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Columnists

BOB BROWN: What is Real?

Often, an old song plays in my mind. I cannot identify the situations that bring lyrics and melodies into my awareness. Somehow, I am reassured and comforted by them. Say...

FRED FIRST: Spiders I Have Worn

I see now how often what I chose to write about in my haphazard weekly...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Does Putin Consider Ukraine Russian Territory? If So, U.S. Negotiations Are In Trouble

President Putin, aka Vladimir the Terrible, is a second-world money-mongering autocrat, who commands the largest...

ANDY PITZER: Not-So-Trivial Geography

The absence of geography courses in American elementary and secondary school curriculums these days is...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest On July 4th Is An Ode To Gluttony

Joey Chestnut, 41, who is 6’1”, surprisingly only 230 pounds, and a personification of gluttony, won...

A Southerner Bids Adieu to Maine

As a native Virginian, I have endured three years of self-imposed exile in the Yankee wilds of coastal Maine. I’ve lived (barely) through three ghastly...

The Tectonic Shift from Democracy to Autocracy

There must be some compelling reason why several million people continue to support the Presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. However, there may be a...

Surf Fishing For The Big Ones

If you go to the beach this summer you should know about something that’s happening at night down near the water. I’m not talking about...

Farewell Roanoke and Thanks for the Memories – Joe Kennedy

I should have left Roanoke when I retired seven years ago. But I didn't.  Lack of imagination, I guess. Now I am planning to move to...

Homeward Bond

I thought of the song "Homeward Bound" by Simon and Garfunkel as I was traveling to my childhood home recently to empty its contents...

It Takes a Village To Raise A Child

What a wonderful sentiment! It is warm and fuzzy and conjures up visions of a Norman Rockwell town with a little red schoolhouse, smiling...