Feeling The Hot Breath Of Texas

A certain type of brisk, dry breeze upon my face invariably elicits one response: "This feels just like Texas!" I first felt the unforgettable hot breath of Texas in June 1967.

In those days, oil companies offered plum summer jobs to engineering students within a year of graduation. Landing one, Mary and I married on Saturday, [...]

The Day The Slide Rule Died

When friend Keith Bolton politely inquired whether I had used Texas Instruments calculators during my employment at that company, he greatly underestimated my foothold in antiquity.

In those days before the invention of handheld calculators, the slide rule reigned as the engineer's tool of choice. Manufacturers hawked their wares with the fervor of TV salesmen in [...]