A tree grows in Waco

A newcomer experiences several “oh, wow” moments in Waco. Oh, wow. The lake. Oh, wow. The Waco Suspension Bridge against the ALICO. One of my first oh-wow moments came looking out from the top floor of the Hillcrest Medical Tower. “Oh, wow. Look at all the trees.” You may not think of Waco’s trees —…

Of cyclopses, sideshows and Cronkite

The first time TV regularly shared Walter Cronkite’s history-changing voice, he was a clumsy-looking bystander. Not his fault. Everything about CBS’s “You Are There” was clunky. In black and white, it took us to relive moments in history on sets every bit as authentic as Flash Gordon’s spaceship. When Cronkite became America’s preeminent newsman and…

Um, because it was illegal?

Dick Cheney, meet Oliver North. Donald Rumsfeld, meet Caspar Weinberger. George W. Bush, meet Ronald Reagan — he who, knowingly or not, presided over a rogue operation that resulted in 11 criminal convictions in the Iran-Contra scandal. Eric Holder, meet Elliott Richardson. Richardson was the attorney general who refused to fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox…

They call it information

Upon hearing of Michael Jackson’s death, two pained sensations struck me: The first was sadness over creative brilliance being snuffed. The second was the knowledge that our celebrity construction/deconstruction machine was about to perform up to its usual, um, standards. And what a bravura performance it has been. I know this and I have abided…