It is the kind of surprise for which every ambitious politician must be prepared: the unexpected decision by an incumbent elected official to retire. It is, my friend Jay Rivers told me, the kin...
Frugal Family: Think before you shop Are you an impulse buyer? Does shopping and finding sales provide you with a sense of euphoria? Impulse buying is a huge waste of money for those who are hoping to live a frugal lifestyle. Before ...
Frogs … a dog’s best friend We receive a lot of press releases that are potential stories for our readers. One such story was about how Gov. Bev Perdue had declared April 28, 2012 “Save The Frogs Day” in the state of North C...
You found me Well, here you are, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Martha told her husband Jim. “Martha what day is it?” “It’s Sunday Jim, you ought to know that.” “I do know that Martha, now what d...
Living frugal also can mean living simply As all of you know, I have a huge problem with the television show “Extreme Couponing.” It seems to be all the rage amongst the people that I hang out with. Several of my friends have stockpiles a...
Does time heal all wounds? Will John Edwards someday be the new Newt Gingrich? Where did this crazy question come from? To get the answer, read on. First, we should wrestle with the questions political experts have been...
I’m a one thumb texting, pocket dialing fool A couple of months ago I asked my wife, Sharon, if I could get a smart phone. I pointed out to her that my current phone was old, outdated and lacked many of the features that were common on a sma...
It is important to remember when looking for ways to save money to shop around. A perfect example of this is my friend’s recent experience when looking for a new cellular phone. When my friend a...
What is the best book I could read to learn about North Carolina? I get this question all the time from people who know about my interest in books about our state and those written by our great ...
A writer with no words has a serious problem. My brother, Maj. Samuel Griffith, was killed in action in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on Dec. 14, 2011. For the last month, I’ve struggled to fin...
Dear Dawn, How is it that my email and mailbox both seem to get synchronized mailings from the various travel agents I have used? All the deals now are for Europe and Alaska. Do they all agre...
Walking through a local mall one day during the Christmas season, I noticed several people with these fancy cell phone ear attachments hanging from their ears. With the microphone dangling in fron...
January. Thanks to the collision of Percy Jackson (as in The Lightning Thief), Xena (as in “Warrior Princess”) and social studies (as in the 6th grade curriculum on the Ancient World) with my daug...