Columnists
09/22/2026 · Kingsport
Tuesday’s Spring Sky Has Receipts
The Moon is stirring the group chat, Mars is tapping its foot, and the global news cycle is louder than a kettle left boiling. Read your sign before you answer that message with “per my last email.”
The Tiny Reset That Keeps Your Day From Becoming One Long Blur
Your attention doesn’t instantly follow you from one task to the next. A two-minute closing ritual can help your brain put one thing down before you pick up another.
09/22/2026
The Tiny Word That Makes Dickinson’s Hope Fly
Emily Dickinson doesn’t describe hope as a feeling, a plan, or a promise. She calls it “the thing with feathers”—and that oddly modest word, thing, is where the poem’s magic begins.
09/22/2026
The Radical Meaning of “Power Over Themselves”
Mary Wollstonecraft was not asking women to trade one kind of domination for another. In a sentence that still cuts through a great deal of noisy advice, she made autonomy—not superiority—the point.
09/22/2026
Washington’s Power Test, Wall Street’s Patience Problem
The president keeps pressing the limits of executive power while Congress searches for a way to keep the government funded. Meanwhile, households keep paying for an economy that looks stronger on paper than it feels at the checkout counter.
09/22/2026
Hico, Texas: Chicken-Fried Steak, Billy the Kid, and a Good Empty Road
Hico is the kind of Texas town you reach by taking the road that looks like it’s going nowhere. Park downtown, order the chicken-fried steak, and let the town’s very strange Billy the Kid story entertain you.
09/22/2026
The Suitcase Carry: The One-Dumbbell Workout That Trains Your Whole Trunk
Carrying one weight at your side looks almost too simple to count as exercise. That is exactly why it works: your trunk has to fight being pulled sideways while your hips, shoulders, grip, and legs keep you moving.
09/22/2026
The Cast-Iron Cornbread That Deserves the Last Pat of Butter
Good cornbread is not supposed to be sweet cake in a yellow disguise. It should have crisp, dark edges, a tender middle, and enough corn flavor to make a pot of beans feel like a complete dinner.
09/22/2026
Cut Your First Dovetail Box With a $15 Saw
Hand-cut dovetails look like furniture-magazine sorcery, but the first small box is within reach this weekend. The trick is not superhuman accuracy—it’s knowing which lines to protect.
09/22/2026
Stop Paying $18 for a Movie When the Park Has a Projector
Outdoor movie season is back, and I have a controversial opinion: the worse the speakers, the more memorable the night. Here are five low-stakes, high-reward events worth leaving the house for this week.
09/22/2026
The Borrowed Drill, the Returning Condors, and Other Good Ideas
Libraries lend more than books, volunteers stock tiny neighborhood pantries, and conservation crews keep bringing California condors back from the edge. Also, one low-tech invention may help people stay alive during floods.
09/22/2026
Alligators, Bears, and One Man’s Legal Opposition
This week, wildlife entered customer-service territory, an HOA discovered that a vegetable garden can become a constitutional crisis, and one litigant found an opponent he could finally understand.
09/22/2026
Ichetucknee by Paddle: Clear Water, Cold Shoulders, No Room for Lazy Steering
The Ichetucknee River is Florida’s blue-ribbon spring run: cool, clear, and just fast enough to expose sloppy paddling. Here’s how to enjoy the famous float without becoming part of the scenery.
09/22/2026
Tuesday’s Cosmic Traffic Jam: Proceed with Snacks
The planets are asking for patience, precision, and one fewer opinion in the group chat. Scorpio receives the cosmic warning flare, while the rest of us attempt to behave like emotionally mature adults—an ambitious seasonal project.
09/22/2026