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HOMETOWN WRITERS MISS THE BOAT?

June 22, 2023 by

Hometown writers miss the boat when they think everything’s been said about where they grew up. Then, to save their careers the turn their focus to their hometown. More like they use a sense of home to lure readers in. Like Thomas Wolfe.

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BOOMER MEDICINE: THEY GET WHAT THEY DESERVE?

June 4, 2023 by

Boomer medicine comes in the same variety as everyone else’s: What works. And what doesn’t work. But for boomers there’s an extra additive.

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HARD TRUTH FOR SENSITIVE PEOPLE

August 17, 2022 by

Hard truth comes in one flavor, and it’s not sweet. It’s more of a gag-reflex flavor. You listen, want to disagree, but you keep listening instead. Then you go to the ICU? Maybe.

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‘BACK HOME’ IS THE SADDEST PLACE

August 3, 2022 by

“Back home we don’t call it that.” Those are the words I overheard at Tapphoria. Two people at another table were going over things. They weren’t from here and the more they talked the more each mentioned their own ‘back home.’ I know homesick when I hear it.

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ONE HOMETOWN VS ALL OTHER HOMETOWNS

July 23, 2021 by

One hometown is like any other town they say. Whoever ‘they’ are, they’re wrong. “A hometown is where young people bide their time before their real life begins,” goes the standard line. “It’s where kids first learn about the real world without bearing the consequences.” Not the case when the hometown is North Bend, Oregon. […]

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STICKING AROUND AND SETTLING DOWN

November 14, 2020 by

Sticking around is an art form. It’s not hanging around, it’s sticking. Sticky. Instead of a picture on a wall to walk past, sticking around goes with you. (I know you’re thinking of shoes and gum.) When you start feeling like a piece of furniture, a decoration in your own life, do the sensible thing […]

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NEW HOMETOWN TRENDING?

July 13, 2016 by

Live one place long enough, it’s your new hometown. If you even have a hometown you ought to feel lucky. Feel lucky it’s not your ‘home floor’ or ‘home building’ or ‘home block.’ Hometown feel pretty good compared to some places. Except every hometown has the same stigmas as every city, just smaller. Which brings […]

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PODUNK TOWN, OR YOUR HOMETOWN

August 22, 2015 by

Nothing Explains Feelings For A Hometown, Your Hometown, Than Traveling Though Others. Drive down I-5, Highway 99, 101 down the coast, or 97 east of the Cascades, and you roll through one podunk town after another. You don’t even have to go far off the road to see them. Just drive by, take a look, […]

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YOUR NAME, YOUR TRUTH

June 29, 2015 by

In a time not so long ago your name wasn’t good enough. Hard to believe in the land of straight shooters and honor, but John Wayne didn’t start out as John Wayne. Neither did Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis. It was a different time. Benedict Cumberbatch says those days are long gone. Still, there’s something […]

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BOOMERS ON THE MOVE TO SOMEWHERE ELSE

May 30, 2014 by

Why Not To The Hometown? No one likes hearing classmate at a reunion say, “So glad I got out of here.” Hear it once and you want them out of there again. Hometowns aren’t prison to escape from. If you feel that way, it’s you, not the town. Maybe when we were in our late […]

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