Take the bull by the horns

Off to China!

2011-06-15T20:42:00.003-04:00

For the reader(s) still hanging on here - you might want to follow me on my 11- day journey to China at this new blog: http://mrjtochina.blogspot.com/

--Steve

Deer neighbor!

2011-05-19T18:56:00.000-04:00

Our neighborhood, located just south of West Point on the Eno, has seen a second baby fawn deposited in a neighbor's yard.

This little guy?/gal? was spotted just down the road and yours truly wandered down the street to capture a few shots of a little brown blur (like last time) when suddenly it hopped up and began wandering around!

My neighbor and I watched it run around a bit for about 15-20 minutes until it finally gave up and collapsed on his back patio.

And in case you are wondering - what does one do when one spots a tiny deer in one's neighborhood? - I've got the answer. It's this: NOTHING. Animal Control says that does often will "park" a newborn nearby while they go out and graze, then return to pick him/her up later.

These pictures were taken yesterday .... and I haven't seen my neighbor yet, so no update on the fawn's status. I'll post more here when I hear more.

Class of 2010 high school graduations in Durham

2010-06-10T09:34:00.002-04:00

I'm creating this page as a central source for articles in the media and photo galleries for all Durham high school graduations. I'll continue to update this page as the graduations happen this week. If you have a link, please e-mail me.

Graduation articles
City of Medicine Academy
Durham Academy
Durham School of the Arts
Early College High School
Hillside
Jordan
Middle College High School
Northern
Performance Learning Center (PLC)
Riverside
Southern
Teen Career Academy
Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill

Photo galleries
City of Medicine Academy
Durham School of the Arts
Early College High School
Hillside
Jordan
Middle College High School
Northern
Performance Learning Center (PLC)
Riverside
Southern/Southern School of Engineering

Other stories
Class of 2010 celebrates
One graduations, six sets of twins at Northern High School
Jared Zamora: The Army gives him a job right away (Riverside)

General Information
Graduation schedule for DPS schools

Remember

2010-05-31T14:21:00.010-04:00

Last year the family and I were in DC for the Memorial Day weekend. Below are some of the photos I took at the Vietnam Memorial and along the Mall. Feel free to share these as you remember today the service of those who died.

Saturday morning at the Durham Farmers' Market

2010-05-29T10:06:00.013-04:00

These photos were taken this morning at the DFM. Enjoy!

Life: an update

2010-04-06T20:17:00.006-04:00

It's been a crazy few weeks. I had a great time in DC at the TOPSS/APA meeting but then learned that J's dad was hit by a car and suffered multiple broken bones and more. J then somehow managed to balance taking care of her parents' needs, their animals, our girls, our house and --oh yeah, her grad school classes -- while I basically went AWOL finishing up my national board portfolio and submitting that on March 30 (a day early - hurrah). And my mom has been so great as the girls have been on their three-week intersession and she's been able to take them for so many days and really have them feel so loved.

Then J's dad was able to come home after two weeks of quality hospital time and we enjoyed a very eventful Easter with both sides of the family. This morning I finished the last part of the NBPTS with a test of six 30 minute essays that were, uh, interesting. I did learn that when someone that you trust and who got his certification last year says -- "Oh, don't worry about the tests, you'll know it" -- that probably needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

So today is day 5 of my spring break but it really feels like the first one. And to celebrate I am going to highlight some things that have happened, interjecting them with lyrics from Regina Spektor's last album Far. I listened to this album somewhere between 35-45 times over the past month and it was a great inspiration and motivation.

And I count all my blessings, I have friends in high places
And I'm upgraded daily, all my wires without traces

1) "Fair condition" is not what I thought it was.

There's a meat market down the street
The boys and girls watch each other eat

2) NCAA basketball was a wonderful distraction; when I thought I couldn't type another word, somehow watching Northern Iowa or the Baylor women got me back on track.

It's like forgetting the words to your favorite song
You can't believe it
You were always singing along

3) I am losing my edge. My evidence is that I have found it harder to hate Duke as the season has gone on this year. But come on, I'm not that crazy, they still suck.

I have no wallet, I have no wallet
I keep my cards together with a blue rubber band
And with a free hand I search in my pocket
For pieces of, pieces of paper and change

4) I don't have any ideas about how Durham Public Schools should cut $20 million, but I hope they will stop asking me to choose between stupid option A and stupid option B.

No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes

5) I'm really bummed about the NCSSM senior who died last week in a car accident. I didn't know her but I have seen her photos lately and have heard stories, and I think she must have been a terrific person. To her friends: I'm sorry for your loss.

So we made our own computer out of macaroni pieces
And it did our thinking while we lived our lives

6) I am really proud of my niece who changed her major to computer science this week. I'd like to think she got it from me but I'm afraid she left me behind long ago.

Everyone takes turns, now it's yours to play the part
And they're sitting all around you holding copies of your chart
And the misery inside their eyes is synchronized and reflecting it to yours

7) Affordable health care -- so that your life isn't ruined financially by an accident -- should be a basic right for everyone.

And I'm downloaded daily, I am part of a composite
Hooked into machine, hooked into machine

8) I had to have my palm scanned five separate times today. And surrender my ID. And have my photo taken. And have my every movement captured on video for three hours today. No, not national security -- just taking that silly test.

He stumbled into faith and thought,
This is all there is
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe
And no one saw and no one heard
They just followed lead
The pictures in his mind awoke
And began to breed

9) One of the main components of National Board Certification is reflection. I had to write at least 8 pages of my portfolio as a reflection on my teaching, how students achieved, etc. I may never reflect again in my entire life.

I'll believe it all
There's nothing I won't understand
I'll believe it all
I won't let go of your hand

10) My wife is the best. Without her belief in me I'd be lost. I think she even surprised herself with the amazing balancing act she's done in the past month. I love you J!

Blue lips
Blue veins
Blue, the color of the planet from far, far away

11) (Who said I had to stop at 10?) I had the best time hiking along the Eno River this past weekend with my daughters. Despite grumpiness and complaining -- and that was just from me -- we had a great time. Pictures to come on Facebook. Thanks for reading. Here's to a wonderful rest of Spring!

Durham BOE director injured in hit-and-run

2010-03-21T19:47:00.004-04:00

UPDATE: The police are now reporting that this was not a hit-and-run. (They were happy to report this to BCR and to WRAL, but not to me.)

Wow, I'm gone out of town for a weekend, all hell (relatively speaking) breaks loose and no one bothers to report it?

This past Friday my father-in-law Mike Ashe, director of the Durham County Board of Elections, was running just before noon in the vicinity of Buchanan Boulevard near Duke's East Campus when he was struck by a car. I don't know the exact details of the collision except that the driver sped away. Police and EMS responded quickly and he was taken to Duke's ER where he was treated for a number of broken bones, skin abrasions and lots of pain. As I write this on Sunday night he's still in the hospital and doing about as well as can be expected.

But no one in the entire Durham news media caught a whiff of this? Now you have. C'mon, Kevin @ Bull City Rising, pick this up and run with it (pardon the pun) for your exclusive.

Eugene Brown - embarrassing!

2010-02-03T20:40:00.015-05:00

I spotted this story on WRAL.com today: "Durham councilman: officers' arrest embarrassing." And even before I clicked on the link I thought -- gotta be councilman Eugene Brown.

Why? 'Cause EB was born to make the grandiose finger-wagging pronouncement of blame. Need someone to call out someone else in Durham? Eugene should be #1 on your virtual Rolodex.
But then I started wondering why I was so confident it was Eugene, and then I remembered: I've seen this before! Only I didn't realize how often I had. With a little help from the Google elves and LexisNexis I found ...

"'This is ground zero in government failure,' City Councilman Eugene Brown said. 'It's really an embarrassment.'" (Durham keeps rolling with struggling development project -- WRAL, 10/5/09 and similar "embarrassing" comment two days later in the Independent Weekly)
"'[...] Duke did not make their case very well,' Brown said. 'They didn't make it very well at all, and it's embarrassing, and they know it.'" (Spat with city over private streets nears resolution -- Duke Chronicle, 4/15/09)
"Said Councilman Eugene Brown, 'I think it’s an embarrassment. How many times does it take for them to get things right?'” (Durham Housing Authority still troubled, Independent Weekly, 9/3/08)
"'This is just embarrassing,' Durham City Councilman Eugene Brown said Monday." (Reports: Wake, Durham probation offices 'in crisis' -- WRAL, 8/25/08)
"[...] Councilman Eugene Brown said Tuesday that the incident is 'embarrassing for the entire community.'" (Housing funds case unravels -- Herald-Sun, 5/25/08)
"As Councilmember Eugene Brown said last week, 'It was an embarrassing chapter in the life of Durham. It's time to put it behind us.'" (Bitter end of the city loan scandal -- Herald-Sun (via LexisNexis), 2/19/08)
"'It's really an embarrassment that we're going through this and that we have to do this process,' Durham City Councilman Eugene Brown said." (Durham PD Goes Under the Microscope for Lacrosse Case -- WRAL, 7/20/07)
"'Right now, we're in a reactive mode and not a proactive mode,' Councilman Eugene Brown said Friday. 'We've got to put this sucker out, and that's why we're talking to people like that group out of Virginia. The longer it goes on, the more embarrassing it is to the city.'" (Fire foam gets green light -- Herald-Sun (via LexisNexis), 9/23/06
"City Councilman Eugene Brown agreed. 'It's always problematic when you have those hired and paid for enforcing the law breaking the law,' he said. 'I want to withhold judgment, but so far, this is just embarrassing.'" (Two Durham officers charged with assault -- Herald-Sun, 7/28/06)
"'That search was a primer on how not to hire a police chief,' Brown said. 'It was an embarrassment. We were the laughingstock for the state.'" (Durham police chief search set -- News & Observer, 7/18/06)
"'I hope, folks, that we have learned from this very embarrassing episode,' Councilman Eugene Brown said." (Council accepts Canal Street audit -- Herald-Sun (via LexisNexis), 10/5/04)

Let's say it together as Eugene would -- EMBARRASSING!

What a (solid) waste

2009-12-03T05:27:00.004-05:00

"We encourage those folks to call us to get that extra cart because we want our tonnage to go up as high as it can go," says Durham's Solid Waste Management director Donald Long. What's he talking about? Getting people to recycle as much as possible! Who are "those folks"? Residents who are recycling so much that they need a second 95-gallon cart!

WOW! They need a second cart because they are recycling so much! That's awesome! People are keeping more waste out of landfills and helping the planet. How can we reward them for this effort? Let's see how director Long chose to do it:

To accommodate people who find that their bins are overflowing with materials by the end of two weeks, the city has started renting out extra containers for $18 a year.

Nice! You're doing such a great job that we would like to make you PAY for it! Well done, Durham, pat yourself on the back for this one.

(Via WRAL.com)

Changes at Watts Grocery

2009-11-26T08:44:00.007-05:00

Watts Grocery, the Broad Street haven for Durham foodies, has a few changes coming up. First there are the usual seasonal menu changes which include:

Braised lamb shanks with Sea Island pea ragout
Southern Fish and Chips (at lunch only) with catfish fingers and house cut fries
Caramel Cake with cranberry compote
Oyster, Shrimp, and Andouille Jambalaya with short grain rice
Warm apples with Mas de Lavail ice cream and crisp walnut cookies
Roast poulet rouge de Piedmont with Lee Brothers' pimento cheese potato gratin and pecan pan sauce

Mmmmm, pimento cheese anything sounds good to me, so I'm looking forward to the gratin. I wonder if it's offered as a side, though, since I doubt I'll order the chicken. And I love the Southern Fish and Chips idea -- hope there's the requisite Southern fried seafood condiments of cocktail sauce and tartar sauce too.

One other big change for WG is the axing of the late-night hours. I asked chef/owner Amy Tornquist about this by e-mail and she replied that it wasn't working as well as they would have hoped and that "it always seemed a little bit of a painful shift for the front of the house" because of the small WG staff. Amy's willing to reconsider in the future but only if there's a way to do it without taxing everyone. It'll surely be a loss for Durham's late-night offerings but will still remain a superb option for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch.

Amy was also kind enough to share the full new menus (which haven't been posted on the WG site as of yet) so here they are: Lunch/Dinner and Brunch/Dessert. Enjoy!

(photo via http://blog.indienc.com/2009/03/watts-grocery-durham/)

KIng's Sandwich Shop -- still in progress

2009-10-17T16:04:00.004-04:00

I noticed yesterday that the renovation of King's Sandwich Shop has moved forward one more step -- note the cool new logo on the east side of the building:

Here's an artist's rendering of how the new place will appear when complete:

(from August's Durham Magazine article)

Help students learn more about the Constitution!

2009-10-14T05:32:00.004-04:00

A shameless request for you to jump in the fun and help 10th grade students in Durham learn more about the US Constitution in my Civics and Economics class. C&E is required for graduation in NC and there's also an End of Course test that the students need to pass to get credit for the class. I've created my first DonorsChoose project to get a class set of this graphic novel adaptation of the US Constitution.

It's a terrific new way to tell a 222 year old story: how can a document that old still be relevant to our lives and our government? Through amazing images and words Jonathan Hennessey and Aaron McConnell vividly describe not only that summer in 1787 but also important cases that have tested the Constitution in the years since. I'm hoping that this innovative method of storytelling will make learning more interesting and fun!

If you can, please click this link to give $ to my project so that my students can use these texts to be the best C&E students they can be! I thank you in advance and my students will thank you directly if you can help us. --Steve

Don't call us Durham, call us Raleigh-

2009-09-30T17:35:00.005-04:00

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on the "next hot youth-magnet cities." The usual suspects of Washington DC and Seattle are tied at #1 but look down at what's tied at #7 .... it's, um "Raleigh-"? And that picture is um, Raleigh's Brightleaf Square? Nope, sorry, that's Durham people, and I'm assuming the "city" in the print version is Raleigh-Durham. Sigh. The depressing text of the "city" description is below as is the screen shot that shows both "Raleigh-" with the thumbnail of the same photo at the bottom identified as Durham.

I'm sending a note to the reporter for clarification. Stay tuned.

A relatively low cost of living and a highly educated population help make this Southern city appealing.
The smallest city on our panelists' list, with fewer than 400,000 people, Raleigh has job opportunities in tech and research and a strong university presence. It offers outdoor recreation and a lively music scene. Also, Fort Bragg is expanding, signaling more jobs and more spinoff employment. "Raleigh's future is so bright that it ought to wear shades," says one panelist.
Downside: Raleigh has few critics; the worst panelists could say is that it wouldn't be seen as the hippest locale on the list.

U2 conference looking for you, too to be a sponsor.

2009-09-19T11:13:00.003-04:00

NCCU is the home for the first ever academic conference exploring the music, work and influence of U2 from October 2-4, 2009. The conference organizers just tweeted that they are looking for one more Gold ($5K) or Silver ($1K) sponsor for the conference and are promising to give away a free trip to Durham plus free tickets to the U2 show in Raleigh on October 3.

From the site, on how to find a sponsor:

The best way to connect to a business is by a personal connection. Do you work for someone who has a soft spot for U2? Or for arts and music education? Or for Africa? Or for AIDS treatments and research? Or cares about promoting Durham, North Carolina?

(How they know that Twitter-reader A is the person who connected them with Sponsor B is beyond me ... I'm just passing on the info. I don't need a free trip to Durham NC thank you very much nor am I likely to go to the concert.)

Sorry Herald-Sun but you're getting pwned

2009-09-16T20:11:00.004-04:00

So whose idea was it to redesign the Herald-Sun's site so that the right side of the screen is a text message space where anyone can post comments? Tonight I logged on and saw this message:

Obama calls Kanye West a donkey rear - http://tiny.cc/IJo9j

followed a few hours later by this one:

your mama calls your daddy my name by mistake....get over it

Nice. Your writers and editors must be so proud. Screen shot is at the bottom.

And -- the N&O's new redesign is in beta these days. Maybe they'll also have another great feature like the Herald-Sun's?

Congratulations Joe!

2009-09-15T04:41:00.005-04:00

Today's the day -- Durham's own Joe Liles is expected to summit Mount Katahdin in Maine some time today to complete his 2,175 mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail! Liles was one of the founding faculty members of the NC School of Science and Math and following his retirement in 2008 decided he wanted to take on the challenge of hiking the trail. He began in March -- back when hiking the Appalachian Trail only had one meaning -- and was a popular hiking companion (according to trail reports) with his singing and harmonica playing. As you may know thru-hikers pick up a nickname during their adventure and Joe became Braid for the last six months, a fitting moniker for Joe's extended ponytail.

A thorough web and Facebook presence has tracked Joe all the way, thanks to Colin Law (NCSSM '86). There you can find video, stories and of course, given Joe's immense talents in photography, some terrific photos. I'm looking forward to the coffee table book myself.

Way to go Joe!

A walk around downtown Durham

2009-09-12T11:15:00.006-04:00

I spent an hour on Friday afternoon (9/11/09) walking around downtown Durham and taking pictures with my iPhone as I went. I was surprised by how well they turned out. Anyhow, the photos should appear as a slideshow below. Enjoy!

Man v. Food: "Durham" mini-review

2009-09-05T21:06:00.005-04:00

Okay, since I mocked the social media marketing folks in the last post I figured I owed it to teh Internets around the globe to at least watch "Man v. Food: Durham" and give a review. And I must say that eh, it's not the show for me. For some reason a show about a chubby guy who has an enormous appetite and doesn't mind looking stupid seems a little too familiar. I hadn't seen an MvF episode before and I doubt I'll watch one again.

On the other hand, I definitely enjoyed the Durham parts. The owners of both Backyard BBQ Pit and Wimpy's were charming, enthusiastic and had a great sense of humor. It was also nice to see the Doughman competition as I'd only heard of it before but never attended. And you can never get enough of a charismatic host saying "I love Durham" several times.
On the MvF website there's also a nice piece on Ninth Street that features Native Threads, the Duck Shop, The Regulator and a fun mini-interview with Carol Anderson of Vaguely Reminiscent. Click on the photo of Carol and Adam above to see the clip. There's also a very gracious "vlog" (people still use that term?) in which Adam is shot sitting mostly in the dark in his hotel room (?) singing the praises of every one he met in Durham.

Finally, this: in the transition shots between segments there were two shots of Raleigh. I assume this was filmed when they were in Raleigh last year, but seriously. How hard is it to shoot ten more seconds of footage from the city you're in? As proof here's a screen shot from the website. Note the CAT (Capital Area Transit) bus in the picture.

All I can say is -- thanks, Allen. (Allen, Adam -- what's the difference?)

Man vs. Social Network Marketers

2009-09-01T20:51:00.007-04:00

[Something tells me this is not going to go as planned.*]

The next stop on my new status as a member of the media elite (for those of you with wee memories visit my wayback machine for The Nasher, Picasso and Me): I got an e-mail today from someone named Wendy from Room 214 urging me to blog/tweet about the show "Man v. Food." Honest to Freud I've never seen this show before and only barely have some memory of this guy appearing in Raleigh last year to eat 3000 hot dogs or something like that.

Anyhow, the episode Wednesday night features this wild man's adventures in eating in Durham, or so that's what the release I got said. I'm sure it's going to be a fascinating show but today kids I'd like to talk about this press release-e-mail-thing. Here are some snippets that I really enjoyed:

Durham has been called the "Cradle of Cue", so Adam starts his journey with a search for some good ole Eastern Carolina BBQ.

Oh, where to start. To my knowledge Durham has NEVER been called the "Cradle of Cue." After Googling I found that North Carolina has at times been called the "Cradle of 'Cue" (note the apostrophe, Wendy!) but Durham? Locavore? Sure. Foodie? You bet? But I doubt we'd even make the top 20 in barbecue localities in the state. We certainly get no love from my new favorite food site BBQ Jew. Regardless, if you make it all the way to the Triangle, you pick Backyard BBQ Pit?

And "good ole?" C'mon, Wendy, y'all not frum 'round here, huh? And it's eastern, not Eastern. And it's eastern North Carolina, not eastern Carolina. Catching on?

They're known for their chopped BBQ pork, which btw isn't really chopped, it's stirred (that's how tender it is!). In Adam's own words, the pork "coats your tongue like velvet".

btw? Are we under Twitter length restraints now? And, um, if it's not chopped, it's not chopped. Find me some other NC barbecue restaurant that refers to their meat as stirred. Also, the last word you should ever use to describe eastern North Carolina barbecue is velvet -- that's for fine paintings, not food.

Next up, Adam heads to Wimpy's Grill which is known for big breakfasts and big burgers.

Okay, I've had a burger or two at Wimpy's, and I enjoyed them, but they weren't ecstasy-producing. In the YouTube clip Wendy sent along the focus at Wimpy's is far more on the toppings than the ground-at-Wimpy's hamburger. Look at all those toppings! And more toppings! They're messy.

Also, they serve breakfast at Wimpy's? Maybe they do, but never in my life have I heard of Wimpy's as being "known for big breakfasts." You?

And did you know Wimpy's ...

"is a hot spot for tailgating?"

View Larger Map

WHERE? In that incredibly narrow all-asphalt parking lot? Or does she mean the Dukies are all grabbing some burgers on their way to the big football games? (Insert your own Duke football joke here.)

This burger is so messy Adam says, "I feel I ned to eat it in the shower".

Ned? And proper use of quotation marks?

On a more personal note, I hope you do not find this email offensive. I try to reach out to people who would be interested to know that Man V. Food is coming!

No, Wendy, I don't find this offensive at all. I do worry that in the battle of good writing vs. social media that social media seems to have the upper hand at the moment. Good luck wherever the next episode takes you.

--Steve

P.S. Oooh, that Room 214 group seems a bit, I don't know, white, don't you think?

[*On the other hand, I'm writing about -- and you're reading about -- a show I knew nothing about mere hours ago, so perhaps their job is done. Someone at Room 214 is no doubt smiling and noting the irony ... while sending someone else to pull up the clip of "Reality Bites" where Ethan Hawke defines irony so everyone remembers what it is.]

Durham Bulls via Twitter

2009-08-30T08:34:00.003-04:00

In the old days if you weren't at the ballpark the only way to follow a baseball game was to listen to the play-by-play on the radio. Then came the advent of television and later the Internet, so one could be anywhere in the world and keep up with each pitch and crack of the bat.

And now there's Twitter.

I've been following the Durham Bulls Twitter feed for the past couple of months, mostly out of curiosity as I'm just a casual fan. But this morning I work up to see the overnight feed from TweetDeck and was stunned to see 17 posts from last night's Durham v. Gwinnett game. It was so much fun to read them and see the final result that I decided to repost them all below. It's not quite like being there but I think it's a close approximation!

* Gwinnett scores a run in the top of the 1st with no hits. Lead 1-0 with the Bulls coming up.

* Riggans yard. Tied at 1.

* Gwinnett has taken a 3-1 lead thru 4.

* Bulls trying to get back into this game. Scored 2 in the 6th and now trail 6-3.

* Bulls are 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position so far tonight. Need to change that.

* Make that 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position. We need a clutch hit from Reid.

* Reid did come thru and the Gwinnett lead has been cut to 7-5. We still have runners on 1st and 2nd with only one out in the 7th.

* A comeback tonight is big because Syracuse swept a doubleheader tonight. The loser of the game will only be 3.5 games up for the wild card.

* Heading to the 9th and we are still trailing 7-5. Need another 9th inning rally.

* 2-outs, 2-strikes bottom of the 9th and Reid just crushed one into the RF stands. We are now tied at 7 and will head to extra innings.

* We head to the bottom of the 11th with the score still tied at 7.

* We now head to the 13th and we have run out of pitchers. Ray Olmedo is now our pitcher.

* We now head to the 14th. Crazy, but Ray Olmedo is back on the mound. Can he hold Gwinnett again?

* Timmons just hit a solo shot off Olmedo. Gwinnett leads 8-7.

* Need another 2-run miracle in the 14th. Olmedo did all he could, but Gwinnett scored two and now lead 9-7.

* Bottom of the 14th and the Bulls have runners on 1st and 3rd with one out trailing 9-7.

* Elliot Johnson has just struck out for the 5th time tonight, but this time the bases were loaded. We are down to our final out.

* Unbelievable. Weber did it again. Full count, 2-outs, bases loaded in the bottom of the 14th and Weber hit a walk-off double. Bulls win 10-9

Amazing! Check out the video of the late-game heroics on the Bulls' website. Go Bulls!

Wikipedia and Bev Perdue -- where's the love, y'all?

2009-08-25T17:26:00.003-04:00

So I'm looking for a factoid this morning for a fun (!) civics getting to know you activity and I thought I'd throw in something about NC Governor Bev Perdue's former career as a teacher. I was just a little surprised, then, when I surfed over to Wikipedia and read this statement in her bio:

"Due to her uncanny resembalince the the Joker character from the Batman movies, she has been cast in the upcoming film. She needs to make up to render her face hidious and deformed, and her smile is a vivid portrayal of evilness."

Wow. That's a little harsh, don't you think? And there's no reference to which cinematic joker she might have a "resembalince" to so compare the three images below and state your preference:
Naturally in Wikipedialand the change (which was made earlier today) has been scrubbed from the current view but it can be seen in this history page. Another interesting fact about Perdue was also on an earlier version of the page today:

"She was soley responsible for the murder of young Emmit Till, a truly heinous act of American racism for which she recieved a 25 year suspended prision sentence."

Whoa. What's up with this? Looks like the changes were made by the IP address 71.76.200.120. Internet sleuths -- what can you say about this?

P.S. to Wikipedia: you know that "flagged revisions" idea? Better get a move on that.

Previewing: Picasso at the Nasher

2009-08-19T20:55:00.010-04:00

I was invited to the press preview today for the "Picasso and the Allure of Language" exhibition at Duke's Nasher Museum of Art. Moi, the press? Yup. Turns out the good people at the Nasher were willing to expand their definition this year to include local folks who use social networking tools, so as a renowned (cough!) Durham blogger I got the call. And yes, I took pictures -- there are plenty below after all the verbiage.

More about the meta-experience later. The exhibition itself is really well done. It's an attempt to not do "just another Picasso exhibition" as one speaker put it, but to really examine the ties between his art and language. This included things such as correspondence from his friendship between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (note the collage above) to the way that his doodles in his art became like handwriting at times. My friend Xan always refers to his cultural reflections as "Unsophisticated Art Reviews" and in that vein I will share that I can't always define what a good exhibition is but I know one when I see one -- and this was it. In fact, my only questions came when I saw pieces that were fabulous but just seemed to be great works of art; in some sculptures and paintings I failed to see how they really tied to the theme of "the allure of language" but for most it was quite clear. So should you see this? Absolutely. It's worth the $10 admission charge (tickets here) or you can wait until the free community and family days this fall (very nice move, Duke!).

Now to the experience of the press preview. First, I was delighted to strike up a lovely conversation with the delightful Blue Greenberg of the Herald-Sun before the event began. Second, I enjoyed hearing the curators speak about the themes they found in the works (conversation, inscription and fiction). Third, it was nice to be greeted by Wendy Hower Livingston of the Nasher who invited me to be there and in addition to providing me with a nice press kit also made sure I used the appropriate hashtag (#nasherpicasso, FYI). So when I was listening to the curators and the other introductions I pulled out my iPhone and sent off a couple of tweets about what I was hearing. (I would've sent more but the vaunted 3G network disappeared after ten minutes. Shrug.)

But the most fun was yet to come. As I was walking out Wendy stopped me and asked if I was Mr. Jones and if I had been tweeting -- oh, she means @mistajonez, I realized! -- and that some people wanted to meet me. Wha? It turns out that the delightful @10ch who I had exchanged some direct messages with about the Museum of Life and Science was there and she wanted to meet me! She'd seen my tweets with #nasherpicasso and so had @negaratduke, a Duke professor who was there. It was delightful to meet them in such a, um, social manner. I got to talk to @10ch for a while and not only did I enjoy our conversation but I got to see her amazing sketches of what she experienced at the exhibit. I will link to them both here but you should click through to Flickr to see them both larger -- they're amazing!

So, to sum: exhibit GOOD Picasso GOOD social networking GOOD. Pictures below.

Don't forget the bulky items

2009-07-23T15:01:00.007-04:00

In addition to the woes of the new Durham recycling program that Bull City Rising has noted, up in "blue" North Durham we're having issues with the bulky item pick-up. As you know, this new innovation was rolled out with the new blue recycling carts but in a really odd way: you have to put the bulky items at the curb before 7 a.m. of the day your garbage is picked up, but it won't be picked up until the next day.

So last week our neighborhood put out bulky items on Wednesday so they'd be ready for the Thursday 7 a.m. drive-by in order to be picked up on Friday. (Got that?)

And naturally, as you'll see from the pictures below taken today, it's all still there.

I called Durham One Call about 10 a.m. on Monday and was told that they were "backed up" and they would get around to it when they could. I was also told I was the 3rd person on my street to call.

Trash was picked up as normal today. Any guess as to whether the bulky stuff will be picked up tomorrow?

P.S. If you visit the page linked above to the Durham Solid Waste division, you'll see at the end of the paragraph about bulky items is this sentence: "It’s that simple."

Really?

A walk in the park

2009-07-20T10:16:00.003-04:00

This morning I was on a long walk from downtown Durham back home and as I passed near the Northgate dog park area I noticed an older woman up ahead of me. She appeared to be near the area for the larger dogs but didn't have a dog, which I thought was odd, so I just shrugged and headed around the park. I then realized she was calling out to me, so I paused my iPod and walked towards her a bit. "Ma'am?" I said.

"Are you walking through?" she said, pointing to the direction I was going.

Weird, I thought. "Yes," I answered.

"Good! Then I'll walk with you," she said.

Um, WEIRD. Right? But I waited for her to walk over to me. She was probably in her late 70s or early 80s, white hair, blue oversized workshirt, pinkish pants and a broad-brimmed hat. She wore athletic shoes and carried what I thought was a strange looking walking stick in her right hand.

She then walked with me as we passed from the dog park up past the infamous Museum of Life and Science bronto. She said that she often used to walk this way with three or four other women, but that they hadn't done that in a long time and this was the first time she'd walked down this path in six or seven years. She said that she used to volunteer for Meals on Wheels, five days a week from 8:30-2:30 (!) but that she had given that up recently since they moved from the downtown senior center. Her original plan, she said, was to go there and walk on the treadmill this morning, but that she really felt like getting out and walking around the neighborhood instead. We continued walking slowly -- "now you walk on ahead, don't slow down for me," she said, but clearly I wasn't. I was a little worried that she might stumble and fall on the uneven path, but she was pretty steady. "I brought my old broomstick to keep me steady," she said, identifying her strange walking stick.

As we neared the bronto she talked about the recent attack on it, noting that "there are terrible people in this world." We saw the newly reattached head in place and she said that it looked good. "Hello! You look so frisky this morning!" she said to the bronto. And I think she was right, it did look a little more jovial than usual. Maybe it's just me but it looks like the head is a little more turned now, a little more, um frisky.

We got close to Murray Avenue and she asked where I was headed. "Way up near the Eno?" she said. She and her walking friends used to continue on the trail past the museum and on up to the hospital, but she decided that she would just turn on Murray and head back towards her home. We spotted a man walking his dog about to cross the street, and she inquired if he was going to walk on the path back to the dog park, but he said he wasn't, so she continued up Murray.

"I enjoyed our walk!" she said to me as she left.

"I did too, ma'am. You have a nice day!" I said. And I continued on my way home, still trying to figure out exactly what had just happened.

Tearing it up in Durham

2009-07-09T13:40:00.012-04:00

This morning I veered off my usual routes around downtown Durham and found myself smack in the middle of a demolition zone. The former Fayette Place public housing complex (at the corner of Umstead and Grant) was bought by a Philadelphia developer, Campus Apartments, and currently Raleigh's EHG is handling the demolition. Campus Apartments develops complexes for colleges all over the country, and this one is going to provide extra (for-profit) housing for Central. (If you'd like to know more about development in general in the Fayetteville Street area, check out the Fayetteville Street Planning Group.)

There were a couple of EHG guys who I spoke to for a bit on my walk around this enormous block. They said that the project would take at least a month, and in response to my question, that they were recycling the concrete and brick. There was a separate crew going through buildings with plastic sheeting while the workers had on thick overalls and heavy-duty masking systems -- I'm guessing that was for asbestos abatement.

Enjoy the pictures I took on the walk around the block!

The truth about blackberries in Durham

2009-07-04T14:06:00.007-04:00

There was a great post on the Duke Park neighborhood e-mail list this week about the joys of picking blackberries in Durham. I enjoyed picking them when I was little but haven't thought much about it lately -- but now I'm inspired by Tom Whiteside! Read below for more. (And the photo above of a Durham blackberry patch was snagged from the Durham blog Shift of Tow posted last year on July 4.)

Dear Neighbors -
The fruit, not the gizmo. We are in the middle of blackberry season, and as usual my fingers are purple and my arms are covered with tiny scratches. My freezer is filling up. I am very happy. This wonderful fruit is everywhere, we have an inner city abundance of a culinary treat and it is a blessing. I've got a day off work, what the heck, I am going to spread the word about blackberries. In case you're interested, I offer Blackberry 101.

The stalks and brambles grow wild all over the place, you can find them along railroad tracks, behind buildings, alongside parking lots, in various places along the American Tobacco Trail, on the roadcut hillsides above 15-501 bypass in the vicinity of the intersection with the Durham Freeway, all along the Durham Freeway, on the hill across from Sam's, etc etc etc. I get a few, wild, in my backyard hedge. Look around carefully and you will find plentitude. They are easiest to spot in spring when the white blossoms on bending stalks stand out at a distance. This is, by definition, a common weed. These days I don't go more than a mile or two from my house for blackberries. Working at a leisurely pace I can pick a gallon in about an hour and a half. If I wanted to do this every day it would be easy. There are plenty of berries, plenty, plenty, plenty.

The fruit turns from green to red to black. Right now you will find all three colors on the same stalk. You can pick berries for several weeks, going back to the same place every few days to get what has ripened up. (They are not bananas, they will not ripen off the plant.) The berry is ripe when it is completely black. A ripe berry will come off with a gentle tug; if you have to pull it excessively hard to detach then it is not ripe As you pick you will find that some black ones still have one or more bright red little globule things, that's fine, it's ripe enough. But if you see a lot of red mixed in with black on the same berry, leave it for tomorrow. Ideally the ripe one is solid shiny black, and it comes off readily in your hand. If you find one that's more of a dull black, a bit past ripe and mushy, go ahead and taste it - sometimes these are already fermented on the bush, it's like a very fresh shot of blackberry vodka. (more on that later)

The bad stuff - blackberry thorns are wicked. As a wild plant that likes to grow back into space that's been cut, the blackberry often shares habitat with poison ivy. (For example, there's plenty of blackberry between the Wachovia and the old Kmart, and there is some absolutely spectacular poison ivy, too, with purple rusty stuff growing atop the leaves. I'm not picking there anymore.) More often than not it's decent territory for snakes, too. So generally I wear long pants and work boots and a heavy long sleeved shirt. Most days it's not much fun at 3:00 in the afternoon; early morning is best to stay out of heat and sun. I usually go before breakfast, this morning was absolutely perfect weather. I take plastic containers with lids, because it sure is a drag to spill a quart of berries. Just in case you don't like snakes or poison ivy, you can still pick blackberries - they are not always in the middle of brambles. Some of my favorite places are quite easily accessible and safe even in shorts and sandals, and no I'm not going to tell you where those are.

If you see a few ripe berries but not many, stay right there and look carefully. Look underneath. The ripe fruit gets heavy and pulls the stalk down, and you will often find the best stuff down in among other weeds. Sometimes the blackberry bush can climb up into small trees, so you can even find them overhead. But always look way down low, underneath everything else. It IS a jungle out there, so stay in one place and look low. Sometimes you find fruit on big established brambles, and sometimes you find perfectly nice fruit on rather lonely solitary stalks. At the end of the season you are picking the last black ones and there are no more red ones coming along. Even then, you might still find more berries nearby, on different plants in deeper shade.

People have said to me, "Oh I wouldn't want to take the food away from the birds." If you get into the bushes you probably will meet some birds and they might fuss at you, but that's probably because you are near their nest. If they are fussing badly you are probably too near, so try to back out carefully. Otherwise, you're not going to hurt them by taking "their" food. Once you see how many berries there are, and how many are inaccessible to you because you don't have wings, you won't worry about the birds.

So what to do with all this fruit? Wash it, drain it, eat it. Fresh with cereal, fresh with vanilla ice cream. Cobblers and pies are the best. The black turns to a beautiful deep purple when cooked, it's just an outrageously gorgeous color. Some people don't like the seeds, no problem, it's easy to take them out - make syrup or jelly. I like syrup, and it's easy - add 1/2 cup sugar to a half gallon of berries, a tiny bit of water, cook it down slowly and strain the seeds out. Refrigerated it lasts for weeks, it can be frozen. More or less sugar to taste. Cook it longer if you want it thicker, great on pancakes. Don't cook it so long and you've got an easy liquid form for making beverages. The taste is unique but is like pomegranate or black currants - that tasty dark fruit bitter flavor. For a soft drink I add syrup to regular ginger ale. For an adult beverage, add a splash of blackberry syrup to Blenheims ginger ale (hot hot or regular hot) and vanilla vodka. Careful, this is way easy to drink - very refreshing and it goes down like Kool Aid (and I mean that in a good way). If you freeze blackberries in a single layer on baking sheets they will stay like individual frozen berries when you bag them; if you put a few cups of fresh berries into a plastic bag and freeze them like that you will have one big clump of frozen berries, fine for wintertime cobbler or pies. BTW, we have a couple of Blenheim's bootleggers in the neighborhood, they make the run to South Carolina every once in a while and personally I am in good supply, but if anyone knows of a local retailer please let me know.

You can buy blackberries at the Farmer's Market and they look pretty good, all nice and big and shiny. The wild berries you forage for free might be smaller most of the time, but if you look around you can find plenty of impressive berries wild, too. Even the smallest berries cook down fine to syrup, I usually have two containers, one for juicy (to eat fresh or cobbler) and the other for not-so-juicy (for syrup).

So forage well. Here's a toast to the common-as-weeds blackberry, abundant as far as you might wander. It is a tough, scrappy and delicious part of our world. I nominate blackberry as the Official Duke Park Neighborhood Wild Fruit.

- Tom

Bear in Durham!

2009-06-27T20:08:00.003-04:00

Spotted tonight behind Edison Johnson!

Crime and punishment, Triangle-style

2009-06-12T17:32:00.006-04:00

Items from recent crime news:
In Durham some kids in high school for a senior prank decapitate a local landmark and put the head on the giraffe (itself stolen from a putt-putt course a few years back) on their school's campus. Culprits are nabbed by the police. Names are not released. Debate ensues as to whether to even charge them criminally. Most likely they are 18 since they're seniors in high school.

In Raleigh a 22-year-old student takes some DOT barricades and fashions a scary monster out of them, creating public art and causing destruction to the barrels at the same time. Student is arrested by the Raleigh police, booked, named released to the public and charged with "misdemeanor charges of damage to property and larceny."

Um ... anything wrong with this picture? Or is it just me?

For goodness Snakes

2009-05-29T05:54:00.003-04:00

The story on WRAL seems harmess enough: snake bites are on the rise in North Carolina. According to the Carolina Poison Control Center, "in April and May of last year ... 102 snake bites were reported. This year, 179 bites have been reported." Okay, check, I get that. But then comes the kicker -- why the increase? Here's the answer:

Experts say one reason snake sightings could be on the rise is construction, which can steer them away from their natural habitat.

Um, hello, "experts"? WE'RE IN A FRIGGIN' RECESSION. Where oh where are you going to find enough new construction from 2008 to 2009 to justify this? And where was the brain of reporter Beau Minnick when he typed this in? I'd love to know who these experts were and where their magic whiteboards showing this amazing increase in construction are.

[Photo above from the Eno River last month. Saw three over the course of two days ... but of course, I was in their backyard, not vice versa.]

What does John McCann have on the Herald-Sun?

2009-05-28T05:01:00.003-04:00

It's not enough that the Herald-Sun gives John McCann to spew his nonsensical half-baked ideas. Believe me, I'm all for bile-spewing columnists, I just want ones that actually know how to write. I am appalled by his anti-gay comments -- which keep me from actually subscribing to the paper -- but as Michael Bacon pointed out a few years ago, one of his columns was "not just bad because it is so casually yet stridently anti-gay, but because it adds absolutely nothing to any form of conversation on the issue." (Crap, that was three years ago?)

But with all the budget cuts someone got the bright idea to make McCann a courtroom reporter and the results have just been laughable. In this economy, with media jobs evaporating all around us, does McCann have some naughty photos of Paxton execs somewhere? Otherwise, how do you expain this lede?

The sister of the man who could spend the rest of his life in prison for allegedly slicing the life out of the man whose child she was carrying returned to the witness stand on Wednesday and told jurors the victim drank too much, did drugs and, in fact, was a cocaine dealer.

Nice work, John! Durham is so proud. And note to Paxton: seriously? With all the unemployed newspaper folk in the Triangle and this is one you kept?

Duke Tech!

2009-05-20T20:29:00.003-04:00

I was browsing Google News today and a story in the Durham NC section caught my eye. "Duke Tech graduation tonight," read the headline from MyNC.com. I e-mailed them a correction and before I could get home to get a screen shot they had changed the headline and the page title, but not the URL, as you can see in the address bar below:
The tags for the page still list Duke even now. Heh.

The irony is that this was apparently just a cut-and-paste from a Durham Tech press release, so did someone at MyNC just decided to shorten Durham to Duke? Weird. But with reporters dropping like flies at the N&O and the Herald-Sun, maybe this is just a sign of the times.

Eno River State Park

2009-04-17T22:26:00.009-04:00

Sorry for the long delay, gentle readers. I am back to report some very refreshing jaunts this week (Spring Break, you know) at the Eno River State Park, a park that for some reason I have neglected for a long time. I visited the eastern and western divisions of the ERSP and hiked five different trails, and I can report that a) it was immensely satisfying and b) the snakes are out! Here are some assorted images from the park over the past three days:

The gravestone for Catharine Dunnagan (r) led to a fascinating post about racial history in Durham -- be sure to check it out.

Um, apparently you're gonna call ... them?

2009-03-15T19:39:00.011-04:00

So this afternoon I took the girls and their scooters over to the massive parking lot around my school to scoot around the asphalt and sidewalks. And when I say massive I mean it -- the building we're in used to house hundreds of employees and now we're the only tenants in the whole place. (Crammed into part of one floor, I might add, but I digress.)

Anyhow, about 45 minutes after we had been there, this long white car pulls up with tinted windows pulls up and stops in front of me. I'm thinking, this is weird, but maybe he's lost and needs directions. So the guy -- a small middle-aged guy with an older woman in the passenger seat next to him -- looks at me and says,

"What are you doing here? Don't you know this is private property?"

And I say "Is it your property?"

And he says, "As a matter of fact, it is my property."

"Oh," I said, "I'm a teacher at the school here and I just brought my girls and their scooters to play."

"Oh," he replied. "That's okay." And he starts to drive off.

"Wait!" I said. "Can I take a picture of your car?"

He shrugs his shoulders. "Sure."

And I did. And this (below) is what he was driving:

Before he drove away I said, "So what is this?" (pointing to the car)

"It is what it is," he said, shrugging again.

And then he drove the car away to a small garage where he parked it and swapped it for a gray SUV.

And no, I still have no idea what happened.

See more pix below. If you can explain it, will you let me know?

Animals at the Eno

2009-03-08T12:39:00.003-04:00

Today I hiked the Eagle Trail alongside the Eno River from Guess Road towards Roxboro and wanted to share the photos of the animals (and evidence of animals) I encountered. Enjoy!

First, raccoon (?) prints in the infamous Black Meadow Ridge parcel:

Next, a deer that was running in my direction as it was being chased by a dog, and it froze in its tracks when it saw me. Can you spot it below? Hint: it's right in the center!
I'm guessing beavers were here ...
It was Turtle Day -- I must've seen 40, most of which were much quicker than I was and dove into the water at my approach. I guess they were loving the warm weather too!
And the best for last -- a crayfish! It might be the crayfish featured on this Eno T-shirt a few years back. If so, it's the Carolina Ladle Crayfish whose scientific name is Cambarus davidi. It was named for a 16 year old, David Cooper, who first discovered it in Raleigh in 1993.

Spring!

2009-03-05T18:41:00.002-05:00

One of more than 50 robins in my backyard this afternoon. Welcome, Spring!

Scenes from the snowy Eno River

2009-03-03T05:31:00.003-05:00

Photos taken on March 2, 2009 at West Point on the Eno.

Want more? Check out more than 30 images at my album on Facebook. (You don't need to have a Facebook account to view these ... but if you do, feel free to friend me!)

RIP Mr. Tibbens

2009-02-22T10:25:00.005-05:00

Today is the funeral for one of my favorite teachers of all time. The obit says this:

Vance Arnold Tibbens, 90, of 8 Robertson Street, died Friday, February 20, 2009 at Rex Healthcare. Mr. Tibbens was born in Clinton County, Pennsylvania on August 29, 1918 to the late Dalfus Tibbens and Bessie Gramley Tibbens. He attended Lock Haven State Teachers College. Mr. Tibbens taught Jr. and Sr. High School Math for 38 years in the Wake County Public School System. He was a member of Knightdale Baptist Church.

By the time I took his class in 8th grade Mr. Tibbens was a local legend. In fact, he had taught my mother (class of '58? '59?) at Knightdale High School before he taught me at Vaiden Whitley Middle School. It's amazing to realize now that he was 60 when he taught us. I knew that he was old, sure, but he was so on top of things.

Our class was a bunch of smarty pants, by definition -- we were the first kids to be offered Algebra I in the 8th grade. Looking back I'm sure we were obnoxious, but I definitely remember working very hard ... and I'm also still very good at algebra. Every time my students have issues with high school math I always sit down with them to try to help them out. (Calculus kids, you're on your own.)

I remember Mr. Tibbens was always a little gruff and formal -- I remember a suit with a vest everyday -- but never unkind. I also recall that he had little sayings and nickname, like "the peanut gallery" for those of us who sat in the back. He was a really good man and a great teacher, and I'm sorry I didn't let him know what an impact he had on me. Rest in peace, Mr. Tibbens.

In four short years he met his every goal

2009-02-17T04:59:00.002-05:00

Yesterday in honor of Presidents Day C-SPAN released its 2nd poll of historians ranking the leadership qualities of the former presidents -- polling a "cross-section of 65 presidential historians [who] ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership," as they put it. I was pleased to see that James K. Polk finished again at #12 (or #13, as he appears to have the same number of points as Andy Jackson).

And why, do you ask, my interest/concern in James K. Polk? Yes, I'm a social studies teacher, but it all comes down to They Might Be Giants. See the performance below and check out the kids who can't quite figure out if they're supposed to be rocking out on this one or not. Lyrics, by the way, should definitely be read and internalized at your leisure.

The new project

2009-02-14T19:35:00.001-05:00

This is what I'm spending more of my time doing these days ... check it out, even if you're not a high school psychology teacher!

Yeah, not so much

2009-02-04T07:40:00.002-05:00

Screen shot from WRAL after midnight last night. Compare the estimated snowfall (2-4") with the actual (0.00").

Brown goes down

2009-02-01T09:48:00.002-05:00

Durham City Council member Eugene Brown recently hopped on his high horse and reamed the city for holding an employee appreciation luncheon in these tough economic times. Brown claimed that in addition to the costs of the luncheon itself there would also be a $31,500 loss of productivity in employee hours lost.

Oh, good grief.

Fortunately he was rebuffed by many (including Bull City Rising's Kevin Davis) for last-minute grandstanding. In response to the criticism on BCR, Brown posted a lengthy defense in the comments section. What follows below is snipped from the comments section, first Brown's statement, then a second statement written by "City Employee" which just blows him out of the water. Enjoy!

-----------------------

In my six years on the Council I have voted for every pay raise for employees and I appreciate and enjoy working with almost all of them. This is not an anti city employee proposal. As an elected official I get no joy from this, but we all have to recognize the harsh economic conditions we face as a city. My message is rather simple: this is not the time to be hosting a 3.5 hour luncheon on a workday that costs taxpayers nearly $20,000 for around 400 city employees. Including loss productivity, aggregate cost to our city could be over $50,000. I am in agreement that it may now be too late to cancel the event, but we could have cut it back to two hours and/or eliminate some food or desert as well as the number of non- city employees who are invited. These are coommon sense steps that many private companies are taking including those who cater gatherings at the Washington Duke. Shouldn't a five star city work force respond in a similiar way as those who use a five star hotel. Nor do I understand why the city is honoring 219 employees. We have about 2,000 employees. At this rate everyone should have already been honored since the luncheon has been hosted for 2o years. On occassion, symbolism and jestures are important and I believe the city needs to send a message to our citizens that we too get it,that we understand that many of our citizens have lost their jobs and face an uncertain economic future, and that we in the public sector we who have jobs are willing to sacrifice a little to help in a small way eliminate our nearly $4 million city deficit. Eugene Brown Durham City Council

Posted by: eugene brown

-----------------------

Mr. Brown is very out of touch on this issue. But that's nothing new for him. He's almost been the most unfriendly council member to employees.

First, he got the name of the department wrong that actually hosts this event. It's Human Resources, not Human Relations (a department he has openly criticized; does some of his criticism of the luncheon come from his dislike of Human Relations?).

Second, he has not even attended the event in the past few years. How would he know anything about the event? How would he know if employees like it or not? He should show up sometime. He would actually find that most of us like the lunch.

Third, his comment "At this rate everyone should have already been honored since the luncheon has been hosted for 2o (sic) years" shows his ignorance. The luncheon honors employees when they reach 5 year milestones in service (5, 10, 15, 20, etc.).

Fourth, people hardly ever take 3.5 hours for the lunch. If Mr. Brown showed up one year, he would see employees coming and going from the lunch as their work responsibilities call for.

Fifth, there isn't the kind of lost productivity Mr. Brown says. Nearly all (I can't honestly say all) of the employees there work more than 40 hours each week anyway. The emails, voice mails, and paperwork will be there for them when they return. Cutting it back to 2 hours won't make a difference in Mr. Brown's made up cost figures. That whole $50,000 figure is such a joke.

Six, while Mr. Brown says he voted for pay raises, he's the same council member who recently said at a work session, "City employees are lucky to have their jobs. If they don't like working here, they can go find other jobs." That's really motivating!

Seventh, if you want "jestures" (sic; this guy was Joe Biden's speech writer? Maybe he meant jester!), Mr. Brown, let's do away with the Council's Monday night dinners and sometime Thursday lunches. Take away some of your second helpings and dessert.

We're willing to sacrifice, Mr. Brown. You keep asking us to do more with less, and we respond. Sure, a $100 bill would be nice and would cost less for the 219 who are being honored for their service, but sometimes people like to be thanked in person by their bosses. We'd like to know once in while that we are appreciated.

Maybe that's just too hard for you to understand. With that kind of leadership, I'm glad to be on heading to retirement.

Posted by: City Employee

Yeah, for the record, they all don't look alike

2009-01-19T08:44:00.004-05:00

Can someone please get the folks at USA Today up to speed on identifying which Obama daughter is which? Sheesh.

The sticky-fingered salmonella culprit is ...

2009-01-12T20:58:00.004-05:00

peanut butter! (See background from last week's post.)

Lots, lots more here, from a lawyer who's so into this. He's busy calling out the CDC and FDA for not doing a recall yet.

This week in Durham neighborhood listservs

2009-01-11T09:54:00.004-05:00

Watts Hospital-Hillandale: does the Broad Street Cafe suck, or not? And do parents have the right to bitch about food on behalf of their children? Plus, backyard chickens suck/do not!

Duke Park: are license checks a legitimate necessity or an unconstitutional violation? Also, where to buy Cheerwine?

Old North Durham: damn, more break-ins!

Old West Durham: the public access channel needs saving/no it doesn't!

It's baaaaaaack!

2009-01-08T17:38:00.004-05:00

After raising its ugly head this summer our old pal salmonella is back in the news. As of Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 388 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 42 states," sez the CDC. Apparently the most common source for this kind of infection is cheese, milk and eggs, so venture your guess now. Gouda? Free-range chicken eggs? Cottage cheese? Chocolate milk? Be prepared for several culprits to be fingered all at once before someone confesses.

You're gonna hurt someone with that ol' shotgun

2008-12-21T09:35:00.009-05:00

Today's Geekdad links to a Cartoon Brew post by an author trying to determine the 100 greatest Looney Tunes cartoons for an upcoming book. (I am SO putting in my virtual order for that book right now!)

See -- I grew up in the olden times when cartoons only were broadcast on Saturday mornings. There were just a few channels, no cable, and certainly nothing to record them with at home -- if you didn't watch them as they aired you just missed them. So every Saturday morning I plopped down on the floor in front of the TV (always the requisite 6' away, marked by a line on the floor, to allegedly preserve my eyesight) and watched cartoons for a few hours.

My favorite then and now were Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons, and I never met a cartoon I didn't like. Bugs, Wile E. , Sylvester, Granny, Daffy, Elmer and especially Sam were like my extended family. Sure, I didn't get a lot of the jokes but the stuff I understood was hilarious. And growing up in Knightdale I didn't get a whole lot of culture ('cept for Southern, of course) so when Bugs did a parody of an opera, for example, it was my first introduction to any kind of opera.

A few years back I showed a bunch of my favorites at NCSSM and got a pretty good response -most of the students had only seen a few (if any) and thought they were great. What really made it for me was Catherine, a student who loved them just as much as I did; she would just burst out laughing when I mentioned the title of a cartoon and shout "I loved that one!"

Over the past several months I've rented/borrowed a bunch of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series from the library & Blockbuster -- note to Durham County residents: apparently some parents are allowing their children to use these DVDs as pucks in street hockey games from the condition they're in -- and have watched them with my daughters (8 and 6). Fortunately they've enjoyed them just as much as I have and to my wife's amusement/chagrin can go around the house spouting the catchphrases they remember ("I taut I taw a puddytat!" "Thufferin' thuccotash!" "I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque!" etc.).

The nice thing too is that the great majority of these cartoons can be found on YouTube.

We've had lots of conversations about the issues that come up. Violence, for example -- they know that real guns are dangerous but being shot in the face with a shotgun in Looney Tunes is really funny. Other things weve talked about are cross-dressing (Bugs and Elmer), physics (Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote) and racial stereotypes (Germans, Speedy Gonzales and others). The third installment of the Looney Tunes collections has an introduction by Whoopi Goldberg about the concerns of stereotyping, and why it's important to see these cartoons as a product of their time.

So -- WHEW -- with all that intro -- I tried to make a list of my top ten Looney Tunes cartoons. I had to stop at 12 (or 14, depending on how you count) 'cause it just got too hard after that. Each is linked to a YouTube video for your enjoyment. Got a favorite I didn't list? Post yours in the comments.

Rabbit of Seville
What’s Opera Doc
Rabbit Seasoning/Duck! Rabbit! Duck!/Rabbit Fire (the “hunting trilogy”)
What’s Up Doc?
Bully for Bugs
High Diving Hare
Feed the Kitty
Duck Amuck
One Froggy Evening
Hillbilly Hare
Hare Trimmed
Birds Anonymous

Nice one Tar Heels!

2008-12-11T04:26:00.003-05:00

What happens when a flash mob erupts in the library during exam week? This.

Happy birthday Rene!

2008-11-21T16:41:00.003-05:00

So today I'm teaching class and my students have checked out laptops for the period. They're finishing up a PowerPoint and poster for a civil rights project due next week.

Anyhow, in the middle of the class I hear from the other side of the room "What is this?" and "Maybe 'it's raining men' or something." I don't have any idea what they're talking about, so I ask. "It's this thing on Google today -- what is it?" one asked. Oh, it must be one of those special Google logos, I thought, trying in vain to think what November 21 must be the anniversary of. As it turns out, this is the logo they saw:

"Magritte!" I shouted.

"What?" came a chorus. I think they thought I'd lost my mind.

So I clicked the logo and found out that Google is honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rene Magritte, who has always been one of my favorite painters of all time. I used to have his posters in my room at Jordan and I made a mental vow to get more for the new classroom.

Anyhow, the real delight came in spending the next 15-20 minutes with these students completely off-task and enthralled as we clicked image after image to see more of Magritte's work. Each time I tried to explain ("it's a picture of a pipe, not a real pipe" or "see how the horse appears to be in front of and behind the trees at the same time?") and you would see these amazing looks come over their faces as they "got" it. I don't think these students (who are very bright) had ever seen this kind of art before and this inadvertent introduction to it was priceless. So thanks, Google, and happy birthday Rene Magritte!

Here are some of my favorite works:

Poet's Walk/Occoneechee Speedway hikes

2008-11-11T19:14:00.005-05:00

"Hikes" is probably too strong a word here, but "strolls" is too mild and "walks" doesn't capture it either. Woodsy amblings, maybe? Anyhow, on Sunday the fam went to Hillborough to walk around the historic Ayr Mount residence (built in 1815 and fully restored) on a path known as Poet's Walk. Visitors are encouraged to take a pencil and paper and compose a poem as they walk the grounds, though we couldn't convince our little poets to do so. Still, a beautiful walk that weaves in and out of the woods, across green meadows and along the Eno River. For a short time the walk also parallels the old Indian Trading Path.
As we were down by the Eno we were greeted by a man who had just crossed the river to the other side and was busy putting his socks and shoes back on. Turns out he was Bill, the caretaker of Ayr Mount, who has lived on the grounds for 22 years with his wife (who does the tours of the house). He noted that he was on his way to retrieve the tractor that he had left the previous day on the other side of the Eno at the other trail. We watched him scramble up the bank and disappear.
Turns out the other trail he was referring to was exactly where we were going, the Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail. (It was only a short drive away, I knew, but I didn't realize that the two sites are just across the river from other until I used Google Maps.) From 1948-1968 it was a real one mile dirt track speedway featuring the likes of Richard Petty, but now the main part of the trail is a one mile dirt oval with amazingly gorgeous colorful trees all around. There are other paths to branch off to if you want a longer jaunt as well. We all loved the old concrete grandstand that still remains at the finish line.
And wouldn't you know it, we did run into Bill on the walk to the oval -- he had located the tractor and was driving it back to Ayr Mount. He gave us a big grin and wave as he passed.

Two great places to visit and only a short drive away -- we'll go back and explore more next time, only with a full picnic basket in hand.

Mmmm ... doughnut muffins

2008-11-09T09:13:00.003-05:00

Inspired by the amazing dessert maker who appears at the Durham Farmer's Market (and whose blog is growing cobwebs) I searched for a recipe for doughnut muffins. While I found several that had wildly varying ingredients (sweet potato puree! four eggs! five sticks of butter!) I settled on this one. Easy to make and incredibly delicious ... in just about 45 minutes start to finish you'll have these delectable treats for yourself. Share them with loved ones if necessary. Enjoy!

Awesome sign!

2008-11-04T10:27:00.002-05:00

This family's daughter goes to NCSSM and they live on Club Boulevard -- fitting photo for today!

Durham early voting just under 100K

2008-11-01T19:43:00.002-04:00

97, 697 was the final total of votes cast during the early voting period in Durham this year. Early predictions by the BOE office suggested 90-100K so not too shabby. With about 175000 registered voters (more could have been added during early voting) about 50% of potential voters have already cast their ballots which is amazing. As Kevin noted earlier, 110,000 was the total number of votes cast in Durham in the record-setting year of 2004, so expect to see that record smashed on Tuesday.

Here is the final updates for each early voting site, first with the totals through 10/25 and then with the final numbers:

Board of Elections office: 10, 702/19,452
Duke: 4,498/9,361
East Regional Library: 5,320/11.031
Forestview Elementary: 3,526/7,254
NC Central: 7,054/14,353
North Regional Library: 9,429/17,421
Southwest Elementary: 9,420/18,825

Last chance to vote early by 5 today

2008-11-01T10:17:00.003-04:00

The photo above was taken outside the Durham Board of Elections office this morning about 9:30. Not too bad a line -- someone who'd been at the Southwest location earlier this morning said that the wait was about 45 minutes. Whatever it is it's going to be better than election day ... so get out there and vote if you haven't already!

50,000 votes and climbing!

2008-10-25T19:55:00.006-04:00

Okay, technically it's 49,949 but it's pretty darned close. That's the number of people who have already cast ballots in Durham County as of 10/25/08. (All stats in this post courtesy of the Durham Board of Elections and the BOE PDF.)

Here's the breakdown by site:

Board of Elections office: 10, 702 (21%)
Duke: 4,498 (9%)
East Regional Library: 5,320 (11%)
Forestview Elementary: 3,526 (7%)
NC Central: 7,054 (14%)
North Regional Library: 9,429 (19%)
Southwest Elementary: 9,420 (19%)

There are 175,000 registered voters in Durham and the BOE is expecting about 90-100,000 total early voters, so expect to see some big increases in the numbers above by the end of the day on November 1.

One number leaps out: why is Duke so paltry? Apparently there was a lot of interest in and support from the Duke community to get this location (new this year) but that's a seriously puny turnout. C'mon Blue Devils -- do something right for a change.

Go democracy!

EDIT: After checking the State Board of Elections site it looks like more than 1 million people in the state have already voted early, making Durham's total about 5% of the statewide total. The state site has breakdowns in race and party as well ... more on that later.

Last night's debate in a nutshell

2008-10-16T19:17:00.002-04:00

Be sure not to miss John McPenguin, either.

Oh, Indy

2008-10-10T16:15:00.003-04:00

I picked up the latest Independent Weekly at the library this afternoon and was appalled by the cover. No, silly, you know I'm a fan of local food, but cripes, who thought of this headline?

EAT WHERE YOU'RE AT

I know people bitch all the time about grammar these days but would it hurt a newspaper to use grammar correctly on the cover? Okay, you're saying, it's just an alternative paper. True, but given that the Herald-Sun is now trumpeting how great they are only because the N&O staff is dropping like flies alternative papers may be all we're left with one day. (No offense intended to the delightful M. Chen at the H-S.)

On the other hand, I shouldn't complain too much. The article is about cool places to eat in the periphery of the Triangle and well worth a read.

And while I was there searching for an image of the actual cover (which I clearly failed to locate) I read this amazing story of a guy who wrote to Joe Biden in '72 after his wife and children were killed and Biden's response. You may have seen Biden's reference to this in the debate with She Who Must Not Be Named but this made it even more real for me. Very touching.

P.S. Feel free to find all the grammatical mistakes above, but remember, I don't get paid to write or edit! (Clearly.)

Stagville field trip

2008-09-28T11:06:00.004-04:00

If you haven't been before, a visit to Historic Stagville in Durham is a must. I took my African-American history class there for a field trip and it was a very awe-inspiring visit. Based on our discussions the following day I think the students were really able to get a sense of the lives of slaves who lived there and contrast that with what we had read in our textbooks and other sources. There were a number of moments of great impact, but none more so than when students could see and touch the fingerprints and toeprints of slaves (and slave children, we think) that were left in the bricks (touched before being completely cool) and that were used in the chimneys. It just hit home to them how real those lives were.

The Eno bridge is open!

2008-09-17T22:12:00.003-04:00

More photos later, but for now just these of the newly opened bridge over the Eno River (at West Point on the Eno). Nice to enjoy the other side of the park!

Only burger?

2008-09-09T16:10:00.002-04:00

So, yeah, long time no blog. Until I get my teaching head above water it'll be Thanksgiving at best before I'm not so intermittent.

Anyhow, this morning I got my weekly e-mail from Craig and Seth at Wine Authorities which is amusing since I rarely drink wine. (My younger and Craig's were pals in preschool.) This morning's missive announced their first birthday celebration from 5-7 on Wednesday featuring an Only Burger truck.

What's an Only Burger truck? Good question! Apparently it's the brainchild of Tom Ferguson of Durham Catering and Sam Poley, formerly of Starlu. According to the e-mail it's the truck's debut, so I'd be interested to see the reviews. On the Only Burger website it looks like single burgers are $4 and doubles are $6.50, which seems hefty for a to-go burger, but maybe it's incredibly delicious.

P.S. I also stumbled on this blog when checking for info on Only Burger which looks like an interesting source for Durham food. Maybe they'll post a review!

Back at it

2008-08-25T05:55:00.003-04:00

With the real world intruding, any leftover energy at this point goes to sleeping and planning/grading, and not so much blogging. I will keep up when I can but those weekday mornings of refreshing strolls through the woods are on hold for now.

But I'll leave you with this: on Sunday the N&O did a nice piece on responses of teachers to an annual survey of working conditions. Eye-opening. Seriously, check out the database now and see what teachers in various schools had to say about how they felt supported, whether they're held to professional standards, have resources they need, and more. Unfortunately there's no way to select one or more at a time and see them in a spreadsheet so you can compare school to school, but you could do that yourself.

Happy new academic year to all!

Hi deer!

2008-08-21T07:19:00.003-04:00

Spotted one morning last week on a road near Duke Forest.

Panoramic shot of Duke Forest

2008-08-17T23:27:00.002-04:00

Taken last week -- this is the creek that runs through it. I'm hoping that you can click the above photo to see the whole thing!

EDIT: yikes, I forgot the name initially, but it's New Hope Creek. This is off Whitfield Road.

Scaling the great heights

2008-08-13T13:52:00.003-04:00

My delightful wife bought me a book optimistically a few years ago that I'm just now appreciating -- 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Raleigh, by Lynn Setzer. Last week I ventured out to one of the hikes that I'd always wanted to try, Occoneechee Mountain in Hillsborough. It's the highest point in Orange County at a whopping 867 feet above sea level. I read the official web page and consulted the map (PDF), but the last nugget in my head before I headed out was that the book said the hike would be 50 minutes.

Well, no. When I got back I looked it up again -- the book suggests that you climb to the overlook then the summit, then retreat back the way you came. Who wants to do that when there's another option? My two hour journey around the whole mountain led to a beautiful overlook, a disppointing summit (just a cell phone tower and fenced-off fire tower), a stroll alongside the Eno River and quite a bit of up-and-down. Apparently this word "mountain" in the hike's name should have given me a clue, eh? My only real frustration was having that "50 minute" time in my head so the last 30 minutes or so I kept thinking the end was just around the corner.

Beautiful scenery, moderate hike, well worth your time. And a clean bathroom to boot!

All 43 pics are at my Facebook album here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47542&l=91f05&id=573216883

China then, not now

2008-08-10T13:10:00.003-04:00

If you're in a Olympic haze you might be interested in perusing these images from the Sidney Gamble collection that were released by Duke earlier this year. Gamble was an American sociologist who visited China four times in the early 20th century and took more than 5000 photographs during his travels. It's an amazing collection and well worth your browsing time.

O Tar Heels?

2008-08-09T19:26:00.002-04:00

I don't know, I don't think the people at Bumperactive quite have the "NC for Obama" bumper sticker quite right. What do you think? Suggestions for a better one? I think something with barbecue would work, but it's not coming to me at the moment.

What's up with the big S these days?

2008-08-07T18:45:00.005-04:00

Everyone -- and by that I mean no one -- has been clamoring to get an update on the summer's hottest trend, salmonella-getting. Since the smoking gun turned out to be a blazin' serrano pepper from Mexico, I suspect you've turned the page on this news item, eh? Still, there's more interesting stuff:

Mexico sez: hey, we don't got no -- sorry, skipping the offensive stereotypical retort here -- we've found no salmonella (and the U.S. responds, "did too!")
Wal-Mart is taking the claim that some guy got salmonella from their peppers "very seriously" -- and as the Consumerist points out, this is what "companies use over and over again to appear contrite without actually saying or doing anything." Stay tuned on this one.
This guy (director of the Paleobiotics Lab) says "our sick, leaky guts" should share the blame.
Oh, great, let's just irradiate everything to oblivion, just in case, to be safe you know.

And finally, it's nice to see that someone took my Law and Order meme literally:

"Holding a tomato in one hand and a jalapeño in the other, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee, pressed the FDA on whether the tomato was still a "vegetable of interest" or had been cleared. "

Vegetable of interest -- heh.

P.S. Still no salmonella outbreak at the Durham Farmer's Market. I'm just saying.

100 Gs, baby

2008-08-06T07:56:00.004-04:00

Was I right or what? Last month I had an exclusive (MUST! CITE! TAKETHEBULL!) interview with Durham's own Chad Bullock who was up for a Teen Choice Award for his anti-smoking activism, and on Sunday night he won! I'm not sure if he was more excited about the $100,000 or by being presented the award by Scarlett Johannsson. (jk!)

Anyhow, here's what Chad said he'd do if he won:
"Tobacco companies have millions and millions of dollars to spend on whatever they way. This prize money will be a great help in my efforts. I will use all of the prize money on efforts to engage youth across the nation in taking action in their local communities. I have a project called ElectriFYIed Youth Project and we will be present and many key youth events around the country aiming to spark a generation of "electric" leaders."

Way to go Chad! We're very proud of you.

(Hat tip to SAL for news of the win!)

2nd worst restaurant meal ever

2008-08-03T13:53:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I decided to take the girls out for dinner while J was working. We ended up at the Eno River Eatery in North Durham on Roxboro Road. (Yes, you're right, I should have known.) I hadn't been in the place in ten years or more when it used to be Le Coco.

I suppose right off the bat I should've known that a place that uses that much duct tape to reupholster their booths would have some other issues. But I plowed ahead full steam. Z ordered a poached egg (her favorite), bacon, grits (instead of the home fries option) and an English muffin. L initially wanted a pancake but I for some reason talked her into her other favorite, pasta with Parmesan cheese. I was so fixed on their orders that I just skimmed the menu quickly and ordered a BLT -- I mean, how bad can a BLT be?

Next bad omen: there were two games on the badly photocopied kids' menu, tic-tac-toe and dots, the kind where you connect the dots to make boxes and put your initials inside. But we didn't get anything to write or color with, so fortunately the girls had books to pass the time. I spent my time not noticing the stains in the booth fabric behind them or the sketchy looking ceiling tiles above.

So the food comes after a while and I'm surprised at what's in front of me. It's an open-face BLT on a hoagie roll; the whole thing is in a skillet and covered with a thick coating of melted Cheddar. Again, this is my fault since I didn't read the menu, but I just never imagined a BLT like this. I ended up peeling a slice of cheese-coated bacon off for Z, trading her unadorned bacon to L.

Z's plate comes with a poached egg, bacon, and a white cup that's foamy at the top. Turns out that was the grits with an inch of airy margarine on top. She makes it clear that she's not about to eat it. L, poor thing, has this big bowl of pasta that's fettuccine. If you know your pastas you know that a long wide noodle isn't usually the best thing for kids, especially when you sprinkle it with parsley. She eats a couple of bites and is done.

I start taking something from this plate and that, trying to find some combination they can eat. When the delayed English muffin makes its appearance I'm delighted, except when I find that both halves have been covered in the aforementioned margariney stuff. I put jelly on it and L ate a few bites, but that's about it. I give out all of my fries, which (true to form) appear to be those fries that are assembled out of potato bits, frozen and then fried. Bad but not horrible.

On the car ride home the girls are just a riot. "My poached egg wasn't runny," says Z. "Why on earth would someone put parsley on pasta?" says L. "Yeah," says Z, "you're supposed to eat parsley after your meal for fresh breath." "I should have had a pancake," says L. Etc.

"Was it the worst restaurant meal you ever had?" I ask.

L nods. Z right away says "No, it was 2nd worst." I feel a bit better about this and so I ask what the worst one was. "I don't know, I haven't discovered it yet," she added, in perfect 7 year old logic. This morning she said what made it not the worst ever was the cheese-coated bacon. I'll be sure to use this in the Healthy Living portion of my application for Parent of the Year.

Bring me to your readers!

2008-07-30T20:24:00.004-04:00

I've read the the various reports about last night's discussion about the future renovations at Durham's downtown library -- see Kevin's lengthy but comprehensive account at BCR if you haven't already. I hate that there's a "98% chance" they will just remodel the current structure (with its "good bones") and just wish there was some way to create some amazing structure like Seattle's library (yes, I realize we don't have $160 million sitting around).

Anyhow, that's now what I wanted to talk about. I'd like to talk about why I LOVE the downtown library.

My family and I are what you'd call fairly heavy users of the library. I'm a junkie of the online catalog and I place holds on books all the time. Since 2000 when my younger daughter was born I've gone into the library weekly to pick up books and I started to worry that folks working at the circulation desk would think I was a nut, since they had to write my name on the hold slips that wrapped around the books.

And yet, the ladies (with the occasional male) at the downtown library have always greeted me very pleasantly and it's become a running joke whenever I go in -- instead of a groan and "oh, it's you again" it's "Hey, we've got your books on hold!" with a big smile. Even better, in the last couple of years if they see me as I walk in they've already turned around to pick up the books off the shelves behind them and have them ready before I get to the counter. Now that's service! It also reminds me why I love living in Durham and feeling like I live in a small town.

Since we've moved to North Durham this summer I'm more likely to be found at the (beautiful) North Regional branch with its self-service hold pick-ups, so I don't have the affinity for that location yet. But I still find time to stop by the main branch to at least say hello.

So one big shout out to all the ladies whose names I know by heart: Cleo, Myrtle, Cecilia and especially Sumayyah -- you rock!

Durham "Bull" goes for Teen Choice Award

2008-07-27T22:32:00.007-04:00

Durham resident and anti-tobacco activist Chad Bullock, 19, is up for a Teen Choice Award for his work to reduce smoking. He's one of the nine finalists for the award. Each finalist has been awarded $10,000 and the winner will receive an additional $100,000, all going to their favorite cause. Unfortunately you have to be under 25 to vote, so I'm out, but if you know someone who is pass this info along as voting only lasts a few more days. Here's the link to Chad's video and from there you can click to vote.

I interviewed Chad by e-mail earlier this evening about his efforts:

Why smoking? What got you started?
Tobacco products killed my great grandfather. Tobacco products kill 440,000 people a year in the US. It is sad that this takes place when it can be prevented. In fact, it is the leading cause of preventable deaths. Tobacco products are the only products that when used as intended, it will kill it's user. For many years tobacco companies have been getting away with killing people and I will not just sit and let that happen.

Why [work to eliminate smoking at] the Durham Bulls Athletic Park?
The Durham Bulls park is a large family event and historic part of Durham aka the birthplace of tobacco. Thousands of fans go to these games and many of those fans are children. Second hand smoke is sometimes more harmful than the actual smoke that the smoker takes in. Me and some of my peers got together and conducted hundreds of surveys at the park. The results came back and a majority of the fans, smokers and non-smokers, supported a smoke free park. We presented that to the General Manager George Habel and a few months later, the park was smoke free! Its ironic as it is In the center of Durham's historic tobacco district.

You get $10,000 for your cause from Do Something and possibly $100,000 if you win. What do you plan to do with the money?
Tobacco companies have millions and millions of dollars to spend on whatever they way. This prize money will be a great help in my efforts. I will use all of the prize money on efforts to engage youth across the nation in taking action in their local communities. I have a project called ElectriFYIed Youth Project and we will be present and many key youth events around the country aiming to spark a generation of "electric" leaders.

Are you continuing with your fight against smoking in college? If so, how?
I am currently traveling across the country speaking to teens about the tobacco industry while in college. Its a crazy schedule but a majority of my courses are online. I have an event coming up soon with 4000 advocates that I must train, so it can be very busy at times...I love it.

How do you feel about Durham?
Durham...I like it. Traveling all over, I always have some joy coming back to Durham. Its small and slow sometimes, but overall I believe that it has a lot to offer.

Down by the Little River

2008-07-27T12:18:00.005-04:00

I've visited the Little River Regional Park several times over the last month. It's actually in Orange County, about a mile north of the Durham/Orange border, and it's run jointly as a partnership between the two counties. There are two main hiking trails, mountain bike trails and an ADA-friendly loop paved with asphalt. The latter is referred to as an interpretive trail, though I didn't discover anything that needed translation.
The two main trails go down by the Little River itself which is more creek-like than river-like. The south river trail took me about 45 minutes and the ridge/north river loop took about 90 minutes. Both are relatively easy and largely unused -- in three times hiking there I've seen a total of four other people hiking. The trails are well-marked with signs with the glaring exception of one point on the south river loop; because of that J and I ended up walking around for a while on some really nice private paths that border the park which you're really not supposed to do. There are no signs on those paths either, so it took us a while to figure out which way to go to get back on the right trail. (And no way were we going to retrace our steps, though I did have moments of horror imagining getting lost in a park that close to my house.)
There are some nice clean bathrooms there (definitely a plus), a butterfly garden area (that was roped off) and one of those horrible generic plastic and metal climbing structures that any kid in his/her right mind would be bored to tears from after ten minutes. Also, there's a picnic shelter and some open spaces for tossing a Frisbee around.
I've spotted lots of animals there -- deer, turtles, groundhogs (I think) and rabbits. I kept having the feeling when I was hiking that there might be a bear just around the corner, but fortunately never saw one. It's definitely recommended if you're interested in getting lost in the woods (figuratively) for a while.

Become a part of the DAP's history and future

2008-07-24T21:26:00.003-04:00

From http://www.allaboutbeer2.com/wbf/durhamballparkseats/index.html:

Dear Minor League Baseball Fan,

We’re inviting you to become part of Durham Athletic Park history and help support the renovation of the most revered minor league baseball park in the country.

Renaissance Downtown Durham, Inc. --- the foundation for Downtown Durham, Inc. --- is helping the City of Durham with the renovation by raising money for the brand new seats. Click through to see photographs of the new seats and the sections. Nine of the sections have been set aside for group sales, with the remainder available for individual seat sales.

When you underwrite the cost of a seat you will:

* receive a charitable tax deduction from Renaissance Downtown Durham, Inc.
* have your name on a plaque on that seat
* have your name placed on a large commemorative plaque at the entrance
* receive a free pass to the Durham World Beer Festival, October 4th at the new Durham Bulls Athletic Park (1 free pass for every 2 seats underwritten)

Please take a moment and review this opportunity to become part of history and go to the beer festival for free.

Sincerely,
Friends of the DAP

Bill Kalkhof, Rennaissance Downtown Durham, Inc.
Daniel Bradford, World Beer Festival

Parker and Otis

2008-07-21T22:03:00.006-04:00

After three visits in the last month I can conclusively say this place rocks. Sure the food was delicious but the outside eating area is just great. Even on a 98 degree day last month it wasn't so bad with the overhead fan whirring. I enjoyed taking photos of the great iron work and other assorted items from the back of Morgan Imports as well. All of the images below link to much bigger versions. Enjoy.

Ken Jennings paints

2008-07-18T16:35:00.002-04:00

You may or may not remember trivia guru Ken Jennings who won a bazillion dollars on Jeopardy! a while back. I'm a big fan and read his blog regularly. I'm guessing you don't.

Anyhow, what I wanted to share was his project for painting his young daughter's room. He decided to paint an alphabet border around her room with each letter representing a different character from children's literature. It's taken him more than a year to complete and he posted the letters in groups as he finished them, so here, below, are the photos from his site compiled in one place. Enjoy.

Oh, yes, bonus points if you can name them all.

(The next four are out of order because of the way he grouped them, but they are correct on the wall.)

CSA! CSA!

2008-07-18T15:01:00.006-04:00

(from our CSA on Tuesday: tomatoes, Sungold cherry tomatoes, zucchini, squash, poblanos, bell peppers, green beans and an eggplant)

It's a great time to be a member of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The idea is that you as a consumer pay money for a share of the product grown by a farmer. For many CSAs you go with what I call the "pig in a poke" method -- your weekly fee earns you a mystery box of stuff which happened to be harvested that week. We're just not the kind of family to do well with being thrown a random collection of turnips, beets and bok choy, etc. The reason we really like our CSA, Brinkley Farms in Creedmoor, is that we pay a set amount of money up front and then have X$ to spend per week. Each week we're e-mailed out a menu of our choices based on what they have to offer, so we get to control what we buy. We can also bank some of our money for future weeks if we don't want to spend it all that week. Even better is that Brinkley (also unlike many other CSAs) offers meat. They raise animals on the farm and the meat is processed in NC (Acre Station in Pinetown) so we have local meat choices as well as produce. And let me tell you, their sausages are just simply out of this world.

Brinkley also offers choices for where you want to pick up your share, whether on the farm or in Raleigh, Durham or Carrboro. We pick ours up on Tuesdays at Duke Gardens, where there are also 5-6 other vendors selling produce at a mini-farmers market.

So that's why we love our CSA. What's the downside? Well, the cost. It's definitely higher that what we would pay in a grocery store, but we know that. We're willing to pay more because it's grown locally and because we're directly helping a farmer to stay in business. The Brinkleys will then use their money in the community as well. It's not organic but I'd rather have fresh and local over organic shipped from California with the money going to some conglomerate.

You also need to pay attention to the rules. We goofed once last year and just plain forgot to go pick up our share. When I e-mailed to ask what to do I was told that we would just lose that week's share (and in effect $18). Ouch ... but that's the rules they wanted to play by. On the other hand, I was supposed to bring the check last Tuesday to pay for the entire next twelve weeks and forgot, and I was told "don't worry about it, just bring it next week." Definitely not something you'd hear at Whole Foods or the Teeter.

I read about a guy who had a not so good experience with his CSA -- see his post but also read the farmer's reply. By the way, this CSA is Coon Rock Farm, the same folks who will be doing the new Eno Restaurant and Market in Durham. Farming is a difficult venture but it would seem that if you're willing to do a CSA you as the farmer would need to be a little more consistent (or reduce the number of customers).

Where to find a CSA? Here's one list, and a searchable database here. By the way, I originally learned about Brinkley Farms from this post last year from cookingeatingdurham.

Relish those tomatoes

2008-07-18T06:11:00.005-04:00

Salmonella update: the CDC said yesterday that those tomatoes we've been warning you about since June 7? Well they're fine, don't you worry about them at all. Of course when you go to the main CDC page about the salmonella Saintpaul outbreak it still says "the accumulated data from all investigations indicate that jalapeño peppers caused some illnesses but that they do not explain all illnesses. Raw tomatoes, fresh serrano peppers, and fresh cilantro also remain under investigation."

Wait, what? Tomatoes are safe but they're still under investigation? Is this some sort of Lenny Briscoe/Rey Curtis thing where they release the suspect but still do a stakeout outside his house?

Ah, perhaps this explains it: on Wednesday the agricultural trade association Western Growers (representing AZ and CA) sent a letter to the FDA asking for tomatoes to be publicly cleared. "It is time for the Food and Drug Administration to make a public statement giving consumers the 'all clear' announcement that tomatoes produced in the U.S. are safe to eat," wrote CEO Tom Nassif. "The urgency of the matter and increasing damages to the industry compel immediate action.

Yikes, run for cover, it's a cave in!

And apparently I'm not the only screwball up in arms about this. CNN's Lou Dobbs has called for Bush to be tossed out of office because of this issue:

“You know, I have heard a lot of reasons over the years as to why George W. Bush should be impeached,” Dobbs said. “For them to leave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in this state, its leadership in this sorry condition and to have no capacity apparently or will to protect the American consumer – that is alone to me sufficient reason to impeach a president who has made this agency possible and has ripped its guts out in its ability to protect the American consumer.”

Um, *this* is where you'd draw the line after more than 7 years of Bush in office? Wow.

Yum O

2008-07-12T07:26:00.008-04:00

This just in from Sue Stock's Retailing column in the N&O: Char-Grill is coming to Durham! Construction will start soon on a location in New Hope Commons and should open in the fall. Char-Grill is only located in Raleigh and Cary (as far as I know) so this is a big step for Durham burger lovers. I remember going with my brother in the early '80s to the one on Hillsborough Street when he was at NC State. You'd write your order on a little paper menu, slide it down a chute and wait for your burger to be grilled to perfection. Not sure what their source is for the meat and the only official website that I found didn't mention it (and is geared to potential franchise owners, so apparently they're planning to expand quite a bit).

[It's taken more than 30 years to get a Char-Grill in Durham; will it ever be possible to land a Krispy Kreme franchise? Sigh.]

On a related note, there's an Evos fast-food burger place opening in Chapel Hill's Eastgate Shopping Center next to Trader Joe's. I don't know much about them but they tout their meat as "humanely raised" and their salads as organic, plus the food is supposed to be lower in fat and there are more vegetarian options. According to Sue Stock in the N&O last month they opened yesterday but according to the coupon in this week's Independent they open tomorrow. Grab the coupon to get a free milkshake!

Cobbler!

2008-07-09T20:15:00.002-04:00

Enough of these bad food posts -- here's a good one! The fam and I went to out first Wednesday afternoon outing to the Durham Farmer's Market and got a bunch of stuff, including some delish Sungold cherry tomatoes from Ben at Fickle Creek Farm and some purple peppers from a farmer whose name I forgot.

BUT -- and the key for posting, I got two pints of large juicy blackberries from Lyons Farms. Above and below are my blackberry cobbler photos. Don't you wish you had some right now?

And now the culprit turns to ....

2008-07-09T19:03:00.002-04:00

Still following that salmonella story? To recap, it was tomatoes, then maybe jalapenos, and now it could be serrano peppers ('cause nobody can tell them apart, sez the CDC) and maybe cilantro. But a number of pesky infected people are saying that they didn't eat salsa or anything containing jalapenos. CDC food safety chief Dr. Robert Tauxe told The Associated Press that they "are quite sure that neither tomatoes nor jalapenos explain the entire outbreak at this point. ... We're presuming that both of them have caused illness."Added FDA food safety chief Dr. David Acheson: "It's just been a spectacularly complicated and prolonged outbreak." And a spokeswoman adds that for every documented case there could be 30-40 undocumented. Sheesh.

No, what we really meant was

2008-07-07T09:56:00.002-04:00

I feel like I'm halfway through a "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" episode. Remember how in the opening segments we were led to believe that tomatoes were the culprits behind the Great Salmonella Thing of 2008? Now -- a few commercial breaks later -- we've abandoned that line of thinking (no doubt after some erudite observations from Goren and wisecracks from Eames) and now the focus is on jalapeños. Oh I see. It's always easy to attack those south of the border as suspects, eh? No doubt the tomato growers will be serving some papers for their defamation lawsuit soon.

And now to wait for the end of the show when the real killer is found: tortilla chips? Sour cream? Black beans? Cilantro? I can hardly wait.

Two thumbs up

2008-07-05T07:32:00.005-04:00

The fam headed down to Southpoint Cinemas to see the new American Girl movie, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. The enthusiastic audience members pictured above (along with Kit) gave it high marks. "It was really, really, really good," said one, with the other chiming in "I loved it!" Seriously, even the adults along for the ride had a great time. The movie takes place during the Great Depression and while it's no documentary it does do a nice job of showing the hardships that families endured. It was sobering to see foreclosure signs on lawns and people's property being carted off - not difficult to make the connection to modern times. It's a movie that all kids would enjoy, I'd think, with happy endings all around. Good reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes as well, currently with a 79% rating.

This is the second movie I've seen in a Durham theater in the past month -- I also saw "Sex and the City" at Northgate's Phoenix theaters a few weeks back. I'm no regular moviegoer (he only two movies I've seen on the big screen since "Knocked Up") so the contrast between the two theaters was significant. At Southpoint it was everything I expected -- cushy seats, comfortable, fancy pre-previews (that almost had me lusting for a new V phone), etc. But Northgate was a mess. The theater felt shoebox-sized with the seats at a sharp angle. When we walked in twenty minutes before starting time all of the lights were off except for one spotlight, aimed at the middle left of the seats. As the commercials played during the preview time there was audio only, leaving us to wonder whether we would have video for the movie (we did). The tackiest part was the signs posted out front -- torn out sheets of notebook paper with something like "no loitering" handwritten on them -- and taped to the entry doors. Not welcoming at all. Anyone else had a better experience at the Phoenix?

About that.

2008-06-30T20:55:00.004-04:00

So, you know the whole tomato-salmonella thing? You know, the one where more than 800 people have been reported to have been infected with the same strain (and countless others just at home with "the stomach flu")? Well, the delightful CDC held a press conference last Friday to announce the following finding: tomatoes may or may not be responsible.

Come again?

From the Washington Post:

"We continue to see a strong association with tomatoes, but we are keeping an open mind about other ingredients," said Patricia Griffin, a top epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We have to re-examine the whole thing," David Acheson, a top food safety official with the Food and Drug Administration said. "We are concerned there is something out there still exposing people to this salmonella saintpaul strain." ... "Nothing that Dr. Griffin said indicates that we should be taking a serious look at anything else, but rightly that question is being asked," he said. "We need to be looking at all possibilities."

So it's definitely the tomatoes, except maybe something else is out there, but nothing indicates that there is, but we still should be looking for something else.

Want to know one of the big problems? Tomatoes from all over Florida and Mexico get shipped to Florida, dumped all together, and then "repacked to meet the customer specifications" -- so they have no idea where tainted tomatoes (if indeed there are any!) came from, and it's all our fault anyways since we consumers are asking for it.

At least we have FDA inspectors out there making sure this doesn't happen, right? Er, not really. The Dallas Morning News tells us that just a trickle of imports from Mexico are being examined by inspectors. "We have this huge growth in imports, this huge growth in trade; at the same time we have severely cut back on our regulatory agencies and their ability to do their job, especially the food portion of the Food and Drug Administration," said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine.

What's a poor boy to do? Head to the Durham Farmers Market (or other similar market). Or sign up for a local CSA. Or grow your own. Or a combo of all three.

Food For Thought

2008-06-26T15:23:00.010-04:00

In April I co-taught a short course (called Mini-Term) at NCSSM with another teacher and 20 students. In addition to reading Michael Pollan, discussing organic certification, Slow Food and watching some interesting films (including King Corn), we visited several "local food" sites. All of the people that we asked to visit agreed and all were incredibly gracious and informative. Here's where we went:

Elysian Fields Farm, Cedar Grove

SEEDS Garden, Durham

Goat Lady Dairy, Climax

Fickle Creek Farm, Efland

Watts Grocery

Durham Farmers Market

See more photos here (from Facebook):
Album #1
Album #2

EDITED: most of the photography above and in the albums was done by recent NCSSM graduate Ha Thien Nguyen!

A walk to the Eno

2008-06-25T09:17:00.009-04:00

One of the nice things about the new house -- oh, one of the many -- is living to so close to West Point on the Eno. I walked down the "secret path" (aka, where the sewer lines run) this morning and captured a few images along the way.

There were lots of workers out this morning setting up for the annual Festival for the Eno in July. Looks like the new pedestrian is almost ready for use.Lovely graffiti under the Roxoboro Road bridge. And a lovely Andy Goldsworthy moment with a leaf.

Finished!

2008-06-24T15:45:00.001-04:00

Hurray for me. Last night I finished my last class for my last class for my master's in liberal studies at UNCG. It's been a very good program and I'd highly recommend it to anyone seeking to get more education, whether for a job or just for lifelong learning. While somewhat inconsistent, the classes overall were very interesting and challenging and the professors (all real UNCG professors) were top-rate. The topics included modern world history, Latin America, Islam and more, but my favorite ones were taught by Charlie Headington on simple living and Slow Food.

Most of my classes were online and again I'd recommend that as well. It allows for enormous flexibility and allowed me to complete my degree while working full-time. Now I'm off to buy some Spartan merchandise. I'll celebrate fully in August when the degree comes in the mail.

Welcome

2008-06-23T14:48:00.000-04:00

As a way of introducing myself, I took my resume and created this Wordle. Stay tuned for more posts to come.