Opinion

For those of you who don’t know, my more respectable gig for the past quarter century, or so, has been teaching college English. (Scary, I know.) Teaching English is sometimes like teaching a teenager to drive a car – including the sensations of intense frustration, looking away in terror, and dreading a catastrophic pileup of letters, words, and sentences.

Sir Alec Guinness was one of Britain’s most celebrated actors. I first knew him as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy. In his autobiography, Guinness described an odd event that occurred while he was walking through London.

Good nutrition is essential to lead a healthy life, and for normal growth and development. A lack of regular access to adequate and safe food may result in hunger and food insecurity. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations established the World Food Day, observed every year worldwide on Oct. 16 to raise awareness and fight against hunger and poverty around the world. “We as individuals can help our communities be free from hunger by being more responsible in our choices and actions” said Dr. Sumathi Venkatesh, an extension health specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Dear Neil: Trumpet vine is taking over my backyard. It’s growing up into my trees.

With the “fall back” clock change coming soon, one thing makes me especially grumpy and confused. Last March, the Senate passed a bill that would make daylight saving time a year-round standard and end the “fall back” and “spring forward” clock changes that make Americans even groggier and crabbier than we usually are.

With seven weeks remaining before the 2022 midterm election, Republicans and Democrats have drawn their battle lines and staked out what each party considers their opponents’ political vulnerabilities.

Dear Neil: My crepe myrtles are covered with aphids, as are those in the neighborhood. Have I just not noticed them before, or is this an especially bad year for them? Is it too late in the season to worry about spraying for them?

KARAN’S KORNER Everybody is busy during fall. It’s the beginning of fall outdoor sports and fall activities.

In the fourth century, a young Egyptian peasant named Pachomius was abducted and forced into the Roman army, a common occurrence in that time. While awaiting transport up the Nile, Pachomius languished in a jail. Local Christians arrived with food, water, and other supplies to care for him and the other conscripts. Pachomius was puzzled by these odd people who showed concern for prisoners. He asked who they were. “They are Christians,” he was told. “What is a Christian?” Pachomius asked. “They are people who bear the name of Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and they are merciful to everyone, including strangers.”

My adult life has been full of transitions– from single to married, from childlessness to fatherhood, and from virile coolness to cringey blobfish. I now find myself in the midst of a change from occupying a nest literally bursting with hatchlings frantically pecking at my wallet to now watching one last teenage fledgling perched on the edge of a limb and hoping I don’t do anything embarrassing.