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Columnists

BECKY MAUPIN: Overwhelmed Doesn’t Mean Ungrateful

If you’re on social media for any amount of time, you pretty quickly see that there is mixed content. Some of it is positive and gives you really good...

BOB BROWN: When the Underdog Bites Has Rabies, and a Mean Owner

We have a strong human urge to identify with the “underdog.” There is nothing new...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Is Phase Two Of Trump‘s Peace Plan In The Gaza Strip Doomed To Fail? – Part II

Unfortunately, Trump’s present ceasefire as of October 9 is analogous to the armistice signed between...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Is Phase Two Of Trump‘s Peace Plan In The Gaza Strip Doomed To Fail? – Part I

Phase one of Trump‘s twenty-point peace plan in the Gaza Strip, which began on October...

FRED FIRST: Approaching the Longest Night

Yes, you’re right—if you’ve even noticed—that this space has been neglected for some weeks now,...

When You Need “Someone With Skin On”

The funeral is over and family and friends who came to express their condolences have turned their attention to other matters. Loneliness and...

Recipe of the Week: Roasted Artichoke and Virginia Ham Stuffed Idaho Potatoes

I don’t know much about football but I do know potatoes and ham and when the Idaho potato people sent me this recipe...

Ghoulies and Ghosties in the Roanoke Valley

I’ve always been enchanted by an ancient Cornish Litany that goes like this: “From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties, and things that go bump...

Are You Prepared? And If So, Why?

Elizabeth Myer Boulton recalls that, during the energy crisis, her grandmother “became obsessed with keeping the needle of her Buick’s gas gauge above...

Lessons From Walt

Walt was an old man when I first met him in seventh grade. Oh, he was my age mathematically but a galling poverty...

Disappointment and Magic

I seem spend a lot of time being disappointed.  Disappointed in myself and those around me.  Disappointed in the ways of the world and...