Race and “Good Taste”

Not long ago I was offered a gig at The [ Withholding the Large Virginia Town’s Name Here ]  Arts and Culture Center.   After responding with the thank-you-for-inviting-me email, I went to the center’s website to see what the place was like....

Invasion of the 4-H Club!

 At the get-go I must tell you that I remember my pre-literate self. I really do.  Back in the early 1960s, kindergarten was for learning to count and reciting the alphabet to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (Ah! vous dirai-je, maman, for you...

Unhinged Folly ~ Andy Offutt Irwin

This essay appeared in The Covington [GA] News on July 6, 2022. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of folly out there. And it’s important to remember that… “Folly is a more dangerous enemy to the good than evil…There is no defense against folly. Neither...

A Day in the Life of James Madison

I was at a reception on a riverside screened-in patio somewhere in South Georgia, a convivial, countrified place that was bedecked with old pressed-metal advertising signs. Right next to a Coke-bottle-shaped thermometer (in mint condition), I spied one of those...

CoronaKudzu

This essay was begun on October 7, 2020. It was submitted to The Covington News soon after. It was published there on October 17, 2020.  ______________________________________ CoronaKudzu Because of social-distancing changes in the television industry, a particularly...

Make My Community More Better

Today is July 4, 2020. I feel obliged to write this italicized section, but skip it if you have a mind to. I wrote this essay for my home town paper, The Covington News, where I have been a monthly columnist since 2015. It has been on their desks for two publishing...