by Phil Houseal | Apr 15, 2015 | All Articles, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
April 15, 2015–Readers sometimes ask what is the best show I have ever seen. Well, it happened in a dusty cattle barn on a cold January morning. My kids and I had taken in our three goats to be sheared in preparation for the stock show. We arrived at 7:30 a.m. so we...
by Phil Houseal | Sep 24, 2014 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
Sept 24, 2014–I remember the year my dad took a painting class. It changed the way I looked at grownups. This happened around my fourth-grade year. My dad would have been in his early 40s then… a very old person in my worldview. At dinner one evening, he...
by Phil Houseal | Aug 13, 2014 | All Articles, Events, History
Aug 13, 2014–When I played in a band at a bar in Riverside, Iowa, Earth, in the mid-20th century, I wish I’d known I was standing in the very room where Captain James T. Kirk would be conceived 250 years in the future. I would have drunk a toast of Talaxian champagne....
by Phil Houseal | Apr 2, 2014 | All Articles, Education, Events, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy, Venue
“Money may buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.” International celebrity and Hill Country resident Richard “Kinky” Friedman is seeking both money and love at his Concert for Utopia on April 13. The world knows Kinky Friedman as front man for...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 5, 2014 | All Articles, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
by Phil Houseal
Jan 15, 2014 NOTE: Thanks to an invitation from Clifton Fifer, retired history teacher, and popular re-enactor, and Paula Reynolds, who is working on a book about Esther, I was able to spend an afternoon interviewing Esther Lehmann, 90-year-old niece...
by Phil Houseal | Nov 20, 2013 | All Articles, Education, History, Venue
Nov 20, 2013–Little Free Library is one of those ideas you wish you had thought of. The concept is simple: You set out a cute box full of books, and invite anyone to stop by and “take a book, return a book.” The execution, however, has turned into a national...
