Columns

Product recall notices: Friend or foe?

The relentless airbag recall notices concerning my mother’s old truck have progressed from a mailbox-clogging nuisance to a grim reminder that our unresponsiveness has felled more trees than Paul Bunyan in his prime.

It’s too late to turn down the temperature

One of my favorite allegories is the one about the frog in the pot of water, who got used to the slowing rising temperature of a warming pot and ended up boiled to death. In some ways, I feel as if society has been on the menu for quite some time now.

Biden, Social Security, my retirement and the wealthy

It’s February. It’s cold. To fend off the winter blahs, I dream of one day retiring to a warm beach, where I’ll stand in the surf, sipping beverages from glasses with little umbrellas in them.

What will Presidents’ Day be like in 50 years?

Whether you read these words before or after Presidents’ Day 2021, be advised that I’m already thinking ahead to Presidents’ Day 2071.

Why Marjorie Taylor Greene needs to be shunned

The worst thing to happen in my lifetime was the massacre of 20 children almost a decade ago. The current controversy of the Capitol riots, the Antifa uprisings this summer, the Oklahoma City bombing and even 9/11 don’t carry that same, crushing weight.

The telegraph and climate change

We’ve blamed unseasonable weather on all sorts of things over the years. When I was growing up in the Cold War years of the 1950s there was a persistent rumor that the Soviets were manipulating the weather.

A problem with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s comments

Sexual abuse is devastating. It cuts across and demolishes every single line of demarcation that we recognize in society, because it is one of the things that attack the foundations of society: Respect for the dignity of the individual person.

Getting kids back to school shouldn’t be this difficult

Kids need to be in school. This seems to be an epiphany for some who, a year ago, suggested sending a teacher into a classroom was the equivalent of landing on the beach at Normandy. This is the problem in a world of extremes where every issue, no matter how fundamental, is politically charged.

Piano keys from rice?

Rice farming was well established in Louisiana but was just getting started in east Texas in 1900, when Texas Farm and Ranch magazine sent W. C. Moore to get some tips on how it should be done.

It’s a scary time for conservatives

We had President Trump for four years. I already feel like we’ve had President Biden for eight. There were many reasons for not liking Trump or the way he did things. But at least he was an optimist. At least he saw the sun coming up every morning.