Category Archives: journalism

Family

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Remember back when I showed you photos of Younger Daughter’s Valentine’s Day party-for-10 this past weekend (scroll down to see again)? Well, everybody had a great time and the food and decor were awesome but the best part for me was what YD, 23, learned from hosting her first party all on her own. She planned and organized everything and I didn’t even make one suggestion — even when it was the day before the party and not very much had been done and I asked her gently if there were anything I could do to help her AHEAD OF TIME (hint, hint) and she said, “Oh, no. I can get everything done tomorrow.” But the payoff was the day after the party when she realized the benefits of day-before party prep. Yes! Another maternal lesson learned. Read more in my weekly newspaper column, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100219/ARTICLES/2195005.

Of Mice and Brothers

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My youngest brother, who lives in Portland, Maine, and is a physician’s assistant,  is one of those people who always says, “Sure, why not?” Why not climb up a mountain? Why not snowshoe through waist-high snowy woods? Why not barrel down a wooden chute on your back onto a frozen pond in the U.S. National Toboggan Championships? That’s what he’s doing this weekend, anyway, at the Camden Snow Bowl. He said a friend asked him to be his toboggan buddy for the competition and I was truly impressed — I practiced saying, “You know my little brother. He’s the one who just competed in the national toboggan championships.” — until I went to the Web site, http://www.camdensnowbowl.com/20th-annual-toboggan-championships, and found out that beer and costumes are almost as important in this contest as who actually goes the fastest. But, still I’m impressed. It requires a certain amount of … well, something …  to lay down on your back on this thin piece of wood and shoosh really fast without seeing where you’re going until you scoot out onto a frozen pond. He’s on the BaHaLowriders team. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, if the thought of a furry little rodent poking his head up out of the cat food you’ve just poured into a storage container makes you go all icky, then you may want to pass on my weekly newspaper column, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100205/ARTICLES/2055002. Or, you may want to read it to find out how I reacted. Hint: Much screaming was involved. You have been warned.

Magazines

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I love food. I love magazines. And food magazines? Cannot resist. That’s why I’m still mourning the loss of Conde Nast’s Gourmet. But there are a bunch of other magazines that entice with gorgeous photos, informative articles and innovative recipes. But how to know which ones are worth your hard-earned dollars? Chicago Tribune food writer Judy Hevrdejs has written a fun and helpful story comparing seven of the top-selling food magazines. She looks at such variables as average number of recipes per issue, usability, typical reader and her gut reaction. Your local paper might have printed it. If not, read it online at http://www.twincities.com/food/ci_14229780?source=rss. My favorites are Cook’s for intriguing reads, Food & Wine for inspiration and Everyday Food for how-to guides.

And while you’re online, stop by the TimesDaily Web site and read my column at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100129/ARTICLES/1295001. This week I wrote about an experience I had this past week, while Younger Daughter and I were babysitting 22-month-old grandson and nephew Capt. Adorable.  The Captain was overdosing on TV and the results were not pretty. I had two choices: 1) Fall back on my old parenting habits and be too lenient and indulgent or 2) employ the good parenting techniques I’d seen Older Daughter — the Captain’s mom — put into play. Read and find out what happened.

Breakfast

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I’m like many of y’all — in that wonderful period when my kids are grown, my work-at-home freelance-writing hours are flexible and my night-owl husband sleeps late. This means I can — finally, after years of otherwise — enjoy an hour or so of uninterrupted peace and quiet with my morning coffee. No carpools to get ready for, no homework to finish up frantically, no wild I’ve-got-nothing-to-wear closet marathons. I love it! So on a recent morning when it seemed as if 10 people ended up in the kitchen all with Important Things To Do Right At This Very Minutes, it sort of threw me off. But we all got through it. Read more at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100122/ARTICLES/1225004 — and have a great weekend!

Football

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Can you still hear the roar of cheering from Alabama as we look forward to celebrating a whole year of college football supremacy? Around here it’s always football season, whether talk focuses on recruits or practice sessions or the most recent game or the games that are coming up — which in this case is Sept. 4 at home against San Jose State with the first home SEC game on Oct. 2 against Florida. In fact, the release of the upcoming season’s schedule is eagerly awaited since nobody wants to schedule a wedding or anniversary party or other important event during an Alabama or Auburn home game — and if it’s during an away game, just be sure to have TVs handy. And since it’s all football all the time around here, I gave over my newspaper column this week to Dear Husband, a newspaper sports editor who still patiently explains to me the difference between fullbacks and linebackers. This week he’s answered questions I had about the Alabama v. Texas BCS championship game — with his own spin, of course. For example, when I asked why players jump on opposing players who are already down on the field and everybody ends up in a big pile, he said, “It’s a good chance to get off their feet for minute. Football is tiring.” Read it at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100115/ARTICLES/1155005 — and you’ll learn a bit more about football, too.

New Year’s

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Happy New Year! Hope it’s a fabulous one for you and your family. And if you’re taking a break from football today, go to http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100101/ARTICLES/1015000 to read my weekly newspaper column that includes resolutions folks sent me from all over. See if yours made it in, and thanks to everybody who helped me with this project. And here’s hoping your favorite teams win — as long as those teams are SEC, of course!

Fashion

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Is working out more one of your 2010 resolutions? Okay, isn’t it everybody’s??? In my experience, after decades of making Jan. 1 working-out resolutions, one of the best ways to ensure keeping this promise is to look fantastic while you’re doing it. I’m serious — there’s a world of difference between working out in baggy and holey sweats and your oversized 1995 R.E.M. Monster Tour T-shirt and working out in a new sleek and chic outfit made out of fabric that’s smarter than you are. If you haven’t checked out what’s new in workout wear, Google it or go to your favorite store and be prepared to be amazed. Still confused? Check out my Fashionably Speaking column in the quarterly magazine Shoals Woman at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091230/SW/912299978/1085/SW for a rundown of what to wear where and when, workout-wise.  (And remember: It’s all in good fun because I really don’t know what I’m talking about — I personally choose the sweats and he Monster Tour T-shirt, every time.)

New Year’s Resolutions

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Okay, y’all, here’s your chance to become famous — or infamous, maybe. When I was a staff writer at the TimesDaily newspaper in Florence, Alabama, I’d turn my New Year’s column over to readers every year and publish the funniest and most creative resolutions folks sent me. I didn’t do it this past year since I’m not working in the office anymore, but this year my dear husband pointed out that really that’s no excuse. So here you go: E-mail me at cathylwood@gmail.com with your best resolution for 2010 and you may see it in my Jan. 1 newspaper column. I need funny, witty, bright and creative — we all want to save the world and spend more time with our families and friends and adopt more stray puppies, so those don’t count. You can do better! And even though I need to know who you are and that you’re a real live legal non-scary person, you can have your name/location/identity published any way you want: “Mary Smith, Huntsville, Alabama” or “A gardener in San Diego” or “John Doe, writer and part-time cook in Seattle” or “Cathy’s friend and shopping co-conspirator” or whatever you want. So e-mail me your family-friendly G-rated resolution by Sunday, Dec. 27, include your true identity so I can reassure the paper that everybody’s cool and also include your identity the way you want it published. I may edit your resolution to fit the space but I promise not to drastically alter it. I cannot wait to see what you come up with!

Marriage — and Tweeting

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It’s hard to believe how much technology has changed our everyday lives. When I was growing up in the 1960s, my family had one TV and one telephone — you needed parental permission to turn on the TV and you had to stay in one place to talk on the phone. How rich we felt as we graduated to more TVs — I had one of my own! In my room!!! — and more phones. I remember a Christmas when my brother and I were thrilled with our granddad’s gift to us: A reel-to-reel tape recorder. Talk about state-of-the art! Then, in the 1980s, it got harder to keep up with each newest thing — as soon as we got it, whatever “it” was, Version 2.1 came out. Changes kept coming, rapid-fire fast. It took me forever to remember to walk around and talk on cordless phones without being tethered to one spot — how amazing was it that you could take the phone into another room while you were talking? I used my paycheck from working at our church’s Mother’s Day Out program to buy one of those newfangled VCR things, and the delight my daughters found in watching Disney’s “Cinderella” over and over never diminished. Around that time, my then-husband laughingly dismissed a friend’s question wondering if we’d ever be able to play CDs in our cars, but of course, he’s also the one who shook his head in the mid 1990s at the preposterous idea of buying things over the Internet when I excitedly told him I could access the Simplicity sewing company and check out their patterns online — “That’s crazy. It’ll never work. Who’d want to do that?” he said. But, to be fair, he wasn’t the only skeptic. Weren’t we all, really? I mean, who would have thought years ago we’d have phones with us at all times and that we could watch movies and TV and listen to music anywhere we wanted? And who could have predicted I’d start every morning accepting virtual agricultural gifts and sharing my meandering thoughts with thousands of people I’ve never met? I love technology! And I love my now-husband, too — our relationship has spanned the range of communication from good ol’-fashioned e-mail to texting and tweeting. After, where would marriage be if we couldn’t keep up with our spouses 24/7? Read more at my weekly newspaper column at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091204/ARTICLES/912045004.

Friends

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You think you can trust your girl friends, right? You think that the people who are with you through thick and thin — literally — wouldn’t turn on you. You think that the only people — besides maybe your husband – who know what you look like without makeup would not set up a trap for you. But that’s exactly what happened to me: Three friends turned on me … and forced me to learn how to play bridge, a game I had long declared to be on my list of things-I-hate-more-than-lima-beans. Go to my weekly TimesDaily newspaper column at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091127/ARTICLES/911275000 to find out how I was the victim of a (friendly) bridge-napping.