A quick word about two I admire.
Doug Doughty, Roanoke Times sportswriter emeritus, kept detailed lists and oceans of statistics the old-fashioned way, on paper, long before such information became ubiquitous in digital form.
My late mother, proud of her Scots-Irish heritage, often cited that societyâs thrift as inspiration. âIâm too Scot to waste that,â she would say as the lesser cuts of beef went into the stewpot.
In honor of Doughtyâs respect for the statistical oddity and Motherâs waste-not-want-not counsel, todayâs dispatch is presented.
First, the stats. Just since the beginning of 2021, respondents to this column have emailed dispatches totaling 12,071 words. Accurate count of a separate category of words, those delivered verbally to voicemail over this same period, would require an actuary.