Posted in From the Stacks, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on October 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
As Asheville readies for a visit by Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, it seems fitting to recall another Romney’s visit to the Carolinas some 35 years ago. George Romney, Mitt’s father, was governor of Michigan when he toured South Carolina’s Williamsburg County on September 27, 1967. The senior Romney was several months shy of announcing [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on October 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Look at this map, and notice that deep, deep in the Republican South, there’s a thin blue band stretching from the Carolinas through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. These are the counties that went for Obama in the last election….Why? Well, the best answer, says marine biologist Craig McClain, may be an old one, going back [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, On This Day, Postcards, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on October 10, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The North Carolina State Fair is set to open for its 145th year tomorrow in Raleigh. The event has changed over the years. Electricity arrived in 1884 and the first Midway ride was erected in 1891. The first food booths opened in 1900. And the first airplane exhibit was held in 1910, almost seven years [...]
Posted in DigitalNC, From the Stacks, History, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on August 2, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Big news from Washington, D.C. And it doesn’t involve tax cuts, jobless numbers or the Presidential campaign. We recently received word from the National Endowment for the Humanities that we’ll receive $303,192 over the next two years to make available online North Carolina newspapers dating from 1836-1922. We’ll be joining the National Digital Newspaper Program, [...]
Posted in Tar Talk on July 31, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The News and Observer reported yesterday that the name Zebulon is increasingly popular among parents today, and was listed on a website as one of the “14 hottest” names of the year. If Zebulon is indeed on the rise again in North Carolina, it would only mark a return to popularity of a name that [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on July 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The Raleigh Register‘s description of campaigning à la 1850s could spur today’s campaign strategists to return to some methods of old. At the polls, there was a slight lack of that calm Roman dignity ascribed to us by our Fourth-of-July orators—inasmuch as the voters skipped about with the vivacity of Frenchmen, and exercised their tongues [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on July 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The polling-places of such out-of-the way districts as Nantahala Precinct, Swain Co., N.C., where our sketch was made on the day of the late Presidential election, are not provided with all the modern conveniences, nor are the honest voters addicted to vain pomp and personal display. The sacred privilege of the franchise is exercised in [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, On This Day, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on July 3, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Former UNC President William C. Friday is confirming that Andy Griffith died this morning at his home in Dare County. The Mount Airy native was 86. Griffith’s rise to stardom began at UNC, where he appeared in several Carolina Playmakers productions, including Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Griffith also played Sir Walter Raleigh in The [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on June 19, 2012 | 3 Comments »
The July 2012 issue of Our State includes the editors’ list of 100 North Carolina icons. The list is a mix of the broad and the specific. The state can proudly lay claim to Doc Watson, Krispy Kreme, Thomas Wolfe and Belk. But I don’t think clay, sweet tea or black bears are exclusive to [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, History, Just A Bite, Postcards, Tar Heelia, Tar Talk on June 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Benjamin Bowser had first come to the station the season before. Etheridge had initially hired him to be the ‘winter man’–the number seven surfman who augmented the crew by one from December through March, the most dangerous months. As the newest and lowest-ranking member of the crew, Bowser had to prove he deserved his place [...]
