I bought a new iPhone on New Year’s Eve, after months of pondering whether I wanted to A) spend the money and B) deal with the inevitable pain of swapping out what is, in essence, my brain’s external hard drive. My actual brain’s disk is full, so without a smart phone I would be, well, even dumber than I am. The tipping point was that my four-year-old phone would not run the software for the drone I received for Christmas. More on that later. I’m still sussing through exactly how to fly this drone and use it to take photos and make videos.
Anyway, a phone upgrade required sacrificing...
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One of my favorite workout T-shirts says: BOSTON WICKED STRONG. I bought it in Copley Square on Boylston Street, the year after two pressure-cooker bombs went off in 2013 near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, just up the street from the square. The slogan (“wicked” is Bostonese for very) became the city’s rallying cry after that horrific event, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others. I remember watching on television, enveloped in a great sadness. I know and love this part of Boston intimately after a few dozen visits over the years. We return nearly every summer...
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I drive through downtown Longview most every weekday, headed to my day job on the south side. I almost always get stopped at the light at the intersection of High and Cotton streets either coming or going to work, sometimes both. On the northeast corner is a city-owned parking lot where the popular Farmer’s Market is held during late spring and summer. On that site once stood the scariest business establishments I encountered as a kid: Kelly Plow Company. In the late 1960s, when I began selling newspapers downtown at 13, one of my stops was this factory, built in 1907.
Kelly Plow came into...
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I was not able to pay my final respects to Eddie Overhultz, who died on Christmas Eve at 71. Holiday plans had already been made, and his passing caught me by surprise. We had largely lost touch since I moved to Longview nine years ago. That is my fault. We talked by phone a few years ago, and I kept promising to come visit him in Nacogdoches, but that did not come to pass. So I thought I would present this modest appreciation of a man who was a close friend for about 15 years and tell a few stories I hope will make those who knew Eddie — and those who didn’t — smile.
Eddie came to Nacogdoches...
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And suddenly it is Christmas, another year nearly in the books. They come around quickly now that I have reached a certain age.
Dec. 25 will cap a Yule season that — in the retail world — began in mid-October. It seems as if every store I entered had Christmas decorations up next to the jack o’ lanterns. I hate to be grinchy, but could we at least hold off on Christmas until after the kids are finished trick or treating?
While I am being curmudgeonly, I am strongly opposed to retail stores opening on Thanksgiving Day, a trend that expanded this year to include most Big Box stores....
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“It’s been a bad year for rock and roll.”
— Chuck Prophet
Singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet, a regular on my Spotify playlist was bemoaning the deaths of David Bowie and Prince, among many others, when he released that song earlier this year. He is right.
Bowie died of cancer two months after releasing “Black Star” in January. Check out the video of “Lazarus” on YouTube. It is the haunting work of a brilliant artist who knows he will die soon.
Prince, one of the finest guitar players on the planet, died far too young of an opioid overdose at 57. One of his greatest performances...
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In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.
— Isaiah 11:6
Our dog Sam is not exactly wolf material, though he certainly has a hunter’s instinct. On several occasions he has gotten loose and taken off after cats, squirrels and other critters. He never catches anything, but this poodle/cocker spaniel mutt cannot be deterred when on the chase. The other night, during a driving rainstorm, Sam slipped out the back door as my Beautiful Mystery Companion...
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As is East Texas tradition, I worked up a sweat hanging Christmas lights and swatting away mosquitoes on Thanksgiving morning. I don’t think I have ever hung lights when it was cold, even when I have put off the task until mid-December. Invariably, a warm front will sweep in from the Gulf Coast on the appointed day, putting a damper on the Yule spirit. It is likely my Yankee upbringing, but there is something askew about hanging Christmas lights while wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Maybe in Florida or Southern California, but the rest of the nation deserves Christmas-like weather this time of year....
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I spend a lot of time talking to newspaper people, which I relish. It is impossible to get ink out of my blood after more than 40 years in the business. While it is doubtful I will ever work at a paper again, I have enjoyed spending the past year working to put together deals to buy or sell newspapers.
In addition, in the course of researching a biography I am writing about a fascinating newspaperman and columnist, I have talked to members of his family who were also in the business. That is how I ended up in the charming town of Smithville a few days ago, talking to a retired lawyer who literally...
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I spoke the other day to a group of high school students about writing. The students were polite, and several asked great questions. I enjoyed my 20 minutes with them, a number of whom I knew since daughter Abbie graduated last May from this small private school.
To kick things off after briefly outlining my checkered career, I asked this: “What is the one essential thing one must do to be a writer?” There were several interesting answers. Learn how to spell. Use complete sentences. (Notice I’m not doing that. It’s a rule I like to break on occasion.) Have lots of pencils. (Pencils?...
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