I was recuperating from major surgery when I heard about the kid sneaking into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. My kneejerk reaction was disgust toward a negligent parent, until I remembered the time my wife and I lost our firstborn son at a clothing store in the mall. For several minutes,...

    Here in Texas, we love our barbecue. We’ll get into arguments with folks from the Deep South about the glories of brisket over pulled pig with vinegar sauce. It’s fightin’ words around here if you tell us that slow-smoked beef isn’t true barbecue. According to this website, “the Lone Star State...

  Pentecost is the red-headed stepchild of Christian observances. Think about it: we get prepped up for Lent and Advent, buying devotional books and planning our spiritual disciplines. At Easter and Christmas, we deck ourselves out in holiday finery, sing triumphant hymns and prepare big family meals. Pentecost? The preacher wears a...

  Today is “World Naked Gardening Day.” I kid you not. It is a day whose proponents invite people “to tend their portion of the world’s garden unclothed as nature intended.” I enjoy being naked in the shower, but I ‘m  pretty sure I don’t want to tend my daisies as bees buzz around...

  Over the past few weeks, I’ve been downsizing my magic inventory, selling tricks and props that I haven’t used in quite a while. In the process, I’ve discovered that magic items are a lot like new cars: once you drive off the lot, their value drops like a rollercoaster....

  Did you hear? Cracker Jack will no longer bury prizes in their snack boxes. Instead, consumers will find a digital code that will link to a “baseball-inspired mobile digital experience.” The famous sailor boy mascot and his dog, Bingo, will also get an update. The public reaction was swift and brutal....

  Last week, I invited my Facebook friends to list excuses they’ve heard to blow off church.  I received over 40 replies! There were the predictable excuses such as church is boring, it’s full of hypocrites, I don’t like the preacher’s sermons (that one really hurts, especially when it comes from your wife)....

  It’s that time of the year in Texas again – storm season! It’s the time when Yankee transplants nervously scan inky skies and demand to know why we don’t have basements down here, while the natives dash outside, whooping and hollering, to shoot video of funnel clouds. We’ve been in our house for over seven years...

  The word is out: I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. I found out just before the holidays last year. I didn’t immediately share it with the social media world for several reasons. For one, I’m a pretty private person who’s not big on airing angsty posts on Facebook....

  In their 1985 book, Habits of the Heart, Robert Bellah and Richard Madsen referenced a nurse they code-named Sheila Larson who adhered to a faith she herself dubbed “Sheilaism.” The authors were chronicling the gradual shift of American religion from being corporate and public to privatized and inwardly-focused. To illustrate this change, they quoted Sheila: “I believe...