Opinion

Traditionally, King Solomon has been regarded as the primary author of three books of the Old Testament. Some interpreters say he wrote Song of Songs while he was a lusty, young man (a book that should carry a PG-13 rating). In mid-life, he collected his Proverbs, moving on to less sensual and more substantial work...

Last year I attended one of Steve Womack’s town halls.  His arrogant tone, his dismissive attitude, and lack of empathy was shocking. This led me to research his congressional record and investigate if he was conscientiously serving his constituents and actually voting to achieve “a common good.”  My findings were sobering...

Dear Editor, Halloween is upon us again and I am excited to announce that the White Street Candy Bank is open for business and accepting donations. Last year the Candy Bank accepted and distributed a whopping 300-plus pounds (street value of $750) of candy from 45 donors, making it possible for more Upper Historic Loop residents to participate in the fun without breaking their budget. ...

Jim Fixx was the person most responsible for popularizing the fitness benefits of jogging. His best-selling “The Complete Book of Running,” published in 1977, got millions off their butts and couches and onto the streets. Thus, the nation was shocked when Fixx, age 52, died a few years later of a heart attack while on his morning run...

I am the father of two sons. They are 21 and 26 years old, and I worry about them every single day. That’s part of my job as a parent. I cannot imagine what it would feel like to lose one of my sons. I can’t imagine how painful that must be. Unfortunately, at least two families of adolescent boys in Carroll County don’t have to imagine that pain. They feel it every day...

It was Dr. Bill Leonard who best described my religious upbringing. Speaking for many who came to Christianity in the fire-and-brimstone of Appalachian fundamentalism, he said, “Some of us were saved hard, sweating like we had been to hell that morning, and came back to the revival to tell about it that night!”...

It’s almost time to flip the calendar to October, and that means the 2018 election is just around the corner. It’s an important one, both nationally and, perhaps more importantly for the people of Carroll County, on the local front. We’ll be electing a new sheriff, for sure. There are also contested races for county judge, county clerk, the mayor’s seats in both Green Forest and Eureka Springs, just to name a few...

As my friend Betty Ann unpacked her young family in my Deep South hometown, it didn’t take long for the neighbors to arrive with a strangulating dose of hospitality. Their silver hairdos teased to perfection, and smelling of powder and lilac, they arrived on Betty Ann’s front porch with peach cobbler and smiling faces...

Mid-term elections are creeping up on us, slowly but surely. Historically, mid-term races have had much less participation than the presidential election. Most of us are excited to vote for (or against) a presidential candidate, but we rarely talk about the local races that affect us most...

Seventy years ago, cartoonist Chuck Jones created two epic characters who would go on to star in 48 short-run animated films (though there seemed like there were thousands of them): Wile E. Coyote and his archrival, the Roadrunner. Those of the Saturday morning cartoon generation, like myself, knew these characters intimately, and each episode by heart...

We’ve all heard it before. You get into an argument with someone in your bloodline, and someone else helpfully says, “Well, you can’t pick your family.” There are so many variations of this statement, including but not limited to: “She’s your mom.” “You can’t say no to your grandmother.”...

Arkansas Razorbacks fans who were hoping for a quick turnaround under first-year coach Chad Morris got a bit of a reality check Saturday night, as the Razorbacks blew an 18-point lead in a quarter and a half against a previously winless Colorado State team...

As I stood around an impossibly small television set, watching the events of Sept. 11, 2001, unfold, one of my colleagues burst into the room. His face reddened, trembling with rage, he shouted, “We are going to kill every one of those bastards!” At the time, I agreed, and wanted a righteous reckoning for this heinous crime...

Dust off your boots and throw on a sweater, because fall is upon us. Like most basic white women, I love this season. I’ve been known to scour trees for a bushel of dead leaves. You might have seen me skulking around searching for the remnants of a bonfire. I need a sign that fall is here, and I finally have it: September has arrived!...

“I am certain,” the Apostle Paul once wrote, “that God, who began the good work within you, will continue that work until it is finally finished.” That God would finish what God started doesn’t appear to be breaking news. The real question for most of us is this: “What exactly is God trying to finish in my life?” Or put another way, “What is God’s will for my life?”...

One of history’s more accomplished storytellers spun a masterful tale that is known in every corner of the world. The story is known as “The Tortoise and the Hare,” and the ancient fabulist was a clever former slave named Aesop. “The Tortoise and the Hare” was not his only parable, not by a long shot, and his collection includes such classics as “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” “The Goose Who Laid the Golden Egg,” “The Fox and the Grapes,” and more than 700 others. ...

Back in middle school, I woke up every morning to the smell of hazelnut coffee. My mom loved hazelnut coffee. She exclusively bought hazelnut creamer for years, to the point that I thought all coffee was hazelnut-flavored. Every morning, I knew I’d find a half-empty cup of hazelnut coffee on the bathroom counter when I brushed my teeth. ...

If you have not yet cut the cable TV cord, you have probably noticed that there are more television commercials on the screen than usual these days. Under economic pressure from “new media” and streaming services, traditional TV has loaded up on advertising to make up the economic difference. Consequently, there about 750 commercials per day, per TV channel...

To whom it may concern, It’s no secret I haven’t been the biggest fan of President Trump. You could probably discern that from reading my published work or my diary, so I might as well put that out there immediately. Sure, I don’t like Trump’s policies regarding immigration, taxes, national security and the environment, but that isn’t stopping me from reaching out to you today...

When I heard of Police Chief Thomas Achord’s resignation, I was set aback and had to take a pause and reflect. I truly appreciated what our police department had become since 2014 and that is a remarkable local police force that cared about the community. ...

“To do nothing, is to be complicit.” Those are words attributed to the great Albert Einstein, words prompting me to take action. To that end, I will be actively involved in voter registration to get folks signed up to participate in the upcoming Nov. 6 General Election. The deadline to register is Oct. 8...

Over coffee on a recent morning, my wife and I found ourselves talking about our family roots. My ancestors - rigorously investigated by a distant cousin - were Ulster-Scot and Welsh farmers arriving decades before the American Revolution. As they slipped southernly down the Appalachians, more than one Cherokee grandmother (of the Eastern Band in North Carolina) came to populate my family tree...

I became a Chicago Cubs fan 36 years ago, during the summer of 1982. Like a lot of 12-year-old boys, then and now, I was in love with the game of baseball. And that summer I fell in love with the Cubs for the simplest of reasons: Day baseball. The Cubs played their home games — just as they still do today — at Wrigley Field. ...

Why is this happening? Have the AR DOT people looked at this nine-mile stretch of road between Eureka Springs and the Missouri border? It is recently been asphalted and lines painted. It is one of the best roads to drive on in NW Arkansas.  There are no cracks to fix between Eureka Springs and Holiday Island. They are going to ‘chip and seal’ over the asphalt?... ...

Ms. Jones, The recent asphalt that you mentioned was placed as a leveling coarse that restores the roadway to its original typical section by restoring the crown and removing ruts. Typically this layer averages one inch in depth and adds no structural value to the road. Since we experience crack propagation of about an inch a year and the surface under the leveling coarse was cracked and in need of a surface treatment, the district will typically level a roadway one year prior to sealing it...

It’s not that you need a prescription for insanity, but here’s a certain one nonetheless: Find something that is wrong in the world, but something you can’t do anything about. Obsess over it, never letting it go. Rail against it, though your demands can’t be heard. Grab that problem by the throat and keep shaking it like a terrier with a chew toy. You’ll end up embittered, joyless and more or less madder than a hatter...

About a year ago, I decided I would learn how to juggle. It didn’t take long to find a so-called easy tutorial on Youtube, so I set my computer on a table and grabbed some oranges. While the video did not recommend using fruit, I figured it would up the stakes a bit and I could have a sweet treat once I was done. It was a win-win, right?...

Many years ago I found myself standing in a San Salvadoran “chatarrería,” a junkyard. I was flanked by the now late Michael Bonderer, a nicotine-addicted, four-letter-word-dropping, endless-coffee-drinking, recovering alcoholic who had stumbled his way into leading a faith-based NGO, putting roofs over the heads of Central America’s poor...

Everybody’s got some talent. Even those of us who feel woefully untalented can do something better than somebody else, whether it’s singing opera, designing a beautiful flowerbed or unloading the dishwasher in less than two minutes. For me, one thing has always come easy. I can confidently say I’m clumsier than almost all of you...

Being a teacher, I had the luxury of taking my kids to school and then taking them home after school. I remember seeing the large group of staff getting the kids off the bus or out of the cars nearly every morning. I also had bus duty where I put the kids on the bus or watched them as they made their way off the school grounds toward home...

Americans are ferocious individualists. We glorify the single, the personal and the independent. And while there is no “I” in “team,” we don’t seem to care about this. We prefer the pronouns of “me” and “mine” over “us” or “ours.” This has been true of the American psyche from the beginning...