by Phil Houseal | Aug 21, 2024 | All Articles, Education, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Aug 21, 2024–Name as many animals as you can, in one minute. Congratulations, you just helped researchers calibrate a digital test for brain health. Recently I set an appointment to help Austin-based BrainCheck conduct such a research study. A polite gentleman...
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 31, 2024 | All Articles, Philosophy
July 31, 2024–When I first became a director and was trying to navigate the power structure, a veteran pulled me aside and said, Phil, administrators are just like dogs; they roam around and mark their turf. Of course, she used a more colorful euphemism for “marking...
by Phil Houseal | Jul 24, 2024 | All Articles, Philosophy
July 24, 2024–Running errands. They are tasks we all dread but can’t avoid, and if we didn’t have them to do, we would miss doing them. “Running errands” is code for everything from dropping off a check so they don’t cut off the power, to the deadbeat dad going out...
by Phil Houseal | Jul 17, 2024 | All Articles, Philosophy
July 17, 2024 “Perfection is achieved not when there’s nothing more to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Why do we always focus on adding, instead of subtracting? In all my years of managing programs and...
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 | Jul 3, 2024 | All Articles, Education, Philosophy
July 3, 2024–Making decisions might go smoother if we shaved them using Occam’s Razor. Occam’s Razor is a philosophical rule, which I’ve always understood as the simplest solution is usually the correct one. More accurately stated, Occam’s Razor is “a principle of...
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,...
