An unhappy customer called me the other day. He had every reason to be displeased, because we had given him poor service. His approach was to use foul language, which I endured. I figured he would eventually settle down and then maybe we could reason together.
I don’t like getting cussed out any more than the next person, but sometimes that just goes with the territory. In my younger years, I might have bowed up and told the fellow to quit using words we don’t print in a family newspaper. But with age occasionally comes wisdom, so I generally let angry customers blow off steam. Eventually,...
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I walk three-and-a-half miles every morning unless it is pouring down rain, accompanied by Sam, our dimwitted but lovable poodle mix. The alarm goes off at 5:30. I jump up and get out the door in 15 minutes, a half-cup of coffee and a large swig of Diet Coke in my gullet to jumpstart my brain. I know that sounds gross, but it works for me.
My habit is to listen to National Public Radio on my iPhone while I walk to get a headstart on the news. I am a loyal listener to Red River Radio, based in Shreveport but with repeater stations throughout the area, since I do weekly commentaries for them every...
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David Weston walked up as I wandered unaccompanied through the Franklin County Courthouse in Mt. Vernon last week, taking photographs of the final stages of the restoration of the 1912 building. Once I explained why I was taking photos, for a story in the paper, he enthusiastically conducted a top-to-bottom tour of this grand old building. Weston, 57, is the superintendent on the project, a man clearly in love with his work.
“People ask when I’m going to retire. When I die, that’s when,” he said. Weston is from Long Island, N.Y. and sports two gold earrings in each lobe and a scraggly...
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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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