Head ‘Em Up and Move ‘Em Out!

FORT WORTH STOCK YARDS – On an unseasonably warm Sunday morning after Christmas, my Beautiful Mystery Companion and I stood on East Exchange Avenue along with a few thousand other folks crowded along opposing sidewalks. (“Unseasonably warm” is quickly becoming an oxymoron in this age of climate change.) We managed to secure a spot behind the rope stretched along the street by two world-weary guys who clearly have been doing this for a long time.  “Get behind the rope, please. No sitting on the curb. You must remain standing,” they intoned, over and over.   We were here...

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I Continue To Be a Book Drunkard

A new year has arrived, meaning it is time for me to look back on what books struck my fancy in 2025. I will provide some recommendations for anyone interested. But first, some personal statistics: I read 42 books totaling 16,731 pages last year, according to the Goodreads app I used to keep track. The longest was Ron Chernow’s biography, Mark Twain, which weighed in at 1,196 pages. Actually, though I have the physical book, a 70th birthday present from my Beautiful Mystery Companion, I finished it on my Kindle Paperwhite, which was another birthday present. (I am treated well in these parts.)...

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