One state’s highest-paid public employee is a medical school plastic surgeon.
Another state’s is a hockey coach.
Neither state is North Carolina.
Posted in Tar Heelia | Tagged coaches salaries, deadspin, unc basketball, unc football | 1 Comment »
“In the more closely monitored waters of Boston Harbor, individual fugitives had no opportunity to be Cinques and Washingtons [slaves who went free after revolts at sea], and their friends on the shore could do little to help.
“In June 1841 John Torrence, a fugitive from North Carolina, was discovered on a Boston-bound ship, but to the dismay of the city’s black and white antislavery folk could not be rescued from the chains and guards surrounding him in the harbor. The best they could do was to have the ship’s mate, who was foolish enough to stay behind when the ship left port, charged with kidnapping.”
– From “More Than Freedom: Fighting for Black Citizenship in a White Republic, 1829-1889″ by Stephen Kantrowitz (2012)
Posted in Just A Bite | Tagged boston harbor, cinque, madison washington, more than freedom, nc fugitive slaves, stephen kantrowitz | Leave a Comment »
Fifty-nine years ago today, Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars wowed an audience at UNC’s Memorial Hall with this tune.
Thanks to our friends at the State Archives for bringing this to our attention!
Posted in History, On This Day, UNC History | 2 Comments »
“The Attorney-General of North Carolina has ruled that passengers in railroad cars who are served a meal in North Carolina must pay the state sales tax even though they don’t finish the dessert until they’re in Virginia, which has no such tax.”
– From “A Dangerous Ruling” in the Wall Street Journal (Nov. 9, 1954)
I haven’t found the outcome of this case, but the rarity of being “served a meal” on a train these days (other than a prewrapped ham and cheese handed across a counter) may have rendered it moot.
Posted in Just A Bite | Tagged nc sales tax, wall street journal | Leave a Comment »
Enchiladas de Guerrero from Classic cookbook.
Guacamole from Good eatin’ from Duke Memorial United Methodist Church, Durham, North Carolina.
Mucho Margaritas from You’re invited back : a second helping of Raleigh’s favorite recipes.
Sopapillas from Pass the plate : the collection from Christ Church.
Super Nacho from Pass the plate : the collection from Christ Church.
Refritos from Classic cookbook.
Pomegranate Margaritas from You’re invited back : a second helping of Raleigh’s favorite recipes.
Tamales de Maiz con Pollo from Hallelujah! the welcome table : a lifetime of memories with recipes.
Easy Tacos from Love yourself cookbook : easy recipes for one or two.
Posted in Recipes | Leave a Comment »
Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx isn’t the first former Charlotte mayor to be tapped for a high-profile federal job.
That was Frank McNinch, who as chairman of FDR’s Federal Communications Commission (1937-39) dealt with controversial figures ranging from Orson Welles to Mae West. About Welles’ “War of the Worlds” McNinch lamented that “any broadcast that creates such general panic and fear… is, to say the least regrettable,” but resisted calls for increased censorship. West wasn’t so lucky: After McNinch chastised NBC for her suggestive delivery in an Adam and Eve skit, she wasn’t heard on radio for another 37 years.
Seventy-five years ago this month Time magazine put McNinch on its cover, reporting that “President Roosevelt — to whom radio means a lot — sent over [to the FCC] his acute and large-eared little trouble shooter, 65-year-old Frank Ramsay McNinch. Chairman McNinch comes from Charlotte, N.C., a thriving city of which he was twice mayor. A small but fearless Presbyterian elder, Mr. McNinch is against liquor (he keeps a vacuum jug of milk on his desk).”
“Large-eared” was just the first of Time’s characteristically snarky descriptions of McNinch’s appearance. Later in 1938 he was “goggle-eyed;” in 1939, “pitcher-eared.”
McNinch’s house in Charlotte, a designated historic landmark, is for sale for $2,195,000).
Posted in Tar Heelia | Tagged anthony foxx, charlotte nc mayors, federal communications commission, frank mcninch, mae west, orson welles, radio censorship, war of the worlds | Leave a Comment »
“….In many ways Mississippi is the Ireland of America. It’s a green place where literature and music are valued more than acquiring wealth (perhaps because we’ve always been better at the former than the latter). Drinking and fighting are accepted and often respected social endeavors, and defending one’s honor is still considered worthy if not mandatory.”
– From “Oxford, MI, Famous: Elvis, Kimonos, Castor Beans, and a Grinder” by Stuart Stevens in the Daily Beast (April 30, 2013)
“Kentucky has been sometimes called the Ireland of America. And I have no doubt that, if the emigration were reversed… every American emigrant to Ireland would find, as every Irish emigrant here finds, a hearty welcome and a happy home.”
– From remarks by Sen. Henry Clay (Feb. 3, 1832)
“People of every nation and prejudice met here [in Maryland]… This was the Ireland of America!
– From “Retrospections of America, 1797-1811″ by John Bernard (1887)
“From 1815 to 1835, North Carolina made such little economic and social progress that it was called the Rip Van Winkle of the states and the Ireland of America.”
– From “North Carolina: A Guide to the Old North State” by the Federal Writers Project (1939)
So many “Irelands of America”! But only for North Carolina does the label seem entirely negative.
Posted in Just A Bite | Tagged daily beast, federal writers project, henry clay, ireland of america, john bernard, retrospections of america, rip van winkle state, stuart stevens | Leave a Comment »
“I came to Charlotte a day early to see old Charlotte. I wanted to see the original buildings, whether they’re 18th century or 19th century, whatever they are. Charlotte did, like so many towns, tear down its heritage and build modern skyscrapers. I didn’t go to any of them. I didn’t want to.”
-- Architect and Target teakettle designer Michael Graves, quoted in “Charlotte falls short of Michael Graves’ ‘real humanism’ “ (Charlotte Observer, April 26, 2013)
A generation ago, I had the privilege of accompanying another famous architect on a walking tour of downtown Charlotte and filling my notebook with his memorably scornful observations. Newspaper reporting can be hard work, but on this occasion I had to provide no more than stenography.
Posted in Just A Bite | Tagged charlotte architecture, michael graves, robert a. m. stern | Leave a Comment »
“Early on during his Saturday night show at Durham Performing Arts Center, George Jones paused to offer up a bit of philosophy from The Gospel According to Jones. He allowed as to how he didn’t much care for ‘hot young country radio’ nowadays, especially the fact that it shies away from cheatin’ and drinkin’ songs. Surveying the crowd, he added the punchline with a standup-comic’s timing.
“ ‘I wouldn’t a had a job!’ ”
“Even though time and former vices have robbed Jones of most of his voice (he’ll turn 81 years old next month), he still has impeccable timing and a way with a one-liner. Not to mention fierce fashion sense, as evidenced by a dark plaid sharkskin jacket that appeared to date from the Carter administration.”
– From “Voice weak, but spirit strong as George Jones plays DPAC” by David Menconi in the News & Observer (Aug. 19, 2012)
“After George Jones’ show Friday night, the Ovens Auditorium crowd would have been no less amazed if Muhammad Ali had tottered onstage and knocked out Mike Tyson.
“Stunningly, Jones proved that — even at age 64 — he is still one of the best singers on the planet. When he laid into one of his classic country ballads, people by the dozens bawled like they were watching the end of a two-hankie movie.
“Jones can’t run the long race anymore — he could only sing for eight or 10 minutes at a stretch. Every so often his band would play a fiddle tune while Jones caught his breath.
” ‘The Race Is On’ sent him from a deep bass to a high whine in the space of a chorus. ‘Bartender’s Blues’ (written by N.C. native James Taylor) forced him to bend nearly every line….
“But the 2,000 or so in the house — one of the most fired-up crowds I’ve seen at a country show — gave him a second wind. When it came time for ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today,’ one of the finest country songs ever written, Jones pushed on the ‘h’ in ‘her’ so hard you could feel your heart bruise.
“Within an hour he was off the stage. But on this night, an hour of George Jones was worth all the hats in Nashville.”
– From “Even at 64, Jones is among the best” by Tommy Tomlinson in the Charlotte Observer (April 13, 1996)
George Jones, 81, died today at a hospital in Nashville. His next performance in North Carolina had been scheduled for July 27 at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino.
Posted in Just A Bite | Tagged david menconi, durham pac, george jones, ovens auditorium, tommy tomlinson | Leave a Comment »
“Is Andy Griffith our Robert Burns? One should argue Whitman or Poe, or even Frost, makes for a richer comparison. Certainly self-invented Whitman, who loved Burns, is the triumphant American version — yet the Whitman house in Camden, New Jersey, receives scant visitors. The same is true for Poe’s tidy home in Baltimore, now temporarily closed for lack of community support; and poor Frost’s New Hampshire farmhouse was vandalized and set aflame by a horde of drunken teenagers, who literally pissed on his stuff. Maybe these aren’t fair comparisons. But in the second half of the 20th century, television is popular culture.
“Perhaps whatever impulse propelled Keats in the 19th century — and Clark Gable, Irving Berlin, Joe Louis, and the Prince of Wales over a century later — to make a pilgrimage to the simple birthplace of poet Robert Burns, propels people to commune with the spirit of Andy Griffith in Mount Airy.
“The city earned over $100 million last year because people want to witness the place where this man came into being, and as any casual observer can discern from fans talking on the candlestick courthouse phone, they desire to exist inside his fiction.”
– From “Our Town: Andy Griffith and the Humor of Mourning” by Evan Smith Rakoff” in the Los Angeles Review of Books (April 20, 2013)
Posted in Just A Bite | Tagged andy griffith, evan smith rakoff, los angeles review of books, mount airy nc, robert burns | Leave a Comment »
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