IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury It is ironic that author/broadcasting legend Garrison Keillor’s mythical hometown of Lake Wobegon is only an hour’s “crow fly” journey from Minneapolis. I saunter in where angels fear to tread–this needless mixing make believe with reality in the same paint can–but serious news folks do so all the time, so why not? Once asked about

IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Describing the onion as a “lowly vegetable” didn’t set well with the late Othal Brand, for 20 years the McAllen, Texas, mayor who cleared many hurdles during his 90-year earthly pilgrimage. His beloved Rio Grande Valley is now a world center for vegetables in general and for onions in particular. Ever restless and ever persuasive,

IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury It’s a parental directive virtually all of us have lodged in our minds dating back to childhood days when our memories started to take root. “Look both directions,” they implored, emphasizing dangers posed by passing cars. Often, they’d throw additional dangers at intersections, thus providing more dreadful statistics that made us even more fearful of

IDLE AMERICAN Commentary by Dr. Don Newbury Push Americans into a corner, and they’ll either start painting or enliven the crunched space with creative juices soon to spill over. Superintendents and other school “brass” have greatly expanded committees planning commencement ceremonies, realizing that “same old” plans employed historically since the earth started cooling are “no more.” For many reasons–some understandable,

IDLE AMERICAN Commentary by Dr. Don Newbury “No one is an idol to his valet.” historian/writer Thomas Carlyle so contended two centuries ago. In one case dating back 60-plus years, Carlyle would have been “dead wrong” about a couple of Brownwood High School athletes. Lawrence Elkins –the “idol”–re-wrote dozens of records in four sports, dazzled at Baylor in football and

IDLE AMERICAN Commentary by Dr. Don Newbury A few days ago, my wife and I enjoyed a short road trip. Typically an hour’s drive to Stephenville, this day it was twice that. It took 40 minutes to make it through Granbury, where folks–weary of “sheltering”–seemed happy to be in their cars again, perhaps looking for “essential places.” Stephenville friendships were

IDLE AMERICAN Commentary by Dr. Don Newbury Let’s make a worldwide observation. Man’s “inhumanity to man” has been chronicled–as well as played out, unfortunately–across the centuries. (Hey, now. I’m writing in broadest terms that likewise include women, too. They’ve worked right alongside, and often ahead, but that’s a whole ‘nuther story.) In these uncertain days when calendar pages seem to

IDLE AMERICAN Commentary by Dr. Don Newbury If bodies grew weary of exercising, two of my friends–Dr. Lanny Hall in Abilene and Katheleene Green in Burleson–would be too sore to stand up. Truth to tell, Katheleene has been a devotee to physical exercise much longer. She attains age 100 come July 18. Dr. Hall, three decades her junior, has never

IDLE AMERICAN Commentary by Dr. Don Newbury It is a good thing that we have memories to sort through while we shelter in place. Grammarians or not, we’re given to making the present tense, and the past, perfect. As we take stock of what used to be–while greatly shaken by “what is”–we think back on happenings faced hurriedly the first