🙌 We made it to Friday!

🌧️ Today's weather: Chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a high of 96 and a low of 79.

🌆 Sounds like: "Summer in the City" by The Lovin' Spoonful, an "oldie but a goodie" from reader Mary Jo M.

🧑‍🚀 Situational awareness: President Trump will honor the Artemis II crew this morning at a NASA ceremony, awarding the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the astronauts.

• Trump arrived in Houston last night to attend a Republican National Committee fundraiser supporting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's U.S. Senate campaign.

This newsletter is 1,006 words, a 4-minute read

Texans have remembered the Alamo for 190 years, but the state's revolution appears to be a blip in Mexico's centuries-long history.

Why it matters: The Battle of the Alamo is central to how Texans learn state history, and the historic site remains one of San Antonio's biggest tourism draws.

• Yes, but: The Museo Nacional de Historia in Mexico City has only a few mentions of Texas, suggesting that the fixation might not go both ways.

Vibe check: The museum is inside the roughly 240-year-old Chapultepec Castle and captures Mexico's history from its point of view.

Context: After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the new country was fraught with political, economic and social instability for decades, per an exhibit at the museum.

The intrigue: "Perhaps the most regrettable event in the early years of independent Mexico was the loss of Texas," one museum exhibit explains in Spanish.

What they're saying: Mexicans born in Texas, settlers with land grants and "mercenarios" (mercenaries) from 22 U.S. states participated in the "drama" that ultimately led Texas to secede from Mexico, per the exhibit.

• Mexico restricted immigration from the U.S. to Texas out of concern that Mexico might lose the state to its northern neighbor. One foreign affairs minister described it as an unofficial form of invasion.
• A delegation of Texans declared independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836, around the time of the Battle of the Alamo. The Republic of Texas became a U.S. state in 1845, although the transfer of power didn't happen until 1846.

Zoom out: The Texas-Mexico corridor is now one of the most strategically integrated production hubs in the world, per the Texas Economic Development Corporation.

• Mexico has been Texas' top trading partner for over 17 years, with an estimated $281.2 billion of trade between the two in 2024, per Gov. Greg Abbott's office. It's also a major Houston trading partner, ranking third in 2025 with $20.9 billion in combined imports and exports.

As Americans rethink alcohol, beverage brands and local businesses are betting on drinks that promise social connection without the hangover.

Why it matters: Consumers are increasingly choosing beverages based on what they want drinks to do — energize, improve gut health or help them unwind — fueling a boom in products marketed around function.

Driving the news: On The Brightside is among the latest entrants, launching canned drinks made with Zembrin, an extract of the succulent kanna that founder Adam Terry says is designed to promote a calming, "pro-social" effect without intoxication.

• It joins brands like Recess, Hiyo and Trip, which market mood-support beverages as alternatives to alcohol or THC.

Zoom in: The Mood Room in the East End serves traditional cocktails alongside zero-proof and functional drinks made with ingredients such as lion's mane and other adaptogens.

What's happening: Consumers are increasingly shopping for beverages by effects and occasions rather than traditional categories, Circana adviser Sally Lyons Wyatt tells Axios.

By the numbers: Functional beverages generated $31.3 billion in U.S. sales over the past year, up nearly 11% year over year and about 147% over four years, per NielsenIQ data shared with Axios.

The big picture: Younger consumers "are not necessarily abandoning alcohol — they are redefining what belongs in the adult beverage occasion," Lyons Wyatt says, pointing to moderation, novelty and mood support as growing priorities.

Reality check: Drinks with mood-enhancing ingredients aren't evaluated by the FDA for effectiveness, and evidence supporting their impacts varies widely by ingredient.

The bottom line: Americans aren't just choosing what to drink. They're increasingly choosing how they want drinks to make them feel.

🏥 MD Anderson president Peter Pisters is retiring after nine years leading the Houston cancer hospital. (Houston Chronicle)

🚔 The new U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas said his office will "follow the law" in deciding whether to prosecute the federal immigration officer who fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, while adding that he "backs the blue." (Houston Public Media)

🐘 Quote du jour

"We could lose Texas. This is five-alarm fire right now. Every Republican, every conservative, every non-nuts common-sense Texan needs to understand the crazies are coming out in force."

Texans love college football, but we're not alone: fans across the country are turning out in record numbers.

Catch up quick: In 2025, 28 stadiums averaged crowds at or above their listed capacity, according to D1.ticker.

• Yes, but: Average attendance per game remains roughly 5,000 below its peak during the 2005–2011 seasons.

Zoom in: The University of Houston averaged 32,215 fans per home game in 2025, filling more than 80% of the 40,000-seat TDECU Stadium and marking a 17.5% increase from the prior season.

• Rice's average attendance jumped 29% last season to 23,423.
• Texas A&M averaged 106,159 fans per home game in 2025, up 3.2%.

Zoom out: Attendance at Football Bowl Subdivision games has climbed by 3.7 million since 2021, as crowds have rebounded from the pandemic, according to NCAA data.

• Across all levels of college football, attendance nearly hit 50 million in 2024.

What's next: The college football season kicks off Saturday, with the first full weekend starting Sept. 3.

Thanks to Bob Gee for editing this newsletter.

🎧 Shafaq is loving y'all's song recommendations. Keep 'em coming!

Have a delightful weekend!