“Pretty as a new-laid egg” Mrs. Ladu, my fifth-grade teacher, was a fierce guardian of the English language. A single “ain’t” evoked her wrath. Since then I’ve tried to keep the faith. But at lunch in the mountains of East Tennessee recently, the cook came over to...

A redbud beside a pawn shop A friend had come back from a road trip: “Stupid churches and sixty feet tall billboards advertising everything from root canals to divorce.” He said, “When everything is the same what's the point of going anywhere?” He could have been...