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    golden news

    Ken Hoffman on why Houston-born Travis Scott's McDonald's deal is good for America

    Ken Hoffman
    Sep 14, 2020 | 2:40 pm

    If you’re looking for a sign that the world is taking baby steps back to the “old normal,” just pull into the drive-thru at McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A or most any fast food emporium.

    While some fast food chains still keep their dining rooms closed, the big boys have started cranking out new products, a sign of good (relatively speaking) times to come. That’s if you consider driving to work with a bag of Sausage McMuffins between your legs and a large Diet Coke in your cup holder as good times.

    This is not going to help us shed the COVID-15 we’ve packed on during hibernation.

    Fast food burgers are a reliable indicator how a country’s economy is doing. It’s called the The Big Mac index, which lists the price of a McDonald’s Big Mac sandwich in more than 100 countries. It’s the ultimate apples-to-apples comparison of a foreign currency’s strength against the U.S. dollar.

    These chains create new products to goose their bottom lines. Remember last year when Popeyes introduced a new chicken sandwich that caused traffic jams in their drive-thru lanes, and panic disorder when they ran out of them?

    Here’s a list of some of the latest and greatest products in your favorite fast food emporiums.

    McDonald’s
    The burger boss recently introduced its Travis Scott Meal. The Houston rapper’s go-to order includes a Quarter Pounder with Cheese topped with bacon, lettuce and tomato, plus medium fries with BBQ sauce and Sprite with lots of ice. It’s a good deal for $6 with a portion of the proceeds going to charity.

    It’s the first McDonald’s partnership with a celebrity since the Michael Jordan Meal in 1992. His Airness liked his burger with cheese, bbq sauce, onions, mustard, and pickles.

    Scott’s deal with McDonald’s goes way beyond burgers and fries. When you visit McDonald’s online, you’ll find 90 different Scott-inspired products, from T-shirts to boxer briefs, ski caps to rugs, socks to slippers. Here’s the stunner – every single item is “sold out.”

    The Scott connection ignited protest from some franchisees who were aghast that McDonald’s would get in bed, so to speak, with a hip-hop artist whose lyrics are laced with R-rated lyrics. Madison Avenue is over the hump with rappers as endorsers, though. DJ Khaled appears in a GEICO spot, and Snoop Dogg seems to endorse everything else, including Corona beer, Monster energy drink, 7-11 convenience stores, EA Sports, Pepsi, Adidas, Chrysler, Dunkin’ Donuts, Tostitos snacks, General car insurance,and more.

    Here’s a lap around the drive-thrus for more new products.

    Shake Shack
    You wouldn’t know from our 90-degree temperatures, but it’s autumn, and the Shack has a new Pumpkin Shake to celebrate. It’s got Libby’s pumpkin spiked with cinnamon, nutmeg, marshmallow and frozen vanilla custard, topped with whipped cream and toasted pumpkin seeks.

    Chick-fil-A
    The poultry palace adds Chocolate Fudge Brownies packed with semi-sweet chips and hunks of rich fudge. Oh great, now I’ll be torn between brownies and chocolate-chip cookies. You may have seen a new batch of commercials wondering what the “A” in Chick-fil-A stands for. It’s simply means that Chick-fil-A uses A-plus ingredients.

    Denny’s
    Yup, it’s autumn all right, bring on everything made with pumpkin. America’s 24-hour diner is rolling out Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes, loaded with pecans and pecan pie sauce. You can get them in a Slam breakfast that includes eggs, hash brown and you choice of bacon or sausage.

    Dairy Queen
    Congratulations to Caramel Apple for being named Blizzard of the Month for September. It’s DQ’s famous vanilla soft serve spun with apple topping, pie pieces and caramel-coated truffles. DQ also welcomes a new Pumpkin Cookie Butter Shake, blended with cookie butter (I have no idea what that is), pumpkin and milk, topped whipped topping and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

    Little Caesar’s
    The new Slices-N-Stix is a round pizza crust, divided in half. One side is a regular ol’ pepperoni pie, the other is Italian Cheese Bread. The pepperoni side is cut into traditional triangle wedges, the bread side has strips.

    Wendy’s
    Ready for indulgent? The new Pretzel Bacon Pub Cheeseburger has a ¼-pound of never-frozen beef, Muenster cheese, three strips of Applewood-smoke bacon, smoky honey mustard, warm beer cheese sauce, crispy fried onions and pickles on a soft pretzel bun. It should be served with a painter’s drop cloth. This is a dry cleaner bill waiting to happen. And, like the Kramer portrait, I can’t look away.

    KFC
    Hard to believe that a place with “F” in its name hasn’t sold French fries, but now KFC joins the parade. KFC’s fries are sprinkled with a secret blend of spices, yadda yadda. They’re a little thicker than most fast food fries. They’re all right, I guess.

    Carl’s Jr.
    The Cali-based chain has a new A-1 Double Cheeseburger, but since Carl’s Jr. up and left Houston, they’re dead to me.

    Pet of the Week

    Name: Cinnamon, like the spice and every adult dancer in Houston.

    Birthdate: February 7, 2020 — I'm a youngun, ready to be molded into the perfect pet.

    Ethnicity: I'm a Basenji mix-ed girly girl. I weigh a trim 28 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal (a tip of the Hatlo Hat to Ric Flair). I'm a bundle of energy and love to play and jump around. If you don't want to jump on you when you get home, just tell me. I'm flexible on the annoying habits.

    My previous owner kept me outside all day, but I'd really prefer being inside and taken for walks. I'm curious and obedient, I just need a home right now.

    Come and get me: If you're interested in me, drop an email to adoptions@cap4pets.org. I'm spayed and glammed up, so let's do this!

    Travis Scott's partnership with the Golden Arches could be good news.

    Travis Scott plane
      
    Photo by Getty Images
    Travis Scott's partnership with the Golden Arches could be good news.
    ken-hoffmanseries568795650
    series/hoffmans-houston
    news/city-life

    game, set, zina.

    Best of Ken Hoffman: Interviewing Houston's greatest tennis icon

    Ken Hoffman
    Aug 29, 2024 | 12:30 pm
    Zina Garrison, tennis player
    ITATennis
    Garrison, a tennis legend, is now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation.

    Editor's note: After the sudden death of beloved columnist Ken Hoffman on July 14, CultureMap is republishing some of our favorite "Hoffman's Houston" columns. In honor of the U.S. Open, here's Ken's interview with Houston tennis legend Zina Garrison; it was originally published on June 27, 2022.

    As a child, Zina Garrison learned how to hit a tennis ball on the public courts at MacGregor Park during the 1970s and became, simply, the most accomplished player ever from Houston.

    She developed into a Grand Slam champion, a Top 5 ranking in the world, Wimbledon finalist in 1990 with 20 tournament titles, Federation Cup captain, and Olympic gold medal winner and later Olympic coach.

    Now Garrison is back where she started, only this time she’s devoted to making Houston a great place to learn and play tennis … again. Like she did.

    “I am now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation,” Garrison tells me. “I’m over all the public tennis programs and facilities. The job came open recently and I applied for it.”

    Wait... she’s the greatest champion this city has ever produced — and she had to apply for that job?

    “To be honest, I was more interested in the benefits than the money. As you get older, you start thinking differently,” she shares.

    Unlike the major sports leagues in America, tennis doesn’t provide any healthcare insurance or assistance once a player, even a legend, retires.

    “They’re working on it,” Garrison, 58, notes. “But as of now, nothing.”

    Garrison said her first priority as Houston’s tennis director is to repair the public courts.

    “I want to bring the public tennis facilities up to where I’d be proud, where everybody would be proud, to bring people to use our courts. There are cracks in the courts. Nothing’s really been done in the last 20 or maybe 30 years,” she says.

    “I’ve traveled to Florida and some other places and they have really nice public courts. Tennis in Houston was really thriving for a while and we had nice courts and people could play in the parks. We had junior programs. We flourished. That’s my main goal.”

    While I had Garrison on the phone, I served up some questions:

    CultureMap: Wimbledon is on. You’re familiar with that tournament, right? Who are your picks to win the men’s side and women’s side?

    Zina Garrison: Yes, I’m familiar with Wimbledon. I have my alarm set for the early morning so I can watch. I have a weird pick, a more personal pick, for the men.

    I would love to see Rafael Nadal keep going on, but it’s going to be tough for him. The guy from Italy, Matteo Berrettini, I watched him play a couple of weeks ago and I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people. And I am absolutely in love with that little guy, Carlos Alcaraz, from Spain. He’s made me watch tennis again.

    On the women’s side, I don’t think it will be Iga Swiatek. I think it’s just too hard to keep a streak like hers (35 matches in a row including the French Open title) going in today’s game. It’s really wide open. I don’t really have a pick, it’s just who comes in and plays well at the right time.

    CM: What do you think about Natela Dzalamidze, the doubles player from Russian who switched her nationality to Georgia so she could play Wimbledon, which has banned players from Russian and Belarus this year?

    ZG: I don’t like that she was able to do that. I was just on the phone with (former pro turned broadcaster) Chanda Rubin talking about what’s going on in tennis these days.

    First of all, there is the human rights stuff that’s going on in Russia and Ukraine. We have to start forcing accountability for actions. A lot of people didn’t agree with what Wimbledon did, but I think they had to take a stand.

    CM: The women’s GOAT is easy — it’s Serena. But who do you think is the men’s GOAT?

    ZG: Wow, that’s a hard one. If you had asked me earlier this year, I would have said Roger Federer because of everything he’s accomplished. But right now I’m going to have to go with Nadal. Nadal has taken tennis to a whole ‘nother level, of getting people to watch, coming out of the pandemic, where he has matches and you think he can’t come back and he’s still grinding no matter what.

    For me, he is the epitome of what we need in this world right now: Never give up but not be selfish about helping others. I know it sounds clichéd, but that’s what I’m going through right now.

    CM: When I first met you, you were painfully shy. It was hard to get an answer out of you. Now you’re a TV commentator and a regular chatterbox. What happened?

    ZG: I was an introvert but I had always been intrigued by people of wisdom. A lot of it came as I developed confidence in myself. I had always been told at a very young age, if you really knew me, I spoke a lot. If you didn’t know me, I would be quiet. I would only speak about things that I was extremely passionate about.

    As I’ve gotten older, because of my experiences. I feel like I can help people so I’m not afraid to say what I want to say.

    CM: Starting the week after Wimbledon, coaches will be allowed to communicate with men players during matches. Up to now, that’s only been allowed in the women’s game. Every other sport allows coaching. Do you think tennis should allow coaching, too?

    ZG: I don’t think coaching should be allowed. That’s one of the great things about tennis. That’s a part of the sport, that you grow and figure things out. You learn to think for yourself.

    There’s always been little signals from coaches, but now you have these full blown conversations. Another bad thing about allowing coaching is it gives the players the opportunity to blame a loss their coach. That’s not good for the sport.

    CM: You were known for wiggling your butt when receiving serve. Did you know you were doing it? Did you do that on purpose?

    ZG: It started off as kind of a joke with my coaches. They said, we need you to move your feet. I said, you mean like this?

    So, it started as a joke but I realized that it helped get my feet moving: Okay, I’m going to keep doing this.

    I’ll never forget that year after I got to the Wimbledon finals, 1990, I went over to Japan and there were 1,200 people there … and all of them started wiggling!

    CM: What was the first extravagant thing you bought for yourself when the tennis prize money started rolling in?

    ZG: It was 1982, and I bought a candy apple red Volkswagen convertible with a white top.

    CM: You were on the Biggest Loser, the show where contestants compete against each other to lose weight. Let’s just say you didn’t win. Are you happy you went on that show, or do you regret it?

    ZG: I was one of the first who had to leave the competition. (No, you were THE first.) It was an experience, but I probably shouldn’t have done it. I think I regret going on there. It wasn’t what I thought it was.

    It was reality TV and at the time I didn’t know what reality TV was .I was more ready to get out of there than anything else.

    CM: Now here’s the big question, Zina. For years, I’ve had a running disagreement with ESPN 97.5 FM morning host John Granato about which is a more demanding, tougher sport – golf or tennis?

    Granato says it’s golf, because the tournament winner has to beat every other player that week, while in tennis the winner just has to beat seven players at most. And, each week, golfers have to contend with a different course.

    But, I say it’s tennis because players have to be in top physical condition, while nearly anyone in any shape can win a golf major.

    Plus, in golf, players have a caddy helping them make decisions. In tennis, players are on their own.

    In golf, you can have a bad day on Thursday and still win the tournament. In tennis, if you have a bad day in the opening round, you’re on a plane out of there.

    In golf, it’s the player against the course. There’s no defense in golf. In tennis, there’s a human opponent trying to beat you.

    In golf, the ball is lying still. In tennis the ball is coming at you at 140 mph.

    So which is the tougher sport, golf or tennis? I’m right ... right?

    ZG: Are you serious? Who is this guy who says golf is harder? The answer is tennis and it’s not even close.

    You’re playing against someone. You’re only controlling the ball when it’s on your side of the net. You can’t control what the other player is doing. It’s almost like a boxer coming at you.

    You have to have both the physical and mental capacity to win. In golf, if you have a bad day, it’s because you’re having that bad day. There’s no opponent competing with you. So, I’m saying it’s tennis.

    CM (note to John Granato): I win. Granted, it might have been the way I asked the question. Also, Garrison is a former tennis pro.

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