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As our Texas legislators wrestle with how to censure school libraries, make voting even more difficult and send public funds to private schools, and as every pig is trying to get its snout in the trough, the people of Texas might be sighing, “Sully, come back!” You see, once before Texas su…
AISLE FIVE – The price of a dozen eggs is about what I paid for my first car. Don’t buy bananas or bread. You can’t afford them. Check out the Alpo display. But can you afford a face mask? Apparently not because I am the only one in the store wearing such gear. Back in the terror stricken da…
Our new chairman, Woke, strode to the podium and, quick as a wink, began the session. “Welcome to another meeting of Club Cliché, when we honor those threadbare terms that are overused by the vocabulary challenged. I see some old members here like Show Me the Money, Infrastructure, Whatever …
THE STORE – I am in a long line at this grocery store with my six-pack, waiting behind a crowd that includes a man buying enough food for the 82nd Airborne Division behind a woman who, when given her total, starts rummaging through her purse for her checkbook. Malthus was right. There are to…
THE BACK YARD – Dig, dig, dig. Maybe 6 feet down would do it. Or 10, just to be safe. Maybe I should move into the tenth floor of a building. Why? Because the Russians are coming, or at least their nukes, and I need a bomb shelter. Yes, once again we must get ready for an atomic war. You see…
For those that follow news across the Houston region in recent weeks, you might have noticed a depressing trend.
Local, local, local – that’s the refrain I’ve heard again and again during my time as a journalist.
THE GAS PUMP – The price of a gallon of gas has gone down from greedy to ridiculous, which gives me mixed emotions, and you may feel the same way. On one hand, the oil barons are fleecing us and posting record profits. Yet my alma mater, The University of Texas at Austin (aka The University,…
THE FRONTDOOR – How long has it been? Ten minutes? Fifteen? The repairman said he would be here at 3 o’clock. His truck pulled up promptly at 4:30. And he is still in his truck. What’s he doing there, talking to his girlfriend or playing Texas Hold ‘Em? Maybe taking a nap. Has this happened …
This time of the year always brings back memories of the time I was a kid going back to school.
THE STREET CORNER – “Bonjour. Hola. Hallo. Ciao.” I am brushing up on my foreign languages because it seems that this month, August 2022, Texas is one of Europeans' favorite American summer holiday destinations. The foreign visitors particularly like to visit Houston with its NASA Space Cent…
THE TV – “What the American people feel….” “The nation today wants…” One more: “There is a growing anger across the land about…” These are talking heads on our TV networks telling us about ourselves, as if they knew. They are all inside-the-beltway pundits who lunch together, read one anothe…
THIS NEWSPAPER – The fact that you are now reading a newspaper puts you in an exclusive and shrinking category. We all know that the number of newspapers has been dwindling, along with the number of journalists, fish wrappers, birdcage bottoms and educated voters. (Just look who we put in of…
MY DESK – Going through my many old credit cards, I find this card: “Selective Service System – Texas Local Board 30.” It is my draft card which is in bad shape because I always had to carry it with me. Remember the military draft? It was abolished in 1973, so if you are a male born after 19…
As a kid, I was always told to be proud of who I am, and celebrate it every chance I get. And while it sounds like an old cliché, it’s part of who I am. I truly believe that each and every person has a unique innate quality that makes them great.
MY EMAIL – “Winter Storm Uri Resident Survey. We Want to Hear from YOU! Take this Resident Survey on how Winter Storm Uri impacted you or your neighborhood.” This message is from the City of Houston - Housing and Community Development Department. Actually, I had never heard of such a city de…
We’ve all seen – and in our case written about – the plights facing teachers at every level in recent times. Just last week, one of our front page stories focused on the ongoing shortage with the school year beginning in about a month and many starting to return in preparation for the year.
THE TV – “It’s hot out there, folks,” says the meteorologist. I glance at the screen and see a map of Texas with 101, 103 and 110 scattered around the state. Lordy, despite what Ted Cruz and Donald Trump claim, there really may be something to global warming. Wait. I see in the top left-hand…
This is sort of a weird column to write. It feels strange to introduce myself to a community that has probably seen my bylines and photos in this paper hundreds of times over the last six years when they pick it up each week.
More than 10 years ago, my parents visited Houston to check up on their middle son and his soon-to-be wife. A wedding was around the corner and my parents were doing what all great, groom parents do before a wedding – asking rhetorical questions and basking in the idea of a new daughter-in-law.
There have been times during the last three-and-a-half years when I’ve described this news outlet as the little ol’ Leader. It operates with a small staff and serves only a small part of Houston, the sliver just northwest of downtown.
Both Finland and Sweden have suddenly shed their neutrality and now want to join NATO. Something about their neighbor to the east wanting to expand, but Turkey objects.
THE GUN STORE --- “Hi,” I say. “Do you sell guns?” The clerk gives me a strange look. “No, we’re a French pastry shop. Watcha need? We got pistols and rifles and sniper guns. We got ammo, body armor and we used to carry heavier stuff for your home’s protection -- mortars, anti-tank missiles …
Congress is allocating $40 billion for a Ukraine aid package. That comes on the heels of several previous aid packages sent to the Ukrainians. Not every lawmaker supports the idea. “(P)umping more aid into that country when we’re not taking care of our own country — the best thing that Biden…
How many of you kept your kids out of school on May 25 – the day after a disturbed teenager with an assault rifle walked into Robb Elementary in Uvalde and massacred 19 children and two adults in a fourth-grade classroom? How many of you let your kids go but had reservations, maybe even fear…
THE AUDITORIUM – Good morning, Class of 2022. This is your commencement! (hold for applause) It’s the time you write funny slogans on your cap, get your photo taken with your parents and have to sit here while some dull speaker tells you to go onward and upward.
Consumers shopping for a new electricity plan this summer are in for a shock as electricity rates are at historically high levels.
MY DISASTER LIST – Batteries? Check. All sorts of batteries? A, AA and AAA. (No two TV remotes, flashlights or smoke detectors take the same size.) Charge my iPhone, iPad and iHearingAid battery chargers. Water? Bottles of it left over from Winter Storm Uri back in February 2021. Can I just …
Notice what happened? Or more accurately, notice what didn’t happen? These past March 2 and April 21 were pretty ordinary, not like earlier times. Has Texas lost its mojo? Pilgrim, if you just stepped off a United flight from Chicago, let me give you a very quick lesson on why these two date…
Editor’s note: This guest editorial was submitted by Heights residents Patrick O’Mahen, Molly Horstman, Virginia Snodgrass Rangel, Luis Rangel, Lauren Waters, Brian Jackson, Greg Wisian and Katie Wisian
Associated Press — President Biden authorized another $7 billion in aid to Ukraine, plus deploying the 1st Marine Division to defend Kyiv, and the 82nd Airborne Division may parachute into St. Petersburg, but Biden said he will not use nuclear weapons against Moscow.
THE COCKTAIL PARTY – “How’s it going?” I say to a friend who, among others, is sipping drinks in my den. When he just nods, I try again. “What’s new on the job?” He sighs. “Let’s not talk about banking. It’s so boring.”
The Leader published a Feb. 23 editorial by Adam Zuvanich in support of the 11th Street redesign. In it, Mr. Zuvanich pointedly said, “It’s time now to take a step back, trust the city’s traffic engineers—who do this stuff for a living—and give the 11th Street Bikeway a chance to work as des…
THE BOAT SHOW – Do I want a SuperSpiffy MegaBoat or an Ocean Mangler? That depends on how many helipads I need. Maybe a ballroom or a sauna. I am here picking out some baubles to go with my solid gold glider and a 6-acre spread in River Oaks. Those are a few signs of my new role as an oligar…
THE MAIL BOX – Here is the usual junk mail, some Realtor wants to buy my house, a bunch of charities seeking donations -- I swear if you give to one they put the word out to all the others – and this, from the Office of Isabel Longoria Elections Administrator to my wife. Longoria is probably…
“New York is well-known for top influencers, bloggers, and celebrities who call the city their home.”
There’s a lot going on in Oak Forest, maybe now more so than ever, or at least in recent memory.
THE TROUGH – Just stick your snout in here and get big bux from Uncle Sam. Congress has approved $4.3 billion to help Texas and local governments finance infrastructure to stave off future disasters with dams, canals, drains and a little Dutch boy with a strong finger. We need the projects…
THE VOID – Here they are, all the old and now-useless parts of our lives. Ice trays and inner tubes, just behind the League of Nations. Sitting beside them is a straight razor. My grandfather used a straight razor, with brush and soap and shaving stand with mirror, all his adult life. And a …
THE FRONT PORCH – My next-door neighbor is standing here, holding her iPhone and trying to tell me something. Apparently the instrument doesn’t work, but I can’t understand her. She says, I think, that she is trying to call her daughter, who is a doctor and works in a local hospital along wi…
Arguments between Democrats and Republicans used to focus mostly on issues such as the economy, tax rates, healthcare administration, how to deploy our armed forces, abortion and whether government should be more involved or less involved in citizens’ lives. And voters listened to what polit…
THE PATIO – It is 75 degrees, although tomorrow it’s supposed to drop into the 60s. That’s bad news for Beto O’Rourke. He won the race for the Democratic nomination for governor of Texas, and his main selling point to the voters is how badly our present governor who’s running for re-election…
Headline: “Mayor of Vancouver, Canada, says Texans should make hockey their national pastime.” “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sends government funds to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s campaign.” That would certainly rile up the masses. Yet Texas’ elected leaders are fanning the …
The 11th Street Bikeway project has had its detractors since the City of Houston first told the Heights neighborhood about it nearly three years ago.
THE DINING ROOM TABLE – Do I include the ransom payment with the bank haul, and can I deduct my G43 GLOCK Single stack, 9 mm Luger caliber pistol as “working equipment?” Like millions of other Americans I am struggling with my 2021 federal income taxes. Actually, my wife, the daughter of a C…
What does your pandemic wardrobe look like? Lynn Ashby's is full of fancy clothes he said he may never wear again.
In some small way, isn’t the culture of cancellation a direct result of forgetting imperfect people are involved?
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