I remember the first time I ran away from home. I was in sixth grade and I had been wronged in some way. I was sure my parents loved my sister more or denied me some privilege, and I was having none of that. I stayed home when my parents left for work, skipped school, packed a bag and took my bike to this little secluded spot by the river, thinking that was an awesome place to live. I was home before my parents.
Are large numbers of homeowners who have negotiated short sales with lenders at risk because of a startling omission in the American credit system? Do their credit reports and scores indicate that they were foreclosed upon, rather than having negotiated a mutually agreeable resolution with their lenders?
Single and lonely in a new neighborhood, a guy invites his neighbors to a drop-in party. With ample food and drink, he sits alone as party time comes and goes.
Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who are accused of setting the bombs that exploded at the Boston Marathon, attended the University of Massachusetts. Maybe they hated our nation before college, but if you want lessons on hating America, college attendance might be a good start. Let's look at it.
Last week, while out of town and staying in a hotel, I had a most exasperating experience.
The word tax is a three-letter word that might as well be a four-letter word these days.
My graduate course in crisis management was the 2012 Republican presidential primaries as a senior advisory and national media surrogate for Newt Gingrich.
I try to walk at least five days or more a week for close to an hour.
David Pennington, the mayor of Dalton, is making noises about challenging incumbent Gov. Nathan Deal in the 2014 Republican primary. Say what?
I was conversing with a couple of friends this week, each of whom expressed frustration and disappointment at having been wronged recently in a business transaction.
If you're a man who's been invited to a wedding, you need to heed my advice so you know what to do at these alien affairs.
With full-fledged sellers' markets underway in dozens of metropolitan areas around the country, new research has found curious statistical patterns emerging: Even in cities where listings get multiple offers within days or hours, significant numbers of homes are sitting on the market for six months, 12 months or more with no takers.
One definition given for insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Cook, author and TV personality Nathalie Dupree is long gone from these parts, having been carted away to endlessly charming Charleston by husband Jack Bass, chronicler of Southern history. Still, she retains devoted fans and many friends here since she ran "Nathalie's at Mt. Pleasant Village" and lived in Social Circle.
This week, my mother called around 10 a.m. one morning to chat for a minute and catch up. During our conversation, I realized that she was still in her bed, waiting for an aide to help into a wheelchair.
The assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan occurred 30 years ago Monday, when John Hinckley shot the president as he was departing the Washington Hilton after delivering a speech for his economy-recovery package.
We are closing in on the end of the session, and a lot of the most important work is coming to a close. One major task for the year remains, however. Since the U.S. Census has just distributed the data necessary for legislative redistricting, that work has only just begun. It looks like a special session in August or September will be necessary to complete that constitutional obligation.
Waiting. And waiting. And waiting. It's a part of life as surely as breathing, eating, drinking and sleeping. Sometimes it seems we spend half our days waiting for something expected to occur. We wait for the phone to ring with some news, good or bad. We wait for the mail truck to arrive. We wait for the cleaning to be ready. We wait for the bill to come so that it can be paid with ...
The numbers were impressive: Some 600 Newton County residents gathered on a soggy Saturday to help clean up the county.
Dear Governor Deal: I'm sorry I haven't written you before now. I don't want you to think that I am not interested in your progress. My observation is that you seem to be doing well early in your first term. I have heard many nice things about you. Our state's most quotable politician, Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Cobb) says he has already had more dialogue with you in the short time you have been in office ...
If you're burned out, or stressed out, or your spirit is low; What you need the most is to get up and go - Get some exercise!
Thank you to the voters of Newton County for entrusting us with your tax dollars to fund capital improvements much needed for the services provided by the county. It is important now more than ever that we be good stewards of your money and that we continually work to earn your trust.
There are so many issues confronting citizens who try to keep abreast of what's going on that it's dizzying.Take what's going on in the Executive Mansion, for example. The 44th President managed to do something last Thursday that no other inhabitant of the Oval Office had ever done before.
The House hit the first of two crescendos last week that we see every session. Reaching crossover day, we had considered 63 bills and resolutions. Here are some of the more interesting among them.
This week, for more than an hour, I experienced a turbulent airplane ride. It was not fun. Normally, the pilots are able to chart a new course and fly through the rough air pretty rapidly, but on Monday, there was just no clear path, so my fellow passengers and I had to endure the bumpy ride. Normally an indifferent flyer, I ended up turning up the airflow and hoping that the bouncing would stop before I had to reach for the bag in the pocket in front of me.
Americans do poorly on world geography questions and I am no different. Just this week, I read stories about armies from Saudi Arabia in Bahrain, violence in Dafur (part of Sudan), and the US lead no-fly zone in Libya. I had to go look for Libya on a map, which if you are curious, is just to the east of Sudan on the continent of Africa. Which made me curious, because President Obama said that ...
Pat Conroy's latest book is one of my favorites. It's entitled "My Reading Life," and in 15 chapters, he recounts all of those individuals, starting with his mother, and teachers of one sort or another who taught him the love of language, the power in words and the ability of books to change lives. Those lessons have defined and driven his life.
Sunday marked the start of spring officially, but as always in our fickle clime, warm weather had already teased us in fits and starts for weeks.
It is not a beautiful day in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. Sen. Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) saw his beloved school voucher bill bite the dust this session. Groused Mr. Rogers, "We want to ignore the fact that our schools are failing. I'm going to have a hard time defending this one." Not really. Mr. Rogers, maybe public schools are failing because you and your colleagues have done a poor job of helping them succeed. Duh! ...
I've been drawn to San Francisco ever since I first laid eyes on the place in the 1950s. Some family friends moved there and would send postcards or letters containing Polaroid snapshots. The place just called to me.