It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway): Thelate, great Ruston journalist Wiley W. Hilburn Jr., mydepartment head for 34 years, taught me a lot aboutwriting. And that includes column writing.I would often proofread his column, “Fragments,”a staple in two area newspapers for decades.In the process, we’d discuss his topics, hiswriting, how he got his ideas – indeed, a …

As a child dinosaurs came into vogue. Toy dinosaursets were sold from the Sears and Roebuck Christmascatalogues. The Peabody Museum, a part of HarvardUniversity, produced a set of drawings depicting lifeduring the Jurassic period and earlier. One could lookat the realistic paintings and visualize what itwould be like to live millions of years beforeman’s dirty little footprints trod the planet.Books …