1. Houston is the only major American city that doesn't have land-use zoning laws. That means anything can be built anywhere, taxidermy shops next to Italian restaurants next to hospitals next to gun shops next to schools. "Every time someone says San Jose is spread out and haphazardly planned," a Mercury-News columnist wrote last year, "I tell them to visit Houston. … It's like driving through a city designed by the stoner teens in `That '70s Show.'. "

2. Houston is known as the world capital of space exploration, the world capital of air -conditioning, the world capital of the international energy industry, the world capital of petroleum exploration and the world capital of capital punishment. What it isn't the capital of is Texas; that's Austin.

3. A 2001 survey found that Houstonians ate out more than residents of the other 39 major cities surveyed. Houston reportedly also has more than 11,000 restaurants. (See next item.)

4. Since Men's Fitness Magazine started listing the nation's "Fattest Cities" in 1999, Houston has topped the list each year except 1999 (Philadelphia) and 2004 (Detroit). This year, with Houston on top again, Chicago finished fifth.

5. The song "Going Back to Houston" (with the memorable lyrics: Well it's lonesome in this old town/ Everybody is putting me down/ I'm a face without a name/ Just walking in the rain) was made famous by Dean Martin, who grew up in Steubenville, Ohio.

6. The city is named for Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas. He was nicknamed "the Raven" by the Cherokee tribe with whom he lived for three years and went on to become governor of Tennessee, president of Texas (twice), member of the Texas House of Representatives, U.S. Ssenator from the state of Texas and governor of Texas.

7. According to the city's, Web site, Houston has "a Theater District second only to New York City in terms of a concentration of seats (more than 12,000) in a single (17-block) geographic area." No mention of the quality of its theater, but it's comforting to know that there sure are lots of places to sit.

8. About the city, Hunter Thompson wrote in 2004: "Houston is a cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It's a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West -- which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch."

9. The original home of the Houston Colt .45s was Colt Stadium, a much-maligned, open-air park and haven for mosquitoes. The team, rechristened the Astros, moved to the Astrodome in 1965. Colt Stadium stood for a year, used mostly for storage; Astros owner Judge Roy Hofheinz painted the stadium gray so that it could not be seen in aerial photos of the Astrodome. It was dismantled and sold to the Mexican league Torrean Cotton Pickers for $100,000. It later was moved to Tampico, where it was home to the Mexican league Tampico Stevedores. It was eventually torn down, but some of its seats went to a factory workers' league near Pasteje and the rest to a public playground in Tampico.

10. The home of the Astros is Minute Maid Park, the former Enron Field. Though known now for fresh and frozen Orange Juice, the foundations of Minute Maid, a division of Coca-Cola, were in powdered juice. In the mid-1940s, a dehydration process was developed for prolonging the life of such substances as blood plasma. The realization that dehydration could also be applied to orange juice came just in time for an order of 500,000 pounds of the stuff from the U.S. Army.

11. Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale's Gallery Furniture reportedly sells more furniture per square foot than any store in the world.

12. Houston's two major airports are Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby. Hobby was lieutenant governor of Texas from 1973 to 1991 and was president of the Houston Post newspaper. George H.W. Bush was president of the United States from 1989 to 1993.

13. A partial list of famous people born and raised in Houston includes: football player Lance Alworth; heart surgeon Denton Cooley; golfer Jimmy Demaret; novelist Allen Drury; auto racer A.J. Foyt; educator and politician Barbara C. Jordan; singer Barbara Mandrell; brothers Dennis and Randy Quaid; poker player Kenny Rogers; dancer Patrick Swayze; actress singer Hilary Duff; singer Beyonce Knowles; actress Phylicia Rashad; and perhaps the most eccentric rich person ever, Howard Robard Hughes, who is buried there in a huge mausoleum.

14. Houston's climate is humid subtropical. Anyone who has ever been there in summer knows that translates into hot. A Houston summer makes a Chicago summer feel like Alaska. It's not the heat; it's not the humidity; it's both.

15. The Astros' Class A team, the Tri-City Valley Cats, has a promotion each night, including Teenie Weenie Wednesdays. No, it's little hot dogs.

16. Houston's Livestock Show and Rodeo is the largest rodeo in the world (1.8 million visitors).

17. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, of Houston, reportedly once requested that a corridor in her Washington office building be closed off for eight hours so that she could meet privately with singer Michael Jackson.

18. Houston has the lowest housing cost among 27 major U.S. cities with populations of more than 1.7 million. Of course, the odds that your home might one day be sitting in the shadow of a commercial skyscraper (see: Item No. 1) might have something to do with that. Or not. We're just saying …

19. One -hundred years ago this month Houston commissioners began enforcing a city ordinance that forbids men "to make goo-goo-eyes" at ladies. Take that Ald. Natarus.

20. Houston has an impressive array of attractions, including the National Museum of Funeral History. Current displays include a re-creation of a 1900s casket factory and a diorama illustrating embalming techniques used on Civil War battlefields.

21. Have we mentioned Enron?

Compiled by: Charles Storch, Patrick T. Reardon, Tim Bannon, Charles Leroux, Mike Conklin, Blair Kamin, Michael J. Phillips and Kevin Williams.

Sources: City of Houston, Texas Monthly, Tribune archives, Zagat's Guide, wire services.


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