Archive for December, 2009

Well, they did it to me again. It’s not their fault. If I didn’t walk around with my mind on a trout stream somewhere, it would have occurred to me that since we had two editorial pages in a row for Christmas week, we’d have two for New Year’s week. The fish, however, were biting... »

Well, here we sit on the brink of yet another new year, and the end of a decade. 2010. How do you say that? Is it “oh-ten” or “ought-ten?” “Twenty-ten?” Guess it doesn’t really matter, everybody’s going to know what you mean. I do wonder if they had this same discussion in 1909… Wow, 1909. A... »

Well, I thought yesterday’s column would be my last before Christmas, but here I am again. I wasn’t thinking clearly, though that’s not a rare occasion. Moreso lately, with lots of my mental resources askew, and I didn’t have that many to spare to begin with. Resources, you understand, deteriorate with the accumulation of years. Notice... »

You don’t really realize how addicted you have become to the electronic age until you detach from it. We are so accustomed to sending e-mails, text messages and such and receiving instant replies, we are spoiled. All our news is but a mouse click away, as well as our communities of friends and like-minded persons. But... »

Add to the long list of maladies in our electronic age the magnitude of bad information. It’s appalling, really. It makes no difference which side of politics you’re on, the amount of bad information disseminated by national media and the Internet is mind-boggling. Like most of the rest of you, I probably get dozens of political... »

I checked in the woodshed. I do not have enough lumber to build an ark. Besides, what I have left – which isn’t much – I am saving for a skiff I want to build before spring. A skiff will float as well as any ark. But an ark would be better. I could take two... »

Of late, I’ve developed a craving for fruits. I don’t know why. Part of it may be this cyclically expanding-shrinking midsection of mine, and the fact that I have too great a love for rice and gravy. I also inherited my father’s sweet tooth, for which he was famous. Many men in south Louisiana can’t... »

December, and my thought as always turns to my father. It was this week, a decade ago, that he left this world to join his ancestors and sing songs silenced long before he was born. In some hereafter which I cannot imagine, there are drums thrumming notes and rhythms older than the oldest European hymns. Sometimes,... »

There’s a dream that’s been expanding exponentially in my head these days. A dream of my own little piece of heaven. Twenty-nine years ago I worked to buy beer and impress the girls with a nice car and stereo system; twenty years ago I was just trying my damnedest to scrape by and make ends... »