D.G. Martin
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D.G. Martin
The election will be over, not HB2
What do you hate more? The presidential election campaign? Or the furor over HB2? The good news is that one will be over in a few weeks. The bad news is that the other won’t. On November 8 the election campaigning ends. The heavy doses of drug-like campaign ads and cable news coverage the mean-spirited, […]
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D.G. Martin
Remembering what we thought 15 years ago
Fifteen years ago, following September 11, 2001, I wrote the following: War. War. War. What is it about this word that excites us, that unifies us, that puts aside at least for a moment our selfish preoccupation with ourselves? The word brings with it a spirit of action that rises out of September 11’s time […]
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D.G. Martin
Local Eateries for Politicians and for us
It is here. Just in time for the election season, this new book can guide this fall’s political candidates to the North Carolina eateries where locals gather to eat and exchange information and viewpoints about public affairs. For instance, the book features a barbecue in Concord where Hillary Clinton campaigned in 2008, a downtown café […]
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D.G. Martin
Books for Trump and Clinton
Could reading a few North Carolina connected books help Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton be better candidates, campaigners, and debaters during the next couple of months? I think so. If Trump read UNC-Chapel Hill Professor Konrad Jarausch’s 800-page “Out of Ashes: A New History of Europe in the Twentieth Century,” it would amaze us. First, […]
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D.G. Martin
The Minotaur and Today’s Politics
Do you think that the Greek legendary half-bull, half-man called the Minotaur could help us understand what is going on in American politics this year? In case you do not remember the Minotaur, he was the offspring of a queen of Crete, who, subject to a curse from a vengeful god, fell madly in love […]
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D.G. Martin
Hard to Win After Beating the Party Establishment in the Primaries
Is Donald Trump really a unique political candidate? Did North Carolina ever have anybody in politics who compares with him? When I asked that question in a column last year, I suggested U.S. Senator Robert Reynolds “out-Trumped” Trump and was so full of bunkum that it was part of his nickname, “Buncombe Bob.” Reynolds served […]
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D.G. Martin
A Word to Make Trump Immortal
He has put his mark on buildings and businesses that might last a lifetime. But could he more effectively gain immortality by adding his name to the language? That is the way, for instance, that Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry did it 200 years ago. He signed a partisan redistricting plan in which one district looked […]
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D.G. Martin
Chang and Eng: Chapter Two
Sometimes a simple newspaper column can take its writer to surprising places. For instance, after my column on the Siamese Twins was published last month, I got a call from Henry Bunker who lives in Mebane. His brother, Fred, read the column and passed it to Henry. “We’re descendants of the twins,” Henry said, “and […]
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D.G. Martin
Take a Break From Politics; Read Books
Do you need relief from two weeks of over-the-top contentious politics? Here are four books that could give both Trump and Clinton supporters a break from worrying about our political future. One is the paperback edition of a poignant memoir by one of North Carolina’s most important novelists. It hit bookstore shelves this week. Another […]
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D.G. Martin
Our two great Robert Morgans
North Carolinians of my generation have been blessed with two important Robert Morgans. One is the mountain-born-and-raised and acclaimed writer who is featured this week on North Carolina Bookwatch for his latest novel, “Chasing the North Star.” The other, the former U.S. senator, died on Saturday. My dream had been that author Morgan would write […]
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D.G. Martin
Clinton needs Biden: So Do We
For her sake, and for ours, I hope Hillary Clinton asks Joe Biden to run for a third vice presidential term this fall. There are several important reasons; the most important one is at the end of this column. She needs help in dampening the appeal of Donald Trump to white workingmen in key battleground […]
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D.G. Martin
Our two most famous citizens
If I asked you to name our state’s best-known citizen, living or dead, whom would you suggest? Hint: What if I said to think of people of who lived in Mount Airy? I bet you would then say Andy Griffith. After all, his still popular TV show was set in Mayberry, which was based on […]
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D.G. Martin
Sealing family ties with dripping red wax
On the second weekend of June, people in Louisville, Kentucky, laid to rest two leading citizens. One of them, of course, was Muhammad Ali, buried on June 10. The other, my cousin Boyce F. Martin Jr., was buried the next day. Recently retired, he was for many years chief judge of the U.S. Court of […]
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D.G. Martin
Books for summer: Mountains and Military
If you want some more tips for good summer reading from recent books by North Carolina authors, I have four suggestions, two set in the mountains, two about our military. An obvious choice if you are planning a trip to the mountains is Randy Johnson’s book, “Grandfather Mountain: The History and Guide to an Appalachian […]
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D.G. Martin
Voting for the devil?
“You would vote for the devil if he were a Democrat, wouldn’t you?” Thus begins an old story that makes fun of an old-time party-loyal, “yellow-dog” Democrat. His friend was teasing him about his unwillingness ever to stray from his party’s candidates even if they were obviously unsuited to hold public office. “Well,” the yellow-dog […]
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D.G. Martin
Putting Trump aside; remembering Ali and Patt Derian
The death of Muhammad Ali last week took away Donald Trump’s monopoly of television news coverage, at least for a time. There was some irony, of course, as the “I am the greatest” clips from Ali replaced similar campaign assertions by Trump. Ali and Trump are certainly the two most unapologetic and unabashed public proclaimers […]
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D.G. Martin
A jackass or a carpenter?
“Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one.” Using a saying from UNC President Margaret Spellings’s native Texas, one attributed to Sam Rayburn, the long-time speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom Lambeth was beginning his tribute to Spellings’s predecessor, Tom Ross. In an evening filled with […]
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D.G. Martin
Get to Ayden before it’s too late
Can a Louisiana food writer tell us something about North Carolina barbecue that we did not already know? Rien Fertel gives it a good try in his new book, “The One True Barbecue: Fire, Smoke, and the Pitmasters Who Cook the Whole Hog.” Fertel caught the “whole-hog” bug in Tennessee, where a restaurant owner and […]
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D.G. Martin
The next big high-tech product: Why Concord?
Why would Alevo, a European company seeking to develop and manufacture a powerful groundbreaking battery, choose Concord, North Carolina, as the site of its operations, rather than some other place anywhere in the world? There are several answers to this question that I will share in a minute, but first some background about Alevo and […]
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D.G. Martin
Finding our way out of a locked bathroom
What can we do about House Bill 2? Polls show North Carolinians divided about the new law. Answers to polling questions depend upon how the questions are asked. Most North Carolinians, even supporters of transgender rights, do not want men to barge into women’s bathrooms. And most, even those who disagree with the lifestyles of […]
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