Beech Tree News Network

In 1964, a group named The Vibrations had a song called “My Girl Sloopy”.  One year later, The McCoys had a #1 hit with the song.  They changed the title to “Hang On Sloopy”.  The Vibrations’ original reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart when it was originally released in 1964, marking

  I still have all my Christmas decorations in place, because Christmas hasn’t come to a conclusion at the Hughes house.  I keep forging ahead, but I’ve got to tell you that my brain has whiplash.

Everybody was supposed to be here.  Our daughters, their husbands, our granddaughter.  I cooked, Garey cleaned.  I bought more groceries the week before Christmas than I’d bought the previous month.  My granddaughter helped me carry them in and put them in the fridge, the pantry, a box on a shelf in the sunroom for the spillovers.  

Welcome to the 2024 installment of the Big Dummy Awards! 2024 was a very exciting year.  By exciting, I mean stupid.  Just how stupid was 2024?

Carrie Bradshaw said, “I’m not a chef. I’m just someone who likes to eat.” I’m not a chef either. I like to cook, but I’m not a perfect cook. I’ve made many, many cooking mistakes over the years.  Thinking about my cooking experiences, I asked friends and family: “Do you like to cook? What’s your favorite go-to recipe? Have you had any memorable mishaps in the kitchen?” Their responses are listed below.

For 2024, I took the Penny Challenge.  It goes like this:  You start by saving one penny on day one (Jan. 1st), two pennies on day two, three pennies on day three and so on.  Each day, you increase the number of pennies you save by one until day 365, when you will save $3.65.  By the end of the year (Dec. 31st), you will have saved a total of $667.95 (greenlight.com).

Tis the season for music-Christmas music.  Most songs, many of us know by heart: “White Christmas”, “Santa Claus is Coming To Town”, the list of familiar and beloved tunes goes on and on.  But there’s perhaps no work of classical music more tied to the Christmas holiday than “Handel’s Messiah”.

I’ve noticed trees that hold on to their leaves all winter and often asked myself, “Why are they holding on to those dead leaves?"  I decided it was time to investigate.  It turns out there is a word for the cause that keeps leaves holding on to those trees when their friends have long ago let go.  The word is marcescence, and there are legitimate reasons for this process.

In Kentucky, agriculture is economic development.  After being sworn in as Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner in January 2024, this was the message I wanted to spread across the state.  Creating more market value for farmers strengthens Kentucky's agriculture infrastructure, which strengthens Kentucky's future.  It's a simple, but powerful idea. In 2024, we created pathways to bring the message that the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) is deeply invested in advancing agriculture and ensuring the long-term prosperity of farming families across the state.

This column might feel like when Clark Griswold was quizzing his kids about Christmas facts while going to get the Griswold Family Christmas Tree at the beginning of Christmas Vacation.  Hey, kids, does anyone know the date of the first recorded Christmas celebration? December 25, 336 A, D.

I had assumed the song “Do You Hear What I Hear?” was an old, near-ancient song. I was wrong. In October 1962, Noel Regney wrote the lyrics, and Gloria Shayne, his wife, wrote the music. The song has become a Christmas classic.