The State of Texas: Jan. 3, 2014

Listicle of the Day

Of the twenty “happiest colleges,” Texas A&M was declared the happiest of them all, according to the Daily Beast (UT came in at number nine). Apparently, it had nothing to do with Johnny Manziel.

Longread Friday

Once again, Grantland covers Texas with some properly good sports writing. This time it’s about the Baylor, the “loveable losers of the Fiesta Bowl” who are now kinda cool, according to the barometer that is the football paraphernalia section at H-E-B. The piece is a whimsical look at rise of the Bears and worth the few minutes of extra reading.

Daily Roundup

Region of Gold — When you’ve got Forbes’ attention, you know you’re on to something. The arbitrator of general wealth and power has named Austin number one on its “U.S. regions to watch in 2014” list, which took a look at GDP, job growth and population change. Like tech companies in the nineties, Texas cities pretty much dominated the list of powers-to-be. San Antonio was named runner-up, H-Town came in at number four, and Dallas at six. In fact, Forbes could have saved everyone a whole two minutes by just posting a picture of Texas and left it at that.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico City — In the sweetest little story north or south of the border, the AP caught up with San Angelo’s former mayor in Mexico as he tied the knot with his long-time partner. As some may recall, in 2009, Joseph Lown was reelected for a forth term in a landslide, but faced a dilemma: it was, as the AP put it, either “break the heart of his undocumented, same-sex partner by ending their secret relationship, or break the heart of his West Texas hometown by running away with his beloved [to Mexico].” Lown went with love. And to ring in the New Year, Lown and his partner got married (Mexico legalized gay marriage in 2009), thus concluding an “epic journey of love, personal turmoil and drastic choices.” Mazel tov, amigos!

The El Paso Body Shop — The world of 3-D Printing just got cooler. And weirder. The El Paso Times reports on a major project at the city’s UT campus, where researchers are pioneering efforts to print human tissue. It’s for medical purposes, obviously. But what’s funny about this wild story of the future human factory is that it focuses almost entirely on the economic possibilities of the venture. “The research has already spawned one biomedical startup,” and is part of the “city’s long-term strategy of trying to develop the economy by developing the medical center and businesses related to it.” Looks like a pound of flesh may be now worth a lot more than it was in Bill Shakespeare’s time.

Johnny Football (Patent Pending) — It could be a close one, folks. Only five months before the NFL draft and Johnny Manziel’s trademark application for “Johnny Football” has been delayed, according to a new report. It would seem that an organization in College Station applied for the same trademark three months prior to Manziel, with plans to put the name on jerseys and other such things. Unfortunately, the organization has to “prove that the name doesn’t refer to Manziel,” which will be … difficult (they could market tennis gear?). The organization should have done what one Plano woman did and trademark “Juanito Futbol.”