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Columnists

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 Iran’s fortresses of nuclear weapon...

BECKY MAUPIN: The After Bedtime Search

Picture this: You manage to get everyone fed and the dinner aftermath cleaned up. Then...

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,...

BOB BROWN: What Happened to Happiness?

We can quibble about the origin, even the definition or meaning of “happiness,” but I’m...

FRED FIRST: Homeward Bound

It would happen: the trip back to Floyd. And then it wouldn’t. And then it...

Becoming Good Soil by Tupper Garden

“Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone who has ears,...

Vacation Bible Schools Change With The Times

by Frances Stebbins As church activities slow down in the hot weeks of summer, Vacation Bible Schools enliven many a congregation. Though they've changed...

Unfortunately, I Nailed It

by Robert Adcox I had a great childhood. When I was seven or so, I used to watch with fascination as my dad built things...

Recipe of the Week: The Next Best Bacon Lettuce and Tomato

by Leigh Sackett My tomato plants are not doing well this year and several other people I have talked to are having the same...

Changing of the Carilion Guard

by Hayden Hollingsworth I remember when Nancy Agee, then Nancy Howell, was a first-year student nurse at the erstwhile Roanoke Memorial School of nursing.  She...

The Corvair-Powered Microbus

by John Robinson I loved that bus. It was one of the coolest vehicles I could imagine, and I should know; I was crazy about cars....