| Cowboy poets bound for Alpine's annual festival
Cowboy poetry lets cowboys tell their story without spangled myth or Hollywood treatment. Tales told in verse about barbed wire, horses and campfire cooking mingle with tributes to friendship, wide-open spaces and philosophies of life that developed during days and nights of solitary work. It's an oral tradition of the American West. More than 40 cowboy poets, storytellers and singers will mosey to Sul Ross State University in Alpine from Feb. 29 through March 2 for the 21st annual Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the country's second-oldest such festival. Over two days, tales will be shared in themed sessions, which are called "recitations," in Sul Ross classrooms, conference rooms and auditoriums adorned for the event with mock cowboy camps and hand-painted backdrops depicting West Texas vistas.
Jewel at the Joule
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Bond woes delay port's bid for state funds
A niche corner of the municipal bond market known as auction-rate securities already is causing huge headaches and interest rate shock for schools and governments as the downgrading of bond insurers cause investor confidence to plummet. The Associated Press on Friday reported regulators were intervening in the $300 billion auction-rate securities market from which investors in recent weeks have shied away. The bonds underlying the securities arent considered at risk of default, according to the report. But, periodically, banks and other financial institutions decide interest rates based on the auctions where buyers lately have been scarce. Rising interest rates on the short-term debt are squeezing such municipalities as Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which saw payments jump $300,000, according to reports.Some U.S.
The Plague of the Witch Doctors
But it's a lot easier to criticize than to step up to home plate and swing the bat. This is what investors will NOT be doing for a while -- stepping up to the plate and taking lusty swings. In a recession, everyone pulls in their horns and goes to the sidelines. This is the natural, prudent, intelligent thing to do. Yet Vardy is trying to turn virtue into vice and make it look like all "bears" are a bunch of armchair quarterbacks with no stomach for playing on the field in the snow and cold. Don't buy it. The place to be in a raging blizzard is safely hunkered down inside a warm and well-stocked cave. Do we have a blizzard coming? Can't say for sure, of course. But when the temperatures are dropping to zero, and the winds are howling like the ghosts that haunted Ebenezer Scrooge, it is best to head for the cave rather than charge out to frolic in the night.
Lulu Offers Sweet Surprises for Valentine's Day
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