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MyOrphos
Essays, history, personal stories, and dispatches across generations

Latest

04
Oct
Post-Repeal New England Travel Dispatch on Liquor Sales

Post-Repeal New England Travel Dispatch on Liquor Sales

After repeal, ER toured New England to see how legal spirits were managed. Used to the South’s illicit bootleggers and dry politics, he admired the orderly dispensaries of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, noting with dry humor that cutting out illicit profit took the rowdiness right out of drink.
3 min read
27
Sep
Photo of a scrapbook clipping

. . . And In Our Own Bldg

This companion piece from The Birmingham News introduces the E.R. at his post, profiling three newsroom veterans and capturing E.R. in his element as head proofreader—presiding quietly over hot lead, galley proofs, and grammatical tangles with his trademark pencil and dry humor.
3 min read
22
Sep
The open vintage scrapbook showing 1930s newspaper clippings and portraits from The Birmingham News.

Recollections from the Composing Room: The Scrapbook of E. R. Calhoun (1870–1956)

A 52-week dispatch from the vanishing oral history of the Deep South.
7 min read
10
Jul

Homecoming and Storytelling October 2006

This adventure began, as so many others have, with an extended car trip in the fall of 2006. I was
20 min read
10
Jul

Anne Ousley Hoadley

Before beginning this story, I'll take a moment to help the reader sort through family ties. The Ousley
10 min read
10
Jul

1999 Allen and Ousley Reunions

The Allen reunion falls on the first Sunday in June (June 6, 1999) and was held at the old Bethel
12 min read
10
Jul

Vira

Vira was a cat, my first. Around mid June, 1999, she began showing up on Trebeck Lane. She would hang
1 min read
10
Jul

A Late Season Dove Hunt

In October 1998, when I suggested a late–season, dove hunt, no one in the Saturday morning skeet group seemed
5 min read
10
Jul

And then there were 6

Evelyn Ousley Bailey passed away at 7:20 p.m. on Thursday, February 19, 1998, in the Jefferson Towers Intensive
8 min read
10
Jul

A Table, Four Chairs, and Chapels

Chapels What is this about, and why write about it? This is about a vacation trip to Greece (summer 1997)
42 min read