Category Archives: journalism

Sports

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University of Tennessee footballEven though my husband and I haven’t actually lived there for years, we still consider nearby Tennessee home. It’s where we grew up, it’s where we graduated from college, it’s where our daughters were born, it’s where family and friends are, it’s where we head back to whenever we can. And although I am not especially a University of Tennessee fan, I don’t wish them any particular ill will — we are not UT haters. That being said, when three of your football players get arrested for armed robbery, seems to me that drastic and immediate action is called for. Wouldn’t you think? However, hours after the arrest, UT is still “reviewing” the case. And I know that people who get arrested get due process and a presumption of innocence, but such a namby-pamby delay smacks of “let’s first figure out how badly the loss of these players will affect our football chances before we do anything drastic.” C’mon, people! Guns? Robbery? Hello??? Outta there. Immediately. That’s my .02, anyway. In his sports-editor blog at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, http://nems360.com/blog/3079620, my husband says it much better. Okay, I feel calmer now. Thank you for listening to me rant and rave. And if it turns out that the football players in question were safe and sound in their dorm rooms studying for finals instead of pulling guns and demanding money on convenience-store customers, I will apologize. Promise. In the meantime, help me solve another mystery — The Case of the Missing Bottle Opener — in my weekly newspaper column at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091113/ARTICLES/911135000. No ranting there.

Random Thoughts

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Have you ever had people say things to you — and I’m talking nice things here — that made you see yourself as someone other than the person you think you are? It always amazes when I see myself from somebody else’s perspective since usually the image does not jive at all with the image I have of myself. I mean, it sort of makes you wonder if the private you — the one that mostly lives inside your head — and the public you — the one that goes to work and the grocery store and PTA meetings — have anything in common whatsoever. This past week I had three people say things to me/ask me questions that threw me for a loop: 1) The person who cuts and styles my hair told me, “You’re always so sweet and cheerful when you come in. It just makes me day,” when really I think of myself as crabby and grumpy, especially when I have to spend $$$ just to make my hair look presentable; 2) the person working in the dressing rooms at my favorite discount-clothing store asked me if I knew where to find a purse with a clasp closure for a Christmas present, when I really think of myself as someone who can barely find her own purse and get outside the door with two matching shoes; and 3) a person in local-theater circles and I were chatting at a local coffee shop about the struggles of writing and what to do when you hit a wall and I said that caffeine always helps and this person said that (insert name of illegal drug) helps, too, and then sort of paused as if waiting for me to suggest we go get some. So in the space of three days, I’ve been identified as sweet, stylish and a drug user  — when really I’m just a grouchy un-put-together coffee fiend. Sigh.

Journalism — and Jewelry

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Antique mallsYounger Daughter and I recently were browsing through an antiques mall in Florence, Alabama, when she called me over to where she was standing. “Isn’t this your story?” she asked, pointing to a framed story from the local newspaper — the TimesDaily — about pins that was next to a display of wonderful vintage pins. And YD was right — there was my byline from my former days as a staff writer for the TimesDaily life section, before I retired almost two years ago to become a financially challenged but incredibly happy columnist and freelance writer. I have to say that it was sort of a strange feeling to see such care taken with a story I didn’t even remember doing — one of several hundred, probably, I don’t remember doing throughout the 10 years I worked in the TimesDaily newsroom. Yet there was my story, years later still stuck in black and white (well, sort of faded beige) and still influencing folks to think about buying a vintage pin because “brooches update fall wardrobes.” I have to admit it was a strange sensation to see this — a kind of out-of-body, did-I-really-write-that experience. Sort of makes you think. Sort of makes you hope you did a good job. Sort of makes you wonder how many other things you wrote are floating around influencing people to do things. Sort of makes you promise yourself to Write Only Good Things From Now On … beginning, maybe … tomorrow.

Fall

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Tate Farms in Meridianville, AlabamaPumpkin patchOctober truly is my favorite month. Who can resist 31 days of family fun, gorgeous weather, marching band half-time shows endless football games and pumpkins everywhere you look? Not to mention free candy just for the asking! Could it get any better??? Read more about why October is on my best-ever  list at my weekly newspaper column for the TimesDaily in Florence, Alabama: http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091016/ARTICLES/910165000

Football and TV

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It’s perfect football weather this weekend here down South — clear, cool and not too hot or too cold. And is this only a Southern thing, or are “game day dresses” trending everywhere? I mean, folks have always dressed up for football games here in Alabama — you either do that or you wear your team colors from head to toe — but this year I’ve noticed ads and even specific sections in stores devoted to “Game Day Dresses”  — pretty sundresses and other casual-dressy outfits, usually but not necessarily in team colors. Just wondering if that’s something you see only in places where the word “tea” means a tall glass of sweet icy deliciousness.

Besides keeping up with football, I’ve been trying to keep up with TV this season. I’ve never ever had so many shows I’m trying to watch. It’s extremely exhausting to stay current with all the action and I’ve already fallen behind. I did find enough time to write about it in my weekly newspaper column, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091002/ARTICLES/910025004, although, as my husband pointed out, I didn’t have the guts to admit to the one show he can’t believe I watch: Toddlers and Tiaras. I know, I know. It’s horrifying, but I can’t look away.

Fashion

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Photo by Daniel Giles of the Times DailyI am pretty much the messiest eater ever. I literally cannot get up from a table without a shower of crumbs, I carry stain removal products with me at all times and my husband begs me not to drink my favorite strawberry-flavored drink mix in the car because I leave splatters of red everywhere. This problem led me to create the Cathy Wood Method of Wardrobe Selection, or, How to Coordinate Your Clothing with Your Food So You Don’t Look Like the Slob You Truly Are and Your Family and Friends Will Eat with You Again. Intrigued? It really works! No more hastily pulling on a sweater to hide the coffee dribbles. No more holding your purse in front of you to distract from the gravy droplets. You will be free to eat and enjoy without fear! Read more at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090826/SW/908259959/1085.

And while you’re there, read other Shoals Woman articles, such as the story on Halloween food, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090826/SW/908259955/1085 with my friend Kara Sams, and  another story I wrote — a guide to retirement planning, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090826/SW/908259973/1085.

Friends — and Bad Poetry

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Bad poetryDo you see that huge guffaw of laughter coming out of my Campoutmouth in this photo? Trust me, it’s there. And do you also see that strange look on my husband’s face, almost as if he were embarrassed about something? Trust me, he is. We were at the annual — or whenever we can get everybody together — Wild Drunken Brawl that our friend on the left organizes. And don’t worry: It’s not wild, the drunkenness is overstated and no brawling is allowed. Instead, we all gather at a beautifully peaceful farm near Manchester, Tennessee — which most of us claim as our hometown — and spend the evening reminiscing around a campfire. We Photo by Kris Lowrancelucked out this past weekend with unusually cool and clear August weather and had a fantastic time. Since most of the crowd also graduated in communications from nearby Middle Tennessee State University, our trips down memory lane include our shared college days. One of my friends who was attending her first WDB brought with her a copy of Collage, the MTSU literary magazine that most of us worked with at one time or another. For this particular issue, my husband John Pitts (he wasn’t my husband then, although we were friends and did date sort of off and on) had done an interview with Steve Martin, who performed at MTSU  just when he was on the verge of greatness — an interview which still reads well today, decades later. However, also in this Collage was a poem my husband John Pitts had written, and that’s what we’re looking at in this photo. It did not read well decades later. I can’t really describe this poem. There was a lot of angst and beer-drinking and something about some woman and lonely nights and even though we called for the author to give us a reading around the campfire, he quickly declined. I can’t imagine why. And of course this gave me an idea for a book: A collection of bad college poetry. It’s gotta be a bestseller.

Marriage

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When my husband John Pitts — who is a super writer and the best editor I know — and I recently celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary, I wrote about it in my weekly newspaper column and asked my husband to talk about the five things he’s learned in five years of marriage. He did, it got great response and I was tickled that I had tricked my husband into writing my column for me my husband so kindly wrote my column for me that week. However, most people noticed that he,in fact, had written it and so wondered why I was so lazy and where my five things were. So here they are: http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090619/ARTICLES/906195000

But, seriously, the main thing I’ve learned in five years of marriage is something I couldn’t quite articulate in my column without seeming to be critical of my first husband, which I’ve vowed never to do in (newspaper) print. What is that lesson? It’s something I struggled with for years: Saying exactly what I mean and trusting that it’s going to be OK. In my first marriage, I picked up the bad habit of being passive-aggressive. You know, playing the “I’m-upset-but-I’m-not-going-to-tell-you-because-if-you-loved-me-enough-you’d-figure-it-out” game that only leads to disaster. That is not the basis for a healthy relationship, and to get over doing that means you have to rely on trust and faith and respect — which I have in overflowing abundance with my husband John Pitts. Who, by the way, is an awesome stepfather, too. Am I lucky or what?

TV

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Kate Gosselin Dear Kate Gosselin,

Listen, girlfriend, I know we cannot get enough of you lately, but, seriously, you are taking up way too prime celebrity space and I would like you to stop it. Please? Like, immediately? I cannot pick up any gossip magazine without you being on it and frankly it’s starting to bug me. I mean, I’m spending good money because I want to read about Jennifer’s attempts to get Brad back or Angelina’s attempts to get Brad back or how Elizabeth Banks really is not very nice or how Sandra Bullock really is. I don’t want to read about you. And let’s be clear: I’m not being critical of you. In fact, I’m sort of envious. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a famous multi-millionaire with nannies, bodyguards and Emeril  as a personal chef? Sign me up, and I’ll take the hair stylist, personal trainer and free tummy tuck, too. I do not begrudge you fame and fortune. I say good for you. It shows initiative and determination on your part and really, if I’d known having eight children was a key to success I’d have rethought stopping at two. The thing is, however, you are not a celebrity. You are just a regular person who yells at her husband and yells at her kids and makes bad choices. You are, sad to say, just like us. We don’t want our celebrities to be just like us. Oh, it’s true we want our celebrities to pretend they’re just like us. We want to see them buying toliet paper at Costco and slurping down frapps at Starbucks and playing with their kids at the park, but we know and they know and they know we know that they aren’t like us at all. You, however, are just like us but you don’t know it. You are — and I say this with all due respect — sort of boring. We don’t care about your free trips and your free vacations and the TV “stars” who keep popping up in your driveway to install solar panels or take you on motorcycle rides. It’s just … oh, I don’t know … uninteresting. And this whole marriage breakup thing? Please! I can get five women together at a moment’s notice who have marriage-breakup stories that would curl … uh, straighten … your hair. I’m sorry you have problems, but put your big-girl panties on and deal with it. In private, please. I look forward to the day when — just like the rest of us — the only connection you have to gossip magazines is picking one up at the grocery and reading it in the express lane while the person in front of you has 37 items and doesn’t know how to use the debit-card machine. Thank you.

Spring Cleaning

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Seems as if everybody’s spring cleaning. Folks determinedly are clearing out closets and basements and unloading unwanted clothes, shoes (“How have I ended up with 60 pairs of shoes?” one friend said. “I don’t even like them all!”), books, furniture and unfinished (unstarted?) projects. After all, it is easier to operate from sleek and organized spaces. It helps to spring-clean your brain, too. You know all those bits and pieces of ideas and thoughts that flit through your mind and you plan to do something with but never do? I gathered up a few of those and made my weekly newspaper column out of them. Read it at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090417/ARTICLES/904175001.

And now my mental columns-to-write filing cabinet is alarmingly empty. Ideas, please!!!