Gen Z, I thought to myself, what in the world is that? Because it was the theme of the annual Emerging Issues Forum in Raleigh last week, I knew I was behind the times. Just so you will not be so far behind, here are some basics. Gen Z is shorthand for Generation Z, young […]

It is too bad that sports reporters and historians at Atlantic Coast Conference headquarters are not reading “ACC Basketball.” This UNC Press book by Sam Walker was published last year and chronicles the game during the conference’s first 20 years. On the other hand, maybe it is a good thing for my old basketball coach, […]

It is the kind of surprise for which every ambitious politician must be prepared: the unexpected decision by an incumbent elected official to retire. It is, my friend Jay Rivers told me, the kind of window of opportunity that opens ever so slightly and rarely. Be ready to decide quickly and pounce on the unexpected […]

Will John Edwards someday be the new Newt Gingrich? Where did this crazy question come from? To get the answer, read on. First, we should wrestle with the questions political experts have been stuttering over since Gingrich’s stunning upset of Mitt Romney in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary last weekend. How can a candidate […]

What is the best book I could read to learn about North Carolina? I get this question all the time from people who know about my interest in books about our state and those written by our great writers. My answer differs, depending on what kind of books my questioner likes to read. For instance, […]

There has to be a better way. Some of us reached that conclusion after discussing the mess our congressional and legislative governing systems have come to. Winston Churchill said that democracy is the worst form of government “except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” I wonder if he […]

First there was Daniel Boone. Boone’s real exploits on America’s frontier made him a legend in a new country whose people were ever pushing westward, driving the boundaries of their nation to the Pacific and beyond. The history of our country’s push westward has never been easy to write, wrapped up as it is with […]

Alzheimer’s. Just the word scares you to death, doesn’t it? A few years ago, I saw an article that described and gave examples of a new mental test that can make a very reliable preliminary diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s. I read every word. I answered every question. I will tell you why in a […]

What does my brief appearance last month on stage in “The Murphey School Radio Show” have to do with Christmas memories? It is a little bit of a long story, starting with the confession that for a long time I wanted to be a ventriloquist like Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy. Okay, “The […]

Harder, isn’t it, when the loss of a best friend or a loved one comes at holiday time? Maybe we already had a present picked out. And we are left wondering what gift for us might have been in the plans of our lost one. Harder still, isn’t it, when an accident or health crisis […]