Saunders:Anybody got a secret, can't-resist recipe for hushpuppies? Catfish? Nanner puddin'?

Saunders:Seven years of reflecting apparently allows you to see yourself for just what you are. It did in Erick Daniels' case. He said he spent seven years -- a third of his life -- reading, sleeping and reflecting while incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit.

Saunders:The responses should be easy to ignore -- that Erick Daniels was let loose on a technicality, that he'll be back in the joint within two years, that he really did rob that lady -- if they could be dismissed as the racist rants of a few polecats.

Saunders:In their seminal, affecting work called "Basketball Jones featuring Tyrone Shoelaces," Cheech & Chong exhort top sports broadcasters of the 1970s to join them in singing the praises of the sport.

Saunders:Just like Willie Nelson, Nikki Ellerbe's heroes have always been cowboys.

Saunders:Rodney Dangerfield is famous for saying his luck was so bad that he once went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.

Saunders:Time was, people changed their names for one of three reasons: They were running from something (the law, an ex-wife), for religious reasons or they were stuck with a handle they couldn't abide for one reason or another.

Saunders:Talk about "a new day." No, not that a dude named "Barack" could conceivably become president: Many people, however reluctantly, have already accepted that possibility -- especially after surviving a president named "George."

Saunders:"Preposterous" is what some people thought of Ronnie Sturdivant's campaign to lure Oprah to Durham so she could speak to students at his Prosperity Institute and spread her gospel of success.

Saunders:Who needs the Olympics or presidential conventions to provide a civic boost?

Saunders:It was the do-rag. Yep, that's what did it.

Saunders:It's a little bit funny, but if Virginia Jacobs gets the job she really wants, she'll be wearing bluejeans and steel-toed boots.

Saunders:James E. Hand, my junior high school football and basketball coach at Leak Street School in Rockingham, would often ask why I hadn't done something anyone with half a brain would've known to do.

Saunders:Call it the Case of the Mystery Matriculation, and at this rate we're going to need Kojak, Shaft and Sherlock Homeslice to figure out whodunit.

Saunders:To Capt. Mark Bridgeman of the Fayetteville Police Department, there is a striking similarity between the Ku Klux Klan and the street gangs terrorizing some communities across North Carolina.

Saunders:Most of the time, Levelle Moton is as humble as a former basketball star can be. But ask him about the league some friends and he started this year, and he is uncharacteristically proud.

Saunders:You know 'em. So do I -- seemingly rational people walking upright who think rasslin' is real but the moon landing was fake.

Saunders:Most of us who watched Phil Ford run the UNC Tar Heels' offense during the 1970s have a favorite play etched in our memory, perhaps a shot or assist to Walter Davis or Mitch Kupchak streaking to the basket.

Saunders:President Bush declares that he is in Beijing for the Olympics to enjoy the sporting events and to cheer on the Americans, not to condemn his hosts' human rights record.

Saunders:There are three ways to tell that something heavy is fixing to fall on your head.