Piney had just had that most hated of experiences.  He woke up to a terrible jaw-ache in the environs of Tooth # 22 and had to get She Who Must Be Obeyed, who had a day off from her job grading papers, to go with him in search of a dentist, an unknown one, as Piney’s dentist, Dr. Wilson, was in far-off Wytheville as were Neal Hollyfield and other dental people of his friendship.

Whenever I think of a mentor, Rhonda Simmerman has always ranked at the top of my list.  She was my junior year English instructor at George Wythe High School, and I learned many things from her that I have considered to be key factors in my current skills as a writer.  Aside from other things she taught me scholastically, she was always a great source of support to me.  As a student and as a writer, I never felt more comfortable or free to express myself through my work than I did in her class.  All of the essays that she ever assigned were done so in a way that left the student with a practically free range of topics.  As a result, her writing assignments were usually refreshing for me to complete, as I was always someone who had plenty to say through writing. 

Attention all law-abiding Virginians. Stop it. The state needs you to commit yourself to committing crime, preferably violent crime. If you don’t, prison beds here and prison beds to come in 2010, might have to be filled by more imported lawbreakers, or, worse, in the mind of the Department of Corrections, the state might have to scale back plans for prisons and close some of the ones that were built in the binge that promised to put a house of incarceration in every Southwest Virginia boy’s and girl’s backyard.

Such a sight you seldom see.  A fierce wind lashed the decks of the good ship Ivanhoe as she cut through Cripple Creek’s tumultuous waves.  She rocked back and forth, taking one wave under and one over.  Tommy Jones, the helmsman, had called Ratchet Arnold to help hold her steady.  Old Blue Rosenbloom stood spread eagle holding up the mainsail.
“Unless we reach Dim Hole before dark,” said Tommy, “we’re all doomed.”

Farmers like to say—in fact it’s on many rusty truck bumpers—that every day is Earth Day. Despite the technical day of observation approaching on April 20, I tend to look at the first day of spring, which nearly coincided with a full moon, and St. Patrick’s Day, as the day when the Earth ought to be celebrated. So, in its honor, I managed to start planting some of the 500 white pine seedlings I ordered.

This spring, I heard that some Alabama folks would like to extend the Appalachian Trail through the mountains that lead its Georgia endpoint naturally into their state.

When tragedy strikes, it’s time to play “The Blame Game.”
No doubt you’ve watched an episode or two on the nightly news or read about the popular real-life competition in your local newspaper.

I’m not sure who won. My oldest would tell you it was him, sure enough. 

In an uncertain changing world, death and taxes are supposedly the only two sure things. Even with rebates scheduled to arrive in the mail by early May, many of us still grumble about taxes and those complicated federal and state income tax forms. A definite value added benefit of our state tax payments is the Virginia Department of Health.

The Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center (HEC) is having its 10th anniversary celebration on March 31, and I was pleased to be invited.  The HEC hosts on-site and televised classes from numerous Virginia universities, and I am the guy who, back in 1998, coined its mantra, “Improving your life by degrees”.