If you’ve lived in Tyler for any length of time you’ve probably heard (or even thought to yourself) that on there’s a bank, church and Mexican restaurant on every corner. One thing for sure is this Sunday, many of those churches will see an increase in attendance if people attend out of obligation or decide perhaps they feel they can’t allow the resurrection of our Lord and Savior to pass by and they did nothing to observe it. Several East Texas churches and organizations are putting on events in celebration of Easter.

On Saturday, there will be an Easter egg hunt held at Our Savior Lutheran Church at 10 a.m. For those in the Lufkin area, there will be an Easter egg hunt at Kit McConico Park in Lufkin.

Before that however, the city of Tyler will host its 11^th annual Twilight Easter Egg hunt, which is slated to be held Thursday night. The event also includes four hunts for special needs kids between the ages of 3 and 10.

There are events all throughout East Texas. On Saturday, Longview will host its first Bunny 5K run and Kids’ Dash and Egg Hunt. Those in the Palestine area can have bunny pictures made at Lee Loveless photography on Main Street starting at 10 a.m.

The truth is out there and the truth is the X-Files is returning to Fox for six special episodes. After being off the air for the 13 years, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are back as agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully as they dig for the truth in unusual cases. Show creator Chris Carter will also make his return.

The popular sci-fi show first premiered in September 1993 and lasted nine seasons, during which, it won 16 Emmys, five Golden Globes, one Peabody Award and was one of the most successful TV dramas ever. The show is set to make its return sometime during the upcoming season but the majority of details are being kept under wraps until a later time.

Carter told Rollingstone.com, “I think of it as a 13-year commercial break. “The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories.”

Unfortunately, he’s right about the world having gotten stranger, which is a shame for society but for fans of the popular ‘90’s sci-fi drama, there is finally an upside to the strangeness as they will be able to enjoy storylines starring Mulder and Scully.

The return of the X-Files comes a year after Fox revived 24 for a miniseries.

The last couple of years I’ve seen my share of children’s movies. As I’ve stated before on this site and elsewhere, my favs are probably the Toy Story Series and the Despicable Me movies. And while I’ve taken my son to a number of other more recent films, they’ve never been as great as the others. Well, today I took the kids to one that at least comes close.

Accompanied by my son and two nephews I attended a matinee showing (at the Carmike 14) of the new Movie “Home.” It was a very creative show driven by the great performance of Jim Parsons (aka Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory fame). The story involves a race of alien cowards who colonize the planet while hiding from another aggressive alien race. When the new resident misfit accidentally reveals the location of the new home planet he’s forced to take up with a human teenage girl who happens to be seeking her mother who was displaced when the aliens first arrived.

The movie is pretty well conceived and really quite funny. There are periods where the story drags a bit, particularly during some of the more emotional moments. There’s a lot mother daughter themes which are positive if a bit difficult for males to relate to directly. But overall the story is fun, amusing and kept the attention of my active little guys, which is no small achievement. For my part I enjoyed the film as well. The musical score has great potential to annoy but Parson’s performance made up for any discomfort I felt during the musical numbers.

The other positive is that there’s nothing in the show that would be potentially problematic for parents of small children. There’s nothing too frightening and there isn’t any thinly veiled adult humor. There is a little bathroom humor but not too much. It was just sufficient to delight little boys in my care.

I am writing this article to renew my call for another private water distributor in Tyler and Smith County! We have toiled under the heartless, dictatorial, monopoly known as Southern Utilities for far too long. I have never seen a private company treat its PAYING customers so poorly as Southern Utilities. It seems the company labors under the misconception that it’s merely collecting taxes owed not accepting payment for services rendered. But why should they show concern for their customers? Where else are they going to go?

In all seriousness I am pro-business. I’m not looking for a handout, and I’m not expecting someone else to pay. What I am looking for is a modicum of appreciation for my business as well as an attempt at true customer service. Southern Utilities has no website, accepts no credit card or debit card and won’t take payments over the phone! In short they do nothing to improve the customer’s experience. It’s interesting to watch a company go about its routine without any acknowledgement of changing times or technology. In fact, it often seems like they’re spending money in order to make my life more difficult.

Doing business with southern Utilities is like doing business with the Internal Revenue Service, except for the fact that the IRS has friendlier agents. I swear their execs cannot wait to withhold service and are slow as molasses to either restore it or except any kind of responsibility for mistakes. If there was an award for the worst area business of the last forty years or so, Southern Utilities would have a monopoly on that too. But don’t take my word for it, read a few customer reviews.

Come Tyler, we can do better! There must be some way for a better water company to break into our market. I know there’d be business a plenty!

I enjoy writing for this site immensely, but there are times when interesting topics elude me. Of course there are also times when a subject presents itself and virtually forces me to write about it. An article I read this afternoon was one such topic. Evidently adults in Brooklyn, New York are now paying a thousand dollars for a month long class. And the term “class,” stretches credulity because what they are attending is an adult preschool, with all the rights, privileges, and challenges which accompany enrolling in that type on institution.

Daily activities include things like: show and tell, arts and crafts, finger painting, dress up, naps… ok the nap sounds pretty good… at the home that I own… in my own large and comfortable bed… not on a mat lying on the newly dried floor where the guy or gal next to me just wet themselves.

The purpose of the adult preschool is to provide some sort of amateur therapy, and help “students” deal with the stress in their lives. Oh here’s an idea, give in to the nervous breakdown! Evidently, the founder holds too strong to the fallacy that everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten… which is preposterous. I didn’t learn to drive in Kindergarten, I didn’t learn to teach a class, I didn’t learn that command economies will never work long term because they create a false demand for a product without actually generating any new wealth… Sorry. What was I talking about again?

In his classic work Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle talks about what he calls “incontinence,” which is actually amazingly relevant to this discussion. He says knowledge is directly proportional to shame. So playing with toys is completely acceptable for a child who is still developing and lacks the “continence” or ability to fill his time in a productive way. But if I as an adult were caught unaware finger painting by myself when I should be grading papers, well that would be shameful, or at least it should be.

Ultimately I think the “School” is capitalizing on the innate desire that people have to escape their responsibilities and if being completely incompetent is going to facilitate that, than fair enough. Ultimately, here’s the thing: life is tough. Life is stressful. And there are any number of good, healthy, responsible and adult options for dealing with that stress; things like seeing an actual therapist, visiting with a priest or pastor, or simply being open and honest with one’s spouse. In a crunch, a competent bartender could be helpful. (Just kidding about the last one). All of these are good ways for mature grown-ups to deal with hardship. And the great thing is they won’t bring any shame to you or your family!