Quote of the Day: Why the Pulitzer for Fiction Is Important

Ann Patchett (right), Karen Hayes at their book store.

"Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

"Unfortunately, the world of literature lacks the scandal, hype and pretty dresses that draw people to the Academy Awards, which, by the way, is not an institution devoted to choosing the best movie every year as much as it is an institution designed to get people excited about going to the movies. The Pulitzer Prize is our best chance as writers and readers and booksellers to celebrate fiction. This was the year we all lost."

--Novelist and bookstore owner Ann Patchett on this year's lack of a Pulitzer Prize for fiction (here)

Photo of the Day: Enough Wings To Fly

Mark Puckett of ACI Holdings and me with the wings.

I'm not sure it's fair, to be honest. Every time I enter any contest at any business gathering, I seem to win something. The latest win is a year's supply of Buffalo Wild Wings. Mark Puckett, president of ACI Holdings in Roanoke, which owns a bunch of the restaurants, handed over 52 tickets for six wings each when my name was called.

Explaining the Pulitzers: A New Dynamic Arises in Year of the Young Woman

Sara Ganim prepares to receive a Pulitzer hug.

Some of us are trying to get a handle on the Pulitzer Prizes, announced yesterday. They are far more interesting this year for what they aren't than what they are. There is no fiction winner, no editorial writing winner and two of the major prizes went to online news organizations. The two largest print news organizations in the country didn't win at all and the NYTimes only won two.

Quiara Algeria Hudes

It is the Year of the Young Woman with 24-year-old Sara Ganim of the Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News winning for her Jerry Sandusky coverage; 34-year-old Quiara Algeria Hudes, who had two previous nominations, winning for her Iraq war play "Water by the Spoonful"; and 40-year-old Brooklyn poet Tracy Smith winning in that category.

There are reasons for all of this, but the myriad explanations can be boiled down to this: the world of information is changing and this is an exclamation point.

Tracy Smith

Nowhere is that world changing more substantially than in books, where a good one is as likely to be only available online (e-book) as it is in hardback. "Self-publish" is no longer the mark of a book that can't be published anywhere else, any more than a self-published music collection is necessarily less than what the studios would present you. Control is shifting and the Pulitzer boys recognize some of that and are fighting the rest.

I asked my friend Betsy Gehman in Lynchburg--who's seen a lot of these changes in her 90 years (next month) and she had this to say: 

I think it's confusing to those Pulitzer judges who really can't make a decision about what actually makes a book "good" when so many books are self-published these days.

I picture the doddering old white-hairs of the Pulitzer "industry" as confused and bewildered without the kiss of approval on a book that used to be conferred only by those long-established upper-crust publishers who threw lots of money into ad campaigns for their own very limited product. Pretty much like our political campaigns: the more money thrown at the advertising of their books, the more likely their candidates might be nominated.

They're all part of The Establishment.

You remember that once upon a time Hollywood was controlled by five or six all-powerful studios. Independent films were treated like trash. Today, there are no more studios. And coming soon: no more book publishing monoliths.

The Distant Early Warning has been sounded! Say farewell to Johannes Gutenberg. He had good long run!

Here's a look at who won and who made news (The NYTimes, of course, led with its two prizes, but jumped straight to the real importance of the story without taking a deep breath).

Some Simple Facts About Gun Ownership (Surprise!)

There are few stats on Women in their Underwear Who Own Guns, but the pix is good

Those of us who believe gun ownership in the United States should have significant limitations, got a bit of a boost with the new issue of The New Yorker Magazine and an article by Jill Lepore titled "Battleground America."

The story presented these simple facts:

• There are about 300,000,000 (300 million) privately-owned firearms in the U.S., one per person. That breaks out to 106 million handguns, 105 million rifles, 38 million shotguns.
• We're No. 1 (in the rate of civilian gun ownership in the world) and No. 2 Yeman has half as many guns per capita as we do.
• That said, most Americans don't own guns (which makes one wonder why in the hell the gun laws are as they are). Three fourths of people who own a gun in the U.S., own two or more. Gun ownership, in fact, has declined in the past several decades. In 1973 half our households had guns; in 2010 it was 1 in 3. Thirty years ago, a third of Americans owned guns. That's down to 20 percent.
• Men own guns at a rate of 1 in 3 (half in 1980) and women have remained steady at about 1 in 10 (though NRA scare tactics has kept that stat from falling).
• Another surprise: Gun ownership is higher among white people than among blacks. It is, of course, higher in the country than in the city, and among older people than younger people.

(Photo: gunslot.com)

Photo of the Day: Good Ol Girl, Ernie and Me

This was taken yesterday afternoon at the Hollins University Theatre, shortly before the production of "Good Ol' Girls" began. On the left is director Ernie Zulia, the theatrical genius who runs the program at Hollins and produces play after play of exquisite value.

We're posing with Mary Ellen Apgar, one of my favorite cast members of the student production (I love redheads; used to be one before it all grew out)--and a production that is very nearly as good as the professional version I saw several years ago. Mary Ellen, who is a Horizon student and history major, had some great numbers and so looked and talked the part of the good ol' girl. She's a senior and will graduate next month.

The show runs through Sunday and you are required to see it. It is quite marvelous.

Get on Board with Karen Kwaitkowski in the 6th District

Karen Kwaitkowski: Vote for her!

We've established pretty solidly over the years that I have almost nothing in common with Republicans and that me casting a vote for a Republican is about as likely as a cat asking, "How may I help you, sir?"

Then comes this 6th District Congressional challenger Karen Kwaitkowski and her "scorch the earth with the truth" campaign against incumbent Bob Goodlatte (a guy who originally ran on a platform of limited terms, but he hit the limit and kept going).

Goodlatte, like his colleague and political bunkmate Morgan Griffith, seems to believe that the less of his record and his core beliefs you know, the better for him. He won't even answer Karen (and forgive the familiarity of the first name, but I like her; hell, I like Bob, too, personally) when she asks if he'll debate her.

Griffith has spent an entire career--mostly in the Virginia General Assembly and now as the 9th District Congressional rep--for one term we'll pray to whomever we pray to--avoiding anything that has to do with telling you what he thinks and how he votes. If he could do it all in secret with no paper trail, my guess is he would. Bob seems to be going there, too.

Karen's a tough, smart, intellectually elegant former military officer and my guess is that she's going to give Bob a good campaign bruising before being defeated by a voting public that's not paying any attention at all. She makes a lot of good Libertarian points (and I share some issues with the Libs--like opposing wars, favoring medical [and personal] marijuana use, opposing absurdities like the Patriot Act and, in general, leaving people the hell alone unless they're doing something stupid or illegal).

I'm not sure where Karen stands on abortion, but regardless of which side, my guess is that it's honest, honorable, consistent and deeply felt--not a changing dynamic based on what the few people in the district who vote for wacked-out Republicans believe. My guess would also be that she would strongly support the rights of the people in Richmond this most recent general assembly session who did a whole lot of protesting about the war on women.

Regardless of where you're standing this political season--and the rest of the year--voting in the Republican primary for Karen against Bob Goodlatte is a good choice. Bob is part of the dysfunctional wing of the party, the one that is subverting the Constitution at every turn and rolling back gains we've made for nearly a century. His environmental record is one of the worst since those records have been kept. My guess is that I'll slip into the Repub primary, vote for Karen and feel good about it.

She's going to need money. Give her some, even if you're a liberal like me. She's honest, direct, a little goofy sometimes, but worth your time.  E-mail her campaign here or call Karen directly--at home--at 540-477-2821. She'll talk to you and, more important, she'll listen to you. She's a good one.

'Good Ol' Girls' Is as Good as the Professional Version

I anticipated the production of "Good Ol' Girls" at Hollins University for more than six months and even gave Christmas gifts based on having seen this wonderful show (written by Hollins grads Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle). This one would give me the opportunity to compare a professional, touring production of a little more than a decade ago with Ernie Zulia's version, using Hollins students as the actors (and everything else, nearly).

I'd call it a tie. The professional company, as I recall, has six crackerjack actors who played their own backup music. Today's show featured seven Hollins students, one 1980s graduate and a Roanoke actress with a good resume. Today's production also had a tight four-piece band that added extra life to a show that doesn't need it. Julie Hunsaker's (formerly of the Grandin Theatre) costumes were spot-on, as they always are.

Martha Boswell of Roanoke (who had a striking segment as an old lady in a nursing home that was funny and poignant) and JoAnn Lindsey Hairston of Abingdon (an '82 grad) were the non-students. Most of the students are seniors, giving their last performance and making the most of it. Ernie Zulia has turned out some fine talent and this group will rank with the best of it.

The students in this production are Mary Allen Apgar, Sarah Ingel, Maria Latiolais, Meredith Levy, Lianne Jackson McCray, Elaine Previs and Emma Sperka. They all had wonderful individual moments, highlighted for me by Emma Sperka's ballad "Lying to the Moon" and Elaine Previs' expressive "Late Date with the Blues."

"Good Ol' Girls" is an homage to those wonderful Southern women we grew up with, loved, argued with, were mothered by and adore every day of our lives. Nobody knows them better than Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle, who are Southern girls and Southern writers all at the same time.

Ernie says today's crowd was the oldest and most sedate of the series (as old as I am, I felt positively youthful with this group), but the evening crowds this week have "been raucous," said Ernie. "It's been really lively here" and if you know the music, you know why.

The play will run Thursday through Sunday of this week, then appear again in late May. The writers will be at the April 20 performance to sign books. Get tickets here.

Photo(s) of the Day: Madeline at the Market Building

'I'm on my way up the stairway to success.'

Maddie was looking over the jewelry here.

Madeline took a few minutes out of her busy seven-year-old's schedule yesterday to pose for Pampa at the Roanoke City Market Building.

Sad she's so shy, else we might have wound up with some expressive photos.
Sign.

Photo of the Day, Tres: So What IS It?

The city tells us what this isn't, but we'd all love to know what it is (along Murray Run).

Photo(s) of the Day, Too: Biesbol Been Berry Berry Good To Me

Colorful fans at the morning game.

The windup and the pitch ...

Here's the ball, Mr. Ump, and he's OUT!!!

Patrick Henry High School was home for an unusual morning baseball game today--during spring break--as Charlotte Catholic visited. Here's some of what went on as your favorite editor passed on his morning walk.

Photo(s) of the Day: Early Spring and Plenty To See

Fill me up, Buttercup ...

Bark isn't just for dogs.

Sprout.

 

Bleeding dogwood.

Blow me.

Entryway to the magical, mystical kingdom of Roanoke.

Spring snowball.

Uh oh.

Honeysuckle on the vine.

Star light, star bright, first star in day's light ...

Woof!

 

Don't eat that 'shroom.

How much wood could a wood bore bore if a wood bore ...

You can stop with the bark, already!

This little grouping of photos came from a walk along the Murray Run Greenway first thing this morning. There's so much to see in early spring that it is dizzying (and wears out batteries).

A Ray of Hope for the 9th District House Seat

Anthony Flaccavento

For those of us still bemoaning the disastrous loss of two of the most effective, honest and courageous representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives in the last election cycle--Tom Perriello and long-serving Rick Boucher--a glimmer of light just appeared on the horizon from Abingdon.

A man named Anthony Flaccavento is running for the 9th District seat bought by Morgan Griffith, who didn't think enough of the district to live in it while running to represent it, but had plenty of Koch Brothers moolah to make the purchase. Griffith is the immobile hard-right idealogue whose career has been marked by party splinter group first, party second, personal ambition third and everything else down the line. His contributions to the 9th District's quality of life during his reign can't be scored because one cannot score nothing.

Flaccavento has been described as a pragmatist who works for the people he would represent. He is an environmentalist, an economic developer and a job creator (something Griffith talks about, but ends his involvement there). The challenger's primary activity is to connect farmers and small ag businesses with markets and resources. He has worked with tobacco farmers to help them find sustainable alternatives for that hateful crop. He understands rural Virginia and its unique needs.

His work has involved housing, food, farming, sustainable forestry and coal field reclamation. He has actually lived in the district--how novel--since 1985, so one would surmise he has an interest in it other than self-promotion.

Flaccavento is prepared for the Republican noise machine to crank up the volume in order to keep the seat. He was quoted in the New River Voice* as saying, "I know there will be a misinformation campaign against me, but I think the core of what I’ve been trying to do my whole life – which is practical movement towards a better economy and better communities – will resonate with a lot people." Here's that story, which gives a good bit of background on the 9th's Next Best Hope.

(Photo: New River Voice. *I'm on the editorial board of the Voice.)

Cost of Gas Got You Down? Here's the Solution

" ...  there are factors contributing to the high price of oil that we can do something about. Chief among them is the effect of “pure” speculators — investors who buy and sell oil futures but never take physical possession of actual barrels of oil. These middlemen add little value and lots of cost as they bid up the price of oil in pursuit of financial gain. They should be banned from the world’s commodity exchanges, which could drive down the price of oil by as much as 40 percent and the price of gasoline by as much as $1 a gallon."

New York Times editorial this morning

(Photo: money.howstuffworks.com)

Does Life Begin Before It Begins? Only in Arizona

Can it happen before it happens? In Arizona, yes.

So now in Arizona, it looks like the moment of conception will begin as much as two weeks before the sex act that created the pregnancy.

Republicans have been working furiously since about 1972 to make abortion illegal, despite ruling after ruling by the court system that it is the law of the land and they have essentially succeeded. Abortion is not available in 80 percent of the counties in the United States and it's beginning to look less likely as an alternative in Arizona, where it is already nearly choked to death as an alternative.

Here's part of the HuffingtonPost's report this morning:

Arizona lawmakers gave final passage to three anti-abortion bills Tuesday afternoon, including one that declares pregnancies in the state begin two weeks before conception

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill to prohibit abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy; a bill to protect doctors from being sued if they withhold health information about a pregnancy that could cause a woman to seek an abortion; and a bill to mandate that how school curricula address the topic of unwanted pregnancies.

The 18th week bill includes a new definition for when pregnancy begins. All of the bills passed the Senate and now head to Gov. Jan Brewer (R) for her signature or veto. Passage of the late-term abortion bill would give Arizona the earliest definition of late-term abortion in the country; most states use 20 weeks as a definition.

A sentence in the bill defines gestational age as "calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman," which would move the beginning of a pregnancy up two weeks prior to conception.

Dan Casey: A Good Columnist and a Deserved Award

Dan Casey teaching at the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference.

Dan Casey, the metro columnist for a Roanoke daily newspaper and a guy I've said over and over is the best in that spot since Mike Ives in the 1970s, has won the General Column Writing award for newspapers with less than 100,000 circulation from Sigma Delta Chi, the journalism fraternity.

Dan is one of a dying breed of cranky old men columnists in the mold of Mike Royko, Studs Turkel, Pete Hamill and the like. He is a solid reporter, good writer and natural storyteller. In fact when you're in Dan's company it's hard to get in a word between his stories. He's not afraid to tackle sacred cows, stupid ideas or powerful people and he's also not scared of caring about things that deserve care.

I'm not much of one to spend a lot of time slobbering about awards--especially journalism awards, which have been thoroughly polluted over the years--but Dan deserves the recognition, regardless of the form. I'll also mention that he's a good guy, an especially valuable trait for a columnist.

Baldacci Movie Considering Alleghany Highlands Location

One locally-made movie is in the bag and scheduled to be aired on the Hallmark Channel ("Lake Effects") and another is on the boards and considering locations in this region. Both feature Sarah Elizabeth Timmins' Life Out Loud Films and the newest is based on a novel by best-selling author David Baldacci, who lives at Smith Mountain Lake.

Here is the press release:

Alleghany Highlands and Giles County are both being considered as the main location for the feature film "Wish You Well." The movie is based on the novel by bestselling author David Baldacci and will be filmed later this year.

Life Out Loud Films launched a search throughout Southwest Virginia in November to find both an ideal 1940s town and an enthusiastic, supportive, and passionate community. Fifteen different counties in Virginia submitted packages before the team narrowed the selection down to four: Alleghany Highlands, Botetourt, Giles, and Smyth.

The "Wish You Well" team was overwhelmed by the support of the prospective towns’ chambers, officials, and business owners along with the immensely detailed packages each presented to showcase their town. Many factors including both aesthetics and logistics played a role in a decision that the team deemed “extremely hard to make.”

Alleghany Highlands and Giles both rose to the top as potential locations and an extended team will make additional visits to these towns later this month in order to make a final decision.

The film is a collaboration among Life Out Loud Films, Baldacci Entertainment, and Copper Beech Productions.

Come on Out of the Closet, Boys and Stop Bashing Gays

Looks like the old joke about the most rabid anti-gays being a hair's breadth from a gay bar themselves has some validity. A new study seems to verify what many have thought for ages: these anti-fags are actually fags-in-waiting, repressing their own urges and violently lashing out at people who have had the courage and conviction to face who they are and embrace it.

"In many cases these are people who are at war with themselves and they are turning this internal conflict outward," says Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, who helped direct the research. "We laugh at or make fun of such blatant hypocrisy, but in a real way, these people may often themselves be victims of repression and experience exaggerated feelings of threat. Homophobia is not a laughing matter."

Here is the news story on the report (which contains links to the report).

(Graphic: clivir.com)

Drink a Little, Think a Little, Lean to the Right

Conservative thinker considering question.

OK, put your guns down. I'm just the messenger here. BUT in yet another study, conservative thinking comes out on the low end of the intellectual pile.

This time, Dr. Scott Eidelman, a University of Arkansas psychologist, says people who put forth little thought and effort when answering political questions tend to be conservatives.

Here's Eidelman (story here):

"Our research shows that low-effort thought promotes political conservatism, not that political conservatives use low-effort thinking. ... Keeping people from thinking too much ...or just asking them to deliberate or consider information in a cursory manner can impact people's political attitudes, and in a way that consistently promotes political conservatism."

Eidelman led a team of psychologists that asked people about their political viewpoints in a bar and in a laboratory. The drinkers were questioned about social issues and then had their breath analyzed to see how loaded they were. The more drunk they were, the more they leaned right.

The same research was conducted in a lab with sober people and found "that people who were asked to evaluate political ideas quickly or while distracted were more likely to express conservative viewpoints."

'Hunger Games' Average, but the Message Is Clear

So now it's "Hunger Games" captivating a large portion of America, including some people I would have thought might have outgrown this genre (like my dentist). I saw it out of curiosity and it was, frankly, better than I thought it would be. That means it was about average for the genre (teenaged girls with a mean streak).

Almost every piece of the overlong production was right smack in the middle of average: acting, directing, sound, writing, sets, locations. The cinematography was more annoying than I like (too much camera movement) and the color was too brown in most places.

The story, though, was solid enough to keep me mildly entertained for a couple of hours.

This, of course, could be generational, but I want more from a movie than I got here--even a sci-fi, some of which can be quite good.

I suspect that what brought me over into the thumbs halfway up area was the treatment of the various classes of people and the idea that the elites were Republicans. One of the Districts featured in the movie was the very image of Appalachia (coal mining country) that so offends those of us from this area because it is negative stereotype of the ignorant, inbred ridgerunners. Real pisser. It fit the storyline, though.

The movie captured my vision of Republican government at its harshest. Donald Southerland was solid as Republican President Mitt Romney (they didn't call him Mitt, but that's who he was). The storm troopers used to suppress the poor and unorganized were a mixture of Star Wars soldiers and riot police thugs the Republicans (especially in Virginia) so adore. The garish Republican population, looking for game show entertainment resulting in the death of all but one participant, reminded me of a Republican convention tearing up the Constitution.

Anyhow, it's not a pretty sight, but it could easily be predictive.

Mike Wallace's Legacy: Selling Cigarettes or Blowing Their Cover?

Mike Wallace died today, leaving a mixed bag as a legacy. On the negative side is his son Chris, a right-wing Fox News broadcaster/ideologue who brings no honor to his father's name.

Wallace spent a lot of years at CBS News and became most noted for his reporting and his almost obsessively challenging reporting. He did not back down from people who had things to hide and he'd often intimidate people simply by introducing himself. It was a kind of reporting TV made respectable, the kind of "I'm the star and you're my target" sensationalism that often led to overblowing and overreporting stories of little importance.

Wallace could never be pointed to as a paragon of journalistic ethics. The man who exposed Big Tobacco, for example, used to sell cigarettes on national TV and was a heavy smoker.

But there was something affecting about a cranky old Jew going hell-bent after everybody and every once in a while doing a touching interview with an unusually gifted entertainer (Barbra Streisand comes to mind and she was scared constipated by him) or an underdog.

He was a man who defined a certain developmental age in TV. Actually, at 93, he probably defined more than one age. But he won't be easy to forget.

Photo(s) of the Day: Happy('s) Spring

The guy in the hat is one of my favorites, always courteous and even joyful. Loves what he's doing

A veggie lover's garden spot.

Gulping down a Mexican breakfast.

Grains and pastries and dried peppers and pastas and ...

Shoeboy reads a book, awaiting the barefooted.

The shadows of early-morning Happy's.

On pretty days, you get crowds in stripped shirts.

Studying the goods, avoiding eye-contact until you spot something you want.

He said, "$75 for all." I said, "$3 for this one?" No? OK.

"Want a good picture?" the vendor said. "Yes," I said.

"How big is this one?" the man said. "About 12 ounces," she answered. "That'll do," he said.

Chillies rellenos in the raw. (Recipe.)

Cactus in the raw. First take off the thorns. (Recipe.) This stuff is good.

You eat this. I'll watch. First, remove the spikes.

Beans, beans, good for the heart. The more you eat, the more you want.

Not sure what this is. Looks good, though. Love the color.

I know what this is and I like it. But I don't eat it often. Shame.

Easter is a fine time to celebrate what Jesus stood for (if you know what that is. Hint: "love one another"), but it's also the time to be Happy('s). Yes, Happy's Flea Market and International Food Court (I just made up that last part) way out Williamson Road in Roanoke.

Easter marks a kind of unofficial beginning to the season at Happy's where you can look for the usual flea market junk and treasure and you can also shop for dinner. Most of the food is fresh and sold by foreign nationals, who'll gladly tell you how to cook it. There is some question in my mind always about what the food is and what I'm to do with it, so the advice helps. It is an adventure in shopping and it's a heck of a lot of fun. Give it a try.

And please try to remember what Jesus stood for without all the bullshit doctrine. Simple man with a simple message.