I have often said that in the search for ourselves we need not look far past our mom or dad, or the community and culture from which we come. We are the products of our raising.

The way a story about misspending of public funds came to light last week gave the appearance the story had been “hidden” for the past year, when in fact it was under …

It was over the moment our eyes met. You were chewing on a plastic water bottle cap, fuzzy as could be, and all alone in that cage. Dana and Sophie didn’t know it yet, but you were going home with …

Check out the music library on my phone and you’ll find everything from Hank Williams, to Kenny G, to Quiet Riot, to Demi Lovato, and the Mississippi Mass Choir. But country is my music genre of choice, probably because of all those years I spent riding around with a beer-drinking, cigarette-smoking dad who tuned in to stations that played Charlie Pride and Waylon Jennings and Glen Campbell and Loretta Lynn as we drove aimlessly through the Delta countryside.

May is National Barbecue Month. Or, as I like to call it, Holy Month. On a recent conference call with writers across the country, I explained how you can take the topic of barbecue and teach …