Stories

Blink Book Review: “Life in Five Senses” by Gretchen Rubin

Is there anything that we take for granted more than the power of our five senses? Gretchen Rubin’s new book, “Life in Five Senses, How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World,” stunned me out of complacency. It reminded me about the riches we overlook daily because we fail to pay full attention to what we are seeing, tasting, touching, smelling and hearing. Gretchen studies the five senses through…

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From diploma to today: 20 lessons shared

USC’s graduation this weekend makes me realize it’s been 40 years since my graduation with the best speaker possible for a journalism school grad – Walter Cronkite! Several days after graduation, I packed my car heading to DC to start my first job as a Congressional receptionist. In looking back, I tried to remember if I was concerned that my first job mainly involved answering phones, giving tours and driving my boss to the airport.…

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Where’s the Objectivity? A panel discussion

A lively crowd of more than 70 gathered on April 25 at Still Hopes Retirement Community for a panel discussion featuring three local media professionals discussing the topic of “Where’s the Objectivity” in news gathering and dissemination in today’s world. Harry Logan, former managing editor for the Florence Morning News and The State; Jay Bender, attorney for the SC Press Association; and Reba Campbell, communications strategist and president of The Medway Group, participated in a…

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Blink Book Review: “It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs” by Mary Louise Kelly

The books I enjoy the most typically sit unfinished with one chapter to go. They deliciously hang out in my reading stack or on my audio book list the same way the last bite of my favorite chocolate cookie sits wrapped up on the counter. I savor the thought of it. I visit it occasionally. I conjure up visions of slowly consuming that last morsel. “It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs” is one…

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Behind the media scenes at the trial of the century

Huge shout-out to the leadership of SCPRSA for their wildly successful professional development conference on April 19! It was my first time being back among a large group of communications professionals since COVID started. I sure have missed my professional networks! I had the pleasure of facilitating a panel with City of Walterboro, SC officials who successfully navigated the media onslaught during the recent Murdaugh trial. Panelists were Mayor Bill Young, City Manager Jeff Molinari,…

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Blink Book Review: “Women Holding Things”

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. That’s one of the many reasons I walked out of Square Books in Oxford, MS, recently with writer and illustrator Maira Kalman’s newest book,“Women Holding Things.” I knew her of art only because one of her paintings depicting a soulful basset hound graced the cover of Strunk and White’s latest edition of “The Elements of Style.” That dog enticed me to upgrade my college-issued version of this grammar…

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The magic and mess of a blank page

I started the year trying to resume the discipline of keeping a handwritten journal. This process of deliberately writing by hand has reminded me how it so often results in a flow that’s very different from writing using a keyboard. This got me to thinking about a poem I’d written several years ago about writing by hand On the first day of a writer’s workshop, the instructor said we would be writing by hand. Write…

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