Columns

COVID-19 lockdown’s long hauler effect

It all started with the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020, and it’s one of the few lingering effects of the experience that hasn’t tempted me to seek intense electroshock therapy.

Care for some stolen random thoughts?

Honest, I’m going to write a book chockful of random thoughts someday (my more serious book about religion is already available on Amazon), but deadline pressures keep forcing me to cannibalize my ideas for this column instead.

Fit only for frogs and alligators

Every year about this time, when the Mississippi begins to fill with snowmelt and rainwater from the north, talk begins again about the possibility of the Atchafalaya grabbing almost all of the water from the big river — with dire consequences on both of the streams.

Some free speech warriors defend only speech they like

Unlike so many people with Twitter and Facebook accounts these days, I am not a constitutional scholar.

Let’s unleash the entrepreneur

I started my first business in the 5th grade when I convinced a neighbor to allow me to cut her grass with her electric lawn mower. That project ended in immediate failure. The mower was powered by a long extension cord — a cord I ran over and sliced in two shortly after I began mowing.

From cypress logs to high-flying flags

One of my gifts under the tree last Christmas was a tee shirt inscribed with the question: “Have you ever noticed how many towns are named after their water tower?

More focused than ever at 60!

“Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.” Those are the clever words of British humorist Terry Pratchett, who couldn’t have explained the aging process more succinctly. I know his words are true because I turned 60 this week.

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be brainless

Millions of young women dream of being honored on Mother’s Day. Millions of others know in their hearts that they don’t want to have children, or at least not on someone else’s timetable. Many in both groups run the risk of someday facing an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.

Give Depp credit for defending his reputation

I was feeling a bit under the weather this past week, so I ended up spending time at home in front of the television. The thing that really mesmerized me was the Johnny Depp trial on Court TV. I never watch Court TV.

A few random observations

I never had the Easter Bunny pegged for a PR flack, but he can now add it to his CV. Shortly after the White House Easter Egg Roll, the basket-toting Easter Bunny intervened and led President Biden away from a reporter who asked the president about Afghanistan.