For Julie Baird, the decision to get a tattoo of a fish on her ankle came just months after her high school graduation.

Why do we always wait until things get awful before we ask for help? We wait until our marriage is in a ditch before we go to a counselor. We wait until our kid is failing before we hire a tutor.

For Julie Baird, the decision to get a tattoo of a fish on her ankle came just months after her high school graduation. “When I got mine, I guess it was just kind of really on the front end of (tattoos) getting more and more popular,” said Mrs. Baird, of Ringgold, Ga. “And at the time, I think I probably wanted to kind of be different.”

Tickets for Old Crow Medicine Show, a band that has opened for Dolly Parton at the Grand Ole Opry, toured with Merle Haggard and appears regularly on “A Prairie Home Companion,” go on sale at 10 a.m. today.

“I really don’t care about clothes."

In a recent interview, senior artistic director Luc Tremblay of Cirque du Soleil’s “Kooza” show, now playing in Atlanta, explained the motivation behind the show and what producers look for when casting performers.

WHAT’S IN FOOD TRENDS Bon Appetit recently released its pick of “in” food trends for 2009, while www.epicurious.com let us know a few things on their way out.

Artist and writer Dana Shavin guides the viewer on a personal journey through her upcoming exhibition at the Jewish Cultural Center

Note: Mark Kennedy and Chris Vass were editors on the front lines of the newspaper consolidation here in 1999. Mr. Kennedy was Sunday editor then, and Ms. Vass was the Metro editor.

Meissen, Staffordshire, Majolica, Wedgwood and Royal Doulton platters and plates are featured in the special winter exhibit at the Houston Museum of Decorative Arts.

Gardening is a very forgiving pastime.

The monkey grass lining the walk at my new house looks really bad.

Robin Eiselstein had envisioned herself living in a cozy home furnished with antiques and decorated with original art and photographs. What she didn’t envision was that the home would be in Chattanooga.

Stay safe

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