What does John McCann have on the Herald-Sun?

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!

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

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?

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

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!

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

Scenes from the snowy Eno River

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!)