We have changed. More urban. Less rural and farming. At least that is what the latest Census is telling us. But the story is more complicated. It is more interesting, too. Out in the formerly all-rural counties of our state, new kinds of residents have moved in. But lots of the old-time residents are still […]

Last week I introduced you to two authors of new food books that celebrate the joys of preparing and eating fresh farm food in season. In that column I wrote about Andrea Reusing’s “Cooking In The Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes,” which, as the title suggests, is organized by season, and “Sara Foster’s Southern […]

What is North Carolina’s most widely available summertime pleasure that we most often pass by without partaking? It is the bounty of delicious fresh foods that are available throughout the state all summer long. I have been spoiled by the year-round availability and wide selection of fruits and vegetables at our grocery stores. So I […]

Pirates in North Carolina again? Yes, we remember Black Beard. Most authorities now agree that the shipwreck we thought was Black Beard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge is just that. The big news about the recovery of the ship’s anchor has us talking about pirates again. The new “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, although not as big […]

Summer is here. Are there some North Carolina books in your summer reading book bag? If not, here are some possibilities from authors who will be featured on upcoming programs on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch. Rachel, the blue-eyed child of a black American GI and a Danish mother, is the central character in an award-winning […]

One lesson America is reluctant to learn: Wars are easer to declare than to win. Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya elude the kind of total victory our country achieved in World War II.   And we have other declared wars that command national resources even though finding a strategy for a decisive victory […]

Here is my list, compiled about 10 years ago of the most important events in 20th Century North Carolina. It is a good time to reassess, but I am sticking with what I wrote back then. The election of 1900. The white supremacy Democratic Party returned to power and Charles Brantley Aycock became governor. The […]

But what about North Carolina airports? How do our major airports and associated metropolitan areas fit into the concepts for the future of the world’s mega airport cities discussed in the new book, “Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next” by UNC-Chapel Hill’s John D. Kasarda 
and Greg Lindsay? Does any one of our “airport cities” […]

The Mississippi River has gone “wild” again. When it happened back in 1993, it led me to compare the challenges of managing a river and managing our lives, both sometimes moving outside their defined channels. Here is what I wrote back then: *** “It will probably fall back into the same channels in most places. […]

“Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.” Yogi Berra’s seemingly contradictory wisdom could be a subtitle for a new book about airports and the surrounding landscapes that grow up around them. “Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next” by John D. Kasarda and Greg Lindsay, catalogs the world’s major international airports, explaining which ones work well, […]