I am writing this letter in response to the review of “An American Christmas” by Wayne Quesenberry in Nov. 12 edition of the Enterprise. While I do appreciate Mr. Quesenberry’s kind words about my performance, I am extremely offended by his unnecessarily cruel and inappropriate comments about some of my co-stars. I have no problem with the fact that he did not like the show and some of the performances in the show because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I am sure; however, there was a much more professional way to get his point across than to compare one of my co-stars to a pedophile and to suggest that one of my other co-stars should be in a nursing home in the coma unit. These comments were absolutely uncalled for and are hurtful to all of us who share the stage with these two men. I personally feel very lucky to have both of them as my co-stars and think that they both have a lot to offer these roles. From what I have heard from our audience members about the show they would definitely agree with me on that. I can’t even begin to imagine what could have happened the night Mr. Quesenberry attended the show to cause him to have such a violent and irrational reaction to it.

Change is inevitable, and as seniors we have certainly seen our share. The stars in the sky, though, have never changed throughout our lifetimes.

You want the federal government to do what?

Walkin’ Jim Stoltz figures he’s walked about 20,000 miles in the past 35 years. He’s walked the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. He’s spent a year-and-a-half walking coast to coast. And he’s trekked from Mexico to Canada three times.

One Sunday, a minister and his wife were driving home after worship. He was reflecting on how well the day had gone, in particular how well his sermon had gone. In a rather pensive moment, the minister asked his wife, “How many truly great preachers do you think there are in this country?”
Without hesitating, she coolly replied, “One less than you think.”

Most folks who know me know I am, shall we say, a political aficionado. In fact, most of them would say I am an election junkie. I actually like the stuff, the campaigning, voting, the whole nine yards. But this time even I got tired of it. A presidential campaign that ran nearly two years is simply too much. Way too much. And because of that, there are a number of other issues, subjects, whatever one might wish to call them that have begun to bug me as well. And I can’t think of any better way to cure my “low-down, irritatin’, aggravatin’, I’m-tired-of-it-all-and mad-as-well-you-know-what blues.” So, at the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes, the sometimes news show, let’s say what we mean and mean what we say and clear my mind about some of this stuff.

Piney and She had an argument about writing. Was it better to plan what you were going to write, or to let your brain feed the story to you as it came out automatically?

If you’ve pulled off your campaign stickers and need to cover up old gummy-marks, check out the famous Northern Sun company from Minnesota. Long before they had a Web site, their catalog was the kind that would lie open for days in households across the U.S., provoking gales of laughter, squabbles, new thoughts and vexation.

My parents did not teach me to be prejudiced. I learned it on my own. I graduated from high school and college in Birmingham, Ala. The Magic City also had the claim to shame of being the most segregated city in the nation. The KKK brazenly stood at intersections collecting money in buckets from sympathetic motorists. They dressed in white with hoods, hiding their identities but not their maniacal purposes.

I’m fascinated by names of people and places and often wonder about their origin. Some names are fairly obvious such as Pleasant View with the beautiful view, Brushy Mountain covered with heavy undergrowth, and Camp Tuck-A-Way tucked between Giles County ridges. Terrains and geographic peculiarities influenced the naming of such places as Rocky Gap, Hillsville, Sand Mountain and Hanging Rock.