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A better burger made a better America.

In 1951, a short, round, jolly Greek immigrant named Jack Koustoubardis began cooking hamburgers in a tiny little spot on Hillcrest Avenue in Dallas just down the hill from SMU. The place is still there and it’s called the Burger House. Everybody knew Jack. (His real name was actually Prometheus. Jack is the name he chose to authenticate his new status as an American.) The Burger House opened at 11 in the morning, closed at...

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You’re tellin’ me!

Your comments regarding what we say in this space matter and that’s why we call it “You Tell Me.” The idea is that I take a position and then you tell me what you think. I’m right on. I’m full of beans. You Tell Me. So with that said, let’s revisit some of the things we have talked about in previous weeks and share your comments on them. Let’s start with Roman Polanski. The Swiss...

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Our problems are ours to solve.

It was Albert Einstein that said, “When the solution is simple, God is answering.” It was Warren Buffet who said, “The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.” I offer these two quotes on simplicity to make a point. Our country’s founding principles and its founding documents are elegant in their straightforward simplicity. The founders believed that if individual liberty could be allowed to flourish, a...

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Making the right call on Polanski should be a no-brainer.

A warning to  readers. This post discusses a very serious sexual assault. Discretion is advised. One of these days I’m going to quit being shocked at the hypocrisy of our liberal elites. Maybe. Or maybe not. Because what we are seeing and hearing with respect to the recent arrest of Roman Polanski is truly astonishing. If you’ve missed it, here’s the story. Roman Polanski is a well-known and very successful film producer and director. Chinatown,...

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Have you hugged James Madison lately?

Exactly 220 years ago today, the first Congress of the United States approved twelve articles of amendment to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of those proposed articles were eventually ratified and enshrined as the Bill of Rights. Prior to the birth of the United States, nearly every citizen on earth was to one degree or another under the rule of a czar or a king or a potentate of...

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Get out of the way and let me struggle.

I was in a waiting room last week and there sat a Texas Monthly magazine with a picture of a horrible looking lizard creature on the cover and a headline that read, “The Struggle to Survive.” Upon seeing this lizard and being told that he’s struggling to survive, I thought to myself, “To hell with him. I’m struggling to survive.” Every single living thing struggles to survive. The key difference is that humans have figured...

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The high cost of “free.”

As a good friend of mine, a volunteer football coach and altogether good guy said Wednesday afternoon, “Paul, when you married Lee you out-punted your coverage.” For those of you who aren’t football fans, suffice to say, that was the highest compliment he could pay my wife. And he’s right. I married a wonderful woman. For all of my guy friends who complain about how much their wives spend, my problem with my wife is...

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Take a number and we’ll call you when your cancer is Stage 4.

Sometimes these pieces just write themselves. My experience of last Friday is an example. In the movie “Baby Boom”, a seriously overwrought Diane Keaton pours out her heart to a man she believes to be a doctor, disclosing among other things her deepest fears, her precarious financial situation and her lack of recent sexual release, only to find out that the “doctor” she’s talking to is a veterinarian. You quickly appreciate from Ms. Keaton’s experience...

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The Cautionary Tale of the Once Golden State

This is a cautionary tale about a beautiful state in our beautiful country. When God was making the world, he saved his very best work for that part of it that we now call California. California, if it stood alone, would be one of the most envied countries in the world. It’s natural wealth is staggering. California has abundant water from the Sacramento River that flows from the Cascades and the San Joaquin River that...

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Put the doughnut down and step away, sir!

Not far from my house is Mustang Doughnuts, home of the best glazed doughnuts I have ever had. And if you leave the house when I do, when the little hand is still on the five, the doughnuts are fresh and warm and without question one of the most amazing indulgences of the flesh available without a prescription. I have no business eating doughnuts. There’s no defending them. They are trans-fat-laden cholesterol bombs that raise...

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Not paying the bill isn’t the same as controlling cost.

With the summer being so hot if you’re not happy with your electric bill, I have an idea that will dramatically lower your cost. When you get your July bill, just don’t pay it. Or, just pay what you feel comfortable paying. That way, you can tell your spouse that you have significantly lowered your home cooling cost for July. You’ll be a hero. For a little while. Of course, you won’t be such a...