star gazer

May 17th, 2012

Cosmic baseball region

By PAUL DERRICK

With the baseball season now underway, it’s fitting that the Cosmic Baseball region is prominent in the early evening sky.  It doesn’t take much imagination to hear the fans cheering as the players round the bases – but perhaps your imagination needs a little help finding the bases.

Baseball …

The Idle American

May 17th, 2012

Behold the hail

By Dr. Don Newbury

Jesus assures in St. Matthew that the gates of hell will never prevail against the church, but the Good Book is silent on protection from hail damage.

Lubbock minister David L. Wilson figures he’s got hail to deal with on this side of the River Jordan. Dr. and Mrs. Wilson built …

Here’s to your health

May 17th, 2012

The healing power of music

By KEITH WOMMACK

Henry Garza, guitarist and vocalist with Los Lonely Boys, wrote the lyrics to their song, Heaven. It was a prayer; a prayer motivated by his families financial and emotional hardships, combined with the death of his first-born son from sudden infant death syndrome. The prayer expressed his deep desire for …

the rambling boy – cattle brands and the stories they tell

May 17th, 2012

By LONN TAYLOR

In the late 1970s I had a job that was a Texas historian’s dream. I was the curator of history at the Dallas Historical Society, in charge of a collection of some 10,000 objects relating to Texas history. The collection, which included Santa Anna’s spurs and Fannin’s watch – the one he gave …

Star Gazer

May 10th, 2012

Solar eclipse May 20, transit of Venus June 5

By PAUL DERRICK

Come May 20 we will be treated to a relatively rare solar eclipse – a partial eclipse over much of the western half of the U.S. and an even more spectacular annular eclipse for the lucky ones in a 200-mile wide band stretching from …

The Idle American

May 10th, 2012

When pigs fly

By Dr. DON NEWBURY

Once a track coach, always a track coach. Some retirees still have stop watches close at hand—maybe even looped around their neck—and their daily life continues to be framed with references to time, height and distance.

They still dream, but they’re mostly “re-runs” (pun intended).

One such retiree is David Noble, who …

Here’s to your health

May 10th, 2012

What can fear do to you?

By KEITH WOMMACK

Recently, when asked, “What can fear do to you?” I was reminded of two experiences.

The first started with me asking a Sunday School class of first graders, “What would you say if someone wanted you to pray for them?”

A visitor to the class, a young girl, spoke up …

Library talk – Celebrate national library week

April 12th, 2012

By RENEE MICK

This week, April 8-14, is National Library Week. Celebrate your library this week, and every day of every week of the year! The Marfa library offers every Marfa resident access to thousands of books, both in print and in audio format, films, periodicals, programs, Inter-library loan, and Wi-fi.

Even more, the library is the …

Rambling Boy – Norton Rugeley, my favorite cousin

April 12th, 2012

By LONN TAYLOR

March 18 would have been the eighty-sixth birthday of my favorite cousin, Norton Rugeley. Norton was born in Wharton, Texas, in 1926, which made him fourteen years older than I and ten years younger than his cousin, Horton Foote, whose plays and screenplays about Wharton emphasized the family ties among its people and …

Star Gazer

March 30th, 2012

The southern circumpolar region

By PAUL DERRICK

In the northern hemisphere we have a section of the night sky we call the Circumpolar Region consisting of those stars and constellations that never dip below the northern horizon as they circle the north celestial pole (and Polaris) each day. We should call it the North Circumpolar Region …