We are entering the holiday season, a time often filled with romanticized emotions. The leaves are changing colors and falling, and the weather is cooler— at least for a few moments each morning. Holiday music quietly becomes the backdrop of our lives as we plan family gatherings and shop for groceries. Many families and friends will soon sit around tables, sharing laughter and stories. Then, before we know it, we begin preparations for Christmas: all the same fun, but with presents added in. And of course, there’s the non-stop stream of Hallmark Christmas movies.

Thanksgiving Day has developed into a day of feasting, family and football. For this Aggie Priest, it is a particularly highlighted year of the connection of Thanksgiving weekend and football as the #3 Aggies take on the #17 Longhorns, but we must not forget the day’s original roots of being a day of gratitude. Gratitude is the virtue of the Thanksgiving holiday!

To the editor: I read with interest Lisa Musick’s article in the November 21 Fayette County Record titled “Artificial Intelligence & the Rural Way of Life: What it means for Fayette County.” This article was timely, absolutely on target and filled with truth. Artificial Intelligence (AI) undoubtedly will eventually influence the lives of all of humanity.

To the editor: I was not aware that questions and opinions had to be unambiguous, that proof must be submitted and that facts are required to be shown. Mea Culpa, and this in the opinion section of the FCR in the letters to the editor portion? Maybe it is time to let folks know that opinions are neither right nor wrong.

To the editor: How can anyone support the Democratic Party these days? I know good, decent, honest, hard working Democrats and cannot for the life of me understand that they will not leave this party because ‘it was their parents party.’ They do not seem to understand, or care, that it is not the same party of years ago. It gets more liberal every day and many now know it as the Socialist Democratic party.

Artificial intelligence (AI) began in the 1950s, emerging alongside technological advances during the Atomic Age. Alan Turing, best known for his WWII codebreaking, laid the groundwork in 1950 by publishing a paper that imagined machines displaying human-like intelligence. The term “artificial intelligence” was introduced in 1956 by John McCarthy and his colleagues at a conference now seen as the official starting point in the field. At its core, AI relies on three main ingredients: data, algorithms, and computing power. These can be understood by comparing AI to a car: 1. Data acts as fuel: Just as your car needs gasoline or electricity, AI needs data to run. For example, a local bakery gathers sales numbers from past days as its fuel.

We spend a lot of energy planning what comes next— until suddenly, we’ve arrived. We step away from a project, survive a crisis, send the last child off with casserole recipes and a prayer, or retire from a job we’ve loved and resented in equal measure.

It’s what we do when we’re grateful for plenty of food to eat, for family, for faith in God, for an education, for the means to make a living, for a satisfying workplace with supportive colleagues, for health, for friends, for all the “normal” things that we almost take for granted sometimes.

More than four-fifths of Texas public schools received an ‘A’ rating for their financial practices, according to the Texas Education Agency, which released the final financial accountability ratings for the latest school year last week.