What in Sam Hill Is an “Age-Appropriate”?

In the course of casting about for a suitable topic for this week’s essay, I was reminded of Harvey Korman’s famous line from Blazing Saddles, “My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.” And so, with that in mind…

FIRST, A RIVULET…This summer, as was the case for the summers of ’21 and ’22, my wife and I are escaping the oppressive heat and humidity of New Bern, North Carolina, where I am the most notorious author-in-residence (but not the most famous), by living in our 30-foot Airstream travel trailer parked in an all-Airstream RV park at approximately 2750 feet in the mountains of southwest Virginia, and yes, this is a run-on sentence, but so was most of the Declaration of Independence. Our twenty-month-old toy Schnauzer, Hanna, is with us, of course. Have I mentioned that there is not a sweeter canine in captivity? Today, my weather app informed me that the temperature in New Bern will reach 95 and feel like 103, whereas up here in the highlands, the corresponding numbers are 81 and 81. On our second day here, I tried to break up a dog fight and ultimately suffered eight stiches to my left hand. Otherwise, peace has prevailed, and my hand is healing, so my apologies to fans of drama or lawyers.