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Today's Features

  • Pie lovers, unite

    If any American food deserves its own celebration, it’s pie. The American Pie Council has declared Jan. 23 as National Pie Day.

    While Americans didn’t create the first pie (it’s believed the Egyptians did about 2000 B.C. before passing it on to the Greeks who spread it throughout the Roman Empire), it somehow evolved into our national dessert.

    That’s strange considering that early pies were predominantly made from inedible rye crusts, goat cheese and honey.

    But as the popularity of pie increased, so did the combinations.

    Click here to read more...
  • Bluegrass on steroids

    Music has a way of lifting your spirits.

    Just ask Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes.

    In 1999, their oldest daughter, Shelly, 20, died in her sleep from respiratory failure.

    To cope with the loss, Jere, a carpenter for the Los Angeles County school system and Sandy, who was homeschooling their children, Cia, B.J., Skip and Molly Kate, took the family to a nearby bluegrass festival.

    There – while listening to Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys – the Cherryholmes found healing.

    They also found inspiration and a new calling on their lives.

    Click here to read more...
  • Use it or lose it

    These days, fitness means more than a walk on the treadmill for those at Prime Time for Seniors Center.

    A group there is learning how to exercise their minds through Breakfast for your Brain.

    Based on Dr. Marge Engleman’s “Aerobics of the Mind,” the weekly course teaches seniors to take mental fitness seriously.

    Until about 25 years ago, most researchers believed that memory loss was a part of the natural aging process.

    Click here to read more...
  • Sleeping in

    After 37 years, some things never change.

    Fred Adams, Donald Boone, Noland Broach, Jack Sistare, Morrison Thompson and Louie Watts still get together around a well-worn table inside the South 200 Drive-In on Great Falls Highway each morning.

    It’s there – between sips of hot coffee, bites of hot breakfast and rounds of warm laughter – the men try to solve global warming and understand cold-hearted politicians.

    But one thing has changed about their early-morning ritual.

    Restaurant owner Larry Small no longer lets them in.

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  • National Do Nothing Day is in a league of its own

    On Thanksgiving, we celebrate with turkey and pumpkin pies. The center of Christmas is the birth of a savior. Valentine’s Day is sweetened by chocolate and overly-sentimental cards.

    Mother’s Day is flowers, treating mom to lunch and a little extra pampering.

    Veterans Day is filled with parades to honor our servicemen and service women for their sacrifice.

    We even know what we’re supposed to do on Earth Day, World AIDS Day and Arbor Day.

    However, there’s one holiday, or technically, an un-holiday, that has me bamboozled.

    Click here to read more...
  • Soup's On

    This week, the mercury in the thermometer is bottoming out.

    Meteorologists aren’t predicting a daily high temperature of more than 40 degrees in this portion of the Piedmont.

    And during Carolina cold snaps like this one, nothing beats a pair of thick wool socks and a piping hot bowl of soup.

    Homemade soups not only soothe the soul, they also ease the pocketbook.

    Recent studies show that one of the way American consumers have responded to hard economic times is by altering their eating habits, which includes eating at home more.

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  • Good fire versus bad fire

    Soon, smoke will be in the air as South Carolina’s foresters, farmers and other land managers begin a very busy part of their year.

    Traditional controlled burning season is fast approaching and is the time when the ancient tool of controlled fire (good fire) is put to use for the benefit of all South Carolinians. Controlled burning (igniting forest fires under controlled conditions) has many benefits including reducing the risk of wildfire (bad fire), preparing land for planting, controlling diseases and undesirable plants and enhancing wildlife habitat.

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  • Look Good...Feel Better workshop is beauty therapy for cancer patients

    A woman battling the emotional and physical side effects of chemotherapy or radiation treatment always needs a special touch.

    That’s where Look Good...Feel Better comes in.

    Described by the American Cancer Society as a “makeover for the spirit,” the program helps women fighting cancer boost their confidence and self-esteem.

    Done quarterly in Lancaster County, the next Look Good...Feel Better class is 2 p.m. Monday at Springs Memorial Hospital.

    Click here to read more...
  • New year, new baby

    When Tornita Adams went into labor about 5:30 p.m. Friday, she was hoping for a New Year’s Day baby.

    But Zantwan Marqual Adams had something else in mind. He decided to wait until the next day. And this time, he got his way.

    Zantwan, the newborn son of Adams and Charles Mobley 

    made his grand entrance at 1:28 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 2, at Springs Memorial Hospital. Tornita was due Jan. 12.

    Zantwan is not only Lancaster County’s first baby of 2010, he is also the first county birth in a new decade.

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  • Passing through one more time

    Write-in campaigns, resigning town council members, a “hiking” governor and long lines at the unemployment office are just four of the issues we experienced in 2009.

    We lost some neighbors with the deaths of Sonny Bowers, Bobbie Hagins, Ray Knight and Dick Weisner. These are good people whose lives made a difference. OK, that’s enough of the bad news.

    We saw the good in people, too, like the Backpack Buddies, a non-denominational church partnership that makes sure that Heath Springs Elementary School students have nutritious meals on the weekend.

    Click here to read more...