Columns

Here’s a Thought: Opening Act
By Taylor Mason

For those of you not familiar with how I roll: I’ve been a comedian for 25-plus years and been an “opening act” for a variety of performers. Some highlights. ...

Here's a Thought: Death by Cancer
By Taylor Mason

My sister-in-law passed away last Thursday, felled by cancer after a seven-year battle. She was a dignified, lovely, inspiring wife and mother who beat the odds over and over again.

Time Out: Safety ‘Net
By Patty Elder

Summer in DC means storms, and storms mean power outages. And power outages bring out my worst fear, and it's NOT the dark. ...

Here’s a Thought: Hot Enough for Ya?
By Taylor Mason

The heat was debilitating this summer, so much so that the word “hot” doesn’t do justice to the grades of temperature we've sweated these past few months.

Time Out: Make Yourself at Home
By Cara Garretson

It’s beach week, and so far so good. We bust into our rented beach house and it looks great – the bathrooms are sparkling, the décor is charming, the kitchen is retro. ...

Compose tips

• Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.

• Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <b> <i> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <object> <param> <embed> <blockquote> <sup> <sub> <strike>

  This site allows HTML content. While learning all of HTML may feel intimidating, learning how to use a very small number of the most basic HTML "tags" is very easy. This table provides examples for each tag that is enabled on this site.

  For more information see W3C's HTML Specifications or use your favorite search engine to find other sites that explain HTML.

  Tag Description	You Type	You Get
  Anchors are used to make links to other pages.	<a href="http://www.newchristianvoices.com">New Christian Voices</a>	New Christian Voices
  Emphasized	<em>Emphasized</em>	Emphasized
  Bolded	<b>Bolded</b>	Bolded
  Italicized	<i>Italicized</i>	Italicized
  Strong	<strong>Strong</strong>	Strong
  Cited	<cite>Cited</cite>	Cited
  Coded text used to show programming source code	<code>Coded</code>	Coded
  Unordered list - use the <li> to begin each list item	<ul> <li>First item</li> <li>Second item</li> </ul>	First item Second item
  Ordered list - use the <li> to begin each list item	<ol> <li>First item</li> <li>Second item</li> </ol>	First item Second item
  Definition lists are similar to other HTML lists. <dl> begins the definition list, <dt> begins the definition term and <dd> begins the definition description.	<dl> <dt>First term</dt> <dd>First definition</dd> <dt>Second term</dt> <dd>Second definition</dd> </dl>	First term First definition Second term Second definition
  No help provided for tag object.
  No help provided for tag param.
  No help provided for tag embed.
  Block quoted	<blockquote>Block quoted</blockquote>	Block quoted
  Superscripted	<sup>Super</sup>scripted	Superscripted
  Subscripted	<sub>Sub</sub>scripted	Subscripted
  No help provided for tag strike.

  Most unusual characters can be directly entered without any problems.

  If you do encounter problems, try using HTML character entities. A common example looks like &amp; for an ampersand & character. For a full list of entities see HTML's entities page. Some of the available characters include:

  Character Description	You Type	You Get
  Ampersand	&	&
  Greater than	>	>
  Less than	&lt;	<
  Quotation mark	&quot;	"

• Lines and paragraphs are automatically recognized. The <br /> line break, <p> paragraph and </p> close paragraph tags are inserted automatically. If paragraphs are not recognized simply add a couple blank lines.