Have you ever been in a class where the teacher was introducing a new subject, and as the class went on through the year, you and other class mates began to question, "How will this ever apply to me," or "what does anyone ever use this for?" Geometry proofs come to mind as an example where I wrestled in school with such questions. It was much later in advanced math in college, and still much later in satellite orbit determination work applications that I found out how to use geometry and really appreciate it.

This column is written as a tribute to the late Fred Tarpley, who was a noted folklorist and emeritus professor of English at East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University-Commerce). Dr. Tarpley, who died recently, spent twenty years studying Texas place names. The culmination of his research was a book entitled 1001 Texas Place Names. In it he says the place names of Texas are unsurpassed for the diversity of their origins and fanciful manipulations of language.

Homework didn't make sense. If we worked all day in school, why would we want to work when we got home? I figured it was just that old people wanted to annoy us.

Cancer knows no financial boundaries. It has brought down some of the richest people, and devastated some of the poorest. There is no age discrimination either. This enemy has attacked some of our youngest in the beginning of their lives. Then it has waited for those who have lived a full and wonderful life.

I have been contacted by numerous people in our Bonham community about a rumor that TMC is buying Red River Regional Hospital.

Sportsman Shooting Center

Building a house these days is a lot more complicated that it was a century ago.

"It is fitting that we honor our nation's great agricultural pioneer on National Ag Day. Dr. Borlaug's groundbreaking work to advance agricultural production and his steadfast support of new technologies have saved billions from hunger and ultimately laid the foundation for the way of life we enjoy today." -- Rep. Frank Lucas, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee

Salvage doors and pallets make up an art piece outside of Orr-Reed Salvage Company in Dallas, Texas.

An open letter to the citizens of McKinney

The Pig Explosion - Part 4

Some of the nation’s poorest people work at higher educational institutions, and many of them are members of the faculty. Oh, yes, there are still faculty members who receive comfortable middle class salaries. But most faculty do not. These underpaid educators are adjunct faculty, who now comprise an estimated 74 percent of America’s college teachers.