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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. Britney Spears spotted at Lynchburg restaurant

2. One person injured in Friday night shooting in Roanoke

3. Roanoke resource officer's quick action saved young girl

4. East Carolina poses new challenge for Virginia Tech football

5. Lowe's tapes may hold clues to Roanoke woman's death

6. William Byrd stuns Salem in football win

7. Roanoke County electrical short quiets 5 Wheeler radio stations

8. Captive in Roanoke County describes harrowing time with angry friend

9. Concert review: Timeless Willie Nelson plays to appreciative crowd

10. History says this one will matter for Virginia Tech

Randolph Walker | A reader in Roanoke

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Going through my clip file recently, I came across a story I wrote on actor William Windom.

I had the good fortune to interview him for an article that ran in a Radford publication, when he was a visiting actor in that university’s drama department.

In contrast to many interview subjects, who worry about how their words will appear in print, Windom didn’t care — in fact, he told me that if I had forgotten to ask anything, I could just make it up. He went so far as to offer a sample fake quote: “Mr. Windom tells me his fondness for alligator meat is unexcelled in the Deep South.”

William Windom died in 2012, after a long and successful career in television, movies and theater.

He appeared in episodes of “Star Trek,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “The Twilight Zone,” but whenever I hear his name, I picture him not as he looked in those shows, but in a white linen suit, on a plantation veranda, amid live oaks draped with Spanish moss, chowing down on alligator meat.

Saturday, September 14, 2013