by Celia Rivenbark | Mar 27, 2023 | Weekly Column
American men are getting vasectomies in record numbers and the reason is as plain as the twin vertical lines on a positive pregnancy test: Last year, the Supreme Court abolished the constitutional right to abortion that had been in place for 50 years, allowing...
by Celia Rivenbark | Mar 20, 2023 | Weekly Column
A friend recently gave me an illustrated history of the small town I grew up in—Wallace, N.C.– and I still can’t believe what I saw while thumbing through the pages. Drag queens. Tons of ’em! And guess what else…They were, in many cases, the...
by Celia Rivenbark | Mar 13, 2023 | Weekly Column
A few years ago, I wrote a book called “You Don’t Sweat Much for a Fat Girl.” It was a “New York Times” bestseller, and I’ll always be convinced the in-your-face title was the biggest reason. Today, the folks obsessed with...
by Celia Rivenbark | Mar 6, 2023 | Weekly Column
When you’ve been married a long time, there’s just a natural evolution of how, and even where, you go to sleep. While neither Duh Hubby nor I curl up together at night–“Is that your foot? OMG, why is your foot on my side? Ewwwww!”...
by Celia Rivenbark | Feb 27, 2023 | Weekly Column
Every now and then I get nostalgic for the old days of TV weather updates when the scariest possible event was “black ice,” two words spoken in the gravest of tones by trusted forecasters. Black ice? Only a lunatic would leave the house with that...
by Celia Rivenbark | Feb 17, 2023 | Weekly Column
There are two foods Southerners are powerfully passionate about: barbecue and banana pudding. Let’s go ahead and stipulate Eastern North Carolina vinegar and red pepper-sauced barbecue is best and move on now to … wait… where did half of y’all go?...
by Celia Rivenbark | Feb 13, 2023 | Weekly Column
I thought it was charming when millennials embraced vinyl albums making turntables, amps and waist-high speakers cool again. Same when Gens X, Y and Z demonstrated a fondness for fondue, bell bottoms, lava lamps and shag rugs. But now the kids have gone...
by Celia Rivenbark | Feb 6, 2023 | Weekly Column
I’m generally a pretty optimistic person. Easily pleased and happily at the stage of life where I’m grateful for the little things. How little? Well, if I create a new password and I’m rewarded on the first try with “Strong!” my...
by Celia Rivenbark | Jan 30, 2023 | Weekly Column
It’s obvious to this Southern woman some of y’all in the Oval Office don’t know what a burn barrel is, and it shows. Every Southerner knows that’s where you put all the stuff you don’t need anymore (like, say, a classified document)...
by Celia Rivenbark | Jan 23, 2023 | Weekly Column
I’ve been thinking a lot about ’23 and me. Not the DNA kit that reveals you once dated your half-brother “on accident.” The year 2023. Will this be the year I figure out the perfect diet, for instance? I’m not talking about...