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Columnists

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, and it has been hard to figure out where and how to jump back...

A Life Well-Lived: Shirley Padgett Lester (1947-2025)

Shirley Padgett Lester of Vinton went to her heavenly reward October 4. Below is the...

BOB BROWN: How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden “Presidency”

Permit me to think out loud as an old-fashioned person who respects authority, history, and...

JOHNNY ROBINSON: The Gratitude Perch

On the old road up Mill Mountain, part of Roanoke’s fabulous greenway system, there’s a...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Sometimes President Trump Needs To Think Before He Speaks – Part II

Contrary to what President Trump believes, I think that Lakanwal was adequately vetted before September 2021,...

This is The Last Column You’ll Ever Need

by Mike Keeler And your kids don't need to study their math tables. And all the homework you did in high school was a waste...

Risking No Man’s Land By The Reverend Barkley Thompson

Thanks to Hollywood blockbusters like “Saving Private Ryan,” “Pearl Harbor,” and Clint Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima,” even younger people today know quite...

Don’t Forget to Read

by Hayden Hollingsworth A happy New Year’s event will soon be upon us: The opening of the new Roanoke County Library.  One can scarcely imagine...

Memories Of Christmas Past

by Mary Jo Shannon Christmases seventy years ago in rural Augusta County – at least in our family – were much simpler than Christmases...

Recipe of the Week: Christmas Soup

by Leigh Sackett The build-up to Christmas that is the Christmas season - or if you are focused on what matters most,  Advent -...

Christmas Musings By Joe Lehman

The feast of Christmas is both magical and mystical. And there’s much that helps make it so.  The most obvious are three: In Christmastide,...