At Least There Was No Big One

Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, December 22, 2018, 2:10 p.m. If law enforcement used yellow flags, they would have been waving on Spartanburg Highway, Musgrove Street Extension, or South Carolina 56 North, depending on which way one wants to identify the thoroughfare. Two crashes, neither involving serious injuries, occurred within two hours of each other, about …

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What do jury duty, a broken tooth, a peanut butter shake and Lindsey Wilson have in common? Me!

Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, September 20, 2018, 11:40 a.m. I had jury duty but wasn’t selected. Since every day, I put together arrest reports and talk to law enforcement officers about various crimes, I suppose this is hardly a surprise. In this part of the state, Florence, which hit the Carolinas coast as a hurricane …

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Bumping Along in a Crazy World

Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, September 6, 2018, 1:15 p.m. Not much of me has been literary in recent days. Oh, there has been beauty in my world. The Red Sox’ seven-run eighth-inning rally and Brandon Phillips’ ninth-inning home run against the Braves was, as Dennis Eckersley is fond of saying on TV, “a beautiful thing.” …

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When the Roll Is Called in Homeroom, I’ll Be There

Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, June 30, 2018, 4:02 p.m. I’ve been working my ass off. No, that’s not right. I’ve been wearing my ass out. Mainly I’ve been sitting down. I’m in the process of learning how to manage the county website. It’s not the official county website. It’s a news site, or two that …

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The Day Was Entirely ‘Justifiable’

Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, June 10, 2018, 10:12 a.m. The plan was to write a racing column, but complications arose. Automobile racing, that is. Several months ago, attempting to shave a few dollars from my extravagant satellite bill, I changed packages, one consequence being that I no longer have access to Fox Sports2. Or FoxSports2. …

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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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My Mind Is Tired and Incapable of Suitable Organization and Motivation

Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, March 10, 2018, 11:57 a.m. It's been a busy week. I got more done on Friday than any day in quite a while. Everything worked. Interview subjects called me back promptly. By the time I got finished writing about a soccer game and talking on a radio show while it was …

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Why You’d Enjoy a Stock Car Racing Novel … or Two

Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, February 28, 2018, 11:17 a.m. In 2017, I wrote two novels about a young stock-racing ace named Barrie Jarman. Of my seven novels to date, they are the only ones related to each other. I've often explained this by saying that once I've completed the arduous process of writing a novel, …

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