Headline of the Day: Just How Absurd It Has Become

'Tea Party Boycotts Fox News for Being Too Liberal'

 -- Addicting Info (here, swear to god)

 

Lunch with the Boys and Girls of Family Smith

Grace (left) and Maddie pose in the window at Market Building

Oz packs in some fruit at lunch.

Evan and Oz in good humor at City Market Building. Lunch awaits.

Evan munches a crab cake sandwich ($10 worth of sandwich).

Here are the Smith offspring joining Pampa for lunch today at City Market Building in Roanoke. Most of the grandparents showed up, which nearly filled the hall.

The Camera Collect Gets an Elevated Home

This is hard to see, I know, but my son, my little buddy Isaac and I worked our butts off this a.m. putting up the shelving in the den to hold part of my camera collection. It had been piled into a single standing display case and looked junky. It's a little better on the eyes this way and it's out of traffic.

The part of this we hadn't figured on is that the walls must be made of two-inch steel because it was almost impossible to put screws into it to hold the brackets. We figured it out, though (mostly Evan figured it out), and it's up. I like it.

Thieves: Don't bother yourself about breaking in and stealing any of these cameras. Most you'd get is about $5 apiece at Happy's Flea Market.  And besides, the very large, very quiet dog that sleeps behind the couch doesn't like his slumber disturbed.

This is not a valuable collection, but it never fails to elicit oohs and aahs from people seeing it and remembering posing for their grandpas. Cool little collection.

Cost of Bush Wars: $1.6 Trillion So Far, $6 Trillion Eventually

There were other costs, too: lives.

Attention Republican budget hawks:

How 'bout giving the rest of us an explanation of how you went along with this while claiming to be against government spending?

The Watson Institute at Brown University has just released a study that tells us the total cost of the George Bush/Dick Cheney wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be $6 trillion when all is said and done.

To date, they've cost $1.6 trillion, but we're not out of either country and the long-term effects of these wars will overwhelm us.

The $6 will come to a head in 2053 and if you think that's too long in the future to even contemplate, remember that we were still in Vietnam in 1975. That's a little over 35 years ago.

Next time you want to bitch about helping Americans pay for their health care, take a look at these figures and ask yourself about priorities.

Photo Essay: A Hot Word Night at Limnal

Christina Koomen reads her fascinating piece on mushrooms.

Diana Christopulos read from her new Appalachian Trail novel.

Journalist Mike Allen read his poetry.

Cara Modisett's piece was brief, impactful.

Will Griswold, Ashley von Schweets read Dwayne Yancey's play-ette about two buzzards.

Alise Stewart read three of her poems.

Tim Thornton told a tale of environmental degradation.

CHS student Jonah Woodstock reads about his funny brush with a (not) bell pepper.

Tonight's Limnal was the best I've been part of thus far. Good readings by some good writers (and a couple of kids reading a play-ette that was unusual: a couple of buzzards talking).

Your favorite editor.

This Cara Modisett's baby at Community High School and she keeps the region's writers busy with this once-a-month reading, which was packed tonight, as it usually is.

Pictured here are some of the readers, including your favorite editor (left), who won't be anybody's favorite editor for much longer.

As I mentioned before reading a new essay about going fishing with my buddy Tony, who always seemed to fall into the water, I'm aiming to be a real writer real soon and won't be anybody's editor while I'm working on that goal. Novels, here I come.

(The photos are all by me, except the one of me, by Christina Koomen.)

Photo of the Day: My New Mountain Shepherd Hat

This is my new hat. My pal Dina Bennett of Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School in Catawba gave it to me at lunch today at the Thai restaurant in downtown Roanoke (the tofu pad Thai is out of this world).

I like the hat. A lot. My favorite color and it fits the way my Superman hat (my other favorite) fits. I get a little tired explaining that the logo on the Superman hat is a family crest. Some people don't believe me. Can you believe that?

Anyhow, the other day, I'm standing minding my own business and this six- or seven-year-old kid walks over, stops in front of me and points at my hat. "Is that real?" he says.

"What do you mean real?"

"Do you know Superman?"

I look straight into his eyes, an earnest, truthful look. "He was my grandpa," I say.

Kid's eyes get as big as tractor tires. "Realllllllllllly!?!" he nearly shouts. Then he cranks back to a whisper: "Did you get any powers?"

I think for a minute. "Uh," I stumble. "Well, I'm not supposed to say, but I'll tell you. I got some, but I can't use them unless there's an emergency."

Kid runs off and a few minutes later I see him on the other side of the room frantically gesturing toward me to a man I guess to be his father. He chattering away enthusiastically and his dad is falling over laughing.

Quote of the Day: Republicans Hate Science

"Adoption of this amendment is a gross intrusion into the widely-respected, independent scholarly agenda setting process at NSF that has supported our world-class national science enterprise for over sixty years. The amendment creates an exceptionally dangerous slippery slope. While political science research is most immediately affected, at risk is any and all research in any and all disciplines funded by the NSF. The amendment makes all scientific research vulnerable to the whims of political pressure."

--National Science Foundation statement about Sen. Tom Coeburn's amendment to a bill to fund the government, limiting the NSF's research in political science. Republicans hate science because it most often proves how stupid they are.

Photo of the Day: Moviemaking Roanoker

Andrea Shreeman of Santa Monica, Calif., by way of Roanoke, was the subject of a photo shoot I did a little while ago for FRONT/May issue. Andrea, who grew up here and went to Cave Spring High School (then to George Washington University on a gymnastics scholarship and to USC for moviemaking), is filming a movie here titled "It's a Good Day to Die," a "suicide comedy" and she's drawing a good bit of attention for it.
 
Reminds me of her immediate Roanoke movie predecessor Sarah Elizabeth Timmins ("Lake Effects") in many ways: both young,  smart, ambitious, talented and great communicators. I felt like I'd known Andrea for about 15 years when we first locked eyes in that "hey, I'm meeting somebody here for a picture; are you that somebody?" second. She zoomed right by it and started asking questions about me--and seemed genuinely interested. Woman has a future, I'd say.

Andrea's been doing this for a while, so she's no novice. She's also pretty good on the other side of the camera, as you can see here. I thoroughly enjoy photographing people who know what they look like, appreciate the look and don't fake it. You can see her in her here and it's appealing on several levels.

Private Roanoke School To Lower Tuition More than Half

Kids gather in the lobby before school to talk.

My favorite little Roanoke high school, Community High School of Arts and Academics, is once again jumping ahead of the competition and setting a standard based on what Academic Director Josh Chapman calls a "moral imperative."

CHS exterior.

CHS' tuition for the 2013-2014 academic school year will drop by more than half from $10,200 to $5,000, making it affordable by the majority of middle income families. This is a high-end education that compares favorably with that of North Cross School, whose costs will be nearly triple those of CHS.

Community has traditionally gone after good students whose families were not rich. "We've never turned down anybody because they couldn't afford tuition," says co-founder Linda Thornton. That base will broaden even more now. Community is able to drop tuition because its financial underpinning is stable, says Chapman. “We are doing this because we can do so without fear of fiscal instability and because we feel that it is a moral imperative to make progressive college preparatory education available to as many people in the valley as possible.”

American college and university tuition increases have been radically outpacing general inflation for many decades and private secondary education costs have been progressing at a similar rate.  A liberal arts education that was within the means of most American families at mid-century is no longer.

Let me strongly recommend that you talk to CHS if you have a high school age kid who's interested in school. The kids who don't fit other places, fit nicely at CHS and they thrive. I've seen it up close and personal and I love what these lovely people do with education.

Understaffed Newsrooms Having Negative Effects

This is not substantially different from the newsroom I started in years ago.

Some of us have been screaming bloody murder about newsrooms cutting back on personnel in general and veterans specifically for years and now we have this, telling us it's not only happening, but that it's bad.

Yes, it is bad when we sacrifice one of the basic foundations of liberty because older journalists cost more than young ones--although they are most often eminently more qualified. Young journalists--and you see them up close, in person and in all their inadequacy nightly on television--not only rarely get it yet, but their opportunity to understand what they're doing is diminished every time a veteran gets axed because some HR idiot thinks they're too old and making too much money.

That nearly happened recently to a good friend of mine at a nearby newspaper--whose name shall remain anonymous--but his publisher intervened on his behalf with the new owner of the paper. The HR department was going to dump my friend (a veteran of nearly four decades) because he had an accident and couldn't perform a certain part of his job for a few months. He was perfectly capable of doing almost everything he had been doing, but HR saw an opportunity to trim some salary and shot for it. Good for the publisher, who proved to have some heart and to have the best interests of the paper at heart--I hope.

The Pew Research Center study tells us that newsrooms have cut their staffs by 30 percent in the past few years and that. "There are now less than 40,000 full-time employees working in news, the lowest since 1978." You can certainly see the effects of deep cuts in this market at a local daily. Small publications are dying, too, but most of them have so little to do with journalism that it's difficult to put them into the same story. They're something else entirely, even though their chasing of the ad dollar--and throwing out all journalistic ethics in that pursuit--is affecting real journalists and real journalism.

You're seeing ads on the front page, ads for stories, influence in coverage and all the things that simply didn't happen a couple of decades ago, but are prevalent now.

The report says the result of the newsroom cuts "adds up to a news industry that is more undermanned and unprepared to uncover stories, dig deep into emerging ones or to question information put into its hands." I'm not expecting it to get any better any time soon and my guess is that newspapers will be the first to go all-online, followed by magazines.

(Photo: scribewise.com)

NRA Wants Wife Beaters To Keep Their Guns

Let's make certain this boy doesn't lose his guns.

If you still think the NRA hasn't crossed the line yet in demanding "rights" for gun owners (beyond the right to bear arms in order to form a militia), you might consider what's up now.

The boys with the small dicks and pot bellies are demanding gun rights for those thugs who inflict domestic violence on their spouses. These are the boys who beat the hell out of women for no apparent reason, other than that the allows them to do it, and the NRA wants to make damn certain they don't lose their guns just because of a little "boys will be boys" action.

Here's the NRA's position, according to a story in the NYTimes today): "In statehouses across the country, though, the N.R.A. and other gun-rights groups have beaten back legislation mandating the surrender of firearms in domestic violence situations. They argue that gun ownership, as a fundamental constitutional right, should not be stripped away for anything less serious than a felony conviction — and certainly not, as an N.R.A. lobbyist in Washington State put it to legislators, for the 'mere issuance of court orders.'"

Read all about it here. I hope you're as angry about this one as I and I hope to hell that if you're an NRA member--especially a woman who is a member--you'll send your card back to Wayne LaPierre and tell him to stick it where the sun don't shine.

(Photo: alecto.wordpress.com)

Maddie and the Vikings Storm Downtown Roanoke Again

The whole rowdy gang lets out a war cry.

Maddie and her buddy Charisse are ready.

Leah and Maddie, looking glum and Valkarie Maiden-like.

Heading off to battle, metal cap in place.

Chain mail is standard for some of the Vikes.

Maddie the Terrible and her green warpaint.

A pre-performance chat.

OK, who can resist this boy?

Jeffrey Rigdon, King of the Vikings.

Charisse and her big sword.

Maddie proposes a toast.

Princess Maddie aboard her ship.

The modern Viking woman with camera and water bottle.

Blowing the horn for battle.

Sailing into port.

A worn out Viking on the way home.

Once again Madeline (my grandgirl) spent her birthday (which is actually today, Sunday) enjoying the St. Maddie's Day Parade in downtown Roanoke with her good buddies, the Vikings of the Roanoke Valley. Here is some of what they looked like and did.

Roanoke's St. Maddie's Day Parade Through My Lens

Hey, guys, watch this! Under the leg, over the back, bounce off the ground, up to the head ...

Wouldn't be a parade without the Stars and Bars and the boys thinking they were still there.

Always did like this Old Southwest float.

Love me some Star City Roller Girls.

Come say hello to Mama Roller Girl.

This guy made this butterfly in a flask.

Civil War maidens and matrons.

My buddies Diana Christopulos and Mark McLain. Diana swears the hair's natural.

Authentic Jeb Stuart Model 1863 cell phone.

Mmmmmmmmmmm. Caaaaaaaaake.

This is one cool fire truck. Older than me.

My buddy Tim Belcher was selling flowers like crazy on City Market.

Distracted.

The question of the age: Does the color come out?

Everything gets a green light.

Lovely be-speckled lassie.

OK, Mama, where's Santa?

Yeh, I'm intense. So what?

The Kentucky Derby is when? Not today?

No, I didn't paint my legs. It's socks!

I want to see this old boy toss a caber.

The TV boys were all over the place.

Grover, I dropped my damn hat. Can you get it for me?

OK, little guy, slow down. You'll get gas and I'll get pissed.

As I shot my pal Maryellen Goodlatte, Ken Cuccinelli nearly ran over me. Maryellen's great; Cooch, not so much.

State Senator John Edwards was having a grand time.

Yes, it's natural. So's the nose ring.

Roanoke's, uh, finest.

Yes, I wear fuzzy purple hats on occasion. And I wear pink taffeta on other occasions. (Tommy Lee Jones lookalike.)

Smile for the handsome photographer, honey and ignore the hand.

No, dangit, I'm not a Girl Scout, but my sister is.

A real Dalmation sticks his head out of the fire truck.

OK, no special reason for the photo; just a great face. Great face.

Think my smile's great now, wait'll I lose the braces!

Yet another smile for the ages.

Yes, Mom, I rode a commode in the parade.

The "pot" of gold at rainbow's end.

Lady Liberty, yes. And you are ...

Pearlie Mae Fu, the queen of Roanoke and all its parades.

Peek-a-boo. I see you.

Aging ingenue with a still-lovely smile.

Yes, I am the daughter of a doll and don't you forget it!

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! More potato chips!

Hand down the fiddle and rosin up the bow.

Yes, I love tubas ...

... because they're such good mirrors.

Hey girls look! A CUTE boy! Over there. With the camera.

After the rock goes through the window, everybody duck and hide.

My god! He's as handsome as the photographer. Lordy, lordy.

The little drummer girl.

Yes, my deah. I'm with the ballay. Prima Donna, if you please.

The hat? Oh, the wind caught it. Won't bend back down. Dang.

This is one big, robust dude on his tiny Harley Hog.

My pal Bob Grebe, TV guy.

Had a good chat with this pretty gal and her lovely sock monkey. They're inseparable.

The Bolivian dancers nearly stole the show.

OK, so a little makeup smeared. I'm still cool.

My pal Annette Patterson and her cute-as-buttons daughter.

One Harley, one hairstyle.

This one looks almost too real. Little brother vs. big brother.

Hey, Mom, can we go home yet? I'm getting a little sleepy.

No, it's not a Superman hat. It's a family crest.

There were more than 100 marching, floating, dancing, rolling, strolling, bouncing, roaring entries in this year's St. Maddie's Day Parade in downtown Roanoke (formerly known as the St. Patrick's Day Parade, before my grandgirl was born on St. Paddy's Day eight years ago; Maddie insists this parade is hers).

The crowd along the mile and a half path must have numbered about 20,000 because about 2,000 of them tried to crowd into the City Market Building for lunch afterwards and my gang was fighting for food in the middle of it all.

This is Roanoke's best parade, maybe Roanoke's best event (though Local Colors rings in there close) and it gets bigger, more festive and cooler every year. I love photographing it in my family crest hat.

(All photos by me, except the one of me, which was taken by Leah Weiss.)