The 501

COMMENTARY What’sittaketobeanews reporter? A good high school English teacher. You also need to know how to gather information, and you may have to pass a drug test to get hired. The drug test is extraneous. My opinion.

The 501

HANABA MUNN WELCH Gawrsh! Why not Faulkner? Some parents tamper with the truth. Mine gave me the straight scoop — nearly always. My mother generally told me more than I wanted to know. She was all about teaching me stuff.

The 501

Unjust desserts in the fundraising racket If you’re gonna tell people what you think, it helps to really know. I don’t always. Some of us see both sides of an issue, and we vacillate.

The 501

COMMENTARY You won’t have to come into work every day. That’s what my editor said when I took the job. Somehow, he forgot that promise.

Taking thankful stock at the end of the year

By the time you read this, the publisher and editor of these newspapers will be bound for the East Coast to spend the holidays with family and friends.

The 501

HANABA MUNN WELCH Google the barbell housefly Stump Google! That’s the name of the game. The challenge is to think of something that doesn’t appear when you Google it. I’ve won twice recently. Google doesn’t seem to know about a soda fountain drink called a Coke phosphate.

Legal challenges to amendments appear quashed

A half-dozen lawsuits challenging the 13 approved Texas constitutional amendments appear to be dead in the water, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The Christmas Red Zone

A Sunday of NFL football means that the phrase “red zone” is within earshot when in and out of the living room. Once a team reaches the opponent’s 20-yard-line, it is within twenty yards of the endzone. Scoring opportunities are within grasp. We are approaching Christmas’s red zone.

Abbott: Battle continues over vouchers

AUSTIN—As time runs out next week on the fourth special session, Gov. Greg Abbott said he will continue to fight for school choice, despite the Texas House once again decisively rejecting it when 21 Republicans largely from rural districts joined Democrats in stripping it from a $7.6 billion...

Rosalynn

[ dripping with sarcasm] “Of course, Jimmy, I want you to forget the fact that you graduated in the top percentile of the United States Naval Academy and are well on your way to an illustrious naval career so that we can go home and farm.