Grass routes

Yo, Ace. Our letter carrier needed a note from us—no joke—to give him permission to not walk on our lawn. He said the post office wants its letter carriers to deliver mail quickly, so quickly that they are obligated by job requirement to walk on the lawn to get the mail to the doors of […]

Trash or Treasure?

At first glance, there’s nothing ex-ceptional about the green house at 223 Fourth St. SW. In fact, it looks pretty shabby. The building slouches. The wood around the windows seems to be rotting. The yard is a mess—there’s a picnic table with no benches, a brown Christmas tree, a rusty folding chair sitting in a […]

Tracks of my tears

Dear Ace: All of my local short cuts involve railroad tracks, but sometimes I find that I end up wasting a lot of time waiting for the trains to go by. Is there a train schedule so I can plan a way to keep my short cuts short?—Impatience Railhopper Railhopper: To shortcut his detective work, […]

C-Ville 20

Your Starting Lineup. Some of them are well known. Others are strictly behind-the-scenes players. Some make life more livable. Some make us shout back at our TVs (and some give us more to look at on those televisions). Among them are actors, sculptors, teachers, politicians and businesspeople. They come in all shapes, sizes and ages, […]

Hide Receiver

Dear Ace: Like, where did all the pay phones go? I need to make a call, but can’t find a phone and don’t want to get a cell. —Anita Dialtone Good question, Anita! Even though Ace upgraded to wireless communications for his investigative calling, the dwindling numbers of local public phones have not gone unnoticed […]

When push comes to shrub

Dear Ace: I’ve been doing a considerable amount of plant dodging while strolling along the sidewalks around town. Obstacle courses can be nice, but it’s starting to ruin my walks. How do I make these homeowners keep their plants off my path?—Bush Whacked Ah, Bush. Ace understands your woes—plants can be a pain. If they […]

Road to recovery

Road to recovery “Opium teaches only one thing, which is that aside from physical suffering, there is nothing real.” —André Malraux   The wild monster The Toyota hatchback that Dwaine bought for $100 shuddered as it hit interstate speed. Smoke curled from the Marlboro between his fingers and slipped into the air rushing outside his […]

Duval or nothing

Hey Ace: You seem like a guy who knows what’s up with local TV. What ever happened to NBC Channel 29 morning anchor Bill Duval? Is he coming back or did he split town?—Earl E. Riser Earl, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the anchor-folk at NBC29. They seem to come and go […]

Viewer’s choice

On any given evening, you can turn on the TV and surf past images that not too long ago were considered too shocking, too politically contentious, or too offensive for national broadcast: interracial couples; visibly pregnant women; graphic violence; sex; homosexuality; foul language; even dancing, singing animated feces. Thanks to the rise of reality TV, […]