by Phil Houseal | Sep 17, 2025 | All Articles, Education, Food, History, Philosophy
Sept 17, 2025–When you make any transaction, what are you really paying for? Someone complained about paying $20 for a fast-food sandwich (future archivists–$20 is a LOT to pay for a basic sandwich in 2025–although that is changing daily). Another someone pointed...
by Phil Houseal | Aug 27, 2025 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy, PR Tips
August 27, 2025–I must take a pause here to acknowledge hitting a milestone: This month marks the 20th anniversary of writing these Full House columns. For those counting, that is 1040 original columns with never a missed week. Even during a 10-day stay in ICU,...
by Phil Houseal | Aug 13, 2025 | All Articles, Education, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Aug 13, 2025 “My nose itches. I smell peaches. Someone’s coming with a hole in his britches.” That is an example of an ominous adage delivered in a pleasing rhyme. I don’t know what it means, but it’s fun to say because it could portend doom while sounding like...
by Phil Houseal | Jul 11, 2025 | All Articles, Education, Food, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
July 9, 2025–What if Texas was a country (some say it is) and each of the other 49 states represented a foreign culture (some say they do)? How would you describe new arrivals in the frame of all the other “hyphen-Americans?” Here’s how that might sound from my...
by Phil Houseal | Jun 18, 2025 | All Articles, Education, Music, Philosophy
June 18, 2025 Ovid: If the art is concealed, it succeeds. I’ve been contemplating where this statement manifests in our world. For me, it is music. My go-to example of “less is more” is drums. Whenever I listen to a group I’ve not heard before, I notice if I notice...
by Phil Houseal | Jun 11, 2025 | All Articles, Education, Food, History, Philosophy
June 11, 2025–Maybe the solution to all our so-called modern problems is this: Live like your great grandparents lived. Not literally, but metaphorically. Recently our power went off and it got me to thinking again about how our ancestors coped. Let’s just go back 150...
