An older woman, her age nearing the century mark, deeply desired to attend the recent Howard Payne University homecoming. She received her baccalaureate degree there some 75 years ago, and this was her first trip back to Brownwood since her graduation.
“I wanted to see Old Main one last time,” she said, remembering that most of her classes were held in the old three-story sandstone structure which was HPU’s only building when classes began in 1890.
Other alumni would have enjoyed seeing it, too, that regal centerpiece where students kidded that ivy crept around on the outside and faculty crept around on the inside. Too bad the old grad didn’t hear that Old Main had gone up in flames back in 1984….
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My ancient Uncle Mort in The Thicket is shaking his head about the many controversies that dominate news cycles.
He was saddened that several hundred persons protested recently in front of the Dallas Morning News. Groups included the Palestinian Youth Movement, Indian American Muslim Council, Dallas Anti-War Committee and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
He doubts that there are many youngsters hawking newspapers around the newspaper headquarters these days…..
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Though Mort knows little about astronomy, he is fascinated by news about outer space.
“As a kid, the closest I got to astronomy was singing, ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’,” Mort laughed.
He said that astronomers have confirmed the most distant radio burst ever came in on radio waves lasting less than a millisecond from a galaxy so far away that its light took eight billion years to reach us. I can’t wrap my head around this, either, but will whistle the melody about the twinkling star much of the day….
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Mort knows I don’t cotton to use or promotion of alcohol, and rarely make any reference to it. An item from across the pond, however, confounds, amuses and amazes!
Sotheby’s is gearing up for an auction next month, and obviously places a high value on, uh, “ancient hooch.” It promises to take the highest bid for a “96-year-old bottle of single malt from distiller Macallen–The Macallan Adami 1926.” It will come under the hammer on Nov. 18, and the likely winner will need to pony up with $1.46 million.
That’s a hefty price to celebrate anything, and for those who decide to drown their sorrows in alcohol, there are many brands available that produce the same results at a fraction of the price….
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This reminds me of the yard maintenance guy whose boss gifted him with a bottle of whiskey.
The worker thanked him profusely for the “just right” whiskey.
Asked what “just right” meant, he answered thusly: “If it had been any better, you wouldn’t have given it to me, and if it had been any worse, I couldn’t have swallowed it.”…
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I began this piece referencing my alma mater, where I was a student from 1956 to 1961 and president from 1985-1997. I’ll end it with an observation made by my friend Dave Lieber, who writes twice weekly “watch dog” columns in the Dallas Morning News.
He remembered the late Blackie Sherrod, nationally renowned sports columnist for the DMN who retired in 2006 and died a decade later at age 96. He cited Sherrod’s unique ability to weave stories together, usually under a “scattershooting” headline. Sherrod, too, was an HPU graduate. Though he never took a journalism class, he credited the late Dr. Cleo McChristy, a masterful English teacher, for teaching him much. She was in the early years of a brilliant career and was also my mentor a couple of decades later. However, she “lernt” him a heap more than she did me!
Lieber quoted the light-hearted Sherrod who once wrote, “Freeways come in two models–over-crowded and under construction.” On Sherrod’s first day of retirement, he wore a t-shirt inscribed thusly: “You have mistaken me for someone who cares.”….
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Dr. Newbury, longtime university president, continues to write weekly and speak throughout Texas. Contact: [email protected]. Phone: 817-447-3872. Facebook: Don Newbury
