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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I met Cody Norris a few times at holiday gatherings of my wife’s extended family, most of who live in Northeast Texas. He was tall and thin, clearly in shape. Cody was my sister-in-law’s nephew. He grew up in the Houston area. He clearly loved the chance to spend time in the country. We considered him one of the cousins, though that is not technically accurate. Cody usually showed up with his dad at the East Texas farm that served as the outside gathering spot when the weather is tolerable. These throw-downs invariably involved a fish fry, a bonfire if there was even a hint of chill in the air....
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We voted early this election, as we nearly always do. There were two differences this time around, and I am not talking about the candidates — nor do I intend to. There are subjects best not brought up in polite company.
First difference is that daughter Abbie, who turned 19 on the day we voted, cast her first ballot — or, in the case of the Gregg County machine, dialed her choices on an electronic screen — in a general election for president.
Like most teenagers, Abbie is ultra high-tech savvy. When she heads away to college (she attends locally this year), my Beautiful Mystery Companion...
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News item: A member of the Swedish Academy called Bob Dylan “impolite and arrogant” for thus far ignoring winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. Repeated phone calls have gone unanswered. Dylan does not acknowledge winning the award while performing in concert — he appeared in Shreveport earlier this week — and a mention on his website has been removed.
First, let’s note I’m pleased Dylan received the Nobel, the first American to receive it for literature since Tony Morrison received the award in 1993. In 50 years or so, he has written more than 450 songs, many of which are firmly...
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The issue of naming cats popped up recently in our household. Our four-legged population has doubled with the addition of a pair of three-month-old kittens. They were dumped in front of my brother-in-law’s place in the country. That is a bad habit of some East Texans, dumping unwanted animals as if somehow that solves the problem. It just becomes someone else’s concern. As soon as Jim sent a cell-phone photo of these kitties to my Beautiful Mystery Companion, I knew we were about to go back into the cat business, after a hiatus of several years.
One of the kittens is orange and white with...
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HUGO, OKLA. — Under a cloudless sky, enduring temperatures resembling late August rather than early October, I walked among the tombstones in this modest town 10 miles north of the Red River. This is the Showmen’s Rest, part of the city cemetery. Here lie, among a few hundred others:
Big John: “The Man With More Friends Than Santa Claus.”
Donnie and Jone MCintosh: Circus, Fairs, Carnivals, Rodeos, Street Corners. “We Had the Good Life But the Season Ended.”
John August Strong, with a larger-than-life etching on a pillar celebrating his years operating the Big Strong John...
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Donald Trump’s tax returns, his refusal to release them, and the publication last weekend of pages from his 1995 returns, have become a key campaign issue — as they should. The pages leaked to the New York Times indicate he took an $891 million loss that year, which could have erased 18 years’ worth of tax liability. The operative phrase here is “could have.” We voters do not know because Trump uses an ongoing audit as an excuse not to release his returns — the first candidate in four decades to not do so.
This is patently absurd. If you are running for any federal or state position,...
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I cranked up the television about 45 minutes before the first presidential debate. We only have over-the-air channels beamed into a single television, and subsist primarily on Netflix and Amazon — and not much of that. I wanted to make sure everything was working properly before the event. That is how I ended up watching “Dancing With the Stars.” There I saw our former governor, Rick Perry, tangoing with a beautiful woman less than half his age. He was wearing a black-and-white toreador outfit that led me to conclude Gov. Perry has considerably more courage — or less sense — than most...
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Autumn has officially arrived, which generally means little in East Texas as far as a break in the weather. As climate change continues wreaking havoc, with massive storms, heat waves and other freakish weather, no one knows when the first cold snap actually will arrive here. This year is certain to be the hottest year on record, according to NASA. Last year was the hottest year before that, and 2014 the hottest prior to that. See the pattern?
At the same time a dispiriting number of flat-worlders — including the Republican nominee for president — continue to deny climate change exists,...
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A woman named Julia is harassing me, calling my cellphone at all hours of the day, from all across the United States. In the past week, Julia (not to be confused with my wife, Julie) has called from Sanford, Florida; Winchester, Missouri; Bayonne N.J.; Gig Harbor, Washington; and Stone Mountain, Georgia. It is getting tiresome, these calls from a woman I do not know — nor do I wish to make her acquaintance. But I must admit Julia gets around. I wonder if she has a private plane or just drives through the night, eventually stopping somewhere to give me a ring.
The call always begins the same...
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