By Danny Minton It sounds strange to talk about Christmas when the temperature outside is triple digits. A couple of TV channels have been spending the entire month showing Christmas-themed movies twenty-four hours a day. I even took time to watch a couple from another channel this past week. Is it odd to have shows with snow, Christmas trees, and
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By Loretta Fulton Once Hannah Albin was cast as the lead role in a play at Hardin-Simmons University earlier this year, she started intensely researching the character, a person she had never heard of before. The play, “The Ballad of Maria Marten,” was staged at HSU in February and is now bound for the stage at a massive theater festival in
Read moreBy Jay Moore For decades locals have been telling an Abilene tale so outlandish that I was certain it was an urban myth. Most of those who repeated the story heard it second-hand, having never seen any actual proof. I considered the far-fetched story to be no more than an exaggeration, just a preposterous legend told as a way to
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By Nancy Patrick Sometimes when I think about my next writing topic, my mind runs rampant through the endless lists of issues that people face on a day-to-day basis. I don’t know enough about some of the topics to write a complete article, but I have opinions on most of them that I sometimes get an itch to express. To
Read moreTHE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury A popcorn tradition was born 50 years ago this summer in the garage of our home in southwest Fort Worth. That was some 26 tons of popcorn and four machines ago. It was sparked by the late Dr. Veda Hodge, who owned a string of movie theaters and multiple West Texas oil wells. She heard
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By Jim Nichols It is an experience many of us have had, probably several times. We look around the house or apartment one last time and it is empty—empty of all the physical items that belong to us anyway. We are moving. That is a strange feeling. One of the common shared human experiences is moving from one place of
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By Loretta Fulton Local authors, including several who have published books with a spiritual tie, will be celebrated at an authors’ reception at the Abilene Public Library, 202 Cedar St., at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3. The reception, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the second floor auditorium of the main library downtown. Among
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By Jim Nichols In many ways Adam and Eve were typical humans. They seemed not to know what was going on and asked, either verbally or mentally, “Why?” Or “Why not?” The pattern was set for us. As wonderful as children are and as much as we appreciate their curiosity and quick learning, as soon as they learn to talk,
Read moreBy Danny Minton I remember a story that I had heard several years ago about a young woman who came to her mother to share some challenges she was having in life. Her mother listened briefly, then said, “Let me show you something.” The two entered the kitchen, where her mother took three pots of water and set them on
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Spirit Of Abilene 