by Phil Houseal | Mar 4, 2026 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Mar 4, 2026–Processes created to increase our security actually make us less secure. One tangible example is door locking. As home and office security became more critical, the sophistication of locking mechanisms also grew. This made protected areas almost impossible...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 25, 2026 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Feb 25, 2026 “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 18, 2026 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
Feb 18, 2026–If I had to learn to read today, I would be illiterate. Like most of you, I learned to read and write a lifetime ago. I’ve been a teacher, author, columnist, songwriter, and I even wrote letters in cursive when stamps only had presidents on them....
by Phil Houseal | Feb 11, 2026 | All Articles, History
Feb 11, 2026–Do you have a recording of your parents’ voices? I recently followed a story of a radio DJ trying to track down any recording of his late father’s voice. It turned into a quest worthy of the Holy Grail. His last sample was on a phone answering machine,...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 28, 2026 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
Jan 28, 2026–Once you’ve reached midlife, you are the least stupid you have ever been or ever will be. That’s why every person who has passed that milestone should write down wisdom from their life that worked for them, and that might work for future generations. I am...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 21, 2026 | All Articles, Education, History
Some wily entrepreneur in the Old West understood marketing. This coffee bean supplier wanted to make his beans stand out among the grizzled cowboys and settlers who swarmed up the cattle trails and carved out the west. He made and sold Arbuckles’ coffee, one of the...