We are a nation of regional dining concepts and local dishes. Chicago has deep-dish pizza parlors. New Orleans has po-boy shops. Ohio has chili parlors. Maine has lobster shacks. South Florida has crab shacks. Maryland also has crab shacks (there are a lot of shacks in regional dining). Oyst…
This Mississippi heat has us wanting to eat light and healthy this month. Therefore, we took the safest route with grilled chicken salads. Our judging was based on price range, portion size, variety of toppings, salad mix and chicken.
Recently, I was asking my 10-year-old granddaughter why she would not sleep upstairs in her bedroom at my house. She will only do that if her brother is here also. Her answer was, “It’s scary.”
It’s always interesting to me how we enjoy some foods only during certain times of the year or on certain occasions. We love the dishes and meals, yet we reserve them for a specific time, place or holiday. My grandmother didn’t believe in that rule. Sunday lunches at her house were always an…
I am a fan of first lines in books. But I also like last lines in movies. In the film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row,” John Huston — in one of the greatest film narrations this side of Morgan Freeman — states, “The world was once again spinning in greased grooves.” I don’t know …
Peach season is here. Peaches are my favorite fruit. Period. End of story. Strawberries, bananas, grapes and blackberries fall into my Top 5. But there is a large delta between No. 1 and the rest. Peaches, and especially Chilton County, Alabama peaches, rule the fruit world at my house.
Jones County native publishes photo book of her time in service in occupied Germany Carolyn Sue Walters was in occupied Germany for one of the most famous presidential speeches of the 20th Century and she witnessed notorious war criminals during her time there.But the Jones County native’s r…
Y’all have your iced tea or your Dr Pepper? I have a story for you.Since I have outed my entire family and several of my friends as outright loons in my stories, I am going to recount a recent day. It began with me having to fight the mental health system. Literally. Fight. As in pulling on …
Jamari Miller, 8, a Mason Elementary School student looked up at the life-size portrait of “Homeless” by Bo Bartlett, depicting a man on a bicycle.Miller sat down in a chair across from the painting and looked at the paper in his lap. He began by sketching the wheels of the bike, what he sai…
Everyone needs at least one friend who is frank and to the point. Someone who speaks their mind no matter what the consequence. A person who will call you out when you’ve done wrong. The guy or gal who will tell you exactly what is on his or her mind. I am blessed with several of that type o…
Over the course of the past 20 years, I have written 11 books. Four were collaborations with my friend and watercolorist Wyatt Waters. Four were non-fiction works — two were compilations of my writings, one was a nationally published book on the South and the most recent release was last fal…
Some men dream of playing the back nine at Pebble Beach. Others dream of bagging that big buck or landing a record snapper. I dream of restaurants.
The Lunch Ladies - Healthy Living
It is officially that time of year when I create our family’s summer bucket list. With three kids — KJ, 4, Bradley Kate, 2, and Rynlee, 8 months — this year’s list will be super short and sweet.
Each May, Laurel Leader-Call guest columnist Mark Clark presents his vacation checklist that every traveling family should follow.
CHICAGO — I first came to this city more than 30 years ago. I fell in love with Chicago instantly. There was something about a big city, combined with a Midwestern sensibility, that appealed to me on several levels. It didn't hurt that, at the time, the city was becoming a major player in th…
It’s graduation season. This year’s high school seniors have experienced an extremely uncharacteristic high school career filled with Zoom classes, masks and mandates. But this once-in-a-100-year craziness appears to be over. We are, once again, hosting graduation ceremonies with caps, gowns…
It’s great to be home. I have spent the last two months overseas. First in Spain, leading a group of 25 enthusiastic Americans from the top to the bottom of that country while filming an upcoming television show. Then I spent a month or so in Tuscany leading tours for three weeks and with a …
TAVARNELLE VAL D’PESA, TUSCANY — A little more than six weeks ago, I boarded a flight for Spain to spend 10 days leading 25 people through that country. After a day off, I headed to Italy to lead three groups of 25 each through one of my favorite regions on the planet, Tuscany. Once the thir…
Hola, it’s the Lunch Ladies bringing you our take on who has the best tacos in Jones County! With Cinco De Mayo next week, we knew that tacos were the perfect food choice for us to judge in this month’s lifestyle section. While there are multiple diners, drive-ins and dives that serve tacos,…
Have you ever had a picnic on a casket? If you had stopped by my house back in the 1960s, you could have.
In the garden, a flexible approach to plant selections often works out best in the long run.
We’re entering the month I call the “happiest month of the year.” May is just plain "happy," filled with joyous occasions like Mother’s Day, high school and college graduations and spring wedding celebrations. On top of personal events are fun tours, pilgrimages and festivals showcasing the …
PETROGNANO, TUSCANY— It all starts with a lady named Annagloria. In 2009, I started planning a long trip that would take my family through 17 countries and 72 cities on two continents. We left the United States in August 2011, but a trip such as that takes a lot of planning.
PETROGNANO, TUSCANY — or the good part of the past decade, I have hosted groups of American travelers — mostly Southerners — in this part of the world. I have always believed that Tuscany is a lot like the American South. It’s an agrarian society, but instead of soybeans and cotton, they gro…
Jeanne Lewis Childers and Mac Chamblee of Laurel are proud to announce the engagement and upcoming nuptials of their son Mackenzie Chamblee to Cecilia Rose Akin of Jonesboro, La.
As we get older, many of us find it harder to read fine print or to see clearly at night. But these limitations on vision are more an inconvenience than a concern, and most turn to reading glasses or progressive lenses to make up for it.
Another month has come and gone, and I have yet to figure out if time is flying or if it is dragging by slowly. I guess that comes with the territory when you’re a mom, wife and a full-time employee. Some days feel as if they will never end, like you have been working for three hours and rea…
April 1: First Fridays concert series, LRMA, 5:30-7 p.m.
Recently, I heard someone say, “I am going to watch a special about serial killers to calm myself from the news.”
By Dr. Eva Abo
Spring is finally here, which means it’s time to get back in touch with Mother Earth. More specifically, I’m referring to the transition from heavy soups and stews to lighter fare like salads. Often mischaracterized as boring “diet food,” salads are one of the healthiest, tastiest and yet mo…
SEVILLE — Nine days into this Spanish deep dive, I find myself sitting in the front jump seat of a tour bus typing on a borrowed laptop because my laptop is in the possession of a sneaky thief who swept my backpack up in a hotel lobby in Valencia. I have preached over and over to my guests a…
Warmly welcoming those traveling into Ellisville, the beautiful home of Teresa Bounds has been recognized by the Ellisville Garden Club as having the March Yard of the Month, club officials announced. Located at 510 Hill St., the Bounds home stands out through the striking combination of its…
The following people filed for marriage licenses in Jones County Circuit Clerk's office:
Southern Mississippi Trading, LLC of Waynesboro is helping children all over the state by donating $125,000 to the Campaign for Children’s of Mississippi.
I tried rubbing leaves of our native beautyberry shrub onto my arms to repel mosquitoes, and it worked. Which is good because nothing else keeps the buzzing bug-banes from carrying us away … at least not for long.
MADRID — I spent the final month of 2011 in Spain. I was nearing the end of a six-month sojourn with my wife, 14-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. We covered a large part of the country — Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Malaga. There were several other stops, such as Segovia fo…
Hundreds of thousands of American workers suffer an eye injury on the job each year, costing an estimated $300 million collectively for medical care, lost productivity and workers’ compensation.
For the past couple of months, we have hosted a special guest in our home. Feline Been is the daughter of our good friend Marina Mengleberg. Marina, Feline and her brother Alec all live in the small Tuscan village of Barberino-Tavarnelle. In addition to being friends with Marina, we work tog…
Before you dismiss homemade jelly and jam-making due to lack of spare time or the ease of picking up a ready-made jar in the supermarket, please keep reading. I believe I can convince you to partake of this centuries-old tradition and live to tell about it.
December is considered the month for giving in these parts, but something was going on in February. Last week, I was gifted an organized binder filled with many of my original handwritten recipes from the early days at my first restaurant. This week, through the love, care and concern of one…
A Jones College student was arrested after campus police found illegal items — guns, drugs and alcohol — in his vehicle during a routine traffic stop early Friday.
Glade tornado killed 7 and hurt 350, but it could have been so much worse
An employee at the Dollar General in the Calhoun Community was taking more than a paycheck — way more, according to a report from the Jones County Sheriff’s Department.
The grandson of Laurel’s first black police officer Capt. Simon Shanks Sr. died after a year-long battle with acute myeloid leukemia. After following in his grandfather’s footsteps after attending college and starting out in business in Georgia, Lt. Jack Lowell Johnson III served as a police…
Well neighbors, it’s here and we can’t undo it — a land war in eastern Europe. The resurgence of the old Soviet Union. Putin’s pulled the trigger, and the round’s gone down range.
