A Rebel Without A Clue

  We all called the guy "Nerd." Of course, he had a real name, but I didn't know it then or now. For this I am eternally grateful. He was a type specimen. If they had such things in the Field Museum in Chicago, he'd be stuffed and on display, the paragon of his subspecies. I'd say he was straight out of the "Revenge of" movies, but those didn't come out for 10 or 12 years after "Nerd" fell off my radar. White socks, black oxford shoes, highwater slacks, button down white short sleeve shirt, a pair of calculators dangling on his belt, pocket protectors, all that jazz, he was the full tilt boogie of Nerddom. We took a class called "Air Pollution Control & Abatement" together in the early 70s. Think about it. Anybody, myself included, who took Environmental Science classes back then was a nerd. And Nerd stood out among us.  [ A stock photo of    "A Man Out Standing In His Field"   goes here but is not included,     b...

Slash Pine Slashed For Turpentine (photo: North Carolina State University) Turpentine business ain't what it used to be.  I grew up in the Piney Woods. I still live in the Piney Woods (or the "Pine Belt," as the public relationists and promoters have tagged the underbelly of Mississippi). But the Piney Woods ain't quite as piney as they used to be, unless you happen to think suburban development isn't a sappy mess or wind up in the Pine Grove Treatment Center in Hattiesburg. Among other things, they specialize in sex addiction , so you might want to check in for a few rounds of golf or some heavy metal music . At $37,000 for a month and a half, it's probably no more expensive than renting a condo at Hilton Head and paying greens fees. But that's not the point here. Or maybe it is. They cut down a bunch of trees to build the city where "Pine Grove" is. The Jefferson Starship built a city on rock and roll, but the city where rock and roll was bor...