Lost in Conversation (A Mamie and Solly Story)

(Scene: Having lunch out for Mamie’s birthday, Mamie and Solly are enjoying soup, salad, and conversation.) Mamie (spearing a tomato chunk): You look particularly handsome, Solly. Solly (raising his glass in a toast): To you, Mamie. Birthdays are worth dressing up for. M (sipping delicately): This salad is great. All the usual suspects plus avocado,... Read More

Fiction

July 12, 2025

Just a ‘Closer’ Walk

This title is about walking down the road at about 3 mph, instead of driving 35-55-plus mph, the result being that your foot on the road versus your foot on the pedal puts you intimately closer to your ever-passing surroundings. Walking, you are “at one with the ground” (Fred Flintstone’s feet were only on the... Read More

Essays

July 10, 2025

Movies You Missed from 20 Years Ago: The Devil’s Rejects

The Devil’s Rejects (7/10 Rating) Released July 22, 2005 For rent/purchase on all major platforms. Genre: Splatter Horror, Crime, Horror R: Sadistic violence, strong sexual content, language, and drug use 1h 47m Rob Zombie’s sophomore follow-up to House of 1000 Corpses is probably his best work to date. When it was released, the improvement... Read More

Movies You Missed

July 8, 2025

A New Chapter Built on Old Roots

Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow in Southern Virginia’s Bluegrass Scene When David Lewis’s previous band, Jus’ Cauz Bluegrass Band, disbanded in 2024 after more than a decade together, he could have stepped away from performing. Instead, the mandolin player turned to Facebook and discovered Jarrett Easter playing and singing in videos that caught his attention. “I... Read More

Cover Features

June 17, 2025

SANGRIA, SHALL WE DANCE?

Recently, I discovered a YouTube video by Camila Cabello and Pharrell Williams entitled “Sangria Wine” and the associated Sangria Dance Challenge. It was released in 2018. The Hall and Oates’ song “Out of Touch” must be about me. This is scary. Sangria has been around for a long, long time. It dates back to when the... Read More

The Wine Spot

June 12, 2025

Harbor

Was it Mystic where we met? So near the sea, ours to sail where dreams could take us. Books I want to write began there, where I felt love as forceful as waves that lured me to see chapters writing themselves penned when your eyes culled words like magic.

Poet's Corner

June 10, 2025

Night of the Whip-poor-will

Since summer arrives this month, I am writing about something which happened one summer when I was around 6 or 7 years old (1957 or 1958). Wikipedia (before that, Compton’s, World Book, Britannica, etc.), says that the whip-poor-will is a nocturnal country bird which lives in a dry-deciduous or evergreen-deciduous forest that is without underbrush... Read More

Essays

June 3, 2025

Brothers in Clay: How Destruction Became Creation for BC Clay Art

In the hills of North Carolina, where the earth provides a natural palette of various clays, brothers Brad and Bryan Caviness have turned disaster into artistic innovation. Their studio, BC Clay Art, specializes in “worlds in jars”—broken pottery vessels revealing intricate miniature scenes of ancient historical sites within their fractured walls. Their journey began with... Read More

Cover Features

June 2, 2025

Movies You Missed From 20 Years Ago: Batman Begins

Released June 15, 2005 Streaming on Max & Netflix, For rent/purchase on all major platforms. Genre: Action Epic, Epic, Superhero, Action, Crime PG-13: Intense action violence, disturbing images and some thematic elements 2h 20m After 1997’s Batman & Robin, it would be 8 more years before we got to see a new actor take on... Read More

Movies You Missed

May 17, 2025

A FEW GUIDELINES I SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED

Today more and more wines are bottled with metal screw caps. I understand it is more economical, and it reduces spoilage. If, however, you are opening a bottle of wine with a cork, consider these signs as a possible warning of spoiled wine, as mentioned in a Vinovest blog; A bulging cork may indicate heat... Read More