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  • Whatever Happened to the Boy Scouts?

    Whatever Happened to the Boy Scouts?2

    It was once an honor to earn a merit badge in the Boy Scouts. Becoming a Star Scout was a privilege, a Life Scout was something fantastic, and an Eagle Scout was the very tip of the apex. Few achieved that pinnacle, and those who did treasured it for their entire lives. But even those

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  • What Kids Learn When They’re ‘Just’ Playing

    What Kids Learn When They’re ‘Just’ Playing1

    We’re heading into two weeks (or possibly … two months? two years?) of the kids at home. It’s called Christmas break, as if it’s a break from learning. But that’s just our Puritan Work Ethic talking—the idea that if something is fun, it is a pause from our real job, which is to always be hard

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  • America’s Got Talent and ’Tis the Season to Remember Those Gifts

    America’s Got Talent and ’Tis the Season to Remember Those Gifts0

    A week before Christmas, I attended a performance of The Nutcracker in the Old Opera House Theater in Charles Town, West Virginia. My presence was obligatory. My five-year-old granddaughter and her class of budding ballerinas appeared as dancing Lady Bugs for a brief time on the stage, a part undoubtedly added by the director to

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  • Reading the Vanishing Volumes While You Still Can

    Reading the Vanishing Volumes While You Still Can0

    Reading through online headlines I often see a story entitled, “Demi Moore at 58 Hasn’t Aged Well.” Though I’ve never clicked on that link, I did google “Demi Moore at 58” and thought she looked pretty darn good. Sure, she’s probably gone under the plastic surgeon’s knife a few times—those high cheek bones seem a

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  • Surviving Suffering Like a Champ

    Surviving Suffering Like a Champ0

    When a friend challenged me to a reading contest on Goodreads a couple of years ago, I was reluctant. Did I really want my reading selections broadcast on the internet for friends and strangers to see? Despite this qualm, my arm was twisted, and I began recording the books I read, often giving them a

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  • Taking a Breather From the Culture Wars Via Holiday Romance

    Taking a Breather From the Culture Wars Via Holiday Romance0

    Good grief! What has happened to me?          In the past week, I read A Christmas Courtship, by Shelly Shepard Gray, intending to review this romantic holiday novel for the Smoky Mountain News before realizing it would be too late for the holiday shopping season. Not only that, but in some fit

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