Tom Angleberger

The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?

Recent columns

• Topping trees puts them at great risk
• A sweet taste of local history
• What did old railway station look like?
• Readers dish out insights on hang gliding
• And the answers just keep on coming
• Help me answer readers' questions

Q: When was the old road to Mill Mountain closed? Why and on whose authority?

-- Burl Gillum, Roanoke

A: I thought this was ancient history, but the closure happened more recently than I thought.

Tom Clarke, Roanoke's outdoor recreation coordinator, with help from Bob Bengston, the director of public works, was able to give us the when, who and why regarding the closure of Prospect Road.

The beginning of the end came in 1971 when the J.B. Fishburn Parkway gave people an easier way to get to the top. Prospect Road became less vital and presumably less traveled, but it wasn't actually closed until 1989.

"The City's Engineering Department, after a consultant's report, closed the Prospect Road Bridge due to structural deterioration, thereby closing the road to vehicle use," Clarke wrote in an e-mail.

While the engineers took this action, I suppose we should pin the actual responsibility on the Roanoke City Council, which probably could have found a way to keep the road open if it had wished to spend the money. But I imagine that a lot of people today are quite happy that cars were shut out, making it into a beloved walking and cycling trail.

Q: What was the name of the TV show a few years ago that starred Russ Tamblyn's daughter, Amber? It also had a character played by the son of the guy who played Jack Tripper.

-- Fred Farmer, Vinton

Using the Internet there are lots of ways to find the answer to a question like this, including simply typing "Amber Tamblyn" and "Jack Tripper" in Google.

Snore. ...

But wait! There's a much more interesting way to do it, which could also help you answer other movie and TV questions based on limited information.

The Internet Movie Database -- www.imdb.com -- is more than just a list of info, it's also a great tool for searching that list.

First, assuming you really can't remember who played Jack Tripper, we'll do a character search for that name. That brings up photos of those wacky scamps from "Three's Company" and the name of the actor: the late John Ritter. Click on his name and then on his bio to find out that his son's name is Jason Ritter.

You could look through Jason Ritter's resume for the name of the show, but here's a more scientific way.

IMDB lets you run a "complex name search" to see if two or more Hollywood-types ever worked together. You can find out, for example, which George Lucas movies feature John Williams' music.

Or how often shape-shifting Eddie Murphy has worked with makeup artist Rick Baker.

This search tells us that Amber and Jason appeared together in 44 episodes of "Joan of Arcadia" back in 2003.

Are you wishing this could be a little geekier? In that case go to the University of Virginia's Oracle of Bacon, which will run a search on the same database to let you find connections between actors who did not work together -- Russ Tamblyn and John Ritter, for instance.

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Last week, we learned that local deer population control has been limited lately, so I asked for tips for keeping them out of one's garden.

Reader Sherry Morrison suggests protecting your turf with cologne-doused shirts and rags. Get the "cheap, strong" stuff, she suggested.

Karen Dillon uses something a little more pleasant, shavings from Irish Spring soap.

Gayle Hutchman suggested the Irish Spring solution, too, with an added ingredient: pee. I'll leave you to figure out how to distribute the pee in your garden.

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Boy howdy, my readers sure are smart, aren't they?

That's why I'll be turning to them/you next week for my Ask the Readers feature. I'll give questions about local stuff that might be tough for me to answer, but which will hopefully be a breeze for the collective memories of so many readers.

So this is your last chance to send in a question for that feature.

But, please note my new e-mail address before you write. It's WhatsOnYourMind@roanoke.com or, if you're in a hurry you can use the abbreviation, woym@roanoke.com.

Using either address I'll be glad to get your message.

Or you may call 777-6476 to leave a message on my voice mail. Please be sure to speak clearly, spell your name and give me your location and phone number or e-mail address.

Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.