It tickles my funny bone when gourmet chefs “discover” a primitive method of cooking and proclaim it marvelous. So I laughed out loud when the New York Times published a feature article recently on baking beans in a pit dug in your backyard.

Texans and volunteer firefighters are at greater risk than ever before. Volunteer fire departments need 100% of their dedicated funds to prepare for tornadoes and other disasters, fires, emergency medical calls, roadway and other accidents.

Nathan Daves is a furniture maker. He handcrafts pieces like tables and cabinets, and other pieces that we probably take for granted but each serve as an essential piece of our daily lives. However, he is no ordinary furniture maker. He builds each piece from lumber he harvests from old homes and barns that time and people have forgotten. Nathan hasn’t forgotten, though. He sees each old board as something that can be saved and rebuilt into pieces that are transformative in people’s lives. photo by Russell A. Graves

"It is abundantly clear that the military cannot adequately handle its sexual violence crisis from within. It is a crying shame that senior enlisted leaders and senior officers who have been tasked to prevent and respond to sexual assault and sexual harassment are themselves predators." - Anu Bhagwati, Executive Director of Service Women's Action Network and former Marine Captain

I remember during my major in physics we ran a few classic experiments, like the “sunset effect.” We shone light through an aquarium with some material in the water to help with light refraction. The result of the experiment was light refracted like a rainbow with the “reds” on one side, like the reddish hue as the sun sets.

By the time my three kids were grown, they had lost approximately 500 baby teeth. Often the tooth fairy got distracted by things like folding laundry and soccer practice and didn’t remind Mr. Tooth Fairy that he needed to make sure he had money. So the poor child who just lost a tooth got a stick of Juicy Fruit chewing gum, along with a letter of explanation, which cited one of the following reasons for no money: __string attached, __ gunpowder residue, __hammer marks, __chisel marks or __part of skull still attached to tooth.

Readers of this column who are my age or older can recall any number of marketing strategies used to sell laundry soap. There was the inclusion of a free dishcloth or towel in the box of soap. All the “soap operas” and comedy shows sponsored by Procter and Gamble on TV and radio. Cents-off coupons galore, including the latest version printed for you in the grocery store aisle by a little machine on the shelf.

I’ll bet most of you have felt the judgment of another, and can still recall it. How did that feel, and how long did it take you to recover from it?

Learn from me, My Pretties. Hear it from me first. I have just sold out. I have a pair of running shoes on my feet that cost more than the monthly payment on our first house---and I don’t even run. Nor do I intend to run.

Have you ever suffered the loss of a family pet that you wished it were possible to replace with another one just like it? The technical term for that is cloning, and it is closer to reality than I thought possible.

My first Texan ancestor, Dr. Gideon Lincecum, was born on April 22, two hundred and twenty years ago. To celebrate his birthday a bit early, one week ago my wife and I visited Columbus, Mississippi, the town where Gid made the fortune that enabled him to move his entire extended family to this state.

Where did I fail? No one could accuse me of not trying to domesticate my kids to feed and to care for themselves. But face it---they led sheltered lives under my roof. They never saw a naked chicken, never assisted at the birth of a casserole, or walked in unexpectedly and viewed the resuscitation of bread dough.