Stories by Gary Smith

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Long ago memories of NBA great Bill Russell, thanks to a phone company The Major League Baseball trading deadline has come and gone, and its passing has reinforced one of the facts of my life: Even though I'm a longstanding sports fan, I have officially reached the p... August 5, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Overdone seasonal comments can have a weathering impact The recent heat has me thinking: Is the most annoying thing you hear during a heat wave "Hot enough for ya?" or "It's not the heat, it's the humidity"? I'm asking for e... July 29, 2022

Blue blood, blue vocabulary In earth-shattering, critical news of the sort that will shake our collective faith in what is good, decent and acceptable in the world, a member of the British Royal Family has committed a transgress... July 22, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: The middle ground isn’t such a bad place to be when it comes to annual physical In these difficult and fractured times in which we live, there is often a movement around what is called the Third Way.You may be familiar with the Third Way concept. It's the process or plan some... July 15, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: An in-law’s unexpected death closes the distance of years, geography From a distance, it shouldn't have been much of a surprise, and while sad, it's not totally out of the question.In a world where events conspire to create great tragedy every day, where confli... July 8, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Going to a wedding? Check those pandemic numbers one more time, please We are now officially in the heart of Wedding Season, that time when people are more likely to compel their parents to put on lavish shindigs celebrating their eternal love rather than just take the c... July 1, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Why does car travel in Northwest Arkansas often feel like the road to perdition? I don't remember the exact designation according to the AP Style Manual that I used to swear by, back when I did this for a living and my response to editors who wanted to change something was to ... June 24, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Clearing the air not easy, even by committee There are distinct disadvantages to being of "a certain age," specifically the age at which I now find myself.And I'm not even talking about the way my knees feel. Or the 45 minutes it t... June 17, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: The toughest negotiator in the house is a 2-year-old I spent the weekend negotiating with a 2-year-old. It did not go well.OK, it didn't go disastrously. I mean, both of us exited the experience with no trips to the emergency room, which I tend to s... June 10, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Capacity for forgetfulness means it’s always a new TV season For some reason (general forgetfulness, tiny little attention span, inability to remember names or faces or names and faces, all of the above), I can't remember the plots of television or movie se... June 3, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Americans have demonstrated exceptionalism in their achievements; why does a cure to violence elude the nation? It started out to be such a good week.Tiring. Active. Busy. But good. A weekend at the PGA Championship with my oldest son, where, to mangle a phrase from Mark Twain, the coldest winter round of golf ... May 27, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Raising your kids may get complicated, but it’s not payback There is a phrase I hear every now and then. It shows up around the time we pry a toddler from a jungle gym in clear contrast to her desire to stay on it and despite the threats and bribery directed h... May 20, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Back at the office, footwear is where the rubber meets the road All right, I'm big enough to admit it. I have a problem.And yes, narrowing that down to just one problem is a bit of an effort, at least for those who know me well. We could start with blurting ou... May 13, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Even if Musk manages the medium, opinions on space aliens won’t change I'm about to commit one of the cardinal sins of column-writing. I am about to admit, in print, for anyone who cares to read, that I don't care about something.Yeah, I know. It is possible, eve... May 6, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: An attachment to “House Hunters International” raises one question: Why? In these troubled times I more frequently find myself turning from the sublime (or, in most cases, the horrific) to the ridiculous when it comes to TV watching.Specifically, I'm hooked on "Ho... April 29, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Being mask free isn’t the biggest issue aboard airlines According to a recent federal court ruling, I don't have to wear a mask on airplanes anymore.This particular ruling was met by extremely intense and deeply polarized reactions throughout the natio... April 22, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Cutting commentary from Gary Scissorhands This is how things go off the rails.A while ago, I needed a pair of scissors. Not sure I remember what for, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest I needed to cut something. Either tha... April 8, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Northwest Arkansas has chickens, trucks, jobs, shops — and a heaping helping of luck We're lucky.We know this, right? Oh, we may want to chalk it up to foresight or talent or hard work, and it is a lot of those things. But some of it, maybe more of it than we'd like to admit, ... April 1, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: A family get-together brings back the joys of living, but covid lurks The Lovely Mrs. Smith and I, as well as some of the progeny and progeny's progeny (grandprogeny?) and their spouses (the progeny, not the grandprogeny...yeah, I know, gets confusing) all took off ... March 25, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: The “Good Old Days” can be hard to find, but they’re still around for someone The time frame might not be exactly right since it was so far back in the past, but as best I can recall, it happened about three weeks ago for a solid afternoon. For a few hours, I had the Good Old D... March 11, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Employees appear to want a return to the workplace, but with day-to-day options I broke down the other day and did it. I went back to the office.And by "the office," I mean that big place where lots of people all used to go every day to get their work done, not that roo... March 4, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Arkansas gets another dose of winter precipitation, begging the question: Why does sleet exist? I'm a big fan of informal polling, mostly because I'm too lazy and cheap to do actual polling or even research other actual polling, and because acknowledging the existence of actual polling w... February 25, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Did Americans forget how to drive during the pandemic, or did they not know to begin with? As someone known to give his opinion on a regular basis, it tends to create that warm, fuzzy, smug feeling on those rare occasions when that opinion is proven to actually be correct.I mean, a blind pi... February 18, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Hot glue? Burned fingers? The crazy things grandparents will do to make sure grandkids realize, later, they're loved How was your weekend? I spent last weekend building teapots.OK, not just building teapots. I also built teacups. And also saucers. Let's not forget the saucers.By "build" I don't mea... February 11, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Online puzzle becomes a Wordle-wide success Apparently, whatever else I'm doing, I should drop it and start playing Wordle.I say this because Wordle seems to be, if not all, at least a lot of what people are talking about right now. Which, ... February 4, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: The lonely dress shirts in the closet beg the question: Has working from home made me go too casual? I did something the other day so completely out the realm of what I've been doing for the last two years that its very novelty overcame the fact it was completely mundane and otherwise unspectacul... January 28, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Is staying at home as a result of the pandemic really such a bad thing? I have a question I've been asking myself a lot lately, and it really requires an answer.Am I staying at home, locked in my house, not venturing out into the world because I'm afraid of or sor... January 21, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Is a symptom of covid an impatience with testing? At a time when it seems we're predisposed to becoming obsessed with just about anything and everything, we as a country appear to have become obsessed with yet one more thing – testing.Not &... January 14, 2022

GARY SMITH: When to take down the Christmas tree, and other important holiday decisions The holidays are quickly winding down, which means we're all facing critical decisions that are going to have to be made fairly soon or we risk dire consequences.Ok, not vaccinations. I mean, at t... January 7, 2022

OPINION | GARY SMITH: New Year's resolutions? Let's not get carried away It's that time of year when I'm obligated to write a New Year's resolution column.OK, I'm not really obligated. The very nice and exceptionally tolerant people who have given me the op... December 31, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Who knew landing wasn't the most challenging part of air travel? I have a Christmas story to tell. In the sense that "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie – namely that it took place at Christmas.The Lovely Mrs. Smith and I, along with one of the progeny,... December 24, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: People with different opinions don't, usually, qualify as Nazis, so can we stop calling them that? With the season of giving fast upon us, I wanted to take a moment to spell out something important – what I want to be getting. Because people can't give presents without having someone to g... December 10, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: A few thoughts inspired by a sleep-inducing (maybe) bird I'm told my long-held belief that turkey contains a sleep-inducing chemical that puts you into a semi-coma after even the slightest exposure may, in fact, be something of an old wives' tales. ... December 3, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: After years of playing host, the "grands" turn Thanksgiving over to a new generation So, this is going to be interesting ...And by "going to be," I likely mean "already has been." Because, thanks the magic of deadlines, I'm talking about something that has alre... November 26, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: If there's a war on Christmas, it's looking like a Yuletide victory Greetings from the front lines of the war on Christmas!It's been a busy time around here as we've been stocking up on provisions, adding lights to clearly illuminate the space and posting a se... November 19, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Americans have a knack for hardy arguments and tacos I was having a discussion with someone the other day when I came to a conclusion. But more on that later.The nature of the discussion was a critical view of an important process that had significant s... November 12, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: The world's most high-tech paperweight might just be my phone Congratulate me. I have now achieved a higher level of impenetrable security so great that it is completely unassailable and cannot be breached. I have locked myself out of my cellphone. OK, let me ... November 5, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Jobs no kid ever dreamed of having now aren't so great for some adults Once upon a time when we were younger -- an admittedly longer time ago for some of us than others -- we were frequently asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Answers tended to vary depending on... October 29, 2021

GARY SMITH: You can't believe everything you see in the movies The lovely Mrs. Smith and I took our lives into our hands yet again the other day (and not just by driving on the streets of the city in which we live) and ventured out to do something we used to do p... October 22, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Why do we celebrate Halloween? It's hard to scare up a good explanation I have a confession to make: I just don't get Halloween. I mean, most holidays I understand, being as they revolve around things like big events or religious stuff or big events associated with relig... October 15, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Drivers' eyes seem blinded to red, green on traffic signals Have you ever noticed when someone says, "I have observed something," they're not really making observations as much as they're complaining and they want to make it seem not quite as whiny as it is? ... October 8, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: As a son migrates into life beyond the home he was raised in, what to do with his stuff? It seems my youngest son doesn't understand the question. I mean, he's a boy (OK, a young man, but that's sometimes hard to remember), so "not understanding the question" is typically either a defaul... October 1, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Nicki Minaj has some big ideas about connecting the vaccination dots These being the times we live in, one of the mostly widely discussed pandemic-related stories from the week was the contention by rapper Nicki Minaj that she was declining to get any of the vaccines f... September 17, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: All bad news isn't the same, but it all seems to add up Right off the bat, I will accept that I've become a little bit of a Debbie Downer here. The events of the world being what they are, it's not hard to feel a little oppressed by all this. And, rather t... September 10, 2021

GARY SMITH: How hard is it to laugh when so much is so serious? Realize to some degree this is a bit of a "first world/me" problem, but I'm having a hard time here. It seems, as you've likely determined, I'm what passes for comic relief on these pages. OK, maybe ... September 3, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Why can't our vaccine cards fit in our wallets? As I listened to a podcast the other day, one of the hosts made a salient point that I think perfectly demonstrates the gross mismanagement and general ineptitude of our government and should compel u... August 27, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Trust your body, they say While I feel like we're all pretty clear on where I stand on the whole vaccine debate, I am compelled by a sense of fairness to listen to those who might not share my opinion on the matter. It's alway... August 13, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Summertime blues Summer is over. Yes, I know. The calendar and the weather forecast may not agree. It's still August and still seems just as hot as summers in the state tend to be (though September in Arkansas often ... August 6, 2021

OPINION | GARY SMITH: Vaccine hesitency requires a little grace Things were going so well for my dad. His first child was a sweet, intelligent, thoughtful girl, someone he could reason with, who responded to logic and knew how to evaluate risk and reward. Just wha... July 30, 2021

GARY SMITH: Life always finds a way I spent a little time the other day looking at pictures of my youngest grandson. I mention this not just because, well, grandchildren are what people with grandchildren talk about a lot. I mention it ... July 23, 2021