One crisis will make you forget about another. This past week, the arctic tundra visited Texas, and thanks to poor leadership and bad weatherization, most of the state was (and some still are) without power, i.e., heat, and water.

A few things.

Once upon a time there was a land, far, far away, where peace and harmony prevailed. A benevolent God was the center of its existence. All was good in this kingdom until a stranger came into their land.  

Last week’s Arctic apocalypse exposed weaknesses in the state power grid. Granted, it was a once in a generation event, but it also revealed a fundamental flaw in the deregulation of the Texas electricity markets.

I became a Reading Specialist mainly because the ability to look at those little chicken scratching and make sense of them was such a mystery to me. 

The story of Cedar Bayou bricks is well known to most people in Baytown who were born earlier than last week, but what do you know about Goose Creek brickyards? When Valentine T. Dalton was selling his plantation in 1857 he advertised the existence of a two-story brick dwelling. His property…

By J. Warren Singleton

With thankfulness galore, I do hereby announce that, like millions of other earthlings, Wife Margie and I have now received our two coronavirus shots. Many thanks to the Big Editor In The Sky.

Years ago when I used to run vessels on Galveston Bay and along the coast, I gathered up some stories told by old boatmen on nights when we lay wind-bound. Later I put them into rhyme and I may have tried to ornament them with phrases of my own. Some of the “Rhymes” were published in the Gal…

This week’s new beginning in Washington is welcomed for immigration reform.

NOOOOO!

What is love? What is it really? The mythical cupid is as good an explanation as any. This little cherub with a bow and arrow, shoots it into someone’s heart and jump starts love in that person for another. Since love cannot be defined, I guess that will work as well as any other explanation. 

Gov. Abbott and other Texas elected officials are throwing a tantrum over President Biden’s executive orders, which are designed to push the nation toward alternative energy.

When Defee’s new townsite was platted on the east side of the Goose Creek to Cedar Bayou county road (today’s N. Main Street) in September 1916, the center of town was Main Street, two blocks north of where Texas Avenue would be built. Despite the name, it never became the main street of Goo…

Scooter felt good about his pig’s chances. He considered his 260-pound pig an “absolute athlete” and had entered him in the Fat Stock Show. Scooter had crawled out of bed at 5:30 on his way to feed, water, wash, and weigh the 6-month-old prize-winning animal. 

The passing of Anna Beth Herrington Sunday sent the Gathering Of Old Toots (GOOTs) reeling, just like it did many others. And with good reason.

Is “life just a bowl of cherries” or should there be more to it than that? The lyrics of a song of that title from 1931 by Brown and Henderson, say not to take life too seriously; just live and laugh at it all. 

Following up on last week’s legislative preview, Medicaid expansion is generating some whispers in Austin.

Development on Texas Avenue grew from east to west. By the end of the 1920s the Goose Creek business district from Commerce to Gaillard Street was almost filled with brick buildings but there were only a few more brick buildings further down the street.

Eugene Peterson is best known for his popular contemporary paraphrase of the Bible, “The Message,” that took 12 years to complete. It is a literary work which has as its goal, not the translation of the Bible. His rendering retells all or part of the Bible in a manner that accords with his u…

After watching the sensational 1980 movie “Airplane” with Wife Margie recently, I knew I had missed my calling. There’s more out there for me, I thought.

I did it!  I have been vaccinated!  It was quite an experience. My appointment was made through my doctor in Houston, so I had to make the trek in there to get it at one of the free-standing Methodist clinics near the Medical Center. Saturday morning was a great time to go. There was literal…

Time for a preview of the 2021 legislative session. 

I can still remember Texas Avenue from my youth when brick buildings lined both sides of the street from Commerce all the way to the big oak tree. On Saturdays, it was sometimes hard to find a parking place because of all the shoppers. Alas, the days of crowded sidewalks and circling the blo…

I did not appreciate the miracle of walking until Feb. 6, 2020. 

(NON-EDITOR’S NOTE: The following well-done column is about football. Sort of. It’s not about first downs, safeties, or anything like that. I do think you’ll enjoy it, though, because it may bring back some sweet memories.)

I returned to the gym in December. My journey, which began in June of 2019, was stopped short by COVID-19 last March. I still walked and did exercises at home, but it wasn’t the same. 

I refuse to live in fear. I said this to a friend who kept fear-mongering about the situation our world is in right now and what it might become.  And I kept repeating this mantra until he finally stopped. Constant negativity is counterproductive, whether it is about what our new leaders may…

Joseph R. Biden was sworn in Wednesday as the 46th President of the United States. Kamala Harris, too, took the oath as vice president, and makes history as the first woman — and the first Black and Asian American one — to do so.