Columns

After years of starvation, medical experiments and torturous conditions, those who survived appeared ghastly and gaunt, evidence of the misery they endured.

Pine pollen yellows my deck, but the green of winter colors my thoughts. Two things I like about winter. One, winter’s cold bones lay the land bare. You see things that go unnoticed when leaves flutter and hide old homeplaces, an abandoned truck, a ghost bridge and woodland ponds. Two, green…

Dear Aunty Pam:

We have all heard the expression that only the good die young. While I do not believe that to be entirely true, based on my experiences with the deaths of family and friends, 58 is too young to die.

We all like to see a piece of ourselves on the screen, even if it’s not always completely believable.

Somebody at a book event recently asked, “Are you woke?”

Question: Dr. Wilson, you have written textbooks and the Curiosity Corner for a long time. What are some of your highlights and thoughts on writing? (Asked by a curious column reader thinking about writing.)

Yep, I jinxed us, all right.

There are parts of South Carolina that feel like a jungle at times, with the lush growth of vines covering everything. Wisteria and kudzu climbing and overtaking buildings, power poles, and other trees as if it was a post-apocalyptic landscape. It’s so commonplace that most of us don’t think…

Tikka is almost 14 while Parker is 12. No, these are not my great-grandchildren, even though I acquired the first of these in February, thanks to my granddaughter, Diana, and her husband, Kyle.

In 1993, President Clinton signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty that extends to children the rights to associate with whom they please and have access to all forms of media, among other head-scratchers. Thankfully, as of March 2023, the U.S…

Sometimes life seems so complicated. The universe and everything in it were created by God with order but also with complexity.

I think of the fragility of life each day but especially when the “circle” is broken as it was this week with the tragic death of my friend Bob Barrett.

Some old newspapers hold true gems.

After high school, I hoped to land a scholarship to play football. I played first unit on the junior varsity team and started three years on the varsity.

DEAR AUNTY PAM: I just had something awful happen to me and I hope you can help. I’m a 35-year-old, white female and have always felt OK about how I look until last week.

It is tough being a Yankee from Los Angeles and living in the South.

How are your acronyms? An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial components in a phrase or word. Usually, these components are individual letters, like “P.S.” for “postscript,” which is when something is to a main body of writing.

It was not like any mobile takeout order I’ve picked up any time recently.

I don’t care what the clocks say, I’m still getting up by my usual time: as the sun ascends the tree line and shoots its first shafts of light through the windows of my bedroom.

The S.C. Press Association’s Freedom of Information committee is near and dear to me.

Maybe the week that members of the S.C. House discussed the state’s $14 billion budget will be remembered as a tipping point for traditional Republicans. Maybe they now have become so sick and tired of the uber-right S.C. Freedom Caucus that they’ll start doing more to shut down the nuttiness.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I’d use today’s column to consider the shamrock. Not to be confused with the lucky four-leaved clover, the shamrock is the trifoliate symbol of Ireland. Saint Patrick is often depicted with the clover, and it is said he used its form to illustrate the…

“What have I done to cause my 18-month-old son to reject me?” asks a new dad. Whenever he tries to hold his son, feed, dress or change him, the child puts up great resistance and screams hysterically for his mother.