by Laurence Hammack | Jan 31, 2022 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
The following is an article about sex-crazed gypsy moths. For those of you who are still with us, the U.S. Forest Service is taking public comments on a program — which it more discreetly describes as a “mating disruption treatment” — to eradicate an invasive species...
by Laurence Hammack | Mar 19, 2017 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
LEXINGTON — Doug Harwood ambled along a downtown sidewalk, an unfiltered Camel cigarette dangling below his drooping moustache and a stack of his news magazines tucked under one arm, hot off the press. On this blustery afternoon in early March, Harwood delivered...
by Laurence Hammack | Oct 19, 2016 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
While not as common as a cat up a tree, a horse in a hayloft can get just as stuck. Case in point: Phoenix, a palomino quarter horse who hoofed it up the stairs to the upper level of his barn in Botetourt County, where he spent Thursday night trapped in the hayloft...
by Laurence Hammack | May 2, 2016 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
NATURAL BRIDGE — These dinosaurs obviously are not real. For one thing, they evolved. Four years after a fire forced Dinosaur Kingdom to close, the roadside amusement park is emerging from its temporary extinction. Like the old park, a new one under construction...
by Laurence Hammack | May 22, 2015 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
NATURAL BRIDGE — Asha the elephant lumbered over to the edge of her pen, seemingly eager to greet visitors to the Natural Bridge Zoo. From deep within her 9,500-pound body came a low-pitched, rumbling sound. Zoo owner Karl Mogensen likened it to a cat’s purr. “Hear...
by Laurence Hammack | Apr 16, 2011 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
On March 13, 2007, a Virginia Tech student walked into a Roanoke gun store, armed with a credit card. A short time later, Seung-Hui Cho walked out of Roanoke Firearms, armed with a Glock 9 mm pistol. It was an unremarkable transaction. Cho said or did little to...