Archive • Lucy's Used-to-be-a-TinyLetter • Buttondown

I love watching movies, and have probably about 200 DVDs. Tonight, I decided to watch one I haven’t seen for a while, so picked Philadelphia, for which Tom...

For Yancey residents...

Mark Friday, October 17 on your calendars for another great RuthFest - a cornbread-making contest. There will be cash prizes for the winners, and raffle...

There Comes a Time (Part Two)

If I weren’t so curious about the contents of the old letters I’ve been sorting, the sorting could go a whole lot faster. As it stands, I finished only one...

Tales of Mystery and Imagination

I’ve been going through the 400-ish books on my various bookshelves, donating many in good shape to friends who have bought the bookstore uptown. My friend...

Wisconsin, Wisconsin, rhubarb, rhubarb, and...

During high school, our drama director - Jon Aceto, a handsome man just 10 years old than we sophomores (he was also my homeroom teacher), told us that...

Why would a mermaid have a gun?

I’ll get to that in a bit. Remember in the last ButtonDown I wrote about all the letters I’ve received and hung on to? Well, I briefly thought then about...

There comes a time...

…when you look around and think, “I have too much stuff.” And if, like me, you are sentimental and/or think your stuff represents you, you struggle with...

April 6, continued...

I meant to mention that Amanda Martin was not just on the committee, but the person we could count on to deliver the exactly right message when confronted...

April 6, 2010 - fifteen years ago today...

…Burnsville voters came out and voted for or against alcohol sales. The “for” won by a comfortable margin. We were the ones who understood that - with beer...

Warning, Will Robinson! This is long!

It’s time to clear off my fabric-and-ribbon padded bulletin board above my computer desk. I can’t remember the last time I did it, but judging by the look of...

I'm fairly certain I seized the wrong day.

That is what is printed on the front of a journal sent to me by my friend Susan C. I haven’t made any entries in it yet. My handwriting is so atrocious, even...

I thought I’d read somewhere that Robin Williams had been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, so of course I DuckDuckGo’d it. He did, but it wasn’t diagnosed...

Hot Burnsville News!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-plott-hound-books-start-a-new-chapter Plott Hound Books in uptown Burnsville will shortly be run by a new management team....

Apparently you CAN reply to a ButtonDown and it goes to my fastmail. Last week, a friend with gmail said he replied to a couple, but I didn’t get them. Just...

Before I forget...

Hi, all. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks here. Seems like spring has sprung prematurely…the weather is unseasonably warm, and things that shouldn’t...

…I don’t get your emails if you respond to one of these ButtonDowns. I wish I could have Tinyletter back. =sigh= So, please email lucydoll@fastmail.com if...

"Lists must be made."

February 15, 2025

By uttering that sentence aloud, I woke myself up from a deep sleep this morning. I’d just had a two-part dream: first, sitting alone in a large old...

Moving right along to the plot...

February 13, 2025

(And a request - see below…) As I gird my loins for the near-ish new future, I ignored today the list I’d started with Important Things To Do, and went...

Still Gonna Die...

February 12, 2025

Probably 30 or more years ago, when I still lived in Deland, Florida, I was a regular at the Wednesday farmers’ market at the Volusia County fairgrounds....

January 27, 2025

[I started this ButtonDown a week ago, so it’s a bit off, time-wise.] My friend Buffy, who in responding to the last ButtonDown, reminded me I had visited...

Lewy, Lewy! Oh baby! We gotta go!

January 20, 2025

(In my last ButtonDown - around Thanksgiving time, I said “I’ll tell you tomorrow” if putting that whatever-it-was-that-wasn’t-a-candy-roaster into the...

A Non-Martha Stewart Thanksgiving...

November 28, 2024

…but I doubt she’ll enjoy hers as much as I’ll enjoy mine, considering. (I think I have the best friends to share it with.) I’ve never seen her show, but...

Unreliable narrator of my autobiography...

November 25, 2024

Apparently it slipped what’s left of my mind that I had a great Christmas last year with my neighbors! We cooked and ate and watched movies. I recall none of...

Lips on the bottle, hand on the phone...

November 24, 2024

Before you all start thinking, “Oh my God, she’s getting drunk and going to call old boyfriends” - something I’ve never done - that’s just a lyric from a...

No end to crazy - yet

November 12, 2024

The owner of a big, absolutely sweet puppy I’ve been boarding for a few days just picked him up. The experience reminded me that my specialty is older dogs;...

And on the sixth week...

November 3, 2024

Nobody rested. One week ago, I got a wild hair and decided to drive north up US Hwy 19W to see what Helene had done along the Cane River where I lived for 12...

October 26, 2024

Hurricane Helene messed with a lot of heads here; kind of a group/communal PTSD. I’m not the only one who feels that way; at least two friends (who I don’t...

Slaughterhouse Five: Burnsville Edition

October 21, 2024

It’s been a while since I wrote a Buttondown. Or perhaps it hasn’t. It seems like it was just yesterday when hurricane Helene visited. As far from the Gulf...

October 15, 2024

It’s actually the 15th now. My computer died during the storm, and I got a new one just today. I have spent one hour setting it up…with a right index finger...

October 13, 2024

The weirdest thing about this hurricane recovery period thing is not that I have to heat water to do dishes (I’m switching to paper plates for the time...

October 10th, later...

October 11, 2024

As promised, I fixed breakfast this morning for my neighbor Christian and his brother-in-law from Florida. Christian is a good cook, but had said yesterday...

October 10th. Pretty sure...

October 10, 2024

Part of this may have been Buttondowned to you a day or so ago, so pardon me if I’m repeating. I am down to five dogs. The two extras are one who belongs to...

October 9th, I think

October 9, 2024

Yesterday, a rescue worker up from Durham found 2 dogs loose on the highway, picked them up, and took them to the fire department, where rescuers go to get...

Well, well, well…

October 8, 2024

My computer came alive this evening and I started a buttondown on it, but got called away and when I returned, the computer was dead again. So….now that I am...

Sunday 6 October 2024

October 7, 2024

We are still reeling from Helene’s devastation here. But I was lucky; my power was out for only one day. My wifi access is random. Still no running water,...

Monetary relief donations

October 2, 2024

Make check out to and mail to Burnsville Fire Department POB 461, Burnsville NC 28714. If you live in WNC, I know you need help as well. The National Guard...

What is happening in western NC

October 2, 2024

Hi all. Thank you all who have tried to reach out to me. What has happened here is unprecedented. Not just here in Burnsville or Yancey County, but in all...

September 18, 2024

What Jim wanted me to send - without adding my opinion.

Local Republicans Lying (again)

September 18, 2024

A current Yancey County commissioner (Sandy Norton) posted publicly earlier that candidate Jim Parlier is not religious. This came as a big surprise to Jim...

"I'm young and healthy..."

September 16, 2024

“…and you’ve got charms…” …is what was being sung in my head when I woke up this morning. That’s a song from 42nd Street, originally a 1933 Broadway musical...

For some reason....

September 5, 2024

It’s almost 10:30 the night before the umpteenth annual Carolina Mountains Literary Festival opens, and - although I certainly could fall asleep right now,...

Is it weird to say "Happy Labor Day"?

September 2, 2024

I think so. I’m pretty sure the holiday was created to honor the worker bees who built this country, quite likely in not-so-very happy labor situations....

Reining in cats and dogs and....

August 28, 2024

A month or so ago, I was at a monthly Yancey Democratic meeting when I got a call from the Burnsville Police Department. In retrospect, I’m sorry I answered...

Watching the DNC convention hint....

August 22, 2024

Bizarrely, the only way I’ve found to listen to the convention speakers minus the networks’ talking heads is pulling it up on Fox. Go figure. I do not care...

Clotheslines and other fun stuff

August 17, 2024

One summer morning back in my childhood, I was sent out to the backyard to bring in sheets off the clothesline. I was stunned to see a couple of cows in the...

Typical August Saturday...

August 11, 2024

…sort of. I love pesto! In the past I’ve successfully grown basil by the bucket loads, made pesto all summer, canned it, and ate it all year ‘round. For some...

CrApPy AnNiVeRsArY. Thanks, JD Vance!

It was one year ago - July 31, 2023 - that my brain cracked. I have chalked it up to dehydration, heat, and poor nutrition, but I’m blaming it all on JD...

I remember Jim telling me years ago that he and his wife took one of their daughters out for “retail therapy” - which I had never heard of before. This...

EEG - oops! I forgot to hit 'Send'on 7/18...

The answer we all haven’t been waiting for: The EEG showed no abnormalities. I asked for an explanation. She said that it’s just one piece of a puzzle. The...

For my NC friends...

This coming Monday, July 22, I am hosting a meet-and-greet at my house for Caleb Rudow, who is running for Congress. Please join us at 5pm at 61 Summit...