By Forest Riggs Finally, the New Year has arrived. With Thanksgiving and Christmas well behind us, New Year’s Eve came along and gave cause for great celebration. Millions gathered and watched the ball drop in one fashion or another and millions awoke to great hangovers on the 2nd of January. The good thing is that

| So long, 2019 and welcome, 2020. “2020 has got to better than 2019” By Forest Riggs Can you believe it? Seems like in the blink of an eye, 2019 raced by — and none too soon! Sometimes I think the time has “speeded up” and science just has not figured out exactly how to

By Forest Riggs I say, MYGA! Well, why not? It seems everybody is making something again and stamping it on baseball caps and T-shirts. Too bad the idea has to remind us of Lord Cheeto and his MAGA BS. Moving on. With Thanksgiving behind us and perhaps carrying a few extra pounds, it is time

By Forest Riggs Forget about all of Turkey Day’s rich foods and the celebratory drinks. From cornbread stuffing to pumpkin and sweet potato pie, slabs of pecan pie and loads of green bean casserole, with mashed potatoes, yeast rolls and globs of cranberry sauce, Thanksgiving has it all. Aside from being the “opening” of the

By Forest Riggs My, how time flies! It seems like just yesterday that the Island was in the midst of an unending heat wave that kept all but the devoted sun-and-sand lovers inside. With the first weekend in November came the chill of a late fall, and sweaters, coats, and sweatshirts became the fashion. Heaters

By Forest Riggs Halloween, with all its witches and hollow-weenied goblins, came and went. The Island was full of party-going revelers, costume contests and ghost tours. It was not an uncommon site to see lantern-holding groups of folks gathered in cemeteries and in the dark alleys of downtown, all looking for some evidence of the

By Forest Riggs Gosh, it is that time of year again, when most folks dust off old ghost stories and share new ones. Galveston, long known as a “Ghost Capital” in America, is chock-full of famous and infamous tales of lingering and lost spirits, ranging from Karankawa Indians, pirates, spurned lovers and down-right murderers to

By Forest Riggs Just when folks were finally able to get back into their Hurricane Harvey damaged homes, the bottom fell out and along came a Tropical Storm named Imelda. The upper Gulf Coast got it again; the region was flooded from torrential rains that hovered over southeast Texas, causing extensive flooding and damage. You

By Forest Riggs Where to begin? September is about half over, I’m a year older, storms keep crawling off the coast of Africa, the heat will not let up and the stores are already crammed full of holiday junk! Mix all of this with the returning use of pumpkin spice in everything from coffee to

By Forest Riggs Dim the house lights, close the curtains, and shut the stage door: The Contessa has left the production. After a brief illness, the Island’s beloved Antonio “Tony” Garcia, A.K.A. The Contessa peacefully passed away on Friday, August 16, two days short of his 81st birthday. Garcia, a much loved and iconic character