Regarding the topic at hand, there is a passage I would like to quote first. It comes from "The Enemy" (2004), one of the novels in the series featuring the truly compelling protagonist Jack Reacher, written by Lee Child—an author whose work I love and read avidly. It is a conversation Jack Reacher has with a certain woman. "I have to go to Paris," I said. "Paris, Texas?" she said. "Or Paris, Kentucky, or Paris, Tennessee?" "Paris, France," I said. "The Enemy" by Lee Child (p

Early one morning in early autumn 2013, I was visiting the United States and leisurely driving north on State Route 99 in the Oklahoma countryside, heading for the house of a great man who had lived a turbulent life. After about an hour of driving, I came to a four-way intersection, turned left, and entered State Route 51. After driving for a while, I came across a large sign announcing that the road had a nickname: Jim Thorpe, the name of the man who lived in the house I wa

In June 2013, while on a road trip around the United States, I visited Demorest, Georgia, a small city with a population of less than 2,000. Johnny Mize (who died in 1993 at age 80), one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history, was born and raised in Demorest. He studied at Piedmont College in Demorest, where he devoted himself to baseball and became a major leaguer. Piedmont College houses the “Johnny Mize Athletic Center”, a memorial to him. Johnny Mize p