When used as a verb, it appears to mean the opposite from its use as a noun.

The idea of "herd immunity" against Covid-19 has achieved almost magical status in the popular imagination. When we reach that threshold, many Americans believe, we'll be in the clear, and the pandemic will finally fade away.

The first column I ever wrote was as a seventh grader at the Sherman Junior High on the corner of King and Crockett streets.

A mantra, coined from our Buddhist and Hindu neighbors, is an often repeated phrase to strengthen a basic belief.

The blizzard of 2021 reminded us that when we take some innovation for granted, it soon becomes virtually impossible to remember how we lived without it. The loss of electric power and clean water that many of us experienced during the Blizzard of 2021 drove home the point. In a new book entitled “A World Without Email,” Cal Newport gives us a brief history of email and tells us how quickly it has changed the way people work, for good and ill.

I used to think I would never enjoy an electronic newspaper; now I'm proud to be a small part of one. Sadly, many print newspapers are not near what they used to be. In areas where there is no longer a regular print newspaper or the ones available are not what they once were, an electronic newspaper fills a much-needed void.

My first class on Africa here at Austin College was in the spring of 1986.

It's time I acknowledged the source I often draw on for background information about the subjects I write about: Wikipedia. In contrast to the print books it was modeled after (such as Encyclopedia Britannica), Wiki is still a teenager and yet it has been hailed as “the world’s greatest encyclopedia.” The site was only 20 years old on January 15, 2021, and yet it has more than fifty-five million articles in three hundred and thirteen languages.

Easter is when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to the Bible Jesus Christ died on the cross on a day called Good Friday, he was then resurrected and came back to life on Easter Sunday. However to me that true meaning of Easter has been almost forgotten, at least in the eyes of many people. As we know Easter is much more than bunnies, Easter clothes, and Easter eggs.

There was this bookshop, briefly, on Fourth Street...

As we leave March (Women’s History Month) behind, and move into April which is registered as representing more than fifty causes, I want to look at a much discussed issue: gender inequalities.

With Easter coming up, I have chosen to repeat a piece I first ran in this column several years ago. During my childhood, Easter egg hunts were something to look forward to. Coloring the hardboiled hen eggs was the first step, and I remember having an envelope with tablets of different colored dyes to dissolve in warm water plus a little vinegar. There were also some candy eggs that didn’t taste very good. Having an Easter egg hunt outdoors after an adult hid the hardboiled eggs was fun for the little kids. What I didn’t know as a child was all the symbolism associated with Easter eggs.