When You Wish Upon A Star
Long before the moon landing and Woodstock, there was one historically significant event in a small California town that helped shape the...
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Rick Townley
- Oct 15, 2015
- 3 min
So There, Take That!
Today, the Twentieth Century Express is moving through a small town, past an abandoned one-story brick building now inhabited only by...
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Rick Townley
- Jul 22, 2014
- 2 min
The Second Battle of Marianna
I did some browsing, bought a box full of interesting used books and gave a copy of my book to the owner, Mike Downum, to read while...
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Rick Townley
- May 14, 2014
- 2 min
Three words for June grads who want a career in writing.
It has long been an accepted fact in the world of academia that you must publish stuff or disappear from view. Among the learned...
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Rick Townley
- Apr 22, 2014
- 2 min
Things that go bump in the night.
“From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!” Early Scottish...
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Rick Townley
- May 27, 2013
- 3 min
Memorial Daze
The original intent of Memorial Day, previously called Decoration Day, was to honor soldiers who died in service by marking their graves...
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Rick Townley
- Mar 8, 2013
- 3 min
The Backstory: zero tolerance and Pop-Tarts
The real epidemic in America is the rise of stupidity. Political correctness, zero tolerance rules followed to the absurd and ill-advised...
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Rick Townley
- Feb 26, 2013
- 2 min
The Backstory: global music sales on the rise
In today’s column I deliberately made only a vague reference to the fact that the quality of music, or lack of it, might have some small...
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Rick Townley
- Feb 19, 2013
- 2 min
The Backstory: Microsoft pushes users into cloud services
There are many people far better qualified than me to describe cloud services and how they work, but I like to think at least I have a...
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Rick Townley
- Feb 13, 2013
- 2 min
The Backstory: Valentine’s Day, women and shoes
I used to see men sitting in the shoe store, sullen and quiet, looking like they were about to be executed. Most were in fear that their...
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Rick Townley
- Feb 12, 2013
- 2 min
The Backstory: 2013 State of the Union Address
It’s getting harder and harder to like a president these days. It used to be that the cream floated to the top, but that is no longer the...
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Rick Townley
- Feb 7, 2013
- 2 min
The Backstory: drones, privacy and assassinating Americans
One of the things I find most interesting about drones is that people often report hearing them, but not seeing them. I guess that’s how...
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Rick Townley
- Feb 2, 2013
- 3 min
The Backstory: Heavy equipment reportedly moving toward Alabama hostage site
Feb 3, 2013, 8:30 PM CST…Sadly still no change in the hostage situation. Apparently Dykes has decided to go the full distance. Kudos to...
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Rick Townley
- Jan 31, 2013
- 3 min
The Backstory: Day four of the hostage situation
2/1/13 Midday: Still no change. Psychologists suggest Sykes had planned for this and is prepared to stay in the bunker a long time....
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Rick Townley
- Jan 26, 2013
- 2 min
The Backstory: ALA 2013 Midwinter Conference
I used to attend library conferences back in my publishing days, so I can attest to the fact that when you get them off their home turf...
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Rick Townley
- Jan 21, 2013
- 1 min
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
#martinlutherking #holidays #memoriam #mlk #king
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Rick Townley
- Jan 17, 2013
- 2 min
The Backstory: The Pew Center poll on armed guards in schools
It seems that every major organization in America has done a public opinion poll in the 24 hours since the President announced his latest...
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Rick Townley
- Jan 14, 2013
- 2 min
The Backstory: Florida’s war on pythons
The backstory on today’s column is that the story I told was true. I had a horrible time with snakes the entire time I lived in Florida....
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Rick Townley
- Jan 4, 2013
- 3 min
The Backstory: the fiscal cliff crisis as TV drama
Let’s face it, television during holiday seasons is really boring. Even with several hundred channels to choose from, there still seems...
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Rick Townley
- Jan 2, 2013
- 2 min
The Backstory: starting the new year by going back in time
I didn’t actually stumble on Huggin’ Molly’s restaurant in Abbeville, I went looking for it on someone’s recommendation. It’s fairly easy...
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