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As the road to the White House speeds through Virginia today, it's only appropriate that Junius Gaither is strapped in for the historic ride.

A history buff, the 77-year-old Roanoker has encountered his share of presidents -- from Franklin Roosevelt to Harry Truman to Richard Nixon to Lyndon Johnson. Gaither's wife, Lenora, even had tea once with Lady Bird Johnson in the late 1950s in Roanoke.

Gaither was entering Patrick Henry High School on Sunday afternoon when he got word he wouldn't be able to add Hillary Clinton to his list of top-tier political sightings.

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Circle Tuesday, Feb. 19, on your calendar.

That's the date Roanoke finally will realize its dream: The unveiling of a fitting tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"It's a monumental, historical moment for us," Assistant City Manager Jim Grigsby said Friday. Working with a citizens committee, purchasing manager Sharon Gentry has overseen the last leg of an effort that began 40 years ago.

"You're going to see a lot of tears -- tears of joy," Grigsby said of the unveiling ceremony.

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If the Super Bowl hadn't dragged during the second and third quarters, Marquita Clements wouldn't have gotten bored. And if she hadn't gotten bored, she wouldn't have flipped away to the Lifetime channel and watched "Girl Positive."

And if the movie about a high school girl infected with the deadly AIDS virus hadn't jolted Clements, the young black woman wouldn't have stopped by Roanoke's Drop-In Center just before closing Tuesday for an HIV test.

"I watched a Lifetime movie," she said. "It was awesome."

Then added the 23-year-old college student who said she requires her partner to wear a condom, "I've never been tested."

I want to stress that testing at the Drop-In Center is always confidential, but Clements agreed to speak with me. Her test was negative.

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If Virginians are feeling a bit left out of today's Super Tuesday frenzy, don't.

Depending on how things shake out in the political free-for-all playing out today in 24 states and American Samoa, Virginia's Feb. 12 Democratic and Republican primaries could be much more than a footnote.

For evidence that candidates already are looking toward Virginia, look no further than Southwest Virginia's Pulaski County.

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Last year, San Diego Chargers' running back LaDainian Tomlinson was the first to publicly say that the New England Patriots and team coach Bill Belichick had no class.

I thought of LT's words Sunday night as Belichick left the field with a second left on the Super Bowl play clock. Talk about poor sportsmanship. The man who has the personality of a dish rag (sorry for insulting all dish rags) rushed off the field before Eli Manning could run out the clock. What a loser. Literally. I'm not going to hide my allegiance. I wanted the Giants to win.

Eli should have called one last play and thrown a TD bomb in that one second. That's what the Pats did at times during the season, sometimes running up the score on hapless opponents.

That said, I now will be entering my season of sports drought. I don't watch the Pro Bowl. I won't get jazzed again until my Detroit Pistons hit the playoffs come late April. And we know it's coming...Any Cleveland Cavalier or Boston Celtic fans wanna talk a little early smack!? All in fun, of course.

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The column was satire.

The point of my lament in this space last Sunday was to bemoan the idea of Advance Auto Parts' possibly leaving Roanoke to move 1,100 miles away to Minneapolis.

Rather than write a predictable, chamber-of-commerce piece about what the Fortune 500 company would lose if it left Roanoke -- the lovely mountains, the friendly people, the loyal work force -- the column used humor to show what the business would gain if it moved to Minneapolis.

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