HOUSE Processes created to increase our security actually make us less secure. One tangible example is door locking. As home and office security became more critical, the sophistication of locking mechanisms also grew. This made protected areas almost impossible to access. But what was the typical h...

Before Johnny Nicholas bought the old beer joint and gas station that would become Hill Top Café on U.S. 87, the blues singer was a regular at Antone’s Nightclub in Austin. There, he watched the pioneer of zydeco music Clifton Chenier perform in the 1970s. Last year, Nicholas sang vocals on a tribut...

HOUSE “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up...

Last winter, aspiring Eagle Scout Hagen Nicely used 100-year old reclaimed pine to build a brand new information panel for Fort Martin Scott State His...

HOUSE Ilove making and keeping a “To Do” list. Little is more satisfying than changing a “to do” to “done.” But I have discovered a more important lis...

Winners of the first Hill Country Short Story Contest were announced last Saturday during the opening ceremony of the second Fredericksburg Book Festi...