Houston to Rome, nonstop

Si, per favore!

ITA Airways is expanding its transatlantic route network by introducing new flights from Rome Fiumicino International Airport (FCO) to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), marking the first-ever direct route between the two cities. With the addition of Houston, the airline’s network will expand to nine North American destinations.

The Italian flag carrier has already opened ticket sales, with the inaugural flight set for May 1, 2026. The aircraft operating this route will be the carrier’s youngest widebody type, the Airbus A330-900 from the A330neo family.

The seasonal service will begin with three nonstops per week, ramping up to five nonstops per week on June 1st - just in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The service will operate through at least October 24th. 

Simple Flying, which first reported that this service was a possibility last June, explains the logic behind it:

The new FCO-IAH route will improve connectivity not only for passengers traveling directly to Houston, but also for those connecting onward to destinations across the US or Canada. To support these connections, ITA has recently launched codeshare agreements with United Airlines and Air Canada, which are both members of the  Star Alliance. It is also worth noting that the Italian flag carrier is in the process of joining Star Alliance, following its integration into the Lufthansa Group.

I'm always happy when Houston adds more nonstop flights to international destinations, and as somebody who spent a few days in Rome three years ago and wants to go back, I can see myself making use of this service. Hopefully it will be successful enough to warrant year-round, rather than seasonal, service.

One Mile at a Time and KHOU have more.

Houston 31, Baylor 24

The Cougars end the regular season with a road win against an in-state foe. 

The Good: QB Connor Weigman accounted for 322 of Houston's 417 total yards of offense and 21 of their 31 points, passing for 201 yards and a touchdown (a beautiful 27-yard strike to Amare Thomas on the game's first series) and rushing for another 121 yards and two scores. RB Dean Connors added another 51 yards and a score: a 1-yard run with 1:57 left to put the Coogs up for good. Houston DB Mark Stampley II intercepted a tipped Baylor pass in the endzone, and the Cougar defense forced a Baylor fumble late in the 1st.

The Bad: Houston took a 24-9 lead in the 3rd quarter, but Baylor quickly scored 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter (including a 31-yard touchdown pass from QB Sawyer Robertson to Josh Cameron on - ugh! - 4th and 9) to tie things up. 

The Scary: Baylor RB Caden Knighten had to be carted off the field after a nasty on-field collision. For what seemed like an eternity he lay on the field, apparently unable to move, but he was later reported to be alert and able to move all his extremities at the hospital.

What It Means: The Cougars end the 2025 regular season with a 9-3 record, including a perfect 6-0 record in road games. One wonders where this team would be now if they hadn't blown winnable home games against West Virginia and TCU. 

The Cougars now wait to find out which bowl they're going to and who they'll be playing.

Brad Towns discusses how the Cougars took a huge step forward in 2025.

#25 Houston 14, TCU 17

For the second time in as many home games, the Cougars play bad, boring football and lose to a team they probably should have beaten.

The Good: The Houston defense forced four TCU turnovers, three of which (two interceptions and a forced fumble) were caused by defensive back Will James. Late in the fourth quarter, the Horned Frogs had an opportunity to put the game away but were stopped cold by UH linebacker Latreveon McCutchin on 4th-and-1. If you had told me before the game that the Cougars would hold TCU to 17 points and end up +3 in turnover margin, I would have expected a win. However...

The Bad: ...the UH offense sputtered the entire game and only managed to put 14 points of their own the board. QB Connor Weigman was a mediocre 15 of 29 for 161 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and the offense only converted four third downs in 17 tries (five UH drives ended in three-and-outs). The playcalling was unimaginative and at times baffling. TE Tanner Koziol, who has been one of Houston's most effective offensive weapons this season, was absent for much of the game.

The Ugly: Kicker Ethan Sanchez has been pretty reliable this season, but he was 0 for 2 on field goal attempts last Saturday, including a 38-yarder late in the fourth quarter that would have likely sent the game into overtime.

What It Means: Any remote hopes the Cougars had of making the Big XII Conference Championship Game ended with this loss. I still have faith in Willie Fritz and I want him to succeed, but I'm beginning to have some questions. Why does his team come out so flat after bye weeks? Why is his offense so conservative? Why has Connor Weigman appeared to have taken a step backwards over the last several weeks?

This game was such a disappointment that afterwards I had to go over to Rice Stadium to watch North Texas beat the Owls just to get the shit taste out of my mouth.

The Cougars end the regular season with a trip to Waco to play Baylor this Saturday. 

The Cougars: two steps forward, one step back

Between a convention in Portland, Oregon, a visit from my brother, the Veteran's Day holiday (I took some time off to make a long weekend out of it) and other obligations, I haven't gotten around to writing about UH football for the last few weeks. Hence, another three-in-one update:

Houston 24, #24 Arizona State 16: A rather delightful upset of a ranked team on the road! UH quarterback Connor Weigman rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns, and passed for 201 yards and another score. The Houston defense, meanwhile, recovered the game's only turnover and kept Arizona State out of the endzone for three quarters. The end of the game got kind of sloppy, as the Sun Devils rallied from a 0-24 deficit to score 16 unanswered points and were threatening to tie the game, but the Houston defense stepped up to stop the late threat.

The Sun Devils didn't look like they were mentally prepared for this game. They were playing without star receiver Jordyn Tyson, but that doesn't excuse them having a player ejected for targeting, missing two field goal attempts, or being flagged for 12 penalties.

Sadly, after the game, it was announced that Houston Strength and Conditioning Coach Kurt Hester had lost his battle with cancer. 

#22 Houston 35, West Virginia 45: Speaking of teams not being mentally prepared for games, Houston came out flat against a 2-6 West Virginia squad and suffered an embarrassing loss. Fortunately, not a lot of people were on hand to see it. (I knew attendance for this game was going to be lousy because it was an 11 am kick - the second one in a row - on the morning after Halloween. There's also the gameday experience at TDECU Stadium, which Ryan (correctly) says is "not good.")

Connor Weigman had his worst game in a UH uniform. He was responsible for four turnovers, including a pick-six everybody in the stadium (except him, apparently) could see coming. Houston's defense, meanwhile, simply could not stop the Mountaineers' ground game, surrendering 15 first downs on rushes and 246 total yards rushing. The most pathetic moment came when WVU QB Scotty Fox, Jr scored on a 34-yard scramble on 4th and 4 because the Houston defense was clearly confused but didn't think to call timeout.

All in all, a game that was supposed to be dedicated to Coach Hester's memory turned out to be a dud that ended Houston's weeklong stint in the top 25. 

Houston 30, Central Florida 27: This was only the Cougars' second win at Central Florida all-time, and they certainly made it more difficult than it needed to be. Weigman's struggles continued, as he threw three interceptions including another pick-six. However, he also threw two touchdowns, including a 64-yard bomb to Amare Thomas. The Cougar rushing attack rolled up 210 yards against UCF's defense, and Ethan Sanchez was a perfect 3-for-3 on field goal tries. 

Houston's defense did their part with some interceptions of their own: linebacker Latreveon McCutchin had a pick-six, and the Golden Knights' late attempt to win the game ended when defensive back Kentrell Webb intercepted their desperation pass in the endzone with 11 seconds left to play.

What it Means: The Cougars are now 8-2 and again ranked in the top 25. I'm not sure they're really worthy of a top 25 ranking at this point, but this season has otherwise exceeded all expectations. 

The Coogs were off last week; they host TCU at TDECU Stadium on Saturday for their final home game of the season. Luckily, it will not be another 11 am kickoff.

The end of the penny

Last Friday, the one-cent coin, better known as the penny, met its end. After 232 years of production, the final penny coins were struck at the US Mint in Philadelphia.

In its prime, the penny wielded outsize influence: Tossed into fountains, it could answer unrealized wishes. A penny saved was a penny earned; it was pinched, pressed into loafers and placed on graves as a way of honoring the dead. Offered for one’s thoughts, it could elicit two cents, doubling its return.

Caroline Turco, assistant curator of the American Numismatic Association’s Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said that whenever she spies a penny on the street, she still thinks of the rhyme, “Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck.”

So mighty was the penny’s sway that legions of sales pitches would rely on marketing psychology built upon its mere absence. Why shell out 10 dollars when you can pay $9.99?

The penny had remade itself multiple times over the years, succeeding a one-cent predecessor authorized by the Continental Congress in 1787 and designed by Benjamin Franklin until the mint's creation in 1792. Made of pure copper, it featured a woman with flowing hair, symbolizing liberty.

Its name reflected the country’s colonial roots, a derivation of the British word “pence,” which the American founding fathers disposed of along with the English monarchy. 

The one-cent coin is the oldest coin minted in the United States, having been in circulation since 1793.  But they've increasingly become worthless over time. Nowadays, you can't buy anything with less than a heavy sackful of them, and if you show up at McDonalds with said sackful to pay for your Big Mac you're likely to be kicked out of the restaurant. Given that fact, as well as it cost almost four cents to mint each one-cent coin, it was well past time for its demise.

This isn't to say I don't understand the nostalgia involved; I'm old enough to remember penny gumball machines, which is to say I'm pretty old. But I can't say I've had any use for the coin since my childhood. For as long as I can remember, any pennies I've come across during the course of the day - received as change, or found lying about - would end up in a big jar that would later be dumped into the Coinstar machine at the local grocery store. These days, I hardly come across pennies at all, simply because I rarely engage in cash transactions anymore. A friend of mine said on Facebook better than I could: "bye bye, coin I have not used in decades."

The penny is not going to disappear - there are still something like 300 billion of them currently in circulation. The problem is, most of them are in coin jars, under couch cushions, or in your car's cupholder - not in your local retailer's cash register, which is where they need to be. One-cent coins, in fact, continued to be manufactured for as long as they did because of what The Atlantic's Caity Weaver calls the "Perpetual Penny Paradox:"

Most pennies produced by the U.S. Mint are given out as change but never spent; this creates an incessant demand for new pennies to replace them, so that cash transactions that necessitate pennies (i.e., any concluding with a sum whose final digit is 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 or 9) can be settled. Because these replacement pennies will themselves not be spent, they will need to be replaced with new pennies that will also not be spent, and so will have to be replaced with new pennies that will not be spent, which will have to be replaced by new pennies (that will not be spent, and so will have to be replaced). In other words, we keep minting pennies because no one uses the pennies we mint.

It wouldn't surprise me if, over the course of a given year, millions of dollars worth of pennies are cumulatively thrown in the trash by people who simply don't want to deal with them. Which, if true, is just another reason to stop producing them. 

Kuff has more, as does the NPR's L. Carol Ritchie. 

Half a cookie

Walking around the bakery at my local H-E-B, I noticed these delicious-looking oatmeal raisin walnut cookies:

I love oatmeal raisin cookies, and at 150 calories per serving, these didn't seem too fattening. Should I buy them?

Then I took a closer look at the serving size:

Seriously? Who only eats half a cookie at a time?

Weak, H-E-B. Very weak.

Houston 31, Arizona 28

Ethan Sanchez kicked a field goal as time expired and the Cougars notched a homecoming win over the Arizona Wildcats to become bowl-eligible.

The Good: Houston's ground game. The Cougars gained 232 rushing yards, 100 of which were courtesy of RB Dean Connors and another 98 of which came from QB Conner Weigman. The UH offensive line's ability to open running lanes against Arizona's defense was good enough for them to be named the Big XII's Offensive Line of the Week. Who had that on their bingo card this season?!

The Better: In addition to his 98 yards rushing, Conner Weigman passed for 163 yards and 3 touchdowns. Amare Thomas, who led the Cougars in receiving yards, caught two of those scoring passes. Weigman also had no interceptions and was not sacked once.

The Best: Houston's game-winning drive. After the Wildcats had scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to tie the game, the Cougars put together a calm and methodical 13-play, 4:48, 52-yard drive to get well into Sanchez's field goal range. A textbook way to win a football game!

The Bad: As good as Houston's defense has been this season, they gave up 381 total yards to the Wildcats, 269 of which came through the air. Arizona QB Noah Fifita was amazingly accurate, completing 24 of 26 passing attempts with no INTs. To the UH defense's credit, he was also sacked four times.

The Ugly: The 11 am kickoff.  The heat and humidity were brutal (Houston hasn't had much in the way of autumn weather so far), and I'm not sure half of the announced attendance of 28,535 ever actually made it into the stadium. Additionally, 11 am kickoffs ruin homecoming festivities.

What It Means: This was a good game between two evenly-matched teams, and the fact that Houston was able to pull ahead at the end means that they will finish the season with no worse than a .500 record and go to a bowl for the first time since the 2022 season. The Coogs need to win just one more game to secure a winning season.

Next up for the Cougars is a trip to Tempe, Arizona to face Arizona State.

Behold, the Southeasternwest Conference!

As seen on social media:

You could even add former SWC school Rice and former SEC school Tulane to get to an even 24 teams. Doing so would have the added effect of raising the conference's academic profile...

On coffee

The Atlantic's Ellen Cushing explains why, in spite of its ever-increasing cost and the availability of any number of caffeine-delivering alternatives, coffee is "the drink that Americans won't give up without a fight:"

Coffee is fixed in our culture, our economy, our rituals, and our brain chemistry. It is the country’s most consumed beverage aside from water, and its psychoactive ingredient, caffeine, is by far the most popular drug on Earth. On any given day, an American is likelier to drink coffee than they are to exercise, pray, or read for pleasure. The U.S. has more Starbucks locations than public libraries. Coffee gave us the Enlightenment, and insurance, and the most puissant bop of summer 2024. It is so crucial to the machinery of capitalism that many employers give it away, like pens or any other essential office supply. It is the only consumable I can think of that people regularly joke about dying without (which is funny because, again, it provides nothing our bodies actually need to live). It is the thing in a big carafe at every meeting, and on the menu at nearly every restaurant, and built into our language as a widely understood shorthand for “having a conversation with another person.”

Due to a variety of factors - chief among them, the Trump administration's tariffs on coffee-producing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam - American coffee drinkers are paying about 40 percent more for their cup of joe than they were a year ago. Congress recently introduced a bill to exempt coffee from Trump's tariffs, but it remains to be seen if it will go anywhere, even if and when the current government shutdown ends. 

It is also a fascinating symbol of the interdependence, and the limitations, of an internationalized food system and the free-trading global order. “Coffee is a good way to think about how the world works,” the author and food historian Augustine Sedgewick told me when I called him to chat about it. Aside from on a few comparatively tiny farms in Hawaii, California, and Puerto Rico, coffee doesn’t grow in the United States: We cannot make the drink that we cannot live without. And though we expect coffee to be cheaply and abundantly available, its production is tremendously costly and difficult, even before tariffs.

Coffee is a strange crop because it only grows in particular altitudes and soils, and is rather complicated to procure and prepare. Its harvesting, cleaning and roasting requires a great deal of manual labor - and that all happens before the barista grinds the beans and makes your latte. Honestly, it seems weird that we drink it at all. 

Yet we can't seem to live without it, and we intimately feel the pain when we have to pay more for it.

The Coogs at midseason 2025

I got kinda busy over the last few weeks and haven't had a chance to write about Cougar football. Here's a quick rundown of their last three games:

Houston 27, Oregon State 24 (OT): It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Houston played unprepared and uninspired football for most of this game, and at one point trailed the winless Beavers by two touchdowns. However, in the final six minutes of regulation the Cougars scored 14 points and blocked what would have been a game-winning field goal attempt by Oregon State for force overtime. Then, in the extra period, UH stuffed the Beavers on fourth down and kicked a field goal of their own to escape Corvallis with a win they really didn't deserve. 

To be fair, this game had "trap" written all over it: that the Coogs were able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat reflects well on their character. "I mean, nothing brings a team closer than a game like this,” Tight end Tanner Koziol said after the game. “Now we've looked at each other in the face of a loss, and we brought it out to a win." Of course, the Cougars were also beneficiaries of Oregon State's uncanny ability to find ways to lose; a few weeks after this game, their head coach was fired. 

Houston 11, #11 Texas Tech 35: All good things must come to an end, and such it was for Houston's four-game winning streak to start the season at the hands of a physically superior Texas Tech squad. Houston just couldn't get anything going on offense, as they turned the ball over three times and were held to only 12 first downs the entire game. QB Conner Weigman was replaced by Zeion Chriss late in the first half, after suffering a head injury. It's a credit to the Cougar defense that this score wasn't worse than it was. The Red Raiders were held to field goal attempts on seven of their drives (and two of those FG kicks were missed). 

The announced attendance of 42,806 was the fourth-largest crowd in TDECU Stadium history. Unfortunately, a lot of those attendees were Texas Tech fans.

Houston 39, Oklahoma State 17: The Cowboys are in a bit of a freefall, having fired longtime coach Mike Gundy a few weeks ago. They simply weren't much of a match for the Coogs, who rolled up 487 total yards of offense. Conner Weigman threw for two touchdowns and ran for another, and Dean Connor's one-handed touchdown catch may end up being Houston's top highlight of 2025. The Houston defense made things difficult for Oklahoma State's converted wide receiver QB, Sam Jackson V, who completed 7 of 16 passes for 84 yards with an interception and was sacked twice.

What It Means: At the halfway point of the season, the Cougars are 5-1, which already exceeds their win total from all of last year, and are just one win away from bowl eligibility. The offense has made definite improvement compared to last year, and the defense has remained solid in spite of fears it would take a step backwards this season. The program is definitely on a positive trajectory, and Ryan credits this improvement to the Coogs' success in the transfer portal.

However, this is not to say the Cougars are a great team by any means. With the exception of FCS Stephen F. Austin, none of the teams the Cougars have beaten currently have a winning record. They were completely outclassed by Texas Tech, and their sluggish starts in games like Rice and Oregon State are cause for concern. That's why, in spite of their record, the Coogs aren't even receiving votes in the AP top 25 poll. The remaining schedule is formidable and ESPN's FPI only clearly favors Houston in one remaining game (West Virginia). A winning season isn't assured.

The Cougars host the Arizona Wildcats at TDECU Stadium this weekend.