From my cabin to Cades Cove Loop in the Smoky Mountain National Park is a 270-mile round trip that takes you above the clouds, through lazy elk herds feeding on the roadside, and past more stunning views than a man can well comprehend in a single day-trip. But if that’s what you’ve got, that’s what … Read more
Staff Reports / The New York Times It’s hard to know how many of us citizens are monitoring the mess oozing from the ground in Ohio, where toxic waste water from fracking is bubbling out of the soil in dozens of places and is all but certain to show up one day in the drinking … Read more
Valerie Turner lays lead guitar, handles lead vocals, and specializes in intricate Piedmont-style ragtime fingerpicking, while her husband and bandmate Benedict (Ben) Turner provides traditional roots percussion using the washboard, bones, harmonica, and harmony vocals. The two serve as cultural historians and educators preserving early African-American country blues.
Most of us who live in the area recognize that the popular local store known as Cherokee Guns is fond of using its advertising as the sort of in-your-face provocations that are more or less “red meat” for the MAGA base that seems to be the store’s target audience. See the above photo for a … Read more
My newish Guardian 5.5 came with an okay taco-style leather sheath, but I guessed before ordering the knife that the scabbard would’t do justice to the fine blade from the Washington state maker. I was right. So I made my own. One of the early sheaths I made in a dark brown finish that I’m … Read more
Curves, tunnels, steep ascents, unnerving drops down the mountain when the weight of the train threatens to overrun the engine and send the whole enterprise cascading down into ruin. Life is like that. Phoebe, left, and Poe look me over and wonder if he can be trusted, this strange man who has taken them into … Read more
Stone cabins were less common than log buildings in early Appalachian life, but families made do with what was readily at hand — and there was no shortage of rock. So I wasn’t surprised when I discovered the remains of a stone cabin in the woods off the road leading to the mountain-top radio towers … Read more
Birds called from the woods, and I put my hand on Hazel’s head to calm her while I squatted on the edge of the ravine and listened. Apart from the birds, the only other sound was the wind breathing through the trees and moving the first green shoots of spring. All else was quiet atop … Read more
Five New York newspapers gave birth to The Associated Press in 1846 when they pooled their resources to share the cost of reporting on the Mexican-American War. And for the 180 years since then, the wire service has served newspapers all over the world. No more, at least not as a core part of its … Read more
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.” Thus spoke U.S. President Donald Trump on his Truth … Read more