The Astrodome

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1797 Exactly 170 years after Coleridge wrote his famous poem about the mighty Khan, my  grandfather “Papaw,” my uncle Gary, my aunt Dot...

Clay/Ali

I recently went to Amazon.com in hopes of finding a biography of Muhammad Ali and came away disappointed. Oh, there was no shortage of books about the former heavyweight boxing champion. But I could not find a single one I would want to read...

Epiphany

In more than six decades of life, whatever wisdom has accrued to me has been in bits and pieces. Slowly, tentatively, with more than a few stops and starts, I have learned things of value. As the old saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds an...

Patronizing the swoosh

In late May 2013, a Korean friend who goes by the English name of Billy and I walked a few blocks to Gangnam-daero, one of the busiest streets in Seoul. We were going to the ABC Mart so I could buy a pair of running shoes. Billy, a marathoner...