Snow:The question is not "to be or not to be." The question for Wake County homeowners is "to appeal or not to appeal."

Snow:When the good folks at Wilson's Barton College invited me to be the speaker for its annual Allan Sharp lecture, I hesitated. I had never entertained the idea of speaking on the designated topic, "Southern Religion As Seen Through the Eyes of a Journalist."

Snow:On some cold mornings, I walk in Crabtree Valley Mall. I go early to avoid the madding crowd.

Snow:A Raleigh reader this week asked, "Have you been paying attention to all the presidential debates so far? Believe it or not, so far I'm pulling for Gov. Huckabee from Arkansas. I like what he's saying, plus I love his sense of humor!"

Snow:When Dick Taylor called from Lumberton to invite me to accompany him and his wife, Lenore, to the UNC-Maryland football game, I at first demurred.

Snow:A former Raleighite turned New Yorker, Lynn Parramore, was walking along a street on Manhattan's Lower East Side when she came across a woman sitting by the sidewalk, holding a hand-lettered sign, "Free Advice." A small basket nearby invited monetary contributions.

Snow:When I can't sleep, I never count sheep. And neither, contrary to the song's suggestion, do I count the charms about Linda. Instead, I start counting backward from 500, and usually that sends me back to beddie-bye.

Snow:As I sat in one of the worst traffic jams in all my not-so-young and tender years, I thought of Robert Frost's lines.

Snow:'The War," Ken Burns' powerful portrait of the horrors of World War II, had few light moments. After all, there are few light moments in war, which mostly involves dying and trying to stay alive.

Snow:Thanks to, most recently, some of our promiscuous Highway Patrol troopers, "sex" has become a three-letter word.

Snow:'I do believe you Southerners would get some kind of satisfaction out of hugging a fire hydrant."

Snow:I was sweeping the front walk in preparation for my wife's No Name Book Club meeting at our house when I spotted the blue jay feather.

Snow:The human brain is like a computer. It has a "save" basket and a "trash" basket.

Snow:We met for lunch at the Harvest Restaurant at the Shelton Winery in the Surry County foothills.

A. C. Snow:When was the last time you received a postcard?

Snow:The recent record-breaking temperatures found us gasping for air and grasping for superlatives to do justice to the hottest heat wave in the memory of many.

Snow:I know reports of scholarly research are often aimed at shock, effect, indignation, and provocation. And that they are designed to arouse attention-getting debate.