Opinion
By disposition, I am a weeper. My tears flow copiously when I think of slaves kidnapped, tortured, degraded and worked to death, miners massacred for unionizing, little Indian kids cruelly separated from their families and parents grief-stricken for sons and daughters killed in wars. Whatever my cardiac deficiencies may be,
News
So far the only energy it's generated is rhetorical. But if you're curious about the proposed methane gas plant near Ashland City and have the time it would take to earn a law degree, then Google “TVA Cheatham County” and read on.
Life
Benjamin Franklin had his proverb-laden “Poor Richard's Almanack.” Yours truly has his wise-cracking “E. Morris' Bon Mot Factory.” Here's a sampling: We learn so much from children. Yet we keep having them. Sometimes it takes a fire in the belly to melt the lead in
Life
If you're an empty nester as I am, you probably began taking stock as soon as your last kid left home about what you did right and wrong in child rearing specifically and in marriage generally. As old as I am — and I was there when the earth&
Life
THE BANJO IS A RUBE The banjo is a rube, long-necking into town and defensively keyed up to glib impertinence. It is the village infidel, wise-cracking the bowed heads, plucking from crinkled knees to tapping toes the Sunday zombies into sin. It is a guerilla, starved down to the desperate
Events
Life
“I sing the body electric,” said Walt Whitman. “I sing the body figurative,” says me. So stick with me. Have you ever noticed how many figures of speech — comparisons and descriptions — are based on parts of our bodies? Well I have. And because I have copious spare time and no
Life
As befits a romper room rock star, Velvet (“Miss Velvet”) Collier concluded her 25-year reign as the “Storytime lady” April 24 at the Kingston Springs Library to a packed house of young enthusiasts and their grateful parents. Well before the program started, pre-schoolers were roaming inquisitively around the room, many
Life
Addresses alone seldom convey a sense of splendor and majesty. Oh, sure, there's some glitter attached to “10 Downing Street” and “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” but that's about it. While it may take a “heap o' livin'” to make a house a home, it just
Life
In spite of being terrified of speaking in public, I've always been drawn to acting and stage production, partly by the actual performances, of course, but mostly by the nuts and bolts involved in bringing a play to opening night. I'm kind of like the circus
Life
The concept of the “butterfly effect” is that a small stimulus — say the flapping of a butterfly's wings — can with time, distance and accretion result in a large consequence — say a tornado. Ray Brack was our family's butterfly. Between 1960 and 1970, I had taught writing,
Life
I don't know how I came to love words more than material objects. But that's how the cards fell. To me, words were palpable. I could pick them up, hold them to my ear, twist and turn them this way and that until I got just