I learned from a former reporter’s Facebook post that the Daily Sentinel, the Nacogdoches newspaper where I spent more than 15 years of my career, is moving, presumably to a smaller building. The building at 4920 Colonial Drive is more than twice as large as what is needed these days.
Emily Taravella’s well-written (as always) post said that past employees were invited to come take mementoes that would not make the move — plaques from the wall of honor being one example. (The wall of honor is what we called the journalism award plaques hung just outside the publisher’s office.) Emily...
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I have singlehandedly created a pair of Pavlov’s dogs. Instead of a metronome, Mollie the Maltese and the Great Gatsby come scurrying to be at my side whenever they hear the scraping of the breakfast nook chair. It means I am about to sit down to eat.
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, 1849-1936, was a Russian physiologist who discovered dogs have an unconditioned response, meaning it’s involuntary, to salivate when they smell or see food. He then further conditioned the dogs to begin salivating when his metronome started marking time, because they received food afterward. This meant a conditioned stimulus,...
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The view outside my window has changed in the past few weeks. The late June storm that streaked through with 90 mph winds uprooted an oak tree just outside the backyard fence. The tree stood at the crest of the hill that leads down to Pancho’s Pond. Now, when I look out the window, the view is dominated by its root ball instead of the pond. Birds continue to flitter about its still-green branches. We are waiting on our tree guy to get caught up with folks who had trees land on their houses and buildings to come take this tree away, as well as a Bradford pear that split in the front pasture.
It...
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When I was a little kid, I recall having a toy lawnmower. At least I think so. The memory is fuzzy enough that at times I doubt its accuracy. It is possible one of my young friends in Allenstown, N.H. — Bruce Courtemanche or Peter Engel, to name a couple — actually had it and occasionally allowed me to play with it. Or it could have been one of my many cousins. But there is a toy lawnmower in my past, of this, I am sure.
My certainty stems from the flashback that hit me as I assembled a 13-inch electric mower with a rechargeable battery a few weeks ago. As mentioned previously, I am on the injured-reserve...
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