Here it is, May at last, and the time the poet says is for flowers. We have flowers aplenty and they are lovely, and maybe worth enduring that miserable winter, but we also have unending pollen and itchy eyes, and grass to cut, and a host of unpleasant things that make me ask if flowery Maytime is worth it. Read more

April’s last morning and May’s first will have the two brightest planets so close together in the pre-dawn sky as to look like one very bright “star.” They are actually about 450 million miles apart and binoculars or a telescope will separate them into the brighter but smaller Venus and larger but dimmer Jupiter. Hope for cloud-free views of the southeast sky at least one morning; yes, this late sleeper will be up to check it out. Read more

Dear readers, you all know that The Central Virginian is a family-friendly newspaper. Emphasis on the term “family-friendly.” Well, my column today is comprised of several individual topics which may skirt around that term just a bit. You have been forewarned! Read more

We will long remember The Great Snow of January ‘22. We were fortunate that the electricity was restored here early, and we were prepared – all the recommended batteries, foods, water, etc.  Read more

My name is Chris Merrill.  Forty-seven years ago today, on Jan. 15, 1975, I started work at Louisa County High School teaching ninth grade math.  Read more