Virtual Postcard from Virginia

We were initially going to go with an image I myself took of a dog next to a fire station in the Grandin village section of my hometown, Roanoke. Then, we thought about going with an image of Foamhenge, near Natrual Bridge and Lexington, the latest creative project from eccentric artist Mark Cline, who resides in that area in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Foamhenge has gotten worldwide attention through CNN.

But, ultimately we decided to go up Route 11 from Lexington to New Market, a distance of some 70 miles, where one can see the Doofy Johnny Appleseed statue beside a restaurant/hotel. There is another Johnny Appleseed statue in Fredericksburg.

New Market is most famous for a Civil War battle, and the Endless Caverns tourist attraction, which also produces great bottle water, is near that community as well.

SIDEBAR: Our deepest thoughts go out to the family of the Rev. Mack Wolford Randall, a snake-handling pastor from Matoaka, West Virginia, who died yesterday while using a rattlesnake during a sermon; as the old cliche goes; 'Don't try this at home.'

But, West Virginia should not be the only state one thinks when it comes to fringe ministers. We gather that the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va., has pretty much done everything radical or unimaginable except snake-handling.

SIDEBAR TWO: We are intending to take a brief hiatus, well until Tuesday, which means we will not have to time to congratulate Northwestern University for winning an NCAA title in women's lacrosse. But, though several members of my family have gone to various Big Ten schools, none of them have gone to Northwestern.

http://www.sillyamerica.com

Things We Learned on Twitter This Afternoon....

I suppose this is a sign of the times as even my life is getting so hectic that our blog entries from now until mid-May are likely to be considerly shorter than those I have posted within the last few months.

Today, through "The Baltimore Sun" newspaper's Twitter page we learned that College Park, Md., home of the University of Maryland Terps, is the nation's hot spot today as they check in at 95 degrees.

One has to feel for the student athletes at UMD on the men's and women's lacrosse teams as this would seemingly be one of the worst conditions to practice in!

Kudos to the Duke Blue Devils!

The Duke University Blue Devils are the new NCAA national champion in men's basketball following their dramatic 61-59 victory over underdog Butler, a small school with just over 4,000 students in Indianapolis, which almost made a sports fairy tale come true--- and, in their hometown no less!

"We knew it was going to be a 40-minute war," Duke player Nolan Smith said. "Everybody played a great game."

Since we are based here in North Carolina, we are happy for the Blue Devils, a team that earned a coveted fourth national championship. Their arch rival, the University of North Carolina Tarheels won the 2009 men's basketball championship.

The Blue Devils were also helped out by standouts Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Brain Zoubek.

The Butler Bulldogs, a team that my cousin Mike from Rock Hill, SC, had in his Final Four (though he thought they would lose to Kansas; they lost to Northern Iowa in the second round of the tourney) were helped out by Gordon Hayward, Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard. Hayward narrowly missed a half-court last second shot which would have won the game for Butler.

The game reminded of the sports documentary "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29" which profiled a famous football game in the late '60s that saw Harvard come back from being far behind in the waining minutes of the game.

Duke also has a competitive women's lacrosse team, which is ranked third nationally. The Lady Blue Devils host Boston College at Koskinen Stadium on the Duke campus in Durham, NC, on 1 p.m. on Saturday.