Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, May 17, 2018, 3:02 p.m. I don’t care whether I hear Laurel or Yanny. I don’t know where I go to hear it, or, for that matter, them. Whoever or whichever they are. As I get older, I get less inquisitive about such matters. I am not without curiosity. I just …
Tag: Monte Dutton
‘I’m Mad as Hell and … So Is Everybody Else’
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, May 16, 2018, 10:22 a.m. Sameness has become weird, which is unsustainable because if the weird becomes the same, it will cease to be the weird. One would think there would be limits. To this point, one would be wrong. Life reminds me of a Tom T. Hall song called “Everything …
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The Right Stuff of the Vanities
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, May 15, 2018, 3:38 p.m. For many years, I thought The Right Stuff was the best non-fiction book I ever read. Now I consider it neck and neck with William Prochnau’s Once Upon a Distant War. When I wrote a novel about a pot-smoking songwriter fleeing the feds, I used The …
The Charm of Sports this Spring
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, May 10, 2018, 10:40 a.m. Spring sports are winding down. Here in town, and throughout this end of Laurens County, all we have left are some girls competing in the state track meet and boys playing for the state tennis championship. Even football, for which the town is known, rises and …
If Only News Had a Scorebook and a Means of Keeping Score
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, May 2, 2018, 11:03 a.m. My preferred form of journalism is sports. It’s the source of most of my experience. Recently I’ve been writing lots of news. It’s interesting. I derive some satisfaction. I’ve done it before from time to time. On Tuesday night, sitting in the home grandstand of Wilder …
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Guilty Pleasure in a Guilty Pleasure
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, May 1, 2018, 1:25 p.m. Green Goes Forth. The protagonist and narrator is a guy named Joe Green. He grows “green,” which is one of many code words and synonyms for cannabis. No need to write a paragraph of them. The title is a double entendre. Appropriately, Green Goes Forth is …
Around these Parts, Things Are Roughly the Same
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, April 18, 2018, 1:45 p.m. Baseball season has begun. Tax season has ended. The Red Sox are off to the best start in team history. That’s good. My taxes are filed. That’s good, too. When the federal refund crackles across fiber-optic lines into my bank account, it will be better. A …
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This Was a Friday Night that I Ain’t Got No Money
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, April 14, 2018, 1:30 p.m. Friday was incomplete on the sports front, that is, unless going to a gathering to support youth tennis counts as sports. It didn’t seem particularly sporting. The food was great. A bunch of people got together to play their guitars and sing songs. I talked with …
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The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Imagination
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, April 6, 2018, 10:45 a.m. This week has seemed slow. Most seem fast. Yet my life has been full of activity. First the audio version of my stock racing novel, Lightning in a Bottle, was released. The audio version is fantastic, thanks to the diligent work of narrator Jay Harper. He …
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It Could Be Worse, but It Could Be Better
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, April 1, 2018, 4:48 p.m. On Saturday morning, I left a couple small crises behind me as I drove down U.S. 76 to Newberry College, there to join my friends Brent and Sharon Sanders to watch their daughter, Hailey, play women’s lacrosse for Tusculum College against the Wolves. This was my …
Nightrider's Lament 