THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Minnie Pearl–queen of country humor for a half-century–”country-talked” her way into our hearts, mostly from the stage of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. Nowadays, the $1.98 price tag dangling from her hat is but a distant memory. A character fabricated by Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, who made Minnie’s hometown of Grinder’s Switch and stories of

 THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury To describe the workouts he directed as “grueling” might be an extreme understatement if the athletes who ran for late track coach J. H. (Cap) Shelton are consulted. Known as the “dean of Texas track coaches,” he served at Howard Payne University–his alma mater–for 49 years. He worked long hours daily in numerous faculty

 THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury My aged Uncle Mort is “up in the air” about balloons. “Until recently, balloons were festive, often gleefully ‘popped’ at parties,” he moaned. “Stick a pin in one now, and folks nearby crawl under tables, look for exits, call 9-1-1 and shield the bodies of young’ uns.” Mort contends that governmental leaders’ confoundment

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Central to my Uncle Mort’s colorful life–now stretching over two centuries–are his scatter-brained decisions to “go off fourth-cocked,” even when “half-cocked” action might be preferable. Someone said that he’d be ahead of the game if he’d “keep his gun holstered,” even if his trigger finger gets itchy. Forget the holstered part; that’s simply

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury The 21st century may soon be most known for worldwide paranoia. When topics worthy of fright are recorded, the list will spill over to a second page, and maybe a third. My aged Uncle Mort down in the thicket is a solid example. He claims that there’s been so much “buzz” about misplaced classified documents

 THE IDLE AMERICAN Commentary by Dr. Don Newbury A weathered rancher of my acquaintance stubbornly refused  to join a group of church friends who “enjoy” bad health. A woman of few words, she explained her absence from services the previous Sunday. “I was struck down by the flu,” she stated, leaving it at that. Would that our health conditions be

 THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Undisputed star that he was during the golden era of Major League Baseball, this player has maintained a spirit of humility that others only dream of. His name is Bobby Richardson, embodied in a 5-9, 170-pound frame of baseball greatness. Five words uttered on his recognition day at Yankee Stadium–August 31, 1966–describe his

 THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury He didn’t see it as a turning point at the time–this budding vocal artist who was belting out country songs at the Burger Box in Arlington. Craig Murphy, then age 40, might have been flipping burgers instead, trying to find a road that led somewhere instead of dead-end trails he’d followed for a

 THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Inherent with insistence to dig ever deeper–rarely satisfied with merely getting to the bottom of things–are the risks of learning more than we want to know. There are ever so many places to dig, with ever-growing types of tools with which to excavate. Years ago, the late German Emperor Otto von Bismarck warned that laws–like sausages–are far