"Why do they [write] for their money? Why do they [work] for short pay? They ain't getting nowhere and they're losing their share. They must have gone crazy back there." — Michael Burton (paraphrased)
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I have concluded that actual names are going out of fashion, particularly among the showboats who tell us all about them on television. The Most Valuable Player in the NBA is SGA. Do fans even know his full name? I didn’t. I never hear it. SGA slams! A steal by …
Continue reading The players get longer; the names get shorter
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I spent a lot of time Friday watching NCAA baseball playoff games, mainly because I’m presently too broke to do much else.. I had the usual South Carolinian’s interest in Clemson, and some underdog’s affection for USC Upstate, which won the Big South Tournament out of which Presbyterian quickly retired. …
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Millions fought in World War II. Thousands were taken prisoner. Thousands of works of fiction have been written. Silver Wings, Iron Cross by Tom Young thus becomes plausible amid the sheer numbers of the conflagration. If such a story never happened, perhaps it should have. In the waning days of …
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. The hereafter is where old race fans debate the merits of Curtis Turner, Junior Johnson and Fireball Roberts. Some young NASCAR fans weren’t born when Dale Earnhardt met his maker. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Rusty Wallace have their adherents, not to mention those of my age who also recognize …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Sometimes the stars come together. Sometimes they line up. Sometimes they fall. There’s an old Randy Travis song that notes that the ocean’s salty and the stars sometimes fall. The name of the song is “Deeper Than the Holler.” I wouldn’t call Clinton High School’s baseball field …
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I don’t know where I got The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. I don’t remember when. I didn’t know I had it until I rummaged through a box looking for a book to read. I can only speculate. I may have bought it when I was interested in the World …
By MONTE DUTTON PJay Smith (0) battles Chattanooga's Honor Huff in Asheville (Monte Dutton photo). Click here. Chattanooga, one of three Southern Conference members invited to participated in the National Invitation Tournament, is playing in the finals on Thursday at 9 p.m., making it the first SoCon school to reach this level. Furman (25-10) and …
By MONTE DUTTON Two years ago at the Southern Conference Tournament (Elena Davidson photo) https://dunesproperties.com/agent/mark-mitchell/ One of NASCAR’s more familiar truisms is that the best way to make a small fortune in racing is to start out with a large one. That’s the modern path of journalism. In my case, it’s small fortune to none. …
Continue reading Hello, trouble, trouble, trouble, welcome home …
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, August 6, 2020, 1:34 p.m. I have “encountered” Kimi Raikkonen before. I was about 10 feet away for a media conference at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2011, when, away from Formula One, he tested the waters in a couple NASCAR races, one for trucks and the for what is now the …
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, March 30, 2020, 7:45 p.m. When I read Don Quixote, I found it astonishing to learn that the art of comedy had not notably advanced in over four centuries. Salman Rushdie’s Quichotte takes Miguel de Cervantes forward and adds levels that would not have been structurally feasible in 1616, when the …
Nightrider's Lament 