Asheville Daily Planet March 2015

Frankie Avalon still wows ‘em

Sports column makes debut — See Commentary, Pgs. A8-9

Tank Spencer

— See Concert Review Pg. A14

Arlo Guthrie savors ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ — See Concert Review, Pg. B1

ILLE V E H AS ASHEVILLEʼS GREATEST NEWSPAPER

March 2015

Vol. 11, No. 04

An Independent Newspaper Serving Greater Asheville www.ashevilledailyplanet.com FREE

‘Live long and prosper!’

Asheville ‘Star Trek’ chapter honors passing of Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015)

Leonard Nimoy, 83, died Feb. 27 at his home in Los Angeles.

Beloved for his portrayal of Mr. Spock on “Star Trek,” Nimoy also was an accomplished director, stage actor and writer. The Asheville Star Trek Club honored him during a Feb. 28 gathering in East Asheville’s Oakley neighborhood. See story on Page B1.

Hope fiend Once a cheater always a cheater?

Q: —I met this man a few years ago, and it was like a thunderbolt struck us — the stuff movies are made of. He told me that his female roommate was just a friend. We went on a few dates before I realized she was actually his girlfriend. He promised that they were going to break up, so I hung around for a bit, but of course it never happened. Last year, I ran into him, and he said he was no longer with that woman and wanted to date me. I turned him down flat

Whitewater park feasible, study shows From Staff Reports The recent unveiling of a feasibility study for a proposed $1.78 million whitewater park on the French Broad River in Asheville’s River Arts District constituted a step forward for the long-time dream of its proponents.

The 60-page study, “Site Visit and Conceptual Design Study, Asheville Whitewater Park,” shows Asheville and the river could accommodate a waterpark with an “in-stream” feature that would simulate a surfing wave, providing year-round whitewater in the burgeoning RAD. The “surf wave” park would not be a slipand-slide, but rather the plan suggests a river feature with a low dam-like structure, using natural rocks, concrete and mechanical metal gates to direct water through multiple side-byside drops to create whitewater of a quality that does not exist near Asheville The park would take about four years to complete and has several potential sites. The preferred site is an access near the New Belgium Brewery (which is still under construction) and the preferred alternative is under the Jeff Bowen Bridge, according to the study. Other potential sites include near the Jean Webb Park and near the Pearson Street Bridge.

The study was done by S20 Design and Engineering, which is run by Scott Shipley, the three-time Olympic whitewater slalom kayaker and World Cup Champion.

The study cost $13,000, which was raised

The Advice Goddess

Amy Alkon

because I figured that if he was going to lie and cheat on her, then he would do the same to me. I’m kicking myself now because I have never met anyone like him. Is it really “once a cheater, always a cheater,” or could it be different for us? I have to put this to bed in my mind because I can’t stop thinking I missed out on “the one.”

— Opportunity Lost See ADVICE GODDESS, Page A7

under the auspices of the Asheville Parks and Greenways Foundation, as well as some local businesses and outfitters.

S20 built the artificial whitewater park at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte and Mayor Esther the course for the 2012 London Olympics as well Manheimer as many parks.

Following the study’s unveiling, city leaders will be looking to the public to move the plan forward by offering input and raising needed funds, Vice Mayor Marc Hunt noted.

The next step will working with local governments, including the city, to see how planning and further design might fit into the RAD redevelopment effort, according to Rick Lutovsky, a key proponent of the project. He has served as a president and chief executive officer of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.

As for funding, the $1.78 million projected cost would be funded partially by grants and other partnerships, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said.

“This is kind of a perfect opportunity for a public-private partnership, with city-owned land and possibly the Buncombe Tourism and Development Authority and other partners,” Manheimer told local news media.

Sheriff predicts marijuana will be legal in Buncombe From Staff Reports Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan repeated his opinion that North Carolina ultimately would legalize marijuana at the Council of Independent Business Owners’ Feb. 6 meeting.

Duncan said he does not support pot legalization, but that N.C. will “probably” legalize it, eventually.

North Carolina and 22 other states have decriminalized pot in simple possession cases or for medical purposes.

Colorado and Washington already allow recreational sale and use of marijuana, boosting tax revenues, and two other states, Alaska and Oregon, are phasing in legalization this year.

“Every time a state legalizes pot, it makes enforcement harder” in Buncombe County, Duncan said. “Some forms (of marijuana) are hard to detect.”

The only good thing about marijuana legalization, Duncan said, is that it cuts into drug-cartel profits.

A2 - March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet

Buncombe’s I-26 projects on course, DOT official tells local business group

By JOHN NORTH

john@AshevilleDailyPlanet.com

ENKA — Construction funding and planning for improvements to the I-26 corridor in the Asheville area are on track, an official with the North Carolina Department of Transportaton told the Council of Independent Business Owners during a Feb. 6 meeting.

As traffic congests roads around Asheville, an improved I-26 corridor has become increasingly important because it is seen as the antidote to the ever-increasing wrecks and fatalities, Rick Tipton, an engineer for DOT, said during the presentation at A-B Tech’s Enka campus.

He attributed the congestion to freight, commuter and tourism traffic.

“We know this (the I-26 corridor) is where a big portion of our (Asheville-area) economy is ... and we need to take good care of it,” Tipton said.

“Our (I-26) project will go all the way to (Highway) 25, with at least six lanes. If we ‘let’ it in 2018, you’d be looking at three or four years ‘til completion...

“Of course, the projects in Buncombe County scored higher (on DOT’s priority list) because the traffic is more congested in Buncombe County.”

Tipton also said, “It just breaks my heart when I hear about people getting killed out there. It’s important people come home to their families.”

The DOT presentation began with a reference to Gov. Patrick McHenry’s recent State of the State address that included reform at the Division of Motor Vehicles that focuses on improving customer service.

A second major component of McHenry’s speech focused on the strategic mobility funding formula and law.

To that end, DOT Engineer Jay Swain said, “We now have a new draft that’s a 10-year menu of projects and we fared fairly well in Western North Carolina, especially around Asheville.”

Specifically, he added, “I-26 between here and Asheville did well, as did new I-26 connector through Asheville.”

Tipton, who then presented a lengthy DOT update, said he would be addressing “what’s going on with highway projects...

Things worked out very favorably for this region and Asheville.

“Overall, that was a pretty big task in the time we were given to do that.

“If you drive in this area, you know what an important corridor I-26 is. We’re seeing more and more freight travel going up 26 and, especially, going up I-40 west.”

The CIBO audience laughed when Tipton added, “I live in Weaverville, so I hear a lot about how I-26 is working.”

He said the “needs for I-26 corridor” include addressing the following problems: • Morning-evening traffic gridlock • Friday and Sunday jumps in traffic congestion as a result of tourists’ traffic • Unreliable travel times for

both tourists and locals • High crash rates The CIBO crowd laughed again, when Tipton noted, “My wife calls me” with “‘How am I supposed to get home this evening?’”

He reiterated that trying to reduce high crash rates, with accompanying fatalities, “is probably the most important thing we need to do.”

The DOT official, who emphasized eight Buncombe County projects during his talk, noted that all but one include work on I-26.

Also, Tipton noted that one project — widening existing I-240 from the I-40/I26/I-240 interchange to just north of Haywood Road — has not received funding yet.

However, he added that he does not expect any problems that will prevent completion of the project, for which the start of construction has not been scheduled.

Tipton’s updates on the other seven projects are as follows: • The construction of a new road that will run from north of Haywood Road to future I-26/U.S. 19/U.S. 23 at Broadway is scheduled to begin in 2024, and is partially funded at $139.8 million.

• The reworking of the I-40/I-26/I-240 interchange is to begin in 2021, with a projected cost of $105.4 million.

• Construction of I-26 work from Airport Road to Long Shoals Road, costing an estimated $53.6 million, will begin in 2020.

• Construction of I-26 (for widening) from Long Shoals Road to I-40, costing an estimated $98.8 million, is scheduled to begin in 2020.

“There won’t be as much disruption at Long Shoals Road exit because when we did recent work, we did things with an eye toward future plans,” Tipton noted.

• Construction on the interchange of N.C. 191/Brevard Road and I-26, costing $43.8 million, is scheduled to begin sometime after next year.

• Future I-26 from north of Broadway Street to Newbridge in Woodfin, costing a projected $90 million, is scheduled to begin in 2020.

• Construction on I-40’s new interchange at Liberty Road, costing a projected $39.6 million, will begin in 2020.

During a question-and-answer session after the DOT presentation, CIBO member Mac Swicegood noted that, “throughout this whole process, health and safety is always talked about... But we’re getting down to crunch time....

“Instead of getting hung up on environmental studies,” Swicegood said it would be better to move ahead with priority given to “health and safety.”

An unidentified CIBO member asked about the status of road projects in Asheville’s River Arts District, noting, “They’re going to be spending all that money — what’s going to be the state’s involvement?”

Titpon replied, “We’ll be reviewing a lot of the work going on to make sure it’s in compliance with federal requirements.”

He added, “All of these projects are either in design ... or in the environmental document phase. Often, the environmental document (aspect) is the hardest thing to work out.”

Further, Tipton said, “We’ve got a very robust bridge repair program. This project will replace a lot of aging bridges that need repair.”

Published monthly by Star Fleet Communications Inc. JOHN NORTH Publisher Phone: (828) 252-6565 • Fax: (828) 252-6567 Mailing address: P.O. Box 8490, Asheville, N.C. 28814-8490 Website: www.ashevilledailyplanet.com E-mail the following departments:

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To subscribe to the Asheville Daily Planet, send check or money-order to: P.O. Box 8490, Asheville, N.C. 28814-8490 One-year local subscription (Asheville, Buncombe County, N.C., only)..............................$35 One-year out of area subscription (outside of Asheville, Buncombe County, N.C., but inside the United States).........................................................$50 One-year outside U.S. subscription (outside U.S.)..................................................................................$100 Copyright 2011 by Asheville Daily Planet. Advertising copyright 2011. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. The Asheville Daily Planet is available free throughout Western North Carolina. Limit one copy per person. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 per copy, payable at the ADP office in advance. No person may, without prior permission, take more than one copy of each issue.

We are moving in late March to a new location: 1400 Spartanburg Hwy., Hendersonville (next to Toby’s Mattress)

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2015 - A3

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A4 - March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet

‘Coolest’ city in USA? It’s Asheville, website finds

From Staff Reports

Asheville has been declared the No. 1 coolest city in America, according to the website Matador.

“Visitors strolling around the cool art deco buildings or finding farm-to-table cuisine and craft beer everywhere they turn may presume Asheville has long been an affluent place,” Matador noted.

“In reality, Asheville suffered decades of shuttered buildings, areas with a full-on ‘ghost-town’ feel. But starting in the mid-

’80s, a group of visionary citizens led one of the most amazing economic transformations in the U.S. Forward to 2015: Calendars full of next-level music/arts/culture festivals, boutique hotels popping up all over downtown, and pound for pound the most thriving craft beer and local feed scene in the country.”

Matador stated that it was not looking for the size of a city, but rather its heart, in its “20 Coolest Towns in the U.S.” search.

Another key factor was being a walkable community that has a “strong DIY (do it

yourself) or local movements around agriculture/food/drink/farm to table,” as well as “cool natural features close by, and ideally a significant part of their local economy is outdoor recreation.”

Asheville topped other “cool” U.S. cities, including Frisco, Colo.; Laguna Beach, Calif.; North Charleston, S.C.; Sun Valley, Idaho; and Missoula, Mont. (To see the full Matador story, visit http://matadornetwork. com/trips/20-coolest-towns-us/.)

Meanwhile, the recognition is the latest in a number of accolades for Asheville —

among the most recent of which was ranking as one of the “7 Most Underrated Food Cities in America” to Frommer’s Travel Guide lauding Asheville as one of the “top destinations” to see in 2015.

“Matador is just discovering what we’ve known all along and what a lot of other media outlets have been pointing to over the years — Asheville is a great destination,” Marla Tambellini, vice president of marketing at the Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau, noted recently.

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Asheville Daily Planet — March 2015 - A5

Dickie’s Spring Sale You can grow with these prices MORE food for LESS money

Trucks arrive daily

Boxes of Cereals ...

Nothing over $149

DICKIE’S FOODS Buy, Sell, Salvage Foods & Overruns 1-lb. Bacon

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RICE SALE

Product constantly changing HAMS

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A6 —March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet

Faith Notes

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP, 10 a.m., Unity Center, 2041 Old Fanning Bridge Rd., Mills River. The Friday Morning Book Group, led by Joanne Nisbet, will discuss James Royster’s book, “Have this Mind: Supreme Happiness, Ultimate Realization, and the Four Great Religions — An Integral Adventure.”

Sunday, March 1

ADULT FORUM, 9:15 a.m., First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1735 Fifth Ave. W., Hendersonville. Larry Anderson will present a weekly adult forum on “Big History.” Regarding his program, Anderson said, “Let’s entertain some further discussion of... awakening of consciousness among humans.”

The program is open to all.

BIBLE STUDY, 10 a.m., Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 51 Wilburn Place, Asheville. “The Story” Bible study will continue on Sundays through April 26. The study includes God’s story of love, grace and forgiveness. Participants will explore God’s story of how important you are to Him. SERIES ON ISLAM, 10 a.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church, 290 Old Haw Creek Rd., Asheville. The church will begin its five-week series to increase knowledge of Islam, with a screening of “Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet,” a PBS documentary.

CHORAL EVENSONG, 5 p.m., St. James Episcopal Church, 766 N. Main St., Hendersonville. The church’s choir will sing Choral Evensong for Lent, including music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Peter Aston, Richard Ayleward and Jane Marshall. The service will be followed by a flute and guitar recital by Duo de Vista from Columbia, S.C. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

PROGRAM, 7 p.m., Congregation Beth Israel, 229 Murdock Ave., Asheville. A program will be presented by Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, director of the department of multi-faith studies and initiatives at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.

Monday, March 2

PROGRAM, 7 p.m., Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall, UNC Asheville. A program will be presented

by Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, director of the department of multi-faith studies and initiatives at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.

Tuesday, March 3

“MANY PATHS” PROGRAM, 6 p.m., Bentley Fellowship Hall, Mars Hill University, Mars Hill. A program, “The Many Paths to a Heart of Wisdom,” will be presented by Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, director of the department of multi-faith studies and initiatives at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. The program will explore the traditions of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity “with respect to the ways they help people do the inner work needed for moral excellence,” a press release noted. She also will speak at 7 p.m. at MHU’s Crossroads chapel service.

Friday, March 6

Sunday, March 8

Brian Ashley Jones (above), billed as “a soulful singer,” will perform at 7 p.m. March 8 — and the Don Juans (left) will perform at 7 p.m. March 23 — in the monthly Mountain Coffeehouse concert series at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville at 1 Edwin Place.

Wednesday, March 4

LENTEN SERVICE, noon, First Christian Church, 201 Blue Ridge Road, Black Mountain. The service begins with scripture, prayer, music and a brief sermon, followed by a lunch of soup and sandwiches.

SPIRITUALITY CLASS, 6:30-8 p.m., Unity Center, 2041 Old Fanning Bridge Rd., Mills River. A fiveweek class, “The 5 Principles: A Guide to Practical Spirituality,” will be led by Gene Donohue on Wednesdays through April 1. The class will explore Unity’s basic principles of spiritual transformation and personal liberation. The class uses the book “The Five Principles: A Guide to “Practical Spirituality” by Ellen Debenport.

Thursday, March 5

SERIES ON ISLAM, 10 a.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church, 290 Old Haw Creek Rd., Asheville. The church will continue its five-week series to increase knowledge of Islam, with a discussion led by Kathy Meacham, professor of ethics and religion at Mars Hill University.

PUBSING, 6-8 p.m., French Broad Brewery, 101-D Fairview Rd., Asheville. A pubsing, gospel jam and sing-a-long will be held. Attendees are asked to bring a snack for a 5:30 p.m. social time prior to the gala.

CONCERT, 7 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville, 1 Edwin Place, Asheville. Brian Ashley Jones will perform in the monthly Mountain Spirit Coffeehouse Concert Series. Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for students.

Wednesday, March 11

LENTEN SERVICE, noon, Black Mountain Presbyterian Church, 117 Montreat Rd., Black Mountain.

The service begins with scripture, prayer, music and a sermon, followed by a lunch of soup and sandwiches.

Friday, March 13

HEALING PRAYER, 1-2 p.m., Grace Lutheran Church, 1245 Sixth Ave. W., Hendersonville. A healing prayer is offered on the second Friday of every month by Grace Prayer Ministers and the Order of St. Luke. This is a Christian-based nondenominational time of prayer.

Saturday, March 14

SISTERHOOD DINNER, 6 p.m., Congregation Beth HaTephila, 14 N. Liberty St., Asheville. The congregation’s Sisterhood will hold its spring dinner and dance. The evening will feature music by Simple Folk, including folk, rock and Americana from the 1950s through the ‘80s for dancing, listening and singing along. The Italian dinner will include vegan and gluten-free options. For reservations, call 253-4911.

Sunday, March 15

SERIES ON ISLAM, 10 a.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church, 290 Old Haw Creek Rd., Asheville. The church will continue its five-week series to increase knowledge of Islam, with a discussion led by Khalid Bashir, imam of the Asheville Islamic Center.

Sunday, March 22

SERIES ON ISLAM, 10 a.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church, 290 Old Haw Creek Rd., Asheville. The church will conclude its five-week series to increase knowledge of Islam, with the Rev. Ross Jones leading a discussion.

CONCERT, 7 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville, 1 Edwin Place, Asheville. The Don Juans will perform in the monthly Mountain Spirit Coffeehouse Concert Series. Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for students.

Wednesday, March 25

LENTEN SERVICE, noon, First Baptist Church of Black Mountain, 130 Montreat Rd., Black Mountain. The service begins with scripture, prayer, music and a brief sermon, followed by a lunch of soup and sandwiches.

Friday, April 3

GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE, noon, Black Mountain United Methodist Church, 101 Church St., BlackMountain. A Good Friday service will be held.

Sunday, April 4

EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE, 7 a.m., Tabernacle United Methodist Church, 385 Tabernacle Rd., Black Mountain. An Easter sunrise service will be held.

Send us your faith notes

Please submit items to the Faith Notes by noon on the third Wednesday of each month, via email, at spirituality@ashevilledailyplanet.com, or fax to 252-6567, or mail c/o The Daily Planet, P.O. Box 8490, Asheville, N.C. 28814-8490. Submissions will be accepted and printed at the discretion of the editor, space permitting. To place an ad for a faith event, call 252-6565.

BUDDHISM CLASS, 7 p.m., Urban Dharma Library, 29 Page Ave., Asheville. As part of a six-week course, “An Introduction to Buddhism” class will be offered on March 5, 19 and 26. Participants will learn about the historical Buddha and his context, basic Buddhist ideas and relevance to these times and an overall/comparative view of the various forms of Buddhism. Individual class is $15 for nonmembers and $10 for members.

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Celebration Services 11 AM Sunday

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891-8700 / 684-3798

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www.unitync.net

Advice Goddess

Continued from Page A1 Sure, your encounter with this man was “the stuff movies are made of” — the ones in which Godzilla comes clomping through town and puts his big clawed foot through the roof of some poor villager’s house.

What you should be doing is tiring your arm out by patting yourself on the back.

You showed presence of mind in dropkicking “the one” — the one who, before long, would have been in a bar telling some woman that you’re just his “roommate.”

But now your loneliness is telling your logic to put a sock in it, luring you into a common error in evaluating risk that behavioral economists call “optimism bias.” This is best explained as the “I’m special!” bias and involves the unrealistic thinking that the bad things that befall other people will see us and go, “Nuh-uh…no way…not her!”

Though we know — usually from painful experience — that character change is hard (and rare), optimism bias leads us to flirt with bright ideas like “Maybe he’s done with the cheating!” It’s probably easier to think that now, not having seen him for a while.

And the reality is, even serial killers sometimes go dormant. This shouldn’t be taken as a sign that they’ve grown weary of cutting up the neighbors and storing them in Ziploc bags in their freezer.

Real change, when it happens, comes with signs there’s been a transformation — like expressions of deep remorse about being unethical and a sea change in a person’s moral standards. And these are just the preliminaries.

Character change is revealed through action — over time. Sure, you could keep this guy at arm’s length for a year while you observe his behavior.

Or, instead of hoping against hope for character change, you could opt for a change of characters, as in getting out there and meeting new men. Should you fall back into feeling wistful about this guy, remind yourself of German psychoanalyst and philosopher Erich Fromm’s thinking that love isn’t just “a feeling”; it’s something you do (in this guy’s case, to more than one woman at a time). Or as one of my other favorite 20thcentury philosophers, a Dr. E. Fudd, put it, “Good widdance to bad wubbish.”

Boys will be decoys

I often come off needy and desperate, so I’m trying to play it cool with this

great new guy I’m dating — a new and difficult tactic for me. There are two other guys who are into me. I’m not into them, but I’m tempted to keep them on the back burner — you know, throw them a few crumbs now and then to keep them hooked so they can be a distraction from the new guy. I know this is user-y, so I haven’t decided to do it, but I also haven’t come clean about where I’m really at. And I have to admit I don’t mind the validation they give me. Ugh. — Torn

If you’re going to turn men into emotional support knickknacks, why not go all the way? Cut their hearts out and stick them in Mason jars with cute labels written in glitter pen.

What you’re contemplating is romantic fraud. Sure, stacking up irrelevant men like firewood so you can climb into the arms of the man you want is easier than exploring why you “often come off needy and desperate.” A wild guess: Because you are?

Typically, this comes out of trying to use a guy for jobs he can never fill, like making you feel okay about you. If that’s the problem, get to work on fixing it. In the meantime, avoid coming off needy and desperate by acting like a woman who might end up wanting a man but doesn’t need him. That woman doesn’t barrage him with calls, texts, and surprise visits — or text back with an immediacy that suggests she’s been hovering over her phone like a starving hawk circling the den of the last prairie dog on earth. Get your restraint where you can, like by responding to a text from him by giving your phone to somebody to lock in a drawer for an hour. Waiting to text back will help you come off like the woman you should try to be, one who embodies the understanding that emotional security comes from within — and no, not from within a bunch of other people.

• (c.) 2015, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved.

Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2015 - A7

A8 — March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet

Sports Commentary

Remembering Dean Smith’s legacy

Tank Spencer is the host of a weekly sports talk show, “The Sports Tank,” on Asheville’s News Radio WWNC (570AM) that airs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. Spencer also serves as WWNC’s news anchor, reporter and afternoon producer. This column features posts from his blog.

• The following was posted Feb. 24:

The following was posted Feb. 20:

Tank Spencer over and over since his death on Feb. 7.

He commanded respect, and gave it freely. He changed lives, not just a game.

He wasn’t just the coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels. He coached all who paid attention in the game of life.

The college basketball world lost one of its greatest superstars this February.

Dean Smith was not just the man who helped develop all-time great players like Michael Jordan, James Worthy, and Phil Ford.

He was more than an inspiration to coaches like Roy Williams, Larry Brown, and George Karl.

Coach Smith was more than his 877 wins, his 11 Final Four appearances, his streak of 23 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament, or his two national titles.

According to numerous accounts, Dean Smith was as good and principled a man as any.

He’s well remembered for his advocacy for African-Americans and helping to break down the walls of segregation in the state.

He brought in UNC’s first black scholarship player, he played a major role in integrating a restaurant in Chapel Hill, and even helped a black grad student buy a home in an all-white neighborhood.

Smith is also known for his fervent opposition to the death Then-UNC basketball coach cuts down the net after penalty and the Vietnam War. When most winning yet another big game. coaches shied away from taking a stand, he stood up.

Everything written here, each individual fact, is reason to admire a man. It’s no wonder his influence has spread so far… on and off the court. Dean Smith would have turned 84 on Saturday. One story proves to me the kind of man Dean was. It came to me second-hand, so take it for what you will.

Years ago, a salesman for a local radio affiliate of the UNC basketball team was participating in a golf tournament promoting Tar Heels basketball. He was new to the job (just days I’m told) and did not know anything about basketball or the Tar Heels. Coach Smith just so happened to walk up to the salesman and strike up a conversation.

Smith says to the man “How are you, what’s your name?” The man answers with his name and tells him what he does. Then the man asks, “What business are you in?”

At this Coach Smith smirks and politely informs the salesman of who he is and what he does for a living. The conversation continued long after the awkward exchange.

Dean Smith’s humility, integrity, and tenacity are all traits heralded by the masses

Long, boring baseball games to get quicker

New Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred appears to be off to a good start, at least in the eyes of the casual baseball fan.

One of the biggest criticisms of the game in recent years has been the slow pace of games. Friday (Feb. 20) it was announced that some new rules are going to be in play this coming season to help remedy that.

The first and most effective rule for speeding up the game is: now a batter must keep one foot inside the batter’s box at all times.

There are exceptions in cases, such as the batter is chased from the box by an inside pitch, fouls the ball off of his foot, a wild pitch, etc.

As a Red Sox fan, I have enjoyed some of the at-bat traditions that drag out the game over the years like Nomar tugging at his gloves 80 times in an at-bat or Big Papi stepping out to spit on his gloves three times, but enough is enough. I’m older now and the attention span is shorter. In the words of an internet sensation… “ain’t nobody got time for that!”

Since 1981 the average length of a MLB contest has grown to 3 hours and 2 minutes. All those years ago it took just 2:33 to play one out on average. If you watch a Red Sox-Yankees game you know how agonizing that has become. Several games between the two have gone on close to or just over four hours. So, yes, I’m all for speeding up the games.

Two other rule changes will help as well, though I doubt will have the major impact of the new rule for the batters. The first, there will now be a timer on between inning breaks. Once TV goes to commercial, a timer will start (2 minutes and 25 seconds for locally televised games, 2:45 for national broadcasts).

In that time, the pitcher is to take the mound and deliver his eight warm-up pitches. If he hasn’t done so by the time the clock hits 30 seconds, he loses the opportunity for the rest of those pitches. The batter is to be in the box, ready to go with 20 seconds on the clock.

Lastly, managers must now stay in the

dugout on challenges. It has become a tradition for managers to come onto the field and waste time before officially challenging a call in order to give guys in the press box enough time to review plays.

This, thank goodness, will end with the new rule.

See TANK SPENCER, Page A9

Tank Spencer

Continued from Page A8

The following was posted Jan. 28:

NFL should have ‘Lynch Rule’

As provocative as a “Lynch Rule” might sound, we’re talking about Marshawn Lynch. The Seattle Seahawks running back continues to be a thorn in the side of the league, which wants all players to make themselves available to the media.

Lynch has made a habit of getting fined by the league for skipping press conferences and refusing to speak to media in and out of the locker room.

Earlier this season, Lynch was fined $50,000 for refus-

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2015 — A9

ing to speak to the media after a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. That act also triggered a delayed $50,000 fine for failing to talk at Media Day at the Super Bowl last year.

The deal was that the fine for the Super Bowl snub would not be levied if he played nice and spoke to the media throughout this season.

Since that $100,000 fine was handed down, his behavior has gone from ignoring the media to intentionally poking a finger in the eye of the league. In the past two months Lynch has been fined more than $30,000 for obscene gestures made during touchdown celebrations.

Now the league is considering a fine for Lynch wearing unapproved apparel at Super Bowl Media Day. Consider-

ing Brian Urlacher was slapped with a $100,000 fine for the same thing, on the same stage, several years ago... there is no doubt Lynch’s fine will be the same or bigger.

The term “jackass” has been used several times in The Sports Tank to describe Marshawn’s actions. And maybe that is all it boils down to.

But what if it is deeper?

Lynch has said that he suffers from social anxiety and that is the reason he often doesn’t want to talk to the media.

If that is the case, perhaps the league needs to take a serious look at its rules and make exceptions for players with similar afflictions.

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A10 - March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet

The Daily Planet’s Opinion

Series return worth celebrating

A

fter a five-year hiatus, one of our favorite local warmseason entertainment series, UNC Asheville’s Concerts on the Quad, will return this summer.

The concerts ended in 2010 following a 28-year run canceled because of a lack of funding.

Fortunately, support from Mission Health and the Asheville Citizen-Times will allow the series to return with free concerts from 7 to 8:30 p.m. June 15, 22, 29 and July 6 and 13.

The bands will perform on a stage just in front of the steps of UNCA’s Ramsey Library. Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs, blankets and picnics to enjoy on the lawn.

The lineup will feature local and regional bands, focusing on fun and diverse music. Genres showcased

will include gypsy-folk, bluegrass, blues and Native American music.

The June 15 launch will feature Asheville’s own Sirius.B, an “absurdist-gypsy-folk-funk-punk” group formed in 2006.

Other headliners will include Stephaniesid, Ulali and Chatham County Line.

UNCA Chancellor Mary K. Grant said of the series, “These concerts bring people together in the heart of our beautiful campus, and UNC Asheville is excited to be able to present them again, together with our great community partners.”

We agree with Grant’s assessment and are thrilled about the return of what has been a joyful summer celebration for the community.

2 stories about the iconic ‘57 Chevy

CHAPEL HILL — What is it about a 1957 Chevrolet?

Like The New York Times offering on its store page a “1957 Bel Air 50th Anniversary Edition $99.95. Numbered, limited edition of 1,957.”

Before you order, let me tell you about the North Carolina connection to the car. Make that “connections,” as there are more than one.

First, a 1957 Chevy station wagon graces the cover of a recent memoir by a prominent North Carolinian, Smedes York. His record of public service and success makes us envious: basketball player at N.C. State, mayor of Raleigh, and leader of his family’s real estate, construction and development businesses.

He modestly discusses these successes in his book, “Growing Up with Raleigh,” written with John Sharpe.

York’s life parallels the transformation of his Raleigh hometown from a sleepy, Southern, segregated, state capitol town to a dynamic, hi-tech, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan city.

York and his family rode with these changes, in some cases drove them, and almost always found ways to adjust and benefit from them. Those who seek to understand the transformation of the South since 1950 could find help in York’s recollections.

So what about that ’57 Chevy on the book’s cover?

The book’s first chapter recounts the sixweek cross country adventure of 16-year old York with his brother and five friends in the new station wagon topped with a special luggage rack to carry their golf clubs. The seven youths called themselves “The Shamrocks,” and they set out to play some of the best golf courses in the country. The friendships forged on that trip still bind them together almost 60 years later.

Given York’s business and local political success, I wondered why he never sought state-wide political office. When I asked him why he never ran for governor, he explained, “I love my own city too much. I like Charlotte and the other cities, but they are Raleigh’s rivals, and my focus would be on Raleigh.”

The second North Carolina connected book is “AUTO BIOGRAPHY: A Classic

D.G. Martin Car, an Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream,” by former VirginianPilot writer Earl Swift. It follows another ’57 Chevy station wagon through 13 different owners. In 2010, then in the possession of its 13th owner, the book’s jacket explains that it is “in wretched shape: Its surviving paint is sun-bleached, salt-pocked and cracked like a dry lakebed. Its engine hasn’t been turned over in years. Slumped among hundreds of other rusting hulks on a windswept patch of eastern North Carolina, the Chevy evokes none of the Jet Age optimism that made it the most beloved and instantly recognizable car to ever roll off an assembly line.”

This car’s owner. Tommy Arney, also owned Moyock Muscle, “a scrubby five acres crowded with roughly four hundred old cars,” a few of which, including the ’57 Chevy, were being restored. The town of Moyock in Currituck County is just below the Virginia line, not far from Norfolk, Va., where Arney, a North Carolina native, has become famous, or infamous, as the confrontational owner of strip clubs and promoter of edgy real estate deals.

Swift’s account of Arney and the 12 previous owners of the station wagon, like York’s book, takes us through the transformation of our region during the car’s lifetime. But Arney’s is a different story. Nobody will ever ask him, like I asked York, why he did not run for governor. In fact he is headed for federal prison for his role in a bank fraud scam.

Both “Growing Up with Raleigh” and “AUTO BIOGRAPHY” give readers a compelling look at our recent history.

Some of them, especially old car lovers, will get so excited about the ’57 Chevy they will rush to order The New York Times’s 1957 Bel Air 50th Anniversary Edition.

• D.G. Martin hosts “North Carolina Bookwatch,” which airs at 9:30 p.m. Fridays and at 5 p.m. Sundays on UNC-TV.

Letters to the Editor

Appreciation expressed for CTS ‘love’ campaign

Thank you to everyone in Asheville, and our new allies in Elkhart, Indiana, who participated in POWER Action Group’s successful “Show a Little Love” Campaign!

On Feb. 13th, Elkhart residents delivered a Valentine box to the CTS headquarters there.

Community members in both South Asheville and Elkhart (the “City with a Heart”) are calling on CTS Corp. to “Have a Heart” and conduct an expeditious, full-scale cleanup of the CTS of Asheville Site. Toxins, particularly trichloroethylene, migrate off-site poisoning area residents’ ground water, air and soil.

Wayne Royer, an Elkhart resident who handed off the box, stated that he is concerned because if CTS has this issue in Asheville, it could have a similar one in Elkhart.

POWER’s “Show a Little Love” box by the numbers: • 1,323 names on a petition calling for a fullscale cleanup • 146 signed “Road to Cleanup” postcards • 135 homemade Valentine cards • One box full of hope Lee Ann Smith Arden

No sedation needed, despite appearances, dissident says

My February letter to the editor (in the Daily

Planet), “As America morphs into totalitarianism, revolt urged,” made me sound like I’m paranoid, and suffer from anti-government paranoia ... like those fringe crackpots.

My February letter even made me seem like a paranoid schizophrenic needing an injection to quiet and sedate me.

However, the nonfiction (cited in the letter) works — “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State” and “Fortress America.”

Also, The National Geographic article, “You’re Being Watched,” provides irrefutable proof that post-9/11 America is in the final stages of transformation from a constitutional republic and free and open society into an Orwellian “big brother” police and surveillance state, like that depicted in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, “1984.”

That fact should cause any person who loves American freedom to become paranoid, and to develop anti-government paranoia.

Something would have to be wrong with a freedom-loving American if it didn’t.

My February letter — “As America morphs into totalitarianism, revolt urged” — makes me seem schizo, but the true crazies are you people who do nothing to prevent America from shaping into “A Brave New America!”

That’s crazy as well as disloyal! You are disloyal to your country! You are disloyal Americans! You are traitors!

RICHARD D. POPE Hendersonville

The Candid Conservative

The Candy Man can’t

“The art of pleasing is the art of deception.”

— Luc de Clapiers

Carl Mumpower

The Problem

P

lease don’t jump out of the recliner, but have you noticed America’s culture is on a downhill run?

Per tenacious data, our morality, economic vitality, dedication to truth, and core social ideals are slipping.

At the same time, immorality, government dependency, deception and the rule of convenience over law are accelerating.

This betrayal of the American Dream rests in the hands of three distinct groups. Though diversely motivated, these assemblies have twice elected a sociopath to America’s highest office.

In less than two years we get another chance.

A refresher course on givers, takers, and waiters Whistle Blower can ease the slide.

Givers

Thank goodness there are people who put something back into the world. Most givers are motivated by a sincere desire to uplift their fellow man and should be celebrated for such. Unfortunately all that’s good has a dark side that isn’t.

In the case of givers, vanity is a shady temptress. Giving can drift to a means for fixing one’s ego versus other people’s problems – landing on treating the less fortunate as mascots versus answerable adults. To the extent bad personal choices create more pain than all other harms combined; this separation of opportunity from responsibility downgrades the helper as surely as the helped.

Takers

One measure of social decay is belief that creating, producing and building no longer work as paths to prosperity. When ‘me first’ becomes the majority’s personal tune, a march toward the cliff is well underway.

Takers are created, not born. Greedy infants can’t be spotted in a nursery. Harsh circumstance, an absence of good role models, self-absorption and public propaganda can turn just about anyone into a human vacuum cleaner.

Our political class is fully dedicated to securing voter loyalty by promising booty with no skin in the game. Too many otherwise smart people have bought the lie. For affirmation this is a doomed run against nature’s ‘nothing is free’ call, witness since 2008 it’s taken nine-trillion in additional federal debt to float the illusion.

Once human beings are conditioned to take, they rarely voluntarily reform. Asheville’s various tax subsidized public housing developments shelter many tenants whose families of origin track back 4 or more generations.

To the extent the maxim “crime doesn’t pay” is true, neither does taking. Over time the selfishness, deceit, pessimism and lost potential lead to a karmic personal hell.

Waiters

Waiters are the largest group. An absence of courage, clarity or conviction easily morphs into an artificial license to sit and wait.

See CANDID CONSERVATIVE, Page A13

Asheville Daily Planet —March 2015 — A11

Commentary

Conservatives always look silly ... later

T

he word “conservative” doesn’t mean what it used to mean.

And 20 years from now, it won’t mean what it means today.

Let me give an example. A photograph came in my email. It had “gone viral,” as they say. (But then everything of a gee-whiz nature has gone viral before it reaches me. I’m the end of the viral line.)

The photo showed a young woman. She’s holding a thick “Holy Bible” crooked in her left arm and a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle pointing to the sky in her right hand.

An American flag hangs as backdrop. She’s wearing a low-cut dress and a smirk.

She was described as a “conservative activist.”

In the months since the viral photo, the woman has been discredited in multiple ways – but the photo maintains its message. An activist’s job is to light fires, and she chose her props to ignite her conservative audience: Bible, assault rifle, flag. She caused a stir because she was “in your face.”

Conservatism is, by nature, backwardlooking and defensive. The dictionary has this for “conservative”: “holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.”

When we take a long, historical look at conservatism, we see many old lines that were drawn in the sand and abandoned, many gashes in the earth where heels were once dug in deep.

This is the essence of conservatism: strong

These conservative heroes were talking about Medicare, folks. Medicare!

How many elderly conservatives do you know who feel that way about Medicare today? Not many. Medicare and Social Security have lifted enormous burdens from our elderly and their families.

To me, that’s the great sadness of conservatism. They react out of a narrow ideology, retreat and then look silly in the next generation. They take stands today — but their stands are TEMPORARY. They don’t stand the test of time.

Shouldn’t they have stepped back in the 1930s and measured the gain of Social Security instead of frothing about “socialism”?

Shouldn’t they have stepped back in the 1960s and measured the gain of Medicare instead of screaming “loss of freedom”?

And… shouldn’t they step back today and

Lee Ballard

opposition that melts away over time, followed by strong opposition to something else.

Conservative Republicans opposed Social Security in the 1930s. They called it “socialism.”

How many conservatives do you know today who would oppose Social Security?

Not many.

Then in the early ‘60s, when Democrats proposed expanding Social Security to include what we now call Medicare and Medicaid, conservatives mounted campaigns to stop it.

In 1961, Ronald Reagan told his audience: If President Kennedy’s early proposal of Medicare passes, he warned, “federal programs will invade The Asheville Daily Planet print letters to every area of freedom as we the editor, preferably less than 150 have known it in this country.” words in length. All letters must be Barry Goldwater made fun: signed and include a daytime tele“Having given our pensioners their medical care in kind, phone number for confirmation purposes only. Send your opinions to why not food baskets….why Asheville Daily Planet, P.O. Box 8490, not vacation resorts, why not a ration of cigarettes for those Asheville, N.C. 28814-8490 or e-mail them to who smoke and of beer for letters@AshevilleDailyPlanet.com. those who drink?”

Write a Letter to the Editor

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measure the gain of Obamacare? Is there any doubt that America will have universal healthcare 30 years from now? None whatever. It will certainly happen. The rest of the world (58 countries) provides healthcare coverage for their citizens. We will follow.

Yes, follow. Always follow.

Rather than ideology, shouldn’t we all seek WISDOM? Ideology is flimsy. Shouldn’t we ask: What is best? What is wise?

We started with a photograph. The lady had props intended to fire up conservatives: Bible, gun, flag. Each is symbolic of some piece of conservatism in this century.

In future columns here, we will discuss each of these in turn.

May we all — writer and reader alike — seek wisdom.

• Lee Ballard lives in Mars Hill.

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A12 - March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet

Commentary

SHOCKER: Obama lied about gay marriage views to get elected

Pete Kaliner is the host of a daily radio talk show on Asheville’s WWNC (570AM) that airs from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. This column features posts from his daily blog.

• The following was posted Feb. 10: ould this count as “misremembering” his (Obama’s) position on gay marriage?

From Time magazine: Barack Obama misled Americans for his own political benefit when he claimed in the 2008 election to oppose same sex marriage for religious reasons, his former political strategist David Axelrod writes in a new book, “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.”

“I’m just not very good at bullsh-----g,” Obama told Axelrod, after an event where he stated his opposition to same-sex marriage, according to the book.

Axelrod writes that he knew Obama was in favor of same-sex marriages during the first presidential campaign, even as Obama publicly said he only supported civil unions, not full marriages. Axelrod also admits to counseling Obama to conceal that position for political reasons. “Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church, and as he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a ‘sacred union,’ ” Axelrod writes.

Of course, this was known to anyone

W

Pete Kaliner who did any research on then-candidate Obama - who was for gay marriage, then against, and then “evolved” back to supporting it.

What’s most damning is how the media allowed him to lie about this for so long.

And what’s hilarious, is how the president claimed he wasn’t good at lying.

The following was posted Feb. 6:

Closing Gitmo won’t make them like us

It’s almost like American leadership believes the propaganda from Islamist extremists like ISIS — who say they are engaged in jihad against the West because the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is open.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, laid bare the fantasy behind this argument yesterday (Feb. 5) in a cross examination of Brian McKeon, principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy.

Any and all things are used as excuses for waging jihad.

For example, Osama bin Laden told ABC’s John Miller in 1998: The enmity between us and the Jews

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goes far back in time and is deep rooted.

There is no question that war between the two of us is inevitable. For this reason it is not in the interest of Western governments to expose the interests of their people to all kinds of retaliation for almost nothing.

It is hoped that people of those countries will initiate a positive move and force their governments not to act on behalf of other states and other sects. This is what we have to say and we pray to Allah to preserve the nation of Islam and to help them drive their enemies out of their land.

Jihadists will use whatever convenient excuse they need to recruit new followers, rationalize barbarity, and justify their mission. What’s most frightening is that we seem to have a leadership structure in America that not only believes the enemy’s propaganda but helps reinforce it.

The following was posted Feb. 5:

Washing your hands of government intervention (sort of)

Senator Thom Tillis says federal rules requiring food service people to wash their hands after using the bathroom is an example of government overreach.

He’d prefer restaurants make their own policy, and then the government would require restaurants to post a sign advising customers of their policy See KALINER, Page A13

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Candid Conservative

Continued from Page A10 Our current Commander-in-Chief likes waiters. He was elected less by voters he seduced than those who chose to stay home.

Waiters wait because it’s easier than studying and taking a stand. Waiting requires little effort and no immediate risk. It’s the moral equivalent of fatback and white bread as comfort food. Similarly there is a difference in postponing consequence and dodging it.

Solutions

Goodness and nobility have never been a majority dedication. We need enough of such people to preserve our much blessed nation. A quick measure of where one stands is to measure personal action. Good and noble is usually an uphill climb.

That America is exceptionally worthy and important is indisputable. In this century we’ve lost our way under the misguided leadership models of our current President and the guy who most surely secured Obama’s election – George Bush. On one hand we have BHO’s ‘strategic patience’ – otherwise known as paralysis-by-analysis.

On the other we have Bush’s ‘neo-conservatism’ – otherwise known as initiating political vanity wars we have no capacity to finish. In the middle is a missing-in-action model of measured and dependable international engagement.

America cannot be our planet’s policeman, but we can partner with those seeking a better way. That mission finds its strongest heart in recognizing and upholding a beacon of light in a darkening world.

The vacuum left by our country’s shrinking footprint is increasingly apparent.

Middle-east horrors are expanding amidst the absence of a strong moral compass and the juice to back it up. We may not be burning people alive, but surrendering the moral high ground is setting the stage for lesser men to do so. Those to whom much is given – much is expected.

Embracing America’s traditional success equation – liberty, opportunity and responsibility hitched to the same wagon – is the best

Kaliner

Continued from Page A12 Which doesn’t exactly sound like much of a rollback of government interference in the marketplace.

From a “government edict” perspective, what’s the difference between telling the restaurant to have a policy and telling a restaurant to post their policy.

I know I part company with a lot of libertarians on this matter, but when it comes to public health and spreading of communicable diseases, I believe the government does have greater authority to intervene.

That being said, I don’t understand why Sen. Tillis would adopt THIS story as an example of government overreach. He could pick up a Reader’s Digest for better examples.

Needless to say, Tillis is being mocked by the media and the left for his comments.

And, I’d say, rightly so.

The following was posted Jan. 14:

Dog buses for Buncombe!

Everyone is swooning over Eclipse — a black lab in Seattle that has figured out how to ride the bus alone three or four blocks to go to the park.

The trips began when her owner, Jeff Young, took too long to finish a cigarette while waiting at a bus stop. Trained to heel but apparently not to wait, the dog hopped on the D Line bus, and she’s since made several trips by herself.

“She’s been here the last two years,

means to containing takers and limiting the recruiting capacities of unscrupulous politicians.

Gaining power by corrupting the minds of the poor, disadvantaged and otherwise vulnerable should be recognized as sophisticated evil.

U.S. Air Force Major Gen. Frederick C. Blesse is a legend among fighter pilots. His 1955 tactics manual, ‘No Guts, No Glory’ is the Bible of air-to-air combat. Modification of his oft repeated quote offers direct challenge to waiters – no guts, no America.

Give serious consideration to where you stand on the givers-takers-waiters spectrum. If you’re blessed to be a giver, do it the right way.

If you’ve been programmed to take, find a better way. If you’re into waiting, accelerate your search for truth and a point of action. Every man and woman counts.

Conclusion

In 1972, Rat Pack bon voyant Sammy Davis Jr. recorded catchy tune, “The Candy Man.” A replay offers what might be a perfect conservative take on the crafty character of our current president: “Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew, cover it with chocolate and a miracle or two? The Candy Man, oh, the Candy Man can, cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good.”

Mr. Davis was a bright, courageous and pragmatic man much ahead of his time. He had a demonstrated understanding of how to avoid the wrong side of giving, taking and waiting. Sammy would suggest that recent years have found too many of good and noble people under the spell of a Candy Man – and that we not repeat our error.

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2015 — A13

disarming America while firing up the most dangerous weapon of all – weak minds.

That’s like waving a cheeseburger in front of a puppy and yelling “no!” Having turned Rover you now have to hide the sneakers. It’s easy to forget that Neeson and similarly minded anti-gun people are anti-liberty people.

The right to self-protection is a bedrock freedom. In that the vast majority of Americans are value-driven law abiding citizens, the guns they possess are dedicated to security, not aggression. As current world eventscontinue to demonstrate, disarmed citizens are one quick moment from becoming victimized citizens.

America remains one of few places in the world where the natural right to selfdefense is built into our Constitution and applicable to the common man. It’s folly to allow Hollywood, bodyguard-protected elitists and other “progressives” to in-

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In the Hollywood ‘Taken’ trilogy retired super-agent Liam Neeson guns down a gazillion bad guys. In his liberally conditioned conscience, this fantasy mayhem is just entertainment. Clueless on tons of research demonstrating otherwise, Mr. Neeson is indifferent to how surely gunnedup imaginary tough guys kidnap the minds of those seeking to prop-up a frail identity.

This Hollywood hero is a highly vocal antigun activist finding solace in the mission of

so she’s been urbanized, totally. She’s a bus-riding, sidewalk-walking dog,” Young told KomoNews.com. “Probably once a week I get a phone call. ‘Hi. I have your dog Eclipse here on 3rd and Bell,’” he said.

“I have to tell them, ‘no. She’s fine.’ She knows what she’s doing.”

Hahaha! A dog roaming the city without a leash! How cute.

As the bus’s only canine passenger, Eclipse, who roams the aisles and hops onto seats next to strangers, generates a lot of attention from the human bus riders.

“All the bus drivers know her. She sits here just like a person does,” commuter Tiona Rainwater told the outlet on a downtown trip on Monday. “She makes everybody happy. How could you not love this thing?”

Wait.

Is Eclipse manspreading?

Or, I guess it would be “dogspreading.”

And what about the fares?

Isn’t this dog getting a free ride?

Why does she get to ride for free? Because she’s cute?

But maybe our own Buncombe County Board of Commissioners can take a lesson from Eclipse. In light of the recent animal control ordinance proposal — requiring dog owners to exercise their pooches regularly and give them “social interaction” - maybe they could just set up a dog only bus service that shuttles the canines to various parks.

oculate vulnerable lizard-brains to real violence – and then disarm the good guys.

It behooves mature thinkers to boycott Neeson and invest the savings in ways to protect home, family and community from the fragile minds he, videogame programmers, hip-hop misogynists and other culture vultures are unleashing.

• Do you have information about a source of mischief in our community?

You can safely contact us at 252-8390 or drmumpower@aol.com. We are offering a $500 reward for information on corruption, crime, or other harms you share in confidence and we reveal in print.

Bad things grow in the dark. We have a flashlight – do you have a whistle?

• Carl Mumpower is a former member of Asheville City Council.

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A14 —March 2015 — Asheville Daily Planet

Local Show Reviews ‘Venus if you will....

Ex-teen idol Frankie Avalon still charms

By JOHN NORTH

early career highlights, his classic performances on the now-defunct TV show “American Bandstand,” and scenes from the movie “Beach FRANKLIN — Former teen idol Blanket Bingo,” finishing with a Frankie Avalon, now 75, still can ratrendition of “Venus.” tle the rafters, as he showed with his Looking dapper in a dark suit, music, choreography and joke-telling, with a light-colored shirt and tie, coupled with his uncanny ability to Avalon opened the show by noted connect with the crowd, during a that “this is my first time in Frankrousing Feb. 13 concert at the Smoky lin, North Carolina.”

Mountain Center for Performing Arts.

He quipped, “I’ve been coming to Highlights of his performance North Carolina for a lot of years — included a pre-Valentine’s Day rendisince Moby Dick was a minnow.” tion of his signature mega-hit “Venus” As the crowd laughed, Avalon and a mind-bending medley of three added, “I was really a skinny kid.”

Everly Brothers’ hits in a vocal duet He said he was given an Italian with Don Everly’s son Edan. nickname, which translates to Also memorable were a doo-wop “pipe cleaner.’” song medley and a salute to four other Early into the concert, as the top singers of his era who died early. crowd cheered, Avalon asserted, Another delightful aspect of his Avalon performs during a recent “You’re a terrific audience. You show was the carefully thought-out 2015 show, prior to his concert at the make me happy to be here. Of interweaving of film clips from the SMCPA in Franklin. course, at my age, I’d be glad to past, providing invaluable context and be anywhere.” depth of knowledge to the audience.

He noted that “my oldest son is now 51. Isn’t that somePeople, conceivably, could leave Avalon’s show knowing thing? We happen to be the same age. My youngest is 41.” more about the man and the music than when they entered.

Continuing in a jocular vein, Avalon triggered much The 75-minute, single-set show drew about 700 people. audience laughter when he said, “This next song I recorded In addition to Avalon as lead singer and Edan Everly as guitarist and backup singer, another notable member of the in ‘59 — 1859!” He then sang “Why,” which was the last No. 1 hit of 1959, he said. Avalon walked back and forth in 10-piece band was Avalon’s son Frank Jr. on percussion.

The band also included a bassist, pianist and a talented six- front of the first row during the tune.

Between singing songs, Avalon joked, “They’ve now piece horn section. combined country and rap — and they call it crap.”

A visual that seemed to At that point, he noted that Valentine’s Day was the next resonate with crowd was the day and “this next song put a lot of people together,” as he younger Everly and Avalon and the band launched into “Venus.”

— with the good looks of He then told a joke about a man encountering a naked their fathers in their prime woman — finally telling her, “Funny thing. My wife has — performing on stage, with an outfit just like that.” obvious familial pride.

Avalon sang Rodgers and Hart’s moving “Where Or When.”

Avalon has had a career “You know I haven’t been in the recording business for that spans three generations of many years.... Like I said, I don’t sing rap.” music, television and movies.

In his doo-wop medley, Avalon sang a verse or two of Inducted into the Rock and “Silhouettes,” “Twilight Times,” “ Blue Moon,” “ Cherry Pie,” Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, “For Your Love,” “ Earth Angel” and “Goodnight, Sweetheart.”

Avalon has said he is proud In his salute to fellow idols of his time, Avalon perto be known as a musician, formed Ricky Nelson’s “Hello, Mary Lou,” Elvis Presley’s actor and, most of all, a family “Jailhouse Rock,” Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” and man. He and his wife, Kathryn Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock.”

Diebel, have four sons and Avalon and his band began and ended the segment with four daughters — and numera rendition of The Righteous Brothers’ 1973 hit “Rock ‘n’ ous grandchildren.

Roll Heaven,” emphasizing the lyric fragment: The show started with a “If there’s a rock and roll heaven / Well you know voice-over accompanied by they’ve got a hell of a band ....” film clips showing Avalon’s With most of the audience on its feet and cheering, Avalon told the crowd members that, if they had a good time, “tell them you saw Frankie Avalon. If not, tell ‘em you saw Fabian” (a rival teen idol from Avalon’s early days.)

At that point, Avalon and band performed the encore, “Mickey Mouse Club March,” after which he repeated the lyric fragments, — a cappella-style — slowly and sincerely at the end: “See you real soon... / Why? Because we love you!”

Avalon’s final flourish triggered even more frenzied applause from the audience, as the former teen idol bowed, waved and left the stage. john@AshevilleDailyPlanet.com

Frankie Avalon performs during his teen idol days of the late 1950s and early’60s.

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Entertainment

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Richard Heim (left), captain of the Asheville Star Trek Club, poses with cutouts of Capt. James T. Kirk (center) and Mr. Spock during the club’s promotion of a science-fiction film at Biltmore Grande Cinemas in South Asheville circa 2014.

Special Section PULLOUT

B1

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2015

Photos courtesy of the Asheville Star Trek Club

Some members of The USS Alaric, more popularly known as The Asheville Star Trek Club, pose for a recent group picture, with most wearing “Star Trek” outfits from the television series through the years. The club, numbering about 40 members, is a chapter of STARFLEET, the International Star Trek Fan Association.

Local ‘Star Trek’ club praises Spock Smart, ‘cute’ star not gone, remains alive (in her heart), officer-fan says

By JOHN NORTH

john@AshevilleDailyPlanet.com

Mr. Spock (seated) appears deep in thought in a scene from the original “Star Trek” TV series. He is flanked (from left)

by Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner).

Following the Feb. 27 death of Leonard Nimoy, best known for his role as Mr. Spock on television’s 1960s’ series “Star Trek,” The USS Alaric, better known as the Asheville Star Trek Club, spent about 30 minutes the next night extolling the virtues of the conflicted first officer and science officer in the series who was half-Vulcan and half-Earthling.

Seven club members showed up for a Science Night gathering on Feb. 28 at Deni Niethammer’s home in the Oakley community of East Asheville.

Niethammer is the club’s chief medical officer. (The officers hold ranks that match those on “Star Trek.”

Club leader Richard Heim, an Asheville resident, holds the rank of “captain,” after that of Capt. James T. Kirk, commander of the Starship Enterprise.)

The club claims about 40 members and notes on its web page, “We are a group of Star Trek fans in Western North Carolina who meet monthly to celebrate ‘Star Trek,’ play card and board games, watch videos, discuss ‘Star Trek’ science, and have fun! We are a chapter of STARFLEET, The International Star Trek Fan Association and have been in existence since 1982.”

The club’s next meeting will be at 1 p.m. March 21 at South Buncombe County Library/Skyland, 260 Overlook Road, in South Asheville.

Arlo Guthrie sparkles (still)

By DAVE ROWE

Special to the Daily Planet

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr performed together to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Thee Rolling Stones went on tour to commemorate their 50 years as a band.

So why not celebrate 50 years since the origin of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree?”

Folk singer-songwriter Guthrie and his band are on tour highlighting the song — and Feb. 13-14 they played it as part of a nearly two-hour set at the downtown Asheville’s Diana Wortham Theatre. For both shows, the 500-seat venue was filled.

After intermission on Feb. 14, Guth-

Review

rie sat alone on a stool and performed “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” as images from a 1969 Arthur Penn film of the same name appeared on a screen behind the stage.

The saga detailed on the 16-minute recording of the — for the most part — talking blues starts with Guthrie and a friend being arrested for illegally dumping garbage. (It was Thanksgiving, so the town dump was closed.)

The two are arrested and put in jail in Great Barrington, Mass. and remain there until Alice, who generated the garbage along with her husband Ray,

bails them out.

From there, Guthrie sings of being drafted during the Vietnam War, but after being “selected, injected and detected,” he delights in avoiding having to serve because of the littering arrest.

The song, which appeared on Guthrie’s 1967 “Alice’s Restaurant” album, contains a catchy chorus, to which the audience sang along without prompting.

“Songs can create a movement,” Guthrie said during Feb. 14 performance, after wrapping things up.

“Somebody sometime will come up with one but for now we’re stuck with this.”

To open the show, an animated pickle riding a motorcycle down a mountain road appeared on the screen.

See ARLO, Page B7

“We talked about the shows Spock (Nimoy) had been in,” Niethammer told the Daily Planet regarding the club’s recent gathering. “When he first started as an actor, he played Tevia in ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’”

In general, “There was sadness” about Nimoy’s death. “For most of the group, he (Mr. Spock) is our favorite character of the original series.”

What’s more, she said, “In honor of Spock’s passing, one of our members (Ken Wheeler of Brevard) wore a ‘Live Long and Prosper’ blue sweatshirt,” with a picture of Spock and his famous hand gesture. (“Live long and prosper” was a Vulcan salute that Nimoy made up for his character Spock. Nimoy, who had Jewish heritage, later said that he derived the salute from the “priestly blessing of Judaism.”

Niethammer added, “We discussed Spock for about half an hour. It was a five-hour science meeting. We had dinner and watched documentaries about space exploration.... especially regarding planets that could provide life that are like earth.”

Some club members admitted that they had tried to mimic Spock as kids. “I liked his analytical mind and his science background — and I thought he was a cute,” Niethammer said. “I had fantasies as a young girl of acting on the show opposite Leonard Nimoy... The ears didn’t do anything for me.”

See SPOCK, Page B6

Singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie

B2 - March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet

Calendar

Send us your calendar items

Please submit items to the Calendar of Events by noon on the third Wednesday of each month, via e-mail, at calendar@ashevilledailyplanet. com, or fax to 252-6567, or mail c/o The Daily Planet, P.O. Box 8490, Asheville, N.C. 288148490. Submissions will be accepted and printed at the discretion of the editor, space permitting.

To place an ad for an event, call 252-6565.

Saturday, March 7

PEACE VIGIL, noon-2 p.m., Vance Monument, downtown Asheville. A Middle East peace vigil will be staged by Western Carolinians for Peace and Justice.

CONCERT, 6 p.m., Tryon Fine Arts Center, 34 Melrose Ave., Tryon. The Chase Away the Blues show will feature Daryle Rice, Ricky Godfrey Band, Free Flow and Little G. Weevil. Food and beverages will be available. For tickets, which are $30 general and $75 VIP, visit www.tryonarts.org.

CONCERT, 7:30 p.m., Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, Franklin. Country music singer Wade Hayes will perform in concert. For tickets, which are $15, visit www.GreatMountainMusic.com, or call 524-1598.

Sunday, March 8

CONCERT, 3 and 7:30 p.m., Flat Rock Cinema, 2700 Greenville Hwy., Flat Rock. The Magnolia Concert Series will feature a concert by the group The Carburetors. Food and beverages will be available. For tickets, which are $15 plus tax, visit www. magnoliaconcertseries.com, or call 697-2463.

Tuesday, March 10

LIBERTARIAN MEETING, 7 p.m., Oakleaf Furniture, 130 Miller St., downtown Waynesville. The Haywood County Libertarian Party meets on the second Tuesday of the month. Open discussion and

debate are encouraged with all perspectives and persuasions welcomed, regardless of political or religious affiliation.

GARRISON KEILLOR SHOW, 7:30 p.m., Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, U.S. Cellular Center, downtown Asheville. Garrison Keillor will perform in concert. Tickets, which are available at the U.S. Cellular Center Box Office or by calling (800) 745-3000, also may be ordered by visiting www. ticketmaster.com.

“Sectarianism in the Middle East” ADDRESS, 7:30 p.m., Manheimer Room, Reuter Center, UNC Asheville. The World Affairs Council Great Decisions lecture series will offer an address on “Sectarianism in the Middle East,” featuring speaker David Hudleson of National Security. Admission is $10 for the general public.

Friday, March 13

OPERA TALKS, 3 p.m., Reuter Center, UNC Asheville. The Opera Talks series will feature Asheville Lyric Opera Director David Craig Starkey and a cast of industry professionals, who offer attendees guidance through their operatic world. Admission is free and open to the public.

STYX CONCERT, 9 p.m., Event Center, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort, Cherokee. The band Styx will perform in concert. The rock band from Chicago became famous for its albums from the mid-1970s and early 1980s. For tickets, which range from $37 to $69.50, visit www.ticketmaster.com, or call (800) 745-3000.

Saturday, March 14

ACROBATS SHOW, 2 and 8 p.m., Diana Wortham Theatre, Pack Place, 12 Biltmore Ave., downtown Asheville. The Peking Acrobats will perform what are billed as “awe-inspiring feats, coupled with traditional music.”

Sunday, March 15

CONCERT, 3 p.m., Blue Ridge Community College, 180 W. Campus Dr., Flat Rock. The Hendersonville Community Band will perform a celebration of symphonic band music. For tickets, which are $10, call 692-8801, or visit www. hcbmusic.com.

See CALENDAR, Page B3

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The rock band Styx will perform at 9 p.m. March 13 in the Event Center at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in Cherokee.

Calendar of Events

Continued from Page B2

Sunday, March 15

BIG-BOX STORES’ PROGRAM, 2-3:30 p.m., Friends Meeting House, 227 Edgewood Rd., Asheville. Weaverville writer and radio host Fred Flaxman will present “The Case Against Wal-Mart, Amazon and Any Store Owned by Art Pope” at the monthly meeting of the Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville. Flaxman will argue that each of these companies acts unethically toward its workers, the government and society and should be boycotted until they change practices. A question-and-answer session and refreshments will follow the program.

Tuesday, March 17

JAZZ FOR JUSTICE FUNDRAISER, 5:30 p.m., 21 N. Market St., downtown Asheville. A benefit for Pisgah Legal Services will be held. An awards presentation will be held at 7 p.m. For tickets, which are $50, email betsy@pisgahlegal.org.

LECTURE, 6 p.m., Humanities Lecture Hall, UNC Asheville. Alejandro Cartegena, an internationally known contemporary Mexican photographer, will give a lecture on his work. Admission is free and open to the public.

FILM SCREENING/DISCUSSION, 7 p.m., Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall, UNC Asheville. A film screening of “Feminist Stories from Women’s Liberation” will be followed by a discussion led by filmmaker Jennifer Lee. Admission is free and

open to the public.

PERFORMANCE, 8 p.m., Diana Wortham Theatre, downtown Asheville. The Brentano Quartet, with violinist Hsin-Yung Huang, will perform in collaboration with the Asheville Sympony and the theater. For tickets, which are $38, call 2541320, or visit www.ashevilletheatre.org.

See CALENDAR, Page B4

LETTERS The Asheville Daily Planet invites Letters to the Editor of 200 words or less. Please include your name, mailing address, daytime telephone number and e-mail address.

For more information, call (828) 252-6565.

Send mail to: Letters, Asheville Daily Planet P.O. Box 8490, Asheville, NC 28814 Send e-mail to: letters@ashevilledailyplanet.com

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B4 - March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet

Calendar Events

Calendar

Wednesday, March 18

Tuesday, March 24

Continued from Page B3

LECTURE/PERFORMANCE, 10 a.m.-noon and 2-4 p.m., Manheimer Room, Reuter Center, UNC Asheville. “Meeting Mozart: His Life and Music,” a lecture and performance, will be offered as part of the Asheville Amadeus Festival, in cooperation with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra.

Thursday, March 19

Panel Discussion, 11 a.m.-12:10 p.m., Humanities Lecture Hall, UNC Asheville. A panel discussion with Heartbeat, an international nonprofit organization, will be held. Admission is free and open to the public.

SOCIAL JUSTICE COFFEE HOUR, 12:30 p.m., Laurel Forum, Kaplan Hall, UNC Asheville. Key Center Social Justice Coffee Hour will be held with Heartbeat, an international non-profit organization Admission is free and open to the public.

CONCERT, 7 p.m., Lipinsky Auditorium, UNC Asheville. A concert will feature Heartbeat. Admission for UNCA students is free; for other area students tickets, $8; campus community tickets, $13; and general admission, $22. Based in Jerusalem, Heartbeat is an international non-profit organization uniting musicians, educators, and students to build mutual understanding and transform conflict through the power of music. Founded in 2007 under a Fulbright-MTV award, Heartbeat creates opportunities and spaces for young Israeli and

Continued from Page B4

Palestinian musicians to work together, hear each other, and amplify their youthful voices to influence the world around them.

Friday, March 20

Events

DANCE PROGRAM, 8 p.m., Diana Wortham Theatre, Pack Place, 12 Biltmore Ave., downtown Asheville. Kyle Abraham will perform “Abraham.

In.Motion” on March 24-25.

FILM SCREENING/DISCUSSION, 5:30 p.m., Humanities Lecture Hall, UNC Asheville. A screening of the film “300 Miles to Freedom” will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Richard Breyers. Admission is free and open to the public.

Wednesday, March 25

LECTURE/PERFORMANCE, 7 p.m., Alumni Hall, Highsmith University Union, UNC Asheville.

A lecture, “Music of the Holocaust,” will be offered in conjunction with a performance by Bandana Klezmer, sharing some of the tunes and the musicians that survived the Holocaust and later brought about the revival of Klezmer music. Local scholar and Holocaust survivor Walter Ziffer will share his story of liberation from Gross-Rosen concentration camp.

Saturday, March 21

RODNEY CARRINGTON CONCERT, 7:30 p.m., Event Center, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort, Cherokee. Rodney Carrington will perform in his “Here Comes the Truth” show. For tickets, which are $$64 to $297 visit www.Ticketmaster. com or call (800) 745-3000.

CONCERT, 7:30 p.m., Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, Franklin. Country music singer Joe Diffie will perform in concert. For tickets, which are $20, $25 and $28, visit www.

GreatMountainMusic.com, or call 524-1598.

BEATLES TRIBUTE SHOW, 7:30 p.m., The Foundation Performing Arts Center, Isothermal Community College, Spindale. “Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience” will be performed. For tickets, which are $19 and $24, call 286-9990, or visit www. FoundationShows. org.

of

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2015 — B5

Thursday, March 26 “Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience” show will be presented at 7:30 p.m. March 21 at The Foundation Performing Arts Center at Isothermal Community College in Spindale.

Sunday, March 22

CONCERT, 7:30 p.m., John Knox Presbyterian Church, 35 Shannon Drive, Greenville, S.C. Ron Carter, silent film organist, will perform during a

screening of “Safety Last.” At 6:30 p.m., pizza, popcorn and pop will be served. For tickets, which are $10, call (864) 244-0453.

See CALENDAR, Page B5

STEM LECTURE, 4:30 p.m., Reuter Center, UNC Asheville. A STEM lecture, “New Developments in Health & Wellness — Different Perspectives,” will be presented by Ameena Batada, assistant professor of health and wellness.

Admission is free and open to the public.

PARSONS LECTURE, 7 p.m., Lipinsky Auditorium, UNC Asheville. The Parsons Lecture, “The Shape of Space,” will be presented by Jeff Weeks of Middleburry College. He will discuss the concept of a multi-connected universe.

STORYTELLING, 7:15 p.m., Reuter Center, UNC Asheville. The storytelling event celebrates strong women and featurers Jim Stokely, Sarah Larson, Catherine Frank, Roy Harris and others.

Admission is free and open to the public.

CONCERT, 8 p.m., Diana Wortham Theatre, Pack Place, 12 Biltmore Ave., downtown Asheville. Lunasa will perform Irish-Celtic music.

Friday, March 27

FAB FRIDAY LECTURE, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Reuter Center, at UNC Asheville. The Fab Friday talk, “Nightmare vs Reality: A World Without Antibiotics,“ will be presented by Jacie Volkman, director of infection prevention at Mission Health System. Admission is free and open to the public.

Saturday, March 28

BEER FESTIVAL, noon-4 p.m., Sierra Nevada Brewery, Mills River. Sierra Nevada will hold its new Burly Beers and Barley-wines Festival, which is open to those ages 21 and over. Tickets, which are $65 general and $30 designated driver, visit www.sierranevada.com/burlybeers.

Tuesday, March 31

LECTURE, 7-8:30 p.m., 417 Sherrill Center, UNC Asheville. An address on “Developing, Implementing & Sustaining a Food Assistance Incentive Program for Farmers’ Markets: Lessons Learned in South Carolina” will be presented

by Darcy Freedman of Case Western Reserve University.

Saturday, April 11

LORETTA LYNN CONCERT, 7:30 p.m., Event Center, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort, Cherokee. Loretta Lynn will perform in her “Here Comes the Truth” show. For tickets, which are $41 to $259, visit www.Ticketmaster.com or call (800) 745-3000.

Sunday, April 19

David Sedaris SHOW, 3 p.m., Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, U.S. Cellular Center, downtown Asheville. New York Times bestselling author David Sedaris will visit Asheville for an afternoon of what are billed as engaging recollections and readings.

He is the author of the bestsellers “Naked,” “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.” Sedaris also is a regular National Public Radio contributor. For tickets, which are $33 to $50, visit www.ticketmaster.com.

Saturday, May 2

CALEB JOHNSON CONCERT, 7:30 p.m., Event Center, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort,

Salsa Classes with 2umbao!!

Local scholar and Holocaust survivor Walter Ziffer will share his story of liberation from a concentration camp at 7 p.m. March 25 in Alumni Hall in Highsmith University Union at UNCA.

Want to learn how to dance Salsa in a fun relaxed environment!

Salsa Classes Every Wednesday, New 6wks starts Wednesday February 18th and then next New 6wks will start April 8th!!

Cherokee. Asheville’s Caleb Johnson, who won last year’s televised “American Idol” competition series, will perform in concert. For tickets, which are $42 to $64, visit www.ticketmaster.com, or call (800) 745-3000.

856 Sweeten Creek Rd, Asheville NC 28803

Tuesday, May 19

SPEAKER, noon-2 p.m., Crowne Plaza Expo Center, Asheville. Bestselling author, memoirist and prison reform activist Piper Kerman will give the keynote address at the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina’s Power of the Purse luncheon. In her memoir, “Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison,” Kerman recounts the time she spent in the Danbury Corrections Facility for a drug trafficking crime committed 10 years previously. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Women’s Fund, a permanent endowmnet of the CFWNC. For tickets, which are $75, visit www.cfwnc.

Piper Kerman org. For $150, patrons will also have the opportunity to attend a pre-luncheon coffee with Kerman and the event sponsors.

Friday, May 22

BOSTON CONCERT, 9 p.m., Event Center, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort, Cherokee.

The rock band Boston will perform in concert.

For tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com, or call (800) 745-3000.

Saturday, May 30

JAY LENO COMEDY SHOW, 7:30 p.m., Event Center, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort, Cherokee. Jay Leno will perform his comedy show. For tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com, or call (800) 745-3000.

Saturday, June 6

MERLE HAGGARD CONCERT, 7:30 p.m., Event Center, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort, Cherokee. Country music star Merle Haggard will perform in concert. For tickets, visit www. ticketmaster.com, or call (800) 745-3000.

Extreme Dance Studio Beginners 7:30-8:30pm & Intermediate 8:30-9:30pm. $10/class or $40/6wks.

828-674-2658 • JenniferWCS@aol.com • www.facebook.com/2umbao

B6 - March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet

Above is a promotional photograph of the cast of “Star Trek” during the third season (1968–1969). From left are James Doohan, Walter Koenig, DeForest Kelley, Majel Barrett, William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy and George Takei.

Spock

Continued from Page B1 Niethammer added, “I had assumed the show would go on forever and never be canceled” when she viewed it as a youngster in the 1960s.

At the Feb. 28 club gathering, she said, “One of the girls (female members of the club) said she was bullied as a kid, and she tried” to convince those tormenting her that she “had no emotions to shield herself from the pain of being bullied — she adopted a Spock-kind of a character, not showing emotions.”

While Niethammer said, “That’s sad,” in the female’s effort to avoid bullying, she noted that Spock, as a certifiable “outsider” on “Star Trek,” with his mixed racial heritage and eccentric characteristics, provided an inspiration to many youngsters who also were outsiders.

With a laugh, Niethammer noted that fellow club member “Ken (Wheeler) tried for years — with no success — to do that one eyebrow raise” that Nimoy made famous through his portrayal of Spock.

“Spock captured my heart and imagination by being part of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise — and I’m truly grateful for that,” she said.

So how does she feel about the death of Spock?

“When somebody dies — I just attach them in my heart — and they’re in my heart and living there” forever, Niethammer

said.

“The reason I’m enthralled with ‘Star Trek’ is because I’m fascinated with space exploration and what’s out there.”

As for Spock, “He was my favorite character on ‘Star Trek,’” Niethammer said.

With a laugh, she noted that Nimoy wrote a book called “I Am Not Spock.”

Niethammer added, “Then he embraced the character and wrote a book called, ‘I Am Spock.’ Leonard Nimoy was much more than Spock... He was a poet, an author and even a singer. He was multi-talented in many ways.”

Indeed, Bryan Alexander wrote the following about Nimoy’s Spock in USA Today on Feb. 28: “With his stark bowl haircut, the famous Vulcan hand gesture (which Nimoy developed) and the phrase ‘Live long and prosper,’ Nimoy’s Mr. Spock earned a place in the American psyche that will live on.”

Further, Alexander wrote, “Playing the sole alien aboard a starship of humans was inspired casting for a man born to Yiddish-speaking Russian Orthodox Jewish immigrants in Boston’s West End in 1931.

Nimoy was used to feeling like an outside.”

Nimoy died at his Bel Air, Calif., home of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

“I quit smoking 30 years ago,” Nimoy had tweeted recently. “Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, ‘Quit now!!’”

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                                                                                    

Complete CompleteFabric Fabric FabricCenter Center Center Complete Complete Fabric Center Complete Fabric Center Complete Fabric Center                                                                                                                                              

Drapery DraperyMaterial Material Material Drapery Drapery Material Drapery Material Drapery Material               

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Fabric Fabricby by bythe the the pound pound Fabric pound Fabric by the pound Fabric by the pound Fabric by the pound                                                              

AUTOMOBILE AUTOMOBILE AUTOMOBILE AUTOMOBILE AUTOMOBILE AUTOMOBILE              

                         3049 HENDERSONVILLE HIGHWAY      

   

I-26 Exit 44, North miles I-26 I-26 Exit Exit 13, 13,then then thenNorth North North miles 3 miles I-26 Exit 13, then 3333 miles I-26 Exit 13, then North miles

I-26 I-26 Exit Exit 13, 13, then then North North 33 miles miles

Capt. James T. Kirk (left) and First Officer-Science Officer Spock appear in a promotion for the original “Star Trek” TV series.

684-0801 684-0801 684-0801

Arlo

Asheville Daily Planet — March 2015 — B7

Continued from Page B1 Meanwhile, Guthrie’s band members arrived on stage, followed by Guthrie, who began singing “The Motorcycle Song.”

“Don’t want a pickle, just want to ride my motorcycle... / I don’t want to die, I just want to ride my motorCIIIIcle.”

“It’s amazing a man can make a living singing a song that dumb,” Gutherie had said during a previous Asheville appearance. “Well, that’s America for you.”

Guthrie’s son, Gabe, plays keyboard in the tight four-piece band. Like his father, Gabe has shoulder-length hair; at age 68, Arlo’s hair and mustache are snow-white.

Between songs, Guthrie often would talk of his father, folk music giant Woody Guthrie.

According to Arlo, his father’s song, “Tom Joad,” which summarizes the events of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” drew the ire of the author.

“You dirty little blank,” Steinbeck said in a letter to Woody. “You said in 12 verses what it took me about 600 pages to do.”

Arlo added, wryly, “My father was a good editor.”

Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967 at age 55, was also a teacher.

“This is a song I had to learn playing in the backyard,” Guthrie said before launching into “This Land is Your Land,” which drew enthusiastic applause.

Another song that went over well was “City of New Orleans,” Guthrie’s biggest commercial success.

“Steve Goodman wrote this song in 1970 or 71 and he wanted to get Johnny Cash to record, but Johnny Cash said he’d already done enough train songs.

He didn’t want to get ‘trainicided,’” Guthrie quipped. “Worked out for me.”

Arlo finished off the night with “All I Can Give You Is Peace,” a gentle ballad he wrote in memory of his wife Jackie, who died in 2012. “She was sick a long time, but she made it through our 43rd anniversary party,” he said.

As for “The Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” Guthrie emphasized that it was a true story. “You can’t make stuff like this up,” he said.

The real Alice and her husband Ray still live in Great Barrington and the former church building where they accumulated all the garbage is now the Guthrie Center, which hosts charitable non-profit groups and serves free lunches, Guthrie said.

We do beer, wine, cider, and mead.

Two free classes every month!

ASHEVILLE BREWERS SUPPLY 712-B Merrimon Ave • Asheville • (828) 285-0515

Mon-Sat 10-6 and Sun 11-4 • Plenty of Parking! www.AshevilleBrewers.com • South’s Finest • Since 1994

B8 - March 2015 - Asheville Daily Planet