08/16/2008

Donna Fielder: Terror in the skies
I traveled with a terrorist and lived to tell. There has been much discussion of late about the definition of a terrorist. This is not a subject for fun, and I don’t mean to make light of the word. Still, I can’t think of any other term for Malcolm, who occupied the seat next to mine on a plane from New York.

08/10/2008

Donna Fielder: Imperfect things still need the perfect name
His name is Ranger, but I call him many things, some of which I can’t print in a family-oriented newspaper. I put off getting a kitten for a while after Roy died, but visions of a tiny bundle of fur bouncing around my house finally convinced me to take the uniquely colored kitten when friends offered him to me.

08/02/2008

From tutu to journalism: Tom Shuford shined bright
In my mind, Tom Shuford will always wear a pink tutu. He was adorable, lumbering around in his white tights with coarse black leg hair crawling out the woof and weave. And he was confident enough to pull off the look.

07/26/2008

Donna Fielder: Sense isn’t common in children
Last week’s incident that involved a 5-year-old boy leaving a child care center unnoticed and walking half a mile to Hooters inspired discussion in the newsroom. The boy’s parents arrived and could not find him, and the caregivers had no clue where he was or how long he’d been gone. The parents were terrified and called 911 for help.

07/20/2008

Donna Fielder: Banana diet proves slippery to follow
I did not lose 17 pounds in a week on the banana diet as promised. And I was faithful. Well, mostly. As faithful as a woman involuntarily confined to fruits and vegetables can be. I even made the cabbage soup you’re supposed to slurp every time you make a wrong turn into a Sonic Drive-In slot.

07/13/2008

Donna Fielder: Wet gnome brings back science fair nightmare
She was speaking of my test gnome, the one I covered with oil paints before my ground-breaking gnome-painting party last month. After four days of failed drying tactics, including hanging him head-down from the ceiling fan, I unstuck him from a blade — dizzy and still tacky — and bought acrylic paint for the other two dozen little pointy-eared men who needed a fresh coat of gnome color.

07/06/2008

Donna Fielder: Feeling of desperation brings back offbeat diet
“OK, I’m desperate,” I told my friend Sherry on the phone the other day. “I’m going on the banana diet. Want to do it with me?”And just before the first shrill notes of a primal scream deafened me, I remembered. Oh yeah, we tried that diet together once before.

06/29/2008

Donna Fielder: Paint party puts spark back into gnomes
My gnomes are happy again, nestled in their secret garden, bright and clean with new paint on their big pointy ears. And all it took was five determined women, a fifth of rum, a few key limes and, oh yeah, acrylic paint. You remember the gnomes. They started appearing on my doorstep a few months after my husband died. It was as though dozens of rejects from Travelocity ads that didn’t get to fall off cliffs in some far-off clime wound up at my house.