There’s only two things that money can’t buy, and that’s true love and home-grown tomatoes.
Guy Clark
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OK, technically you can buy homegrown tomatoes this time of year from vegetable stands alongside the highway. But unless one is utterly friendless or a hermit, right about now tomato-growing friends, acquaintances and kinfolk begin bombarding everybody they know with tomatoes. That is one of the few redeeming features of an East Texas summer, in my humble estimation. The weather usually is ridiculously humid and hot, and it generally stays that way until late September. But at least...
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I walk among the ghosts of newspapers past in the building we occupy at present. A newspaper office once required armies of people to produce the Daily Miracle — as it is often called by folks in the business because some days that is how getting out a paper feels — a minor miracle. Now, because of technology, physically producing a paper requires fewer people and even fewer tools. It still requires access to a printing press, of course, and other large pieces of equipment, but the front end of newspapering is largely done staring at computer screens.
When I started at the Longview Daily...
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Today is the Fourth of July, of course, when Americans celebrate their independence by barbecuing, drinking copious amounts of libations and getting sunburned. I spent much of the morning helping orchestrate the annual Daily Tribune Turtle Race, in which about 55 youngsters competed for cash prizes, certificates and bragging rights. Everybody got a T-shirt, and the weather out at Dellwood Park was perfect.
Roughly 150 folks in all were on hand to cheer on the turtles. The race, created by my predecessor, involves running several heats with a half-dozen turtles in each heat. The kids place the turtles,...
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I admit that soccer is not high on my list of spectator sports, particularly on television. No doubt watching a World Cup match or a game of that caliber in person would be a different story. My middle daughter, now 32, played for a time when she was about 8. Her enthusiasm was minimal, matched by her skill. Mere was more interested in picking flowers and daydreaming, though occasionally she would kick the ball along if it came her way and wasn’t too much of a bother. We retired Mere’s jersey after a season, soured a bit by some of the parents who screamed at their kids as if this indeed were...
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BOSTON — The Boston Public Library is across Exeter Street from the boutique hotel in which we are staying, both located on Boylston Street in the Back Bay. It is a grand building, built in 1854 and the second oldest public library in the country. We wandered around one morning, admiring the ornate inlayed pink marble walls inside, the pair of marble lions at the top of the staircase that honor Massachusetts Civil War veterans.
The finish line for the Boston Marathon is across from the library. A lone cross nearby memorializes three of the victims of the 2013 bombing. A T-shirt vendor in nearby...
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NEW YORK CITY — It is said that one can see, buy, eat or drink anything in the Big Apple. We are staying just off Times Square, about a half mile south of Central Park. Hotel rooms are pricey if one wants to stay close to the action, and we did. After considerable gnashing of teeth, I finally gave up trying to find a bargain; three nights in a Hampton Inn — a rather nice one, but still — cost nearly as much as a month’s mortgage payment. And the hotel room would fit in our living room with plenty of space to spare.
But it is vacation time, our big blowout for the summer, so we vow not to obsess...
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Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it’s been
|— “Truckin,” The Grateful Dead
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The phone call came a few weeks ago while I was talking to a fellow who I lean upon for spiritual counsel and advice. Mainly he just asks questions and prods me to do the same. Rarely does he provide answers, but our conversations have been invaluable.
I ignored the phone vibrating in my pocket until we were finished, then listened to the voicemail. It was an old friend and former newspaper colleague, who asked...
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Two days before last Thanksgiving, my father-in-law was stabbed while sitting in the day-surgery center at Good Shepherd Medical Center. A nurse died in that attack and three others were wounded. My father-in-law, Harris K. Teel, lived nine days but ultimately died as well. A defendant awaits trial on capital murder charges.
The reason Papa Teel survived a direct stab wound to the heart and had a chance of recovering was because of an extraordinary surgeon and human being, Dr. David Sadler. He brought Papa Teel’s heart back to life, sewed it back up and refused to give up even when others...
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For months I resisted subscribing to Netflix, the online streaming video service, despite entreaties from our 16-year-old daughter.
“We have enough digital distractions in this household eating up our money,” I proclaimed. Satellite television with a kajillion channels and rarely anything worth watching. Wireless internet, of course. A monthly cell phone bill that is equal to some folks’ car payment. Good thing we don’t have any car payments.
But then I took pity when she was laid up convalescing after a mishap and went to its website to gather information. For $7.99 a month, we could...
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Since I am off for the summer, with classes ended, of course I have lined up some house projects to fill the time. While I happily spend hours researching and writing, processing photographs and otherwise attempting to be creative, my body also yearns for physical labor that shows more concrete results than knocking out 500 words on a manuscript still many months from completion. “You are a project guy,” someone once told me, and I plead guilty. Besides, this rambling house always has something that needs fixing or fixing up.
Thus, a few days after work ended I tackled refurbishing the deck....
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