I had pressing business in Houston this week. That gave me an opportunity to relive, for a day at least, what used to be called generically the rat race. No offense to Houston, of course. It was a good place to call home for sixteen years. Driving past former residences, restaurants, places of employment and event venues was like saying
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I look at all the ivory colored flowers in my berry patch and smell a home-made dewberry pie. An offer to make it comes from one of the best pie persons in Fayetteville. All she needs is enough of this blackberry-like fruit: a quart will do. Of course I can’t divulge who it is. I don’t want to show favoritism within
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Ernie and I got a late start on our evening walk to the way back. On our return under a dusky sky his nose stopped and backed off something in a tuft of weeds: a snake. Without hesitation I picked up my pal and put him inside the shack. There was no need risking his getting a mortal bite. Immediately
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The Right to Privacy. I know, I know, it’s gone. Well, some of us won’t give up keeping it alive despite the onslaught. And there is one like-minded man who has done something major to support it. His name is Gabriel Weinberg. His creation is a real live, legitimate SEARCH ENGINE called DuckDuckGo with no tracking. Please don’t let your
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Ernie has now been with me since the end of last December. At about fifteen months old he gets to roam safely, free of big-city traffic and tumult. With his amazing nose he has replaced chasing tailpipes with pasture-resident rabbits, cows, goats and field mice. And I know he is happy because he tells me so. On numerous occasions sitting outside
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It is 2:22 a.m. Ernie starts barking. Not just one or two obligatory warnings, but a dedicated alarum. I flick on the outback lights. The beams highlight a solitary killdeer, a bird common to Texas and North America. What is the grounded aviator doing out there in the cold and fog at this early hour of a winter morning? Startled
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Ed Note: A gentleman reader submitted an article for inclusion in desktodirt in response to “Let them eat cake.” It is published below. Should other reader’s want to submit Op Ed pieces please forward them for consideration, subject to edit. Think of that to include what used to be called maintaining family values. Thanks. When asking, “what’s gone wrong in
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Who would ever want to secede from the great Empire State of New York? This is the first in an anytime series of brief, thought provoking articles, video clips or other material scrupulously sourced from the www. The reason for presenting each one will be the sentiment expressed in the image above: thank your lucky stars you are in Texas.
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The image shown above is nothing more than a LED flashlight held vertically at night. Ernie and I got the inspiration to illuminate during our evening jaunt. What you can’t see is the stream of particles flying through the beam. It recalls excited ping pong balls in the Lotto cage. But in this case they are too small to number
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Ernie has been uncomfortable meeting four legged creatures many times his size. And when you spend your pooch adolescence pretty much citified and indoors, becoming a member of a farm animal social network doesn’t happen overnight. [There is a website for transitioning, isn’t there?] But now, Ernie is a Texas country guy so he is adjusting. He just needed a
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