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Robservations- Free your mind with short trip
rob nunley
Rob Nunley
Published: Feb 12, 2025, 2:52 AM

“Some folks like to get away; take a holiday from the neighborhood.”

Billy Joel, “New York State of Mind,” 1976

I’ve never been one who is in favor of travel.

I’ve done my share, that’s true; I’ve carried a half-asleep toddler through EPCOT (Hi, Norwegian ladies); and I’ve watched the sun set over the horizon of some of the most beautiful beaches the southeastern part of the country has to offer. I’ve even taken a day trip across the nation to spend a few hours in Tijuana and San Diego (fantastic margaritas, by the way, if you ever get the chance).

But, by nature, I’m a homebody. I guess I have too much Junior Nunley in me. Because when I get ready to get back to McMinnville, I’m finding a transport and heading back to McMinnville. So, if you see me on a cruise, call the authorities because I’m there against my will.

Around a month ago, however, we were invited to take part in a little weekend getaway, courtesy of some good friends who were going to be celebrating a birthday in the Smoky Mountains. 

Initially, I didn’t want to make the trip. It’s such a drive, I complained. I won’t be able to get to anything newsworthy while we’re gone, I feared. Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are just money pits, out to suck everything they can out of tourists’ wallets; we’ll be broke in a day, I predicted.

Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed, and we took the trip last weekend.

“We’re getting a cabin, we’ll hang out, we’ll watch the Super Bowl, and we’ll relax,” I was told. So, despite my trepidation, I decided to turn the scanner off for a weekend and head for the mountains.

What a relief. What a glorious time we had, while doing absolutely nothing. I can’t recommend it enough.

Starting Saturday afternoon, when we arrived and enjoyed some take-out from the back deck while looking out at a million-dollar view, my weekend was made. In fact, that’s where we spent much of our time – out on the deck, watching the fog come in to the point we were barely able to see past our own property. Even looking at the fog was beautiful.

But I don’t intend this week’s column to be about me and the joy I had spending just a few dozen hours away from the hustle and bustle of the newsroom. I intend it to be a suggestion for you, to take the time for yourself and not always worry about your current situation.

If you get the chance – and I hope you do, soon – take some time. Get away. Go somewhere close, or far away, and do nothing for a day or two - or a week or two. Whether it’s Rock Island, Gatlinburg, Florida or Timbuktoo, go somewhere and recharge yourself.

You’ll be glad you did.


Standard News Editor Rob Nunley can be contacted at rnunley@southernstandard.com
Where Did That Come From? - Cat Nap
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Stan St. Clair
Published: Mar 14, 2025, 1:19 AM

Well, I want to wish all my appreciated readers a happy St. Patrick's Day!

At my age, I feel like I need a cat nap every day!

Forms of this metaphoric expression have been used for 200 years to describe a short period of sleep during the day. Cats sleep long periods at a time, so it may seem strange to call it by this name. Some researchers say it started in Ancient Egypt when cats were sacred and Pharaohs began to emulate the way cats sleep. But there are no records to indicate that.

When cats sleep, they are sound asleep one minute and awake the next - there is no drowsy period trying to wake up; hence, the cat nap. The first use was actually 'cat's nap.' The earliest known citation is from The Pioneers, or the Sources of the Susquehanna; a Descriptive Tale by James Fenimore Cooper, 1823, on page 156:

"Why d'ye see, Squire, the parson was very solemn, and I just closed my eyes in order to think the better with myself, just the same as you'd put in the dead lights to make all snug, and when I opened them ag'in I found the congregation were getting under weigh for home, so I calculated the ten minutes would cover the lee-way after the glass was out. It was only some such matter as a cat's nap."

Cooper used it the same way 2 years later in Lionel Lincoln, on page 111, 1825:

"Wine should never slumber on its lees until it has been well rolled in the trough of a sea for a few months; then, indeed, you may set it asleep and yourself by the side of it, if you like a cat's nap. As orthodox a direction for the ripening of wine ..."

It continued to be cited in books as cat's nap for the next ten years, then in 1835, Harper and Brothers in New York published Matilda Douglas' Blackbeard: A Page from the Colonial History of Philadelphia in which contained the following at the beginning of Chapter XIX, on page 225:

"Towards two of the morning, not long after the moon had gone down, Nero, who was sitting up for his master, was aroused from a cat-nap, into which he had insensibly fallen, by a subdued murmur of rough voices, and a heavy tramp of many men passing along Penn-street ..."

In the late 19th century three dictionaries were published listing 'cat-nap'. The first was Americanisms, Old and New, 1889, by John Stephen Farmer.

"Cat-nap. — This is given by Lowell as a short doze"

(Presumably famed American writer-poet John Russell Lowell)