There is a strong market for books that praise our mental habits. Authors have lately offered support for the benefits of everything from swearing to grumpiness. Now Scott Small, the director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Columbia University, joins this group with his upbeat views on one of our more profound mental shortcomings: forgetfulness.

My parents took to the State Fair of Texas several times although I'm not sure of the exact years, except for 1956. October 11 of that year was the first time I saw Elvis Presley in person; he performed in The Cotton Bowl and the tickets were priced at $1.25. I feel fortunate that in later years I saw Elvis several more times in concert, in fact during various trips to Memphis I got to know two of his cousins.

When I moved with my husband to his home state of Texas, I thought the phrase "Everything's bigger and better in Texas," was catchy and fun.

This op-ed title keeps being repeated in 2021 in many of our news media.

One result of the pandemic is that the laugh track is finally being taken seriously. Critics have long viewed adding the taped sound of laughter to TV shows as an exercise in mind control. At best, TV viewers have tolerated it as a necessity on par with elevator music.

"Twenty years ago, we all found – in different ways, in different places, but all at the same moment – that our lives would be changed forever. The world was loud with carnage and sirens, and then quiet with missing voices that would never be heard again. These lives remain precious to our country, and infinitely precious to many of you. Today we remember your loss, we share your sorrow, and we honor the men and women you have loved so long and so well." - President George W. Bush

The "Hee Haw" television show's 332 episodes ran from 1969 to 1997 and it could certainly be called corny. After all, many of their comedy sketches were in a cornfield. Buck Owens and Roy Clark were the two main stars, however they also had a wide variety of regulars along with a lot of famous guest stars from time to time.

For SMU engineering graduate student Collin Yarbrough, a classroom assignment to evaluate the design of Dallas' Central Expressway resulted in a recently published book about the long-forgotten history of Dallas’ racist past buried beneath the city's freeways.

We Americans have a fascination with gangsters that comes largely from Hollywood movies featuring glamorous actors as plausible stand-ins for real-life mobsters like Al Capone. Another example is the slickly lethal Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel—blue-eyed, handsome and physically fit. If Siegel were to be portrayed believably in the movies, the part would have to go to a charismatic star like Gary Cooper, or Clark Gable (both of whom were guests at Siegel's parties in Los Angeles). Warren Beatty played the title role in the 1991 film "Bugsy." This murderous hood is quoted as saying, "Class, that’s the only thing that counts in life. Without class and style a man's just a bum."

We have a lot of mistaken ideas when we are young and one of mine concerned Labor Day. I used to think that since many people were off work that day it should be called Non-Labor Day. That was completely wrong. This year Labor Day is on Monday, September 6 and it actually is to celebrate the economic and social achievement of the American worker.

During the last days of Pompeo as President Trump's Secretary of State,*he signed a "comprehensive peace agreement" in Doha, capitol of Qatar, between the USA and "the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban."

I am always happy to hear from readers of this column, especially when they share a family reminiscence, like this one from Connie Culp of Howe, TX.