Opinion

Prayers of university presidents and school superintendents for commencement exercises to be executed as planned often are short-circuited. Some leaders are extremists--the kind who decree that neither blaring air horns nor unseemly yells will be tolerated.

Stephen F. Austin State University, newest member of The University of Texas System, has a storied basketball history, but in football--for a few seasons, at least--not so much.

A key House education committee adjourned last week without voting on a school voucher bill that is Gov. Greg Abbott’s top priority this session, the Houston Chronicle reported. Barring some unforeseen maneuver in the last week of the regular legislative session, the bill is effectively dead for now.

Except for the big bucks that I am paid each week for this column which allows me to order a Medium Supreme Pizza and a side salad and have it delivered, I am on a restricted income, but I’m comfortable. The members of my family should not construe that I have enough to share. One time I thought I had the winning lottery numbers, and four second cousins showed up, towing U-Haul trailers. It was rough on them when I had to admit that the ticket I had was for the week before, and I had absolutely no matching numbers.

Dilemma horns seemed to gore when I contemplated this week’s piece. I could have ridden (written?) off in either direction and still wound up with words to spare.

Like many of you, I watched bits and pieces of the coronation of King Charles III last Saturday morning. As the procession of dignitaries, royals, and celebrities filed into the church, I wondered how I would hold up under the same pressure. King Charles and I are the same age. I’m just not sure that my body, let alone my mind, would withstand the pressures of a coronation. I know my feet would be hurting, my gimpy leg would be swelling, and I know I couldn’t sit through an hour’s ride in that carriage and another hour or so during the ceremony without taking a bathroom break.

It’s official. Fort Hood, named for a high-ranking Confederate officer in the Civil War, has been renamed Fort Cavazos, in honor of native Texan Richard E.

The clock is ticking on getting bills out of the House and to the Texas Senate, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick warned last week in a story in the Austin American- Statesman. Patrick presides over the Senate and is worried many bills that have made it out of House committees but have not gone before the full chamber will not be considered before the session ends.

My grandkids might understandably say of me, “Oh, Poppy, you are so yesterday.” And they are so right, clearly on target if they encase me with the “day before yesterday” crowd. Whatever, they often kid me about needless effort expended in simple written communication.