Opinion

Regular readers of this column know I am a Survivor super fan. Yes, that show is still on. And this Wednesday marks a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans –– it is the premiere of Season 40: Winners at War. For the first and probably last time, 20 winners will compete for a record $2 million. ...

Last Wednesday, I had the honor of judging the Berryville Rotary Club’s Four Way Test Speech Contest. That means I spent my lunch hour talking with folks who work hard to better our community. We all heard from six high school students, who were instructed to deliver a speech that uses the principles of Rotary’s Four Way Test...

For a long while Sunday night, it seemed as if the biggest Super Bowl highlight — for me, anyway — was my crockpot chili. The chili has become a tradition, as has the newsroom Super Bowl party at my place. I tweaked the recipe a bit this year, and the result was delicious. If I do say so myself...

Do you ever think about the circumstances that got you where you are today? The college you attended, the company you kept, the people you dated, the career you started, the city you call home –– all these things define our lives. We are constantly making choices that mold life as we know it, and, ironically, we don’t usually realize it in the moment. ...

My oldest son is 27 years old now, a grown man with a family of his own. But it wasn’t that long ago — to me at least — that he was a 10-year-old boy who was absolutely consumed by the game of basketball. My son’s favorite athlete at the time was Kobe Bryant, just as mine had been Magic Johnson...

Some people live their whole lives without owning a television and they seem to be doing just fine. I respect that decision but it’s not for me. From an early age, I have loved everything about television. It started with Barney –– according to my mother, I was so obsessive about it that she almost had a mental breakdown. ...

It’s fair to say that January is not my favorite month. It’s been well-documented that I am not a fan of cold weather, and it’s not unusual for me to take ill this time of year. That hasn’t happened the past couple of winters, though, and I wonder if it’s because I’ve become proactive about getting a flu shot every fall...

I watch a lot of football. I mean, I watch a LOT of football. Before Sunday, the most amazing thing I had ever witnessed on a football field was a 1994 NAIA playoff game between the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Western Montana. Western Montana led 46-45 and had the ball with a little more than a minute remaining. ...

Regular readers of this column know about my struggle with anxiety. It began at an early age, as it does for many of us. The anxiety led to insomnia, which led to lots of sleepless nights –– the least fun domino effect ever, if you ask me. It got worse in college, when I experienced my first full-blown panic attack. ...

Growing up, I loved to check the mail. My mom and I lived in a little house less than five minutes from the post office, so she’d often give me the key and let me go get the mail myself. I vividly remember approaching our box and inserting the key, excitedly peering inside at our bounty. Once a week, we’d receive my favorite kind of mail: US Weekly, Hilights Magazine and People Magazine...

Global politics is a very, very, very, very complicated thing. I left out about a dozen verys for the sake of brevity. As we attempt to understand what is happening right now between the United States and Iran, we would all do well to remember that when world diplomacy is the topic, things are never, ever simple...

While catching up with a friend on Saturday, the topic turned to our families. I asked how her parents have been doing and she laughed a little. “They’re doing good. Of course they’re going to get back on their diet at the beginning of the year,” my friend said wryly...

Time really does fly. As I thought about what I would write in this space today, I remembered a column I wrote at this time last year, outlining some resolutions for 2019. I thought I would go back to that column and see how I did. As it turns out, that column was actually published TWO years ago, in December 2017. I don’t know how I actually fared with those resolutions in 2018, but I knocked a few of them out of the park in 2019...

In just a week, we’ll usher in the beginning of a new decade. They say life is short, and I’m starting to understand why. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since my senior year of high school and the beginning of college. It feels like a blur. I was a regular goodie two-shoes in high school, so you can imagine how tough it was to learn some things the hard way in college. ...

It’s no secret that times are tough for newspapers across the United States. I’ve seen some folks celebrate that fact, but the truth is that the decline of newspapers is going to have an effect on our society, and it won’t be positive. A New York Times story published over the weekend reported that one in five papers in the United States has closed down over the past 15 years. ...

I hate shopping. It’s not that I’m especially frugal or that I don’t like buying things — for myself or others — but the actual act of shopping is pure torture. Part of that is because of my rapidly-advancing age and the fact that I have painful arthritis in both knees. Spending two hours browsing a department store is about the last thing you’ll find on my list of fun activities...

In my short 28 years of life, I have lost many relationships. Haven’t we all? Either we drift apart from someone we once loved or, worse, we lose loved ones to an untimely or expected death. My first major loss was Papaw Jimmie when I was 12. He died by suicide in 2004, the day my summer break began...

I received a call from my mamaw Sunday night. She asked how Gideon and I have been doing and what we’d like for Christmas this year. It was your typical catch-up conversation, but when we talked more about Christmas, she sounded sad. “How are you feeling?” I asked...

At one point or another, both of my sons have served as sheriff’s deputies on patrol. Although neither of them are road deputies now, they both still work jobs that present enough risk that they are required to be armed. Candidly, I’m not terribly excited about the idea of my sons potentially being in harm’s way, but they are both grown men capable of making their own decisions. My job is to support those decisions as much as I can...

Like many of you, I love Christmas. The lights, the decor, the spirit of togetherness –– I love it all. My mom taught me to love this time of the year practically from the womb. Our family get-togethers are all about good food, competitive games and thoughtful gifts...

Producing a column to fill this space each week is sometimes, though not always, challenging. Today is one of those times. I’ve started and stopped a half-dozen times, unsure of a suitable topic. That happens sometimes, but the show must go on and the space must be filled...