This past Wednesday my momma turned eighty-five years old. When she was born, in 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. The United States hadn’t entered World War II yet. The New York Yankees …

New York’s socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani announced last week that he is allocating 30 million dollars for the city to build a grocery store in East Harlem to sell subsidized groceries, the first …

This past weekend I saw a dust devil twirling around plowed ground while a farmer was running a planter in a large field. That’s unusual for the spring planting season. Normally, farmers are …

This past weekend was a beautiful, warm and active time at our house. Laura Gail and I got a few chores done, had a good meal with family, and played outside with some short people. The grandkids, …

For reasons not fully understood, at least by me, the current cohort of young adults known as “Generation Z” (born between 1997 and 2012) has fascinated social scientists and ordinary people …

Every now and then, you get a reminder that there’s a lot more going right in our communities than we sometimes give credit for. For me, that reminder came during Session 6 of the WestStar …

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the events of yesteryear, so we’re firing up the “wayback” machine to review the events of 1963. It was back when your teacher copied tests on a …

Last weekend, I had the rare experience of having a couple of kids—the youngest two—all to myself for about 32 hours, from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon. Lena and the older three …

Every now and then, I’ll see someone pick up a copy of the paper because their child or grandchild is in it. Maybe it’s a ballgame photo. Maybe it’s a school event. Maybe it’s a feature story …

March Madness has done some wonderful – and awful – things to the Tennessee Volunteers men’s team. Historically when we think about Tennessee and the NCAA tournament it involves Pat Summitt and …

He looked up from his praying and saw a familiar face. The easy smile and sparkling eyes made him smile as well, despite the deep well of sorrow in his heart. “Thank you, Michael” he said as …

 I read the other day that the most misspelled word in America is the adverb “coolly,” followed by “minuscule” and “sergeant.”    Spelling, as Teen Talk Barbie …

Four years ago I wrote a column about some of the songs that mention our beloved State of Tennessee in the title or lyrics. I have space here in my column to list a handful of such songs. The website …

Thank you Co-Op  I would like to publicly thank the good people at Co-Op for being such good neighbors. Terry, Bill, Ray Neal, Jason, Lisa, and all the other employees have provided ‘free …

We met when we were both in strange times of our lives. I was a full-blown alcoholic, living with my mother at the age of forty-five, and she had just spent her first summer alone and finally at …

It’s a ritual that marks the change of seasons from winter to spring. In Tennessee, we can’t always count on the weather to give us that signal. Last week temperatures climbed into the high …

It’s been several years since I’ve written an article about littering, and/or trash on our highways and byways. Eleven years ago I started my “trash” article with a trick question. People …

The storm has passed. The cold wind blows stoutly outside still, but it’s dying down. I have to wake Gus, the three-legged farm dog, up before I’m off to bed shortly. It’s 10:45 pm on Sunday …

Two different people asked me last week if the cold snap we were experiencing was blackberry winter. Seems like although everyone does indeed talk about the weather, very few people know much about …

I had breakfast at Cracker Barrel last Saturday with my nephew, Joe Porterfield. It was his forty-sixth birthday. Amazing how time gets away from us. I remember freaking out when my sister went into …