by Phil Houseal | Apr 15, 2026 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
April 15, 2026–Have you ever wanted to call yourself an “award winning” whatever-it-is-you-do? Maybe it’s an award-winning plumber. Or an award-winning wedding cake baker. Or an award-winning human resources manager. Or dog walker. Or seat filler. I always wanted to...
by Phil Houseal | Apr 8, 2026 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
April 8, 2026–Have you heard that people are now setting up religions worshipping Artificial Intelligence? This should not be unexpected. After all, the various manifestations of AI present themselves as all-knowing, all-seeing entities that provide every answer to...
by Phil Houseal | Apr 1, 2026 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
April 1–I showed a young person my column last week, and when she got to the bottom of the page, she asked, “Where is the rest of it?” I realized she didn’t understand how to read the “jump line” at the bottom of the column. It’s easy to laugh. But then I realized...
by Phil Houseal | Mar 25, 2026 | All Articles, Education, Food, History, Philosophy
March 25, 2026–How many of you coffee bean explorers have sailed the seas with Starbuck, scaled the Andes with Juan Valdez, and saved a marriage with Mrs. Olsen, only to return to a cup of instant? I was never a dedicated coffee drinker. I grew up in the days of...
by Phil Houseal | Mar 18, 2026 | All Articles, Education, Food, History, Philosophy
March 18, 2026–A most pivotal change in culture happened in our lifetimes. Yet I would bet most of you haven’t recognized it. This simple conversion changed at a base level how we view and interact in the world. No part of society is untouched by it. Yet in a way we...
by Phil Houseal | Mar 11, 2026 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
March 11, 2026–Today I’m asking readers a question my 10-year-old granddaughter asked me that I cannot answer: Which 10-year period in your life was your least favorite? And which 10-year period would you exchange it for? First of all, I have no idea where this...
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,...
