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,...
by Phil Houseal | Jun 5, 2024 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
June 5, 2024–“Yuck. He is majoring in business and going into sales.” Growing up in the hip1960s, there was no harsher judgement of a peer than was uttered in that statement. I remember hearing it from someone I admired, and it changed my future. No going into sales...
by Phil Houseal | May 16, 2024 | All Articles, Education, History
May 15, 2024–As a Cicerone of Grandpeople, I have renewed my acquaintance with those waxy rainbows from childhood, Crayola-brand Crayons. No American kid will ever forget the excitement of opening a new 16-pack of crayons–the pointed tips, the pristine wrappers, that...
by Phil Houseal | May 1, 2024 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
May 1, 2024–I’m nearsighted and thankful for it. Not being farseeing has completely influenced my life, in sometimes unexpected ways. For those of you that can see a mole on a gnat’s nose on a barn door 100 yards away, here’s what being nearsighted is like: you can’t...
by Phil Houseal | Apr 3, 2024 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
April 3, 2024–Edges and spaces are where the important things hide. I first noticed the significance of edges as a boy growing up on a farm. The Midwest topography is a quilt of corn fields and beans. When you stand in the middle of a sea of soybeans and turn a...
by Phil Houseal | Mar 27, 2024 | All Articles, Education, Food, History, Philosophy
March 27, 2024–For some reason, grits was the topic of a recent online discussion. The food brought up clearly delineated preferences, “delineated” as in above or below the Mason-Dixon line. Southerners love grits; northerners don’t. This started a long discussion of...
