The summer of 1952 was a defining year of my life. Up until that summer, I was a typical young Nebraska farm boy, full of energy, loved baseball, loved my mother's fried chicken and gravy, loved her home made (everything was) rhubarb cobbler and had no worries about keeping up with the Joneses; the Joneses didn't have anything either. ...more

October 21, 2009

I am an angry, loyal Publix shopper and have shopped there for over 40 years. I learned about the closing of the Avon Park store in the newspaper, and a Publix spokesperson confirmed this. Part of her rationale for closing the store is that "it doesn't make sense to have two stores only four and a half miles apart." Sebring now has two stores about five miles apart, Lake Wales has two stores about five miles apart and Winter Haven has two stores about five miles apart. Avon Park shoppers who are accustomed to running by their neighborhood Publix to pick up a gallon of milk or a box of fried chicken, on their way home from work, will now have to buy their goods at Winn-Dixie or Wal-Mart, neither of whom carries products of the same quality as Publix's goods; or they can drive all the way to Sebring. ...more

April 18, 2009

This week's rollout of KFC's grilled chicken product is the company's most ambitious attempt to win over health-conscious customers as the chain known worldwide for fried chicken tries to reinvigorate lackluster U.S. sales. ...more

April 15, 2009

It took Wayne Tompkins about five minutes to fatally strangle his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter. ...more

February 12, 2009

Rama Patterson of Tampa saw a request for a spreadable tuna mold from June Seaton of Tampa in this column a few weeks back. After searching around, she found a mold that sounds similar to what Seaton was looking for. The recipe runs below. ...more

January 4, 2009

"I Get So Hungry," by Bebe Moore Campbell (Putnam Juvenile, $17) ...more

December 28, 2008

When my three daughters were still living at home, I'd get the same burning question from at least one of them late in the afternoon each day. ...more

November 5, 2008

PLANT CITY A local favorite, the Southern Star Bluegrass band, will entertain Saturday at a fundraising picnic at First United Methodist Church of Plant City, 303 N. Evers St. ...more

September 23, 2008

Most big companies have a Great Wall of Vending in their break rooms. At the Tribune, we have a Soft Drink Treadmill, in which a rotating belt raises up to the bottle before sliding and lowering it into a dispensing pocket. We also have the Carbohydrate Free-Fall, from which an assortment of snack foods wedged in a corkscrew are pushed to their doom from various heights. We also have a rotating carousel of refrigerated entree items that I call the Wheel of Death. The WOD offers food that should never be sold in a vending environment. Like Riblets (described on the wrapper as "boneless pork rib-shaped patties). Like Lonesome Cowboy Sandwich. (Mmmm, tasty cowboy.) Or the creatively named So Good So Good. (It looked so bad, so bad that I didn't buy it.) Last week's lowlight: a Fried Chicken Snacker. Not sure what part of the chicken the snacker comes from, but it tasted like it was swathed in a soggy Kleenex. ...more

July 2, 2008

When Jacqueline and Kenny Conley decided to throw a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, they drew inspiration from the Ybor City business they run, the International Bazaar. ...more

January 20, 2008