TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Something important is being lost. Each rising sun takes a little more from the couple who live in the small brick home southwest of downtown. Billy Varner has been married to Susie for 57 years, and as her life was once spent waiting on him to get home from a job that didn't know hours or days off, now it's spent managing his dementia. Each day brings its own reality. On the worst, Billy, who is 76, doesn't recognize Susie. He'll dress in the middle of the night and try to leave, his pajamas rolled up in his hand. Regularly, he refuses to believe that his old boss isn't at home waiting for a ride. Billy was Bear Bryant's driver, bodyguard and ... Continue reading →

Based on these buzzing, flyspecked, fluorescent poems, I’d guess that Mr. Robbins’s heart is not lovely but beating a bit arrhythmically; not dark but lighted by a dangling disco ball; not deep but as shallow and alert as a tidal buoy facing down a tsunami. Yet it’s a heart crammed full, like a goose’s liver, with pagan grace. This man can write. The quotation atop this review is of course a playful reference to Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Mr. Robbins knows that we know that he’s putting us on about his lovely heart. In this poem’s final lines he pulls the tablecloth from under the cutlery, in words that could serve as his book’s keynote: I kiss your trash. ... Continue reading →

it's unfortunate, but Grace Zabriskie (HBO's 'big love') looks like homicidal granny in @daily Continue reading →

I saw something on the news that’s freaking me out: Almost 4 percent of adults are prone to sleepwalking. What if I’m one of them!? What causes sleepwalking?Sleepwalking is also known as somnambulation. It falls into a category of parasomnias, which are weird things that can occur while you’re sleeping. Sleep-eating and even strange sexual activity — sexsomnia — are also examples of parasomnias, though simple sleepwalking is more common.You can sit up in bed; get out of bed; actually leave the house; drive a car. We’re talking about complex behaviors. You can do some incredibly weird stuff. And often, as you can imagine, it can be dangerous for yourself and others — mostly due to tripping and falling.All of us sleep approximately eight hours ... Continue reading →

Medical frontiers Our resident doctor discusses the latest in health news. This week: hard evidence of the elusive G-spot By Dr. Steven Lamm Tuesday, May 22, 2012 A recent study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine offered the first distinct anatomic evidence of the long-debated female erogenous zone know as the G-spot. According to Dr. Adam Ostrzenski of the Institute of Gynecology, the G-spot is a sac-like structure made of erectile tissue, measuring 8.1 mm in length and located in the dorsal perineal membrane of the front vaginal wall. Critics counter that Ostrzenski’s study — based on a single dissection — lacks histological evidence and leaves the G-spot’s existence scientifically unresolved.Well, I knew it was somewhere. I originally thought the G-spot was located near Tiffany ... Continue reading →

Caution! These pictures are not for the faint of heart. From top, the painful, infected wound that brought Watts to the hospital; the same wound hours later after doctors cut and scraped away inches of rotting tissue; and Watts’ calf weeks later, healing with a new skin graft from his thigh.Click here for imagesThe doctors say it lives on your skin, waiting for an opening. They say once it gets inside, your fate comes down to a dice roll. It doesn’t always turn your guts to slurry; sometimes you get off with a sore throat. Sometimes it doesn’t do anything at all. They might even admit that it doesn’t always need an open wound. People have been known to sicken and die from a bruise, ... Continue reading →

As an album-length act of contrition, “Born and Raised,” John Mayer’s album out tomorrow, is not bad. All of the material of his 2010 spin-out seems to have transmogrified into self-reflection; the humbled singer Mayer presents on “Born and Raised” is a 180 from who he seemed to be when we last saw him two years ago.Given that his music had taken a back seat to the antics that got him on the cover of tabloids, there is no better way for him to get his original audience back than to make his case through his music. “Shadow Days” quotes a guitar phrase from Bob Seger’s “Mainstreet” — a song about nostalgia for youth. It’s Mayer’s mea culpa, a petition for forgiveness, for empathy, not ... Continue reading →

THE JERK JOHN MAYER HAS HAD MORE THAN HIS SHARE OF BAD MOMENTS IN PUBLIC BY JESSICA HOPPER Monday, May 21, 2012 In a few short years, John Mayer went from platinum-selling white bluesman to tabloid fodder to a possibly racist douchebag. After an infamous Playboy interview where Mayer used the n-word, offered sexual details about his ex Jessica Simpson and compared his penis to the former Grand Wizard of the KKK he quietly — and wisely — quit Twitter and traded the spotlight for seclusion in Montana. This week Mayer returns with his new album, so we take a look at the run-up to the downfall.Those too-public breakups: Regardless of your opinion about either woman, his breakups with Jessica Simpson (2007: poolside at a ... Continue reading →

THAT’S SO MAYER BY EMMA BARKER Monday, May 21, 2012 John Mayer’s new album is … fine. And when an album is fine, its singer is faced with two equally likely scenarios: drop off the map or enjoy a blinkingly brief popularity resurgence. In case of crash-and-burn, we picked a few potential Mayer-esque replacements who have been in our hearts and minds (and on our screens) lately.Phillip Phillips, “American Idol”The obvious choice thanks to his looks, his sound and his penchant for strange singing expressions. Check him out on the “American Idol” season finale on Wednesday on Fox.David, “The Bachelorette”For his intro on “The Bachelorette,” self-proclaimed singer-songwriter David crooned a song he penned himself. It was pretty rough, but the sole lyric was “Emily,” so ... Continue reading →