Over the last 40 years, Americans have become increasingly aware of the importance of diet and nutrition. Extensive efforts have been put forth to discover and utilize the most beneficial foods to optimize health.

Shenandoah University and Blue Ridge Habitat for Humanity are teaming up to provide information on how older adults can remain longer in their homes as they age.

Hooray. Hallelujah.

Riley Naldrett didn’t want the usual gifts this Christmas. Instead, she asked her parents to use the money they would have spent on her to buy gifts for children in the Pediatric Unit at Winchester Medical Center.

I hesitate to open the new year with a column that complains about the weather, but this is not a complaint about the weather — this is a column about hope and fear.

Sidney Rubenstein was in Hawaii for a semester with the Culinary Institute of America when he decided that being a restaurant line chef wasn’t for him. 

It’s that time of year again — we get a new start. The last day of December is approaching, and a new month, a new year, will begin on Jan. 1, 2023.

I must share this information with you even though the words may shock.

Robert W. Bowman Jr.’s whiskers are real, but they take a lot of preparation to make him look like Santa Claus.

You know how sometimes you get a song stuck in your head? I am not sure about you, but sometimes I wake in the middle of the night humming (it might not sound like humming, but it is) a song – a song I might not have heard in 20 or 30 years. Sometimes only the refrain reverberates in my noct…

Want to know which houses and neighborhoods have the best Christmas lights?

Eight of Frederick County Fire and Rescue’s newest recruits shed a combined 180 pounds during a six-month training program through Onelife Fitness of Winchester.

WINCHESTER — Feeding people experiencing financial hardships involves more than handing them a box of free food. You also have to make sure the food you're providing meets their cultural and dietary requirements and is distributed from a location that can be easily accessed by people who can…

You’ve hit a seasonal snag.

Look to local businesses to fill Christmas stockings this year – the most memorable gifts can come in the tiniest packages.

MIDDLETOWN — It’s a special thing to watch an expert work at their craft, and now guests at Middletown’s historic Wayside Inn at 7783 Main St. can do just that thanks to two new additions to the inn's leadership staff.

WOODSTOCK — At a Friday Christmas party and visit with Santa at Shenandoah Memorial Hospital’s Outpatient Rehabilitation Services, Blair Jones, 10, and her sister, Cora, 6, had the chance to build gingerbread houses, make ornaments, do penguin bowling and trace “gingerbread selfies” of thems…

There are a couple of things a home just cannot be without. Now, I am not talking about indoor plumbing, electricity and the internet. No, I am talking about the real necessities in a house — things that are so necessary that without these vital gadgets, the house just might fall down.

It’s the season of the Christmas parade — it’s almost as if we need to add another day of the week just so we can add another parade — or add another day in order to be able to visit all the parades planned around the holiday season.

The halls at Belle Grove Plantation are decked with Christmas decor, and from today through Dec. 30 will invite the public to tour its rooms, feel the holiday cheer and get inspired for their own decorative efforts.

WOODSTOCK — When the fire alarm sounds today, a department might be taken completely by surprise if the entire community showed up at the station ready to serve, but 200 years ago when Shenandoah County’s first fire department was organized, the alarm bell’s peal called the entire town to th…

This holiday season, avoid the stress of not knowing what to give the person who seems to have everything by visiting a local flower shop or garden center.

On a cold Wednesday December morning in 2021, I was out for my walk/run through Toms Brook.

There’s no need to whine about not knowing which wines to buy for holiday dinners and gifts this year. We reached out for some tips from local wine expert Mike Good, who owns an online wine company, timelesswines.com, as well as the Timeless Wines retail store in Middletown.

Package shipping pros are advising holiday shoppers not to dawdle on shipping gifts to family and friends living in other states, countries, or in the military.

Opening presents is a holiday tradition, but it can come with a few drawbacks — namely all the stuff that comes out of those gift boxes. This stuff will undoubtedly fill your house with clutter and have you tripping over it on your way to the couch or kitchen.

Now as a writer, I enjoy playing with words and learning the history and nuances of words — not only in English but in other languages.

When Susie Jett started working at the Woodstock Community Theatre in 1972, she and the other employees were paid $5 per night regardless of how many hours they worked at the movie theater.

Veterans, college students and teenagers who have lost military parents bonded over video games on Friday at Shenandoah University’s esports arena during the Veterans Day Valorant Invitational and Smash Bros Open.

WOODSTOCK — World War II veteran Norm Peryea, 95, recalls being on a tanker in the Pacific when the Japanese surrendered.

This past week, my dear father-in-law, James Currie Jr., a World War II veteran who served in the Pacific Theater, celebrated his 98th birthday with 98 balloons from friends and family. Besides being a man who willingly gave his time and several years of his youth to preserve American freedo…

As adults we are faced with all these daily burdens — oh good grief. So many things to bother us.

Several weeks back, as we collected pictures for our son’s marriage, I searched albums, and turning the pages, I stumbled over a picture of this 10-year-old boy casting a fishing line into the Shenandoah River.


Visiting Kimberly’s in downtown Winchester is a holiday experience not to be missed.

The winter holiday season is nigh and a butcher shop tucked away in the Shenandoah County countryside is gearing up for December, its busiest month.

In dozens of homes, on hundreds of shelves, throughout the Shenandoah Valley there rests the generational histories of families — births, marriages, deaths — recorded in family Bibles.

I’m not one to boast, but I solved the daily world map challenge in just one try — yes, an accomplishment for even the most experienced players, so I brag: I got 100%, confetti sliding down the phone screen marking my accomplishment for…well, for me to see.

Let me tell you a sad story – a story of loss and rudeness. It’s a story to remind readers to never be swayed by cuteness when cute comes from the "other side of the tracks." You’ve heard the old saying about how the "other side of the tracks" can be dangerous. Well, I am here to tell you th…

HARRISONBURG – If the White Rabbit were to rush into her new tea room, Doe Polanz would hop to pour him a steaming cup of his favorite tea.

WINCHESTER — There never has been, and maybe never will be, a better female country singer than Patsy Cline, country superstar Clay Walker believes.

EDINBURG — At the center of any county’s history there exists a legal structure whose laws have morphed and evolved over hundreds of years. Shenandoah County, currently celebrating its 250th anniversary, finds itself to be no different.

You know, I teach college composition — a very academic and serious place where research is king. I have become very prescriptive with writing — all clauses in the correct order, all citations marked according to regulations, and no texting language allowed — unless some student wants to see…

I admit it. I am guilty.

Sometimes we just cannot exist without our partner, that true friend, or right-hand that seems to belong beside us. Others may try, but they can’t break relationship’s bond.

There is a ton of junk in my attic because I like collecting things; the most important remains the stack of newspapers collected for eons.

Four little lambs born in rural Frederick County are now living the good life in the heart of New York City.

MIDDLETOWN — For woodworker Jerome Bias, building and teaching about period furnishings is a way of honoring his ancestors who were impacted by slavery.

As fall creeps into the Valley, the colorful smears of the autumn paint brush are visible across the mountain caps. Even though the rains of the last week have kept the trees and lawns green, high above the other trees, the walnut and the locust have started to stroke their leaves with seaso…

The summer of 2022 forever will be known in my house as the summer of blood, sweat and tears — three months governed by a spur-of-the-moment decision in June followed by hot, humid days and vexing bug bites that left a trail of bloody scratch marks all over my legs and arms.