Columns

A lesson about winning the lottery

I bought my first lottery ticket recently. It was a $20 scratch-off that paid me a $40 prize. Winning produced a nice little thrill, so I bought another $20 ticket right away. And lost. I put out $40 to win $40 that day. I’ve bought three $20 scratch-offs since then and won nothing.

Have we reached the point of no return?

This is an election year. But the issues this year are not about Democrats and Republicans. The big issue is whether this nation has degenerated to a point of no return -- a point where we risk destroying ourselves, before our enemies can destroy us.

Are these the good old days for reminiscing?

“Memories/Light the corners of my mind…” — as sung by Barbra Streisand. While grocery shopping with my mother in the 1970s, I enjoyed peeking at the “Golden Age” Sunday comics in “Good Old Days” magazine and developing an appreciation of the cartoon antics my father remembered from his boyhood.

Borealis Rex: ‘A good old soul bested’

The venerable old paddle-wheeler Borealis Rex was steaming as hard as it could to get from Cameron to Lake Charles when the big hurricane of 1918 caught up to it. Forty passengers were on board, plus two engineers, the pilot, a cook, and two deck hands.

Why Italians don’t care about Jennifer Affleck’s decision

I write this sitting at a cafe in front of the Italian Parliament, waiting for the president to resign.

Comedian’s tips to living well

Comedian Carl Reiner was good at living well — and he lived well until the age of 98. I recently watched his 2017 HBO documentary, “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.

The Road to Serfdom: Part II

In our first article we talked about the importance of knowing history when it comes to the utopian promises of Socialism and Marxism, and that F.A. Hayek’s well-known book The Road to Serfdom was an excellent guide as most utopian promises were economically infeasible.

Is the gardening craze growing on you?

According to the National Gardening Association, the number of households growing their own vegetables, fruit and other foods has tripled since 2008.

Call for rails took time for an answer

The steamboat opened the bayous of south Louisiana and helped bring prosperity to the communities alongside them, but by the middle 1800s the romance of a ride on a steamer and the convenience of shipping crops on them began to be challenged by pragmatic leaders who argued for the speed and...

Perspective on populism and partisanship

I write this sitting at a cafe in front of the Italian Parliament, waiting for the president to resign.