Martin Tanaka, a professor of engineering and technology at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, has a knack for creating innovative gadgets as a biomedical engineer. He has two patents for medical devices: one to help with rotator cuff surgery and another for a surgical tool for nasal surgery. 

Now, thanks to funding from NCInnovation, Tanaka is going for his third. 

In a review written in 2013 of John Williamson’s “Stoner,” Tim Kreider snagged the attention of  The New Yorker readers with this title: “The Greatest American Novel You’ve Never Heard of.”

This year, when my friend Anne introduced me to “Stoner,” I still belonged to the ignorant crowd. I’d never heard of the man or his book. Given the title and its publication in 1965, I immediately assumed “Stoner” featured hippies and potheads.

While our habits and hobbies outdoors may vary, it’s a point of pride for most in Western North Carolina that nature is never far out of reach. 

Cullowhee and Sylva host a wealth of recreation opportunities suited for enthusiasts and beginners alike and occupy some of the most biologically diverse wilderness in the United States. 

To the Editor:

Each week I look forward to reading a copy of your newspaper. The stories, articles, op-ed pieces, letters, announcements and other items of interest are vital links in the communication networks here in our southwestern mountains. Thank you for your consistency, pursuit of truth in proper contexts, persistence and commitment to accuracy. 

In the West Flanders region of Belgium, there are several thousand graves of British Commonwealth soldiers who never made it home from World War I. 

Sometimes, it feels like we’re just nowhere in this life. It was like that for me in the early 1980s.