Tag: Durham

Remembering a man who wouldn’t quit

May 19, 2014May 19, 2014 Brody No Comments

This column appeared in The Herald-Sun in May 2014: Michael Butts met his future wife in 2003 in the bookstore at Durham Technical Community College. She needed a cassette recorder for a class in anatomy and physiology. She couldn’t find one. The burly man – a formal football player at N.C. Central University who worked…

Journalism, Non-Fiction, Sample Columns

No third-wheel feeling this Mother’s Day

May 10, 2014May 10, 2014 Brody No Comments

The kid loves his mom. I think he finds me amusing when I’m not steering him clear of one disaster or another. I know he likes to go on afternoon strolls and clings to my neck when I carry him. He enjoys sneaking pens out of my shirt pocket. He’s fascinated by any remote controls…

Journalism, Non-Fiction, Sample Columns

No more leaving things lying around

April 6, 2014 Brody No Comments

This column appeared in The Herald-Sun in April 2014: Back in the 1980s, I didn’t think twice about stashing my blue Jansport book bag under a bench outside the public library while I wandered around downtown Orlando. Today, though, it’s a different world. So I can only imagine the horror that a man from Akron,…

Journalism, Non-Fiction, Sample Columns

The chance for a living history lesson

March 29, 2014 Brody No Comments

Even today, nearly 70 years since he joined the first wave of soldiers through the surf onto the German-fortified shores of Normandy, Charles Chappell remembers. “I am getting really forgetful about a lot of things,” he said. “But I can picture today right in front of my eyes how that beach looked that day.” Born…

Journalism, Non-Fiction, Sample Columns