Tex's Place

The Griswold Inn, Essex, Conn., dates back to 1776. By Michele Herrmann In Colonial America, taverns were more than places for food and drink. They also offered entertainment, lodging and served as a hub for sharing important news and discussing politics, providing headquarters for those conducting official business and strategizing amid the American Revolution. The first tavern in what would become the United States of America was credited to Samuel Cole in Boston, opened on March 4, 1634. Taverns would grow rapidly across the colonies but started fading out in the 19th century, as they were replaced by specialized venues that served specific needs, such as bars, restaurants and inns. Despite the passage of time, there are still a few original Colonial taverns remaining in the United States. While some have become museums or refitted for other purposes, others were reinvigorated for serving in the modern era. The Black Horse Tavern, Mendham, N.J. Back in 1742, when Mendh...

By Bob Hoge Like Christmas, Independence Day is famous for its songs.  There are so many of them that bring home the patriotism of the holiday, our gratitude for our forefathers for creating a more perfect union, and our love of America. Think, the Star‑Spangled Banner , America the Beautiful , Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. , and lately, during the World Cup, John Denver’s Country Roads . Of course, one of those patriotic favorites is God Bless America , and it’s still sung by the massive crowds across the country. But when was it first performed, and who wrote it? Although the first public performance was in 1938 to celebrate Armistice Day (the end of World War I), the story actually goes back to 1918 and “The Dean of American Songwriters,” the great Irving Berlin. He’d written the tune 20 years earlier, but it wasn’t until 1938 that a revised version was sung publicly : November 9, 1938 In [a] remarkable letter, songwriter Irving Berlin writes to fellow composer Harry ...

WELCOME to The Corral! This is an open chat forum like REVEILLE, but for Sat and Sun.  Have a wonderful weekend, and please be civil! TEX

By Scott Pinsker It’s called Betteridge’s law of headlines : “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no .” Like Occam’s razor, it’s not a bulletproof absolute, but Betteridge’s law is right a helluva lot more often than it’s wrong.  Which takes us to today’s (July 3) headline from the New York Times’ 47-paragraph-long feature story: “ A Big Gamble for the Left: Can Socialism Appeal in a Swing State? ” (Hint, hint.) But first, let’s take a step back. When you’re planning an adversarial PR campaign, there are plenty of ways to skin the cat. You could focus like a laser beam on your own strengths and attributes. Or what animates your target audience. Or what you hate the most about your opponent. But sometimes, your best bet is to shut up and listen: If you pay attention, your opponent usually tells you where he’s most vulnerable.   Again, this isn’t an absolute. It’s possible your opponent suffers from proximity blindness: He’s so close to the ...

(The Free Press photo illustration) By Caitlin Flanagan I didn’t go to first grade in the United States; I was overseas on one of my academic father’s endless sabbaticals. I got home in time for the new school year, and I learned that in my absence, my cohort had been charged with a new obligation: saying the Pledge of Allegiance each morning. Nobody took me aside to tell me what it meant (Allegiance? Indivisible?); I just stood up with everyone else and picked it up. We took it seriously. When the morning bell rang, we’d climb the wide stone steps that led from the playgrounds to the school buildings, hang up our jackets and store our lunch boxes in the cloakroom (why cloak? Had that, too, been explained in first grade?), and then hustle over to our desks for duty. Each week there was a different Pledge of Allegiance monitor, and that person walked importantly to the front of the room and stand beneath the flag. The monitor’s hand was placed (more or less) over the monitor’s hea...

By Dave Urbanski One of the two teen suspects named in connection with the murder of a Penn State University senior in South Philadelphia less than a month ago was arrested by U.S. Marshals over 1,700 miles away from the crime scene — in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore announced Wednesday night that 16-year-old Azzubair Outen-Fleming was arrested, WPVI-TV reported . Police are still searching for a second suspect, 16-year-old Kaiseem Smith, the station said. Authorities said the suspects stole 22-year-old Billy Schmidt's cell phone in the 1900 block of Durfor Street on June 6, WPVI reported, adding that as Schmidt chased after the suspects, one of them turned and shot Schmidt in the chest. Schmidt was pronounced dead a short time later, the station said, adding that family members said Schmidt had been returning home from a nearby bar where he was watching an NBA Finals game with friends. Both Outen-Fleming and Smith ...

By Rusty Weiss A new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general report reveals that a Secret Service counter-drone operator was actively Googling the location of the rooftop where would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was perched at the exact moment he opened fire on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Instead of quickly coordinating with officers on the scene, the operator resorted to an internet search while the gunman took aim from just 155 yards away, one of several catastrophic failures detailed in the blistering report. Perhaps more alarming, local law enforcement had identified Crooks on the roof two minutes before the first shots rang out — yet the then-presidential candidate's protective detail was never alerted.  President Trump was the target at the Butler campaign rally where he was shot and wounded. The assassin's bullet would strike Trump's ear, leaving him bloodied. Corey Comperatore, a retired volunteer fire chief, was killed in the assassinati...

By Jennifer Van Laar Back in November 2025, when we learned that California Gov. Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, had been indicted on dozens of felony corruption charges, one thing that stood out to me was that one woman at the center of the scheme "to divert approximately $225,000 in funds" from then-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra's dormant campaign account wasn't charged with a crime. Named as co-conspirator 2 in the indictment, Alexis Podesta had taken over Williamson's book of business, including the Becerra account, when Williamson went to work for Newsom.  Now we know the possible reason why: according to Williamson's attorney, MacGregor Scott , Podesta was wearing a wire as far back as June, 2024. Scott said, "Alexis wore a wire, and Dana did not." That would also explain why there was a detailed transcript of a June 2024 conversation between Podesta and Williamson related to a lawsuit the state brought against Wil...

By Bob Hoge We’ve seen the bratty Left in this country pouting over the widespread patriotism displayed at World Cup matches, their efforts to kill fireworks celebrations for our nation’s 250 th birthday, and their desire to stop you from displaying your American flag . It’s been frankly a disgusting exhibition and reveals just how far many progressives have sunk into the anti-American, woke-at-all-costs abyss. Nowhere was this more evident than in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. A lawmaker was removed from the floor of the state House for the crime of… wearing a suit with an American flag theme. Democrats, who have a one-seat majority in the chamber, were so triggered that they immediately ordered him to take off the jacket or get the heck out. They’ll accept Pride outfits, but not patriotic displays: 🚨 Rep. Eric Davanzo Removed From the Floor for Patriotic Jacket 🚨 You would think that wearing a red, white and blue jacket in the days before our nation's 250th birthday would be ...

An attorney for Hearn said his client was innocent, blasting the charges as "outrageous and should be alarming to every American." By Jacob Wheeler A grand jury on Thursday indicted three-time U.S. Olympian David Hearn, alleging he ripped a piece of sealant from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with his bare hands, federal prosecutors said. Hearn, 67, faces a single felony count for destruction of property following his arrest last month in the nation’s capital, according to Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.  “This was a deliberate act to damage the reflecting pool at the National Mall that members of the National Park Service actually have worked hard to restore,” Pirro said at a press conference. “We can state and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he caused damage, and that damage is over $1,000.” On June 19, Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist, was on a bike ride when he stopped to see the reflecting pool following r...

By Demetrius Gardner A new peer-reviewed study published in Scientific Reports has confirmed something conservatives have long suspected but rarely seen quantified with this much precision. The American birth rate collapse is not a uniform national phenomenon. It is being driven overwhelmingly by one side of the political spectrum, and it is not the side that still believes in family, faith, and future. The study, authored by University of Vienna evolutionary demographer Martin Fieder and researcher Susanne Huber , analyzed data from the General Social Survey covering Americans born between 1898 and 1982. The researchers tracked completed fertility, meaning respondents were all over 40 and had finished their childbearing years, across seventeen birth cohorts spanning more than a century. A Divergence That Begins With the Pill For decades, the gap barely existed. Americans born in the early twentieth century had roughly similar family sizes regardless of political orient...