A former Houston Rockets basketball player with a tongue-twisting name -- Hakeem Olajuwon -- has purchased a historic mansion on Clear Lake southeast of Houston. Satellite view of the mansion.
So, here's what's funny. The man's last name is pronounced oh - LIE - ju - won. It provided the excuse, about 20 years ago, for a long shaggy-dog joke about someone winning a fishing lodge, either in a glamorous Florida location or in the decidedly downwardly mobile town of Kemah, located on Galveston Bay at the mouth of Clear Creek. The joke ends with the prize winner being told which prize he had won -- not the Florida lodge: "That's a Kemah lodge you won." Ha ha! It's only funny because it sounds like the basketball player's name.
I lived in the area for five years as a teenager. The West mansion is not actually in Kemah, but is a few miles away. Close enough to revive the joke, though.
The strange thing is that Kemah is no longer a slum, but is now the location of a glamorous casino and a touristic "boardwalk" amusement park.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment