DOWNTOWN DALLAS — We have returned to our favorite hotel, in Texas at least, the stately Adolphus Hotel for a single night made possible by saving up points over a couple of years that bring the price down to something that we will not feel guilty about spending for a single night. This is a quick trip to enjoy a wonderful meal and a concert at Café Momentum, a few blocks from the hotel.
I have written about Café Momentum before. It is not just a restaurant but a mission whose motto is Eat. Drink. Change Lives. Founded eight years ago, by Chad Houser, the restaurant’s mission is to take...
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DESTIN, FLORIDA — It is exactly 600 miles from Three Geese Farm to the condo in which we stayed in this Florida Panhandle resort, thanks to a generous family with whom we are friends. We were ready for a break now that the semester is over. My Beautiful Mystery Companion stayed three days longer than I did, which meant taking separate vehicles. Originally, I had booked a rental car but decided at the last minute to take our 2001 Toyota Tundra. It now sports a set of new tires and had been proclaimed a perfectly fine truck by our new — and beloved — mechanic. With its faded paint job and ripped...
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It was late October 1944. The end of World War II was still months away — May 8, 1945, marked V-E Day in Europe, and August 14, 1945 for V-J Day in the Pacific Front. According to the NOW newsletter I recently uploaded to the Portal to Texas History, R.G. LeTourneau, Inc. — then with plants in Peoria, Illinois, Vicksburg, Mississippi, Tournapull, Georgia and Stockton, California — had 2,161 employees in the armed services. The eight-page company newsletter went out to “everyone connected with R.G. LETOURNEAU, INC.” And anyone interested in subscribing could have copies mailed to them...
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I have survived the two online graduate courses begun in January at the University of North Texas, seeking a certificate in archival management under a grant the R.G. LeTourneau Archives received last year. It was touch-and-go for a time. The digital curation course in particular at times seemed akin to learning a new language. I would read the assignment and realize I had absolutely no idea what was required of me.
I learned how to create and compare checksums for example, which I never knew existed. A checksum is a digital identifier consisting of letters and numbers that is assigned to a dataset....
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