Opinion & Editorial

Baseball nerd gets winning hit with book on ‘Big Cat’

Jerry Grillo is a self-confessed baseball nerd. Born in New York, he moved South as a young child and was about 12 years old when he started memorizing players’ hitting averages, the teams they played for, the juicy stories about their extra-game activities.

Our View: Help meets hope and hustle

Last Thursday in Cleveland, two special events took place less than a mile apart. These events were strikingly different in tone and attendance. And yet, each event was vital in their service to White County.

Two wagons and one long road

I spotted Tom, Ruth, and Zacchaeus in a Helen parking lot on a luminous April morning when the little city was stippled with marathon runners and Easter colors and spring traditions.

Time passes but scars remain

"Time heals,” they say. Maybe. Maybe not. It’s been more than 3,500 days since I watched the state trooper spray orange fluorescent paint on the black asphalt. And chills still cascade down my spine.

YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Giving thanks   To the Editor: Special thanks for another successful Community Thanksgiving Gathering (Dinner)! Words of thanks to the community, family and friends for making this another successful year! We come together every year the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

From the Desk of Phil Hudgins: Robert Williams knows good newspapering and barbecue

Every profession has its standouts, those who set the standard in their field. Robert Williams is one of those people in journalism. Robert owned several weekly newspapers, mostly in South Georgia, for about 55 years. I’ve known him for more than half of that time.

YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

What could go wrong?   To the Editor: I was born in 1940 and grew up in a Georgia much closer in spirit to the 1840s than the Georgia of today. My grandparents had no running water,  and when they finally did get a phone it was a party line. There was no Lake Lanier.

From the Desk of Phil Hudgins: Every career, even newspaper business, has its risks

Someone asked me the other day if I always wanted to be a journalist. I told him no, I thought I wanted to be an artist. You see, I took this art-by-mail course when I was a kid. But after six months of drawing and painting, I realized I had no talent. I quit the course.

Love Thy Neighbor: How to survive the holidays

It’s been a particularly brutal and polarizing 18 months in America. We’ve survived one of the nastiest presidential elections since Andrew Jackson’s in 1828 — and they didn’t have incessant TV ads assaulting them. There are 258 million adults in America. About 29 percent voted for Donald Trump.

YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A shout-out to reporter Eric Tiongson To the Editor: I just felt compelled to drop a shout-out to reporter Eric Tiongson for the truly first-class job he did on the article about Ron Webb and his selfless commitment and dedication to White County and the community of Cleveland that appeared in...