Deep roots

This is the gravestone of my great-great-great-great-great grandfather John Brickey, who came from Virginia to settle in what is now Townsend, Tenn., just outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He was born -- it staggers me to contemplate this -- 269 years ago. He is buried in Townsend's Myers Cemetery, near where tourists rent bright yellow and green inner tubes and float lazily down the Little River.

John's son Peter Brickey, my great-great-great-great-great uncle, bought the land that today includes my family's farm, where Ereck and I just spent two weeks' vacation. On the farm I gazed at giant boulders I climbed on when I was a kid; got water in the old spring house (unlike in olden days, this involves plugging in a pump); and dodged mud daubers in the attic of Uncle Peter's original cabin, a picture of which is on the Wikipedia entry for Wears Valley, Tenn.

Sometimes when I'm at the farm the hair stands up on my neck as I contemplate how rich my family heritage is there. Then I check to see what's on the Game Show Network.

Good word

"Ringo is our representative on the Beatles."

-- Robert Christgau

Old thinking

"I always thought Specter would consider switching to become an independent to get re-elected, and it's too bad that Michael Steele pushed him into the Democrat Party."

-- Republican strategist Scott Reed

That prominent Republicans like Scott Reed continue to say "Democrat party" says a lot about why prominent Republicans like Arlen Specter flee to the Democrat party.

Good word

"Our system, left to its own devices, is not designed to let illegal acts be revealed and then ignored."

-- Eugene Robinson

Good word

"I came to love silence, because it's so rare, and it's now my favorite aural condition."

-- Mike Nichols

Good word

"I've always been put off by [Hank] Snow's up-north propriety, more Vernon Dalhart than Jimmie Rodgers."

-- Robert Christgau

Good word

"He chose metal over Vegas because Vegas wouldn't have him."

-- Robert Christgau on David Lee Roth