Posted in History, Tar Heelia, tagged asheville nc, charlotte nc, covered wagons, eagles, flash mobs, garner nc, lexington nc, moonshine, new washington indiana, pawn stars, pillow fights, rowan county nc, slim jim sausage on February 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
– How Charlotte got to be CHARLOTTE (while somehow retaining an amazing microhabitat or two). – How Asheville came to host its first flash mob pillow fight (while still honoring its more traditional pastimes). – How a covered wagon from Rowan County ended up on the second floor of a restaurant in New Washington, Indiana. [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged charlotte nc, mecklenburg declaration of independence, president eisenhower, rep charles r jonas on February 1, 2011 | 1 Comment »
“Last week [President Eisenhower] flew to Charlotte, N.C. for ceremonies commemorating the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration…. The trip’s real purpose was to assist Charles R. Jonas, 49, who is up for re-election as North Carolina’s sole Republican Congressman. “Without any open endorsements or overt politicking, Ike managed to give Jonas his beaming blessing. The [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged charles raven brockmann, charlotte nc, george w park custer, george washington, hornets nest, legette blythe, leman's rifle factory, rifle makers on October 28, 2010 | 1 Comment »
“The rifle became so popular in the South that a factory for making the hunting rifle was established at Charlotte, N. C., about 1740. The founders came from Leman’s Rifle Factory at Lancaster, Pa…. ” ‘General Washington’s favorite weapon was the rifle,’ says George W. Park Custer, in a… memorandum printed… for private distribution…. ‘His [...]
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged american mercury, blanche knopf, charlotte nc, duke power co, furnifold simmons, h.l. mencken, old south, sahara of the bozart, the mind of the south, w j cash, wake forest university on October 21, 2010 | 4 Comments »
“At Wake Forest [W. J. Cash] became… a fan of H. L. Mencken, the acerbic Baltimore journalist who’d derided the South as ‘the Sahara of the Bozart’…. He wanted to write for Mencken’s magazine, American Mercury. In 1929 [it] published his Menckenesque dismantling of U.S. Sen. Furnifold Simmons…. ‘the stateliest Neanderthaler who ever cooled his [...]
Posted in History, Just A Bite, Tar Heelia, tagged cankerworms, charlotte nc, fred helms, hap's grill, hurricane hugo, middle street in new bern nc, queens road west, salisbury nc, storefronts on October 18, 2010 | 4 Comments »
“When longtime resident Fred Helms, a 93-year-old lawyer, turns onto Queens Road West, he draws an appreciative breath and announces, ‘We are now entering … the most beautiful residential street in the world.’ ” – From “Charlotte’s Magnificent Mile” (Sept. 17, 1989) (Beautiful, but not indestructible. Less than a week after this story appeared in [...]
Posted in History, Literature, Tar Heelia, tagged blues brothers, charlotte nc, everybody needs somebody to love, grand army of the republic, harper lee, james ross, margaret mitchell, nc capitol, nc civil war deaths, ralph ellison, solomon burke, southport nc, u-boats on nc coast on October 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Instead of (or in addition to) lamenting the shrunkenness of your Sunday paper, check out these digital destinations: – Who knew that Charlotte as recently as 1931 was home to a post of the Grand Army of the Republic? – Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, Ralph Ellison… Jim Ross. – Can’t see the Capitol for the [...]
Posted in History, Tar Heelia, tagged charlotte nc, crossword puzzles, gainesville preacher, gastonia strike, greensboro nc, international civil rights center and museum, koran burning, nascar museum on September 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
– Turnstiles yet to whirl dervishly at new museums in Charlotte and Greensboro. – Am I the only one left unenlightened by this compare-and-contrast of addled Gainesville preacher and martyred Gastonia striker? – Theme of Sunday’s L.A. Times syndicated crossword puzzle: “The Long and Short of It – A long E sound in familiar phrases is [...]
Posted in History, Tar Heelia, tagged asheville nc, charlotte nc, gaston county nc, great wagon raod, hugh mccoll jr, leonidas polk, library of congress, nylon capital of the world on September 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
– Click away a leisurely afternoon with these 206 images of Asheville from the Library of Congress. – “The Nylon Capital of the World… need not embellish its past with a bogus story about Leonidas Polk.” – The distinctive architecture of Gaston County’s oldest building “came down the Great Wagon Road.” – Hugh McColl Jr. [...]
Posted in History, Tar Heelia, tagged anne anderson, bailey nc, breath: life in the rhythm of an iron lung, charlotte life saving station, charlotte nc, country doctor museum, east carolina university, iron lung, lake ontario, martha mason, mecklenburg hotel, polio, us coast guard on September 10, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Iron lung — what a name. The recent reissue of “Breath: Life in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung” by Martha Mason made me wonder about other surviving iron lungs. This one sure has a curious provenance. Even at the height of the polio epidemic, why would a “Charlotte Lifesaving Crew” need an iron lung? [...]
