The worst thing about the downturn in the newspaper industry, aside from massive layoffs, careers in ruins, frozen salaries and the grim realization that my only other marketable skill is frying hushpuppies at the fish camp, is the cutback in good, old-fashioned monkey coverage.

When I first glanced at The News Virginian’s Aug. 20 front page and read the headline, “Citywide transportation plan discussed for W’boro,” I thought the story was going in another direction.

One hundred years ago. Jesse Hayden left rural Davidson County, N.C., went to the nearest town of any size and bought a tiny telephone company.

More than 2 million people have contributed to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Here’s the winner of the Write Scott Hollifield’s Column While He is On Vacation or Performing His Court-Ordered Community Service Contest as chosen by a panel of semi-experts.

A story Aug. 13 in The News Virginian (“Guitar wiz has reason to play the blues”) reminded me of similar situations in New Hope and Staunton.

We finally got a break from the unrelenting heat, so I turned off the fans upstairs and the air conditioning downstairs and the world came in through my open windows.

I don’t remember if my classmates and I were in the fifth or sixth grade, but I remember going on a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown.

My cell phone company lied to me.

There’s a cliché frequently heard during athletic tournaments. It’s “one and done.” The meaning is apparent – lose one game or match and the person or team, as the case may be, is eliminated from succeeding games or matches. Not surprisingly, “one and done” is spreading, I’m afraid, to elected offices and professions.

Al Gore got it right when he said, “I don’t remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously.”

Today, nearly itch-free, I must thank the dozens of readers who stumbled upon last week’s column

I have seen story after story in the media about people who are deeply in debt.

It’s an election between old and new.

I itch.

I understand why people’s picture of hell is fire.

When I read that Lang Lang would auction off his red Steinway grand piano to raise money for an earthquake relief fund, my first thought was this: How the heck did a panda learn to play piano?

I have a new addition at my house.

The key to my happiness was missing.

I wish I had been in Idaho when Jesse Helms died.

Reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan are frustrated that the television networks and even print media are cutting back on their coverage of events.

I’ll be up front – I don’t like or agree with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the Washington, D.C., handgun restriction law.

Kermit Love, a costume designer who helped create Sesame Street’s iconic Big Bird character, has died at the age of 91.

I write this on the eve of a wedding. Our family is expanding to include a new bride. We will gain a member, and by extension, we will gain her family as well.
I write this as another member of the family is dying.

Recent statements made by an Augusta County high school principal and a county resident have a number of us scratching our heads.

Chances are, I will be shot in the head with a nail gun.

On a corner down the street from my house is an old house that has been cut up into apartments. They can’t be very large because, judging from the number of mail boxes on the front of the building, there are a lot of them. In back of the building and completely exposed to the street is a small patio. Every summer it is turned into a resort. It happened again this year.

OK, I’ll admit that the Shenandoah Valley, especially the lower part, is overwhelmingly conservative and politically Republican.

Nobody listens to Jimmy Carter anymore, but once in a while, they should.

The following is a public service announcement.