Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 29, 1992 TAG: 9203290063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ED SHAMY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That is why we must be vigilant to guard against those scoundrels who would, for whatever evil agenda, slur our name.
I ask you now to jump with me to the defense of our shared motherland.
Southern Living magazine has long been a treasured literary commodity in these parts. It is, unquestionably, the finest magazine serving Western Virginia. More than any other monthly, Southern Living has helped the Roanoke Valley continuously put forth its best foot to the world while keeping abreast of the vital issues of the day that bond all of us Southerners.
The last page of Southern Living has long been reserved for a weather forecast. It includes a map of the South, and predicts - day by day - the weather for the coming month.
Always included has been a list of 34 cities - Roanoke among them - with the outlook for precipitation, temperature and humidity.
We were dropped in the January issue. Roanoke hasn't appeared since. Nor has Brownsville, Texas - which deserved to be dropped. Also vaporized from the weather page of Southern Living: Charleston, W.Va.; El Paso, Texas; and Knoxville and Nashville, Tenn.
San Angelo, Texas, is on the list now - though out of 10 people on the street, not two could: a) find San Angelo on a map, or b) care to.
Wilmington, N.C., also showed up on the Southern Living chart. It should be banished. Nobody cares about it.
I wanted Southern Living magazine to know that no one squats on Roanoke. Or if they do, they end up with sore hindquarters.
I called Bill McDougald, the managing editor of Southern Living, to succinctly and diplomatically state my displeasure.
"WHADDYA THINK YOU'RE DOIN'?" I got kind of excited, kind of quickly. "YOU THINK WE'RE JUST A BUNCHA PATSIES GONNA ROLL OVER AND PLAY DEAD FOR YA?"
"We edited out six cities," said McDougald calmly. He must have been wondering why somebody with traces of a Bronx accent was jumping to such rabid defense of tiny Roanoke. "It was purely a matter of space."
In short: Roanoke was suddenly expendable when space got tight.
Why? Why were we bounced when, say, Shreveport and Louisville were kept? Are we too far north for true Southern living? Is it because Roanoke, the city, no longer has 100,000 people? Is it because of the Hotel Roanoke closing down? Is it our air service? Our breath?
"We didn't want to take out any of them," said McDougald. "Our art staff felt like we should shorten the list."
Ah, but the cruelest cut of all: McDougald suggests that we glean our weather report from the list - using the figures compiled for Asheville, N.C.
Asheville! Dreaded Asheville. Better the planet should gape open and swallow the Roanoke Valley whole into the burning innards of the Earth's core than we should look to Asheville as a reference point for our weather!
What would it take, Bill McDougald?
"We would certainly respond to a letter-writing campaign," said Bill. We counted him once among our friends.
I will write him. I hope you will too. Let us rise collectively to this challenge and restore Roanoke to its rightful place on the Southern Living weather chart. Write to:
\ Bill McDougald
c/o Southern Living Magazine
P.O. Box 523
Birmingham, Ala. 35201
If enough of us write, the last page will be ours again!
Long live Roanoke!
by CNB