Opinion

Chauvinism Back in the Day…

Strange, isn’t it, how issues lodged far back in the recesses of our memory seemed critically important at the time, but considered in the here and now, fail to warrant yawns?

On the front end of my career, students streaking on college campuses caused uproars as well as countless furrowed brows on college administrators. `We now look back on it as a short-lived fad.  School leaders these days instead face life and death issues of various hues, and sometimes wonder if they give right answers when asked directions to restrooms.

Volatility in the oil and gas industry has created many problems within the industry for the last three decades. Prices have risen and fallen at least five times since 1986.

Back in 1984 when the first bust was beginning, the Railroad Commission (RRC) came to industry with a new problem that involved a lot of oil and gas producers going out of business and leaving the state with orphaned wells that needed to be plugged. Orphaned wells do not have an owner and they have not been plugged.

We hosted the Pepper Eatin’ Showdown Saturday at TNT Fest and for our first time to try it, I could not have hoped for the event to go any better.

I have a lot of folks to thank for that.

First off, I’d like to thank our sponsors — Legacy Texas, CCA, Beyond Faith and Jack County Auto Sales. Thank all of you for taking a chance on this wacky event.

I’d like to thank Doug Angell, our pepper sponsor, who helped convince me that pickled was the way to go and provided some great peppers. We’ve got about a gallon left if anyone wants to stop by and try some. 

Texas belonged to Spain during the administration of the first president of the United States, so what is now the Lone Star State has no quaint inns or taverns with markers noting that “George Washington slept here.”

On the other hand, the first president of the Republic of Texas laid his head down in numerous places across the portion of Texas that was populated during his lifetime. One of the communities that can claim that “Sam Houston slept here” is Seguin, where the hero of San Jacinto passed a night in 1857. He stayed in one of that town’s oldest structures. 

Summer has definitely arrived. The temperatures have been so high this week the poor cats have laid in the shade with their mouths open and their eyes closed.

They have also made many trips to the water bowl. It is even hot in the shade. The humidity from all the rain makes it seem even hotter than the thermometer reads.

Post Oak Crime Stoppers met on Tuesday evening to enjoy a good supper and hear Sheriff Melvin Mayo’s report on crime in Jack County. A discussion was held concerning the work needing to be done on the community center. 

There is a simple answer to all complex problems – it is a wrong answer, but it is simple. – Mark Twain 

Definitions for a stateman:

A dead politician – Ambrose Bierce

One who deceives will always find those who are willing to be deceived. – Machiavelli

An empty bag may stand upright even in a gale but it is empty nonetheless. – Ben Franklin

Liars, damn liars and statisticians. The last is by far the worse. – Mark Twain

Do not forget:

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. – Edmund Burke

I have had a lot of people wondering why I haven’t been writing my Puppy Tales for the last few weeks. I was happy to hear how many people enjoy this column. The truth is, I have been really sick again. I think the doctors got it this time. This has been the hardest year and a half of my life. 

So let me get back to the Puppy Tales that people have been missing. And again thank you all for letting me know that.

Horned toads were a part of just about every Texas boy’s life until the spiky little reptiles began to disappear from the eastern and central parts of the state. 

Now a threatened species, the horned toad -- technically a lizard -- is generally found only in far West Texas, and some parts of South Texas, including a semi-isolated colony in Karnes County. (Assuming they didn’t get mashed by all the heavy trucks traversing the landscape at the height of the late, great fracking boom.)