The State Fair of Texas has offered fried bubblegum and seven other lip-smacking delights as finalists for the Big Tex Choice Awards.

There’s one type of food Waco has yet to see, and that is authentic New York cuisine. Metro Restaurant & Bar on Austin Avenue in downtown Waco offers an authentic New York menu for affordable prices.

There is no better way to kick off a Texas hot summer than with the best salsa, guacamole and queso that Central Texas restaurants, vendors, and residents have to offer. The 16th annual Margarita & Salsa Festival, held Saturday at the Extraco Events Center, brought in more than 9,400 cowboy-boot clad visitors looking for a spicy bite, a quality country concert and a cool beverage to bring it all together.

Scott Miller is the author of “The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century” and was a recent guest on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”. The book highlights the conflict between two very different men, one of whom was President of the United States.

Manliness, ladies and gentlemen, is under attack. Or at least that’s what Marty Beckerman argues in his satirical “The Heming Way” in which he advises that today’s men need to start living “the Heming Way.”

Scandals, big hair and deep southern accents overlay “The Help.” Starring Emma Stone as Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark, and Octavia Spencer, as Minny Jackson, the film is an exploration of racial injustice in the southern United States.

My name is Joshua Madden and I will be serving as the Arts & Entertainment editor for The Baylor Lariat. Let me be the first to welcome you to this section of the paper. If you’re like me, this is probably the first part of the paper you turn to – to read film and book reviews, find out about local performances, to find things to make the school year a little more fun and to procrastinate your studying a little bit longer.

With a summer box office overrun by superhero and action movies, “The Help” might not seem like a go-to flick for a Friday night. It definitely should be, however. While Emma Stone (who recently starred in “Crazy, Stupid, Love”), Viola Davis (who was nominated for best supporting actress for her performance in the film “Doubt”), and Octavia Spencer (who is probably best known for her role on ABC’s sitcom “Ugly Betty”) may not look like the average heroines, their character portrayals in “The Help” give audiences a new definition of courage.

Are you feeling snazzy? Looking fly? Expressing your personality through the medium of fashion? Have you seen any fabulous people around campus lately? If you are (or you do), nominate yourself (or that fabulous person) to become Baylor’s Best-Dressed Bear.

Adam Buckley, a Sigma Zeta Chi pledge, sits blindfolded in the back of a van. He learns that the final fraternity initiation requires a convenience store robbery. Minutes later, a fellow pledge is shot.

The cool atmosphere, spacious outdoor seating and friendly wait staff are only a few of the reasons why students stop into Shorty’s Pizza Shack, located in the shopping center at 12th Street and Bagby Avenue.

Busy college schedules mean that eating sometimes comes secondary to studying or other activities.

For those students who choose to enroll in summer classes or those that simply choose to remain in Waco for the summer, several overlooked activities can fill the void of free time.

The art department is holding the students’ photography show and print sale from 5 to 7 p.m. today in the Martin Museum of Art gallery and lobby.

Next Friday, Avance Waco will present its second annual Photovoice Project Gala, which aims to abolish stereotypes and prejudices and educate through the use of photographic storytelling.

As adolescent male power fantasies go, “Fast Five” has an undeniable trashy charm.

Uproar Records celebrated the release of its third annual compilation CD on Wednesday night with a twist.

Baylor University Theatre combines a classic tale with modern creativity in its production of The Odyssey. In a nutshell, Odysseus, played by Jeff Wittekiend from Burnet, must go through a series of life-threatening adventures in order to reach his hometown and become reunited with his beloved wife and son.

Inspiring cinematography, captivating characters and compelling scripts meld for an evening of entertainment at the 12th annual Black Glasses film festival at 7 p.m. Friday in Kayser Auditorium.

Yogurt fanatics will have even more choices in the near future. The wife and daughter of Baylor’s head football coach, Art Briles, will open a frozen yogurt shop called Oso’s— that’s Spanish for “bear”— in less than two weeks, Staley Lebby, Briles’ daughter, said.

Waco’s hip-hop culture may be hard to find but Kick Up Kids are bringing it to the forefront of Waco’s music scene.

Before Rob Bell’s latest book even hit the shelves on March 15, it was already a source of heated debate.

The Baylor Religious Hour Choir is traveling to Accra, Ghana, for 10 days in June to do mission work and record a CD with a local choir. BRH is a student-led choir on campus consisting of about 45 members.

Members of the I Heart Me campaign raised awareness for women by not wearing makeup and sporting their I Heart Me T-shirts Wednesday. The no-makeup day was in conjunction with the campaign’s “I Heart Me Day.”

The family and consumer sciences department will showcase its annual runway event, the Baylor Fashion Show Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. April 30 in the Bill Daniel Student Center Barfield Drawing Room.

https://vimeo.com/22658602 Read more about The Olive Branch here.

We take a look into a few college students refrigerators to see what is there. It is not always pretty.

Uproar Records will release its third annual compilation album on April 27, but this year the record label is adding a twist by incorporating a sustainable fashion show and calling the event Project Greenway.

Taking visual and performance art to the next level is the goal for two brothers and Baylor alumni John and Charles Hancock.

Toms Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie is one of my favorite Angelenos, if you can call him one, as he spends so much of his time traveling on shoe drops in South America and Africa and giving speeches about his One for One business model (for every pair of shoes sold, a pair is donated to someone in need).