by Phil Houseal | Mar 15, 2023 | All Articles, Education
March 15, 2023–When I first came to Texas, I almost got sent back over the Red River. It was at a club in San Antonio when I asked a native Texan where I might attend the ballet. What followed was awkward silence and a stare that made me feel like I was in a saloon in...
by Phil Houseal | Mar 9, 2023 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Mar 8, 2023–I hate old memories; I prefer making new ones while I’m able. What’s wrong with memories? Three things: 1) They are never true. 2) They are embarrassing 3) They don’t help create the future. 1) Memories are never true I was raised in a litter of nine....
by Phil Houseal | Mar 1, 2023 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Mar 1, 2023–Attending an event recently, I discovered I’d forgotten my phone. So I actually kept my head tilted up and gazed over the crowd seated around me. You know what I noticed? The hair. I was bobbing amidst a sea of white-topped heads. They looked like inverted...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 22, 2023 | All Articles, Food, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Feb 22, 2023–A native Texan who worked one summer for a farmer in Iowa was describing the experience: “I’d help during the soybean harvest. At noon, his wife would drive out into the field in the family station wagon, open the tailgate, and there would be a full...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 15, 2023 | All Articles, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Feb 15, 2023–After ranting about how no one listens to any advice that might actually change your life, I heard from readers giving their advice, anyway. Most were silly, involving warnings about squatting on cactus, eating yellow snow, and changing your underwear....
by Phil Houseal | Feb 7, 2023 | All Articles, Philosophy
Feb 8, 2023–Some of you people reading this today are liars. Or crooks. How do I know this? Just read the rest of this newspaper. You’ll see local accounts of people defrauding innocent customers, shoplifting, burgling, and scuffling. How can anyone do these things in...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 1, 2023 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Feb 1, 2023–Even during the dark ages of darkrooms, the world could not trust photographic evidence. Despotic regimes routinely manipulated pictures of leaders, artfully inserting or deleting faces according to their political status. With the advent of imaging...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 25, 2023 | All Articles, Events, History, Music, People of the Hill Country, Venue
Jan 25, 2023–One of the oldest music clubs in Texas will host one of the younger artists in the Hill Country, when Emily Jumes Oskins performs a harp concert for the Fredericksburg Music Club on February 19. Let’s start with the Fredericksburg Music Club (FMC). It was...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 18, 2023 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
Jan 18, 2023–Do you balance your checkbook every month? Years ago Buck Henry said he got to the point when he received his monthly bank statement, he just wrote down the amount it said he had, and never bothered to reconcile again. To his amazement and gratification,...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 11, 2023 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Jan 11, 2023–Gelett Burgess was a humorist you don’t know you know. But you do know his most famous work: I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one But I can tell you anyhow, I’d rather see than be one But that was not his most fascinating work. In...
