Looking for something to do with that left-over Christmas money? I have a couple of suggestions and in this and a couple of subsequent columns I’ll outline them. And while some are relatively high end, some (such as those mentioned in this column) are pretty darn inexpensive.
First up, something new and something not new but very worthwhile: The Scout charger and the Roku.
Some folks are naturally accident-prone. I am. My boyhood best friend and mentor Jaybird said that I should write a collection of stories about my accidents. If I do, the first story will be about the time we discovered the honey hole.
In angling parlance, a honey hole is a place nobody else knows about, and we found one where a creek had overflowed its banks, flooding a cow pasture. Big bass were thrashing minnows in the shallows.
No creatures are deadlier at ambushing than these bucket-mouthed behemoths. Lurking in shadows, they attack anything that swims close by, and the pasture’s fence posts provided ideal cover.
I bought me a saddle on which to skedaddle,
But I hadn’t a horse to put under.
I could hear the herd comin’ and see the herd goin’
And their hooves were a beatin’ like thunder.
And, that sound seemed to say “Cowboy, step away,
‘Cause if you stand in this road, you’ll go under.”
So, with nowhere to go and an oncomin’ snow,
I holed up with my dreams and my saddle.
You know, the one that I bought while having the thought
‘Bout gettin’ on up an skedaddle.
Well, spring finally came and we suffered some rain
And everything greened up real fine.
When people ask me this question, I answer it with another, “Do mean God doesn’t speak to you?”
You can officially mark me down as a crazy person or whatever you like, I don’t care. But I initially turned from the world to face God because I heard a voice answer my silent plea, the plea of a lost and lonely sinner about to give up on life, “I’ve got to try something.”
What I heard was a voice as real as any I’ve ever heard say right in my ear, “Why don’t you try God.”
WASHINGTON—Limonene, a compound found in citrus fruits, has two enantiomers: mirror-image molecules that cannot be superimposed, like a left and right hand. There is a persistent myth that one of these mirror molecules is responsible for the smell of oranges, while the other lends its odor to lemons. In this video, Reactions explains that smell chemistry is never that simple:
During a tour through the South in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt told the aged Confederate veterans in Richmond, Virginia, “Here I greet you in the shadow of the statue of your commander, General Robert E. Lee. You and he left us memories which are part of the memories bequeathed to the entire nation by all the Americans who fought in the War Between the States.”
Saturday January 19, 2019, is the 212th birthday of Robert E. Lee.
Robert E. Lee, a man whose military tactics have been studied worldwide, was an American soldier, Educator, Christian gentlemen, husband and father.
Toby Keith Website—
From his debut No. 1 single “Should’ve Been A Cowboy” to the smash “As Good As I Once Was,” many of singer, songwriter and entertainer Toby Keith’s biggest hits have been inspired by casual conversations and accidental one-liners. But only one of Keith’s songs is born of a chat with Clint Eastwood.
Keith’s December 7 single release “Don’t Let The Old Man In” isn’t just another fortuitous exercise in turning life into music, however. The song will also be featured during the end scene and closing credits of Eastwood’s upcoming film “The Mule.” The story of an older man who becomes an unwitting drug courier, the movie is the first Eastwood will star in and direct since 2009’s acclaimed “Gran Torino.”
The connection began in May when Keith attended Eastwood’s golf tournament in Carmel, CA, and the two shared a cart. Toby asked Clint what he was doing next, to which Clint replied, “Funny you should ask, I am leaving tomorrow to shoot a movie for three months called The Mule.” Clint told him the storyline and Toby asked, “How do you do it, man?” Clint said, “I just don’t let the old man in.” With the movie in mind and the line Eastwood told him, Keith wrote the song and sent it to Clint, who loved it and decided to roll credits with it.
Written solely by Keith, “Don’t Let The Old Man In” is a wearily resolute rebuke to Father Time:
When he rides up on his horse
And you feel that cold bitter wind
Look out your window and smile
Don’t let the old man in
Recorded at Nashville’s Ocean Way Studio, the song will be available at all digital retailers on Dec. 7.
A dog left alone in an unfamiliar place, wondering where his owner is going — it’s a scene Pippa Jackson unfortunately knows too well.
Jackson is the founder of and executive director of Animal Rescue Fund of Mississippi (ARF), one the state’s largest no-kill animal shelters. She started the shelter in 2005 to help the countless animals affected by Hurricane Katrina. Today, one specific dog is keeping her up at night.—More….
On his Mississippi Delta farm, my father built a commissary store. Between its front porch and the only paved road running through that remote corner of the county stood a huge sycamore tree. Its limbs were broad enough to hold my pal Lamar and me on summer nights when we threw hard, green sycamore balls at passing cars.
Pope Francis who has often said that we should never judge has unleashed one of his most brutal judgments against regular church-goers. During his General Audience of January 2, he condemned Catholics who go to church every day but who “go on hating” their fellow man. He said it “is better” that they not go.
“How many times have we witnessed the scandal of those who go to church and spend all day there or attend every day, and later go on hating others or speaking ill of people. This is a scandal,” the pontiff said.
The holiday season can be a time of excess, but low- or no-calorie sweeteners could help merry-makers stay trim. Stevia is a zero-calorie sweetener that is sometimes called “natural” because it is extracted from the leaves of a South American plant. Now, a report in ACS Synthetic Biology describes a way to prepare large quantities of stevia using yeast, which would cut out the plant middleman and could lead to a better tasting product.
Because long years of farming permanently set my circadian cycle, I rarely sleep past four o’clock, which provides time to take early-morning walks during which any worthwhile thoughts I have that day are likely to be formulated.
Out walking one late December morning years ago, I began ruminating about how I could turn past failures into future successes. Few things relieve, and delude, the human mind more than those annual promises to oneself: New Year’s Resolutions.
For me, Christmas has always been a clear, cold night.
I grew up in a small Midwestern town during the 50s and 60s. There was never a better place or time to grow up. Of that I was certain. And my perfect childhood was never more perfect than at Christmas. I had a Peter Billingsley, Christmas Story Christmas every year.
I was that chubby little kid with the horn rimmed glasses and nerdy clothes with the three-buckle snow boots who wished for and got the Red Ryder BB gun on his ninth Christmas. My Mom always told me that “being poor” was the best thing she and Dad ever did for my brother and me.
WASHINGTON — Kimchi, the fermented cabbage dish beloved in Korea and around the world, has a signature pungent, sour tang. Those unique flavors come from not only salt and spices but also fermentation by friendly microbes. In this video, Reactions explores the chemistry of why kimchi is so delicious and even tries to make a batch.
Time is subjective.
No physics, relativity, quantum mechanics, or string theory will be found here because, honestly, they aren’t part of this vernacular.
All the chalkboards of the world filled with equations characterizing energy and mass reflect society’s penchant for defining and classifying what it sees and experiences to fit its limited perspective. That’s right, humanity limits the universe even while trying to imagine a bigger box that scientists believe they are “thinking outside.” No matter how you look at it, it’s still a box. A box that contains light and time. Except God, who created light and time, can’t be contained.