Cogno’s Corner

My sister reminded my wife a few weeks ago that it was our anniversary. I think she said something along the lines of, “What did you all do for your anniversary?”
My wife, who, as had I, had forgotten, probably said something like, “nothing.” I would have made up some fantastic lie and then sworn to it till the day I died. Had she asked me, I would have told her we flew to Italy, bought an estate and gave the kids to a needy family down the street. Answers like that are the reason no one in my family ever asks me any questions. 

Gov. Tim Kaine recently told a group of reporters that he still plans to launch a universal, non-mandatory pre-kindergarten program, and, he said, he’ll do it without raising taxes. Great. A pre-kindergarten program, one of the issues that helped Kaine move into the governor’s mansion, is one that should be addressed. But how does Kaine propose we pay for it if not with tax hikes?

Dave Hauver spent six months in 2005 through-hiking the Appalachian Trail. He took with him a digital video camera “just to see what might happen,” he said this week.
Making a film about his trip was perhaps in the back of his mind, but he said, “It was all about the hike. If I got enough for a film, great.”

There was one delicious piece of irony during the three-hour Al Gore campaign commercial broadcast free of charge by the good folks at NBC over the weekend. It came during a performance by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame. Waters played “Another Brick in the Wall Part II.” The cameras cut to thousands and thousands of concert goers bobbing, nodding and singing along that “we don’t need no thought control.”

Greetings from Hickory Ridge. Do you remember summer kitchens in the basement and swimming holes in nearby creeks? Nights too hot to sleep and the shivery joy of cold movie theaters in those days when our homes were not air-conditioned?

It obviously can take years to know the result, if any, of childhood experiences that may only manifest in the adult years. That’s why data is limited in many long-term studies that are only a few years old – the results simply aren’t in yet. 

Local music lovers and museum supporters are ready to welcome hundreds of traditional musicians July 13 -15 to the Tazewell County Old Time & Bluegrass Fiddlers’ Convention, which will feature two nights of Band Competition this year.  The event is held at the Tazewell County Fairgrounds and is a benefit event for Crab Orchard Museum.

Here are this week’s events:

Local horror writer, J.C. Schweingrouber, will be in Richlands on Friday, July 6 for a book-signing at the Coffee Station located at 1500 Front Street (beside the post office).