Downtown Erwin fills with vendor tents this Friday and Saturday, when the Unicoi County Apple Festival packs in more than 400 stalls. Almost none of them sell a written recipe. Grandmothers taught much of Tennessee’s home cooking standing at a stove, by feel, and the knowledge never left the room where it started. These are…
A recent AutoPacific survey found that half of car shoppers say today’s vehicles pack in so much screen content that it feels unsafe. These are the new car technology features that leave Hoosiers, and Americans everywhere, asking “Why?” 1. Front-Passenger Screens Front-passenger screens have shown up on trucks and SUVs that never used to have…
National Good Neighbor Day fell on September 28 this week. But as all too many of us know, not all neighbors are good neighbors. Many people never see their rake or screw driver again once they let someone borrow it. These are the tool-borrowing habits that end Bay Stater friendships. Note: This is general information,…
Columbus now outweighs Cleveland by more than two to one in population, according to the Census Bureau’s newest count. Residents refuse to call that settled. These are the harmless rivalries Ohioans take very seriously. 1. Skyline Chili vs. Gold Star Chili Skyline Chili and Gold Star Chili turned one bowl of Cincinnati chili into a…
Tulsa-born QuikTrip turned 68 this year. For many Oklahomans, no other chain comes close. These are the things Oklahomans will only buy at one convenience chain. 1. Freezoni QuikTrip keeps a machine behind the counter that pours a frozen drink under one name only: The Freezoni. Other gas stations sell a frozen soda in a…
Georgia’s and South Carolina’s state park systems can’t agree on the name of a lake they share. That’s just one example of when these two states aren’t willing to budge. These are the arguments Georgia and South Carolina have never settled. 1. Whose Barbecue Sauce Wins South Carolina treats barbecue sauce as a birthright worth…
Order hash browns at Waffle House, and the cook expects you to speak a language nobody teaches you at home. One wrong word puts a topping on your plate that you never asked for, and the ticket’s already on the grill before anyone can catch it. These are the hash brown orders South Carolinians get…
About 1,600 more Rhode Islanders packed up for another state than moved in from one last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest population count. Only overseas arrivals kept the state’s population from shrinking. These are the reasons Rhode Islanders are leaving the state they grew up in. Note: This is general information, not…
Utah’s “Mighty 5” campaign makes the state sound like America’s national-parks leader. But the National Park Service ranks it third nationally, behind California and Alaska. Third is a strong showing. Nevertheless, out-of-staters arrive with ideas about Utah that don’t hold up, and the parks ranking is just the first place reality catches up with them….
A driver crossing Nevada on U.S. Route 50, the highway Life magazine nicknamed “the loneliest road in America” back in 1986, passes a boarded gas station and a hand-painted population sign nobody has repainted in years. Many Nevadans live nowhere near it. More than 88% of Nevada’s 3.35 million residents live in just two counties,…
