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The Mysterious Melungeons
There is a group of people in Eastern Tennessee whose ancestry is said to date back in this country to the late 1700’s. At the time there was talk of people who lived in the forests as Indians, but who looked European and spoke a broken form of Elizabethan English. Their descendants are called the…
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Where are YOU located?
I just got through watching “The Tenant”, a movie by Roman Polanski from the 70’s. It was quite bizarre, but then I like the bizarre. In it, the main character, played by Polanski himself, says something that really got me thinking. I’m paraphrasing here, but he says something like, “Say you chopped off your arm…
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“I think those two are funny.”
A friend of mine has a new boyfriend. I got to meet him the other day. Nice looking young man. He had the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen. He seems to be a will-o’-the-wisp, though. He’s very artistic and quite the free spirit. I doubt he’d thrive in a committed relationship, but I don’t think…
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Gravity, with all the Bells and Whistles
The other day I went to see the movie Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, in IMAX 3D. To say that this was not the movie experience of my childhood is putting it mildly. Back then, you went to a shabby little two screen theater, the kind with sticky floors, gum under the seats,…
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Transitional Periods
The most dangerous times in life are the transitional periods. Like stepping from one slippery rock to another while crossing a rushing river, you have to be careful or you might slip and fall. These times include changing jobs, moving, going off to college, traveling, preparing to break up with someone, mourning, divorce and experiencing…
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The Amazing Malala Yousafzai
Recently I saw an interview on the Daily Show that impressed me beyond words. Sixteen year old Malala Yousafzai is the most dignified, respectful, dedicated and determined young girl I have ever seen in my life. Growing up in the Swat Valley in Pakistan, she has witnessed violence and oppression for most of her life.…
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Tony the Ice Cream Man
When I was little, there was an ice cream truck that routinely visited the Connecticut projects where we lived. For people who couldn’t afford vacations, it was one of the few ways you could really tell that summer had arrived. That, and at the tail end of the baby boom the neighborhood was lousy with…
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Big Jim—Jacksonville’s Longest Running Tradition
A friend of mine calls our city, Jacksonville, Florida, “a truck stop that got out of control”. Actually, he has a point. Jacksonville is a sprawling monstrosity of a city with, frankly, not much to recommend it for its size. Tourists generally drive right on through here on their way to Disney World. They don’t…
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Psychic Connections
A friend of mine was in a car accident the other day. Two minutes later he got a phone call from his identical twin. “Something told me to call you.” I’ve seen this happen a lot with them over the years. But it gets even stranger. The next day, both of them were sore from…