Category: At Home
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A Knoxville Springtime
With winter receding, I spring to my camera to catch the first flowers. Although Cheri and I work hard at surrounding our house with flowers, the biggest and best displays involve no work at all. They just happen, courtesy of our trees: a Bradford pear along the street, and two large apple trees at the…
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Fifty Years of Fasting
I almost didn’t notice! This year (2014) is the fiftieth year I’ve participated in the annual 19-day Fast for members of the Baha’i Faith. The milestone nearly slipped past me. The Fast spans March 2-20, and it was just yesterday — the 16th — that I did the math and realized it’s now fifty years.…
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Knoxville Snow: First of 2014
Knoxville got hit this week with its first real snow of 2014. Shutterbug that I am, I couldn’t wait to document it with photos. Here they are! UPDATE: The snowfall pictured above, the week of January 29, was followed on February 12 by a much deeper and heavier snow. For comparison: Except for the animated…
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Happy Valentine’s Day
Dear friends and readers, Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. You are one and all loved by at least one very Astonished Tamale! Here’s hoping every one of you also is loved deeply and intensely by someone you love just as much. Speaking of astonishment: We’re pleased to note that for the second year in…
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Where We Left Off
“What’s going on with the Tamale?” Thus inquired my friend Patricia, just last night. As a subscriber to The Astonished Tamale!, she no doubt was puzzled at not having gotten any updates for the past four-and-and-half months. Okay, fasten your seat belts: It was May 8-9 when Zabine Van Ness and I returned to Seattle…
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Knoxville: Lover’s Lane for the Prematurely Old?
Can America’s most geriatric city top our nation’s “hot to trot” list? Yes, we can! Let’s contrast two hot-off-the-press news flashes: ITEM ONE: It’s official: During the run-up to Valentine’s Day 2012, we learn that America’s most romantic city is Knoxville, Tennessee, home of the famous Astonished Tamale! (Also the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, manytime national…