Teaching Chickens To Write
Local columnist Jimmy Reed remembers a childhood vocation – raising chickens and selling their eggs – and recalls how some people thought he could have even taught his fowls to write. (April 17, 2012, Page 4)
Reality TV today: Cheap laughs, faux authenticity
Remember “Candid Camera”? Local columnist Deidra Jackson remembers several versions of the popular, and original, reality TV show, and compares it to today attempts at realism that appear to be there just for cheap laughs. (April 12, 2012, Page 4)
Lawd Glad Received
Local columnist Jimmy Reed asked his freshman composition students to write about either going back in time to change a bad mistake or to relive one of their best days, and ended up writing one for them about a meaningful fishing trip he made years ago. (April 10, 2012, Page 4)
No Matches Nationwide
Local columnist Jimmy Reed relates his recent experience with an Internet site promising matches for lonely people and the lesson he learned – sometimes you don’t need to be completely truthful. (April 3, 2012, Page 4)
This ‘post-racial’ age is still not for the thin-skinned
Why are you blacks so sensitive about race? It’s a question local columnist Deidra Jackson has heard and one she tries to answer with a column that looks at the importance of battling racism with thick skin rather than thin. (March 29, 2012, Page 4)
Do wheels of justice turn faster sometimes?
Do the wheels of justice turn slowly or do sometimes they seem to speed up? Local columnist T.J. Ray sees two different speeds,based on political expediency, in the cases of two soldiers charged with multiple killings. (March 28, 2012, Page 4)
How To Be A Man
Local columnist Jimmy Reed pays tribute to his high school football coach, the late Ben Ruscoe, who taught him how to be a man. (March 27, 2012, Page 4)
The thinker’s cure
Local columnist T.J. Ray writes about an email message and piece he recently received that shows how sometimes we out-think ourselves. (March 23, 2012, Page 4A)
A Stupid, Educated Man?
Local columnist Jimmy Reed worked himself into and then out of a jam when he asked one of his creative writing classes about malapropisms, puns, quibbles, spoonerisms and Freudian slips. (March 20, 2012, Page 4)
Nervous time for young DJ
Local columnist T.J. Ray recalls one afternoon in the studio of the radio station he worked for as a teenager when he was faced with a big problem – what did he do if he couldn’t find the recording of the national anthem to sign off with? (March 16, 2012, Page 4A)
