THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury It’s got to be a borderline miracle when Eastland–a town with fewer than 5,000 people–can lay claim to not one, but TWO “facts” worthy of the Guinness Book of Records recognition. “Facts” has quotation marks for a reason. It’s not certain that a horned toad named Ol’ Rip actually hibernated for 31 years in the

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Easter 2025 was a time like none other! Before choirs proclaimed that He is risen, before church bells sounded around the world celebrating Jesus’ resurrection and before children skittered across lawns for multicolored eggs, I saw history’s greatest moment patterned in a quiet Fort Worth neighborhood. It’s a place where tattered lives are transformed

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Don’t ever mention falling through cracks in the presence of Rev. Jared Greer–unless you delight in seeing eyes roll, hair stand on end and bodily contortions with “rigors” followed shortly by “mortis.” With three appearances on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior television show and a fourth segment to run at 7 p.m. (CST) on June

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury They’re as predictable as frantic taxpayers working until the hours are few on April 14 to meet income tax filing deadlines the following midnight. A nomadic bunch, they show up following hailstorms, cell phones in hand with promises to examine roofs. Yep, an unexpected call from an unknown number. “We just happen to be in the neighborhood,

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury I might never have resented my brother if he’d have been born other than in 1944, when Grapette was getting a foothold in our town. I had enjoyed “only child” perks for seven years, and in first grade observed that my “well-to-do” classmates brought squatty bottles of a purply soda to chase down their ham-and-cheese

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury The ballyhoo about “no free lunches” was first bandied about in the 1880s and today, Southwest Airlines’ “bags fly free” death bell is on the verge of gonging. Long known for allowing passengers to check two pieces of luggage “free,” SWA is altering its policy and there’s more story-spinning underway than a 10-year-old pulling

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Had a Texas Aggie been a Rip Van Winkle wannabe in 2011, he (she) might hardly recognize the university upon awakening from slumber in 2025. There might be understandable confusion. Is real time clearly in focus or is the awakening accompanied by swirling figmentary dream extensions from a heap of sleep? Surely the eye-rubbing

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Taxation without representation is tyranny. Though it’s hard to nail down who initially coined this statement, it was the hue and cry of “British Americans” when they fought during the American Revolution 260 years ago. My Uncle Mort–a homespun philosopher lazily whittling away the day from a cane-bottom chair on the porch of the thicket’s

THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury Odds of brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright constructing, then flying, the world’s first powered aircraft in 1903–and Southwest Airlines’ founding what would become one of the world’s leading airlines 64 years later–were about the same.  Most figured the odds to be slim and none. And most were wrong. While the Wrights’ contraption was aloft