Hiding in Plain Sight

This is a technical nit I’d like to pick. It’s true that when someone chooses to put their work on the internet, they don’t owe anything to anyone, but one thing that bothers me is when people who write things I enjoy on a regular basis don’t see fit to make that content available via [...]

Austin v. Wal-Mart

One of the more entertaining Austin spectacles over the past year or so (maybe longer) has been the ongoing fight between Wal-Mart and some neighborhood groups. A developer who I think has pretty close ties to Wal-Mart purchased a decrepit mall in north Austin that was slowly wasting away along North Lamar. They sold the [...]

Texas Flood

Texas drought-free after a dry decade
Rain is too much of a good thing for farmers
Thorns and thistles. It works for me; I’m happy that it’s keeping the heat down.

Baseball Miscellanea

A couple of good posts about Adam Everett on the ‘net. This one is a detailed statistical comparison of Everett to Mark Loretta which argues that despite Loretta’s improved offense, the Astros would be better off with Everett. Do The Astros Miss Adam Everett?
Then this one from The Soul of Baseball, which laments the overall [...]

Big University

Law school is a special case, but overall higher education tuition has jumped dramatically in recent years. Amid caterwauling from bleeding hearts about how important education is to our country and how unfair it is that it is so expensive, this article examines the relative unaccountability that university administrators enjoy and the enormous size of [...]

Invasion of the Crickets

I’m not talking about Buddy Holly’s old band either. The classroom I’ve been in this summer typically has about a half-dozen dead crickets scattered on the floor around my desk and the chirp of their surviving brethren serves as a Greek chorus to the professor’s ramblings. Apparently the wet weather is to blame.
Dead or alive, [...]

New Album from Lyle Next Month

(almost this month)
Lyle Lovett is scheduled to release his new album “It’s Not Big It’s Large” on Aug. 28.