OPINION | GARY SMITH: Isolated at home again, memories bring back an uneasy feeling
First off, everyone exaggerates. For instance, I just did.
First off, everyone exaggerates. For instance, I just did.
This is the time of year and the sort of weather that has a lot of us updating our reading lists. Or just pulling the blankets back over our heads because it's…
With the old year safely behind us and another notch on the birthday gun belt about to hit, it seemed to me like as good a time as any to do a quick inventory.…
The following is a public service announcement: It's time to turn off the outdoor Christmas lights.
I found myself in Durant, Okla., the other day. Which could be, but wasn’t, a line from the worst country song ever written.
I found myself in Durant, Okla., the other day. Which could be, but wasn't, a line from the worst country song ever written.
At the onset, let me state that I realize I'm sailing into pretty choppy waters here.
Who do we lose when we lose someone?
So I was taking my typical post-Thanksgiving break to ponder some of the larger questions of life, our existence and the meaning of it all. Some of you might c…
I would suggest that one of the greatest gaps in human understanding is the one between parents' belief in their ability to raise children and their kids' beli…
I believe there is a point on which we can all agree, regardless of our feelings about the most recent election, the college football season, the moral fiber o…
For most of my young life I remember one constant. My dad kept a bag in the hall closet.
Just the other day I experienced an almost metaphysical insight into the very nature of the human condition and the forces that drive us despite the reality th…
Just to establish a fact to which my children would certainly and vehemently attest, I am not a trend setter.
When the Lovely Mrs. Smith and I, along with the two of our progeny born outside the confines of Northwest Arkansas, moved here several years ago, we discovere…
At the appropriate time every year (more or less, depending on if I actually look at the calendar and realize "Oh, geez, it's almost New Year's!"), I sit down …
Once upon a time (and yes, I am old enough that stories about my past start with "once upon a time"), an author named Bruce Feirstein had a best-seller entitle…
It seems that people collect all sorts of odd things beyond what people would normally expect: works of art, baseball cards, wine, etc.
One of the many irrefutable laws of life is that, regardless of what you and anyone else does, everyone else's job is easier than yours.
A tale of two households:
Let's talk about bad movie choices.
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…
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 ask…
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 Britis…
In these difficult and fractured times in which we live, there is often a movement around what is called the Third Way.
From a distance, it shouldn't have been much of a surprise, and while sad, it's not totally out of the question.
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…
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 w…
There are distinct disadvantages to being of "a certain age," specifically the age at which I now find myself.
I spent the weekend negotiating with a 2-year-old. It did not go well.
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 remembe…
It started out to be such a good week.
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 d…
All right, I'm big enough to admit it. I have a problem.
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.
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.
According to a recent federal court ruling, I don't have to wear a mask on airplanes anymore.
This is how things go off the rails.
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, …
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 afterno…
I broke down the other day and did it. I went back to the office.
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 …
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 …
How was your weekend? I spent last weekend building teapots.
Apparently, whatever else I'm doing, I should drop it and start playing Wordle.
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 complet…
I have a question I've been asking myself a lot lately, and it really requires an answer.
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…
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 consequenc…