A reporter's viewpoint

I’m sitting in the arms of a big red barber’s chair inside the Rolling Thunder Pizza, eating a slice and visiting with co-owners Nate Lathrop and Jennifer Springer, along with Elizabeth Springer, Iona McGee and little Tympist McGee, quite possibly the cutest four-year-old who has ever existed. Behind me on the wall hangs an incredible self-portrait of Nate created entirely out of numbers stamped using a rubber stamp.

It’s a familiar place. Not familiar in an “I’ve been here so many times” kind of way but rather a homey, cozy kind of way. There is a comforting scent that is a mixture of wood fl...