie Lomeli and Leslie Moody Castro. Over a series of conversations between two curators and eight artists, scattered across seven cities, we discovered a group of people thinking deeply about the physical, emotional, and metaphysical forces that they carry through their lives and into their work.
The Things We Carry embodies this through its very structure, placing artists from around Texas and the Southwest in artist-run spaces across San Antonio. It is a celebration of the act of sharing, of making space for difficult truths, and the resilience required to carry them. The eight exhibiting artists, Brenda Melgoza Ciardiello (Fort Worth), Daniela Oliver de Portillo (San Antonio), Eva Gabriella Flynn (Las Cruces, New Mexico), Jesselyn Gordon (San Antonio), Yuliya Lanina (Austin), Tina Linville (Waco), Matt Rebholz (Austin), and Adrienne Simmons (Houston), are examining archives and histories, geographies and materiality, realities and fictions. What they carry — memories, traumas, places both real and imagined — becomes the material from which this exhibition is built.”
Ian Grieve, “Resistance,” 2025, oil on wood panels, 60 x 48 inches
“Ian Grieve’s work explores the tension between change, memory, and perception through a materially driven approach to figurative painting. His paintings function as stories in themselves, not only through imagery, but through the visible traces of their making. Treating the surface as both image and palette, Grieve allows paint to be built, moved, scraped, and reworked, turning each work into a record of creation, revision, and time.
Using the human figure as a central site, he investigates how images carry emotional and narrative weight beyond individual identity. Earlier stages remain present within the final composition, transforming the surface into a physical archive where memory appears unstable, fragmented, and continually rewritten. Imperfection and intentional incompleteness draw attention to the painting as an object shaped by pressure, interruption, and change. Influenced by historical figurative traditions and contemporary approaches to the body in flux, Grieve balances structure with experimentation, keeping narratives open, provisional, and in motion.”
In brief: Saturday’s forecast in Houston has some perplexity to it in terms of when and where storms will occur, but we’re leaning toward a quieter first half of the day, with storm chances increasing Saturday evening and overnight. Hail is possible in a couple of the strongest storms. Sunday could see locally strong storms with heavy downpours. Don’t forget to “spring forward” Saturday night!
We’ve got some more active weather in the cards for this weekend but nothing that’s too scary. It’s mostly going to serve as a reminder that we still get storms here sometimes!
Today
No real concerns today, as we’re likely to see clouds, some sun, and highs in the 80s. There could be a passing pocket of light rain or a shower. Even a rogue thunderclap can’t be entirely ruled out this afternoon, especially north and west of Houston. Continue to be mindful of dense, erratic sea fog near the coast. We may see that break up some today and return tonight.
Saturday and Sunday
The forecast gets busier for this weekend. While an isolated shower or storm can’t be ruled out overnight, especially off to the northwest of Houston, it doesn’t appear much will occur before tomorrow morning. However, on Saturday, we expect showers and thunderstorms to develop later in the afternoon or evening. The entire area away from the coast is under a slight risk (2/5) for severe thunderstorms on Saturday.
The SPC has most of the area in a slight risk (2/5) for severe weather on Saturday, especially for hail and later in the day. (NOAA SPC)
Based on what I can tell from forecast models and the NWS discussions, the primary driver for the slight risk is potential for isolated large hail. Storms could still carry lightning obviously or isolated strong wind gusts, but from a “severe” perspective, hail seems to be driving the risk. That said, we do not expect hail all over the city…I just want to make that clear. Any large hail would probably be confined to a few neighborhoods only in the strongest storms.
Use the slider on the image above to compare the 12-3 PM European model precipitation forecast with the 3 PM HRRR model radar forecast. (Pivotal Weather)
But what about timing? Well, the European model has insisted for days now that a squall line of storms would push through Houston in the afternoon hours. Now that we’re in range of higher resolution model guidance, the picture is a lot murkier. Most high-res models keep most of the area storm free during the daylight hours Saturday. You can compared the Euro to the HRRR model above. However, by later Saturday evening, that may be when you’ve got the chance for stronger storms in a few spots, especially north and west of Houston. So there’s some inherent uncertainty tomorrow, but for the most part I don’t think you’ll have too many issues in the morning or early afternoon. Storm chances will perk up in the later afternoon and evening hours, especially north and west of Houston I think. We’ll update you on this tomorrow morning.
For Sunday, right now I would say scattered thunderstorms throughout the day, with perhaps a focus north of I-10 in the first half of the day and south of I-10 in the second half of the day. Locally strong storms are possible, and one or two could put down some significant rainfall in a short amount of time, so be mindful of street flooding in areas that see the most persistent storms Sunday.
Rodeo forecast
If you’re headed to the Rodeo this weekend, you’ve got few concerns tonight for Lizzo. It looks good. There will be that chance of a thunderstorm on Saturday, especially upon exiting Dwight Yoakam. Just be aware of the potential, but as noted above, storms will at least be possible. Temps will be in the low to mid-70s each evening. Sunday may be the highest odds of showers and thunderstorms, along with locally heavy rain. Even if it isn’t raining when you leave, if you’re headed to see Forrest Frank, you’ll want the raincoat and a little extra time to get to and from NRG Stadium just in case. Temps should be in the mid to upper-70s.
Early next week
Monday and Tuesday look sufficiently quiet right now with nothing worse than a rogue shower. Highs will be in the 80s and lows in the upper 60s and low-70s.
Wednesday
After those quieter days Monday and Tuesday, it does look like we get a quick but potent storm system in the area on Wednesday. It’s too soon to speak with much confidence about this system or its potential, but early indications are that there will be at least some strong to perhaps severe storms, especially the first half of Wednesday, especially north of I-10. The SPC has highlighted the north side of the city in Wednesday’s severe weather risk, which is akin to saying a slight risk (2/5) this far out.
Severe weather risk does exist on Wednesday, especially in the morning. (NOAA SPC)
1. HR wants me to give someone a bad review they don’t deserve, to cover up HR’s own mistake
I am a manager for a small team of engineers. One of my direct reports was given a new role that was supposed to come with a promotion and pay bump this year. It turned out that our local HR did not have the authority to actually increase his payband and rebranded the new role as a “lateral move.”
Now reviews are due, and I am being told to artificially give another person on my team a bad review so that we can give a larger raise to the person who took on a new role.
It feels really bad and unethical to do this. Especially since this is all due to local HR making promises that they couldn’t keep. I am looking for any advice on how to proceed.
Whoa, yeah, that’s awful. It’s bad enough that they promised someone a raise that they can’t deliver on, but now they want you to give a bad review to someone who doesn’t deserve one so they can try to cover for their own mistake?
You should refuse to give the bad review. Say this: “I can’t ethically give someone a bad review that they don’t deserve. If there’s not enough raise money to go around, I can work with you to figure out the messaging on that, but I can’t give someone a bad review when they’ve performed well. Given that, how should we proceed with the dividing the salary increases?” If they keep pushing you, you should escalate this over their heads.
2. Company is cutting retirement benefits while giving extra money to employees’ kids
As you may know, starting in July parents and guardians will be able to open a new type of individual retirement account for kids under age 18 (the the 530A account); individuals and employers can contribute up to a total of $5,000 per child per year.
The Big Boss at our company announced that the company will contribute several hundred dollars per child for those born in a four-year time span (2025-2028) to full-time employees.
That’s great! We are a very large company with a fairly young demographic. However, we are also flush with middle-aged employees and no small amount of much older employees … and those older employees got dinged at least twice when the company stopped 401K matching and then brought the match back at a significantly lower level. When I asked HR about the match reduction equating to a reduction in compensation (along with increased insurance premiums and very reduced benefits; the company is self-insured) I was essentially told that’s just how it is.
We have also previously been given half-days off prior to certain holidays, adding up to three days, but they stopped that practice this year. I asked HR if we would receive additional compensation for that time and was told no.
We’re constantly told how the company is struggling and how we need to work harder, smarter while they cut back tangible benefits. And while I think working parents need all the help they can get, the contribution to these accounts for a select few without making comparable contributions to our 401K seems off balance. Your thoughts?
I’d have no problem with this if they hadn’t cut benefits for everyone, while then adding a new benefit that only goes to people with kids. Cutting contributions to retirement accounts for employees while investing money in employees’ kids’ retirement accounts — and increasing insurance premiums across the board — is not good. I don’t know that I’d lump the canceled half-days for holidays in there, but it’s understandable that taken all together, it feels awfully tone-deaf for them to be adding a new benefit that goes to non-employees while shortchanging their actual employees.
3. Conference attendee told me I looked “bored”
I work for an organization that runs a conference for a few hundred people each year. I play a variety of roles, from doing social media at the event, to running session logistics, to doing tech during conference-wise keynotes, etc. This year, the tech table with the laptop and soundboard were fairly near one of the projection screens. During one 90-minute event, I ran the Powerpoint, answered questions on my phone, and posted about the conference, all at the same time. It went off flawlessly, which was a huge relief because it takes a lot of planning.
Lo and behold, a conference attendee came up to me afterwards and told me how “bored I looked.” Um, okay? I’m a woman, so, is he essentially calling me out for having resting bitch face? I spent the rest of the conference extremely self-conscious about how my face looked, which was exhausting.
In the moment, I just politely laughed it off, which I feel like made him feel like he was right to say something. But this is also a rare instance that I have way more organization capital than this person, who is a partner but not an employee. What could have been a better response in the moment that stood up for myself and got him to back off?
“Nope, just really focused on running the program.”
Far too many men love to give women unsolicited input when they have no standing to offer it. Men, y’all need to cut this out.
4. Should I be offended by the ad for the job I’m leaving?
I work in an agency setting in public relations. I have consistently received positive reviews for my client work and have been promoted twice since I started seven years ago, but I haven’t been as successful with new business development, which is a prerequisite for my next promotion. I started job searching late last year and was just offered a job at a company where new business development is not a requirement for bonuses or advancement, so I gave my notice this week.
Yesterday our HR posted a job listing for my replacement and asked for me to share it if I knew of any good candidates. My eyes popped out of my head a little bit when it said they were looking for someone with 2-5 years experience. Does it reflect badly on me that they think they can replace me today with someone who has even less experience than I did when I joined the firm seven years ago? If so, I don’t want to share it, obviously. I have a handoff meeting next week with HR and would like to be able to respectfully address it if it is a reputational problem for me.
It’s not an insult to you. It could be that they’re switching up the role a bit and have reasons for wanting to bring someone in at a more junior level, or they could be ignorant about what it takes to perform well in the job, or they could be open to a wide range of candidates and that’s the minimum experience they’re looking for but not necessarily what the successful person will end up having.
You can certainly offer your feedback about their hiring plan, framed as, “For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is the profile of candidates who will be well-suited for the work; you’re likely to need some with more experience because of ___.” But avoid seeing it as a reflection on you; it’s more likely just HR being HR, in any of the ways described above.
And of course, you’re under no obligation to circulate the job description; that would be a favor to them regardless, and you can simply decline to.
Clip and save Claire’s latest shredding! Collect ten and you can send off for an exclusive Palitoy Bobby Problems figure. Warning: features several choking hazards.
“It’s a good thing that Trump is the most peaceful president in history who ends all wars, right?” This week host Clare Blackwood and the Panel (Megan MacKay, Nile Séguin, and special guest Dave Barclay of The Beaverton TV show) discuss Trump’s latest war that you better not call a war, Mark Carney’s Eat Pray […]
I had an appointment with my doctor this morning and told him that one of the techs had made me uncomfortable by repeatedly discussing her religious beliefs with me even after I directly asked that she not. I used the phrasing a couple of commenters suggested — that she essentially was telling me that if I accepted Jesus into my life, my mental health would improve. My doctor thanked me for telling him, apologized for my experience, and said that he would make sure that this behavior would not happen again with me or other patients. Interestingly, he did not ask me which tech (there are two — the other was always very professional), so I suspect either he already had heard about this from another patient or just knew immediately which tech it had to be.
I don’t know that I would have talked to him about this if it weren’t for all of the encouragement that I received, and I definitely feel better about the practice now that it has been discussed. Again, many thanks to you and to the Ask A Manager community!
Not long after my first message (almost two years ago now) I injured my foot and was unable to go into the office at all (or walk, really) for several months. After that, I still mostly still worked from home until a couple of months ago when management started getting a little more serious about people actually being in the office.
The second day I was back in, I was walking by the office kitchen when I heard the mucus action start again. TWO YEARS and nobody had said anything, apparently! I was kind of grumpy about being in the office at all so I just walked in and said, firmly but as politely as possible, “Can you please do that in the bathroom instead of the kitchen? It’s super gross. Thank you.” She looked a little startled (I mean, after years of this, and nobody saying anything, she had no reason to think it was an issue) but said okay.
And she hasn’t done it again when I’ve been here. I still head home for lunch usually, but there haven’t been any recurrences and my office experience has been blissfully free of the sound of sinus clearing. I still would rather be working from home, but at least the office experience is a little more pleasant than it was.
I wrote in last year wondering if I could get in trouble for not telling my boss that our HR manager sent me confidential salary information. It was not a letter that I thought would ever have an update, but this was too wild not to share. A few days ago, I got to work and there was AN FBI AGENT standing in the lobby. Apparently the HR manager was also the business manager at her church and between unauthorized transactions and secret credit cards, she had stolen almost $650,000 from them over the course of several years. She was investigated for it a year or so ago but as far as we knew had been cleared, and we were able to verify that she didn’t try any financial shenanigans here, which is why she still worked for us.
Her boss jokingly asked a couple of us if we thought he needed to update the handbook to specifically state that getting arrested by the FBI is grounds for immediate termination, because, well, apparently it is.
We now have a sign noting the number of days since law enforcement was last here, and a common answer to “How are you?” is “Pretty good, I didn’t get arrested by the FBI!”
Over the past few years, my responsibilities have grown well beyond my original job description. I now manage procurement end-to-end, track budgets, support multiple project managers, and draft reports. This expansion has happened informally — no title change, no pay adjustment, and no formal acknowledgement of the shift in scope.
What’s making it harder is that after four years in the role, my team lead has openly said they don’t really understand procurement. As a result, I often feel like I’m operating without informed oversight or support, yet I’m still accountable when something is questioned.
Recently, I attended what I thought was a general catch-up about a system transition. Instead, it became what felt like a performance-style discussion led by someone who isn’t my supervisor. I wasn’t given notice of the concerns beforehand. At one point, I was asked, “What do I tell the director — do I throw you under the bus?” which felt intimidating. I tried to explain workload pressures and the inherited manual systems I’m managing, but I felt talked over and dismissed.
There have also been repeated instances over time where colleagues have made belittling comments about my hours, leave, or workload. I’ve been publicly called names like “idiot” and “dickhead.” When I’ve been on leave or flex days, I’ve still been contacted and pressured about tasks.
I also experienced a serious medical event last year. While I was hospitalized, there were inquiries about when I’d return to work and whether my family could be contacted. Although some of it may have been framed as concern, it felt intrusive. Since returning, I’ve had comments suggesting some of my stroke-related difficulties were “just an excuse,” which has been distressing.
I’ve tried to resolve things informally. My manager acknowledged that one recent meeting didn’t go well and apologized, which I appreciated. HR has explained that bullying must involve repeated and unreasonable behavior. I’m not sure where the line is anymore.
Part of me wonders if this is just poor communication and a high-pressure environment. Another part feels increasingly resentful, overextended, and psychologically unsafe. I don’t want to be seen as compiling a case against colleagues, but I also don’t want to keep absorbing behavior that feels disrespectful.
How do I tell the difference between normal workplace conflict and bullying? How do I address scope creep and role ambiguity when my manager doesn’t fully understand the function I’m performing? And at what point do you decide a workplace isn’t likely to change?
This workplace sucks and you should get out.
It doesn’t matter whether it meets a specific definition of bullying or not. People there are horrible to you! They call you names (!), belittle you, don’t respect your time off, and implied your stroke was “an excuse” (!!). None of that is okay.
Some of this on its own might be frustrating but not outrageous, like your team lead’s lack of understanding of what you do. Hell, maybe that meeting where someone asked what to tell the director about your work was legitimate; I don’t have enough context to say. But there are enough other things here that are wildly unacceptable — see the paragraph above — that they overshadow that stuff anyway.
On top of that, your job has expanded dramatically and your pay hasn’t budged in four years.
When you ask, “How do I tell the difference between normal workplace conflict and bullying?” I think you’re asking, “How do I know if this is worth leaving over or not?” And the answer is: it’s worth leaving over. These people are jerks. And it isn’t one person. Multiple different employees have been awful to you. HR isn’t willing to intervene (and for some reason is stuck on “bullying,” when the label doesn’t matter as much as the specifics of what has been happening). On top of all of it, you’re being underpaid.
HOUSTON—Paralyzed with fear at the unexpected sight of the miniature figurine, Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant reportedly screamed in terror Tuesday after unexpectedly coming face-to-face with a bobblehead version of himself. “Who…who are—what do you want from me?” said the visibly trembling 15-time all-star, who nervously backed away from the tiny novelty doppelgänger as it stared in unblinking silence, its head nodding in a slow, chilling rhythm. “Speak, impostor! Why do you have my face? What are your intentions? Please, just don’t hurt me. I-I-I can give you money if you want money. Or anything else! God, please, just let me be.” Witnesses later confirmed that a blood-covered, knife-wielding Durant had wandered into a team meeting and muttered, “The other Kevin made me do it,” to no one in particular.
The White House has defended strikes on Iran, stating that the country’s leaders are “paying for their crimes against America.” The Onion examines the myths and facts surrounding President Trump’s war.
MYTH: As commander-in-chief, Trump has the authority to take military action.
FACT: It is unconstitutional for a U.S. president to declare war without the approval of the Knesset.
MYTH: These strikes could lead to a long war.
FACT: It depends how many decades you consider “long.”
MYTH: God anointed Donald Trump to wage war on Iran.
FACT: God anointed Donald Trump to cut funding to Sesame Street.
MYTH: A war between the U.S. and Iran is necessary for Jesus Christ to return in glory.
FACT: Jesus is holding out until Paraguay and Kyrgyzstan finally go at it.
MYTH: These attacks will lead to retaliatory strikes on U.S. citizens.
FACT: Wait, shit, really?
MYTH: These strikes will diminish America’s standing on the world stage.
FACT: Hey, if they were still with us up until now, God bless.
“Dubai influencers’ lives of luxury interrupted by Iran strikes: ‘The image of safety has been shattered.’” — The Guardian
- - -
Thanks to everyone who has reached out to me. Never did I imagine that my [HOLIDAY / EXOTIC FOOD CRAWL / COMPED STAY IN THIS SIX-STAR HOTEL & SPA] would be interrupted by a war whose geopolitical consequences would be so unfathomable, and whose timing would be so inconvenient to me personally.
When I first planned this trip, I had no idea that war was even on the horizon. I guess that’s what happens when you get your news from [MEMES / GROK / COTTAGECORE TOK / THE CBS SUBSTACK]. My spidey sense did tell me that something bad was coming, but I thought that was just the effects of the seafood-themed buffet. By the time I put two and two together, all the plane tickets were sold out, while I was still a little drunk from the bottomless ouzo fountain.
I can’t believe how many people around the world are suffering so needlessly. Last night, for example, I was with about thirty other stranded [EXPATS / CULINARY TOURISTS / VLOGGERS / MLM FINANCIERS]. In the middle of an arak pong tournament, we heard sirens and then a boom. Everyone quickly rushed to pour their drinks into pitchers so we could continue playing in the basement shelter. We posted everything live, but there’s still a reel you can like and comment on, if you want to support me during this difficult time. Don’t forget to subscribe!
It’s wild that the skies have been closed for so many days in a row. I admit that I’m beginning to feel restricted and constrained. Ordinarily, I’m accustomed to the complete freedom to [TRAVEL / SPEND MY INHERITED FORTUNE / TAKE CAMEL JOY RIDES TO LUXURY TENT PIAZZAS SET UP JUST FOR ME AND MY ENTOURAGE]. Everything is truly a learning experience.
Like many of you back home, I’m afraid that this war will escalate further. And if there is indeed a conflagration, I know you’re probably asking yourselves the same question: What will it mean for people like me? I’m supposed to travel to at least fifty-eight countries in the next fiscal quarter, and I don’t see how I’m going to hit that target under these circumstances. Why can’t world leaders ever think of the [LITTLE GUY / DIGITAL NOMADS / ME AND MY COTERIE OF STYLISTS, ALGORITHM ANALYSTS, AND PORTABLE-RING-LIGHT HOLDERS]?
It’s really nice when people check up on me, given how worried I am about the situation. I appreciate it when they ask how I’m holding up. It’s especially gratifying when they tell me how brave I am to be enduring this war with my forward-looking attitude and my [GORILLA MINDSET / SIGMA LOOKSMAXXING APPROACH / TOXIC POSITIVITY]. Rest assured, as of this writing, I still have access to [FOOD / WATER / CAVIAR / TANGHULU SKEWERS /THE ACROBATIC GYMNASTIC WORKSHOP IN THE MAIN POOL].
I guess I must learn the deep lesson that nothing, in fact, is under my control. Try as we might to write our destinies, in the end, the [GODS / FATES / LEADERS WHO MEASURE THEIR DICKS] have the final say. That’s a bitter pill to swallow, along with [GLOBAL UNCERTAINTY / REDUCED CONNECTIVITY / MY MITOCHONDRIA-LONGEVITY TABLET].
I’ll say one thing this experience has taught me: The war has made me feel connected to other people. Even though the vast majority of people impacted by the missile and drone barrages don’t have the means to [TRAVEL / MONETIZE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THEIR MATCHA DRINKS / SELL PREMIUM REAL ESTATE TO OIL TYCOONS], this conflict just shows how we’re all in this together. And that’s the beautiful and spiritual message I’ll take with me when I leave on the first [JET / YACHT / HOVERCRAFT] out of here.
In brief: In today’s post we discuss the recent and ongoing sea fog as well as our warmer than usual temperatures. Then our attention turns to the likelihood of storms this weekend as a front sags into Houston and brings much needed rain.
A dense fog advisory is in effect for coastal areas this morning. (National Weather Service)
But first, some chat about fog on the blog
Are you tired of the fog yet? I know some readers like the eerie quality or semblance of “stillness” that fog brings. But if you need to be out and about late at night or early in the morning, it can be a real hazard. We’ve been seeing frequent fog near the coast this week, and this “sea fog” is due to the warmer air moving over cooler surface waters near the shore. Unfortunately, with the warmer temperatures we are likely to see through the weekend, sea fog will remain a persistent threat during the late evenings through mid-mornings for some coastal locations.
Thursday
Cloudy skies this morning will give way to partly sunny skies this afternoon, with high temperatures likely topping out in the low- to mid-80s. This will depend on the extent of sunshine at your location. We did see a few very light sprinkles on Wednesday in parts of Houston, but I feel like, overall, our chances for rain today will be pretty close to zero. Humidity levels will remain rather high for this time of year.
Rodeo forecast
It’s going to be fairly warm this evening, with temperatures in the upper 70s. The other defining feature that rodeo goers will experience is gusty southerly winds, perhaps up to 25 mph, although these will die down as the evening progresses. Temperatures after the show will be the in the 70s, only falling to around 70 degrees by early Friday morning.
Friday
This day will be rather similar to Thursday, with two possible changes. First of all, those southerly winds might be even a little bit stronger, gusting up to possibly 30 mph from the south during the afternoon. The other difference is that there is perhaps a 30 percent chance of light showers during the daytime or evening. Lows, again, will be very warm for early March.
NOAA rain accumulation forecast for now through Sunday. (Weather Bell)
Saturday and Sunday
So will the weekend bring a rain-o-rama? It’s still a little difficult to pin down precise details, but roughly speaking here’s what I think will happen. Saturday will be another warm and humid day like those preceding it. There will be a better chance of light daytime showers, perhaps on the order of 30 percent. But I don’t expect these to be significant or disruptive.
On Saturday afternoon or early evening a (dying) front is going to approach and potentially move into the Houston metro area. I expect there to be a goodly number showers and thunderstorms with this front. Whether these storms make it all the way to the coast will depend on where the front stalls, but at this point I think there is a decent chance of everyone seeing some rain. I’m hopeful, for the purposes of our spring vegetation, that we pick up 0.5 to 2 inches this weekend, with higher isolated totals, but again some uncertainty remains.
Severe weather outlook for Saturday and Saturday night. (NOAA)
I mentioned thunderstorms and there is slight risk for some severe weather with this front as it moves in and stalls, and again I think the most likely timing for this is probably Saturday evening. So bear that in mind if you’re planning to be out and about.
Sunday, for much of the region, should be a few degrees cooler due to widespread cloud cover, the aforementioned front, and ongoing rain chances during the day. The potential for thunderstorms and severe weather should be diminished however. The bottom line is that from Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning we’re going to need to be mindful of the possibility of thunderstorms and heavy rainfall, but I’m not saying everyone will see these conditions.
Next week
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week will see ongoing warm temperatures, with highs in the low 80s and mostly cloudy skies. There will be a modest chance of daily rain chances. A front should arrive some time on Wednesday to bring us clearer skies and drier air and probably a few nights in the 50s. Two weeks into March it may finally feel like March.
.png)
![[img]:ihceat](https://analognowhere.com/_/ihceat/ihceat.png)
![[img]:ihceat2](https://analognowhere.com/_/ihceat/ihceat2.png)
![[img]:ihceat3](https://analognowhere.com/_/ihceat/ihceat3.png)
![[img]:ihceat4](https://analognowhere.com/_/ihceat/ihceat4.png)
