When cameras are outlawed, only outlaws will have cameras

When I visited the Soviet Union, nearly 30 years ago, we were warned not to take photographs of places like train stations, bridges, or government buildings. Naturally, being a wiseass 19 year-old American, I went out of my way to take snapshots of such places, my great prize being the Lubyanka.1 Thankfully, we live in [...]

Decline & Fall

A student captured a picture of me at the law school performance night last week. The contrast with a similar picture from my undergraduate days calls to mind the opening quip by John Lyden when I saw the Sex Pistols’ “Filthy Lucre” reunion show in New York in 1996 (almost 15 years ago!): “I’m fat [...]

Stokes County Courthouse

Danbury, NC is a pretty little town along the Dan River, just about an hour’s leisurely drive northwest of my home. I passed through there today, and stopped to take some pictures of the Stokes County Courthouse (built in 1904). In front of the courthouse stands this memorial to local Confederate war dead. A central [...]

Lowgap, NC

Oak Level, Virginia

You might be a redneck …

Highway 17, Charleston, SC

McElree’s Wine of Cardui

Washington, North Carolina “Wine of Cardui” was a patent medicine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, marketed as a cure for “female diseases”.  In 1916, the Chattanooga Medicine Company, which made Wine of Cardui, won a libel suit against the American Medical Association, which had published an article in its Journal calling the [...]

Piano

Community Center, Jamesville, North Carolina

Eno River

Despite a chilly wind, it was a nice day to be outdoors. I spent the afternoon at Eno River State Park, where I caught just one fish, a feisty fat bluegill. A great way to close out the old year.

Strip-Mall Fail

Burlington, North Carolina