2024 Columns

Are  you happy?  If so, I am happy.  But you and I might be exceptions.  I just read a report by WalletHub, a personal finance company, that ranks the 50 states on a number of metrics to determine which states are the happiest.  Georgia is listed as the 20th happy state. The criteria for determining how happy we are include things like our emotional wellbeing, do we get … [Read more...] about September 15, 2024: Happy To Be Living In Such A Happy State Of Mind

Since we last discussed efforts to drill in our Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge for titanium dioxide so that mankind will never experience life without toothpaste whitener, nothing has changed – except a lot. What hasn’t changed?  Gov. Brian Kemp, state Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, Rep. Lynn Smith, R-Newnan and bureaucrats in the oxymoronic … [Read more...] about September 8, 2024: The Drill Continues in The Okefenokee Drag-Mining Controversy

Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December. But the days grow short when you reach September. Truer words were never spoken – or sung. I wish I had written those words but they come from playwright Maxwell Anderson for the Broadway production of Knickerbocker Holiday in 1938.  The play didn’t last long but the song, appropriately known as September Song, has … [Read more...] about September 1, 2024: Sing A Song To The Precious Days Of September

Uh! Oh!  I could tell by the sound of the phone who was on the other end.  Skeeter Skates, owner and operator of the Skeeter Skates Tree Stump Removal and Plow Repair in Ryo, Georgia.  When Skeeter calls, the phone doesn’t just ring.  It jumps.  Skeeter can do that to phones and to people.  I assume most people in the stump removal and plow repair business are like that. In … [Read more...] about August 25, 2024: Talking Presidential Politics With Skeeter Skates And The Ryo Morning Coffee Club

A point of personal privilege, please.  Last week, the Georgia Board of Regents officially approved the Jane J. Yarbrough Nursing Fellowship at the Wellstar School of Nursing at Kennesaw State University. Jane J. Yarbrough.  The beloved Woman Who Shared My Name. This is no small thing.  When fully operational, the fellowship along with a nursing scholarship in her name will … [Read more...] about August 18, 2024: In Tribute To A Special Nurse Who Is Going To Make A Difference