Social distancing is the right thing to do at this time and protecting the health and safety of everyone in the community is always the top priority. Yet the negative ripple effect of the coronavirus on the local economy also has the potential to leave many families, local businesses and ind…

I should be lying on a cruise ship deck right now, soaking up the sun, sipping on an overpriced drink with an umbrella sticking out of it, enjoying the warm tropical breeze with nothing to care about other than what buffet I’ll hit next.

Okay. I admit it. I’ve got a big mouth which I often tend put my foot in. It’s not that I’m a bad person, a gossiper, a spreader of rumors, a back-talker. I just have no filter, so sometimes things that I’m thinking about just burp forth into words and are out there before I know it. In othe…

Welcome to the most risk-intensive, stress-inducing, capital-consuming world of real estate development. No other industry involves the collaborative effort of so many different disciplines to create a product in such a publicly accountable process as development. 

This past week, several communities across Tennessee suffered extensive damage as a result of an historic tornado outbreak.

As a past candidate for elected office, I can sympathize with the folks who have recently finished their races here and were less than successful.

In the annals of history, people have commemorated miracles from above in many ways, some of them on a grandiose scale. Some people have erected monuments that soar to the sky as a lasting reminder of the great work that was done while others have built great temples that still marvel the wo…

At first I thought someone was playing a prank on me when I walked into my office and smelled a foul odor this past week. There was a subtle stench that I detected when I stepped inside my workspace, making me pause and sniff my underarms, trying to recall if I’d used enough deodorant that m…

Granted, I’m not a male model for GQ magazine – anymore – but at the same time, I’m not hideous to look at even though I just turned 55. I think I’ve aged pretty well despite not using Oil of Olay or getting Botox shot into my brow. I’ll take the wrinkles here and there. They just add charac…

This Wednesday I will hit the double nickels, turning 55 on Feb. 12 as I share a birthday with the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln – explaining why I refuse to ever visit the site of Ford’s Theater and get real nervous watching plays from a balcony.

What began as a way for clubs to fellowship with one another over a meal has turned into a fiercely contested competition of sorts, the source of this cold war – hot chili.

Forget about Bear Grylls and Survivor Man. I am the true living-off-the-fat-of-the-land guy as I survived a night this past week, stranded at the offices of the Tullahoma News all by my lonesome. That’s right, Duane did a sleep over at the office, alone with nothing but the newspaper ghosts …

I haven’t always been beloved like I am now as your editor – or at least I’d like to think I’m somewhat beloved. Okay, I’ll go with somewhat liked or even tolerated. No, there was a time, back in the old days, that I was despised by some, enough that they formed a club against me.

This past week I returned to my Saturday night hobby for the first time in nearly two years. I had taken a sabbatical from my hobby after my work hours made it difficult to continue my weekend routine. However, prior to my temporary leave, I’d enjoyed my Saturday night pursuit for about a decade.

I don’t put much stock in New Year resolutions. In my experience, New Year resolutions are simply a way to put off things for another year, only to let them go by the wayside after a week or two of half-hearted attempts to change one’s life.

With Y2K-plus-20 arriving in a couple of days, it harkens me back to when I was the victim of the crime of the century.

As I sat in my office, ruminating over what to write about this week, the subject matter came to me from out of the blue. Actually, it came from within, specifically from a “rumbly in my tumbly” as the ancient philosopher Winnie the Pooh used to say. It seems like I may have picked up a slig…

Do you ever find yourself raging against the machine? I do. As a middle-aged guy, I still have a healthy distrust for technology. Sure, I was the first one on my block to get the internet and was one of the first folks in my town to get a cellphone, even though it was one of those big bag ph…

How exactly does one get motivated to play a role like the Grinch? Especially when they’re a happy, carefree guy like me who is always smiling and rarely grouchy?

It took me almost three months but I finally made a ginormous mistake this past Monday, my oversight depriving everyone in Tullahoma their sports page (although you are getting extra sports today to make up for it).

If you’ve been reading my column for very long, you know that I dabble in humor. I try to lighten the mood when folks open up their Sunday edition to the opinions page and are inundated with impeachment, impeachment and more impeachment. Yeah. Listening to the same old verse gets old. And, b…

During last week’s column when I was talking about learning to fly the hard way, I mentioned in passing that I had been shot at three times in my line of work, pointing out that the newspaper business can sometimes be a little on the dangerous side. Much to my surprise, that simple comment h…

I’m actually lucky to be alive to even write this column given the many endeavors I’ve undertaken in my life that could have gotten me killed. It’s not that I’m not appreciative of life, it’s just that I have a thrill-seeker personality that sometimes puts me in situations that aren’t the sa…

It may surprise you to hear the admission I’m about to make given the fact I am a career newspaper reporter and have published six full-length novels. I don’t like to read that much. Hide your children’s ears. I’m sure Dolly Parton will black list me now.

Don’t you just hate that one guy who claims he isn’t scared of anything and is all the time bragging about what a tough guy he is? You know, he walks around like he’s an alpha male, talking about how nothing ever phases him. Don’t you want to see him get his come-up-ins just once? Don’t you …

I think everyone should have to run for office just once in their life to understand how it is on the other side of the street in the dog-eat-dog world of politics. It’s easy to criticize and villainize when you have no idea of what you’re talking about.

For those of you who don’t know me yet, I’m a middle-aged guy – well preserved to be from the beginning of Generation X - but still I’m advancing in years. Actually, calling myself middle age is a bit hopeful since, if I’m presently at the mid-point in my life, then I will live to be 108. Yo…

Skydivers have a home in Tullahoma!

Fifty years ago yesterday, Neil Armstrong stepped out of lunar excursion module known as the “Eagle” to become the first man to set foot on the surface of the moon.

Notes from the Mayor

As I was growing up I remember a great sense of astonishment as I learned how to work the telephone.

Am I the only person who simply can't have anything nice?