Columns

Will golf be recognizable in 20 years?

A course is a course, of course of course … Or is it?

Where cowboys fought giant crabs?

Abbeville was up in arms in December 1954, over a national magazine article in which community leaders claimed the town, and all of Vermilion Parish, were portrayed as “a mucky swamp” inhabited only by those strong enough to wrestle an alligator, which they often had to do.

Pope’s positions are wearing her thin

On March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected by the College of Cardinals to succeed Jozef Ratzinger as pope. Pope Francis was the third non-Italian, after Karol Wotyla of Poland and the aforementioned Ratzinger, to lead the church in over 500 years.

Our holidays, history are under attack

This should be my favorite time of year. The special season begins at Thanksgiving and extends through the Christmas holidays. But there are disturbing signs of change and not for the better, as a movement continues to grow disparaging our holidays as not being politically correct.

Tips for out of control tipping

Tipping demands sure have gotten out of control. With every purchase you make — at coffee shops, fast food restaurants, chain stores and more — you are presented with a digital payment screen that asks you to leave a tip.

A thing of beauty and good cheer

Make your guess: Where was the largest decorated Christmas tree in the world in the 1950s? Hint: It wasn’t in Paris, New York or Washington. D.C., at least according to Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

Would you like to sleep through Christmas?

It was never as high-profile as “Rudolph” or “Frosty,” but it’s worth noting that the animated special “The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas” turns 50 on December 17.

Fed up? Yes. Nasty? No.

If you listen to pollsters and politicians, or consume heavy doses of social media and cable-TV news, you might come away thinking the nation is in a collective bad mood. We’re said to be irritable, even hostile.

Pope Innoceant, my grandmother, and fruitcake

This is the time of year when people love to malign fruitcakes. I am not one of those people. For more years than I care to remember, I have made holiday fruitcakes that have turned even hardened naysayers into admirers.

President Xi makes our homeless disappear

Here in sunny Los Angeles, it’s raining. It’s too bad it didn’t rain real hard last Saturday. It might have helped firefighters put out the enormous fire under the 10 Freeway near downtown before the heat weakened the pillars and forced the highway to be closed.