Columns

Childhood TV idols went full-throttle left

“Little House on the Prairie” was never one of my favorite television shows for a very specific reason: The series of books about a pioneer girl and her family, written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was in fact one of my favorite pieces of literature.

Do shareholder proxy firms have too much power?

Few of us own as many shares as Warren Buffett, who recently announced he would retire at year’s end.

My mother’s ultimatum

I’m 63 and still single, but my mother has never given up hope that she will get me married. “What about that nice young lady who cuts my hair?” “Ma,” I tell her, “I’m old enough to be her father.” “What about the community director at my apartment complex?

Ever experience job interview blues?

My son recently interviewed for an internship as part of his master’s degree program in engineering management. We’re still waiting for news, but it started me thinking about the whole phenomenon of job interviews.

Dear Grandpa: Making sugar like making cider

The success of the sugar industry in south Louisiana in the early 1800s made planters rich and attracted scores of young men seeking their fortunes to the Teche country. One of them was Joseph W. Lyman, a young doctor who moved from his native New Hampshire to Franklin in 1830 or 1831.

What comes next for the church?

I am a papal expert, because I have seen the following three movies over the past two days: Conclave Shoes of the Fisherman The Cardinal None of us knows what will happen when the conclave convenes next month.

Brown writes farewell to writing a column

What’s the saying? All good things must come to an end? We experience a number of “lasts.” In the secular world, I recall The Last Picture Show, the Last of the Mohicans, The Last Samurai. In the religious world, Christianity says there are four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell.

Trump’s plan on tariffs is now confirmed

The Trump Plan centered on tariffs veiled in a cloak of secrecy has now been clearly defined. On April 7th, Stephen Miran—Trump’ s top economic advisor and a Senior Strategist at Hudson Bay Capital with a Ph.D.

The latest on money and happiness

Get this: money does make us happy, but within limits. A few decades ago, Richard A. Easterlin, a University of Southern California researcher, determined that increased wealth does not necessarily lead to greater happiness.

Train riders saw south Louisiana’s variety

The town of Scott has long claimed to be “where the West begins” because timetables listed it as the “origin of western travel” on the railroad that eventually became the Southern Pacific. But in 1933, when the U.S.