Writer

On Sept. 21, I received a very nasty phone call from a very irate woman. She failed to identify herself. She was upset over a letter I had written. She informed me that I'm stupid and ignorant. That I don't know anything. That her dog has more intelligence than I have. Normally, I don't pay a lot of attention to jerks like her. But enough is enough. For years now, I have been subjected to such vicious attacks because of my letters. And I find it truly disgusting that one cannot exercise his constitutional right to freedom of speech without some apparently deranged lunatic resorting to harassment because they do not agree with your opinions.

Dear Editor: I wanted to write a quick note to let you know how much we appreciated and enjoyed Emily Burton's article on Sophie Alcorn in your Sunday paper. I am one of Ms. Alcorn's descendants, her great-great-grandnephew. Close friends of our family now live in the Alcorn residence and invited us to the ceremony that was held Saturday. Before I left Sunday morning to return to the Philadelphia area, we ran to Danville and bought several newspapers. We brought them back and read with great anticipation the article that Emily wrote.

LANCASTER - It's Breast Cancer Awareness month, a time for everyone to think about health and happiness. This month also sees the release of "A Cup of Comfort for Breast Cancer Survivors," which includes 46 essays, including a humorous essay written by a freelance writer and editor from Lancaster, Beth Dotson-Brown, about wearing wigs. She says she's using the book as an opportunity to share her experience in recovering from cancer with a holistic approach. This approach is something that anyone can use to be a healthier person, she said, whether diagnosed with cancer or not. Dotson-Brown will be speaking at Garrard County Public Library and signing books from 6-7 p.m. Tuesday.

LIBERTY - Crystal Wilkinson, an acclaimed Kentucky writer, will return home to talk about her work and sign copies of her books at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Casey County Public Library. Call (606) 787-9381 to reserve a seat. Wilkinson, who spent her childhood in the Indian Creek in Casey County, currently is a teacher at Indiana University in Bloomington. The biography of Wilkinson starts out by saying she was born in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1962. It then goes on to say that her grandparents, Silas and Christine Wilkinson, took her into their care when she was just 6 weeks old. That's when Willkinson entered into our local history and vice-versa.

Dear Editor: I wish I could whitewash the lies that brought us to Baghdad as Bob Martin did in a recent letter to your newspaper. Mr. Martin, an economist who has been trained through his economics education to buy into the abstract mantras of the Republican Party, would do well to look at the "evidence" that brought us into war in the first place and ask himself why he was so eager to buy into it. I suspect it is for Mr. Martin, like many...

HARRODSBURG - When it comes to people, there's often more than meets the eye. Beth Bradley, 37, started working at The Olde Bus Station restaurant a few months ago. But what began as a full-time waitressing gig to just get by and pay the bills quickly became a source of inspiration for this up-and-coming writer. "The inspiration's easy," she said. "The stories just kind of write themselves, really. " Bradley, a native of Ashland, has close family ties to the eastern Kentucky region.

Gabe Balasquide: Congratulations on your "Writer of the Year" award. Just as I told Ryan on his award, you are the best and most knowledgeable writer in Kentucky. You are my favorite writer. Larry: Wow. That praise is really humbling. It is a great award to be recognized by your peers. It's not one I am sure I deserve, but it sure is nice to receive it and then get a compliment like this from a die-hard sports fan like yourself. Thanks as always for reading -- and writing.

At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday Larry Vaught will have a live chat with Nashville sports writer David Boclair about Saturday's game between UK and Vanderbilt. Go to www.vaughtsviews.com for the chat.

Dear Editor, I can't understand why so many people can't understand what Rush Limbaugh meant when he said he wanted President Obama to fail? He has explained it time and again that he hopes the president fails at implementing the social policies that he has planned. Mr. Limbaugh says he thinks that will be bad for the United States. Many individuals who favor capitalism over socialism also hope the president fails at having his left wing policies become law. I want the United States to prosper and become the nation it once was. I couldn't care less if the president gets the credit.

If you're planning on attending Thursday night's midnight showing of "Twilight" in Danville and are a huge fan of the series, please contact Advocate-Messenger staff writer Charlie Cox at ccox@amnews.com.

In early January I suddenly began to feel very listless and had a great loss of energy and appetite. I just thought it was something I would shake off in time. It was not. Bad became worse. Worse got even worse. Finally, on April 3, 2013, I went to see my doctor at the VA hospital. I was given four blood transfusions. On April 5, after extensive lab work, I was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL. What a shock. I have been placed on a treatment with the drug Rituxan.

GRAVEL SWITCH - A number of new activities are scheduled for this year's Kentucky Writers Day event Friday through Sunday at Penn's Store. A longtime supporter of Penn's Store, musician Michael B. Hill, died March 25. The Lebanon resident was excited about this year's Kentucky Writers Day celebration, said Penn's Store owner Jeanne Lane. “The 2013 KWD celebration event is being dedicated in his honor, “ she said. A salute to author Obie Slater also is planned, “honoring the songs written from the early (rock and roll, and rhythm and blues)

A Winchester woman will have her newly published children's book featured at America's Book Expo in New York City this summer. Leila Reinersman published her book with Xlibris, a self-publishing company. This story, entitled “Ricky & Thomas the Dragon,” is her first book and is illustrated by Brian Rose of Winchester. The story was inspired by her grandson, Ricky, of whom she has legal custody. The book is about a little boy named Ricky who gets curious and finds a secret passage to Dragonville in his closet.

When she was younger, Reagan Jennings never enjoyed writing. She remembers one long piece at the end of her fifth-grade year, followed by the encouragement of her McGuffey Sixth Grade Center teacher Vickie Robbins being the two things that pushed her to become more interested. “It's really been this year that my teacher made me love it more. She's really been my whole writing inspiration,” Reagan said of Robbins. Reagan, who is 12 and lives in Danville, already has written a book, the first in a series that she hopes to publish one day. “I don't care about the money or anything,” she said smiling, explaining that she wants to know that her books have impacted someone.

I read the response from Mr. Hogue. I must give kudos on the letter being well written, but here is the thing: I'm not an atheist. I've never claimed to be one. I believe I said I was not anti-Christian. As far as me “expecting Christians to shut up around me.” Not true. You can tell me about religion, but if you keep pressing you will be offended. If whatever you believe keeps you from stabbing me at the ATM then God bless you and I'm all for it. If anything I would say I'm anti-bully.

He has seen Franklin County standout Ryan Timmons play both football and basketball, and one thing continually stood out about him to John Herndon, the sports editor of The Anderson News in Lawrenceburg. “The thing that impressed me most was his unbelievable will to win in either sport,” Herndon said. “The perfect example was in last year's Anderson (County)-Franklin game. Anderson had played an incredible game that night. If I remember correctly, Anderson had held Timmons to single-digit yards in the first half and played a ball-control offense designed to keep the ball out of his hands.  “Yet he finished with 58 yards on just four carries and caught three passes for 80 yards.

In response to a recent letter submitted by Mr. Wing concerning freedom/denial of public prayer, I ask what is his proof that mass killings would still happen if prayer had been allowed in schools and other places?   Throughout life, we learn by example and impressions. If the deranged killer had been brought up respecting a sincere religious faith, learning to realize the preciousness of life, who knows how his choices might have evolved? Positiveness breeds positiveness. Negativity breeds negativity.

Editor's note: “River of Earth,” 1940, by James Still, is the sixth in a series of book reviews about works of Kentucky fiction. Among best novels, we may distinguish between “greats” and smaller masterpieces. The former include American classics such as Hawthorne's “The Scarlet Letter,” Melville' s “Moby Dick,” and Faulkner's “As I Lay Dying.” Works of masterly craft, they probe the human condition to profound depths. Small masterpieces are not so deep nor so grand in scope.

The most recent Sunday edition of The Advocate-Messenger carried an interesting perception of Danville from 1930-1940. The information centered on the Swiss Sanitary Milk Co. that was located on the corner of Main Street and Wilderness Road. The building remains in place and has been unoccupied for decades. None among us, however, who lived here during that time frame, will ever forget the famous corner of delights. A surprise revealed in the article was that in 1937 this 'nook on the corner' sold 39,000 gallons of ice cream and ices to those who entered the spick and span parlor of pure caloric and cataclysmic sugar.

The Jessamine Journal's newest reporter is the latest in a pipeline of Eastern Kentucky University graduates at the paper. Kelly McKinney, 34, graduated from EKU in 2007 and has worked at two newspapers in the region since then. She joins fellow Eastern graduates Jonathan Kleppinger and Jonathan Stark in the newsroom; eight of the last 12 news employees hired at The Journal have been Colonels. McKinney grew up in Lexington and didn't have a career path picked out yet when she started college.