By DANNY MINTON Several years back there was an animated movie entitled, “The Emperor’s New Groove.” The villain in the film was an ugly woman, described as “scarier beyond all reason,” whose name was Yzma (eezma). Her sidekick was a big dumb looking guy, who provided comic relief in the movie, named Kronk. There is one scene in the movie
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By DANNY MINTON I’m a big Dallas Cowboy fan. I have been since Eddie LeBaron was a quarterback and as a junior high football player, I could get end zone tickets for 50 cents each at the Cotton Bowl. At halftime, we’d move on over to the 30-yard line since Dallas didn’t always draw big crowds in 1960. I was
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON As a child growing up, we’d often make the trip to my grandparents in Howe, Texas. The trip from Plano was around 45 minutes. In the early days without car air-conditioning, with the windows down you could smell the creosol that coated the fenceposts. Now every time I come around that smell, it reminds me of those
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By DANNY MINTON Turn on the TV, listen to a conversation, or walk down the mall and you’ll get a picture of the world of our youth today. Sex, violence, drugs, are shown and discussed in many circles. The apathetic work ethic and laziness are thrown out for us to consider. We label a whole generation based on what we
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON It was April 6, 1945, just off the coast of Okinawa, Japan. The U.S. naval forces were preparing for an eventual attack on the island with many of the U.S. fleet off the shores. One of those ships was the USS North Carolina, the ship which my dad served on during the last few years of WWII. On
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON His name was Jack Thum. His profession was a professional clown. Few people remember him, especially those outside the Chicago area. You see, Jack died some thirty years ago of cancer. When Jack died, Walter Cronkite mentioned it on his broadcast, and the church bells of Chicago rang in tribute. All of Chicago mourned. So what made
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON The time was late afternoon, Dec. 10, 1965. Daylight was fading on a rather warm day for December in North Central Texas. The high temperature for the day had been 66 degrees with winds rustling the trees in the neighborhood around our football field in Plano, Texas. By tradition, each afternoon before our game the following day
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“Il faut laver son linge sale en famille” By DANNY MINTON The title of this thought is an old French proverb. It was one that Napoleon quoted when he returned to France from his exile in Elba in the year 1815. It was a phrase that was first used in England in 1867 by Anthony Trollope in “The Last Chronicle
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By DANNY MINTON The term “Bucket List” has been around for quite some time, but seems to have become more popular since the movie, “Bucket List,” came out a decade ago. The term originates from the phrase to “kick the bucket” or in other words to die. It’s a list that people create of things they want to do or
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Spirit Of Abilene 