This is not to be confused with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, which is actually entertaining.<\/p>\n
Our favorite left-leaning local columnist takes the week off and is promptly replaced by his own Mini-Me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tom’s a good reporter and a good guy. He’s also quite left-leaning on the political spectrum and that’s an understatement. Well, Tom decides to take the week off because of his self-described “writer’s block”. We all know that’s horsecrap because there’s plenty of things for Tom’s head to explode over this close to the election. (Want to watch that happen? Stand in front of the News & Record’s office with an “E.W. Jackson for Lieutenant Governor” sign. Actually, don’t do that. The entire building may explode if that happened.)<\/p>\n
Anyway, by now, you’re probably crying that you won’t get your McLaughlin fix of name-calling and the evilness of the letter “R” because it’s the first letter in Republican kind of stuff. Stop the presses! We’ve got South Hill’s Martha Lee willing to froth at the mouth. She’s just like Folger’s Crystals! You can’t tell the difference between them!<\/p>\n
Let’s get to the point of this article now. There ain’t one. This is an opinion article about an opinion article. Perhaps Tom’s replacement can write an opinion article about this opinion article about an opinion article. If she does, I’ll write a new opinion article about her opinion article about my opinion article which mocked Tom’s original opinion article that was actually her opinion article.<\/p>\n
I have no idea what the hell I just wrote in that last paragraph (and that’s probably said often by Tom McLaughlin, too.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is not to be confused with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, which is actually entertaining.<\/p>\n
Our favorite left-leaning local columnist takes the week off and is promptly replaced by his own Mini-Me.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"\"Tom McLaughlin's Week Off\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[63,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halifax-county","category-mediacentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-25y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7636,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2012\/10\/21\/how-to-make-a-reporters-head-explode\/","url_meta":{"origin":8032,"position":0},"title":"How to make a reporter’s head explode…","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Some media people just can't take any criticism... I went over to the Twitter feed earlier this afternoon while watching the NFL games, the NASCAR race, and assorted other things. That's where I found the Register & Bee's sportswriter (the only one they have) Damien Sordelett live-tweeting the Virginia Is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5493,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/06\/suzanne-vega-in-concert-at-the-prizery-thursday-1014\/","url_meta":{"origin":8032,"position":1},"title":"Suzanne Vega in concert at The Prizery (Thursday 10\/14)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"You've got a chance to see a Grammy-winning artist in a 326-seat theater. Get your tickets now! From a Prizery news release... 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The police are just \"doing their job\",\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NewsCentral"","block_context":{"text":"NewsCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/newscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11903,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/28\/randomthoughts-1282015\/","url_meta":{"origin":8032,"position":3},"title":"RandomThoughts! (1\/28\/2015)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"January 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"RandomThoughts can be organized. They can also be interesting. Did you guess that I was going to call for a Big Board? My, it's fun to tell you what the next day's stories will be in the newspaper. Here's the next one you'll see in a few days... \"City not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "RandomThoughts!"","block_context":{"text":"RandomThoughts!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/randomthoughts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/vpswvY4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4184,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/11\/sonny-cant-has-cheezburger\/","url_meta":{"origin":8032,"position":4},"title":"Sonny can’t has cheezburger?","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"June 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This has to be a nominee for Worst. Column. Ever. Customer Service? Yeah, Right! Sonny Riddle goes to a \"local burger restaurant\" and orders a hamburger the way that he wants it. To add drama to this situation, he specifically orders \"no cheese\". 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