Month: August 2017

Instead of trying to write about Hurricane Harvey, the rudest guest we’ve had around here for an awfully long time, I’ve opted to post the following piece I did for the Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press nine years ago, right after Hurricane Ike devastated Galveston. Here’s why: the prediction I  made back then about how … Continue reading Nine years later, Texas grit and spirit is still alive

    Let’s start  with a trivia question. In the movie “Casablanca,” how does Humphrey Bogart make his entrance? And extra points for what he is specifically doing. The answer will be provided in due course. Today’s title came from comedian Marty Feldman by the way, but no points for knowing that. It should, however, … Continue reading The pen is mightier than the sword, and easier to use

  We come now to the subject of lighthouses. Of course we aren’t exactly inundated with them where I live, on the Texas gulf coast.  The closest one to yours truly, over on Bolívar Point, has been privately owned for decades and isn’t open to the public. As a member of said public, I want … Continue reading A lonely, lofty perspective

A piece in the paper caught my attention a while ago, having to do with cemeteries and the sad though necessary business that is conducted there. USA Today, a publication I usually only read in motels or hotels that provide free copies with the breakfast buffet, had a story about people putting their cemetery lots … Continue reading Some real estate I’d rather put off using

Forty-five years ago today I raised my hand with a roomful of other young fellows in Dallas and recited an oath that delivered us into the United States Army.  Later that afternoon I settled into the first airliner seat I’d ever been in and clutched a paperback novel I’d just bought in the airport gift … Continue reading When a story is more than just a story