The ORIGINAL Star Wars: A New Hope is coming to theaters in February 2027!

This is something that a LOT of us have waited almost thirty years for!  It was reported a few days ago that the original cut of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is coming back to theaters in February 2027!  This is going to be the first Star Wars movie as it existed before the "Special Editions" came out in 1997.  From an age when the special effects of the saga were done without benefit of computer-generated imagery.   This is the movie that shattered the bar for what practical effects could do and it set the platinum standard for every blockbuster since.  And now in time for the film's fiftieth anniversary we're going to behold it again in its original glory.

(I'm going to assume that "original 1977 Star Wars" actually means the print that was released prior to the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back.  That version was the 1977 cut but with the "Episode IV: A New Hope" added to the opening crawl.  That is how it was most widely known as in the years after its original release.  That's my assumption anyway.  It's still going to be the material circa 1977.)

It's a real wonder that it is coming out though!  Ever since 1997 the official line from Lucasfilm is that the footage that was cleaned up and restored prior to getting enhanced effects for the Special Editions, had been irreparably damaged during that process.  George Lucas insisted that A New Hope as had first come out in theaters no longer existed.  He further stated that the Special Editions were in his mind the definitive Star Wars trilogy and that there was no real need or perhaps even desire for the original cuts.

Disney many have done a few things wrong since taking over the franchise in 2012, but this is not one off those.  Because many of us have been wanting the classic A New Hope - the version that won awards out the wazoo and was one of the very first movies inducted into the National Film Registry - to be made available to us.  The A New Hope cut that many if not most of us still remember from between 1977 and 1996 is, I prefer to believe anyway, a priceless historical artifact of its time.  It deserves to be forever honored and esteemed.  And the people who have come after deserve to see it for themselves: a cut of the first Star Wars movie that really does have Han shooting first.

I don't know how they did it but apparently there was a pristine print of that first version of Episode IV out there and now it's been restored and being made ready for its golden anniversary.  I hope this does a zillion dollars at the box office.  Maybe then Disney and Lucasfilm will not only release the original versions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi also, but make them on sale for home release.  I would certainly love to have the first trilogy as originally enjoyed in my personal library.

Think I'm going to wear my lucky Star Wars cap, that I've had since being at Elon, when I go see this in the theater.

Read More

Just saw this Christmas-themed Publix commercial and I love it!

Whoever came up with this ad deserves an award.  This spot is brilliant, tragicomic, heart-tugging, funny, and beautiful.  Publix has a long history of having great commercials and this is one of their best.

Growing up I thought that people whose birthdays fell on Christmas must be so lucky, because it meant that they got more toys.  Watching poor Isabelle suffer from being a Christmas baby makes me greatly regret having that notion.  May all who were born on Christmas have a birthday just as wonderful as this young lady's :-) 

Read More

Detroit finally gets its statue of RoboCop

Way, waaaaay back in 2011, I posted about how a bunch of good-hearted geeks pitched in more than $50,000 to crowdfund a statue of RoboCop for the city of Detroit.  I've wondered about this project at various times over the years (mostly whenever I've watched RoboCop, which hasn't been too many occasions) and I certainly did wish them well.  But it still seemed like one of those great ideas that linger around but ultimately get nowhere.

Leave it to nerd-dom to prove this cynic wrong.

Behold the brand new $60,000 bronze statue of electric fuzz in stainless steel:

Click to enlarge.  Photo credit: Lee DeVito

Detroit Metro Times has more here about the RoboCop statue.  Maybe they should invite Paul Verhoeven and Peter Weller for the official dedication?  I'd buy that for a dollar!

Read More

Hair-raising true story of Yours Truly and manic depression

So, TWO people have asked me the same question in private message on Facebook.  Having seen my new photo, they're wondering if I've colored my hair.

Okay, sure, why not?  It might be a little fun to answer this...

NO!  I am not currently coloring my hair.  What you see is all natural brown, honest.

HOWEVER, for awhile I did color my hair.

I was afraid that I was going gray prematurely.  So I turned to Just For Men...  with tragicomic results.  One more thing that I did while deep in the throes of mania.

The complete story - which really is pretty hilarious - is in chapter 56 of my book Keeping the Tryst.  Along with what I did when I thought my hair was falling out.  Not one of my prouder moments, but the tale is there if anyone wants to be a little entertained 😮

Read More

Haven't posted a selfie in a long time...

The other week I got a haircut.  I tend to like how these things look after they've grown out a bit.  And I've lost some weight lately.  Been trying to take better care of myself than I had been, so among other things I'm eating a lot more fresh veggies.  I definitely think that working on the book took a stressful toll.  There were a lot of things in that which were a real struggle to write.  But I did it and I think I picked up the visage of a real author in the process.

Anyhow, this is how I'm looking lately:

Not bad for a guy in his early fifties!  Every so often I get asked how old am I.  It's become a lot of fun making people guess.  I've been told that I look everything from 45 to 23!

Well, we'll see how long it lasts.  Maybe when I hit 70 I'll be getting mistaken for a person in his forties :-) 

Read More

Forsaking one happiness for another, or: "Why don't you have a girlfriend Chris?"

Every so often someone asks me the question: "Chris, why don't you have someone special in your life?"

It's not a bad question, not really.  There are a lot of reasons why I don't have a woman to love.  One of the biggest is that I just haven't found her yet.  It seems that the prospects of that happening are dim.  But my expectations are high. The woman who God might bring into my life has to love and serve Him first, more than she would me.  That is not easy to find in any person, it seems.

She also has to be able to love me for who I am, lumps and all.  That means accepting that I have a condition that will at times make life difficult for both of us, and I'm speaking of my having bipolar disorder.  Now, that is something which has become MUCH more controlled in the past few years.  It's not the monster looming over me like it has been for most of my life.  But even so, it's there, and though I'm better at knowing when it's about to strike the symptoms still come.

I also know what kind of person she needs to be outwardly.  I desire someone who cares about the impression she makes. And by that I mean I do NOT care for someone with tattoos and metal in inappropriate places on her body, especially on her face.  I want a girl who looks natural.  With symmetry.  Sorry, not sorry, but tattoos on a woman are a major turn-off for me.  I don't find that appealing, at all.  It seems that many if not most people, including the females, are getting inked these days.  That is something I'm not interested in a woman having.

My standards are high.  Maybe unapproachably so.  But I know what I'm looking for.  A real diamond in the rough.  If and when I find her, I'm going to be very thankful for her.

But even so, all of those things don't zero in on the real reason why I'm unattached.  There are others. And one of then is something that I am actually very joyful about.

Something that struck me a few days ago.  I told this to my friends yesterday during our belated Thanksgiving dinner together, and they thought I was right, too...

A lot of people know that one of the things I've most wanted in life is someone to share it with.  I've longed for God to bring a woman into my world, who I can cherish and honor and love.  Someone who can truly love me, imperfections and all, and never abandon me because of my frailties.

What's happened to that?  I talk about that desire a bit in my book Keeping the Tryst.  It's important enough to merit mentioning.  But I haven't lamented not having a lady in my life as I used to, in quite awhile now.  Though time has seen that desire magnify, not diminish.

So, what's happened?

In a word, Tammy.  My dog happened.

It hit me right between the eyes this past week, the discovery that I've been so focused on giving Tammy a good life, I've been ignoring the desires I have had for my own.

I do not believe at all that that's been a bad thing.

I promised Dad, on the night before he passed away, that I would look after Tammy and take care of her.  As best that I possibly could.  Dad and I had gotten Tammy together but I never harbored anything more than the sense that Tammy was his dog first and foremost.  He was "Daddy " to her.  He was her person.  The one she most followed and looked to for comfort and attention.  I was just... well, I guess I was "the other guy" in the house.  The spare.  The one to get attention from when Daddy was too busy making dinner or something.

Tammy was Dad's dog and on his next-to-final night with us he came to enough to ask about her.  And I told him that he didn't have to worry.  I told Dad that I would watch over her and see to it that she was taken care of.

That was eleven years ago.  Quite a while.

My promise to my father, to look after someone we both loved, has been the central mission of my life all this time.  It's been the most important aspect of my being, second only to my relationship with God.

Tammy is more than a dog to me.  She is family.  She is the last living connection I have to my father.  I cherish her especially because of that.

And she has absolutely been worth setting aside my desires for my own happiness for.

She IS happiness for me.  Every day that ends with the two of us together, is something I am thankful for.  It's that much more time that I can feel like I've made Dad proud of me, for taking care of his dog.

I don't count having my own desires set aside for her sake as a loss.  Not at all.

I'm doing what I said that I would do.  I'm fulfilling a promise.  I'm being honorable.  I'm doing the right thing, no matter how it looks to the world.  If you've read or are reading Keeping the Tryst then you know how much my honor means to me and this, is in keeping with that.

I cannot do otherwise.

Some day, it will sadly end.  I'm a realist.  I know that Tammy isn't as young as she used to be.  But she's still here.  She's still with me.  And every day that we have together is a victory to celebrate and be thankful for.  Every day that we have is a gift from God.  And that is never something to be regretful about.

I don't count the decade and more I've had without a woman in my life as being lost.  Not at all.  When you love someone enough you can very easily set aside your own needs and wants for sake of that person.  And that is what Tammy is to me: a person.  Dear family, and family looks after each other no matter the cost.  Just one of many things that my little dog has taught me.

It may not be as big a deal as having a spouse and kids.  But this is the hand that God dealt me.  And I am absolutely making the very most of it.  I can be grateful for that.

And who knows?  Maybe someday, sooner than later, God will bring a woman into my life.  I think Tammy has enough love in her for another person, too 🙂

Read More

Just finished watching Stranger Things season five, volume one. Aaaaaand...

Good GOOGLY MOOOGLY!!  Holy HECK!!  Good LORD!!  Jeebus cripes crispies with milk!!!

I mean, did I just watch that?  I watched that.  That just happened.  That was much better television than we possibly deserve to have.  This is at least the greatest show since Lost.

And the kids do not too terribly old either considering it's been over three years since season four.  They all appear pretty consistent with their characters's on-screen ages.  Even Erica - who I was concerned about most, because I love that character - looks great!  The crew did an amazing job with makeup.  I totally bought that these were still teenagers.

I totally called it on the title of episode two, which was being called "The Vanishing Of..." ever since the titles reveal last year.  The foreshadowing was there all the way back in season one.  Can't believe I nailed that one :-)

It was a real delight to see that the copy of A Wrinkle in Time that Holly is reading is the very same edition of my own copy, that I got as fourth grader in 1984.  That became one of my favorite books from childhood and it was really something seeing how that classic tale got referenced in these episodes.

I'm just... wow.  The past five hours were amazing.  Definitely time well spent away from real world concerns.  That can be a good thing, in moderation.  I've neglected having some leisure time for my own enjoyment for much too long.  Tonight I got to have that again.

Today is officially Thanksgiving.  I'm going to be joining some friends for a late celebration tomorrow, so I have today pretty much to myself.  I'm going to spend it playing with my dog, for fun I'm going to make the dinner that Snoopy cooked in A Charlie  Brown Thanksgiving (complete with toast and pretzels), and I might watch these first four episodes again.  I'll certainly watch them again before volume two comes out on Christmas Day.

Okay well, go watch the new Stranger Things.  It gets my highest recommendation.  And if you've never watched it before, what are you waiting for??  You're missing a heck of a story, with an amazing cast of characters.  I hope this comes to Blu-ray eventually, because I would be very happy to have the series in my collection.  But you don't have to wait.  Get Netflix now, just for Stranger Things.  Trust me it's worth it.

Read More

Thanksgiving 2025: What I am thankful for

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the United States.  And though it has been adopted by a few other countries, the American observation of the holiday remains a unique one.  Thanksgiving has been part of America's identity since the early seventeenth century, most notably by the Pilgrims of the Plymouth colony in 1621.  The notion of the American people giving thanks to God for the blessings He had bestowed was further ingrained by the Continental Congress in 1777.

And then in 1789 President George Washington famously proclaimed a day of national thanksgiving.  That pretty much sealed the deal.  Thanksgiving would forever be a sacred time for the American people.

My experiences with Thanksgiving have been varied.  Some of them have been good.  Others, not so much.  I don't want to dwell on the latter though.  I like to believe that recent years, months actually, have brought deliverance from much of that pain.  Yet Thanksgiving will forever be something that I approach with trepidation.  It's the entire month of November, actually.  While writing my book it struck me how so much has happened in my life during the various months of November... and not all of that very good.  There has been a lot of family heartbreak during November and now that I realize it, that has cast a pall on this month, maybe from now on.

But in spite of that, there are enough good things that have been in my life that I cannot but have a grateful heart about.  And I can definitely honor God by remarking upon those.

So here, as part of what has at various times been a holiday tradition (though it's been five years since the last time I did this), are what I am thankful for right now...

I am thankful for my relationship with God, that has grown so much over the course of the past few years.  I think part of that is because I have made it a prerogative to choose to be thankful, in spite of how circumstances have sometimes gone.

I am thankful for the work that I have right now.  That was definitely an answered prayer.

I am thankful for the many wonderful people who are in my life, who have been there for me when I needed that most.

I am especially thankful for my "inner circle", my closest friends who really are precious family.

I am thankful that I have a roof over my head and a working vehicle.

I am very thankful for my dog Tammy.  I thank God for her each morning and evening, and I pray that He might let us have many more wonderful years together.

I am thankful that this year I got to see my book Keeping the Tryst published after a decade of on and off work upon it.  And it seems that others are enjoying reading it.  I am very happy about that.  Maybe the new year will see it discovered by even more people, too.

I am thankful for some opportunities that have opened up, and I am looking forward to seeing what happens with them.

I am thankful for my overall health.  And especially my mental health.  After half a lifetime of dealing with bipolar disorder, I can truthfully testify that my mind is at last my own.  Are there moments where things could be better?  Yes, there are.  Those will always be a threat to live with.  But manic depression no longer looms over me like a monster.  That is a beast that has in greatest part been brought to ground.

I am thankful that I have lately begun reading for pleasure again, more than I had been.  I suppose I've been so fixated on my own book, that I'd forgotten how much fun it is to read the classics.  In the past month or so I've been re-reading the Harry Potter series.  It's almost like a spark of childhood has been re-ignited in me and I want to nurture that.

I am thankful for my iPad Pro: my most indispensable tool.  Although I'm now on the second keyboard for it (cranking out 142,023 words of my book took a toll on the first keyboard, especially the "t" key).

I am thankful that I did not require surgery in September (long story)!

That's what comes pretty much comes most to mind for this occasion.  And I shall pray that YOU, Dear Reader, will have even more things to list that you are grateful for this Thanksgiving :-)

Read More

Weird News: Man disguises himself as dead mother to get her government pension checks

Y'know, I really need to post more crazy stuff.  I used to do it all the time.  It adds some variety to this place.  But I don't want to over do it.  In the past few years The Knight Shift has become more an intimate thing for me.  Although I need to post more "from the heart and mind" pieces too.  Just something I've noticed.

But back to weird stuff...

From Italy comes this story of a "youthful whippersnapper" who did a bad bad thing.  A man in Italy, 56 and an unemployed nurse, has been found to have been dressing up as his three-years dead mother in order to impersonate her and get her pension checks.  It's as bizarre a story as has come about lately.

From the article at Daily Mail:

An Italian son has been accused of dressing up as his dead mother in an effort to claim her pension while her body was hidden at home.

The 56-year-old man, an unemployed nurse from Mantua, reportedly managed to claim thousands of euros before his act was exposed.

He had also allegedly hidden the dead body of his mother, Graziella Dall'Oglio, at the family home until it had become mummified.

  The 56-year-old man, an unemployed nurse from Mantua, reportedly managed to claim thousands of euros before his act was exposed.

He had also allegedly hidden the dead body of his mother, Graziella Dall'Oglio, at the family home until it had become mummified.

Ms Dall'Oglio passed away around three years ago at the age of 82, according to Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.

But her son failed to officially report her death and instead wrapped her body in a sheet, stuffed it into a sleeping bag and hid it in the house.

He then allegedly dressed up as his mother, complete with lipstick, foundation and a pearl necklace, before setting out to renew her identity card in a government office in the suburb of Borgo Virgilio.

The son had reportedly cut his hair so it would fall in a similar style to his late mother's. 

He underwent a 'Mrs Doubtfire-style transformation', the paper said, referring to the 1993 movie starring Robin Williams.

The man arrived at the government office on the outskirts of Mantua earlier this month, where he presented himself as Ms Dall'Oglio.

But his blatant deception raised the suspicions of one employee, who realised there was something peculiar about the 'woman' - including their thick neck and deep voice.

The member of staff quickly reported the incident to police and even alerted the local mayor.

Authorities compared official photographs of the real Ms Dall'Oglio to those of her son and realised they had been duped.

The son had been reeling in an annual income of around €53,000 (£47,000) thanks to his mother's pension as well as a property portfolio of three houses, as per the paper.

As for what gave this poor sap away...

'He came into the council offices wearing a long skirt, he was wearing lipstick and nail varnish, a necklace and old-style earrings,' Francesco Aporti, the mayor of Borgo Virgilio, told the newspaper.

'But up close his neck was too thick and his wrinkles were strange, the skin on his hands did not seem to be that of an 85-year-old woman. 

'His voice was feminine but every so often it dipped and sounded masculine. But I might not have noticed these strange features had they not been pointed out.'

Here is a photo of the late Miss Dall'Oglio:

And here is the photo of her son in his devious disguise:

This doesn't remind me of Mrs. Doubtfire nearly as much as it does of Norman Bates...

And now I'm suddenly tempted to watch Psycho.

 

Read More

It's five days until Thanksgiving 2025

 Remember...

A bit of classic humor from good friend of this blog Lee Shelton who first created this pic in 2009 :-) 

(In case anyone's wondering, I will sadly not be deep frying a Thanksgiving turkey this year.  Maybe for Christmas though...)

Read More

A new question about Keeping the Tryst: What happened in the cafeteria at Elon

My book Keeping the Tryst has been out for a little over a month and a half now.  It's been doing pretty well sales-wise.  Okay it's NOT a bestseller by any stretch.  But enough people have been buying and reading it to make me pretty happy so far.  Maybe there will come to be some word of mouth and knowledge about it will spread around.

People are reading it.  And their comments have been rather kind.  One of my friends said that it's a real page-turner that he's barely been able to put down.  A number of people have praised its readability, saying that it doesn't come across as a 500-some page volume.  I've also gotten good word about the design: it's page color, the font size... so it's something comfortable on the eyes.  Considering that I had to design everything about this book, hearing those things makes me smile.

There have been a number of questions from those who have been reading Keeping the Tryst.  I've been doing my best to answer them as well as is possible.  Here's the latest question that's been asked.  I suppose it's a good one, because I didn't expound on it very much in the book...

"What happened in the cafeteria in chapter 19?"

Harden Cafeteria, Elon College, circa 2000

The answer is: I don't know.

I have vivid and troubling memories about what happened a few hours earlier, then a week and a half following my salvation experience in November of 1996.  I remember being in my bedroom at our apartment, sometime after midnight.  There is the memory of calling someone.  What took place between going to the cafeteria and winding up back home, that's gone.  Just... gone.

When dawn came, I didn't get ready to go to class.  I was too torn to pieces, too wiped out.  My mind was a wreck.  I skipped school that day.  And the next.  Friends called me, wanting to come over.  But I turned them down.  I wasn't ready to see anyone.

My friend Gary was the one who suggested that something very horrible had happened that evening in the cafeteria.  And over the course of the next few days, a number of friends from what was a close-knit community of Christian students intimated also that a terrible occurrence had transpired and that I had been at the center of it.

There are some mysteries in my life.  Things that I can't explain or have ever fully grasped.  What happened that night in Harden Cafeteria at Elon College is one of those.  It's among the biggest enigmas that have come about in my time on this earth.

What  I wrote about in chapter 19 of Keeping the Tryst is whatever it is.  Something terrible, that I've never had a solid answer about.  But I believe that God has brought me a long way from that.  It doesn't cast a shadow over my life as it had.  In fact, in the grander scheme of things it's really something pretty minor.  I came through it, God is good, and that's all that matters.

But maybe someday, though it's already been almost thirty years, there will come to be a clear understanding of what happened.  And who knows, but maybe I'll write about it.

Read More

On friendship, family, and difference of opinion

In the wake of some recent events I'm feeling the need to say something lately, that I've reiterated a number of times before...

I hold to certain principles.  They are more than just beliefs.  They are certainly more than mere opinions.  Mine are CONVICTIONS.  Not one of them was arrived at without a great amount of meditation and ponderance about the matter.  I know where I stand on these issues.  I know what I believe but much more than that, I know *why* I believe.

I'm not a man of ideologies.  I loathe the notion that I of all people must have an ideology.  I prefer to be known as a man of ideas.  I realize that more often than not I've been called a conservative.  That's the world's appellation for me.  But I've never cared what the world thinks of me.

I know that where I stand on some things isn't the most popular.  Just as where some people stand on their own issues, are not popular with me.  To be honest, what some people believe in strike me as pretty horrifying.

But even so, where friendship and family are involved, I am not going to necessarily think any less of such a person.

It takes a LOT for me to be led to dissolve a relationship with someone on the basis of differences of belief.  I'm not interested in that.  To me, to come to that kind of an impasse is a great failure.  It suggests that the friendship was less important than "must be right".

Am I right about what I believe?  I am convicted that I am, just as I have to trust that others are convicted, too.  My perspective about that is something that I had always known but it was while reading Atlas Shrugged that it gained clarity.  That perspective being: I know what I believe and I have to trust that another knows what he or she believes.  Let reality judge who is right.  If I am right, and convince the other that I am, I count it as no victory for myself.  If I am proven wrong, I count it as no loss.

I believe that some people in my life are wrong in what they believe.  But I will NOT think any less of them for that.  Not unless they come to adhere to something truly evil.  And that hasn't happened much in my life, if at all.

I believe in God.  I believe in God, Who among many other things is the author of reality.  I would be a very poor adherent of that concept if I did not have faith that harsh though it may come, reality prevails in the end.  I am an evangelist of reality.  So who knows, I might be one who encourages others to consider some things that they might not have before.  If I abandoned them, I will have abandoned the mission.  And I can't do that.

I guess that all of this is a roundabout way of saying this: I can't diminish a friendship or put away family because of a difference of belief about something.  That's not my nature.

And I would hope that no friend or family thinks any less of me for my own convictions.

Thank you.

Read More

The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is fifty years old today!

 Released on November 19th, 1975.

Coach W.A. Wall, our health teacher during my sophomore year of high school, told us about this movie one morning in class.  The subject at hand was mental health.  He said that One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a movie we would do well to watch sometime.  Coach Wall said that it would make us laugh, it would make us cry, and that it would downright disturb us at times.

About ten years later I got my first DVD player for Christmas.  As I was starting to build up a personal movie library I spotted this film's DVD.  Remembering what Coach Wall had said about it, I decided it was worth taking a chance on and so I bought the disc.

Wall was right.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was all of those things and more.  And it very quickly became one of the best movies I've ever seen.

Sometimes I've been asked, given my many experiences in the realm of mental health, if real life is anything like it is in this movie.  I can happily report that we have come a very long way from the treatment methods depicted in Cuckoo's Nest.  I've certainly never had anything like that kind of experience.  Even the most seemingly hopeless of patients are now treated with dignity and compassion.  I do believe that there are some cases which are going to forever seen as impossible.  But I've never met a mental health professional - either in my capacity as having a mental health care career or in being treated myself as someone with bipolar disorder - who did not cling to at least some semblance of a belief that there can be hope for anyone.

I think that One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest might have played a part in altering the perception of mental health treatment.  By the mid-Seventies the field was already on its way toward its modern form.  The movie's considerable audience, critical acclaim and  that it swept up so many prizes (it won the Academy Award for Best Picture among many other honors) cast a new light upon psychiatric medicine.  It came at the perfect time for the field.  That alone if nothing else merits noting this anniversary.

I've got nothing else to do this afternoon.  And I'm saving continuing my rewatch of Stranger Things season four for this evening.  Think I'll celebrate the occasion and watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest again.

Read More

Short Sugar's Barbecue Sauce has hit store shelves!!

For the past ten months the number-one question that has been asked of this blogger has been: "Do you know when the Short Sugar's barbecue sauce is going to be for sale?"

It was back in January that Short Sugar's Barbecue in Reidsville, North Carolina closed after almost eighty years of business.  It was news that shocked a lot of people.  I know.  For weeks it was THE item that spun the most traffic to this blog.  Folks as far away as Ireland, Australia and Brazil were coming to this site.  But that was nothing compared to the reactions that I saw on Facebook, among the people who for most if not all their lives had Short Sugar's in the town they grew up in.  It was an institution, not just of Reidsville but of the entire state of North Carolina.

I could go on all night about that.  It's been talked about by people more eloquent than I.  But a few days after the closing was announced, Short Sugar's owner David Wilson told us that the restaurant's classic barbecue sauce would be going on sale sooner than later.  I know the notion of selling it on Amazon had come up, and that venue might still come about.  That's all I knew about it though.  And at least once or twice a week since then there's been e-mail coming in asking if I had heard anything about Short Sugar's sauce hitting the market.  And all I could do was throw my hands up in the air and tell everyone "beats me."

But let there be rejoicing!  A few hours ago Wilson broke the news on Facebook that Short Sugar's Barbecue Sauce is now on sale!

You can find it at Richard's Meats & Things on Scales Street in Reidsville.  Which is practically straight across the street from where Short Sugar's was located.  Richard's is a great store that has a lot of good stuff, I can't praise their Delicious Seasoning nearly enough.  I have no idea if they ship.  If they don't they had perhaps better start thinking about setting up logistics for that, because I have a feeling that there is going to be a honking huge demand for this sauce.  A great friend back in Reidsville has already offered to send me a few bottles and I am soooooo eager to have that succulent sauce drenching my chopped barbecue before too long.

Okay well, there ya go.  Short Sugar's Barbecue Sauce is now being sold by the bottle.  It's what you all wanted.  When there's a demand for a product, eventually someone will fill it.  It will make the public very happy and it makes the producer rich.  And that's what America's all about, by gum!

So go get your bottle of Short Sugar's!  Or perish in flames.  It's your choice.  But not really.

UPDATE November 17th 2025: I asked the fine staff at Richard's Meats & Things about shipping.  Here is what Hannah told me...

Hi Chris! 

Yes, we have gotten a lot of requests for this. Unfortunately, we don't ship at this time, so it is something I have to look into and figure out how to do! With the holiday season, I am unsure if I will be able to do this before the New Year (though I'd like to). Hopefully in January we can get a system up and running. 

Best, 

Hannah

Thanks Hannah!  Well, if you guys get something figured out I'll not only order a few bottles of Short Sugars's sauce but also some of your seasoning.  I feel like a bad expatriate of Reidsville for not having some handy already.

Read More

In honor of today being Veterans Day...

Here is my father, Robert Knight, circa 1958.  He was nineteen years old at the time, serving in the United States Navy aboard the U.S.S. Northampton (at that time the flagship of the Seventh Fleet).

I've sometimes wondered about what it must have been like for him then, at that age, leaving the family farm to serve in the armed forces.  It couldn't have been easy for him.  Dad volunteered for the Navy because he knew there was going to be a great chance he would be drafted anyway, and he wanted a measure of control over his life.  I think Dad also saw the Navy as being more "hands-on" technically than other branches, in terms of maintaining machinery, as that's what much of his life experience had already entailed.  Much of his time in the Navy was spent in the engineering area of the Northampton.  And he must have impressed the right people because he was offered a chance to get involved in computers just as that technology was coming to really develop.  But Dad was really happiest when he worked with his hands as well as his mind, and coming up with punch-code would have been too stifling for him.  So he wound up honorably discharged and came back to North Carolina and got into dairy farming as his family had long been involved with.

But for a few years, Dad was a sailor.  And he saw more of the world than a lot of people likely get to see, all while serving his country.

So here's a hearty tip o' the hat to all who have served in America's military.

Read More

Fifty years ago tonight: "We are holding our own."

Those were the last words radioed out by the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald.

It was fifty years ago tonight, November 10th, 1975, that the Edmund Fitzgerald  - at one time the largest vessel plying the Great Lakes - vanished off of the radar of the other ships in the area.  She went down in the storm, taking twenty-nine men with her to the bottom of Lake Superior.

I've written about "The Fitz" on a few other occasions, like for the thirtieth anniversary (has it really been twenty years ago tonight that I posted that?).  There's really not much more that I could write this afternoon that hasn't been said already.

I can share this though, as I have a few other times before.  The year after the tragedy, Canadian musician Gordon Lightfoot recorded and released his moving and haunting ballad about the ship and her crew.  "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" has the distinction of being the very first song that I can clearly remember listening to.  Dad bought Lightfoot's album on 8-track and he must have played that a hundred times, it got ingrained into me so much.  And November has become a rather melancholy month of the calendar for me.  It wasn't until I was reviewing over the manuscript of my book that I realized so much bad has happened to me during November of various years.  This song dovetails with that sense of loss and mortality.  And maybe now that I'm writing that, have gotten it out in the open, maybe it won't haunt me as much as it has before.

There are a few videos on YouTube featuring this song, but this is my favorite.  Here is "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald".

Read More