Columns

Can you believe the EPA is 50?

It may be the sort of birthday where someone shouts, “50 candles blazing on the cake? Are you crazy? Why don’t we just fill a pinata with cow methane while we’re at it???” I’m speaking of the 50th anniversary of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Go long for Thanksgiving

Recently, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and Bummercloud in Chief, Dr. Anthony Fauci, expressed concerns over families gathering together for a traditional Thanksgiving celebration this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

What does the future hold for church attendance?

Are you a faithful Christian who is concerned about empty pews — and the steadily decreasing impact of Christianity on the social fabric? There’s good news about the Good News. After years of procrastination, I have stretched beyond my 600-word columns and written an honest-to-goodness BOOK.

1918 brought good news amid epidemic

At Thanksgiving 1918 the Spanish flu epidemic raging across the world still had south Louisiana in its grip.

Truth and reconciliation? Give me a break

A few days after the election last week, when things were still a bit murky, I made an offhand remark to some friends about what kind of hat I should crochet for the march that would be taking place the day after Joe Biden’s anticipated inauguration. Of course, we won’t be needing any hats.

COVID-19 obscures so many ways 2020’s best year ever

As challenging a year as 2020 has been, we still should be thankful that it has been the best year in human history to be alive. Consider: In 1920, according to the book “Enlightenment Now,” the average person spent 11.5 hours each week doing laundry.

‘Oldest inhabitants’ were weather observers

Until well into the 1800s, the oldest people in a town or area were the keepers of weather lore.

Thoughts post election day!

Winston Churchill once said the democracies and the election process are messy, sometimes chaotic, and inefficient. But, he also pointed out, that no one has devised a system that is any better.

Ready for Tyree to carve Thanksgiving trivia?

As your host, I have gathered a cornucopia of genuine Thanksgiving trivia, thanks to “Good Housekeeping” magazine and other sources. (Granted, “Good Housekeeping” reached its peak of relevance in the June Cleaver era.

U.S. must stand up for religious freedom

Philadelphia often makes national news for unfortunate reasons, like bombing its own neighborhoods, rioting in its streets, pelting Santa with snowballs, and threatening the Boy Scouts with eviction from the home it built for itself.