Up in the Hollow: Leopold and Fritz, just two good ol’ boys
Leopold Kohr and E.F. “Fritz” Schumacher never visited Rappahannock County. They never climbed Mary’s Rock or fly-cast in the Thornton River. They didn’t buy fresh vegetables from a local farm or ride...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: A long way from Puddleville
I didn’t know him, but I wish I did. I only saw him once, laughing with friends in a downtown Atlanta restaurant. “That’s Gene Patterson,” my buddy said. “He used to be with the paper here. Now he’s in...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Wouldn’t give a nickel for a dollar store
Many of us have made the complete absence of nationally franchised commercial outlets in Rappahannock a point of pride. No Mickey D’s, no Colonel Sanders, no Jiffy Lube, no Sheetz, no Safeway, no...
View ArticleClark Hollow Ramblings: Springtime surprise
Like many of you, I suppose, this winter keeps surprising me. A couple of weeks ago, it was so nice and balmy I had visions of getting my peas and potatoes in the ground. Then came the big snowstorm. I...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Running (for office) vs. driving (to chain stores)
As an old theatre trouper, I love getting good reviews and being praised. Who doesn’t? It beats the heck out of ducking rotten eggs and tomatoes. Several of my recent opinions have elicited some very...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette!
Mark Twain famously said that it was so easy to quit smoking, he had done it a hundred times. I only quit once, back in 1978. I had smoked maniacally for over 20 years. Recently I added it all up: I...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Spring has arrived, not giant snails
You think we’ve got problems around here? Check out this recent lead paragraph from Reuters News Service: “South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world’s most invasive species:...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: A response to Mr. Miller’s cutting remarks
Editor’s note Ben Jones sent this in Monday, May 6 — the same day that the supervisors voted at their afternoon meeting to reduce the proposed $440,000 increase in the school division’s budget by...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Y’all thrum back now, y’hear?
And as they gathered for the final ritual of departure, the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Corps of the 2nd Horde, all 170 billion of them, began to fall silent. There, in Harris Hollow, they bowed to the...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: I speak of the South and its people
Every day Ben Jones reads that Paula Deen, the television chef, has lost another contract: Walmart, Target, JCPenney, the Food Network, Random House, QVC – and the list goes on. But she has committed...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: The Second War of Northern Aggression
Over the years Ben Jones has heard a lot of his Yankee friends say, “You people down South seem to be still fighting the Civil War.” The South was bad; the North was good. Abe Lincoln was the finest...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Well, maybe there’s room for a quiz
Ben Jones has a few more things to say about response to his defense of Paula Deen — and since letter-writer Clay Fulghum says that she “would fare pretty well in a ‘More Southern than thou’...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Hail to the Redskins! Hail to the Redskins?
Roger Goodell, the majordomo of the weekly bone-crushing fracas called the National Football League, said the other day that he is sensitive to those who think that the nickname of the Washington...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Our national dog is being wagged by the tail
Ben Jones isn't sure that even a visionary like Mark Twain could have predicted the current idiocy emanating from the, uh, “leadership” of the House of Representatives.
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Dereliction of beauty
There are worse things (and bigger problems) than so-called “derelict” buildings and vehicles, writes Ben Jones.
View ArticleYou can take this ‘Party’ elsewhere
Stop dragging "Dukes"-watchers down with promos for your "Party Down South" sleazefest: An open letter to Viacom and the Country Music Television network (CMT) from Ben ‘Cooter’ Jones.
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: Americana music — what it is, and what it isn’t
Ben Jones has written about a lot of things in this space, from kudzu to baseball, but this particular column is simply a shameless self-promotion for the upcoming Rappahannock Americana Music Festival...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: The ‘in’ ate Little Washington
The misguided, feverish energies of “high-powered” Washington, D.C. real estate developer Jim Abdo to “rebrand” our county seat is a remarkable example of how not to make friends and influence people.
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: The little town with the big pulse
Washington, Va., has seen a lot, and has provided a perfect bucolic setting for our county seat. But every so often there is what can only be called a “cultural clash.” We are now in one such crisis,...
View ArticleUp in the Hollow: ‘They Destroyed Paradise, Put Up a Parking Lot’
Let's review: The Inn got a free street and a nicer parking lot for the church, a lot the Inn uses. The church asked for and got $20,000 from the town for their parking lot, and the town apparently...
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