I don’t plan on being in a situation where I hire employees again, but if I do find myself with a stack of applications or resumes in my hand and an afternoon of interviews booked, I now know the single most important question I can ask a potential hire. The question has nothing to do with the workplace, at least not on the surface.

She has no bio, no profile image, she follows no one, and has never posted a single Tweet. Still, more than 23,000 people follow her on Twitter with an average of 19 new followers each day. Tina Fey doesn’t use Twitter, but no one seems to mind.

Early in the morning on Christmas Eve of 2008, Kevin Russell received a gift he’d been waiting on for well over a decade.

“’Ain’t No Sunshine’ by Bill Withers is one of my favorite songs of all time and there has always been this one chord I just couldn’t find. I asked everybody and I looked online and no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find that chord. Then finally this morning I found it and I ran and told my wife.”

I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know: you’re wondering who the devil this Kevin Russell is and why you’re reading about soul legend Bill Withers in a magazine purported to be about Texas music. If that’s accurate then you must be unfamiliar with Austin’s favorite sons, the Gourds.

Allow us to make the introductions.

I am a fan of the Boston Red Sox living in Texas. Red Sox Nation is everywhere so it’s not as unusual as it was pre-2004, but it’s still a bit odd. Ultimately, I’m asked where in Massachusetts I used to live. My answer of “Enid” draws a lot of blank stares. Allow me to explain.

“Can’t a man get a decent piece of toast any more?”

This was my question as I went on a search to find a toaster that wouldn’t leave me flinging scorched squares of sourdough across the kitchen. Kitchen Aid’s KMTT400 – the red and silver beauty pictured above – was the answer to my question.

I recently installed the Nishita WordPress theme for a new project I’m working on. The theme is perfect for this project and I’m extremely grateful to the developer, Brajeshwar, for taking the time to create it AND for making it available for free. Howvere, I ran into a problem when it came to the archive thumbnails. Here’s how I solved it.

I’m going back and adding my stories from LoneStarMusic Magazine. This was the cover story of the August/September issue. It loses a little in the intro without the multiple pictures of Charlie’s one facial expression, but you can see that version by clicking this link. Onward to the text.

Sitting down in a restaurant and having the waiter/waitress ask you, “Is this your first time to dine with us,” is not an unusual experience. What is unusual though is if you ever hear from the restaurant again when your answer is “yes”. Most often they tell you how the salad bar works, or that the peanuts are free and you can throw then on the ground, or some other operational aspect of the restaurant, but it could be so much more. Such a missed opportunity.