Zane:Americans greet each new technological advance as if it had been delivered by the stork. We coo over each bundle of perfection, foreseeing only a brilliant future.

Zane:The roster of writers appearing at Triangle bookstores used to be a Who's Who of American letters.

Zane:I'd never had my portrait executed until I joined The News & Observer in 1996. Back then the paper used drawings of its columnists. The excitement of being immortalized by the artist's eye quickly gave way to queasy dismay.

Zane:"Always on the go, always on the look-out"

Zane:In the late 1990s, as politicians debated the best uses for those massive budget surpluses, newspapers were filled with voices decrying the conformity that had spread across America.

Zane:Charles Bronson offed my father. He hid a bomb inside a bottle of red wine, and when it exploded, he gave my old man everlasting life. For this, I am eternally grateful.

Zane:Bold promises to unite our fractured nation and solve the gnarly problems that bedeviled their predecessors.

J. Peder Zane:Earth Day isn't exactly my favorite holiday. A born and bred Gothamite, I never come any closer to roughing it than hiking to the store, hunting for bargains or fishing for something to wear.

J. Peder Zane:When I was The N&O's book review editor, I often heard bibliophiles mutter: So many books, so little time.

J. Peder Zane:I'm not so sure.

J. Peder Zane:Dr. Richard Kimble is bound for the death house -- not to care for prisoners but to await execution for his wife's murder.

J. Peder Zane:Slap on some aviator sunglasses? Don a sequin jumpsuit? Curl my lip? Swivel my pelvis? Wolf down a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich?