Salem Leaps into the Amphitheater Competition

"This is a stylized, idealized rendering of Roanoke's proposed amphitheater^

Once again, it appears, Salem is on the verge of handing Roanoke its head in the area of capital improvements—whether or not the improvement is necessary. The Roanoke Times tells us that Salem plans to announce it will build a community amphitheater in the coming months without having held so much as one community meeting.

Roanoke has been embroiled in its debate for some time now and in the course of a single month recently reversed a 4-2 vote (Councilman David Trinkle absent) against the structure to a 4-3 vote in favor of funding morre than $1 million for initial plans for it.

Roanoke’s building would be an expensive professional structure, costing about $13 million and opening in 2013 or so, and Salem’s would not be especially expensive or delayed—or at least so goes the guesswork prior to the news conference today.

Salem PR man Mike Stevens insists the Salem building would not compete with Roanoke’s amphitheater. I’m not sure where that reasoning comes from, since two of just about anything commercial by definition is a competition.

Salem’s history of trumping Roanoke entertainment venues is impressive, beginning with its construction of its own civic center when Roanoke failed to agree on a joint structure (which, of course, would have been built in Salem). Then, more than 10 years ago, as Salem faced the loss of its professional baseball franchise and Roanoke talked about building a baseball park, Salem threw up a $15 million structure before its residents could “TAX.” Roanoke had been the home of minor league baseball years before (remember the Roanoke Red Sox?).

The Salem ballpark is, of course, a jewel in the minor league system and the Salem Civic Center, which is not a jewel in the civic center system, has always outperformed Roanoke’s larger and much more expensive building. Those facilities with tennis courts and softball fields—and a high school football stadium that small colleges envy—are included in the James Taliferro sports complex that surrounds the civic center and has had a history of pulling thousands of visitors to Salem each year.

The Salem amphitheater would be physically separated by about a mile from the Taliaferro complex, but its location in Longwood Park would put it in downtown Salem. Roanoke plans its amphitheater downtown, as well, if it is ever built.

The fact is that when Salem city council wants something, it has had a history of ordering it done. In Roanoke, there are so many ddiverse populations pulling for and against any proposal that city government is almost—by necessity—frozen into place. Shifting moods bring shifting loyalties and changed votes. Think "Victory Stadium," which has become a byword for ineffectual, nervous government.

My hope—and nobody asked—is that Roanoke sees the writing on the stadium wall here and steps back to see how Salem’s building does. It won't take long; Salem works quickly because of that lack of "interference" from residents. One near historic certainty: Salem's theater will almost certainly set a high standard for performance and it will give Roanokers a chance to see if these things really do bring in money (which I strongly doubt). Now that would be Roanoke’s smartest move.

(David Perry of Roanoke comments via Facebook: "A small amphitheater with appropriately-scaled acts can make money. But Jimmy Buffett is not coming to Salem, or Roanoke, for that matter. It's way, way ... way past time for regional government around here. Four separate governments in this little valley? Talk about duplication ... In the meantime, there are no sidewalks on most of Brambleton Ave. and much of Franklin Rd. What's more 'Clean and Green' than walking?")

A Puzzling Letter From the Publisher

The single strong impression I took away from Roanoke Times Publisher Debbie Meade's (right) looooong (1,834 words ), full-page ad in the Sunday edition is that the paper could really use a PR representative. I can recommend several good ones.

It was difficult to tell if the "letter" was motivated by a genuine effort to make certain we're not believing the "newspapers are dead" mantra being spoken by so many (me among them), desperation because most of us are believing it, or some other more esoteric view.

She insists The Times is making money (I believe that), that it is healthy (depends on the definition of "healthy," I'd say) and that it will be here as is for the duration (I definitely don't believe that). My guess is that, like the rest of us in print, the end of the paper era is near and the beginning of the digital era is upon us. Not just in a marginal sense, but--very soon--as our primary outlet.

The Times has lost a lot of its economic base in the past couple of years and it's not just the Bush economy talking here. The paper won't get back what Craig's List took and I'm not confident the automobile advertisers are long for the print world, either. Look at the dollars involved in either classified or car ads. They're huge. Real estate is gone to its own genre of magazine (that god-awful Laker publication The Times owns is hardly more than a bad real estate magazine for Smith Mountain Lake). The Times' business publication, the Blue Ridge Business Journal, which I left a year ago after 20 years there, is in the toilet, bleeding money and so devoid of content that many, many people in business tell me they don't even open it any more. It goes from the mail to the trash.

The Times has cut a lot of its higher salaries in the past two years with buyouts and firings and that has not been done without losing what those talented, experienced people contributed to the product: quality, institutuional knowledge, a real concern for our communities.

One point I have tried to stress in every conversation about the future of journalism is that newspapers are not journalism. They are a journalism delivery system. Journalists are journalism and I don't see them going anywhere. We are simply faced with the challenge of making journalism pay these good people a liveable wage in the neighborhood of what they've always made (that would mean less than a pipefitter, but more than an entry-level elementary school teacher).

The joke among the reporters in the newsroom in recent months is that The Times has a goal of "being the best 40,000-circulation newspaper in Virginia," understanding that its circulation now is somewhere around 90,000. That is funny. Sadly funny because it speaks to me of morale problems (newsies are chronically discontent and always have been, but this seems deeper) and perhaps gives an inkling of the regard they have for those leading the charge.

A number of people have accused me of cheering for the demise of newspapers and that simply isn't true. I grew up a newspaperman (back when it was called that). I always liked newspapers. But it's a different age and we need to be part of that age. Newspapers won't be.

A Return to the Tactics of Destruction

As annoyed as I am with the viciousness of the protests at town hall meetings being held across the country to try to gauge sentiment--and get suggestions--on healthcare, I have to harken back to days of my youth when many of us used some of the same harsh tactics to protest Vietnam, civil rights and women's rights issues.

My peeps didn't threaten violence; they did violence--blowing up whole cities--and we have so far escaped that. I don't expect the trend to continue, though, because of the torrent of hate talk from right wing dependables like Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, Hannity, O'Reilly, Kristol and the like. Their ridiculous misinformation ("the Democrats want to kill you") feeds the frenzy and the frustration and scares the hell out of anybody who's old or sick or both.

It does not appear that any amount of rational explanation will douse the flames of passion on the opposition side and I'm truly affraid that what we will get from the health care debate is absolutely no change. That is a worst case scenario, but it's what the right's power elite is about these days: continue the Bush years; destroy the republic and its protections ("starve the beast" is how one put it); keep the government out of everything, even those places where its solutions are the best ones.

I was especially distressed to see the abuse a guy like Rep. Tom Pierrello got in some of his Southside Virginia meetings. This decent, intelligent and courageous (while Bush was cutting brush, Periello was helping save a nation in Africa at great risk to his own life) guy is the very picture of rational engagement, of participatory democracy. The screamers not only didn't want to hear what he had to offer, they didn't want anybody with views different from theirs to talk, either.

That's totalitarian. It has nothing to do with what these people think of as a republican or democratic (little "r", little "d") form of government. It encourages only those with the most base instincts to dominate this part of the debate and, frankly, it makes us believe there are far more of them than there are of people who have different opinions on the issue. There are not. They're just louder and more obnoxious.

The Huffingtonpost's Sam Stein (among a number of others) reports that those who would subvert a health care bill are threatening violence upon those who support the Obama plan (or one of several others). Here's a published note from one of those highly-evolved opponents:

"You socialist fucks have the nerve to say stop the violence at the town hall meetings when they weren't violent until you pussies showed up because your nigger leader obama said to?????? When we have ours in Racine, Wi, I want you there. I want one of your little bitches to put his hands on this Marine. I want one of you to look or talk to me wrong. I'll be the last thing your ignorant faux body guards will remember for a very long time. You can fucking guarantee that."

Sarah Palin, the former VP candidate who doesn't seem to be able to finish anything, is now claiming there is some kind of "death panel" in the Obama proposal that will make the decisions on who lives and who dies and Newt Gingrich is yelling, "You go, girl!" in support of this absurdity. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky--I honestly can't stand to look at this guy, but that's just me--says that because of the threats of violence, the Republicans are winning the debate. Nice tactic, Mitch. Keep it up.

As one who is not opposed to violence in a good cause (the aforementioned Vietnam, civil rights, women's rights and a few others), I will not flip on that and say it should never happen just because my opposites are doing it. I guess it's time for my side to start sharpening our spears again. Now that will be some sport.

Where Credit Is Due

We’ve been critical of The Roanoke Times of late for its often comic errors, but today, let’s flip a little switch and give some credit where it is due: to the business writers who have done some excellent work of late.

We’ll start with Duncan Adams, the solid veteran whose work always shines with intelligence, fine writing and one-more-step research. Today, his piece on the Coca Cola plant—which could have been eye-glazingly dull—fairly sparkles with relevance. I dropped Dunc a note the other day on a fine job of reporting on another story and I owe him one for this.

Jenny Boone’s piece on the sale of the Patrick Henry Hotel, a followup from a story earlier this week, was solid, informative and easy to read. That is an accomplishment for a deal as convoluted as this one (was it sold or not? What’ll happen with it? Who “bought” it and will money change hands?).

And finally, Amy Matzke-Fawcett and Jeff Sturgeon did a nice job on the possible sale of Intermet, the Radford foundry that is having some financial difficulty. Solid stuff that is of some significance.

Nice work, all of you. (Sorry I don't have photos of all.)

My Pal Cara Modisett Knocks 'Em Dead at Women's Mag Awards Gig

Cara Modisett (right), editor of Blue Ridge Country Magazine, has scored a biggie: her mag was just named the best publication in the country by the National Federation of Press Women. The award was one of seven landed by Leisure Publishing staff in the NFPW’s annual communications competition.

Cara won a first place for food writing, a second place for headline and caption writing and an honorable mention in the category of nonfiction book for “Blue Ridge Parkway Simply Beautiful,” a project in collaboration with frequent BRC photographers Pat and Chuck Blackley, published by Farcountry Press.

My other Leisure Publishing pal, Kurt Rheinheimer (who may have suffered because of his gender in this competition*) won a couple of seconds--which gives real meaning to second class citizens. Marie Hodge, the Roanoker Magazine's former editor, won a couple of firsts and a third.

Congrats to all of you good peeps.

(*OK, ladies, don't get your knickers in a twist. I'm just kidding.)

For Sale: Easy-to-Park Car-Like Thingy

Tim Hogan showed up with this little gas-powered, three-wheel, 60 mpg car-like thingy (which is pretty easy to park, you'll note) at the Patrick Henry Hotel auction this morning at the Roanoke City courthouse.

Tim, who says he regularly drives the car between 55 and 60 mph on flat roads, recently drove to Pennsylvania and got 66 mpg. He says it has a 350-pound capacity and is fitted with a 150 cc motor (the same size motor as my scooter; it requires a driver's license to drive).

Tim says he rented one like it in Savannah recently, fell in love with it and paid $7,800 for this little baby in Miami. He has put 2,500 miles on it and has decided to sell it for $5,000. If you're interested, call him at 540-330-8827.

One Photo, Two Different Men

This is starting to sound like piling on, but the red faces in The Roanoke Times newsroom are lighting up the sky again. This a.m., we have two lovely examples of sleeping on the copy desk.

First--and least--there's the sports headline "Wake's Skinner quietes his doubters," which my wife said, "must be the British spelling" of "quiets." (This one also made it onto The Times' Web site.)

A bit more gravely--so to speak--are the death notices (one a news story, one a paid obituary) of old time bluegrass musician Bill Reid (1921-2009, the news story) and Dr. William M. Reed (1950-2009), which carried the same photograph. Dr. Reed is referred to as "Mike" in the obit. Judging from the hairstyle in the photo, my guess would be the photo is of Reed, since it looks to have been shot in the 1970s. But guessing is problematic here, so we'll wait for the correction. In any case, it's not one of them. Of course, there's the additional identifier in the spelling of their names: Reed and Reid.

Reed, who lived in Radford, was an accomplished educator, beginning professionally as a high school English teacher and moving into teaching and research at Virginia Tech. He became a professor at West Virginia University and at New York University. He wrote the book Kelley Barracks about his experiences in Europe while in the Army. He was twice a Fulbright scholar.

Reid, on the other hand, was one of 230 bluegrass musicians recognized in 2001 to be among the first generation of the genre by the International Bluegrass Association. He was also a noted radio disc jockey in the region.

Very different men. Same photo.

Stuart Mease Leaving Roanoke Government Job

Stuart Mease:>

(Update: Stuart Mease said Wednesday his new employer will be Rackspace in Blacksburg.)

Roanoke is getting ready to lose a guy who has had an almost thunderous impact in the last 3 1/2 years since City Manager Darlene Burcham created a job for him. Stuart Mease, who has been Special Projects Director and has made the city safe for young people in suits, is leaving the job for some vague and unspecified position "in private industry," he said just a few minutes ago when I ran into him on Roanoke City Market.

Stuart, the father of a baby girl, never moved from Blacksburg to Roanoke and the daily 40-miles each way commute--with a young family--has become a bit much for the entire family. His is going to be a big loss and it comes as the city is still trying to replace his immediate supervisor, Brian Brown, who left as economic development director a few months ago to go with a security firm in Botetourt County. The department has seven employees.

One of Stuart's primary charges was to recruit and retain young workers, something cities across the country have targeted as a priority. Cities across the country, didn't have Stuart Mease, who approached his job like a sports promoter. His enthusiasm, warmth and detailed knowledge of both the workers and the jobs has been an enormous benefit to the entire Roanoke and New River Valleys. Stuart often worked with NewVa Corridor Technology Council Director Cory Donovan in creating a kind of excitement about working in this area that I'd never seen before.

Stuart jumped all over social media and created the blog "Connecting People" (where the announcement of his resignation was first made) which did just that. He has been a superb contact for anything we were doing at The FRONT that had to do with younger workers. He was not only a wealth of background information, but it sometimes appeared to me that he knew every worker in the region younger than 30--and he liked every one of them.

I suspect that when Darlene Burcham created Stuart's job, she had him in mind to fill it. He's that rare. I'm personally and professionally sorry to see him to go. My guess is that his job may be the hardest of all the city's vacancies to fill with his level of competence.

E. coli Cases Suspected in Roanoke

(Update: Let me stress in strong terms that the source of this virus has not yet been officially identified. Duffie Taylor mentioned that she and her friend had eaten at a restaurant before becoming ill, but that could be a coincidence. Tainted food is available in a variety of places, as you will note from the recent tomato, peanut butter, hamburger and spinach infections. There is no source yet identified for this specific case. Period.)

My young friend Duffie Taylor, a recent Hollins University graduate who has been writing for FRONT for a couple of months, is home from a hospital stay with what she says is an E. coli infection.

E. coli is Escherichia coli, a large and diverse group of bacteria, some of which will make you sick, most of which won't. The most dangerous strains have made international news and have killed people.

I had been trying to reach Duf to see what her progress on a couple of stories for October has been when I got an e-mail from her yesterday giving me the shocker that she and a friend were both hospitalized with the potentially dangerous virus. She says she believes she contracted it after eating in a restaurant.

Yesterday, Duffie wrote, "Oh Dan, no I didn't fall off the face of the earth; rather made a quick detour through hell this week. I have been in the hospital since Sunday--with E. coli and another GI infection usually contracted by people visiting third world countries. In order to come into my hospital room, the full protective garb was needed. I was SO sick; I came home yesterday and I hope I won't return. My friend, who ate the same thing as me, is still in the hospital. It is not good; I am still am very weak--but wanted to give you heads up."

This morning Duffie wrote, "My friend is facing kidney failure and they're putting him on dialysis. They think it's HUS [Hemolytic uremic syndrome, primarily a disease of infancy and early childhood and is classically characterized by the triad of microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute renal failure] which is not good. Public health inspectors are checking it out. I still feel bad, but there's nothing I--or you--can do for it really, just wait it out. I'm most worried for my friend."

As an afterthought, Duffie added: "(e. coli in Roanoke? It could make a good story)."

No, That Gig Was Last Year, Guys

Becky Mushko, a Franklin County writer whom I've known for a while, caught the error first thing this a.m. in the Extra section of The Roanoke Times and rushed it onto her blog with the headline "Scooping Dan Smith." Becky's not always subtle.

It was yet another error in a high-profile spot, this time a "Bookmark" on the section front that suggests things to do in the near future. This one was a book talk at the Franklin County Library Book Festival that took place last year about this time and featured, among its speakers, Times culture editor Mike Allen (who writes for the Extra section), Becky and me. The error was repeated on Page 6 in the Books & Talks calendar. I'm hoping that this doesn't count against the publicity we hope for get next time we're really scheduled to do something.

My next gig is before a group of women writers (Pen Women, Becky included) September 2 at Mama Maria's in West Salem. I don't imagine The Times cares, but if it does, here it is.

An Explanation from The NYTimes

Error-prone Alessandra Stanley>

The New York Times' Public Editor, Clark Hoyt, has a column this a.m. explaining the major meltdown on Alessandra Stanley's obit of Walter Cronkite recently and it's a doozie, full of the kind of embarrassing detail many would deign to publish about themselves and their product. It is an admirable confession.

Hoyt concludes with this: "Looking back at it all — a critic making mistakes in haste, editors failing to vet her work enough, a story sitting for weeks without attention and then being rushed through — one sees how small missteps lead to big trouble, leaving readers to wonder what they can trust."

"Departures," A Movie To Love

"Departures," playing at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, is easily the best movie I've seen this year. Easily.

It is a warm, funny, kind, loving story of tradition and ceremony, of grace and dignity, and of closing a book on a chapter of life with the best possible care. It is a story of loss and gain, of misunderstanding and perseverance.

Yojiro Takita's movie is the reigning Academy winner for Best Foreign Film, beating out "The Class" and "Waltz With Bashir," a couple of popular choices, and it's easy to see why this Japanese film is held in such high esteem.

This is the story of a failed cello player pushed into a job of preparing people for the undertaker, a position that is steeped in tradition, care and gentle understanding of ritual. It is also considered "unclean" by some, including our hero's wife.

The movie is peopled with first class acting from Masahiro Motoko's plodding Daigo Kobayashi, his loving but skeptical wife Mika, played by Ryoko Hirosue--a thoroughly attractive-in-every-sense young actress--and a solid group of veteran support throughout.

The humor is stacked up front of this deliberate movie, helping to develop characters to care about. We are then taken to the reality of what it is Daigo does for a living and we get a full dose of it (my wife cried through much of this and I caught myself with a lump or two, as well).

Entertaining, enlightening and a marvelous evening. See it.

Seems to Me I've Heard That Song Before

That's today's Nation & World section on the left, Tuesday's Extra section on the right

This a.m., we are greeted on Page 7 of The Roanoke Times (Nation & World) with the same story that ran on Page 6 of the Extra (features) section Tuesday, the one about the North Carolina woman in her 80s who is a pioneer at yoga.

The headline and deck head (that little explanation before the story opens) are different--indicating that different editors handled the stories--but the story and photo are the same. Communication seems to be lacking in this communications company.

If this sounds familiar, please see this blog 10 days ago. The Times' repetition virus is affecting me, too.

A Birthday Party for Anne's Handshake 2.0

Handshake2.0's Anne Clelland (left) chats with some friends, including Cory Donovan of NCTC at tonight's birthday party in Blacksburg^

A year ago today Anne Clelland set out to face the world on her terms with Handshake2.0, a social media business that has grown by leaps and possibly even bounds in 2009.

Anne is an infectious, invigorating woman who deals in the possible and is one of the reasons I'm sitting here writing a blog tonight when I could be finishing that Jason Bourne novel sitting over there on my new sofa. It was she who said, no, Dan, you're not too old to learn it; yes, Dan, you will like it; and yes, Dan, you should be good at it.

I don't know about the last prediction, but she sure hit the first two and I'm not the only so-affected soul. Anne has brought along an entire community--especially in Blacksburg at VTKnowledgeWorks--to her communications revolution.

In addition to Handshake2.0, Anne, a former journalist (among many other things) writes a fine column for Valley Business FRONT and this month (July) she was named the Contributor of the Issue. When you consider the writers who contribute to our publication, that's quite an accomplishment.

So, tonight, we raise a glass to Anne and all her successes. May you have many more, ma'am.

The Queen of the Computer Geek Heroes

All Alecia Nash needs is a white horse. She has everything else that makes heroes. At least, as far as I'm concerned she does.

Alecia just rescued me from the fire-breathing dragon of Internet baddies, determined to subvert my entire computer system with evil cunning. I was but a fair maiden held in the clutches of the scaled one until Alecia showed up, bag of dragon-killing lancers, swords and computer tools in tow.

"How does this keep happening to you?" she asked, more rhetorically than as a scold.

"Because I use it," I said. "I use it a lot."

"Are you running your defensive programs, as I instructed."

"Yes, ma'am. Just ran them today. But these screaming red things kept popping up and when I'd hit the little dealie telling me to repair the problem, I got this order form to buy protection for what looked like pretty high prices."

"They are high prices," she said. "They're wipe-out-your-bank-account prices because the minute these imposters get your credit card number, they go phishing on your dollar. It all looks legitimate, even the Microsoft logos, but the minute you see one of these you need to turn off your computer and call me."

You have no idea how soothing that last part is to a guy whose computer expertise ends at the on/off switch. Alecia has a one-person consultancy called Renaissance Computers (540-793-2233) and I don't remember how I ran into her (though I think it might have been through my old pal Cabel Brand), but I give thanks occasionally--when my computer's acting up, especially--that I did. She has some nice corporate accounts, but she hasn't gotten so big that she won't make house calls. She even helps set up old people and make Internet addicts out of them. I don't think she does that because the money's so good.

She does it, I suspect, because she's a hero.

Why People Don't Read the Paper, Part 3,497

Sometimes it goes beyond the point of simple, head-scratching exasperation and this morning was one of them. While veteran reporter Duncan Adams' excellent piece on the effects of rising electricity rates on business graced the front page of The Roanoke Times, its Extra (features) section hovered in its normal place in Irrelevant Land. Thirty minutes of a reporter's time would have sent Extra into the Land of Substance, so I'm wondering who's in charge ... if anybody is.

The top story in Extra was made for The Times' editorial goal of appealing primarily to young mothers: a story about how "materinity wards have come a long way in 50 years with hospitals adding more frills for new moms," titled "Oh, baby." The story is based in Minnesota. We're in Virginia. We have hospitals here and some of them are doing innovative things in maternity care. That is not mentioned.

A good editor would have taken this McClatchy-Tribune wire piece and written across the top: "What are Carilion, HCA and Centra doing in this area?" and placed it in a reporter's in-box. That reporter would have called PR managers Eric Earnhart at Carilion (540-224-4966), Susan Brandt at Centra (434-200-4731) and Nancy May at HCA Lewis-Gale (540-776-4754) and asked the simple question: "What are you doing in maternity care that is innovative?" The reporter would have been flooded with information that is relevant to the readers of The Times.

News reporters at The Times are in a constant state of frustration because of a small local news hole (much like the TV reporters, who stay on the verge of tears because of time constraints) when sports and Extra sections are given much more than they can honestly use on a daily basis. This morning's front is a perfect example of space that was simply wasted (the bottom story on the Extra front this a.m. has an Orlando dateline and is about a woman finding her mother ... hardly unusual and certainly not something that would trump a good local story).

This one, I'm afraid, is either about laziness or about cluelessness. Neither fits well into grandma's brag book and what we're left with is yet another reason we are fleeing daily newspapers.

The Attack of the College Professors ... Pffffffft!

Carter Turner (above) and the lovely Morgan Griffith in a kindly pose (left)<

It strikes me as sad that the 8^th District version of Virginia’s Democratic Party simply cannot come up with a substantial candidate to oppose Morgan Griffith for his seat in the Virginia General Assembly. Over and over the Dems put up one good person/bad candidate after another without ever realizing what they must do if they are to defeat one of Virginia’s most entrenched politicians.

The Democrats over in the 5^th U.S. Congressional District understood fully what they had to do to defeat Virgil Goode in the last election and did it. Goode was every bit as dug in as Griffith—and every bit as awful a representative, though he appeared untouchable in a district that leans so far right that it almost falls over. It took three cycles to beat him, but beat him, the Dems did.

Radford University nursing teacher Ginny Weisz was the first sheep-to-Griffith-slaughter for this year’s election, but she finally pulled out, saying she wanted to work on her doctorate degree. My guess is she saw the futility of the situation. Now, we seem to be getting yet another Radford assistant professor (if bloggers are right), a party activist named Carter Turner. The Dems will tell us all who it is today at noon and the campaign will begin. (I would say begin again, except that Ms. Weitz’s campaign didn’t seem to get started. I never saw an ad, a mailer, a press conference, anything. She was all but anonymous.)

If Griffith is to be ousted—and it won’t happen this round—the loyal opposition has to plan and quickly dispose of the notion that logic, good sense and the noble argument are good enough. This Democratic candidate has to come out throwing hard truths—not quite mud, not quite debate society. The Dems must—must—go after Griffith’s record, something that very rarely gets any kind of examination. A minute, vote-by-vote account, release of the names of supporters with dollar amounts (and the legislation or government investment that resulted), accounting of public statements and any miscellaneous negatives that can be piled on (Griffith is a drunk driving lawyer, for example).

The attacks have to continue unabated for the next two years with breathless, end-of-the-world press conferences, dire position predictions and a microscopic investigation of everything Griffith does.

Selecting two college professors—from the same university or not—in one election cycle is suicide. As candidates, college professors rank somewhere between gay rights activists and steel-eyed feminists for wide acceptance in a district where “liberal” and “professor” are not only synonymous, but also spell “ineligible for office.”

I still believe that, like Goode, Griffith is vulnerable because he is so extreme, so unwise, so rigid and so thoroughly arrogant. But you’re not going to beat him with an assistant professor. Or a team of them.

Oh, Yeah, Sometimes I Feel Just Like That, Too ...

And here we have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling us just what she thinks of her unsuccessful run for the Obama Chair in the White House.

All the Elements in Place in "Food Inc."

It appears that the best documentaries these days contain some of the same basic ingredients: terror, disgust, mortification, anger and touch of hope. Throw in a crooked and impotent government; soulless, money-grubbing multi-national corporations; innocent and clueless citizens; and at least one champion and voila! you have an Oscar contender. If Michael Moore or Al Gore has anything to do with it, you'll win win the Oscar and your mud-spattered name will become a cause celeb on the radio talk shows.

So, here sits "Food, Inc.," the latest of that genre, sans Moore and Gore, though there's lower-case more of the lower-case gore than most of us want as part of our regular diet (couldn't resist that). Robert Kenner's "Food Inc." (armed with a 97 percent rottentomatoes.com approval rating) comes from two books: Fast Food Nation by Eric Scholsser and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and the writers of those scary little volumes take front and center in sharing some of the narration of the film version, whose musical score (yup, a documentary with real music) adds to the nervous tension throughout.

Let me note here before going any further, that "Food Inc." appears to have been filmed by professional cinematographers and is not thin, grainy and shaky except when tiny camera-equipped factory workers take their little cameras inside slaughterhouses to show us what goes on. We don't much want clarity in that case, anyway.

A good documentary has the passion of belief and does not rely on neutrality. Frankly, given the subject matter here, it would be difficult to come up neutral when the the enemy consists of Monsanto Corporation (a company with a patent on soy bean seeds and is closing out farming to any little farmer who opposes it), Smithfield Corp. of Virginia (these boys have a rap sheet so long that we won't even bother going into it), Big Beef (which has your First Amendment rights of free speech in its pocket and won't let go; say "I hate hamburgers" in a public place some day and watch the lawyers skulk out of the woodwork armed with subpoenas) and an array of other multi-national giants you'll love to hate. On the side of good are a sprinkling of tiny, organic farmers and ... uh ... how do I say this? Wal-Mart. Yep, that Wal-Mart, the one that just got clocked by the courts for making people work off the, well, clock.

Wally's part in all this--though unintentionally noble in the end--is motivated by the same little saddle bur that motivated making its people work for slave wages, then for free as slaves: profit. As the boys from W-M say, "The customers demanded it" and Wal-Mart responded by buying up as much good food--at as low a price--as it possibly could. Even the good guys sold out, rationalizing that if you sell that much stuff, it's good for the game.

When Christina and I left "Food Inc." (which is showing on the big screen at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke because it is outdrawing "Harry Potter") last night, I was hungry, but reluctant to eat. When we got home, I made a salad comprised of my own tomatoes from Ft. Tomato (read earlier blog entry) and some other greenery from the farmer's markets nearby. It was good. But I craved some cornchips. This movie, if nothing else, serves as a diet. You'll think hard before eating again.

And What Is It in Texas?

My pal Diana Christopulos showed off her chilled "redeye" last night at the Salem Red Sox-Frederick Keys Carolina League baseball game. Diana explained that the Virginia redeye is the Nebraska Bloody Mary of the Midwest. "Good either way," she swears.

Me 'n' Jay and Those Duplicate Papers

A guy named Jay (no last name) left a couple of messages on Tuesday's post about The Roanoke Times printing a portion of Monday's sports section twice. He seemed pretty annoyed by the post and said he'd rather read The Times twice in a row than our Valley Business FRONT once. I wished him well with his newspaper.

Then came this:

"Just came here looking for your updated news for today. Unfortunately I did not find any. Looks like it is not so easy to put out a full newspaper every single day."

I replied thusly:

"Jay: Did you check moreFRONT.blogspot.com? News there. [Today] I wrote a cover story for the FRONT, edited seven stories, had two photo assignments and a press conference, ate lunch with one of our writers who is working on a story and needed some guidance, had a phone meeting with my partner on the November cover story, recruited two more teachers for our Roanoke Regional Writers Conference, talked to yet another writer about teaching a class for the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge's writers workshop, exercised for an hour and went to a baseball game in Salem with two good friends. I also cooked dinner for my wife. I hope your day was full, too.

"Dang, nearly forgot. I'm also working on a book (shaping up as a novel) and a long-ish magazine piece for another publication. Time-consuming, they are." I didn't even mention all the correspondence I answered.

The primary point in this is that The Roanoke Times has 400-500 people to put out a newspaper and our organization is a good bit smaller than that (6 full time, one in editorial). We do not have the goal to put out a newspaper daily. I do two blogs a day (this one and morefront.blogspot.com for the magazine) and most days each has at least one full-length post on it. Morefront had a substantial story on Carilion yesterday (that Jay might find interesting). I'm heading out to a press conference this a.m. and the result of that will be posted quickly.

The second point is that I have been a journalist for more than four decades, 17 of those in daily newspapers and, yes, I know what goes into putting out a paper. I'm not quite sure what goes into producing the same section twice in a row, however, and The Times' explanation that it was a "printing error" doesn't quite tell me.

Hey, Melissa, Pete Ate a Hot Dog; Two of Them

My good pals Keith Ferrell (right) and Pete Krull (center) joined me at a Salem Red Sox baseball game tonight and Pete was celebrating temporary freedom by downing a couple of 'dogs--katsup and onion. He looked down at the last bite of the second one and a tear came to his eye. "Last one 'til next year," he said.

Pete lives--in an unmistakably healthy and environmentally-friendly fashion--on Sappelo Island, Ga., with his pretty, red-haired (and equally healthy) wife Melissa Booth and comes up here several times a hear to take care of people whose investments he oversees. He also writes a column on investing with a clear conscience (not supporting slavery, tobacco, pollution or a bunch of other undesirable outcomes) for Valley Business FRONT.

Keith is one of America's best writers and was once the editor of Omni magazine, the legendary science magazine owned by Bob Guccione (Penthouse). He lives on a farm in Franklin County these days and his output of words remains impressive.

The conversation was politics, sports and, well, that young woman with the tat on her ... uh ... breast. No country for old men.

Good friends, good food (but not for me) and the baseball team came from a 4-0 first-inning deficit to win 8-5 and hang on to first place in its division of the Carolina League.

At The Times, It's Deja Vu All Over Again

That's Monday on the left and Tuesday on the right ... or maybe Monday on the right and ...

If you've glanced at The Roanoke Times sports section this morning, you've already had your deja vu moment for the day. The first two pages of our Tuesday section are the same as Monday's. There were a few differences on Page 3 and Page 4 was new, so at least you got some fresh scores (as fresh as newspaper scores can be, anyway) in the Scoreboard.

I won't even try to 'splain this one, Lucy. roanoke.com explained it this way: "Due to a printing error, some readers of The Roanoke Times will see parts of Monday's sports and classified section in today's printed paper. For updates on the latest sports news, go to www.roanoke.com. We apologize for the inconvenience." Not exactly full disclosure. We'll let Executive Editor Carole Tarrant do that, if she'd like. Ms. Tarrant, the "comment" box is at your disposal.

A Virginian Who Sounds Like a Virginian

Gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds (left) and his favorite editor at this a.m.'s press conference^

It hadn't occurred to me until this morning while he was talking about his proposed programs, but Creigh Deeds has something we haven't heard in a while among candidates for governor: a Virginia accent. Soft, easy, distinct.

Former Gov. George Allen seemed to have one, but you have to remember that he grew up in California--born in Whittier, Richard Nixon's hometown--and my guess is he made it up (like George Bush's "ranch").

Mark Warner's from Northern Virginia (born in Indianapolis and grew up in Connecticut) and has no discernible accent. Tim Kaine could be from anywhere, but he's from St. Paul, Minnesota and he went to the University of Missouri and Harvard.

Kaine's father-in-law, Gov. Linwood Holton, had a Virginia accent that you could nail down to the street he lived on in the far southwestern corner of the state. Few others of recent vintage have had that. Certainly not Gerald Baliles, an urbane lawyer, who was born in Stuart, but who'da thunk it?

My wife's all-time favorite, Jim Gilmore, a Richmond native, sounds like a movie version of a Southern politician, which is mostly fake--though I think he really does talk that way, even at home. (And if you believe Christina loves JG, let me interest you in a slightly used 1989 Alfa Romeo convertible with very low mileage ...)

Creigh Deeds' opponent, Bob McDonnell, is a military guy and sounds like it (he was born in Philly). Many influences, none dominant. Our congressmen from this area, Bob Goodlatte and Rick Boucher, don't sound like us (well, you; I'm from North Carolina), either. Bob's from Connecticut and Boucher, though from Abingdon, sounds like a 1940s radio show.

Sen. Jim Webb is from St. Joseph, Mo. (and has family from far Southwest Virginia), but he was a military guy who became a writer and his accent tells you nothing.

All this gets to the crucial point of the election: If you're gonna vote at all, vote for a Virginian. Or don't. Whatever.

(Note: The late--in office--but not very lamented Virgil Goode is missing from this list for one very, very good reason: who in the hell would ever suggest that his exaggerated, rube-like accent is typical of Virginia? That'd get you shot in most mixed company.)

Dancing to the Memory at Cranberry High

Former Cranberry High square dance team members ...

... swing their partners ...

... in the rescued Cranberry High School gym^

We had just about given up on Teresa Shadoin showing up with her boom box and her square dance exhibition when she stormed through the door of the old Cranberry High School gym with a big smile and a brisk "let's get to it!"

Teresa has been a square dance coach for years in Avery County and has won a national championship and a number of state titles. She's part of a legacy that started with the legendary Kay Wilkins (about whom I am putting together a magazine piece) and we were going to get to see her work her magic. Only she didn't have any dancers with her. All we had was a crowd of about 100 geezers at the All-Class Reunion of Cranberry High School, which closed in 1968--so you know there are no kids in the crowd.

Teresa faced the assembled and bellowed, "Who danced for Miss Kay? Stand up." Miss Kay, of course is Kay Wilkins. About 15 people stood up, some uneasily. "Come on down here," she said, "you're dancing." And they did, like cattle to the call.

When the music started and Avery County Fire Marshall David "Moose" Vance--dressed in his uniform--shuffled out (left foot starting on a bass note) and formed a circle, they were underway. The smooth-style square dance (there's also clog style practiced by Teresa's teams) looked like it had been practiced for weeks. The dancers were in marvelous harmony and responded quickly, almost reflexively to Moose's calls. It was a thing of beauty, especially if you were me and were working on both an article and a book about this very thing.

These dancers were almost all in their 60s and 70s. Teresa was the youngest and she's in her late 40s. But they were simply marvelous. There's a story awaiting the telling on these people, their times and their coach and I aim to tell it shortly. Can't wait.

*

The old gym, by the way, is part of a rehabilitation package put together by a group of old grads and nickels using dimes from the 44 classes the high school produced. Cranberry opened in 1924 and my grandfather helped build it. My mother and brother attended there and I have several cousins who graduated at Cranberry.

It was a tiny school (78 graduates in my class) and when I was there Avery County was one of the poorest localities in the country. I often tell people that we were so poor at Cranberry that we only had one school color (green). The school became a lumber yard for years, its ancient--and well built--halls filled with drying lumber and even, at one point, drying tobacco.

My pal Gaylard Andrews (see below entry) was among those who thought it worth saving. Thanks Gaylard. There were a lot of very good memories still alive for me yesterday and today as I walked its halls and watched these lovely people dance this morning.

Of Old Men and a Few Moments Remembered

That's Gaylard in the middle and Jerry on the right with me at our class reunion^

As my old friend Jerry Turbyfill trudged across the parking lot toward Gaylard Andrews and me, leaning up against a 1956 Dodge, I had to look again to find him beneath the old man I saw. Still tall. Still straight. Still painfully handsome. But gray. And that handlebar mustache made him look like a retiring gunfighter on the last roundup of outlaws.

I leaned over to Gaylard and said, "I'll bet it takes him five minutes to get my whole name--all eight letters--out of his mouth." Jerry's the guy who gave northerners the notion that those of us from these parts are slow talkers. I wasn't disappointed. "Hellooooooooo, Da-nnnnnnnnny," he said, one of the few people remaining alive who can get away with that god-awful reduction of my name.

I was seeing these two old football teammates and friends--Jerry taught me to smoke; Gaylard taught me to drink--for the first time since graduation from Cranberry High School in Avery County, N.C., in 1964. And this very moment at this very spot, outside the science building and just down the hill from the old barn-like gym I lovingly called the "coliseum," brought so much back that my head was swimming, drowning in recollection of faces, searing moments of nearly half a century ago.

The conversation seemed to pick up from yesterday, as if we'd not fought wars and marriages (Jerry's still married to Doris, whom he married in 1964), jobs and homes, disappointment, heartache, the birth of children and the death of sibblings and friends. Forty-five years is a long time to disappear in a minute.

I have to give a talk at the reunion this morning and I knew from the minute I was asked to speak that there was no sense in preparing anything. Gaylard drug out a couple of old annuals and the talk started forming at that very moment. "You know," I will begin, "when I was here, Cranberry High School was so poor that we only had one school color. But, hell, I always liked green."

My memoir, Burning the Furniture, has more than one full chapter dealing with this school, these guys, Ella Richardson showing up at school without a bra, Jackie Buchanan trying to crush my bad knee, Joyce Watson being the unreachable girl of my dreams, teachers named Hop, Rock and Miss Kay and on and on ... this single year of my 62 years. It seems disporportionate in a life that has been so completely filled with tales, but this was an important time, one where I found family and warmth at a time when I needed it desperately. And here it all stood in the form of two old men who still cared who I am.

Cara Modisett Talks--You Listen!

My piano-playin', writin', editin' buddy Cara Modisett is going to tell you how to get into magazines, if you're a writer. Come join us next week at the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge's monthly writers workshop. Fascinating stuff.

July 21, 7-8:30 p.m.
Cara Modisett - "What Magazine Editors Want from You"
Admission: FREE
For more information or to register for these free workshops please contact: Rhonda Hale rhale@theartscouncil.org or 540.224.1205

Pulitzer Nominee Joins Roanoke Times

Rex Bowman, the former western Virginia bureau reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, has joined The Roanoke Times as a news reporter. Rex was named the T-D's reporter of the year for 2008, just a week or so before his job was eliminated.

Good hire for the R-T, which has been bleeding solid veterans for some time now. I hope Rex's hire is the reversal of a trend and I hope he's encouraged to do what he does as well as anyone I've ever known.

Rex is a native of these mountains (Botetourt County) and loves everything about them. He is also a good guy. Watch for his by-line. You'll like his writing. His latest book, Blue Ridge Chronicles, is a dandy, featuring stories he wrote about these mountains for the Times-Dispatch.

Looks Like Doug's Not Retiring, Either

(Update: In a response to this post, Executive Editor Carole Tarrant of The Roanoke Times makes a flat denial, which is a good thing, and tells you what a bunch of crap this blog is, which is certainly true from her perspective. Hope Doug's around a long time. He's a dandy.)

In an ad promoting his online show in today's Roanoke Times, there's a hint that sports writer Doug Doughty is planning to announce his retirement this week. At least that's what I take from "at the end of the show, watch for a surprising conclusion regarding Mr. Doughty's tenure at The Roanoke Times." The big surprise would be if he didn't retire, I'll admit. Could be he'll be the new sports editor, an administration position with no writing duties ... which would fit Doug like a dress.

In retirement, Doug (who's been at The Times for more than 35 years) would join a long list of solid veterans who've been lost during the last three years under publisher Debbie Meade as The Times cut expenses to try to remain viable. I worked with him for some years at The Times and always found him to be a professional, caring guy.

He still keeps up with former sports writers like they're family and is constantly sending out e-mails about births, deaths, illness, babies, children's accomplishments and the like. Good guy. Good newsman.

Lake Movie Comes Up Short ... For Now

Sara Elizabeth Timmins came up a smidge short on her goal of $500,000 by July 15 in order to make her movie at Smith Mountain Lake this fall (see earlier post), but this little whirlwind is hardly discouraged.

Simple truth: "It's a good thing and it's the way it was supposed to happen. I feel good about it. We hope that in the next month or two to secure [the remainder of the money]" and produce "Lake Effect" in 2010. The cards are in place for that to happen sooner rather than later."