DALLAS. The drive here reminds me of how I once described the entire area as “Dalantonio.” It’s a huge urban complex. It extends from the southern edge of San Antonio. It goes through Austin. Then it runs to far north Dallas. These days, it’s edging into Oklahoma.
(Read about Dalantonio in 1996 and 2000 by pressing the links.)
You can drive it along Interstate 35. It’s the carotid artery of Texas. The alternative is a back road, Highway 281. The first allows you to stop at the Collin Creek Bakery in Waco. The second goes through Hico. That opens the possibility of a stop for pie at the Koffee Kup Family Restaurant.
It’s a tough decision.
The 281 route is relaxed and pretty. Quietly stunning. The I-35 route is faster by about 40 minutes. It’s something you survive because you have things to do.
I visit with a dear friend to have lunch and celebrate his 90th birthday. Neither of us knew it, but it was also to learn something big in a very odd way. My friend doesn’t talk a lot these days. This is a big change.
Now when he talks he tends to repeat the same story. I’m glad that it’s a happy story about how he met his wife at a high school dance and the unlikely miracle of love and happiness that followed.
For decades.
“It all worked out,” he says, “How could that be?”
He is awestruck by his good fortune. In a lady’s turnabout, she tapped him on the shoulder. They danced.
“The rest is history,” he smiles.
When we finish our sandwiches, my friend shows me a book his daughters gave him for his birthday. It’s a volume of front pages from The Washington Post. It contains a copy of the front page for each of his birthdays.
Starting in 1936. A troubled, painful time.
Top of the fold, left-side column. The headline, with three subheads, reads:
African Peace
Or Ban on Oil,
Final British
Word to Italy
—
England to Apply Em-
bargo Regardless of
U.S., Eden Says.
—
Sanctions’ Delay
Urged by Flandin
—
Paris-London Split On
Truce in Ethiopia
Startles League
One year later, in the same position, another headline reads:
Justices’ Resignations
Hinted in House Talk
To End Court Warfare
—
Summers Asserts Elder
Members Now Could
Leave Bench.
—
Co-operation Asked
To Break Deadlock
—
New Plan Is Suggested
After Parley at
White House.
I didn’t have a chance to go through every front page for every year. But I am confident that however the words changed, the headlines were essentially the same.
Year after year.
Our leaders – all over the world – aren’t unique. They are just symptoms of us, our species. You and me.
Our education changes. Our technology. Our culture. But we’re the same old, same old. We’re exhibiting the symptoms we’ve always exhibited.
Not for 90 years.
Not for centuries.
Always. Everywhere humans gathered on the planet.
So I’m delighted that my friend is enjoying, repeatedly, the happiness that he thought was so unlikely.
But I sure wish we could stop “doing the same thing, over and over again and expecting different results.”
That, as you know, is a definition of insanity.
Related columns:
Scott Burns, “Dare We Use The “B” Word?”, 6/4/1996: https://scottburns.com/dare-we-use-the-b-word-boom-for-texas-and-its-low-cost-of-living/
Scott Burns, “High Times And Low Water,” 2/15/2000: https://scottburns.com/high-times-and-low-water/
Sources and References:
Koffee Kup Family Restaurant in Hico: https://www.facebook.com/p/Koffee-Kup-Family-Restaurant-100063679655218/
Birthday books: https://www.wonderbly.com/personalized-products/the-washington-post-newspaper-birthday-book?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=USA-SEA-NB-DSA&campaignid=2059031203&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=2059031203&gbraid=0AAAAADfyocthCFHT9-ady2ypDGXFx8ygK&gclid=Cj0KCQjwp7jOBhDGARIsABe7C4cOHacLQZhw2FmIKFDd7A3YuQB8cwz0_BVEAfYd9sM2Kb4-Qa9nmAIaAh3yEALw_wcB This service also offers books made with headlines from the New York Daily News or the LA Times.
You can also get a birthday book from the New York Times: https://store.nytimes.com/collections/birthday-books?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=381394950&gbraid=0AAAAAD7qC8bLeeiGcVLaVCHGwDRT5lhj1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwp7jOBhDGARIsABe7C4fhdYfWy1YB_J-B90uzqBwS9H7146jaL7q0rTJbRBP43VgFW5GNNYIaAs-lEALw_wcB
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Photo by gerard martinez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/dramatic-sunset-sky-19578750/
(c) Scott Burns, 2026