Dolly Parton on Dollywood

Dolly Parton, dressed in a sequined lilac pantsuit with black piping and matching butterfly wings, stood on an outdoor stage on a recent Friday morning. Behind her was a 52-foot sculpture of a “Wildwood Tree,” with 620 acrylic butterflies. She was commemorating Wildwood Grove, a new six-acre addition to Dollywood, her theme park in Pigeon…

New Men’s Underwear, Briefly

Here’s a news flash: Guys don’t like shopping for underwear. Luckily, the same retail forces that disrupted razors, eyeglasses, luggage, mattresses and hair-loss treatments, have set their sights on men’s drawers. In the last decade, a handful of upstart labels are trying to dethrone old faithfuls like Hanes and Calvin Klein. Hate going to the…

Becoming a Digital Grandparent

Emerging from a theater on a recent Sunday, I turned on my phone and found a flurry of texts from my daughter. My 2-year-old granddaughter had just smashed her thumb in a closing restaurant door. Wincing, I read on: They were headed for an urgent care clinic. They were waiting for X-rays. The thumb was…