By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I use Artificial Intelligence. Often I illustrate these blogs with images created by WordPress as part of the deal for providing this site. Also, it’s easier to ask AI the derivation of “lead-pipe cinch.” The standard Internet search now offers lead pipes I can purchase in the first 20 items. …
Tag: writing
The best kind of road to ruin
By MONTE DUTTON Mike Hembree (left) and Larry Woody at the Franklin battlefield (Monte Dutton photos). I hope I’m going to get a bit more profound when I take stock of my three-day trip to Nashville, Tenn., which I cheerfully refer to as Music City USA, but not Nashvegas, because I like Nashville better. I …
Just enough knowledge to be dangerous
A young woman -- apparently one with three arms --- angrily reacts to her computer crashing and losing internet connection. Click here. Superficial knowledge. That’s what we got from technology. I am neither unaffected nor blameless. I write mostly about sports for an increasingly modest living. I don’t know as much about sports since I …
The verbers are taking over
By MONTE DUTTON This vibrant comic-style illustration creatively visualizes the transformation of common nouns into active verbs. Click here. Verbers are taking over. It’s been going on for years. What is a verber? It’s a person who turns everything into a verb. They’re maniacal. I’m not writing a story. I’m laptopping. Several times a week, …
Anatomy of an upset
By MONTE DUTTON Alex Wilkins (Furman photo) Click here. Furman must go into Friday night’s game against Connecticut with illogical expectations. A cynic would call it delusions of grandeur. The Paladins must believe they are going to win. Period. There’s no other way. When Furman hits the Xfinity Mobile Arena floor, every corner of the …
Short-term hoops fatigue
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. “Six Days on the Road (and I’m A-Gonna Make It Home Tonight)” was written by Earl Green and Carl Montgomery. It’s my favorite trucker song. I don’t have a lot. A man who drives pickups doesn’t count as a trucker. I was, however, on the road for six days. I …
In my element
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. On Sunday night, I watched a healthy portion of Believers: Boston Red Sox, a documentary that centers on the 2004 World Series. At the same time, I was switching to a basketball game between Charleston and UNC Wilmington. The Cougars came from 15 points behind and won. I watched Miami …
Song lyrics move me on
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I don’t think I’ve done this every year – maybe not even last year when I was blissfully unaware I was a few days away from being rushed to the hospital – but it has been a common practice of mine for at least a couple decades to send out …
The wide, wild world of John Irving
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. This isn’t the first time I’ve noted that my favorite novelists – Larry McMurtry, Elmore Leonard, Pat Conroy, et al. – have been dying off. Given my own advancing age, there’s no getting around it. Over the years, I’ve read most of John Irving’s great novels: The Cider House Rules, …
Not much worth reading
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I have become obsessed with how bad journalism has become. It’s become a hobby to read Internet stories with lurid headlines if only to see what nothing burgers they are. This morning I saw a headline on “NASCAR’s deadliest tracks.” Truth be known, there aren’t any. I don’t think a …
Nightrider's Lament 