Stranded with Robinson Crusoe
 I recently finished reading Robinson Crusoe. It’s considered a classic. Or, as Mark Twain would say, it’s a book that people praise and don’t read. In this case, it’s been read AND praised, but the praise has been misplaced. ...

[Dim lights.]
  The world of entertainment recently lost two great contributors in the space of a year: Janis Orenstein and Alice Playten. Their untimely departures at a relatively young age should not go unremarked. Chances are you have heard Janis ...

Hands off! He's OUR coach!
 One morning on my way to work a month ago, the obnoxious DJ on our rock station was laughing about the Houston Cougars being invited into the Eastern Conference. I called and left a voice message with a short ...

Green Movement, Bowel Movement, All Around the Town
 Leave it to the Japanese to turn an engineering idea into an assembly line idea. A toilet maker in the Land of the Rising Sun – or should that be the Land of the Rising Moon? - launched the ...

Diary of a Grown Man With His Foot in His Mouf
 What do you do when you say something stupid? REALLY stupid? Do you backtrack and try to make amends, or keep on going as if you said something profound? All of us have at one time or another committed ...

Memories of John Paul II
 In just a few hours, Pope John Paul II will be beatified, joining another larger-than-life figure in my own lifetime to find a place on the calendar for veneration - Mother Teresa. When I first heard Karol Wojtyla's name, ...

Regular Battle
 Put on your tricorn, pick up your muzzle and hang up the Gadsden flag! Today, April 19, marks the start of the American War for Independence at Lexington and Concord. Early in the day, Paul Revere and others were ...

Right Bard For the Right Guard
The days are running out on 2010. This is the time to remember those who shuffled off this mortal coil before year’s end. I’d like to remember one gifted writer who is no stranger to older readers of the Victoria ...

Rogue Coconuts
 Obama went to India for a three-day trip hoping to improve relations and work on international peace and all those other things beauty pageant contestants want when it’s their turn to speak while they’re still dressed in statesmanlike swimsuits ...

MLB: Posing for the Fences
The TV schedule said the baseball all-star game began at 7:00. My son (#2) promised he’d be here, so I dutifully began boiling four all-beef ballpark weenies in time for the first pitch. (I like mine toasted in the oven ...