Noah Adams

In Neville's Thrillers, Belfast's Violent Past Still Burns

Noah Adams — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:57:00 +0000

At 41, with long black hair, Stuart Neville looks more like the rock guitarist he used to be than the author he is now. He lives in a small town with his family — not in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the city that plays a central role in his thrillers, but just outside it.

This week, world leaders are gathered in Northern Ireland for the G-8 conference, but such a meeting would have been unthinkable before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought Catholics and Protestants together in a new, tense, power-sharing government.

In Ohio Town, Okla. Twister Conjures Echoes Of 1974 Disaster

Noah Adams — Fri, 31 May 2013 21:49:00 +0000

When a tornado roars into a populated area, the change is often drastic and deadly, and it happens within minutes. As the people of Oklahoma struggle to look beyond this month's devastating storms, residents of Xenia, Ohio, are reflecting on the tornado of 1974.

Xenia, in southwest Ohio near Dayton, became well-known to the nation that year. "Everywhere I go, and I've been all over the U.S., if I say I'm from Xenia people say, 'tornado,' " says Catherine Wilson, who runs the historical society in Xenia.

Michigan Apple Orchards Blossom After A Devastating Year

Noah Adams — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:27:00 +0000

Last year, almost the entire Michigan apple crop was lost because of 80-degree days in March and then some freezing April nights. This year, the apples are back, but everything always depends on the weather.

Struggling W.Va. Town Hopes Boy Scout Camp Brings New Life

Noah Adams — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:55:00 +0000

Picture a tiny town set along a creek in West Virginia. A mountain rises from the town's eastern edge, overlooking the 1,400 people living below. Then, July comes — and 50,000 people arrive on that mountain for the National Scout Jamboree.

The town is called Mount Hope. I've heard some call it "Mount Hopeless." The town went through the long, downward slump from the boom days of deep-mine coal, when it was a grand, small-town capital of coal mining.

Now it's crumbling, struggling, but recently hopeful, because there's a veritable pot of gold on top of that nearby mountain.

Steamship Anchors A Community, But Its Days May Be Numbered

Noah Adams — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:14:00 +0000

On the shores of Lake Michigan, the tiny town of Ludington, Mich., is home port to the last coal-fired ferry in the U.S. The SS Badger has been making trips across the lake to Manitowoc, Wis., during the good-weather months since 1953. And as it runs, the 411-foot ferry discharges coal ash slurry directly into the lake.

An Environmental Protection Agency permit allows the Badger to dump four tons of ash into the lake daily.

In Kentucky's Coal Country, A Resentment For Obama

Noah Adams — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:05:00 +0000

If the voters in Louisa, Ky., had their wish, Mitt Romney would have taken the oath of office Monday. Louisa is in eastern Kentucky, and "coal" was the one-word issue in the election. President Obama is seen as an enemy of coal mining and he got only 27 percent of the vote in the county.

And now comes word that Louisa is going to lose its biggest industry — a power generating plant that's been burning coal since 1962.

Stand outside the courthouse in Louisa, a small town of 2,000 people, and you'll see that it's easy to meet a coal miner. Mitchell Maynard is a third-generation miner.

The Rebirth Of Rye Whiskey And Nostalgia For 'The Good Stuff'

Noah Adams — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 07:14:00 +0000

It used to be said that only old men drink rye, sitting alone down at the end of the bar, but that's no longer the case as bartenders and patrons set aside the gins and the vodkas and rediscover the pleasures of one of America's old-fashioned favorites.

Whiskey from rye grain was what most distilleries made before Prohibition. Then, after repeal in 1933, bourbon, made from corn, became more popular.

Shriveled Mich. Apple Harvest Means Fewer Jobs, Tough Year Ahead

Noah Adams — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 19:44:00 +0000

An apple a day might keep the doctor away, but what do you do when there are no apples? It's a question western Michigan's apple growers are dealing with this season after strange weather earlier in the year decimated the state's apple cultivation.

Michigan is the third-largest apple producer in the U.S. after New York and Washington, but the state's apples will soon be in short supply.

Michigan Author Dreams Up A Deadlier Ann Arbor

Noah Adams — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 07:24:00 +0000

Ask Harry Dolan to take you for lunch at a restaurant he's written about, and he won't disappoint. In downtown Ann Arbor, Mich., on Liberty Street, the vegetarian restaurant Seva serves mushroom sliders and yam fries that both the crime writer and his characters are quite fond of. With any luck, you'll also catch the perfect song playing in the background — "Psycho Killer" by the Talking Heads.

Dolan's David Loogan crime series follows the editor of a mystery magazine who's always finding trouble.

Cruisin' For Classic Cars On A Steamy Summer Night

Noah Adams — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 20:53:00 +0000

At the heart of the small town of Milan, Ohio, there's a graceful and tree-lined town square. It makes a good gathering spot for the classic cars and trucks of decades past.

A 1923 T-Bucket Ford, a '77 Chevy El Camino, a '68 AMC AMX, a '46 Dodge truck, a '59 Ford Galaxie — they all keep arriving after 5 o'clock every Tuesday evening. As the owner-drivers park around the square, engine hoods go up, lawn chairs come out — and the admiration begins.

If the town's name sounds familiar, it's probably because Thomas A. Edison was born here in 1847.

Obama's 'Clean Coal' Fighting Words To W.Va. Dems

Noah Adams — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:29:00 +0000

Mingo County, deep in the southwest corner of West Virginia, has sent a "protest vote" to the attention of President Obama. In the May 8 Democratic primary, voters chose a man named Keith Judd to run for president. He got 61 percent of the vote.

Judd won't be available. He's serving a 17-year sentence for extortion.

Called To The Post, Derby Starters Pack 'Em In

Noah Adams — Sat, 05 May 2012 09:03:00 +0000

When the gates fly open at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, all eyes will be on the 20 racehorses that launch themselves into the 138th Kentucky Derby. That's a lot of horses, and a special challenge for the men charged with getting them into the starting gate safely.

Caleb Hayes, 24, has been part of the 12-man start crew for the past six years. The 9-to-5 life isn't for him, he says — he loves his job and likes working the gate side by side with the older guys.

"They were working on this gate before I was even born," Hayes says.

How America 'Struck Back': Doolittle Raid Turns 70

Noah Adams — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:38:00 +0000

It's just after sunrise outside the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, when 20 B-25 bombers start showing up in the western sky.

The B-25s land outside the museum and line up on display. They're restored, privately owned military aircraft that were brought in to help remember the 16 bombers that left on a secret mission to Japan on April 12, 1942. None of those planes actually made it back — but most of the 80 Army Air Corps crewmen who flew them did.

The Beauty And Difficulty Of Poet Nikky Finney

Noah Adams — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:49:00 +0000

April is National Poetry Month, a time when bookstores proudly display those slim volumes usually hidden in the back.

On display this April is the work of Kentucky poet Nikky Finney, who won the National Book Award last November for her latest collection, Head Off & Split.

Finney's acceptance speech at the awards ceremony was as poetic as anything in her winning book.