Community college assignment evovles into exhaustively researched book

Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” reaches No. 4 on Amazon Books Bestsellers List

Feature profile for The Commercial Appeal

February 21, 2010

For Rebecca Skloot, creative nonfiction professor at the University of Memphis, immortality is at hand with her new book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” (Crown, $26).

Born in Springfield, Ill., Skloot moved to Portland, Ore., early with her father, author Floyd Skloot, and mother, Betsy McCarthy, a hospital administrator and “professional knitter” who has published a book on the subject.

A self-proclaimed “derelict kid,” Skloot failed her first year of high school and didn’t excel academically until forced to attend community college at the age of 16 to make up high school credits.

“I had some issues with the traditional school system and eventually ended up at this alternative high school. … It was like a hippie school, like a holdover from Oregon in the ’60s, where we had dream studies instead of science,” she said … (read more)

The Palladio Group fundraiser aids Mid-South Food Bank

Corporate Giving story for The Commercial Appeal

February 19, 2010

The Palladio Group, a collection of nine entities representing art galleries, showrooms and antique shops in six buildings in Cooper-Young, recently donated $1,500 to the Mid-South Food Bank, a sum that equates to more than 3,500 meals.

“Traditionally at year-end we have done a customer appreciation where we pay the tax or hold an event, and it was nice, but we thought we could include someone else,” said Frank Roberts who, along with his wife, Mindy, owns The Palladio Group.

The fundraiser took place the last week of December and first week of January, a time that is notoriously quiet for nonprofits.

“The food bank is a worthwhile organization in our community and we thought it a particularly good time,” Roberts said … (read more)

Teacher star of the show at career day

Because I Said So column for The Commercial Appeal

February 18, 2010

I was invited to Richland Elementary School to speak to Ms. Darnell’s second-grade class for career day last week. I prepared for it much the way I prepare to write for this column, over a cup of coffee and at the last minute. I figured I’d wander into the classroom around noon or so, mug of coffee in hand and, possibly, in my bathrobe. Just like any freelance writer anywhere.

I didn’t, though. I woke at a respectable hour, showered and dressed presentably. And I finished my coffee at home.

Fifteen minutes trying to explain what you do and why you do it to 25 7-year-olds is daunting. Most kids, I think, don’t fully understand what their parents do every day once they leave the house. How do you describe human resource management or certified public accountant to a kid whose hero is a little two-dimensional, mustachioed man named Mario? If you were leaving the house each day to traipse through different worlds, squashing mushrooms and jumping on turtles, well, that would be easy. To this day, all I really know about my own mother’s career is that she does “something with computers.” . . . (read more)

No tired hang-ups here: Midtown shop reflects owner’s exuberance, expertise

Small business profile for The Commercial Appeal

February 15, 2010

The sign reads: It’s never too late to live happily ever after. Not only is the message a poignant one, but it is beautifully matted and framed as well.

For Danny Bubnick, happily ever after began at the end of last year when he opened Midtown Framer & Art at 1523 Union Ave.

“I’m feeling very good,” Bubnick said. “People are extremely supportive.”

Bubnick was manager for BA Framer in Midtown for 20 years until it closed, as did all its stores nationwide, in 2009. He brings his knowledge and a passion for the business to his new concern. When BA Framer announced its imminent closing, Bubnick knew he needed to act quickly and, while he looked elsewhere, he knew Midtown was where he needed to be.

“I didn’t want to lose customers and we wanted to work closely with artists,” he said.

Bubnick contacted property owner Jim Kinsinger about the 6,000 square foot space, known as Union House, and a four-year lease was signed for an undisclosed amount. Ten days after his previous employer closed its doors, Bubnick opened in his new home … (read more)

Memphian’s valentines spread love to people who don’t otherwise get any

Profile/human interest story for The Commercial Appeal

February 14, 2010

Dixie Brown is not your typical cupid. She has no wings, no bow and arrow, and cherubic may have been an adjective used to describe her more than five decades ago when she married and moved south from Brookline, Mass.

Yet every year since 1979, Brown has helped to put a smile on people’s faces by sending out hundreds of “penny cards” to the elderly, who normally may not receive anything on Valentine’s Day.

The cards started as an extension of her work with Sacred Heart Church here and her visitations with shut-ins.

“I met a retired first-grade teacher, and the good Lord whispered in my ear that I could send her a valentine,” Brown said, “and that year she got 25 of them and it tickled her.”… (read more)

Corporate Giving: Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation

Corporate Giving story for The Commercial Appeal

Leap of faith: Former commodities futures trader dives into market

My Profession business profile for The Commercial Appeal

Read it and weep: No shame in shedding a few tears, more men realize

Lifestyle feature for The Commercial Appeal

February 9, 2010

As the irascible Jimmy Dugan in 1992’s “A League of Their Own,” Tom Hanks shouts “Are you crying? There’s no crying. There’s no crying in baseball!”

In that scene, Hanks berates one of his players — a woman — who can’t keep it together. The women of that film’s World War II era were expected to be tough and to carry the burden for their absent husbands.

Today, as well, women are expected to be thick-skinned from the cubicle up to the boardroom. Mary Tyler Moore, in the early 1970s, may be the last known woman in America to cry unabashedly to her boss.

Once women began the big shift from the home sphere to the workplace, ideas about “ladylike” behavior began to shift as well. But what about our attitude toward men showing their softer side? … (read more)

Cozy fire a fine spot to ponder fatherhood

“Because I Said So” column for The Commercial Appeal

February 4, 2010

Can we make parenting a seasonal activity, like baseball or yard work?

I am not a winter parent. I’m pretty good in the spring and summer when I’m happy to get out and fill up the inflatable pool or work in the garden. Or at least to sit and watch the children doing those things nearby.

But in the winter, on days when the temperature can barely push above 20 degrees and ice is caked on the ground like it was last weekend, all I want is to lie around with a book in the ridiculously expensive heat we’re paying for. All I really want is for my kids to want to do the same thing.

They do not.

They want to go out and taste the ground cover, see the freeze up-close and throw it on each other. My fatherly instincts tell me that I should at least want to be out there with them, mixing it up on the lawn and putting together a snowman.

I do not … (read more)

Life in anti-mustache house requires stiff upper lip

Because I Said So column for The Commercial Appeal