Ah, yes! It's that time of year again to celebrate all things Irish. If you've been under a rock for a few centuries, I'm speaking of St. Patrick's Day. An annual celebration of Irish culture and heritage.
But why? St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17th to honor the death of St. Patrick in Ireland. Born in Roman Britain in the late 4th century, he was kidnapped at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. He escaped but returned about 432 CE to convert the Irish to Christianity.
By the time of his death in 461, he had established monasteries, churches, and schools. Some of the legends that have grown around him include that he drove the snakes out of Ireland and used the shamrock to explain the Trinity.
The Irish have celebrated Ste Patrick's Day as a religious holiday for over a 1 ,OOO years. Although not an official holiday in the United States, it is still celebrated with music, food, the color green, and of course, beer. Who doesn't love a pint or twelve? It was immigrants to the United States who transformed St. Patrick's Day into the unofficial holiday that it is today.
One of the first cities to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a parade was Boston in 1737, followed by New York in 1762. One icon of the Irish holiday is the Leprechaun.
The original Irish name for these figures of folklore is "lobaircin," meaning "small bodied fellow' Belief in leprechauns in all likelihood stems from Celtic belief in fairies, tiny men and women who could use their magical powers to serve good or evil.
In Celtic folktales, leprechauns were cranky souls, responsible for mending shoes of the other fairies. Though only minor figures in Celtic folklore, leprechauns were known for their trickery, which they often used to protect their much-fabled treasure.
On a side note, leprechauns have their own holiday on May 13. So now that you know a bit of St, Patrick's Day, here's an Irish blessing to al} and please saying it in your best Irish voice. "As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point in the wrong direction."
​Cheers and #QUESTIONEVERYTHING

Energy. A product that the world cannot live without. It powers everything we do in today's world. From mops that are used in cleaning to the clothes we wear daily. From the sports our athletes play to the ballpoint pens that are used in educating students and in the business world. But where does this energy come from and can the human race continue with the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas? Let's look at big oil.
Oil is formed in the Earth when the remains of ancient marine organisms are buried under layers of sediment and subjected to intense pressure over millions of years, causing the organic matter to transform into hydrocarbons, which we call oil. Dating back to ancient China in 600 BC, the earliest known oil wells were drilled in China as early as 350 BC. using strong bamboo bits to a depth of nearly 800 feet.
​The oil was extracted and transported through bamboo pipelines and was burned as a heating fuel. It wasn't until 1859, when Colonel Edwin Blake successfully drilled the first commercial oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, marking a turning point in the oil industry. The discovery of the Spindletop geyser in Beaumont, Texas in 1901 led to a major boom in oil production and further development of the industry.
It was John D. Rockefeller, who established Standard Oil, that dominated the American oil industry in the late 19th century and became the world's first oil baron. Standard Oil quickly became the most profitable in Ohio, controlling nearly 90% of America's refining capacity. At the current consumption rate, the United States has enough oil to last another 227 years. This figure is based on an estimate of 1.66 trillion barrels of technically recoverable oil.
This study was released by the Institute for Energy Research in May 2024. The Unites States also has large shale deposits, which could provide an additional 114 years of oil. There is a lot of oil that is currently inaccessible or too deep to quantify. Some of this oil is located in Antarctica and in deeper parts of the Earth's core. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a reliable safeguard against short-term oil crisis. However, it is unlikely that the U.S. would run out of oil entirely.
American renewable energy (wind, solar, tidal, bio-fuel, hydro-electric, and geo-thermal) has hovered between a low of 5.37% (in 2001) and a high of 11.44% (in 2019) since 1949. Nuclear energy, not used until 1959, topped out at 8.89% in 2002. In all, alternative energy use in the United States has never topped 20% of total energy use. Further, international agreements have failed to put a dent in America's fossil fuel use. In the years since the U.S. signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 to reduce greenhouse emissions to net zero by 2050, American fossil fuel use has only minimally fluctuated between a high of 81.22% in 2015 and a low of73.08% in 2020.
With only 25 years until the 2050 net zero emissions deadline, no statistical increase in the use of alternative energies, and no clear policy changes, how can we expect alternative energies to replace fossil fuels? And let's be real. Oil is used in the production of green or renewable enrgy! What's needed instead are reasonable interim steps, not pie in the sky policy making that will force everyday Americans to further change their lifestyle.
Responsible programs can better assist down the road to eventual cleaner energy use. With doomsday-like predictions looming about climate change, it's essential to focus on realistic, broad based approaches that are already advancing environmental progress. There will come a time (not in my lifetime) that green(renewable) energy will prevail over fossil fuels.
Maybe in the next couple of centuries. In the meantime, I, along with most everyone else on this third rock from the sun (that's Earth for those who don't know our solar system), will continue using the fuels provided.
#QUESTIONEVERYTHING

We've all heard of them at one point in time or another. I'm referring to secret societies. You know the groups: The Freemasons, Skull and Bones, etc.
What is their purpose?
What function do they service in the world?
Do they actually decide what they think is best for the common folk? Are these societies even real?
A secret society, by definition, covers a large range of membership organizations or associations that utilize secret initiations or other rituals and whose members often employ unique oaths, grips (handshakes), or other signs of recognition.
Elements of secrecy may vary from a mere password to private languages, costumes and symbols. Secret societies are, by their very nature, are made up of persons presumably orientated toward similar aims and or goals. The ends usually manifest the characteristic that differentiates a given secret society from all others; that is to say, the ends are secret.
Moreover, admission to membership almost always involves explicit obligation to preserve such secrecy, and penalties and violations are likewise explicitly stated. Secret societies would lose their reason for existence if secrecy were entirely abandoned. Many fraternal organizations, for example, maintained the secrecy of their rituals well into the 21st century, although, such as the case of college fraternities and sororities, these survived largely as formalities.
Other academic societies- most notably, Yale University's Skull and Bones (remember I mentioned them) and other similar groups at other Ivy league schools- have traditionally guarded their secrets much more closely. In most instances, the core of the binding secrecy is to be found in the society's ceremonies.
In many secret societies, the ceremony is cast in dramatic form and fashion and contains episodes taken from holy books, revered legends, and episodes thought to be of crucial historical importance. Let's ask former 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush about the ceremonies and secret rituals in the Skull and Bones since he was a member.
We can't ask his father, the 41 st President George H.W. Bush since he passed away and was also a member of Skull and Bones. The Freemasons loom large in American history. Thirteen of the thirty nine who signed the U.S. Constitution were Masons. Founding Fathers like George Washington, James Monroe, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock all counted themselves as members of the fraternal order.
But who are the Freemasons?
The Freemasons can trace their routes to the Middle Ages in Europe when most craftsmen were organized into local guilds. Cathedral builders, by nature of their profession, had to travel from city to city. They identified one another via signs of their trade, like the builder's square and compass in Freemasonry's now iconic symbol.
The earliest reference to the masons is in the Regius Poem, or Halliwell Manuscript, which was published in 1390, but Freemasonry, as we know it today, was founded in 1717, when four London lodges merged to form England's first Grand Lodge.
Freemasonry quickly spread across Europe and to the American colonies. Freemasonry is not a religion, though members are encouraged to believe in a Supreme Being, or "Grand Architect of the Universe." Masonic temples and secret rituals have brought them into conflict with the Catholic Church. The Church first condemned the Freemasons in 1738 and has gone on to issue around twenty decrees against them.
​In 1985, Roman Catholic Bishops restated over 200 years worth of these strictures in the face of an increased number of Catholics joining the order of the Freemasons.
The rituals around becoming a Freemason are shrouded in secrecy, but have entered the public imagination in film and TV and were even parodied on an episode of"The Simpsons". Membership to the Freemasons is open to all males over the age of 21, and women can join an associated group known as "The Order of the Eastern Star."
The existence of these two secret societies is real and do exist to this day.
Do they help or hinder humankind? Are there others that have shaped world politics?
Possibly. As I always say. #QUESTIONEVERYTHING

Ah, yes. It’s that time of year when most families all over the nation come together for the annual gathering known as Thanksgiving. A time of happiness, joy, and reflection on life.
Every year during the month of November, the traditional spread of turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, rolls- you name it, is on the dining room table. Have you ever wondered what the Pilgrims and the Native Americans ate on that first Thanksgiving in 1621?
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe. The Wampanoag people taught the new settlers to plant crops and grow their own food and saved the pilgrims from starvation. Back to the food.
There’s a good chance that the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims ate turkey. Wild turkey was a common food source. The colony referred to to the hunt as “fowling”. We can be fairly sure they ate turkey. There was plenty of meat as the Pilgrims added five deer to the menu!
Mashed potatoes?
Keep dreaming. Potatoes, at the time, came from the high Andes of South America and weren’t cultivated in North America until the 1700s. So, no, cross mashed potatoes off the list of must haves at the first Thanksgiving.
Corn? Most likely so. But not out of the can or frozen like we have now. The corn the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag ate was, in all probability, was the mushy, turned into a thick porridge kind that was slurped up with a spoon or a couple of fingers!
Pumpkin pie. A staple after gorging on the main feast. Did they have it? Doubtful. Although the Pilgrims liked pumpkin, they were essentially out of luck as you need butter and wheat flour to make a crust. And in 1621, the Pilgrims didn’t have much of either.
Seafood? I know, it sounds crazy. But it’s entirely possible. Food historians speculate that much of the first Thanksgiving meal consisted of seafood! One of the colonists, a man named Edward Winslow, described the setting around his Plymouth home in this manner: “Our bay is full of lobsters all the summer and affordeth variety of other fish; in September we can take a hogshead of eels in a night with small labor, and can dig them out of their beds all the winter. 
We have mussels ... at our doors. Oysters we have none near, but we can have them brought by the Indians when we will.”
So what do you think the Pilgrims ate for Thanksgiving? What about you? What’s going to be on your plate this Thanksgiving? As for me, I’ll have a little bit of everything on the table.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING and enjoy the time spent together with family and friends and of course watching the football games that will be on.
And don’t forget to #QUESTIONEVERYTHING

Texas. Where everything is bigger and brighter. Even the stories that Texans tell. This is
one of those stories.

Donkey Lady is rumored to skulk near the bridge at Applewhite Road and over the Medina river just outside of San Antonio. She seeks vengeance for the horrible tragedy that she endured as a young woman.

Back in the 1950s, a young woman was dreadfully disfigured in a fire. Various theories exist about the origins of the blaze, one of the most popular suggesting her husband started it.

She was burned so badly, her fingers were fused together, leaving stumps that resembled hooves from a distance. The skin on her face was charred and gave her face an elongated, donkey-like appearance. These grotesque, physical features inspired the name “Donkey Lady.”
Another variation of the story from the 1800s is that it was a stranger that had come across the family in his travels. 

For some odd reason, the stranger began beating the family’s donkey until he was chased away by the farmer. Later that night, the stranger returns and sets the family’s home on fire, killing the farmer and the children. The mother forces her way out of the engulfed home, screaming in agony, as her already disfigured body begins to resemble a donkey.

She chases the man away and falls into the river, but her body is never recovered.

People of all ages head out to the bridge on Applewhite Road to see if they can get a glimpse of the Donkey Lady. Some folks get a case of the jitters and of being watched. 

Others claim to have seen something out there. Others people claim to have actually seen a creature with a donkey’s face screaming at them from the car window and later to have found hoof-like indentations to their vehicle. But the best way to get the Donkey Lady’s attention is to honk your horn!

Whether or not the Donkey Lady is real, one thing you can be sure of, is that her story lingers on in Texas folklore! Happy Halloween and #QUESTIONEVERYTHING

Since the dawn of time, humans have developed emotions to a variety of events. We all
know of love, hate, happiness, and sadness. But what about fear? What is your biggest phobia?
A phobia is an anxiety disorder involving excessive and persistent fear of a situation or
object. Exposure to the source of the fear triggers an immediate anxiety response.
The American Psychiatry Association identifies three different categories of phobias:
1. Social phobias: Now known as anxiety disorder, this phobia is marked by a fear of
social situations in which a person might be judges or embarrassed.
2 Agoraphobia: This phobia involves an irrational and extreme fear of being in places
where escape is difficult. It may involve a fear of crowded places or even leaving one’s home.
3.Specific phobias: When people talk about having a phobia of a specific object such as
spiders, snakes, or needles, they are referring to a specific phobia.
One important thing to remember is that virtually any object can become a fear object.
The name of specific phobias are often formed as nonce words, or words coined for a single
occasion only.
Here is a short list of some of the more common phobias:
Acrophobia: Fear of heights; Aerophobia: Fear of flying; Anthropophobia: Fear of society or
people; Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders; Belonephobia: Fear of pins or needles; Bibliophobia:
Fear of books (I know a few of y’all); Coulrophobia: Fear of clowns; Cyberphobia: Fear of
computers (Again, I know many elderly that suffer from this); Gamophobia: Fear of marriage;
Glossophobia: Fear of speaking in public
While this is a very short list of the different types of phobias, treatments are available.
There is exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and
reprocessing therapy, and finally medications.
Phobias can have a serious impact on well-being, but it’s important to remember that
you’re not alone. They are common and treatable. If you believe that you have the symptoms of
phobia, consult with a doctor for evaluation and treatment. Also, the fear of asking questions is
called Rogophobia.


 #QUESTIONEVERYTHING

Since the Olympic Summer Games have now ended in Paris, France, let’s take a peek below the surface and see what is not at ground level.
The French had been mining limestone for decades. In 1774, a massive sinkhole in the Rue de l’Enfer (Road to Hell) engulfed houses, carts, and people, who fell 84 feet to their death. Multiple sinkholes over the next few years caused panic and outrage. In response, King Louis XVI created the Inspection Generale de Carrieres, or IGC in 1777 to map out and maintain quarries of limestone that was used for some of the city’s most iconic buildings such as The Louvre and Notre Dame.
By the late 18th century, Paris had expanded and grown so greatly that much of it was built directly over the old mines therefore leading to unstable conditions.
The Paris Catacombs started out as a solution to overcrowded cemeteries in the 18th century as most Parisians were buried in communal graves with the largest burial ground known as Holy Innocents’ Cemetery, which had been in continuous use for 500 years.
In December of 1785, workers began exhuming bodies from Holy Innocents’ at night and carting them by torchlight to their new resting place: the city’s catacombs. It was a marriage of convenience with the vast underground mines offering a local and more sanitary storage solution.
With the outbreak of the French Revolution on May 5, 1789, bodies began to pile up during the Reign of Terror and the newly deceased were being directly buried in the catacombs, gaining a new reputation as “The Empire of the Dead.”
The catacombs are filled with the bones of over six million bodies being shaped into archways, tunnels, and walls.
Take a tour of the macabre Paris catacombs if you ever get an opportunity to vacation in a city that offers many sights to take in. And don’t forget to #QUESTIONEVERYTHING

​Created on March 1, 1872, President Ulysses Grant signed S.392 into law, creating the first national park- Yellowstone.

Home to a large variety of elk, bear, wolves and other wild game, along with half of the worlds geysers including Old Faithful in Wyoming, the beauty of this national park is indeed a sight to behold. Is there however, a hidden danger that lurks beneath this majestic wonder of the
world?

According to scientists, the Yellowstone super volcano has had three major eruptions with the first being 2.1 million years ago. The second occurred 1.3 million years ago, and the third and last major eruption was 640,000 years ago that created the current caldera.
What would happen if Yellowstone were to erupt in the future? If the eruption follows its predecessors, then the lava flow wouldn’t travel beyond the parks boundaries, according to the USGS. The problem would be the ash released by the blast. The fallout would include short-term destruction of Midwest agriculture. Rivers and streams would be clogged with thick gray muck measuring nearly 40” in depth 321 miles away in Salt Lake City, Utah with the ashfall extending to the east coast. Parts of Texas could receive as much as 1.811 inches of ash!

If you’re wondering if there is any evidence that Yellowstone will erupt soon, the answer is no. Yellowstone is behaving as it has for the past 140 years. Odds are very high that Yellowstone will be eruption-free for the coming centuries.

So, go ahead and plan your summer vacation. Take the scenic route to the mountains of
Wyoming and breathe in the fresh air and partake in the beauty of Yellowstone National Park but
don’t try to pet any buffalo!

Some say the legend goes back beyond recorded history. Some say it began in the
Northwestern United States. But in 1958, in a small news item written by journalist Andrew Genzoli, is where the legend and the name began.

Yes, I’m referring to BIGFOOT!

Bigfoot, or sometimes known as Sasquatch, is a giant ape-like creature that some people
say roams throughout North America. It is a cryptid ( or species rumored to exist) and just like the Chupacabra or the Lochness Monster, there’s scant evidence to suggest Bigfoot is actually out there. But that doesn’t stop alleged sightings of the ape-like figure that never shows it’s face.

Visual sightings and even alleged photographs and films (notably by Roger Patterson at Bluff Creek, California in 1967) have also contnbuted to the legend, though none of the purported evidence has been verified.

A Bigfoot is said to stand from 6-10 feet tall, standing on two feet, often giving a foul stench, and either moving silently or emitting a high-pitched cry. Alleged footprints have
purportedly been measured up to 24” in length and 8” wide.

And yes, there is even a small group of insistent scientists risking ridicule, vocalizing their belief that the creature does indeed exist!

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, founded in 1995, is the only scientific research organization exploring the Bigfoot mystery. Even here in the State of Texas, there have been a reported 253 total listings with the latest report coming out of Wood County, Texas in March 2024. lfyou are wondering if there have been sightings in Val Verde county, the answer is NO!

Happy Bigfoot sighting, everyone!

Our nearest celestial neighbor, the moon, formed approximately 95 million years after the formation of our solar system which is itself roughly 4.6 billion years old. How did it form?

There are various theories about its formation. Scientists have suggested that a chunk of the Earth was blown away due to an impact with a smaller object about 10% the mass of our primitive molten planet. This is known as the large impact theory.
While this theory is most widely accepted in the scientific community, others say that the
moon was captured or even that Earth stole the moon from the planet Venus. Even scientists can’t agree!

What they can agree on is that the moon is a rocky formation just like Earth. On average,
the distance from the Earth to the moon is 238,855 miles. At its Perigee (closest approach to Earth) 225,700 miles and at its Apogee (farthest distance from Earth 252,000 miles from Earth.

With that being said, many people believe in some conspiracies pertaining to our moon.

One conspiracy is that the 1st manned lunar landing in July 1969 along with the other Apollo missions were faked. Conspiracy theorists believe that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin acted out their mission on a secret film set. Did they? You can decide for yourself.

Currently, the Artemis program is a moon exploration program intended to reestablish a human presence on the moon since the end of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

Time will tell if humankind makes it to the next settlement- a permanent lunar base on the moon and next possibly, an excursion to Mars! Let’s go!!