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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...

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...