Since our last visit, I have been busier than usual. Life’s parade includes events of joy, like a son’s wedding (exhilarating, but tiring). Life also throws you a curve ball, such as the funeral for a beloved brother-in-law (COVID-19 strikes again). Mix in a full-time job, a couple of side gigs, and a rainy September encouraging lush green grass to grow, and I’m that dog chasing his tail, nonstop.

There are forces that wish to destroy America. Some of them are visible and some are stealth.

As wonderful as a diner breakfast is, more people, getting hit by inflation across the board, are choosing to stay home and eat a bowl of Wheaties or Kix instead.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has survived a recall election, but that is not his victory.

Following the death of Mao Zedong, former president and founding father of the People's Republic of China, more than 40 years ago, his successor, Deng Xiaoping, instituted economic reforms that looked less like classic communism and more like capitalism.

One day I walked into Tink’s home office where he usually sits in an overstuffed chair decorated in bold flowers of orange, yellow and green. His feet were slung out on the matching ottoman.

It did not feel like Christmas morning, or even a birthday, the late afternoon that I received the offer of my first job.

When my local daily newspaper announced they were going all-digital, the response was fast and furious.

Forget what you hear most pundits saying about last week's recall election that failed to unseat California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

After a country supper in the days of my growing up, Mama would often stand up from the table and say, “Ronda, you clean up the kitchen. I need to call Idell and see how she’s doin.”

If you’re like me, you enjoy few things more than a long, hot shower.

The lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II wrote many beautiful songs for Broadway musicals. One that was not beautiful, but powerful for what it said about race relations in 1949 when the show opened was "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught." The song was about being taught to hate.

I'm standing at the precipice, looking down into a sparkling, new state-of-the-art, 3,500-seat amphitheater, wondering in part how it got here in the charming Southern Crescent town of Stockbridge. It occurs to me during the tour that follows that this is a town that has taken advantage of t…

Two weeks ago in this space, I asked readers to help find some new faces to lead the presidential tickets in the 2024 election. “We need a fresh start,” I wrote. I expressed concern that a couple of elderly guys, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, are the current front-runners for 2024. I suggested that the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties find candidates who are focused on the future, rather than deciding whether they should buy green bananas.

Responding to Democrats in her party who are troubled by the massive $3.5 trillion spending bill that would forever transform America into a debtor nation, Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked a question: "Where would you cut?"

It was many years ago now that I stopped by the post office to gather mail. Among the bills was a small ivory envelope. My name, though misspelled, was presented in printed hand. The postmark was from a Midwestern state.

Here’s another interesting COVID-enabled trend to ponder: More Americans are leaving big cities and the suburbs to live in rural communities, according to NextAvenue.com.

The 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and in the skies over Pennsylvania, demands considered reflection.

For 20 years since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. presidents have been saying their anti-terrorism policies have worked, as evidenced by no new attacks on America. 

A moratorium on evictions or foreclosures is not a solution, it is simply a stall.

There once were summertimes when the living was easy, as the song from the Broadway musical "Porgy and Bess" melodically reminds us. But not this summer, not with COVID-19 still spreading dangerously across the land and uncertainty over what happens next after the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Taliban is back in control, celebrating their improbable victory.

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

I face a huge responsibility this Labor Day weekend: I’ve been tasked with making my mother’s sacred potato salad recipe.

The visit of newly installed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel to the United States could not be more timely. On Aug. 27, he met at the White House with President Joe Biden. The photo op handshake between the two is especially important right now.

One year ago this week, I wrote a column called “Four years notice.” It was an open letter to Democratic and Republican party leaders, encouraging them to find fresh candidates for the 2024 presidential election.

I received my two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in early March and April 2021. I experienced no side effects and felt no need for down time those days or the days after. On the advice of my primary care provider, I exercised almost immediately after each shot, which I was told would help work the vaccine immediately into my bloodstream and system. It worked.

Sometimes in the twilight of a fading day, I sit for a spell on the back porch. Occasionally, I read but often times I just watch and listen.

Our botched withdrawal from Afghanistan is hard to witness, but hearing the reports of Taliban brutality is even worse.

In his address to Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt said: "... we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God."

When I was in public school, a TV ad asked: "It's 10 o'clock Do you know where your children are?"

When the British Empire lost face and their own wars in Afghanistan, the first of those in the 1840s, known in the U.K. as "The Disaster in Afghanistan," the then world-dominating British empire fought a ragtag bunch of Afghani rebels, seeking to undo the British re-establishing an unpopular Emir to lead the then Emirate of Afghanistan.

What has happened in Afghanistan will not stay in Afghanistan but will have a ripple effect throughout the region and beyond.

Despite what you have been told, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated an honorable exit to Vietnam. After decades of being handcuffed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the U.S. military was finally allowed to do their jobs when President Richard Nixon authorized “Operation Linebacker,” the widespread bombing of Hanoi. Stunned, the North Vietnamese immediately came to the negotiating table, which resulted in the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. All U.S. combat troops left Vietnam peacefully two months later.

Almost everyone thinks they’re a storyteller and that there’s little to retelling something seen or heard.

You ignored Aug. 12th didn’t you?

That’s when the world celebrates National Middle Child Day every year, but you ignored it just as you have ignored us “middles” our entire lives!

After searing criticism from Democrats and Republicans about how he has mishandled the withdrawal of the remaining American forces, diplomats, their families and contractors from Afghanistan, President Biden interrupted his Camp David retreat to return to the White House for a speech in whic…

“Just a nice piece of hitting.” That is how Nick Martinez, pitcher for the United States’ Olympic baseball team, complimented Japan’s Munetaka Murakami on batting a home run. At 21 years old, Murakami is the youngest starting lineup member of Japan’s strong team

The largest number of forest fires occurs annually in Georgia, Florida and a handful of Southeastern states. Interestingly though, and with rare exceptions, thanks largely to smart forestry management practices and the good fortune of not recently experiencing extended periods of drought, th…

You have to give President Biden credit for consistency. Unfortunately, he has been consistently wrong. As Robert Gates, former defense secretary in the Obama administration once put it, Biden has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four…

In the South Alabama town of Bay Minette, just outside Mobile, lived a great man and an American hero.

My Lab puppy, Thurber, makes me laugh out loud every day.