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Columnists

BOB BROWN: Lost and Found

All of us encounter loss. The meaning we attribute to loss influences our response to it. Our losses accumulate. They range from minor to unimaginable. Last week, two sets of...

FRED FIRST: Where You’re From

In the very early years of writing, I was exposed to a poem called “Where...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: I No Longer Watch Baltimore Orioles’ Baseball Games

I no longer watch Baltimore Orioles’ baseball games. I now only watch innings, and if I...

ANDY PITZER: “Look Mom! No iPhone!”

A very interesting visually recorded interview showed up on my feed the other night. In...

FRED FIRST: There And Back Again

RECAP: I would be able to visit southwest Virginia again–home for almost 40 years, and...

SCOT BELLAVIA: Am I Proud to Be an American?

How proud are you to be an American? I posted that question on Facebook a few years ago on the Fourth of July. I wasn’t...

BOB BROWN: “Portraits of the Human Person”

On the night of June 21, 2025, President Donald Trump said all seven B2 Bombers had safely returned from an unprecedented successful attack on...

BECKY MAUPIN: The After Bedtime Search

Picture this: You manage to get everyone fed and the dinner aftermath cleaned up. Then starts the bedtime rodeo that includes 4 meltdowns, 3...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Israel’s Second Sum Of All Fears

I first heard about a dirty bomb in early September 1993 when an IBM coworker, who had majored in computer science and physics at...

BOB BROWN: What Happened to Happiness?

We can quibble about the origin, even the definition or meaning of “happiness,” but I’m not going there. I am simply wondering why we...

FRED FIRST: Homeward Bound

It would happen: the trip back to Floyd. And then it wouldn’t. And then it would and it is and I have just a...