Thanks for the commentary thoughts. You may be right on shorter/more often. I grew up on long-form magazines back in the day. (Esquire, NYRB, The Atlantic ... hard addiction to break.) As to your MAGA WV riff, the entire existence of my OTHER web publication, the monthly multimedia feature magazine https://WestVirginiaVille.substack.com (companion substack to the website https://WestVirginiaVille.com) is intended to regularly demonstrate there are — as there have ever been — alert minds, creative souls, and good folk in every nook, cranny and holler of the Mountain State who abhor everything He Who Shall Not Be Named stands for. Onwards.
The column surprised me by raising an issue I've always wished some West Virginia reporter would write about—but not you. Writer has to be a WVU grad or close to it, someone who has lived in close quarters daily long-term with West Virginians from every town, hollow, and hamlet—inadvertent research.
Most published WV writers and nearly all observers who live elsewhere stereotype West Virginians as MAGA Appalachian natives, ignoring those born and bred in the 0hio Valley/northern panhandle/oil & gas country/Pennsylvania border areas, who at least pre-Fox/Sinclair did not embrace Confederate values. John Knowles and Davis Grubb were representative.
Then what about the mystery eastern panhandle? How could it be West Virginia in its gut, as a western Maryland-West Virginia sandwich on Pennsylvania-Virginia bread? Henry Louis Gates Jr, anyone? I'd love to see something comparing/contrasting it all. A psychologist once told me which central WV town he thought qualified as undiluted WV. …
Since this seems to be sort of a relaunch, friendly advice: Write shorter and more often. Robert Reich just celebrated a year on Substack https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=365422&post_id=72732046 He was advised not to post every day; he does it anyway. The quite innotative newsletter draws hundreds of comments daily.That's not all, but enough for now.
(You should already know this: Jack Daniel's, not Daniels. You also should know better than to read twitter comments. Trolls get paid to post that dreck. Their other reward is response.) Hope you're able to stay off social predator FB; so sorry you won't be tweeting. twitter's your only outlet I have time to read.
Thanks for the commentary thoughts. You may be right on shorter/more often. I grew up on long-form magazines back in the day. (Esquire, NYRB, The Atlantic ... hard addiction to break.) As to your MAGA WV riff, the entire existence of my OTHER web publication, the monthly multimedia feature magazine https://WestVirginiaVille.substack.com (companion substack to the website https://WestVirginiaVille.com) is intended to regularly demonstrate there are — as there have ever been — alert minds, creative souls, and good folk in every nook, cranny and holler of the Mountain State who abhor everything He Who Shall Not Be Named stands for. Onwards.
Did you see the delightful West Virginia challenge in a New York Times Sunday magazine column a few weeks ago? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/magazine/judge-john-hodgman-west-virginia.html Made me yearn desperately, in vain, for a couple Tudor's biscuits.
The column surprised me by raising an issue I've always wished some West Virginia reporter would write about—but not you. Writer has to be a WVU grad or close to it, someone who has lived in close quarters daily long-term with West Virginians from every town, hollow, and hamlet—inadvertent research.
Most published WV writers and nearly all observers who live elsewhere stereotype West Virginians as MAGA Appalachian natives, ignoring those born and bred in the 0hio Valley/northern panhandle/oil & gas country/Pennsylvania border areas, who at least pre-Fox/Sinclair did not embrace Confederate values. John Knowles and Davis Grubb were representative.
Then what about the mystery eastern panhandle? How could it be West Virginia in its gut, as a western Maryland-West Virginia sandwich on Pennsylvania-Virginia bread? Henry Louis Gates Jr, anyone? I'd love to see something comparing/contrasting it all. A psychologist once told me which central WV town he thought qualified as undiluted WV. …
Since this seems to be sort of a relaunch, friendly advice: Write shorter and more often. Robert Reich just celebrated a year on Substack https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=365422&post_id=72732046 He was advised not to post every day; he does it anyway. The quite innotative newsletter draws hundreds of comments daily.That's not all, but enough for now.
(You should already know this: Jack Daniel's, not Daniels. You also should know better than to read twitter comments. Trolls get paid to post that dreck. Their other reward is response.) Hope you're able to stay off social predator FB; so sorry you won't be tweeting. twitter's your only outlet I have time to read.