This post is not the New York Times Connection word game, but what do Pat Sajak, Vanna White, a long-running game show, and Spin the Wheel have in common? “Jeopardy?” “Naw.” “It’s the Wheel of Fortune” “Yes-yes-yes.” I didn’t know this, but the Wheel of Fortune first premiered in 1975, and Sajak and White have…
Tag: stormstrouper
Larry Byrd is Gone in November (a story from The Shadow Elm Memoir)
A story from the Shadow Elm Memoir. The person I’m calling Tallulah began as a single palm reader at a traveling carnival. She used her limited telepathic and impressive precognition abilities to deliver fortunes to customers. Eventually, the psychic left the Carnie life and opened up a magic supply retail store in the southeast that…
The Third Todd of the Month
Someone named the month of March after Todd, the Roman god of astonishment. Okay, now that’s a lie. Someone named the third month of the year after Mars, the Roman god of war. Many astonishing things happened in March 2024. Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya reprised their Paul Atriedes and Chani roles in one of the…
10 Things I enjoyed from my Walt Disney World Trip
My girlfriend and I recently went to Disney World, and I definitely felt the magic. I’m not talking about witches, warlocks, and incantations but about Disney’s wonderful theme parks. And in case you don’t know (Yeah, right!) Disney’s wonderful theme parks are Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. We went to EPCOT and…
The 2nd Ever Todd of the Month Is
Many excellent and unique things have already happened and are planned for February 2024. So far this month, I went to Disney World. Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow, which means an early spring. The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl, 25 to 22. We watched Usher bring out…
The Girl from the Brown Mountain Lights (a story from The Shadow Elm Memoir)
A story from the Shadow Elm Memoir. The Pisgah National Forest is over 500,000 acres of ancient trees, peaks, secrets, and mysteries in Western North Carolina. The ghost lights above Brown Mountains are one of the many enigmas that are impossible to explain outside of folklore and supernatural reasons. The Lights first decided to reveal…
First Ever Todd of the Month
Many great people out there share the first common name, Todd. According to Ancestory.com, Todd is a “nickname for someone thought to resemble a fox for example in cunning or slyness or perhaps more obviously in having red hair from northern Middle English.” I’m sure some Todds possess these attributes, but that’s not what makes…
One of my 2024 goals is to begin a Couch to 5K
Welcome everyone to the New Year! I can’t believe we’re already three weeks into 2024. It seems like yesterday we watched the Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings 33 to 10 and rattled off our next year’s resolutions and goals before the shiny silver ball dropped at midnight. For the record, I’m not a…
Prelude to The Shadow Elm Memoir (a story from The Shadow Elm Memoir)
I can’t repeat it enough. North Carolina is the strangest and most remarkable state I’ve ever lived in. Those western mountains, the eastern flat coast, and every crevice in between, is charged with fascinating and unusual things that confirm this. These things aren’t the lions, tigers, and bears from the Wizard of Oz. Oh my!…
It took Jonathan Frakes and the Biltmore House for me to watch a Hallmark Channel movie
It’s the summer of 1997. You’re watching your favorite new show, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction. The theme song starts. The narrator says, “Beyond belief, fact or fiction, hosted by Jonathan Frakes.” Then, the narrator says more about a world of truth or deception. The song eventually fades out. Frakes emerges from the hallway of…