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Columnists

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Bring Back The War Department

President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a prescient and heartfelt speech in Chautauqua, New York, on August 14, 1936, about the tragedy and horrors of war.  Reflecting upon his own experience as...

FRED FIRST: Changing of the Guard

The theme for the Lenoir Words Writers Group this month is AUTUMN. And since I...

BOB BROWN: The Truth About Lying

Everyone lies! That’s the truth. Most people are relatively honest most of the time. The average...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Hurricane Erin Is Our Future – Part II

Unfortunately, the U.S. is not the only country experiencing climate change. It is a global...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Hurricane Erin Is Our Future – Part I

I read a prescient and depressing article in the Associated Press written by Danica Coto on August 16,...

Summer’s Flood of Green Not So Bad

Summer’s green can become tiresome, unless you take it one plant at a time. Some recent botanical discoveries have made the Green Tide...

A Soupçon of Poison in the Air

Poison ivy.  Its scientific name says it all: Toxicodendron radicans,” or “an easily-rooted poisonous tree,” as farmers and gardeners know all too well. ...

Lord, It is Good to Be

“Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, you are great indeed!" (Psalm 104) I’m writing this “corner” while at the...

ZOTZ Are in Town or is This the Twilight Zone?

I have a confession to make. I have occasionally been driving all the way out to Cracker Barrel in Troutville to feed a...

If An Event Goes Unreported, Did It Ever Really Happen?

Dent McSkimming was a beat reporter for the St. Louis Star while still in high school.  He served in World War 1, came...

And Yet It Moves . . .

In the late 19th-century, Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov wrote a frantic orchestral interlude, “Flight of the Bumblebee,” for his four-act opera called The Tale...