The eyes of the sports world turn to many places this week: Indianapolis, Augusta, even Tuscaloosa, where 92,000 people might show up to watch an intra-squad scrimmage if the weather is right. Here

Listening to Leland Whaley, yet another former Republican functionary with a talk show, on the radio the other morning, I was cheered to hear a caller warn the audience against the machinations of the

They are found in laboratories on every continent, involved in experiments conducted around the clock to cure all manner of maladies. They helped Jonas Salk conquer polio and they have traveled into s

As we may have noted altogether too often lately, we couldn’t be happier to see spring at hand. It isn’t just that the winter was arduous, but that it seemed to make so many people’s brains go into hi

It is transition time again. What the groundhog foretold is coming to pass and not long from now, all the weeds and nibbling bugs dormant for these frigid months will resume their hegemony over the af

Time was, every community had one: a local resident who came to every city council meeting and stayed till the last item of business was undertaken. That citizen was generally called a gadfly, busybod

In search of an article about Django Reinhardt and how he’s suddenly become an “omnipresent icon”, I happened upon a mighty peculiar advertisement. Django, in case you’re wondering, was one of the

I’ve never been a fan of gambling, mainly because I’m not very good at it. I don’t know when to hold ‘em or fold ‘em, craps requires too much math and the wheel of fortune just makes me dizzy. I se

I guess we weren’t that wild about democracy after all. I mean, we tried to keep up with current events, voted when we could, donated the odd sawbuck to a candidate and even did our civic duty by call

Perhaps you saw the aftermath of the last F-5 tornado that blew through here, southwest Jefferson County, spring 1998. Perhaps you stood among the splintered acreage and marveled at the awesome power