The magic of ‘The Waltons’

This story comes on good authority which assures us that this good story is true.One day, Tink and I were visiting his father, former television Executive Grant Tinker, when the conversation turned to Merv Adelson, a legend of iconic 1970s television shows.

Sweet talk about Vidalia onions

Let’s face it. We’re a blessed people.

Fair and unbiased (or biased) sports reporting

Count me in as one who still enjoys holding a good, local newspaper and absorbing almost every word.From the front page to the obituaries to the sports to the legals. I even read the entire jury list.High school football season had just begun, and I was reading the town’s sports page.

Rich: Rudeness and courtesy

Sometimes, I have decided, rudeness works.Sometimes, it’s even called for.I had to do a lot of thinking on this because I advocate kindness and courtesy.But if someone is being abused publicly, I can see the need for rudeness to spare the victim.When I experienced a home invasion several years ago,...

Yarbrough: Bob Shaw, a man who made us better

My boss and mentor at Southern Bell, Jasper Dorsey, taught me a lot about the business world.He also taught me a lot about the world beyond business. One of his precepts was that we must leave this a better world than we found it.

Yarbrough: Becoming a Bulldog – forever

A lot is going on at my alma mater, the University of Georgia.

Rich: Jesus was a Jew

In the modest country home where I grew up, prejudices were not allowed.However there was a serious bias against what Daddy called “no accounts,” men who laid up drunk and didn’t feed their families.So, Daddy had a list, always, of about four or five women, with squalling kids and electric company...

Yarbrough: Do politicians even care about the Okefenokee Swamp?

Between the time I write, and you read this, conditions can change.Particularly in politics.But as of this writing, there seems to be little doubt that an Alabama mining company will get permission from Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (an oxymoron) to begin extraction of minerals from...

Rich: How prayer works

This is how prayer works: Tink and I were one hour into a seven-hour trip home from Memphis.I’d been on a book tour for two exhausting weeks and had a stomach bug, very rare for me.

Rich: Tellers of songs — part four

Several years ago, I cohosted a radio show that was recorded in a studio on Nashville’s famed Music Row.Top on my wish list of guests was songwriter Rodney Crowell.