Puerto Rico … take two. As with many a mainland kid in the ’60s and ’70s, Puerto Rico first showed up on my radar with the reading of Pastor Nicky Cruz’s “coming of faith” book “Run Baby Run.”  The gritty Christian bestseller chronicled Cruz’s take on Puerto Rican culture, dating back to his childhood memories […]

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The Red River Shoot Out! What tradition!  Spectacle.  Pageantry. Spirt. Tailgates.  Obnoxity.* (*Not a word).  Have you been?  If not, picture deafening chaos with 90,000 screaming fans, many drunk, half in burnt orange and half in crimson.  Pretty easy to see where the lines are drawn in the bleachers.  May the best team win. Special […]

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  One of the pitfalls of no longer drinking alcohol is knowing that raw oysters on the halfshell is a dish best served with cold beer. Regardless, give me some crackers, horse radish and red sauce, and I will make it work.  I’ve had oysters on my mind since I hit Houston last month. For […]

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    Houston versus Texas Tech … a great matchup pretty much ignored by the favor-playing, subjective major media, but #IIWII.  The reality: the most prolific offense in college football was facing a team on a winning streak … a team led by the best defender in the country … a D squad that was […]

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  When you were a child, did you know what you wanted to be when you grow up? I knew what I didn’t want to be at about nine and it involved math.  Ha … I recently figured out that I was good in math back then only when it involved memorization — pluses, minuses, […]

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  Currently, The Dirty Gig has stationed me in Houston, in the wake of one catastrophic storm as a second just had its way with Florida after ravaging all the vacation islands. We’ve all read so many tragic stories of individuals and even entire families being overtaken when their vehicles failed to negotiate flood waters.  […]

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 Sometimes the road trip is all about the destination.  More often, the journey makes the road trip.  Once in a while the road trip is all about the moment.   PingWi-Fi and motorcycle just traveled 980 miles to witness two and a half minutes of solar bliss, the eclipse, in the totality belt … or […]

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  On the Facebook feed I see, the current cover story in Texas Monthly magazine seems to be the most shared article, ever, for that magazine.  Funny that it takes a horribly sad story to remind TM that The Panhandle even exists.  It’s a great place.  A potential state in its own right, if that myth about […]

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My first “attempt” at college was a dismal failure.  It was so bad that I pretty much considered an “incomplete” grade for a course a bit ot a win — as opposed to a fail.  Thank goodness that university kicked me out and saved me a few bucks. Then, I went and grew up, entered […]

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  “No one told me there’d be days like these … Most peculiar, mama.” – John Lennon After the most recent trip to Strawberry Fields in Central Park I saw that a Facebook friend posted that it was Worldwide Beatles Day. What a coinkydink … rather … “most peculiar.” I really hadn’t even planned to […]

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