The Idle American – A lament for linemen

By Dr. Don Newbury

No, this isn’t about Super Bowl “grunt” players “duking it out” in the football trenches. I’m referencing Glen Campbell, who is crooning around the country on his well-earned “farewell tour” to cap off a career spanning 50+ years.

The Alzheimer victim is singing our old favorites, including “Wichita Lineman,” one of lyricist Jimmy …

Fine in the ‘Pine – A rock ‘n’ roll excursion to Little Rock

By ROXANN CHAVEZ

I made it back from Arkansas, and that’s a story of its own, but I wanted to let you know that I went to Arkansas to watch my favorite band perform, Evanescence.

Amy Lee and Evanescence rock Little Rock. (photo by ROXANN CHAVEZ)

It was about a 24-plus-hour-drive to and from Little …

Our Senator in D.C. on the State of the Union

Reaction to President’s State of the Union Address

“We Need to Get Serious on Entitlement Reform”

By U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas

The President’s annual State of the Union address is an opportunity for our country’s elected leader to put aside partisan politics, talk to Congress and the American people about our country’s direction, and outline his …

Our Congressman in D.C. on the State of the Union

By U.S. Rep. Francisco Canseco, R-23rd Congressional District

Last Tuesday the President delivered his annual State of the Union address to the Nation. As someone who came to Washington just one year ago, I was very much looking forward to new ideas and a renewed sense of purpose from the President. My hopes were based on …

Star Gazer – Transit of Venus and other celestial spice this year

By PAUL DERRICK

The coming year offers many stargazing delights, and a couple of them don’t even occur at night.    There will be the usual annual meteor showers, brilliant naked-eye planets, and pairings of night sky objects, but 2012 also will treat us to a partial solar eclipse and a rare transit of Venus.

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Rambling Boy – Texas, My Texas: Musings of the Rambling Boy

By LONN TAYLOR

Last week I opened a carton from Texas Christian University Press containing ten advance author’s copies of my new book, Texas My Texas: Musings of the Rambling Boy. I thought they were the most beautiful books I have ever seen. They were designed for TCU Press by Barbara Matthews Whitehead, an Austin graphic …

Golliver

Golliver

Star Gazer – Star gazing south of the equator

By PAUL DERRICK

This column comes to you from beautiful New Zealand deep in the Southern Hemisphere where my wife and I, along with two other couples, have just begun a six-week adventure in what many, including myself, consider the most beautiful and fascinating country in the world.  And upon crossing the Equator, we went from …

Dick Decent

Dick Decent

Correspondence

We would like to reply to a letter in last week’s paper.

When a drug dealer sells drugs to anyone, they should be locked up. When they sell drugs to 13-year-old kids and maybe younger, they for darn sure should be locked up. If you believe getting kids hooked on drugs is not a ‘real crime,’ …