Columns

Saloon keeper solved big drilling problem

One of the most novel solutions for a huge problem in tapping the oil under south Louisiana wetlands was the brainchild of a Panamanian saloon keeper who’d never set foot here.

The end of a witch hunt of a city’s mayor

Everything changes, nothing is constant, not even death, for the soul is eternal, or taxes, thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill.

Time for Trump to show Putin who’s boss

Mr. Trump, “Tear down that Putin!” That’s something my father might say at this point if he were watching Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy still struggling to end the bloody war in Ukraine. Trump is in Alaska to meet face-to-face with Putin.

Tariff brought Bull Moose to sugar belt

Seventy-five sugar mills operating in Louisiana in 1800 produced five million pounds of sugar that sold for eight cents a pound, netting about $400,000 to the planters. That was a lot of money in those days, and the sugar industry was just getting started.

Navigating crime in Washington, D.C.

My friend and his wife, longtime residents of Washington, D.C., helped me understand one of the root causes of crime in the nation’s capital — truancy. “It starts there,” said my friend. “During COVID-19, kids got used to skipping online classes without consequences.

Are you making the best use of your ears?

“Hear that lonesome whippoorwill/ He sounds too blue to fly/ The midnight train is whining low…” — Hank Williams Among the books I mean to get around to reading is Neil Ansell’s “The Edge of Silence: In Search of the Disappearing Sounds of Nature.

Celebrating the return of Columbus Day

Every time I walk by the statue of Christopher Columbus a few blocks south of my Philadelphia office, I get flashbacks about the hot, June days at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, days after George Floyd died from police brutality, a fentanyl overdose, or both.

The ancient art of gerrymandering

Everyone gets what President Trump is trying to do in Texas. He’s pushed the state’s Republicans to redraw the boundaries of its congressional districts now instead of at the end of the decade so the GOP can pick up five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterms.

Mother Nature is out to sting me

I’ve learned the hard way that Mother Nature is anything but weak and feeble. I bought a house in the country a little over 30 years ago — a total fixer-upper. An old couple had lived there — hoarders — and the place was a mess. But that didn’t trouble me. I was full of energy.

Judge Trump, not his golf game

One morning during Bill Clinton’s presidency I got a call from my friend who works at the Pebble Beach golf course. Mr. Clinton was teeing off at 6:30, he said, and if I hurried over I could tag along. The golf was underwhelming.