It may have been from a book I read or some online article, but a statement by one historian really made me pause and reflect. In paraphrase, he/she asked the rhetorical question “What group of people caused the most misery while contributing the...
I learned a lot during the years (1996 to 1998) I was researching and writing Longhorn Hoops / The History of Texas Basketball. That includes, for example, the 44-game winning streak led primarily by three-sport letterman Clyde Littlefield...
Whether at home or the office, I listen to music through YouTube. Typical of my current preferences are acoustic guitar work by Josh Snodgrass and Oner Yavuz, duduk (a double-reed woodwind instrument originating in Armenia) music, Erik Satie...
Scott Wilson and I had much in common: Both Texas-born European-American males, both way into sports and both proud possessors of a diploma from our state’s flagship institution. There were differences, however, as will soon be clear. A native of...
After a long battle with Parkinson’s disease and congestive heart failure, Warren McVea breathed his last on October 18 in Los Angeles. He was 79. I, like many others, remember this mercurial running back from San Antonio’s Brackenridge High...
It’s interesting to realize how ambitious the Japanese were just over eight decades ago. Consider the countries they occupied or subjected to military force: Korea, China, the Philippines, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Singapore, Malaya, Formosa...
While traveling throughout Korea, I have witnessed some sad and distressing sights. Examples include the street behind Seoul’s Tapgol Park, where homeless and apparently hopeless old people gather every day; Uiryeong, where a policeman went...
Adolf Hitler, Lee Oswald, Charles Manson, Pol Pot and Idi Amin have all earned the civilized world’s enmity. We loathe der Führer et al. for good reason, but it must be kept in mind that early on they were their mamas’ darling boys. Only later...
I have written elsewhere of my deep admiration for Michael Jeffrey Jordan. It started when, as a freshman at North Carolina, his picture-perfect jump shot beat Georgetown to win the 1982 national championship. Every inch a star with the Chicago...
Eighty years ago yesterday, after the playing of Kimigayo (the Japanese national anthem) in a pre-recorded 4-minute and 36-second statement via the nation’s broadcasting company, Emperor Hirohito lamented that “the Empire’s efforts to liberate...
My older brother, Randall Evans Pennington, died of a heart attack in late April. It is reflective of our broken and dysfunctional family that I was not informed until three months later. I will withhold further comment on that, preferring to...
I have said too many times to count that I am ambivalent about my alma mater. Rather than the University of Texas, I could have matriculated elsewhere in 1971. A different school—a smaller school, most especially—might have suited me better. But...
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