Cornershot

To submit a CornerShot

The Roanoke Times welcomes CornerShot submissions from its readers. Here are the guidelines:

Length: about 200 words
Topic: CornerShots can run the gamut, but we generally prefer unique and clever observations on the human experience.
No poetry, please.
Email your submission to extra@roanoke.com with your full name and hometown and “CornerShot” in the subject line. You can also mail submissions to Kathy Lu, CornerShot, The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, VA 24010.
Submissions are subject to editing.

1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County

2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day

3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys

4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping

5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football

6. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust

7. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen

8. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible

9. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli

10. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area

Mary Bishop | A retired Roanoke Times reporter, now a reader in Roanoke

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Collecting unintentionally funny misstatements is a hobby of mine.

A friend’s elderly mom, telling him about pleasing singers who performed without accompaniment at her retirement home, reported that they sang “Acapulco.”

My favorite is something my conservative Georgia cousin told me before we went to Key West. Knowing that we’re unconventional types, which she is not, she recommended the Blue Heaven restaurant, where chickens peck near your feet in a courtyard.

“Oh, Mary Carter,” she drawled, using my middle name, as all my family still do , “you’d love it. It’s so Bavarian!”

The image of oompah musicians sweating it out in lederhosen in steamy Key West created a joyous collision of images for me.

Now, whenever we see anything remotely Bohemian, my husband and I will say, almost in unison: “Oh, it’s so Bavarian!”

Monday, August 12, 2013