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OPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Simple pleasures
My family and I have been fortunate to experience some epic vacations. Mostly, that's due to the number of people we carry with us. We've always preferred the …
Stories by Steve Straessle
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: The pocketknife
I was killing time while my wife shopped in an eclectic Aspen store. She's not a big shopper, so I knew she'd cruise fast, likely touch several things, but buy…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Stranger things
In early fall of 1988, I was riding through the streets of New Orleans on a rumbling streetcar. I had just started college at Tulane University and was getting…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Flowers in a park
Summer schedule flexibility is among the best benefits of a teaching career. Summer brings quiet. No bells. For me, that means a long lunchtime, one in which I…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Wisdom demands
I sat on a shuttle in Aspen, Colo., talking to a young woman who attends Howard University, her white eyelet dress aglow against her dark skin. As she spoke, s…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Reminder in red
I'm pulling into the Chick-fil-A on Markham. It's almost two o'clock and I haven't had lunch yet thanks to a loaded morning schedule.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Lost and found
"Hand me your credit card, I'm going to reserve us a spot." My wife was sitting on our couch one morning, the glow of a computer screen washing her face in blu…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Back to the Village
The McDonald's on Rodney Parham Road anchored it. No surprise there, since access to inexpensive food and booth space was an easy lure.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Important issues
"Maybe you should write about something important this week, you know, a current issue," my wife said, not unkindly, as she twirled her hair in one hand and he…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Whale of a site
My Saturday morning running group usually stays off the River Trail in deference to the warm asphalt of the city's center. We avoid the path alongside fresh wa…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Time well spent
"Can I borrow your iPad?" The boy was tall for a 10-year-old. He had come with a change of clothes and nothing more. My wife mouthed, "no way" to me, sensing t…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Across the stage
"I have a more maddening week than you do. I win."
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Subscriber ExclusiveOnly sounds left
I'm typing this column during lunch in my school office right now. There's a low rumble in the cafeteria and chatter right outside. Footsteps sound and I can i…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: A profound lesson
It's nearing the end of the school year, and while the senior class is fast-walking to graduation, the juniors are flexing their shoulders in anticipation of l…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Prom night
I'm helping my daughter get ready for her high school prom.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Our Town
My sons and I walked the path leading to the heart of campus, toward the tall iron gates. A gravel trail crunched under our feet as we meandered, talking about…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Diving deep
I'm reading a new book by NYU professor Jonathan Haidt titled "The Anxious Generation." Usually, I'd wait until I finished a book before I recommended it, but …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Don’t look up
There's always one. That one person who can't fight the temptation to look up.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Rounding down
I was a stay-at-home dad last week. Spring break had descended upon Arkansas schools and my wife had to work. My 11th-grade daughter took off for the beach wit…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: The death of a boy
Today is his funeral and it's awful to contemplate. Teenage boys shouldn't leave us, they shouldn't pull away in the permanence of death. The news was announce…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Rock solid
When I was a young father, I learned a lot about choices that are inherent to being human. I learned this by doing laundry.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Spring forward
A co-worker appeared at my office door announcing he had a gift for me, his hands invisible behind him. Since pranks run wild at all-boys schools, I was wary a…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Simple freedom
I started typing this on Monday. That's a run day for me because I like to have the morning roads to myself thanks to my idiot dog who has to inspect every sin…
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Subscriber ExclusiveLet them have fun
I stretched my back, using both hands to massage my lower spine. Years of sitting on bleachers and pews has made it impossible to spend long periods on hard su…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: My Valentine
I stood on the smooth front porch of our little house. After kicking a little mud off my shoes, I removed my rain jacket, shaking it until all signs of the sti…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Power of place
The importance of place is often misunderstood. The importance is not physical. It's the connections we draw within the boundaries of man.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: A light in the soul
It's interesting how you can feel the weight of a single well-written sentence. The words hit just right and leave a small divot within one's soul.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Snow days
I texted a weather forecaster last Sunday, asking him the chances a Little Rock school administrator would be driving the streets at 4 a.m. to see how slick th…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Ida’s dance
A dog ate $4,000 in cash off a table, the news report said. A young couple had left the money in an envelope and came back to find it gone and the dog gagging.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: ‘Carry the Rock’
Catholic High is leading Central 27-20 with just minutes left in the game.
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Subscriber ExclusiveAirbnb travel
I've picked some good ones. There was the farmhouse in Asheville for my wife's 50th birthday which included watching the sunrise over the Blue Ridge Mountains.…
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Subscriber ExclusiveFor better days
A mother's tears seem heavier. They fall like oil instead of water, making slow rolls from the eye to the ground. Their trails lead back to the anguish that ca…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Honoring peace
It's ironic that stress and worry grow at the time of the year when peace is supposed to reign. Submitting during the holidays, resigning oneself to the host o…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Best-dressed men
We walked along Broad Street in Charleston, S.C., taking in the salt-tinged coastal air that seemed to contrast with the Christmas wreaths on every door. Slate…
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Subscriber ExclusiveThe celebration
My wife's birthday rolls around at the end of this month. I'm sure I'll wake up that day and pull together all of my creative wit and say something exciting li…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: The Kid
My stomach rumbled as I drove west on Cantrell Road. I've eaten my weight in Thanksgiving leftovers, so no idea what caused it.
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Subscriber ExclusiveGood china
I should be on the road to the Bradbury Christmas Tree Farm this morning. That's a family tradition we've been foisting upon the kids since they were born. The…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Be thankful
It's a holiday week and I have the strong sense of being out of place. I'm in my kitchen right now instead of dodging midtown Monday morning traffic and it doe…
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Subscriber ExclusiveFor all the saints
The time change had me all out of sorts last Sunday. I started flipping channels early, looking for Fox NFL, when I stumbled upon a Methodist church program. T…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: RAW drama
I sat at my computer innocently checking emails. Delete ... delete ... delete. I tapped out a few responses, read a few lengthy work-related diatribes.
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Subscriber ExclusiveGhost story
"Slow down, there's a police car up ahead," my wife said as she touched my arm lightly.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Coming home
Finally, I saw my breath vaporize into little clouds of steam. I was standing in a grove of oak trees early Sunday morning, coffee in one hand, the other hand …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Good water
Meaningful rain has avoided Little Rock since May. We've had a few downpours, a nice shower or two, but overall, summer left a smudge of brown lawns across the…
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Subscriber ExclusiveSmall-town reads
Truman Capote felt like a good match. I went back and forth on whether to kick off the long, hot summer months with fiction or nonfiction, an internal conversa…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Active voice
The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) is a Little Rock jewel. Libraries can easily become passive repositories of books, places that just wait for residen…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Down to the lake
Old-timers in education know that the real school year doesn't start until after Labor Day. That's not to mean we waste August days sorting art supplies, talki…
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Room 219
Little Rock seemed so removed from the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: Course selection
When our middle daughter, a student at Little Rock Central High School, signed up to take AP African American Studies, my wife and I were on board. We were on …
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Subscriber ExclusiveOPINION | STEVE STRAESSLE: What Titus taught
I listened for the dog bark. Nothing. Squirrels played in the big oak outside my office, chasing each other like kids on a playground.