Unca Darrell

APRIL 5, 2017 / Weeding out the audience at the Alley is . . .

. . . a feature, not a bug.

Houston's Alley Theatre is running "An Act of God," a loosely dramatized collection of irreverent one-liners about God by New York comedy writer David Javerbaum, late of "The Daily Show." 

The script is troubling, writes critic Robert Donahoo.

Like so much stand-up comedy today, it is wickedly funny, but the humor depends on audiences weeded out . . . 

NOVEMBER 16 / Meet Unca Darrell in the flesh . . .

. . . at Czech Center Museum Houston, 6:00 p.m. Saturday, November 19.  

The event opens my photography exhibit -- "Day of the Lilacs: The Liberation of Western Czechoslovakia by the U.S. Third Army."

I will also lecture on Czechoslovakia's place in the history of World War II.

• How France and Great Britain surrendered the county to the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (the "Nazis") in 1938. 
• The brutality of the occupation by the German Waffen Schutzstaffel (the "SS"). 
• How on May 6, 1945, Czechs ran into the streets to greet their American liberators with gifts of food and beer, with kisses, and with armloads of lilacs.

The liberation was militarily insignificant. The war in Europe would end two days later. So why did . . .

Now to NOVEMBER 8 / Closed: Unca Darrell will vote for . . .

. . . one of the worst human beings and presidential candidates in American history, Donald John Trump. Here's why: 

JULY 2 / Good riddance

GARY EDWARD KEILLOR, who adopted the fancy-pants name "Garrison," taped his last "Prairie Home Companion" last night in Hollywood. It will be broadcast in Houston today in its usual spot, late this afternoon on public radio.

Mr. Keillor is a gifted man, no doubt. Thought he's four years too old to be a Baby Boomer, himself, he spoke for the boomer generation with . . .

JUNE 17 / (Bumped) A note to readers

Dear friends,

I'm honored that you stop by occasionally to read Unca Darrell. And I deeply regret that I have posted very little in recent days. Believe me, as Mr. Trump is fond of saying, tiny right hand chopping the air, index finger aloft -- Believe me, I'm sitting on a bunch of really good stuff. Absolutely first class stuff. The best stuff ever. Everybody says so. But life is more important than blogging, and I have reached a point where . . . 

JUNE 1 / The national Democrats abandoned Texas in . . .

. . . 1972, and Texas returned the favor, with 2.3 million votes for Richard Milhous Nixon and 1.2 for George Stanley McGovern, precursor of the progressivism of today's national party.

Yet Democrats, the traditional party of 20th-century one-party Texas, easily swept statewide elections. Uvalde rancher Dolph Briscoe was elected governor after having dispatched a red hot McGovernite progressive -- Frances "Sissy" Farenthold -- in the Democratic primary. This bit from his excellent 2008 memoir recalls the political dynamics of that volatile year.

I went to the national convention in Miami as an uncommitted delegate, but I also was a vigorous opponent of Senator McGovern's candidacy. I opposed McGovern for several reasons. I was upset by . . .

 

MAY 28 / A must-read Chronicle takedown over at . . . .

. . . Big Jolly Politics.  

APRIL 8 / Our progressive intelligentsia who pooh-pooh the "Texas Miracle" have only two problems

Facts and arithmetic.

From its peak in January 2008 through today, the United States has created 750,000 jobs. Texas created over a million jobs during the same period -- meaning . . .  

MARCH 16 / Age, responsibilities, and the joys of real life

THESE BRING their own rich rewards. But they do keep me from the satisfaction of writing each day about the things that interest me. And, necessarily, keep you from the enlightenment that would follow from your visits to "Unca Darrell." 

Today, however, inspiration drives me yet again to the dusty keyboard, not to share my own musings but to point to the quite brilliant and painfully true musings of another. I serve today as James Boswell for the Samuel Johnson of our very own place and time, namely . . .  

FEBRUARY 25 / Funniest line in . . .

. . . tonight's GOP debate:

Donald Trump: