September 2022

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Growing up in West Texas, I once had the most beautiful night of my life. Or, if it wasn’t the most beautiful night, it surely was one of them. My father taught me about the stars in the sky when I was pretty young, and as grew older I became fascinated with the stars. When I was a teenager, I joined an astronomy club, and a friend of mine and I would stay up most of the night in my back yard with our telescopes, and look at the moon, the planets, and what we could see of the fuzzy things called galaxies and nebulas. Back then in my back yard, you could see the Milky Way, our galaxy. Then, as I got a little older, I learned that there was a really important place for astronomy in West Texas. It was in the heart of the Davis Mountains, and it was called McDonald Observatory. I learned that at McDonald Observatory there was a really big telescope. Its glass mirror was 14 times bigger than the one in my little telescope, and astronomers there could see things farther out in space than I ever dreamed you could see. We went there, and I was amazed by the astronomers.

The National Football League has started its second century as the gridiron world’s highest achievable professional level. Formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, it rebranded itself in 1922 as the NFL.

“No problem.” That is how I used to reply to people who thanked me for holding the door open for them or for offering some other small gesture. I don’t know where I got into the habit of saying this to people, but I do not say it anymore.

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