In an area of the US which boasts one of the most rapidly growing urban areas in the country (I understand it competes with San Diego for that dubious honour) not only are places like Frisco and McKinney keeping some grip on their heritage but so too downtown Dallas where Fair Park retains most of…
17,169 total views, 22 views today
I have never been overly comfortable about saying how proud I am about family – can’t have them getting grand notions about themselves now can we ?! But the fact of the matter is that wherever I cast a glance out across the tree I only see people of whom I am extremely proud and…
17,035 total views, 24 views today
The statistics tell one story I guess. And the emotionally driven sinking red line tells another. But last week I picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal on my way to breakfast where beside pictures of brokers with heads in their hands was a small story about one (unknown) company paying $6billion in…
17,089 total views, 22 views today
…being so, well, American. It is October. So the corn stalks are out, reminding us of harvest thanksgiving. Orange pumpkins dot the sidewalks and verandas. Halloween creeps up on us after all, and only the blind or dull and unobservant could miss these brilliant cues. 17,081 total views, 22 views today
17,081 total views, 22 views today
On Sunday I sat in a movie theatre in Texas and watched Russell Crowe, Leonardo Di Caprio and others in the recently released movie “Body of Lies”. There was something in the experience that came full circle – or rather I should say there were a number of interesting threads that came together that afternoon.…
17,306 total views, 22 views today
We always say that even though we speak the same language as our American cousins we often don’t hear the same words. Which is another way of saying there are lots of things which on the surface are assumed to be the same but which are in fact very different. 17,073 total views, 22 views today
17,073 total views, 22 views today
(Starting to slip into a US drawl) “Howya doing? Hope Street please.” (this was in Washington DC). Silence “Do you know where that is?” Nods. “Are you able to take me there?” (it is considered a tough part of town) “Mmmmmm.” 17,107 total views, 22 views today
17,107 total views, 22 views today
I love learning where words originate. Studying Old and Middle English at Uni was therefore a complete distraction wrapped up in a complete distraction! Sticking with the Shawnee Trail for the moment (see other entries) the city of Frisco here is building, expanding, flourishing (and otherwise ignoring the madness on Wall Street) and every piece…
17,065 total views, 22 views today
We all admire the hard physical contact sport of ice hockey for its speed and well, hard physical contact. But my inaugural attendance at this game (Dallas Stars against the Oilers (no, I had no idea who they were either – all the way down from Canada)), which I thoroughly enjoyed, was an insight into…
17,055 total views, 22 views today
Poetry out of the mouth of a cowboy, inscribed among other quips and observations about life on the cattle trails lifting up from southern Texas and headed for the railheads at Kansas City and else where, and eventually to the slaughter yards in Chicago and New York. It is carved into the flagstones of a…
17,055 total views, 22 views today