Back from Branson
There are a number of observations I could share with you about my recent trip to the “Live Music Capital of the World” (a.k.a. Branson, Missouri) for a national newspaper convention.But the main news I’d like to share here is that I came back from Branson loaded down with 20 awards for writing, photography and general excellence that the Beacon won in the 2010 national... READ MORE
Red but not read
Last year, the producers of the movie Red, currently in theaters, wrote to us asking permission to include a copy of the Beacon in a scene from the movie. I was thrilled. The Beacon was going Hollywood.Fast forward to this fall. Despite careful viewing by three of our staff members, we found no sign of the Beacon in the movie unless it’s partially obscured on Bruce Willis’s... READ MORE
Do you have a tattoo?
More than 20 percent of adults between the ages of 40 and 64 have one or more tattoos, according to a Harris poll.For an upcoming story, the Beacon is looking for people age 50 and older in the Washington area who've been inked. What prompted you to get your tattoo? Do you love it, or do you have any regrets?I’d like to hear from you. E-mail Barbara@thebeaconnewspapers.com or ... READ MORE
Going live
Our website — this website — went "live" a few hours ago. After more than a year of planning, months of designing and deciding, and weeks of tinkering, we are now out and about in the world of cyberspace.Before last night, I had not given much thought to the concept of "going live" as applied to websites. But I get it now.Without belaboring the analogy (no... READ MORE
Author! Author!
Back in 1928 at age 17, my Aunt Sara and a friend stuck out their thumbs on a Cleveland roadside and hitchhiked all the way to Yellowstone National Park. I never would have known about this astounding adventure if a cousin hadn’t unearthed an essay in which my aunt recounted the trip and used an online self-publishing company to transform it into a slim paperback book called Westward... READ MORE
Burn, baby, burn?
Perhaps you saw (or heard) this news short a few weeks ago: Firefighters responding to an alarm in a rural area of Tennessee’s Obion County stood back and allowed a mobile home to burn to the ground because its owner hadn’t paid an annual $75 fee for fire protection services.But when the fire threatened a neighboring mobile home whose owner had paid the fee, they finally put out ... READ MORE
My storied life
One of my clearest memories from childhood is a leaf-crunching fall day in Ohio when the sky was bluer than any color Crayola could conjure. My third-grade teacher taped magazine pictures to the chalkboard and asked us to create a story about one of them. I don’t recall all of the details of what I wrote about, but I do remember the delight of sculpting words into a story.And in a... READ MORE
Make your vote count
As I write this, we are just weeks away from this year’s potentially momentous elections. For some time now, candidates for county and statewide positions, and their supporters, have been knocking on doors in my neighborhood, sometimes stopping by more than once, to discuss their positions, invite discussion and ask for votes. When they’ve asked me if I have any particular... READ MORE
