Short in stature; tall in brilliance

    Mrs. Loggins taught English at a high school in rural North Carolina where I grew up. If she had stood on her tiptoes, she might have barely stretched past the five-feet mark on a door jamb. She was pleasingly plump and wore her dark hair in a cute pixie cut. As one of the younger teachers, she connected well with 16-year-olds. I had the luck and privilege of being one of her tenth-grade students.

Funny Farm?

     In the funny movie, Funny Farm, Chevy Chase's character, Andy Farmer, quits his job and moves to the country to write a novel. He outfits an upstairs room with a desk and typewriter next to the window. After finger-pecking the title of his book, "The Big Heist," he stares at blankness. Words neither flow nor trickle and Andy ends up with wads of paper heaping over the trash can and littering the floor.

Guitar Glory

     After traveling down some back roads and winding through the hills of Virginia, we began climbing a mountain, leaning into one hairpin turn after another. Finally, we arrived in the town of Monterey, only to drive at an even slower pace poking through a street festival already in progress.

    We squeezed around bumper-to-bumper SUVs and festival-goers on foot fingering funnel cakes and puffs of cotton candy. Then we eased away from the noise of crowds and mufflers to find The Highland Center and a grateful plenty of free parking right in front of the building.