It was a cheese pizza, by the way…

With the recent alleged appearance of the salsa splatter Virgin Mary on a kitchen wall in California, I’m reminded of simulacra that occurred in Houston last year. A cafeteria worker at Pugh Elementary was scrubbing a pizza pan on Ash Wednesday when she noticed the image of Mary:



Interestingly, the cafeteria work claims that she tried to rinse & scrub the image off at least three times before acknowledging that it was a miraculous image. After conferring with her fellow cafeteria worker about the image, a PTA official absconded with the pan to set up a shrine. HISD, not pleased at having official property, miraculous or not, stolen, asked for the pan back. This resulted in the PTA holding a religious demonstration match from the shrine to the elementary school to hand over custody of the pan. As of right now, the pan is apparently safely locked away in the administrative offices.

For a more in-depth look at the event, here’s an article I snagged from the Chronicle’s archives when the story first broke.

Bigfoot is a 281er?

Yikes… Well, I’ll pass the blame for my three month delay in updating to Hurricane Ike and the disruption it caused. Anyhow, by now things in Houston have firmly settled back into their routine, including me blogging on a regular basis.


Bigfoot, Sasquatch, skunk ape, ts'emekwes, whatever you call it, the possible existence of a bipedal ape-like humanoid cryptid existing in North America has fascinated many and long been the topic of heated debate. I myself was a fervid believer as a kid, but have since become considerably more skeptical. Interestingly, Texas happens to rank 5th in state Bigfoot sightings, edging out Florida and following closely behind Ohio. And, at least two of Texas’ 169 Bigfoot sightings over the past 20 years have been on the outskirts of Houston.

So, is Bigfoot lurking just outside the beltway? I wouldn’t bet on it. But, it’s still more feasible than the Pecan Bat Man cryptid that made an appearance in Houston back in the early 50’s. But, that’s another update entirely…