Opinion

This year might be a good time to focus on a resolution that could save your life. While all notions of self-improvement have their value, driving is one area where our actions can affect not only ourselves, but other drivers and passengers on the road. Motor vehicle crashes and fatalities are higher than they have been for many years. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, from 2019 to 2020 there has been a nearly 19% increase in fatalities on our roads. Nearly 47% of those killed were not wearing their seat belts.

An anti-diet movement is afoot? Where can I sign up! According to the Wall Street Journal, more people are taking a more reasonable approach to dieting that lets them be healthy while staying at their nonskinny weight.

Misspeaking requires some knowledge of what you’re saying. For example, if you meant to order a Diet Coke but ordered a regular Coke because you didn’t specify “diet,” you would have realized, either at that moment or, when you took your first sip, that you misspoke.

The New Year has started, and you may have started that diet, so what better way to reflect and think about soup. January is National Soup mouth and National Oatmeal month.

Dear Neil: My husband really likes purple plum trees, but a neighbor told me they’re not very good. Is this a tree we would want in our yard? Not all trees live to be as old as sequoias, so you’re not always going to get a plant that will set world records.

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to consider what will be important in the year ahead. As an officer of Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, that means thinking about the long-term success of the cattle industry.

Since the Biden administration hasn’t indicated that it will shift its Southwest border policy, the U.S. can expect the surge of illegal crossers to continue throughout 2022.

As we briefly addressed last week, we live in an ever-changing culture. Yesterday will not be the same as today, and today will not be the same as tomorrow.

Dear Neil: What is going on with our sago palm? It’s growing in this bizarre way with at least a dozen new heads. What should I do? This is called fasciation, where cells divide in two planes instead of in all directions.

Dear Neil: I spent a ton of money having my St. Augustine resodded two years ago. This winter it developed a bunch of brown circles. I used a product from one of the big box stores, but it didn’t really help. I’ve raked the circles and applied weed and feed. I can’t afford to do all of this again. What caused it, and what can I do to stop it?