Chansky's Notebook: Unwanted Debate

Apparently, Carolina is still stuck pretty deep in State’s craw.

I had a book signing in Greenville Thursday night for BLUE BLOOD II, and just as it was ending, a middle-aged man sat down in the first row of chairs at Barnes & Noble.

“You a Duke fan or Carolina fan?” I asked.

“Neither,” he replied, “N.C. State.”

So I gave him a quizzical look that said “What are you doing here?” without saying it, and I also thought to myself, “Compared to Duke and UNC, State sure hasn’t had much to write home about in the last 20 or 30 years.”

“I was wondering if you plan to write a book about all the fake classes at Carolina,” he said.

Oh, boy, here we go again.

“Do you know what you’re talking about?” I asked him.

He nodded his head and said, “I’ve read everything printed about it.” Everything?

Then uttered “manufactured classes . . . papers graded by a secretary . . . no class attendance . . .”

I acknowledged some mistakes were made but that it wasn’t as widespread as he seemed to be saying. “You mean some athletes at State don’t take easy classes?” I asked him.

“Yes, he said, “but not fake classes where no work was done.”

Then he mentioned the two words I knew were coming: “Dan Kane.” He went off on what a great job the News & Observer reporter did on the academic scandal, and how UNC spent millions of dollars on attorney fees to get off with nothing.

I was packing up the books and made one last comment about the classes being offered to all students and some of them had been turned into independent study courses, which shouldn’t have happened, but it wasn’t like every athlete was cheating for years.

“You’re wrong!” he said.

I said I learned in college that phrase should never be used in a debate between differing opinions.

“It’s not my opinion, it’s all facts,” he said.

“No, it’s your opinion,” I said, “And my opinion is that your opinion sucks.”