THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury A Texas doctor, closing out a hectic week, hoped it to be his final medical appointment. He stared at a Q-tip that was devoid of cotton at both ends. “This Q-tip must have gotten right up against 5 o’clock Friday at the factory,” he muttered. In the span of one week recently, I felt that my

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Aunt Maude, wed to my Uncle Mort since Noah’s ark went into dry dock, says that her hubby regularly encounters premonitions while in dreamland. “When he says, ‘I’ll bet you can’t guess what I dreamed last night,’ I know that soon he’ll be untangling his dreams in his workshop, not likely to be heard from

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury For the most part, handshakes, backslaps, hugs and teardrops–some joyously wept from grateful souls who achieved much, and some from others who barely sneaked by to graduate–now are part of history. In bygone years, school superintendents and university presidents considered graduation events to be successful if everyone left venues in the same state of health

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury The old hymn declares that we are marching to higher ground. Our prevailing culture, however, suggests otherwise. Consider a joke making the rounds at the turn of the century when the internet was beginning to take hold. A couple of 10-year-olds were chatting aimlessly during summer doldrums. Something about Washington, D.C., came up. “What does

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Many tourist destinations claim to be “all things to all people,” but compared to Branson, Missouri, the rest of them miss the mark by a country mile. Nestled in the Ozark Mountains, the laid-back community not only survived the pandemic, but has roared back with numerous new attractions to strengthen its vows to be “number

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury The Good Book’s Chapter 6 of Matthew provides challenging specifics on living the good life, but  verse three seems most daunting. It concerns the importance of maintaining a chasm between the works of the left and right hands, perhaps as far as the east is from the west. In essence, God knows, and that’s what

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury My ancient Uncle Mort is not one to speak negatively of neighbors, unless they live at least three cattleguards away. He recently “spilled the beans” on a neighbor who lives so deep in the thicket that no one passes his house going to town. The old guy admitted to Mort recently that he had made

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Enough already. The eclipse of April 8 has been smothered with coverage by both mass and social media. Americans–some who flail at things that go “bump” in the night–yearned  for even more darkness! They carved out time from busy schedules and squeezed funds from their budgets to make their way to a slice of the