About this site

Welcome to Dispatches.

For some of you, it may be a strong cup of coffee. The subtitle of this newsletter mentions straight talk, so I feel that you've been warned.

I am the former (1995-2013) systems editor of a local newspaper in Spartanburg, South Carolina. One of the city's nicknames is Sparkle City (the other part of that subtitle), presumably named after the Sparkletones, a late 1950s rock and roll band from here whose signature song, Black Slacks, reached number 17 on the Billboard Top 100.

Dispatches is a blog, a newsletter, or anything else that might strike my fancy. For you, it's free. You can bookmark it, subscribe to get it in your inbox, or just shake your head and click elsewhere. Your choice. There is no algorithm trying to trick you into perpetual doom-scrolling.

This site is free. You have no obligation to pay for a subscription. If you feel a need, you can help me recoup the a minimal cost of maintaining this site by subscribing at the $2/month level. If there's enough interest, I have a few other ideas for public service projects that I can use that money for. But just having you along for the ride is payment enough.