by Phil Houseal | Aug 28, 2024 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Aug 28, 2024–Someone proposed we start a religious sect called the New Amish, emulating those sons of Menno whose followers in America effectively froze all progress at the random date of 1878. Why not do the same 100 years on? I grew up among Amish and Mennonite...
by Phil Houseal | Aug 14, 2024 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Aug 14, 2023–I used to wonder why TV’s Jeopardy had a Potpourri column. I now realize it was simply a place for the writing staff to dump all the question/answers that didn’t fit under one heading. Ergo… ### I’m convinced our gardens are more productive when we...
by Phil Houseal | Aug 7, 2024 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
Aug 7, 2024–The first time more than two cavemen got together to go hunting, one of them stepped up and said, “Here are the rules.” Only it sounded like, “Ug, oomba dooga. sheboygan.” Every meeting ever held since that time, has started with someone reciting the rules...
by Phil Houseal | Jul 10, 2024 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
July 10, 2024–This week I was amazed to learn not everyone grew up with a treehouse in their back yard. A cartoonist online recently wondered why, when every cartoon has pictures of elaborate backyard treehouses, he knew no one in real life who had one. I replied, not...
by Phil Houseal | Jun 26, 2024 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
June 26, 2024–Harpo Marx, the wigged, honking jester of the zany Marx Brothers, was serious about two things in life: playing his harp, and being a parent. He was so serious about parenting, that he wrote out 10 rules, which, as you can see, were not “serious”...
by Phil Houseal | Jun 19, 2024 | All Articles, History, Music, People of the Hill Country, Venue
June 12, 2024–While listening to a recent NPR podcast of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, the answer choices for “What was one of the lesser musical acts that performed in the middle of the night on the Jerry Lewis Telethon” were: A) the Hell’s Angels singers B) Ray Sanders,...
