Columns

Once a week, I walk out of the office with a pile of newspapers.
They’re not intended for the birdcage; nor for my fire pit.
Rather, I carry them home for research purposes.
You see, even though several times a day I check our news and sports in their various stages of work-flow, I also go through each printed edition.
Folks in the press room will tell you, I’m often standing at the end of the folder as the first make-ready copies roll off.
What I am looking for is simple … what I hope you are looking for.

Gentle reader, there is much talk nowadays about the subject matter and the quality of our educational system.
This talk, and more, is fully warranted by the present state of knowledge among the general population, but unfortunately this has become bogged down in a right-wing ideological morass, with the only real action being taken consisting of attacking the teachers’ unions.
This will produce nothing other than increased rancor and ill will, leaving the coming generation to be even less well educated than their elders.

You can be plodding along in the routine of life and never see a week like the  past one happen.

Killer storms swirled all around us, but in Roane County, most of us escaped the worst of the harm.

Then a blissfully beautiful Saturday unfolded.

My plans involved hiking at Big South Fork, but I soon expanded my itinerary to include one night of camping.

Some friends, knowing that we have long regarded Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” as one of the best musicals ever written, kindly gave us a copy of the programme for the current production of this work, appearing through 15 May at the Clarence Brown Theatre.
As would be expected, the programme lists the cast members, which, if you know the story, must of necessity be unusually large, but, in addition the musicians in the orchestra are also listed.