Columns

Speed it up in downtown High Point

dshelton — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:02:06 -0400

Leaving a wedding reception at the International Home Furnishings Club in downtown High Point Saturday night, I noticed one thing right away: You could run a car race around there and not cause a traffic problem.

There's just not much going on in High Point's central business district most of the time, not even Saturday night.

High Point's business, after all, is furniture marketing. Except during the April and October markets, and a few smaller events during the year, you've got the same solitude after dark you'd see in a beach town in January.

Ahearn: Decision '08: Better to 'Dunk' or stay 'Krispy'?

Brenda Hiles — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

Face it. Reporters are only human.

And at a historic moment such as this, it's hard not to be swayed. Even the most hard-bitten and objective can stumble, succumbing to a bias that alienates us from the office coffee klatch, the after-church bake sale, even from our own breakfast nook.

Short Orders: Doughnut shop opens Thursday

import — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

GREENSBORO -- It's been more than five years since Munchkins were spotted in Greensboro.

But at 5 a.m. Thursday, they'll be rolling out the door at the new Dunkin' Donuts (337 W. Wendover Ave.; 332-0987), adjacent to the Exxon station at Cridland Road.

Wendover franchise operating officer Ricky Matani has had plenty of folks stop in and ask when they plan to open. Many, he says, are from the Northeast and miss bread-based doughnuts and coffee.

Book urges families to plug into nature

Brenda Hiles — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

We'll talk nature and kids this week.

You'll meet a local camp director from Australia, and you'll see a new plan for Randolph County's Purgatory Mountain. But today, in this first of three installments, you'll hear how a former newspaper columnist who loves to fish has become nature's new evangelist.

That's Richard Louv .

On land bought in 1864, a black enclave endures on Pisgah Church Road

mfuchs — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:02:23 -0400

GREENSBORO - John Dungey's descendants aren't sure what led him to buy more than 60 acres along Pisgah Church Road in what's now northwest Greensboro. Or how he succeeded in making the purchase.

It was April 1864. The Civil War still raged. White people dominated the area.

Hardin: A red-letter day for our golf tournament

import — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

GREENSBORO -- A red shirt broke through a sea of red shirts flowing down the fairway at No. 18 on Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club, and Carl Pettersson walked across a rustic footbridge and into Wyndham Championship history.

The local boy trudged the final 100 yards, up the last hill he would have to climb, taking the last few steps all alone and accepting the cheers of the largest crowd this golf tournament has seen in a long, long time.

Johnson: Keep downtown nightlife safe ... but don’t squeeze the life out of the place

dshelton — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:03:42 -0400

The nightlife scene in downtown Greensboro isn't so much about who as when.

The early crowd is a mixed crew of middle-aged couples and younger singles.

They typically pack the south end of Elm Street to eat and drink at sidewalk cafes where summer breezes keep them cool and a colorful parade of passersby keeps them occupied.

As the sun begins to set and the shadows deepen, a new, younger crew clocks in, just as the older group finishes dessert and begins to head home.

Cone on the Edwards affair: Johnny, we hardly knew ye

dshelton — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

If scandal were an Olympic event, the John Edwards version would be a decathlon. Rarely does a story have so many moving parts, and we may be learning more about parts of this one for some time to come.

Davenport: Wildlife in the big city – foxes, spiders and serpents

dshelton — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

Two years ago, my wife and I purchased a home on a quiet cul-de-sac in northwest Greensboro. Almost immediately, we knew we had found the right house for us: There is a big, fenced-in yard for our Goldens to romp in, and the property is flanked by several wooded acres not yet torn asunder by incursions of man and machine.

Mike Clark: Odder odds with still no ends in sight

dshelton — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

My last column admitted right up front, "there is no theme here!" It was a brazen emptying of Mike's Miscellany, and it felt terrific (for me, at least). So we're doing that again today. Odds and ends, kids, and here we go.

What Obama might have seen in Ramallah

bwebb — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

Recently, Barack Obama spent several days in the Middle East on a fact-finding trip, including a little more than a day in Israel and an hour in Ramallah, the governmental seat of the Palestinian National Authority. His visit to that West Bank city coincided with our annual work/study trip to Israel and the Palestinian territory sponsored by Friends United Meeting, the international Quaker body that operates the Friends Schools in Ramallah — schools that grew from a mission beginning in 1869 to educate Palestinian girls.

Parents’ deaths drive son’s purpose

mumbarger — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

ASHEBORO - Michael Weese will leave today for N.C. State.

He'll take his laptop, his Emergency Medical Services flag, even his foot-tall doll of Superman. Then he'll begin his long-awaited quest, something he's thought about since he fished with a Mickey Mouse pole.

He wants to become a pediatric oncologist, a doctor who treats kids broadsided by cancer. He has a special motivation: his parents.

They both died of cancer. And Michael, who is 17, thinks about that every day.

Local young people live out their faith with mission trips

Holly Lux — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

Young people from across the community have shared how they live out their faith during the summer in a Tuesday feature called Youth on a Mission. Click here to see photos and to read more.

Here’s a sampling of what our young people are doing — and there’s more to come. First Baptist Church is featured this Tuesday.

From the annual journey by eighth-graders from B’nai Shalom Day School to Israel and other ancient sites important to the Jewish faith:

Hardin: It's a long way from 61 to 59

import — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

GREENSBORO -- The threesome remains intact, but no one has much faith in it remaining an exclusive club forever.

Carl Pettersson's second-round 61 early Friday, seemed to suggest Sedgefield was once again there for the taking, just as it was during the Busch Tour days after time and technology threatened to swallow the charm of the Donald Ross masterpiece. After a first-day onslaught that produced 88 players breaking 70, folks walked onto the grounds Friday whispering the most cherished number in golf:

59.

The Russian bear is on the prowl

dshelton — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:06:24 -0400

After I returned from Russia a few weeks ago, a friend asked about my itinerary. Our tour, I replied, took us from Moscow to St. Petersburg "but not down south to the Black Sea and Georgia."

When I mentioned "Georgia," a puzzled look crossed the person's face. "Not Atlanta," I half-jokingly explained, "but the other Georgia."

Until war broke out last week between Georgia and Russia, most Americans couldn't find "the other Georgia" on the map. Geography has never been Americans' strong suit.

Hardin: Greensboro has a new poster boy

import — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

GREENSBORO — Brandt Snedeker wore purple Thursday for the first round of the Wyndham Championship. The 2007 champion and sponsor's darling wowed the crowd with his élan and his guile.

That was one day after telling people here, "Y'all got hosed."

Snedeker shot a 66 on Thursday, then talked of his newfound celebrity status in the one town on earth where he has celebrity status.

"It's been great to have the fans out there kind of recognize you," he said.

Rowe: The last local music store?

Holly Lux — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

GREENSBORO -- I hate that sign.

I see it in the window, and I can’t help but think of all the other independent record stores, all those cool spots of conversation that helped anchor our city, give it personality and draw every discerning music hound I knew.

School Kids. Spins. The Record Exchange. Crunchy Music Stuff. Gate City Noise. All gone.

Now, I read that sign in the window — those block letters in black and aquamarine that read, “HELP SAVE YOUR LOCAL MUSIC STORE”— and I realize the place many of us know as BB’s could make that list.

Hardin: We can see our roots in the grass at Sedgefield

import — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

GREENSBORO -- The old Embassy Club is long gone now, burned to the ground after a dance one night. Its foundation is still visible through the tall grass, a rough outline of the wild weekend nights we once spent here. The old Manor House is gone, too, the echoes of debutante balls and masquerade parties barely audible in the breeze.

Sedgefield Country Club's past is never far from us, its sentinel water tower rusting elegantly over a place in time.

Ego often leads politicians into scandal

dshelton — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:03:22 -0400

The sins of a lying, cheating politician kept me turning pages of the morning newspaper last week ...

And that was before the John Edwards story broke.

I was on vacation in Michigan eagerly awaiting each day's Detroit Free Press, the source of cover-to-cover Kwame Kilpatrick coverage. The Freep may be a shadow of a once-great journalistic powerhouse, but it left no detail of the Motown mayor's meltdown unreported. After a gutsy judge ordered His Dishonor hauled off to jail, Freep writers traced every moment of the unfolding drama.

Foster care survivor now shares story

Melissa Turner — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

GREENSBORO - Julia Charles' book is all of 95 pages. So if you're lucky, you can read it in an afternoon.

Yet, dig into it - even a chapter or two - and you'll find a powerful story of a young girl from Guilford County's foster care program who felt she was too black, too skinny, too ugly and too alone.

Here's some of what you'll find:

She carried her clothes around in a trash bag. She got beaten by her biological mother with a plastic bag full of cans. She cursed, screamed, bullied people and walled herself away from any kind of love.

The great athletes of decades past weren’t one-trick ponies

Margaret Wimmer — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

Thousands watched at Sedgefield Country Club in 1961 as burly (reporters always called him that) Mike Souchak whacked long drives to win the Greater Greensboro Open golf tournament.

Victory came 50 miles and 11 years from where Souchak had been the goat in another big-time sporting event.

Greenway expert convinced Greensboro on right path

Bob Williams — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

The city of Chicago’s sprawling lake front, with its shimmering, glass-and-steel skyline, looks surreal on a sunny day, like a sci-fi futurescape.

Almost as impressive are the miles and miles of paved biking, jogging and walking paths along the shores of Lake Michigan that connect neighborhoods and parks — and bring people of all walks of life together on bikes and on foot.

Imagine safer, cheaper driving

Bob Williams — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

In his 1971 hit song, “Imagine,” John Lennon asked his fellow “dreamers” to imagine a world of sharing with no hunger, greed, wars, countries, religions or possessions. The utopian idealism of the ’70s has suffered many reality checks over the years, not the least of which is the contemporary triple combination of militant Islamic fundamentalism, a crisis in the production and distribution of oil and contentious geopolitical competition.

Ahearn column: Council dives in on sinkhole crisis

Jay Reddick — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

(Program note: The following is a taped broadcast of the Greensboro City Council's Aug. 11 emergency session on sinkholes. It airs again at 2 a.m. Aug. 24, immediately after "Weekend Wastewater Roundup.")

MAYOR YVONNE JOHNSON: Let's go ahead and get started. I want to thank council for meeting on short notice, to address what is a very pressing public safety issue in our community. As you know, I'm talking about sinkholes. Is everyone present?

Class of '68 has different context for current events

Jayme Elrod — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0400

GREENSBORO — Back in ’68, what Newsweek magazine calls the “year that changed everything,” the seniors at Dudley, Grimsley and Page lived in a protective bubble far from our country’s social and political fray.

They lived for house parties, Whiz Burgers and weekend trips to Myrtle Beach, where cheap beer and loud music turned Ocean Drive into their playground.