Andrew Grizzle
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drewgriz.bsky.social
Andrew Grizzle
@drewgriz.bsky.social
730 followers 840 following 750 posts
Houstonian, native/edible gardener, energy nerd, sourdough baker, city/transportation enthusiast, (long-suffering) Miami Hurricanes and (spoiled rotten) Astros fan, dad
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drewgriz.bsky.social
Can you imagine someone telling you in 2014 that Facebook would be running ads on Reddit one day? Yes, for the platform Facebook, why, have you heard of it? Apparently t's a great way to reconnect with old friends.
Screenshot of a promoted Reddit post titled "Going home for the holidays? Reconnect with old friends with Facebook."
November 12, 2025 at 9:31 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
A fun little treat of reading Money Stuff is that when reading the footnotes for one section you sometimes get a little preview of the general vibe of the next section.
"5. Otherwise unattributed quotes are from the indictment"
November 12, 2025 at 4:03 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
MD Anderson does many many many great things and proud we are of all of them but their absolute insistence on crossing out the word "cancer" in everything their brand touches drives me up the wall. WHAT KIND OF CENTER IS IT THEN?
November 6, 2025 at 10:23 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
It warms my heart when I see writers I respect (in this case @matt-levine.bsky.social) agreeing with my stance that the inflexible "correct" rules for the interaction of quotation marks and terminal punctuation are dumb, wrong, and serve to obfuscate the intended inflection of a sentence.
Screenshot of a paragraph from today's Money Stuff, in which one quote that includes a complete sentence has the period inside the quotations. Later in the paragraph a quoted word that is not a sentence but occurs at the end of a sentence in the paragraph has the exclamation point outside the quote marks, as is good and correct.
November 4, 2025 at 9:10 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
Classic Lauren tweet: "i'm not falling for that hot take. that's clearly someone with a fetish for getting yelled at. i refuse to participate in that kind of perversion"
November 1, 2025 at 11:35 AM
drewgriz.bsky.social
Oh wow I somehow missed this one when it was published. I am shocked to see the mayor who speaks for the trees get something this basic wrong. (covering the roots with soil will just cause them to grow more toward the surface for air. If you want to cover them do it with mulch)
His ire even extended to a stand of oak trees nearby. “Let me show you something else that drives me nuts,” he said, pointing to their exposed roots. “They need some top soil!”
October 27, 2025 at 5:14 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
How bad is Houston's hobbling of the Red Line by turning off signal priority? Google maps says I'd be better off getting off the train at downtown transit center and taking a bus the rest of the way north.
A screenshot of Google Maps public transit directions from downtown transit center to the jury plaza, showing the #6 bus taking 12 minutes and the red line train, which should be twice as fast, taking 13 minutes.
October 17, 2025 at 1:06 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
Today in toddler culinary innovation: the marshmallow ham wrap
A blond 3yo boy in pajamas holding two marshmallows wrapped in a slice of ham, one with a couple tiny bites taken out of it.
October 17, 2025 at 12:30 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
AI Overview: The phrase "will a turtle not be part of the choir?" is a metaphorical and philosophical question about inclusion, often used in a spiritual or literary context, not a literal one about a turtle joining a musical group. It is a question about whether all of God's creations, including a slow-moving creature like a turtle, are included in a universal chorus. The question has appeared in popular culture as a title for songs, in social media posts, and as an example of a modern phrase that sounds ancient or biblical. Figurative meaning: The phrase is not to be taken literally. It is a question about a turtle's place and worth within a larger system or creation. Cultural reference: The question has been adopted in various forms of media, from music to social media posts, to evoke a sense of gentle wonder or poetic inquiry. Example in media: The phrase has been used as a song title and is associated with discussions of philosophy, film, and poetry.
October 12, 2025 at 4:26 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
"You need a coffin? I got a coffin guy."
Screenshotted excerpt from QT'd article: "Rodriguez's property includes several lots on Delmar Street. His home, across the street from the hanging mannequins, is cluttered with Halloween decorations. Red eyes from gigantic skeletons glow. Spooky music plays from hidden speakers. Nooses and ghosts hang from his trees as animatronic zombies pop out of coffins (Rodriguez says he gets his coffins from a buddy who owns a funeral home). His truck, parked next to the controversial display, has a skeleton attached to the bumper as if he had just run it over. Rodriguez said despite threats, he feels safe in his community."
September 30, 2025 at 8:59 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
Achievement unlocked: Sweater Weather (experience a temperature below 70°F in September in a subtropical climate)
Screenshot of my weather station's UI showing an outdoor temperature of 69.9°F just before sunrise
September 26, 2025 at 12:28 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
Okay now I really want to see a behind the scenes video of this ad shoot.
Screenshot of a Talarico campaign email: "This is the first major campaign launch video to be filmed vertically - optimized for the new social media landscape. But while this campaign is cutting-edge, it's also rooted in timeless values. So we didn't shoot this video on digital - we shot it on film. And unlike typical launch videos with quick cuts and lots of flashy editing, this video is one single shot. No cuts. This is the mindset we're bringing to this campaign. We're throwing out the rule book. We're taking risks. And we're trying new things."
September 22, 2025 at 1:58 AM
drewgriz.bsky.social
"But Black Dynamite, I sell drugs to the community!"
September 3, 2025 at 12:16 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
#lockitin
August 20, 2025 at 7:29 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
This is #chartcrime. Unlabeled X-axis that seems duplicated with circle sizes, log scale Y-axis obscures more than it illuminates, need number of employees in the hover box too. Seems tailored to make police OT problem look worse than fire's, but now I want a story about fire dept OT!
A graph of different City of Houston departments showing how many employees they have and their respective overtime spending.
August 14, 2025 at 3:09 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
Surge capacity during events and disasters certainly seems reasonable and hard to avoid, but the claim that it's impossible to schedule non-overtime hours for court appearances that are a routine part of the job seems dubious. It can all be negotiated in the contract, and Whitmire made it worse.
Houston police leaders can control some aspects of overtime spending, by managing schedules and hiring more officers full-time, but some budget issues are outside of their direct control, said Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers Union. And the 2026 fiscal year, which will include major events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup, looks to be an expensive year for overtime spending. “Just wait until next year with FIFA and it being 21 days,” Griffith said. “If you don’t think there’s going to be a ton of overtime spending during that event, you’re sadly mistaken.” But when it comes to traffic enforcement in particular, the chief source of overtime spending is frequently the number of times they’re called into court and how court schedules don’t overlap with their working schedule, Mourtgos said. Griffith concurred with Mourtgos, saying there was no other option available than spending overtime money on traffic enforcement. “Think about it, when is traffic worse? On the evening shift,” he said. “So, you work 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. every day on traffic enforcement. And then you have court starting at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. in the morning. So, you have no choice, those are just the hours.” The existing union contract with the city also stipulates that officers are entitled to a minimum two hours of overtime any time they’re called into court, meaning even if they spend less time at the courthouse, they’re still entitled to claim two hours, Griffith said. But under the new contract, that will increase to four hours, records show.
August 14, 2025 at 3:01 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
That said, the granularity and display of this one particular cop's gaming the system is fantastic. Feels a bit petty but given this guy's very explicit abuse of the system I'm here for it.
Wednesday through Saturday, Davis mostly works traffic enforcement around the city. Citation records show he typically stations himself near highway on-ramps or busy intersections, issuing dozens of speeding tickets at a time at each location. On Mondays and Tuesdays, however, traffic violations cited by Davis drop sharply. Records suggest he spends those days at Houston courthouses, where he tickets strings of failure-to-appear violations to people who miss their court dates every week. A map of one traffic cop's favorite speed trap locations
August 14, 2025 at 2:55 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
The explanation of this mechanism was really helpful, and totally new to me. I'd love to see a hypothetical weekly schedule to illustrate just how many hours are worked and how they get designated overtime. The single-officer ticket data is interesting but not quite getting to the actual hours.
The overtime surge is largely driven by the department’s traffic enforcement division and stems, in part, from a basic scheduling conflict: traffic officers tend to work afternoon and evening shifts when traffic – and traffic violations – peak, then must appear in court in the mornings to testify about the tickets they issued.
August 14, 2025 at 2:51 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
I mean did you see what the disaster aid looked like in Texas?
August 4, 2025 at 6:09 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
Oh great, finally some rain! No way this can miss us!
August 4, 2025 at 5:07 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
COMFORT IS ALREADY A NOUN! IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE CREATIVELY NOUNIFIED!
A display on the window of a very high-end furniture store that reads "Embrace Comfortness"
July 21, 2025 at 8:22 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
Everyone in the stadium knew what was coming
July 3, 2025 at 3:23 AM
drewgriz.bsky.social
Hmmm sounds familiar....
“Fordo has always been the crux of this thing,” said Brett McGurk, who worked on Middle East issues for four successive American presidents, from George W. Bush to Joseph R. Biden Jr. “If this ends with Fordo still enriching, then it’s not a strategic gain.” That has been true for a long time, and over the past two years the U.S. military has refined the operation, under close White House scrutiny. The exercises led to the conclusion that one bomb would not solve the problem; any attack on Fordo would have to come in waves, with B-2s releasing one bomb after another down the same hole. And the operation would have to be executed by an American pilot and crew. Shot from Top Gun Maverick with the first round of bombs hitting the top of the bunker Shot from Top Gun Maverick of the second round of bombs imploding the underground bunker
June 17, 2025 at 6:36 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
A bright green grasshopper nymph on the edge of a picture-perfect sunflower
June 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
drewgriz.bsky.social
If you asked me to ballpark the number of vape stores in Houston just based on how frequently you pass them on the street, I'd think it's more like 4,000. I can't imagine any of them are not selling the currently-legal THC products.
In the Houston area, more than 1,500 businesses are licensed to sell hemp, according to a Chronicle analysis of Texas State Department of Health Services data. About 400 of those are smoke or vape shops that rely heavily on hemp products.
June 4, 2025 at 4:35 PM