I found an article in Thursday’s paper interesting. I was reading the Bristol Herald Courier, the daily sister to the Smyth County News & Messenger, when I read a piece about “lost towns” as the article referred to them. These are communities that were once bustling small, rural towns and now either no longer exist or are hardly more than a wide spot in the road.

With full military honors at 2 p.m. Tuesday, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Chad Allen Barrett will be buried in the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.
Though his interment is taking place hundreds of miles from Southwest Virginia, the region will share in his family’s grief.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. 
But why change a good thing? 
Last summer, I was surprised to see a Mr. Lincoln rose emerging from a bed of daylilies.  Sure, I had planted this rose bush, years before, but hadn’t had all that much luck with it.  With deep red blooms, it brightened up a corner yard. 

The presidential campaign has been going on for a year already, with another nine months to go.  Jimmy Carter taught us that if you want to be president, start four years before the election.  I’ve concluded that you have to start even earlier than that.  Here are the ten steps you need to take. 

Two major events have conspired to ruin my life.
I changed over from Earthlink to Embarqmail.com. I lost all my old e-mails and now cannot paste anything into an e-mail, including those long lists of e-mail addresses that I used to address newsletters to the groups with whom I work.

I think restaurants should allow smokers to smoke.  I also think that the entrances to all restaurants that allow smoking should be plastered with warning signs about the dangers of smoke, second-hand smoke, and anything else that reminds patrons that what they are doing is harmful. 

Called to testify Congressional hearings into the use of steroids and human growth hormone by major league baseball players will resume February 13.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will probe again whether such household names as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds used performance enhancing drugs. Reputations are not the only things at stake.

I’m a moderately reclusive shopper who is also a little independent.  My quirks manifest themselves in various ways.  For example, I tend to avoid crowds, although I will go into large stores, hermetically sealed in my own psychological bubble unless I’m in a familiar place. 

In one of my first columns about two and a half years ago, I wrote about my efforts to improve my drinking habits by drinking the Aquacal brand of strawberry flavored water as opposed to Coca-Cola.  Having become quite addicted to the soft drink over the course of my lifetime, I remember telling you that I was uncertain as to how long this change would last.  While I cannot recall exactly how long I was able to hold out, I regret telling you that I have completely fallen off the wagon. 

The Food and Drug Administration said this week it’s OK to go around eating cloned meat and milk. That’s what all the television stations, newspapers and Web sites were saying Wednesday.