Four years ago, if you took your cans or bottles to a recycling center in the town of Radford, they were as likely to go to the landfill as to the regional recycling center in Christiansburg. That’s because recycling loads were very often contaminated by trash.

No similar levels of contamination were taking place in the surrounding counties of Montgomery, Giles, Pulaski, and Floyd because their recycling centers were in much better shape. They were supervised, there were large friendly signs telling you how to recycle, and the various containers were color-coded for various grades of glass, plastic, aluminum, and paper. (more…)

In the relatively obscure 1992 film Dolly Dearest, the family Wade is terrorized by a possessed doll. Thanks to Dolly’s evil influence, little Jessica becomes an unruly, disrespectful whippersnapper.

Hold on, I’m going somewhere with this. Seriously.

Jessica’s mother, Marilyn, discovers the cause of Jessica’s sudden transformation from lass to crass. Marilyn blames the devil, but that’s what all bad parents seem to do these days, isn’t it? The devil didn’t give Dolly to Jessica. The true culprits are Jessica Wade’s parents, who awarded their daughter a toy unfit for a girl her age. (more…)

That sound you’re hearing (or not hearing, if you prefer irony) is that of dry tumbleweeds floating desultorily through the barren, eroded landscape of the New River Valley music scene. Now, I know what some of you are thinking: What? The New River Valley actually has a music scene? (more…)

Chances are we’re going to see Barack Obama and John McCain tango for the U.S. presidency later this year. (Yawn.)

The primaries have been garnering a diaper-load of media coverage this year, but for all the wrong reasons. Both a woman and a black man are in the running for the Democratic ballot, and the media are treating it like a circus act. (more…)

Whew! That was a close one, huh? That innocuous little writers’ strike ended just in the nick of time to allow for the self-congratulatory, self-indulgent, and self-aggrandizing stroke fest that is the Academy Awards show to go on as scheduled. Considering how uproariously hilarious, entertaining, and time-efficient the annual telecast is, I’d say that we, the TV-viewing boobheads, dodged a serious bullet, wouldn’t you? (more…)

The deficit is big. When the deficit is big, the country is in bad shape. Those two statements sum up my knowledge of the danger our economy is currently facing. My expertise ranges from comic book continuity to notable Italian horror films of the 1980s; needless to say, this American knows very little about his homeland. (more…)