Keeping a guy in prison costs 50,000 bucks a year. Executing one costs a couple million.

My mum was never too keen on TV, so we kids all went to the library and got books out. Right from the start, I loved the works of Mark Twain. Every time I read about Tom Sawyer, I'd go out and do something low-level naughty, just like him.

In little pockets of conversation, old men were telling stories of ancient floods. Women were talking of about how much rain there'd been in other towns -- Paragould, Lepanto, and Manila.

Still, something about writing made me spend large hours of my free time at my desk.

The first thing my family did when we moved was join the local church. The second was to go to the library and get library cards.

Four rehabs meant a fifth was somewhere down the road.

The company later went broke, and of course all blame was directed at the lawyers. Not once did I hear any talk that maybe a trace of mismanagement could in any way have contributed to the bankruptcy.