Lewis County Herald - Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898

When does a 500th anniversary require an asterisk? If you’re a fan of trivia and myth-busting, you’ve doubtless heard umpteen repetitions of “George Washington didn’t really have wooden teeth,...

Believe it or not, August 31 is the 25th anniversary of the traffic accident that robbed the world of the effervescent Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana was a distant, distant cousin (my great-great...

“Anxious parents are no longer allowing their kids to go to slumber parties,” announced a blurb in the August 16 “New York Post.” Slumber parties are not usually one of the top subjects on my mind in...

My family made a recent day trip to a neighboring state, so I decided this week’s column should be a tip of the hat to those oases of the interstate highway system, the state welcome centers. W...

“Memories/Light the corners of my mind…” – as sung by Barbra Streisand. While grocery shopping with my mother in the 1970s, I enjoyed peeking at the “Golden Age” Sunday comics in “Good Old Days” mag...

According to the National Gardening Association, the number of households growing their own vegetables, fruit and other foods has tripled since 2008. (Coincidentally, the number of households...

According to the Washington Examiner, 2022 has handed New York City an alarming spike in citizen complaints about outdoor odors (“I hope you appreciate me doing my civic duty. It’s not easy to use a c...

Trust me when I declare that I am not competing for sympathy against folks suffering from cancer, blocked arteries, diabetes or other serious ailments. I do nonetheless think that my body is out to...

The front page of the July 8, 1947 “Roswell (New Mexico) Daily Record” seized the American imagination with the headline “RAAF (Roswell Army Air Field) Captures Flying Saucer.” That announc...

You’ve probably seen the screaming headlines about a Gallup survey revealing that Americans’ belief in God has hit an all-time low. I’m not here to quibble with the atheists, agnostics and alter...

“Did you know that your rear passenger tire is a little underinflated?” I harbor a grudging appreciation for a potentially life-saving hint like that. I mean, it makes me feel like an IDIOT that I c...

Wow! Will this really be my 19th Father’s Day as a father? My biggest regret is that I’ve had to learn so much the hard way. To make life easier for other fathers and prospective fathers, I’m shari...

Did you get your copy of “Queen Elizabeth II: Reign in Pictures” in time for Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee ceremonies? As a bookazine fanatic, I certainly did. Beg pardon? What’s a bookazine, you ask...

Hollywood makes iconic catch phrases seem easy. Whether it’s McGarrett’s “Book ‘em, Danno” or Vizzini’s “Inconceivable!” in “The Princess Bride,” we take them for granted. But there is a dismayin...

So I can spend more time with my family, I am turning this week’s column over to a bright fourth-grade student from an unnamed American small town. Hi. My name is Liam. My history teacher, Mr. Burkhal...

“I can’t HEEAARR you!” – Sgt. Vincent Carter on “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” You may recall that -- in October of 2019-- I wrote a column denouncing the proliferation of confusing, dimly lit scenes in movie...

Honest, I’m going to write a book chockful of random thoughts someday (my more serious book about religion is already available on Amazon), but deadline pressures keep forcing me to cannibalize my i...

Millions of young women dream of being honored on Mother’s Day. Millions of others know in their hearts that they don’t want to have children, or at least not on someone else’s timetable. Many in both...

The concept of “parking” loses most of its mystique as you get past the giddy days of a freshly minted driver’s license and shoulder the responsibilities of adulthood. Where “parking” once meant ste...

“But I’ll keep workin’/As long as my two hands are fit to use…” – Merle Haggard I haven’t run away and joined the circus, but I am nearing the age when a financial safety net admittedly has the allur...

If you could be the proverbial “fly on the wall,” what Biblical event would you most like to witness? I realize some of you don’t accept the Bible in the first place. But if you do believe it, what...

After the Academy Awards incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock, I started wondering how many of my gentle readers have resorted to physical violence in their adult life. In 1983 a co-worker...

If you have a habit of forgetting names as soon as you’re introduced, join the club. In all fairness, I have a mind like a steel trap when it comes to appointments, debts and trivia; it’s just tha...

A tiny portion of my “day job” at a farm-and-home cooperative involves writing radio commercials and on-hold phone messages. More often than I like to admit, I get stuck for a closing zinger and settl...

A handful of longtime readers may remember when I announced that “baby boy Tyree” was on his way. Time flies. My only child Gideon recently celebrated his 18th birthday. Ah, 18: an unrefrigerated cas...