Happy Sixtieth Anniversary to A Charlie Brown Christmas!

 

Premiered on CBS on December 9th, 1965.

No matter how many times I've seen this, I always take time to watch it again every Christmas season.  A few years ago I bought the Blu-ray containing A Charlie Brown Christmas along with the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials.

I can barely remember it, but when I was two or three years old CBS had scheduled the Christmas special for broadcast.  But a football game went over long and completely pre-empted A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I was furious!  Mom said I was really crying about not getting to see Charlie Brown.  It bothered Mom too.  Enough so that she called CBS affiliate WFMY in neighboring Greensboro to complain about it.  I don't know what she said to them but they gave her the home phone number of the station's general manager!  Mom let him have it, telling him it was wrong to advertise Charlie Brown and then yank it away from all the children because of a football game.  The way Mom put it, I get the feeling that she wasn't the only irate parent calling the station that night.  And parents across America were probably calling their own local CBS affiliates too.  In the end the network rescheduled A Charlie Brown Christmas to an airdate ideal for viewers of all ages and the kiddies got to see it after all.

I treasure knowing that.  For all that happened between my mother and I (something I explore at length in my book Keeping the Tryst), there are anecdotes scattered here and there which prove that Mom wasn't the bad person I went so long believing that she was.  A parent doesn't do something like that if there wasn't love for his or her child.  I very much appreciate that.

Well, happy anniversary Charlie Brown.  Someone said during your special's production that they'll be watching this for a hundred years.  You're well on your way to reaching that goal.  I hope to be around to see it when it comes :-) 

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Pennrose Mall will live again! Worst shopping center in North Carolina is getting an extreme makeover (Plus: Reidsville is getting a new bookstore!)

I first heard about this about a week ago and it didn't seem possible.  There were photos though that proved it was true: Pennrose Mall, what might be the worst shopping establishment in the southeastern United States - it's definitely the worst in the state of North Carolina - is getting some much-needed cosmetic attention.

Here is a pic of what Pennrose Mall has looked like for the past few decades:

The blog Sky City: Retail History has many other photos of Pennrose.  Those are from circa 2011 though.  I paid a brief visit inside the mall in 2017 and it was MUCH worse by that point.

Pennrose Mall used to be a happenin' place.  It had many good retailers, some big-name anchors but also quite a few small businesses that brought real local charm to the downtown area.  But the last time it was anything like that was perhaps thirty years ago.  I think the town's economic downturn when American Tobacco Company was sold in 1994 was one hammer that hit Pennrose.  And then Walmart came in 2005 and that wrought a lot of devastation to the business scene in Reidsville.

Like I noted above, I went into Pennrose Mall in 2017.  There were only three stores that were still there: Belk, Rose's, and Strader's Shoe Store.  There was only one other "business" there: a fly by night Internet sweepstakes place that looked like it had gone completely under the radar of local law enforcement.  Strader's closed this past spring, leaving only Belk and Rose's to dominate an empty shell of a shopping center.  There was extensive water damage from leaky ceilings.  Trash throughout the complex.  Weeds growing throughout the empty parking lot.  I'm sure vagrants have been hanging around.  No doubt some drug deals have happened there too.

Put succinctly, Pennrose Mall has been the blight of Reidsville, North Carolina.  But its owner never cared about fixing up the place.  The interests owning Pennrose, apparently up in New York State, found the mall to be more profitable if it was just sitting there derelict.

Well folks, apparently things are finally going to be looking up for Pennrose Mall.

On the podcast today at Mike Moore Media, the plans for Pennrose Mall were finally revealed.  Here's what was posted on the podcast's Facebook page earlier...

Pennrose Mall in Reidsville has been bought by local developer Tom Holderby, a Reidsville native.  Renovations have started, a dozen new businesses have already signed leases, including retail, restaurants, trampoline park, coffee shop, and Peanut Shack is returning.  Holderby is also building 168 apartments on the property.  Plans will be announced for the old Hardee’s and China Grill.  Winn-Dixie will be torn down.  Pennrose, one of the first malls in the state was built in 1968.

WOW!!  All of that, and the return of Peanut Shack, too!  New businesses set to fill the empty spaces.  Restaurants coming.  A coffee shop and a trampoline park, which sounds like a lot of fun.

This really could be the thing that revitalizes downtown Reidsville.  Something that it has needed for a full generation now.

I have high hopes for this and I wish Mr. Holderby all the best.

But that's not all!

When I commented on the original post on Facebook, I lamented that Reidsville needs a bookstore.  Pennrose Mall used to have News & Novels, an awesome bookstore that I bought many a volume (and quite a few comic books) from.  News & Novels closed down in 1988.  Richard Moore (who I've written about a few times on this blog) had KC Books and then The Bookstore and that lasted for awhile until it closed in 2008.  There hasn't been a single bookstore in Rockingham County since then.

Well friends, I have been informed by trusted associates that a new bookstore is coming to Reidsville!  Coming spring of 2026 is Ink & Ivy Bookshop and it sounds like it's going to be the perfect lil' addition to the city of Reidsville.  I'm definitely looking forward to visiting Reidsville again soon, just to check Ink & Ivy out.  Hey who knows, maybe we'll have a signing for my book there.

Seriously though, this news warms the cockles of my heart and I'm very glad to hear that my old hometown is getting some good things after too long a time in the wilderness.

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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.

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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 :-) 

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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!

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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 😮

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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 :-) 

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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 🙂

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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.

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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 :-)

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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.

 

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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...)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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".

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Just watched Benecio del Toro's adaptation of Frankenstein

I've been looking forward to Frankenstein, Benicio del Toro's take of the classic novel, from the moment it was first announced.  For most of my life I've been fascinated with the Frankenstein story and I've read the book several times.  And del Toro - who wrote the screenplay and directed this movie - is a filmmaker I've long enjoyed the work of.  Del Toro's bringing us a new screen vision of the Mary Shelley novel was just bound to be good.

I was not disappointed.  Although this movie goes into places that I can't recall any other adaptations delving to.  Most of them, like 1994's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (with Kenneth Branagh) have dealt with Victor's obsession of bringing about life from death.

This one, featuring Oscar Isaac as Victor, is really more about the relationships between fathers and sons.  It was really quite surprising, and it's perhaps a dynamic that hasn't been explored on film nearly enough.  I don't think I would have appreciated this movie some years ago had I watched it then: I had my own issues to deal with, but thankfully those have been put to rest.

I think this version deserves some Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture.  Especially for Isaac and Jacob Elordi, who perhaps pertrays the Creature as more a beautiful persona than we've ever seen before.

Frankenstein 2025 was released a few weeks ago to select theaters.  Some of those are probably still running it, but I think most people will opt to see it on Netflix (where it hit yesterday).  However you choose to watch it, I will say that it's highly recommended!

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"BROTHER, YOU ASKED FOR IT!"

I wasn't surprised at all by the results of yesterday's elections.  Decades of watching this sort of thing have deeply impressed this upon me: that people in densely populated areas almost always vote for the candidates who will cause the most harm.  I've heard various reasons why this is so.  It all pretty much comes down to stupidity in numbers.  People in big cities like New York and Chicago have itching ears for the candidates who can smooth-talk them with promises of good times and never-ending benefits.

Zohran Mamdani is going to be mayor of New York City for the next four years.  I have never seen an American candidate so ill-fitted to be put in charge of a major metropolitan area.  It seems that New York has already forgotten the lessons of 9/11.  Mamdani is a Muslim extremist who cavorts around those who cheered on Osama Bin Laden.  Mamdani is also full-bore socialist, who among other things has promised to impose higher taxes on white people (okay, he didn't come out right and say that, but he's been pretty clear that he believes white people are richer and deserve to be punished for that).  He wants free buses, city-run grocery stores (he-lloooooo food deserts!  Some former Soviet citizens will no doubt fondly recall the good ol' days of standing in line for hours to get wood-pulp toilet paper), universal health care and child care... basically if it's ever been proposed by progressive minds, Mamdani is going to make it come true.

I'll give it a year, two at the most, before Mamdani is going to come begging for money from the federal government.  Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Homer became sanitation commissioner and blew his entire year's budget in a month, on things like swanky new uniforms and amphibious garbage trucks?  It's going to be like that... only WORSE.

Want me to make the same wager that I made before Biden took office?  Sure, I'll do it: if New York City isn't in worse condition four years from now than it is today, I'll eat my fedora.  With A1 steak sauce.

And then there is what happened in Virginia with the governor's race there.

Neither did Abigail Spanberger's win over the much more richly qualified and competent Winsome Earle-Sears come as a shock.  As my father sometimes put it after an election, Spanberger was "picked to win."  It's really quite simple: a successful black woman is not supposed to be a conservative Republican.  According to the liberal institutions of America such a person should instead be on the plantation of big government ruled by Democratic overseers.  But I knew Spanberger would win.  The leftists of Northern Virginia - that solid block north of Richmond - were more than enough to override the ballots of the rest of the state.

Maybe the western counties of Virginia should petition to join the state of West Virginia.  The new state can call itself Greater Virginia.  Let the leftists run their little kingdom in the Beltway area.  Northern Virginia is a company town and the employees do not vote against the company.  But that doesn't mean anyone else should have to pay for NOVA's sins.

Spanberger ran on two issues: "Trump bad man" and her belief that grown men should be allowed to go into the locker rooms and restrooms of females, including teenage girls.  One person I know has insinuated that I am "behind the times" and that it's really no big deal for men and women and children to undress in public spaces in front of each other.  Maybe that's what "progressive" countries do.  But that's not the way it is here in the United States.  I once saw a man and woman having sex in a public park in Brussels.  It was one of the most repulsive things I've ever witnessed.  It was definitely not something I want to see emulated here.  Spanberger and too many others do not believe in the sanctity and holiness of one's body belonging only to themselves, to their mates, and to God.  They have twisted the concept of gender into something warped and evil.  Apparently the people of Northern Virginia - and others in that state - have no issue with this.  But again, I should not be surprised.  Perversion is something that only grows worse with time, and it's going to seemingly take an act of Almighty God to knock many of us back to their senses.

I don't see yesterday's elections as being a "referendum on Trump".  Those elections were in places where leftists have long dominated.  I would have been legitimately surprised if they had gone any other way.  The mid-terms are still twelve months away.  Anything can happen in that time.  Although I suspect that the more rural areas - the places where Trump won bigly in all three elections he's been in - are going to continue to support him.  THOSE are the places I have hope for, and not the urban centers of America.

As for New York City, I have a suggestion.  Taken from the pages of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.  Some not-too-distant night from now, when that once-great city is falling into calamity because of Mamdani's policies, I would like to propose that somebody get one of those projectors.  Have it illuminate the side of the Empire State Building.  And there, in million-point font, lit up for the whole damned world to see, have the words of Francisco D'anconia:

"BROTHER, YOU ASKED FOR IT!"

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The final trailer for Stranger Things season five

"William, you are going to help me... one last time."

Love that cover of Queen's "Who Wants To Live Forever?"  I have to wonder what that portends.

Feels like the end of an era of my lifetime is looming.  I really don't know what is going to fill the void left by Stranger Things after the finale airs, streams, whatever.  I watched the first season on my iPad one day in a hotel room in Albuquerque.  From the very first moments I loved it.  That was nine years ago.  So much has happened since then.  And now... well, what do I do now?

The final season begins with volume one on November 26th.

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So... the BBC just said that Doctor Who is still alive and that there will be a Christmas special in 2026

 I say FORGET IT!

From the good ol' days when a Doctor Who Christmas special really MEANT something.

I shall properly preface this post by noting that when the franchise has gotten so bad that Disney+ has washed their hands free of it, you know things are dire and not apt to get better anytime soon.

The BBC announced today that Doctor Who is still viable somehow and that there will be a Christmas special next year.  But according to the article, Russell T. Davies is still in charge of the show.

Like I said, forget THAT!!

As long as Davies is calling the shots, this show is dead and it's not regenerating.  Although I will confess that the twisted little "id" creature within me is harboring morbid fascination about what the '26 Christmas special will entail.  Because the last time we saw anything of Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa's dress-wearing Doctor (either the Fourteenth or Fifteenth, does it really matter anymore?) transitioned to Rose Tyler, again played by Billie Piper.  It was a cheap stunt born out of desperation and all it did was paint the saga into a corner with no way out.

As I said last time that the subject of Doctor Who was brought up on this site, the series needs to go away for awhile.  Maybe a long while.  Like, five or ten years, much like the "wilderness years" between 1989 and 2005.  Then brought back with an ENTIRELY new showrunner and production team.  Have it be people who truly get Doctor Who and what has made this show so beloved.  Make sure that they're committed to characters and story first, WITHOUT any ideological agenda (which in my opinion is at the heart meat of what killed this show, Davies was determined that it would be a platform for his personal beliefs and unfortunately he wasn't the only one).  Have the rebooted series jettison or at least thoroughly retcon away all that "Timeless Child" bull$hit (I'm being polite) and establish that the Doctor is always intended to be a male character.  There is a dynamic in this show between the Doctor and his companions and that must NEVER be tampered with.  I think the Doctor can be portrayed by a woman, playing against gender, but it has to be someone special (I've always thought that Tilda Swinton would make a terrific Doctor).  Or at least do NOT have the Doctor wearing a kilt, or whatever the h-ll that was that Gatwa's "Doctor In Name Only" was dancing around in.

It sounds like extremely invasive surgery.  And it is.  It will even require some amputations.  But the subject is beyond repair by normal procedure.  Doctor Who is NOT coming back anywhere close to the stature it had twelve years ago at the height of the Matt Smith era, and even the Peter Capaldi period (which despite some problems I really did end up liking a lot), without VERY drastic measures being taken.  It can't stay on its present course and it's insanity to believe it can go any further.  The BBC must fire Davies, learn from its mistakes, and let the show rest for awhile, and start anew.

That's the only way to make sure that there will again be a Doctor to save the universe every Saturday for the children to enjoy watching.  And I would love to see that again too, for that matter.

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On Citizenship: It's time to consider Heinlein's idea

For the past few days I've been working on an op-ed piece focusing on the current race for mayor in New York City.  And narrowing that focus down on Zohran Mandani - the radical Islamic communist who is among other things threatening to raise taxes on white people - in particular.

I've wound up with bits and pieces of material worth making at least two essays of.  There is soooo much that I am feeling led to say about this race.  About how the people of the Big Apple are poised to make the biggest mistake they have ever collectively done as a community.  About how most of them have blinded themselves because of party loyalty.

Recently I heard someone describe "democracy" as "the political theory that the common people know what they want and that they deserve to get it good and hard."  Well, that's what the citizens of New York City are about to get.  And they'll only have themselves to blame.  Let us hope that President Trump renders no aid to them.  Sometimes the only way a people can learn something is if they go through utter hardship.  It's called "tough love".  It'll make real men and women out of them.

So in weighing the situation in New York City and what led to the coming to the brink, once again I am finding myself musing if Robert A. Heinlein had the right idea about what it should be to be a proper citizen.

I first read Heinlein's classic novel Starship Troopers in the winter of 2000.  It was a pretty brutal few months, at one point there were severe winter storms every other day.  A lot of people couldn't get out for very long, the roads were so treacherous.  Cabin fever was setting in.  During one daring venture out into the larger world I wound up at Barnes & Noble in Greensboro.  I felt like some old-school science fiction was something I needed.  Something I hadn't read yet.  I spotted Starship Troopers and bought it, partly because I had seen the movie and had heard the book was much better.

Starship Troopers became one of the more influential books that I've read.  It sucked me in hard and wouldn't let go.  Especially the extended segments where Heinlein detailed this future society.  Those made a tremendous impact on me and the cumulative effect was that ever since I've never cast a vote at the ballot box without heavily considering the weight of my actions as a citizen.  Because citizenship has meaning behind it.

Or it should have meaning.

Watching all those fools in New York City now, and not just them but also the people who thought that Kamala Harris really could be worthy of being President of the United States and all the history and tradition that comes with that... well, so help me but it's hard thinking of those as being people who put the best interests of their nation above their own.

On the night of my Eagle Scout board of review, a very dear friend told me something that I've never forgot.  He said that people had told him that I had an interest in politics.  I said that he was right.  Doc told me that I could have a future in politics, if I wanted that.  "But don't be a politician!", he said.  A politician is someone who puts his or her desires above those of the good of the people.  Instead, Doc urged me, "Be a STATESMAN!"  A statesman - or stateswoman - is a person who serves others and places their needs above his own.  It was a powerful admonition, and ever since I've tried to live up to those words.  To be a statesman, even though I may never hold elected office.

Naïve young man that I was, I thought that on some level everyone could be a statesman.  But that was more than thirty years and many tragedies ago.  And though I like to believe that I've maintained some childlike qualities which have persisted, I sadly must confess to have become rather jaded in other aspects.

Let's get to the point: America is plagued by people who have no idea whatsoever about what it is to be a citizen, and those many are destroying this country in more ways than can be counted.  Right now they're poised to destroy what some still consider to be our greatest city.  And after that, well... where will it stop?

I think Heinlein, in Starship Troopers, had a wonderful idea.  One that we should at least meditate upon.

Robert Heinlein's proposal was this: that citizenship only be granted to individuals who have served in the military for a period of time (if I'm recalling the novel right, it was a minimum of two years).  If someone wanted to be a citizen, he or she enlisted in the services, committed to and fulfilled their time, and came out with all the rights ands responsibilities that come with being a full-bore citizen.  Which means the rights to vote, to run for and hold office, and to have top-tier government jobs.

It should be borne in mind that in Heinlein's book, citizenship was an opportunity available to everyone.  No matter your age or your sex or having a physical or mental handicap, federal service was going to be an option.  The government was going to find something meaningful that you could do for two years.

Imagine if we had that kind of a system in the United States.

The caliber of elected officials would be exceptional.  They would have to be, if they were drawn from a citizenry that understood and appreciated and respected what it truly meant to be responsible participants in their town and state and country.  No more slick con artists doing their damndest to play to people's itching ears, enticing them to vote their appetites.

The cult of celebrity would be far less influential.  Media giants like Oprah would have no choice but to direct notice to a candidate like Winsome Earle-Sears (say, why isn't a successful black woman like Earle-Sears being given more attention by the media and celebrities?  It's not because she's a *GASP!* conservative, is it?!?).

The mutated monstrosity that is what became of the modern welfare state would be slashed to pieces.  I think that there would still be help available for people... who truly warranted that aid.  As I write these words, the federal government's funding of SNAP benefits is going to expire four days from now.  There will be no more "food stamps", which over forty million people in America use whether they really need it or not (hint: lobster is NOT a staple foodstuff).  Millions of people across the fruited plane are looking at starvation beginning within a week.  Things didn't have to get this way.  They could have and should have been avoided.  But it's too late now.  We are beholding the inherent weaknesses of a system that demands obeisance to government provision, about to be made magnificently manifest.  Some of us have known that this was coming.  It can't be stopped.  Maybe held off for a little while, but that's only delaying the inevitable.  And this time it really might be the breaking point at last.

It would be a nation of free people.  It would not be the militaristic fascist state that Paul Verhoeven's movie adaptation of Starship Troopers made it out to be.  In Heinlein's vision, there were citizens, there were civilians, and there was the military.  The armed forces didn't establish policy or impanel leadership.  That was for the citizens.

Well, this is getting long for a blog post.  But it's just something I've been musing in the past few days.  How much better things would be if citizenship in America was earned, and not freely bestowed upon people who only see being an American as a means of getting "free stuff" from the government.  The "gibsmedats" have been sucking on the public tit for generations, and we're seeing the result of that.

It's time to consider bold measures to make sure that we never again find ourselves in the dire straits that we are in.

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What President Trumps REALLY needs to add to the White House

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth this past week about the latest antics of President Donald Trump.  The East Wing of the White House has been effectively destroyed, to make way for a new ball room.

Here's the way the White House complex looked prior to the demolition of the East Wing:

The East Wing only dates back to the 1940s.  It really hasn't done too terribly much, to be honest.  It's become more or less the province of the first lady, though that's never been a designated official capacity.  The East Wing can't honestly be said to be part of the truly historic and traditional White House grounds.  And the White House has never been a static location anyway.  It's been added to, remodeled and renovated almost since its beginnings more than two centuries ago.  America has grown and evolved (ideally for the better) and the White House has evolved with it.  And it probably always will be, for as long as America is a republic (if we can keep that).

The East Room of the White House has always been a relatively small setting for formal and especially diplomatic functions.  A spacious environment for such affairs is something that pretty much every other modern state has.  The United States does not.  We've had to do with the tiny East Room.  And I'm wondering what Ronald Reagan would have done about adding a ball room.  He would have probably been all for it, though I think that at that moment in American history he would have been more fixated on ending the Cold War.  Still, a ball room for state occasions would have been right up his alley.  It would have been quite an elegant and versatile addition to the White House.  One that would doubtless bear witness to much history for generations to come.

So count me as someone who believes there's nothing inordinately inappropriate about what Trump is doing with the East Wing.  The plans were already announced months ago that this would be happening.  It's not like this is suddenly out of nowhere.

But personally, I think that President Trump isn't going far enough in his design for the presidential residence...

One of the things that was demolished this past week, along with the rest of the East Wing, was the White House movie theater.  Originally a cloak room that was converted on Franklin Roosevelt's orders in 1942, the movie theater has since been enjoyed by every president and his family .  Reagan was particularly fond of it.  I've heard from a few sources that the White House will sooner than later have a new movie theater, one that's much more modern and high-tech.

Well, here's my idea: if Trump wants to go all out for the White House, it can't get much bigger than installing its own IMAX screen:

For less than a million dollars IMAX will install your own private movie screen.  That's less than peanuts to a man like Donald Trump.  Or he can really make his mark on the Washington D.C. landscape by constructing an adjoining IMAX building like the one in Branson, Missouri.  Heh-heh... can you imagine the sight of something like THAT next to the core White House mansion?  It could have the big IMAX logo and everything.

I'm only trying to think a little forward, is all!

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Yet another question about Keeping the Tryst: Uncle Frank's superposition

It's been a little over three weeks since my first book Keeping the Tryst was published.  It's been selling fairly well, considering that I'm a first-time author who's been pretty under the radar for awhile.  I'm happy with it and I'm hoping still more people will come to discover it.

Since it's now "out in the wild" some people have had a number of questions about it.  I'm going to be answering those as they are asked.  Who knows, but I may add a "frequently asked questions" to a future edition of the book.

Here's the latest question about my book:

"How is Uncle Frank in 2014 after he died in Florida fourteen years earlier?"

I really should have clarified this in the book.  In my life there have been two Uncle Franks.  One was Mom's half-brother.  He's the one who moved to Florida and had a family there.  He passed away in 2000 from lung cancer, a few months after Granny's passing.  Uncle Frank was a real character.  He's someone who has always been an inspiration for me, to live for God and also to allow time to laugh.  He was a good man.

The other Uncle Frank is Dad's brother-in-law, the husband of Dad's sister.  That Uncle Frank has always lived in Reidsville.  He's the one who came with Mom to our house the night after Dad had his accident (and who I told the joke to).  In 2012 Dad and Uncle Frank rented a car and took off on a cross-country odyssey to Arizona to visit a fellow knifemaker.  They had a really good time exploring the western United States together.  During the visitation for Dad at the funeral home we had a bunch of Dad's knives on display.  Uncle Frank was eagerly telling people who came about Dad's craftsmanship.

Like I said, I really should have cleared this up.  But maybe most people will figure out on their own that they're two separate people.  In any case, there have been two Uncle Franks in my life, and I've respected them both.

Have a question about the book?  E-mail me at theknightshift@gmail.com and ask away!

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