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You have probably noticed by now that Women's Times is no more. Instead, the section is to be called Blount Life and will encompass all facets of living in this glorious place called Blount County. Women and men will now be featured in the new evolution, which will continue to be published Sundays. I am still responsible for writing features and my personal column, “Where I Come From,” as well as editing the section. Amanda Greever's personal column, “Sleepin' Single,” will appear weekly, as well. She's online only this week, though, so check out her column.

You'll notice a few differences in addition to the name. The Women's Health column contributed by staff at Blount Memorial Hospital will move to Monday's LifeTimes section and will be on health issues of interest to both sexes. This column will replace the current “Week in Health” column. Gerald Ivey's column will run once monthly, on the second Sunday, rather than twice monthly, and he will also be free to write about both women and men. The name will change from “Women of the Bible” to “Lessons from the Bible.”

Several other regular offerings will reflect the gender inclusive change, as well. The monthly calendar will now feature events of interest to both sexes rather than strictly women's events. Due to space limitations, emphasis will be given to special, non-recurring events and others added as we have room. This calendar normally runs the first Sunday of each month, or if more than three days will have elapsed in that month, the calendar will run the last Sunday of the previous month. The deadline will continue to be the Monday before the calendar's publication the following Sunday.

Club news will no longer appear in the section formerly known as Women's Times and will run space-available in one of the LifeTimes sections. You may continue sending club news to me or you may send it directly to LifeTimes Editor Melanie Tucker at melanie.tucker@thedailytimes.com.

Since the section will cease to be geared specifically to women, Girls' Night Out is a thing of the past. But, if you have interesting photos of social events, gatherings, etc., we will gladly consider publishing them in Blount Life. They must be e-mailed to me, however, and The Daily Times reserves the right to refuse publication if the photo is unsuitable in either content or quality. We will need identification of each person in the photo and a general idea of what the event was and when it happened. In addition, photos new to the Spotted Web site (spotted.thedailytimes.com) will be published as space is available in this section.

We will continue to publish photo packages of events in our area. If you have an upcoming special event, and our photography schedule is open at that time, let me know well in advance and we will assign someone to “shoot” you. If not, you may e-mail me your own photos for consideration. They should be at least 200 dpi and at least eight inches wide. In other words, high resolution and large files!

“From the Heart,” a column on mental health issues and concerns contributed by staff at LifeLine Counseling Center, will continue to run the first Sunday of each month. Again, “From the Heart” will be open to all topics, not specifically those of interest to women.

After focusing on women's issues for almost three years now, I'm still acclimating myself to a world again inhabited by men -- story ideas would be greatly appreciated. Please know that we aren't kicking out the women with the Women's Times -- we're just opening up the girls' club to our guy friends, too.

Blount Life is still a work in progress, so feel free to let us know your thoughts, concerns and suggestions. You can contact me as indicated below or the powers-that-be at editor@thedailytimes.com.

Linda Albert is Blount Life editor and a staff writer for The Daily Times. You may contact her at 981-1168 or linda.albert@thedailytimes.com, or follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lalbert_editor.