Page 25 - Loran Smith News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Whenever I am in one of those long stretches of highway and cell coverage is spotty, my mind often takes to rambling. Recently, on a drive a couple hours south on U.S. 441, I kept noticing the variety of birds which seemed to saunter about on both sides of the highway. Crows are the easiest to identify. They always seem to be in abundance, which makes you aware — “if you look it up” — that crows can be found on every continent except South America and Antarctica.  Most any time of the year you can see doves or blackbirds perched on utility power lines. And on occasion, there may ...

Lately, I have had the good fortune to spend time with Gary Bertsch on his turf — his backyard, which is a becoming garden of greenery and blooms, befitting his lifestyle, his work, his seasoned view of the world and a life well-lived. He has a free-standing cottage in the back of his home on Henderson Avenue, which serves as his office and study. There is a wood-burning fireplace that gives off the warmth of inspiration. Books abound along with a few personal items, but it is not a showcase of his considerable accomplishments. Bertsch is a man who did some good for the world as a college ...

COLBERT — About five miles from this Madison County community, there is a residential enclave known as Hawk’s Landing, which is in Oglethorpe County — a place where you find homesteads of eight to 10 acres or more. There is a lake in one section of the development, which also has a creek that swells during the rainy season. Usually, Hawk’s Creek meanders with ripple effect at certain points and with unchained melody at others, eventually gathering lazy momentum as it passes under a covered bridge. There are big spreads and modest ones. The late country music artist Kenny Rogers own...

Making trips to New York has always brought about stirring emotions. You just cannot wait to get there, Manhattan being one of the most electrifying places there is. London, Paris and Rome each has its own uniqueness, but “the City” is unsurpassed when it comes to getting a buzz when you walk down the street. An annual trip in December, until COVID-19 hit, was on my calendar since the mid-70s. There is much to explore from museums (especially the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Madison Square Garden, the overall sports scene and the countless res...

Friends and family in the little village of Bridge, England, are in mourning today with the recent passing of Jasper Knight, an architect-builder with calloused hands and a generous heart. He had lived most of his adult life in Kent, the county bounded on the north by the River Thames and the North Sea and on the southeast by the Strait of Dover (the busiest shipping route in the world) and the English Channel. Kent, known as the Garden of England, showcases the most pleasant countryside with bountiful farms and orchards, alluring and charming country pubs and two-lane roads barely wide enoug...