Columns

Have you remembered your pets in your will?

Sure, it made the rounds of the “News of the Weird” columns when a Nashville businessman left $5 million in a trust fund for his beloved border collie Lulu. But such gestures aren’t as eccentric as you might think.

Speech standards must be applied the same to all

I was once fired by an employer because they did not like the way that I tweeted. They had no problem with the way that other people at this same enterprise tweeted, they just didn’t like my own flavor of rhetorical panache.

So far, Biden is all gloom and no sunshine

Say what you will about the personal and political failings of Donald Trump, at least he was an optimist. Along with being a cheerleader for America, he talked positively, sometimes when he shouldn’t have, and he could always see the sunshine. President Biden is the exact opposite.

Roses are red, snow is white…

As we found out again this year, in south Louisiana we are more likely to have a White Valentine’s Day than a White Christmas. Records show that most of our substantial snowfalls over the last century or so have been in February.

Spring training and the grapefruit nickname

Baseball fans got good news earlier this month — or at least as good can be expected during COVID-19. Major League Baseball approved a plan to go forward with Spring Training, also known as the Grapefruit League.

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.