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Stone Soup
One of the finest stories in folklore concerns a wandering minstrel who comes to a strange town with nothing but an empty belly, empty cauldron, and a clean and well-worn stone. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
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Jacob Dudley photo
Knoxville: From Scruffy to Cool
When Knoxville, Tennessee was chosen to host the 1982 World’s Fair, the Wall Street Journal declared it “the scruffy little city on the Tennessee River,” and suggested low attendance. Turns out, that fair drew more than 11 million people. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
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Quilting Reflects Creative Culture
Quilting inspiration is all around Deb Heatherly’s home studio just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Western North Carolina. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
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Finding My Zen Moment at a Dude Ranch
Tension fills the air as I work to get everything in place to spend a half week at the French Broad Outpost Dude Ranch. In retrospect, I wish we had opted for the full week experience. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
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Andrew Cebulka photo
The Magic of Mushrooms
Mushrooms, once considered a fungal anomaly when compared to more aesthetically appealing foods, have moved to the forefront as a culinary and medicinal treasure. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
Regional Content:
Stone Soup
One of the finest stories in folklore concerns a wandering minstrel who comes to a strange town with nothing but an empty belly, empty cauldron, and a clean and well-worn stone. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
Photo courtesy The History Press
‘Family Comes First’
Consider the word delicatessen. It means “delicacies”: cooked meats, prepared salads, specialty dishes to eat in a restaurant or take home. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
Glimpsing the Back Story of a Town’s Restaurant History
Nan Chase says the suggestion for a book about restaurants that once existed in Asheville puzzled her. “Why would anyone want to read about businesses that are gone now?” she thought. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
Show Me Something Higher
It’s 2:54 a.m. in the rural backwoods of Virginia and Vince Herman hands me a shot of high-end tequila. With his trademark Cheshire Cat grin, Herman then pours himself a shot, soon raising it into the air in honor of another incendiary performance. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
Waiting for the Sun
My appreciation for worms began at a young age. I can’t give an exact date of origin, but I can say that one of the most exciting days of my fourth year was the time my parents’ basement flooded, attracting an influx of worms to carpet the floor. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
NPS photo
A Conversation with the Smokies’ History Guardian
Baird Todd has done collections and museum curation work at National Park Service units across the country, but since November 2016 he’s been the curator at the at the National Park Service Collections Preservation Center in Townsend, Tennessee. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
Weathering the Oncoming Storm
Our climate is changing. It is estimated that the temperature was hotter for 98% of the Earth during the 20th century than at any time during the last 2,000 years, and this heat wave is rising at an unprecedented rate. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
The Ghosts Inside Ourselves
Buddhism. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The stoicism of Marcus Aurelius. Coyotes. Ghosts who haunt a cove with a history of disaster and violence. Fractured lives undergoing repair. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
‘Let the Mountain People Tell Their Own Stories’
The world of cultural research in the Great Smoky Mountains lost one of its foremost scholars with the passing of Dr. Michael Montgomery on July 24, 2019. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
Our Garden Snake
On the television news, a herpetologist explained that September was the time for baby black rat snakes to hatch from their leathery eggs. He brought a mother snake and her hatchlings with him to the studio. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
Quilting Reflects Creative Culture
Quilting inspiration is all around Deb Heatherly’s home studio just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Western North Carolina. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
Finding My Zen Moment at a Dude Ranch
Tension fills the air as I work to get everything in place to spend a half week at the French Broad Outpost Dude Ranch. In retrospect, I wish we had opted for the full week experience. Read more
Feb 1, 2020
12:00 AM
