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    Much ado about... nothing?

    Asking the unaskable: What if corpse flower Lois is another Al Capone's vault?

    Sarah Rufca
    Jul 16, 2010 | 4:48 pm
    • Could corpse flower Lois be one of civilization's great hoaxes?
    • Remember the horror of Y2K?
    • Hurricane Rita evacuees on Interstate 45 leaving Houston. More people died inthe evacuation than during the actual hurricane.
    • Geraldo Rivera attempted to build on his success by opening Al Capone's vaultlive on national TV. The vault was inside the old Lexington Hotel.

    Look, when it comes to the corpse flower obsession train, we are completely on board.

    But a blooming that's been delayed or ongoing very, very slowly (in the Houston Museum of Natural Science's view) since at least Tuesday, the fact that horticulturist Zac Stayton has started giving Lois hormones (via banana by incision) and the museum's decision to close at midnight tonight for nine hours leaves us wondering.

    What if this giant flower — which has spawned T-shirts, pins, decorative tiles, a webcam viewed by thousands, a fake twitter account and record attendance during all hours — never lets her/his petals down?

    Then things would really start to stink.

    While we still believe in the not-so-little corpse flower that could, we've compiled the top five big buildups that ended with a fizzle instead of a bang.

    5. Maginot Line

    Building a strong line of defense on the border with a historically bellicose neighbor is a pretty good idea. But in the case of France in the 1930s, one key detail was overlooked: The Germans, rather than fighting through the armaments, could simply go around them by gliding through neutral Belgium and the Netherlands. When the Germans did exactly that, France was left exposed and the invasion was complete in a matter of weeks.

    And 70 years later, the jokes about French pansies are still going strong.

    4. Edsel

    In the 1950s, before the Big Three was the Almost-Bankrupt Three, Ford made a major push with a $400 million investment in a new mid-range line: Edsel. Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealers across the country switched to the Edsel banner after a televised launch announcement called The Edsel Show, so ballyhooed Ford execs called it "E-Day."

    Edsel was referred to as an entirely new kind of car. In reality, it was just another brand on the Ford and Mercury body frames with some quality issues and a particularly garish grill that was compared to a horse collar and a toilet seat. After three years, Ford had sold only 84,000 Edsels, with 63,000 of them coming in the first year. Ford lost $350 million in the venture ($1.6 billion in today's money).

    3. Hurricane Rita

    We understand that a month after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, hurricanes were a very, very scary thing. But flood-prone as Houston is, we aren't living on a low-lying isthmus between the ocean and a lake. But that didn't stop the largest evacuation in U.S. history, stranding millions without gas or food on clogged interstates for up to 36 hours.

    While the damage in East Texas was significant, Houstonians responded with what can only be termed lunacy, especially as the storm turned and headed to the Texas-Louisiana border, where it eventually made landfall. After all the drama, Hurricane Rita killed nine in East Texas, but at least 28 people died in the evacuation.

    2. Y2K

    The world's financial systems grinding to a halt. Planes falling out of the sky. Truly, there was no destruction the millennium bug, or Y2K, was not rumored to cause, all the result of some lazy programmer only wanting to type two digits of the year instead of four.

    After $300 billion spent in preparation for the glitch, January 1 brought nothing other than a collective hangover. In the U.S., issues were limited to the Naval Observatory clock and 150 slot machines in Delaware. In 2003, the Wall Street Journal called Y2K an "end of the world cult" and the "hoax of the century."

    1. Al Capone's Vault

    Hotel renovations are expensive, so it's no surprise that when businessmen renovating Chicago's Lexington Hotel in the 1980s discovered hidden tunnels and escape routes from the room once used as a headquarters by notorious gangster Al Capone — decided they wanted to make the most of it.

    Rather than opening up the mysterious vault rumored to hold Capone's treasure and letting historians see if the cache was noteworthy, the contents were unveiled live in television in 1986 with 30 million people watching worldwide and Geraldo Rivera breathlessly drawing out the drama.

    What treasure did it hold? Umm ... some trash and empty bottles. And Geraldo's been, well, Geraldo ever since.

    unspecified
    news/city-life

    This Week's Hot Headlines

    Houston restaurant serves Beyoncé a Southern feast and more top stories

    CultureMap Staff
    Jul 5, 2025 | 10:32 am
    Taste Bar Kitchen Jay Z Don Bowie
    Courtesy of Taste Kitchen + Bar
    Legendary rapper Jay-Z with Taste Kitchen + Bar chef-owner Don Bowie.

    Editor's note: t's time to look back at the hottest Houston news of the week, starting with a Southern feast fit for Queen Bey. Plus, new bar openings from some big names. Get the details on our most popular stories below, then head to this guide for 4th of July weekend fun.

    1. Houston restaurant served Beyoncé a Southern feast for her first meal in H-Town. One of Houston’s most prominent Black-owned restaurants gave Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and her family their first taste of the Bayou City. On June 27, the party ordered an extensive spread from Taste Kitchen + Bar, the restaurant in downtown known for its chicken and waffles and other Southern-inspired fare.

    2. Exclusive: New cocktail bar from Houston hospitality stars coming to the Heights. The Heights’ growing bar scene will soon welcome a new addition with serious cocktail cred. Anvil owner Bobby Heugel has partnered with bartender Jacki Schromm to open a new cocktail bar in the former Ready Room space.

    3. Country star Koe Wetzel opens new location of his lively bar in Houston. One of Texas country’s rising stars has brought his lively bar to Houston. Koe Wetzel's Riot Room opened in Midtown in June.

     Koe Wetzel Riot Room Houston The pickup truck on the front of the building makes it easy to spot.  Photo by Motion Theory Media  

    4. Houston will have vivid sunsets and air quality issues from Saharan dust. An annual meteorological phenomenon has blown in to make Houston's sunsets a little more spectacular. A huge Sahara Desert dust cloud made its way to the Houston area on June 29, bringing hazy skies. The bad news is that air quality might worsen; the good news is that locals can expect a week of Technicolor twilights.

    5. Houston CEO's art-filled River Oaks mansion listed at $6.2 million. Art lovers seeking a home that’s a perfect showcase for their collection will be very interested in 1069 Kirby Drive, currently on the market for $6.2 million. The home is owned by Pete Bell, the CEO of Cotton Holdings.

    most popular storiesbeyoncethe heightsanvilkoe wetzelopeningshome-for-salecelebritieshot-headlines
    news/city-life

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