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,...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 4, 2026 | All Articles, Education, Philosophy
Feb 4, 2026–I love making and keeping a “To Do” list. Little is more satisfying than changing a “to do” to “done.” But I have discovered a more important list–a “Stop Doing” list. This concept was formed while I was working in an administrative capacity. During a...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 28, 2026 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
Jan 28, 2026–Once you’ve reached midlife, you are the least stupid you have ever been or ever will be. That’s why every person who has passed that milestone should write down wisdom from their life that worked for them, and that might work for future generations. I am...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 21, 2026 | All Articles, Education, History
Some wily entrepreneur in the Old West understood marketing. This coffee bean supplier wanted to make his beans stand out among the grizzled cowboys and settlers who swarmed up the cattle trails and carved out the west. He made and sold Arbuckles’ coffee, one of the...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 14, 2026 | Philosophy
Here’s a fun new trend you can worry about: Title Inflation. It first took root in large organizations. There, it’s an accepted practice that instead of rewarding job performance with money–as in giving an employee a raise–businesses hand out lofty yet meaningless...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 7, 2026 | All Articles, Philosophy
Jan 7, 2025–Another year, another list of random observations: Why do we personify years? January 1st is literally just the next day. Yet we speak about a calendar year as if it were a character in a 1940s radio play. At Walmart on Black Friday I saw many people...
by Phil Houseal | Dec 31, 2025 | All Articles, Education, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy, Venue
Dec 31, 2025–What if your life were a sitcom? SCENE: Breakfast table, cluttered with opened cereal boxes, butter dish, crumbs and coffee. He: Good morning, dear. What are your plans for today? She: Plans? You think I PLAN my existence. I believe in foreordained fate...
