Alert readers (and I know that includes all of you, because you don’t let me get away with anything) will recall that our dance last Saturday night featured something different, something that to my knowledge had never been tried in the 20 year history of the Ballroom Dance Society: prerecorded music in place of a… Continue reading Ballroom Dance featuring “The Cutouts”
Category: West Texas
The sources of Midland County’s net gain in population
Forbes Magazine has created an interactive graphic showing population movements into and out of every county in the United States in 2008, based on federal income tax-related data provided by the IRS. A mouse click on each county reveals lines emanating from that county to every other county where people moved to or from, and… Continue reading The sources of Midland County’s net gain in population
Tracking Comanche Springs in Fort Stockton
Last Monday, February 21, we made a day trip to Fort Stockton to visit family, and were pleased to see that Comanche Springs was again flowing. This is a fairly dependable annual occurrence each winter, when the agricultural irrigation west of town ceases and the water level in the aquifer rises sufficiently for the water… Continue reading Tracking Comanche Springs in Fort Stockton
Flashback: A near miss with hypothermia (part 2 of 2)
[Part 1 is here] The shivering bubba – and for ease of reference, why don’t we just call him Bubba? – perched atop his overturned airboat seemed nice enough, but he was obviously skeptical that the skinny, neoprene-clad guy riding a piece of styrofoam with a sail could be any help. To be honest, I… Continue reading Flashback: A near miss with hypothermia (part 2 of 2)
Flashback: A near miss with hypothermia (part 1 of 2)
Game wardens recovered the body of a Stanton woman on Sunday, one of two family members who died in a Scurry County boating accident over the weekend. Erin Cook was transported to a hospital, as well, where she was pronounced dead due to hypothermia. The body of Melody Cook, who didn’t make it to shore,… Continue reading Flashback: A near miss with hypothermia (part 1 of 2)
A Cornell Professor Writes About “A Death in Texas”
I received an email yesterday from Josh Wallaert, the web editor for Places, which is described as an interdisciplinary journal of contemporary architecture, landscape, and urbanism, with particular emphasis on the public realm as physical place and social ideal. Josh wanted to draw attention to a new essay by Cornell University architecture professor Jim Williamson. I was… Continue reading A Cornell Professor Writes About “A Death in Texas”
Radio Imagination
In my hand, if I pointed it just right You oughta heard what come to me at night On that little transistor, my big sister’s radio. So many DJs from so far away You oughta heard the records they would play, On that little transistor, my big sister’s radio. Tommy Castro‘s song, Big Sister’s Radio… Continue reading Radio Imagination
Fort Stockton’s New Visitor Center
I won’t go so far as to say that it’s worth driving 200 miles just to see it, but if you happen to be in Fort Stockton (or anywhere close by), the town’s new visitor center is worth, well, visiting. This multi-million dollar installation – at the intersection of Main Street and E. Dickinson Blvd.… Continue reading Fort Stockton’s New Visitor Center
American Basket Flower
I love these big flowers, with their mix of delicate fronds and business-like spines.
Buzzards+Fort Stockton = Swallows+Capistrano?
One of the presumed harbingers of spring in West Texas is the return of roosting buzzards. If that’s true, then Fort Stockton has seen its last cold snap for the season, as evidenced by this iPhone video I shot last evening from my parents’ backyard: This is just a fraction of the flock of scavengers… Continue reading Buzzards+Fort Stockton = Swallows+Capistrano?