Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, December 24, 2018, 1:31 p.m. I’ve been working on stories about the year in review, so I guess I might as well take up the subject of my own. Milestones come at intervals by definition, I suppose, but they’re not necessarily significant just because they end with a “0” or a …
Tag: writing
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 …
Anger Cuts Either Way
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, December 13, 2018, 10:44 a.m. I was on the way to the Laurens Commission of Public Works meeting and thought it was going to make me late. I am obsessively punctual and often fret about being late for meetings, so much so that invariably I wind up being there 20 minutes …
How the Checkered Flag Fell at the Beauty Pageant
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, November 18, 11:57 a.m. New assignments abound. For twenty years, most of my time was spent writing about race cars. I started writing books. I taught myself to play guitar and found I had “a handy knack for rhyming,” which led to songs. I started writing novels. I never wrote about …
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Stop the World and Let Me Off
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, November 8, 2018, 1:14 p.m. So much is going on that I can’t decide what to write. I’m suffering from information overload. I’m drowning. Either that or I’ve fallen and I can’t get up. It’s impossible to keep up. With politics. With technology. With violence. With anger. Do this. Don’t do …
Things that Are Close and Things that Are Far Away
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, November 2, 2018, 9:56 a.m. Election Day is Tuesday, and I can’t remember the last time I ate a McRibs. I don’t think there is any relation between elections and McRibs except that both are being enthusiastically advertised. The best meal I’ve had in the week to date was a hamburger …
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‘Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics’
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, September 23, 2018, 10:45 a.m. I fell asleep with the TV on last night, which is not unusual, and it awakened me this morning, when I wanted to sleep longer, because, in a semi-conscious state, I got irritated. Mark Twain said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and …
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.” …
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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Another Day, Another Fifty Cents
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, June 28, 2018, 10:14 a.m. It’s going to be another week that was. By definition. To quote one of my songs, “No matter where you go, there you are.” This one, though, has been particularly enlightening. I’m making a transition into a job running the county’s news site, GoLaurens.com, which also …
Nightrider's Lament 