FENWAY PARK — There are magical times when one gets to witness a small piece of history being made. They are rare but stick with you. At this shrine, built in 1912 and one of my favorite places in the world, I watched the Red Sox clinch a tie for the pennant in 1967, beating the Minnesota Twins. They won the next game as well to make it to the World Series for the first time since 1946, which they lost to the Cardinals in seven games. In 1967, they again lost in seven games to the Cardinals. It was another heartbreaker to Red Sox fans, which was reprised in the 1975 and 1986 World Series. Losers...
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For the past 13 months I have commuted from Longview to Mount Pleasant to publish the Daily Tribune. This small newspaper was on the verge of shutting down before the company I went to work for purchased it. I enjoyed the challenge, which was considerable: turning around the paper financially and editorially, hiring a entire staff, moving the office downtown. I get weary just thinking about all we accomplished in a short period of time.
Now the time has come to find a new challenge, probably here in Longview so that I can enjoy our daughter’s senior year in high school. I enjoyed my time in Mount...
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It started as a vague notion of my Beautiful Mystery Companion’s. “I want an old beat-up farm truck,” she said wistfully on more than one occasion. So I began keeping an eye out for something that would fit the bill.
She had very specific requirements. Nothing completely restored and shiny. A four-on-the-floor stick shift. I commenced to looking last summer. Once I did a u-turn on Hwy. 31 to snap a cell phone photo of a 1968 Ford partially restored and nearly flawless, but it was deemed too expensive. And shiny.
Then I found a 1961 International Harvester on a side street in Longview....
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Let us pause to ponder the supersize mentality that has led to the proliferation of monster convenience stores, where gas pumps stretch far as the eye can see. The merchandise includes deer feeders, barbecue smokers, an extensive clothing line, an overwhelming array of road snacks, 80 soda dispensers — and America’s cleanest bathrooms.
That would be Buc-ees, a 60,000-square-foot emporium that just opened its 23rd Texas store in Terrell. We stopped there last Sunday on the way back from Frisco — along with what appeared to be several thousand other curious customers — to get gas and use those...
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Our family of three finally decided to cut the cable, or in our case the satellite dish. The vote was unanimous. Since signing up for Netflix and Amazon Prime, we stream 95 percent of all the television we watch. I had whittled down the offerings and monthly payment for the dish to its lowest level — $34.58, including tax. But we rarely watch the dish, and I hate spending money for services not being used.
So I bit the bullet and called to cancel the other day, knowing it would be an ordeal. Companies of all types structure their customer service systems to make it well-nigh impossible to cancel...
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The opening scene of the first episode of “Newsroom” has stuck with me since I first saw it a couple of years ago. Jeff Daniels portrays news anchor Will McAvoy, the star of the Atlantis television network. McAvoy is seated at a panel discussion in a university auditorium. A student asks the panel, “What makes America the greatest country in the world?”
Others on the panel respond with the usual patter about freedom and the American way, while McAvoy tries to avoid answering the question. But the moderator keeps pressuring him to respond, and he finally does. It is a tough scene to watch....
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I walked alone on the morning of Father’s Day, down a street in South Austin on which I lived more than three decades ago. My Beautiful Mystery Companion was still stoking up on caffeine and our teenage daughter, of course, was asleep. We were staying in a spotless condo I had rented using Airbnb, the website used by folks to rent lodging. I have become quite a fan of Airbnb, using it to find places to stay for less cost than a hotel — and with a lot more space.
The neighborhood was filled with rental units — mainly fourplexes and duplexes, with a few full-bore complexes. In 1981, I lived...
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I drove by the old S&H Green Stamp store on High Street in Longview the other day, on the way to taking Sam the Dog to the veterinarian for routine vaccinations. One has to have been on this planet a while to remember S&H Green Stamps. An informal poll of the younger crowd in this building drew blank stares when asked about them. But I bet many of you reading this at least remember your moms collecting the stamps, even if you did not personally do so.
S&H Green Stamps were considered the first customer loyalty program offered by retail merchants. Not every store offered them, and those...
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Let us pause a moment to acknowledge the death of America’s most famous headline writer — an admittedly obscure title to the average reader, but a person revered by us ink-stained wretches. Vincent Musetto died Tuesday from cancer at 74 at his home in the Bronx. He was retired from the New York Post, famed for its screaming and often outlandish headlines.
Musetto entered into the land of giants of tabloid journalism on April 15, 1983, according to the New York Times story about his death. A lurid crime scene had been discovered at a Queens tavern. A patron got into an argument with the owner,...
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They sent the Mayor of Bluesville off in grand fashion with a jazz parade in Memphis along Beale Street. B.B. King, the legendary guitarist and singer died in his sleep Masy 14 at age 89.
King earned the title of mayor from the Sirius-XM satellite station Bluesville, Channel 70. All day after his death, his powerful voice and the wailing sound of Lucille, his guitar, streamed on that radio channel as I drove into town, ran around taking photos and then headed home after work. Tributes poured in from across the world, from fellow blues musicians and fans alike.
If I am not listening to National...
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