My sister Kathy texted the news of the Boston Marathon bombing not long after it happened.
It turns out that you can go home again. I recently established a chair in crisis communications leadership at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications at my beloved University of Georgia. UGA President-elect Dr. Jere Morehead, along with Dink NeSmith, chairman of the Board of Regents came for the ceremony and both made my family and me feel warmly welcomed on campus.
I suppose it is never a normal spring. But it does seem like we have gotten more rain than usual this spring. Not that there is anything wrong with that as Seinfeld would say. I am sure we will be hearing dire predictions of drought soon enough, and all the rain we have had lately will be forgotten.
I wish the weather would stop playing games with us here in the South. It wasn't more than a few weeks ago that I slipped into a pair of short pants for puttering around the house.
Gun control advocates sound puzzled by congressional resistance to relatively modest gun control legislation. Many cite a poll showing 90 percent of Americans support more background checks and suggest the National Rifle Association is the only reason Congress won't implement the will of the people.
Got a beef with your mortgage company or loan servicer? Lots of people do, and thousands of them have been turning to a federal complaint hotline for action - or at least a quick response from the lender.
A couple of weeks ago, Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson, speaking at The National Press Club, said the nation "would never tolerate white unemployment at 14 and 15 percent." Black unemployment has been double that of white Americans for more than 50 years. The black youth unemployment rate is more than 40 percent nationally. In some cities, unemployment for black working-age males is more than 50 percent. Let's look at this, but first let's ...
This isn't as easy as it looks - this putting together of ~750 words with a coherent thought every week.
An imaginative sort who spies a bright red fire truck parked outside a church might think one of two things: Either the congregants are burning up with the Holy Spirit and keep a fire truck on hand to cool things down once in a while, or the truck is a warning the fires of hell are close unless they toe the line.
When Margaret Thatcher was elected England's first female prime minister in the spring of 1979, I was 12 years old and my father had been a congressman for less than four months. To me, it seemed as if it would be only a short while until my own country followed suit and elected a woman to serve as president.
They are the best University of Georgia athletic team you have likely never heard of.
My husband and I have lived where we are now living for more than 40 years. More than half my life.
I enjoy my bicycle. There's nothing like the freedom of rolling through the countryside propelled only by the power of my own legs, feeling the warm sun on my skin and the cool wind moving over my body, engaging the world with all five of my senses.
Professor Craig Frisby is on the faculty of University of Missouri's Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology.
"What hath night to do with sleep?" wrote John Milton in
Last week you would have thought we were living in two different states. North of the Gnat Line, it seemed like Siberia. Even possums and yard dogs were hugging each other trying to stay warm.
Even before 'Taps' faded from Georgia State Trooper Chadwick LeCory's funeral people were wondering how Gregory Favor, a man with an extensive criminal record, could be out of jail to - allegedly - perpetrate such an act.
It's the third consecutive day that we have been snowed in. I had thought that I would have time to read, reflect and get organized while my two children frolicked in the snow. Instead, my days have been filled with cooking meals, cleaning up and doing laundry after changing wet, dirty, snowy clothes into wearable garments. We have gone through almost 3 gallons of milk making hot chocolate.
There's a scene in the epic World War II film, "Saving Private Ryan," that always gets me. The Tom Hanks character, Capt. Miller, at D-Day plus three, having endured 45 of his men killed and 90 wounded knocking out Nazi artillery pieces, has been summoned to company headquarters, away from the action, for reassignment. While awaiting orders, the battle-weary captain takes in the surroundings. Nearby, a soldier casually shaves with water heated over ...
The recent snow-followed-by-ice storm was unusual for our area. What wasn't unusual was the wall-to-wall news coverage. News coverage noticed that the interstates and streets were not being cleared and that cars and large trucks were stuck on icy roads for hours on end. The reporters did ask elected officials and others why prevention and clean-up weren't faster. And they got the usual litany of responses that it was a lack ...
Kids and canines love snow. Cats and codgers like myself have less use for it. Our Maine coon cat, Hades, ran out the back door to our home Sunday night when I was looking out at the falling ice pellets covering our deck. He knows he's not supposed to go out at night (possums here are twice his size), and he thought he'd pulled off some great escape, until halfway down ...
To Nicholas Wansley and Brian and Thomas Yarbrough: If my abacus is working properly, this is the 12th year I have dispensed some grandfatherly advice to you in the hopes that something I tell you will be helpful as you step out into a world that looks a lot more complicated than the one I encountered at your age. When I first started this annual correspondence, you were learning to ride ...
"My first memory of a congressional swearing in dates to Jan. 3, 1979, when members of the 96th Congress took the oath. My father, Newt Gingrich, was among them. After losses in 1974 and 1976, he had finally won the seat for Georgia's 6th Congressional District, to become the sole Republican congressman or senator from Georgia.
And a pleasant Sunday morning to one and all. I'll make this one short, sweet, simple and to the point.
It's a good thing I'm writing this column on deadline after a rare good night's sleep. You would have found me in a groggy state and bad mood otherwise.
We here at The Covington News strive to be your go-to source for what's happening around Newton County.
Oh great. Now, the Obama administration is getting involved in public education in Georgia.
Here we are, ringing in yet another New Year. It's time for the annual wringing of hands at remembrances of ironclad resolutions made 12 months ago which somehow went unfulfilled. I planned to drop 60 pounds in 2010, but the scales report a 10-pound gain. The scales are probably wrong, after all, they're made in China. Obviously, something was lost in translation, although my girth is evidence of what was not. ...
If you're really into organization, if you're really into time management, if you really believe that "to everything there is a time and a season," then your Christmas decorations are back in storage in the attic, the Christmas tree has been tagged for the chipper, thank-you notes have been written, and the refrigerator is sparkling and clean, nary a leftover to be found.
Good grief! I haven't gotten used to writing 2010 yet and 2011 is here.