These days there’s a lot of negativity about “seed oils”. According to some of the social media “influencers”, seed oils are ones made from: canola, corn, cottonseed, soybeans, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, flaxseed, and sesame seeds. 

Like a lot of middle-aged-to-older Americans during the holiday season, I’m a person with a healthy nostalgic streak.

I’m trying to get a little work done early one morning, sipping on my first cup of coffee, still in bed, laptop open but nudged up on one side by a persistent miniature dachshund burrowing ever deeper under the blankets. It’s a cold, rainy day, a good one for working from home if you ask me. 

When her husband lost his battle with cancer, Lindey Herrington was living in a 1,800-square-foot house in Lakeland, Florida, where the couple had made their home for two-plus decades. After his death, it didn’t take her long to decide that she needed a change.

The sun is lowering toward a perfect spring evening as the crew from Fox Sports’ “Anglers & Appetites” pulls onto a gravel patch alongside the Tuckasegee River. 

“This is what spring is supposed to feel like,” says the show’s co-host Dave Zelski.

In the days leading up to the Super Bowl, avid Panthers’ fan David Francis came up with a novel approach to quantifying local interest in the big game this year, which hit a fever pitch given a home-state team in the lineup.

Scott McCleskey didn’t really know what he was saying yes to when he boarded the plane to Alaska, pack of gear in hand, to take his place on the National Geographic Channel show “Ultimate Survival Alaska.”

All he knew was that he’d done a Skype interview for the slot, later fielded a call telling him to keep his hair long and eventually been given the nod to compete on the show — provided he could be up north within two weeks.

Jackson County commissioners may start broadcasting their meetings, bringing to the masses the nitty gritty of local government — tax collection reports, committee appointments, budget shuffling of low-level line items, and the not-to-be missed community proclamations, like the one in honor of Firefighter’s Week that passed nothing short of unanimously in September.

Lights, camera … Haywood County? 

During the past two years, a local reality show has become a phenomenon that’s being broadcast into homes across the country and beyond. The program is “Hillbilly Blood: A Hardscrabble Life,” and it features Western North Carolina outdoor survival experts Spencer Bolejack and Eugene Runkis.

By Peggy Manning • Correspondent

Two Western North Carolina preachers were chosen for an episode of the new Picked Off television series, pitting their talents against other “pickers” searching for items they hope will bring the best price.

The Revs. Stacy Woods, pastor of Iotla Baptist Church in Franklin, and his best friend, Kris Estep, who is pastor of Barberville Baptist Church in Waynesville, both have backgrounds in antiques and auctions. Both are also fans of the American Pickers television series.