When I was ten years old, my parents put me on a Piedmont Airlines turbo prop, and sent me to visit my sister in Florida. Prior to that, my only flying experience had been when I imitated Superman and leaped off the back of the living room sofa, but the flight to Florida lasted much longer. …

This weekend the world received news of Betty White’s passing. The last Golden Girl known for her tales from Saint Olaf died on Friday, December 31, 2021, at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 99. Just 17 days shy of her 100th birthday. 

This past summer I excoriated NC State baseball coach Elliott Avent for not insisting that his players get vaccinated. As a result of his lack of leadership, a number of Wolfpack players contracted COVID, and the team was disqualified from post-season competition just one game shy of the Wor…

Off-year elections are not usually ripe with drama, but 2022 is already proving the exception. For one thing, there is still the lingering specter of Donald Trump, and how he and his false claims of voter fraud may affect turnout. There’s Joe Biden’s sinking poll numbers and a razor-thin Dem…

As we celebrate this holiday season, let’s not forget that there are people beyond our immediate circle of family and friends who are suffering, and could benefit from our love and generosity. Over the past decade, I’ve been able to showcase scores of community organizations on my “Triad Tod…

Throughout this past year, I had the unenviable task of writing a number of columns about celebrity friends of mine who had passed away. Now, during this season of celebration, it is only fitting that we celebrate their remarkable lives and careers. Here are some excerpts from those columns.  

The good news for senior citizens is that starting next year, they will see an increase in their monthly social security check. The bad news is they will also see an increase in their Medicare part B premium. And so goes the shell game being run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Ser…

As the year winds down, I think it’s safe to say that we are all grateful for something this holiday season.

Presidents are only human, so they make mistakes. No, I’m not talking about Bill Clinton hooking up with Monica Lewinski, or Joe Biden falling asleep at a global climate conference. I’m talking about John Kennedy, and how he misread history, unintentionally insulted the State of Virginia, an…

GENERAL ASSEMBLY CAN STILL MAKE HISTORY

No doubt Andy Griffith is Mt. Airy’s most famous native son. After all, he created “The Andy Griffith Show,” a TV series set in a fictional version of his hometown, which has aired continuously since 1960. Andy is also revered in Mt. Airy because when NAFTA all but killed the furniture and t…

Although technically incorrect, I was always taught that the polite way to address a Lt. Governor is to call him or her, “Governor.” It sounds like an instant promotion, but it’s just a respectful formality, unless of course, the Lt. Governor in question abuses the title.

The Greensboro Police Department (“GPD”) is under attack.

Earlier this month former Facebook employee Frances Haugen told Congress that Facebook has a negative impact on teenagers, creates divisiveness, and consistently chooses profit over safety. During her testimony up on Capitol Hill, Haugen produced thousands of internal documents containing so…

You’ve probably heard of Greensboro Pride – the large festival that takes over South Elm Street in Downtown Greensboro each September, bringing in performances, vendors, and thousands of attendees.

Back in the 1960s, Fletcher’s Castoria ran a TV ad that compared the benefit of their laxative versus the number of prunes you’d have to eat each day to stay regular. It asked the question, “Is three enough? Is six too many?” Prunes aside, that commercial said a lot about common sense limits…

If there was a competition for the “Most Enthusiastic CEO,” Jennifer Wilcox would be a finalist for sure. Though still new to the job of Chief Executive Officer (she was hired in late July), Jennifer is both leader and cheerleader for Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont, an organization …

I would imagine that most wealthy nonagenarians spend their days relaxing at the beach or at their mountain villa, but not Ed Asner. After appearing in over 150 TV shows, 70 films, and countless plays, Ed had, as of late last month, no less than fifteen current projects in post-production an…

I was in sitting in a classroom on the Greensboro College campus when we went into lockdown.

Once upon a time, local TV stations were really committed to local programming, and I’m not just referring to local news and weather.

It’s human nature to blame someone or something else when we screw up. We all do it, but only up to a point. On the other hand, there are some folks who carry the blame game to an absurd and often offensive level. In 2015, the man who murdered several students at an Oregon community college …

According to petfoodindustry.com, Americans spent $36.9 billion dollars on pet food and treats in 2019. Meanwhile, comparecamp.com suggests that this year, those figures will rise to over $38 billion dollars. On a micro level, Petpedia.com says that pet owners in this country spend an averag…

MerleFest. Mountain Song. Maggie Valley.

With over half of Guilford County is fully vaccinated, Guilford County Chair Skip Alston and the Health Committee decided to defy science and erode confidence in the vaccine by reimposing a mask mandate on citizens. As Guilford County continued to head in the ideal direction for herd immunit…

Over the past couple of months, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina has taken steps to expand its services, first by opening a satellite warehouse in Greensboro, then by breaking ground on a new hub facility in Winston-Salem. The two projects are coming none too soon for…

Here in the United States, an animal suffers abuse every 60 seconds, and each year more than 10 million animals die from abuse. Given those statistics, you’d think that we as a nation would inflict extremely severe punishment on the abusers. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Take, for inst…

In May 2021, more than 100 local professionals who work in the fields of mental illness, intellectual/developmental disabilities, and substance use disorder provided a letter to Winston-Salem City Council recommending a mental health alternative response program wherein 911 dispatchers are t…

In the early 1980s, when “The Love Boat” was navigating prime time waters, and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “McHale’s Navy” were still in re-runs, an Entertainment Tonight poll named Gavin MacLeod the most recognizable man on TV. If they had taken a poll of the most likable star, he would…

To the Editor;

In the 2018 mid-term elections, Greensboro attorney Kathy Manning, a Democrat, challenged incumbent Republican Ted Budd, who was seeking his second term in Congress. The two candidates first appeared together on “Triad Today” in October of that year, and their interaction was, at times, cont…

Being a parent is hard and wonderful. A culmination of great and good, happy and sad, and pretty much every other emotion you can feel. Being a man, I can only speak to my role as a son, father, and now a grandfather, and I have to believe that my thoughts are not unlike many others of my se…