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Columnists

BOB BROWN: AGING POETICALLY, PART I

Too often, the human race is a race against time. Until recently, I was a sprinter in this race. Nowadays, blessed by the gift of a long life, my...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Twenty Reasons For Regime Change in Iran

1. The kidnapping of 66 Americans at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979,...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: When Is Trump’s Promise To Iran That “Help Is On The Way” Finally Going To Happen?

There was a horrific, chaotic carnage in the streets of Iran during a nationwide protest on January 8...

FRED FIRST: Missouri’s Capitol City: First-Time Tourist

I could not possibly do justice to my first visit a half hour south of...

BOB BROWN: The Triumph of Terrible Feelings Over Judgment

Today, our way of life is dominated by powerful, fast-moving, extreme emotions — especially anger,...

Snow and Mixed Messages

Of all the kinds of weather, there are none that produce such a wide range of emotion as snow.  Droughts and blistering heat, floods...

The Happy Chef: Venus’ Chocolate Macadamia Nut Tart

Valentine’s Day is about love, and true love is about giving but true love is also about receiving - the taking on of...

New Orleans: Beyond the Saints

“Oh yeah, Dad, the parking situation is tricky,” our son Adam announces. We end up squeezing their car and ours into a space more...

The Great Hope For Haiti

Scenes of destruction and suffering from the earthquake in Haiti wrench our hearts. They also bring back vivid memories of my first visit to...

Meets His Intestinal Match

Last week, Roscoe the Bassett Hound, Roanoke's preeminent eating machine, consumed a foreign object, hurling our pet-centric household into a state of emergency. If...

Avatar Sets One to Thinking: What Body This? By The Reverend Barkley Thompson

It was an almost foregone conclusion.  There James Cameron sat several Sunday evenings ago, his hair more silver than it was thirteen years...