Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com January 20 – 26, 2016
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The middle child by Brian Clarey
UP FRONT 3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 6 Commentariat 6 The List 7 Barometer 7 Unsolicited Endorsement
15 It Just Might Work: Charleston style 15 Fresh Eyes: On conflict and open spaces
COVER
GAMES SHOT IN THE TRIAD
NEWS 8 Treatment, not jail 10 Hot school board race 12 HPJ: High Point rising
20 Food: Tacos and tortas in High Point 21 Barstool: Greensboro ABC 22 Music: Too legit to quit 24 Art: Football: a way of life, a way out
14 Editorial: Hating on the ’hoods 14 Citizen Green: Excommunicating a
26 Bright orange for the shroud 27 Jonesin’ Crossword
16 Beer buds
CULTURE
OPINION
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28 East February One Place, Greensboro
ALL SHE WROTE 30 A Yankee in Nicole’s life
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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
CONTENTS
The middle child is invisible — or at least he thinks he is. And sometimes he’s right: Lost in the shuffle of older and younger siblings, a smart middle kid can get away with an awful lot. But the middle child is also the glue, the bridge between the brothers and sisters and, often, the kids and the parents. The middle child is central to the overall social order of the household, and while his actions may often go unnoticed, his absence is keenly felt. At least that’s the way it is in my house. My own middle child recently returned from a few days in Orlando, a school trip that necessitated a day and a half of recovery before emerging from his bedroom, the hem of the pajama pants he favors inching higher up his shins, it seems, every time I look at him these days. He’s finishing up his last year of middle school, and trying to make a decision that those in my generation were spared: He’s choosing a high school. When I was a young middle child myself, high school meant one thing: a big, industrial building that smelled like wet paper towels and farts, with pep rallies and big games and winter dances. And that experience is out there for my kid, but he has his sight set on something a little more exclusive than the neighborhood public school. And let’s just say that this brilliant middle child, the one who coined the term “dirty banana” when he was just 4 years old, perhaps did not put forth his best efforts in the areas which the better schools value, namely his grades, permanent record be damned. This predicament he finds The middle child is the himself in will be a learning experiglue, the bridge between ence one way or the brothers and sisters the other, a lesson and, often, the kids and in consequences the parents. either good or bad. But the kid is bucking up, responding to the pressure with guile and grace. To answer the challenge, he’s put together his first caper. It involves an accelerated pace of study in a specialized educational niche, handpicked to cut his odds for attaining a seat at the school of his choice. And I’ll tell ya, I think the kid can pull it off. Because the middle child — my middle child — knows when to remain invisible and when it’s time to step into the light. Or at least he’s fronting like he does, which is almost as good.
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January 20 — 26, 2016
CITY LIFE January 20 – 26 THURSDAY
FRIDAY
Opening reception @ Theatre Art Galleries (HP), 5:30 p.m. Four exhibitions will be showcased with an opening reception at TAG. The exhibition and opening reception are free and open to the public. For more information visit tagart.org.
Fringe Festival @ Greensboro Cultural Center (GSO), 8 p.m. The Drama Center of City Arts is kicking off the 14th annual Fringe Festival with the new original play Ghost Notes by local playwright Gabrielle Sinclair. Admission is free but a $10 donation and reservations are recommended. Go online thedramacenter.com for more.
Martin Sherman’s Bent @ W-S Theatre Alliance (W-S), 8 p.m. Witness a tale of two lovers defying the odds of Nazi Germany. Tickets are priced at $18 for adults, $16 for seniors and students. For more information, go to wstheatrealliance.com.
Pajama Jam @ Greensboro Science Center (GSO), 6 p.m. Greensboro Science Center and Chick-fil-A hosts after-hours music by Big Bang Boom and fun activities, while being in pajamas! Visit gcmuseum for more information.
Sexual Chocolate Gala @ Foothills Brewery (W-S), 7 p.m. Join the Foothills’ 10th anniversary celebration of Sexual Chocolate Stout, with a beer tasting, food and a silent auction. For ticket information, go to foothillsbrewing.com.
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by Daniel Wirtheim
Kids Poetry Basketball @ First Baptist Church (GSO), 4 p.m. Team Metaphor and Team Simile will kick off the literacy enhancement championship event. Kids from Archer, Bessemer, Rankin, Washington and Wiley elementary schools will be in attendance. For more information, go to kidspoetrybasketball.com.
Chili Challenge @ Greensboro Farmer’s Curb Market (GSO), 8 a.m. Local chefs and farmers will be competing on who has the best chili in the Triad, while having a taste test, voting and bragging rights. For more information go to gsofarmersmarket.org.
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SATURDAY
Live from Nashville @ High Point Theatre (HP), 8 p.m. Twelve Nashville musicians, singers and performers will be entertaining audiences with a theatrical trip through America’s country music hits. Tickets are from $20 to $25. For more information visit highpointtheatre.com.
SUNDAY
A Moveable Feast @ Biotech Place (W-S), 3 p.m. Bookmarks hosts its fourth annual feast where authors will discuss books, along with sales, signings and light refreshments. For more information, visit bookmarks.nc.org. Daithi Sproule @ Muddy Creek Music Hall (W-S), 3 p.m. Irish music legend Daithi Sproule will be performing along with Julee and Mark Weems of Little Windows. Additional information can be found at fiddleandbow.org.
MONDAY “A Seat at the Table” @ Krankies (W-S), 5:30 p.m. The Winston-Salem Arts Council will have launch campaign by bringing the community together for food, drink and entertainment. Event is free and open to the public. For more information, see intothearts.org.
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January 20 — 26, 2016 Up Front News
The fact that the city is not in the realty business is clear given the sales price [“City poised to sell human-services building to Kotis”; by Joanna Rutter; Jan. 13, 2016]. The thought that the city could gain increased tax revenue from the property would be encouraging except since [Marty] Kotis has no immediate plans to develop and increase the property value, there is little to be gained by this transaction. Christian Yorkshire, via triad-city-beat.com Kotis investing in a portfolio, buying properties at below market value in a city with a depressed economy is a much safer and higher return than the stock market or savings accounts. Billy Jones, via triad-city-beat.com Let’s not forget Dorothy Bardolph. Tom Lassiter, via triad-city-beat.com
Cover Story
Opinion
Real estate and human beings
by Joanna Rutter
Winston-Salem
Greensboro
2. Both of these names sound like they came out of some lazy developer’s automatic street name generator. Might as well commit to it. Oak Summit Road + Shattalon Drive = Shat Summit Drive
5. There is no way to justify this one north-to-south road being named five different names. There has to be a better way. Doggett Road + Yanceyville Road + Dudley Street + Bennett Street + Oxford Street = Bendogley Oxville Road
1. Triad cities name the heck out of their main thoroughfares. Let’s mash the worst offenders up like an urban planning mixtape. Here’s an easy one. Shallowford Road + Country Club Road = Shallow Club Road
High Point
3. Essentially forms a loop around the heart of High Point; five names for one functioning piece of road is unacceptable. Eastchester Drive + Westchester Drive + Market Center Drive + University Drive + Harley Drive = The High Point Loop
4. Westover Terrace + Aycock Street + Lovett Street = Ayoverett Street. By which I mean, way over it, as in, way over things being named after a guy called Aycock.
6. The worst offender on this list: Renamed for no apparent reason other than being the coliseum thoroughfare, it manages to be frustrating to visitors and locals alike. High Point Road + Gate City Boulevard + Lee Street = Leehigh Boulevard
Recycle this paper.
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6 new names for Triad streets
Gate City Vineyard is a modern, Christian church that exists to serve the community around us. Our desire is to help people of all ages and backgrounds grow in their understanding of God. At the Vineyard you can come as you are and be yourself. Whatever your thoughts about church, whatever your beliefs about God … you are welcome here.
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We sure do love a burrito. We asked our readers and editors to choose between Greensboro’s best — Villa del Mar, El Nuevo, El Mercadito, Blue Agave and Bandito Burrito.
70
50
30
10
31%
Blue Agave
15%
Villa del Mar
9%
El Mercadito
8%
El Nuevo & Other
All She Wrote
37%
Bandito Burrito
Shot in the Triad
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Games
40
Fun & Games
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Culture
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Cover Story
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Opinion
New question: Do you support North Carolina’s voter ID law? Weigh in at triad-city-beat.com!
by Brian Clarey The Dad Taxi is a beat-up station wagon of a make that is no longer in production, with a questionable electrical system and a rear-wiper blade that is just sad. But there’s plenty of room inside for up to six good-sized kids if we include the way back; I don’t care if they spill soda on the seats; and it’s completely paid for. When it’s not in use as the Dad Taxi, the vehicle moonlights as part of the Triad City Beat distribution fleet, a role that seems light in comparison. It’s a total pain in the ass, driving the Dad Taxi. Duties start just after 7 a.m., with a run to the school for the little ones, who by the way aren’t so little anymore. This is every school day, mind you. The Dad Taxi also makes weekday afternoon runs as needed: lesson pickups downtown, evening events at the school or elsewhere, any sort of last-minute project that might necessitate a ride or trip to the store. The Dad Taxi really rears up on weekends, shuttling to and from sleepovers and birthday parties, squad video-game sessions and whatever else the crew has planned. The Dad Taxi must also be on call from Friday through Sunday evening, just in case. It knocks out at least a tank of gas a week, interrupts football games and work, and anything I might have going in the kitchen often needs to be kicked to a back burner. But my secret is that I love driving the Dad Taxi, no matter how much it eats into my own stupid plans. I get to hang with my young kids just about every day for at least 20 minutes before school. I know my oldest son’s friends from their rides in my car. We listen to music, talk smack, take note of landmarks and changes in the city as it passes by our windows. It’s not exactly quality time along the lines of a family vacation or snowedin weekend, but with these kids and their crazy schedule I take what I can get. And every time I feel like complaining about driving the Dad Taxi, I remember how quickly this time in my life — my years as an active parent — are slipping away. Even my Dad Taxi duties are almost complete: The oldest starts drivers ed next week. By summertime, he’ll be at the wheel of the Big Brother Taxi. Maybe he’ll let me ride shotgun.
News
Jordan Green: I really don’t have a go-to burrito in Greensboro — in Durham’s it’s Cosmic Cantina, hands down. But when I’m looking for a burrito in Greensboro, it really depends on what strikes my fancy. I really like El Nuevo (thanks for the recommendation, Eric!), but Bandito Burrito is a solid option. I also like the ribeye bulgogi burrito made by the Urban Street Grill food truck, which wasn’t included as an option. I’ll have to try Villa del Mar, El Mercadito and Blue Agave.
Readers: Bandito Burrito food truck prevailed in the polls (37 percent), but didn’t defeat runner-up Blue Agave by a wide margin (31 percent). Villa del Mar came in third (15 percent), followed by El Mercadito (9 percent) and El Nuevo and Other for a combined 8 percent. Our sports writer Anthony Harrison weighed in — “Villa del Mar 4 lyfe” — and someone going by Guelph offered, “The Bandito Burrito truck is one of the best I’ve ever had, and their tacos aren’t bad either.”
Driving the Dad Taxi
Up Front
Brian Clarey: While I am partial to the chicken burrito at Villa del Mar, I defer to Eric Ginsburg in this category, as he was the one who turned me on to the big chicken job at Villa, which he holds lovingly as he devours. I’m more of a taco man anyway.
Eric Ginsburg: I am so embarrassed that I’ve worked with Jordan this long and somehow he hasn’t had Villa del Mar. Damn, dude. Urban Street Grill wasn’t included because, though the food truck comes to Greensboro, it’s based in another county. It’s unreal how good El Nuevo’s bulgogi burrito is, but for the pure, unaltered specimen, I forever remain a Villa guy.
triad-city-beat.com
Best Greensboro burrito?
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January 20 — 26, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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NEWS
24-hour crisis center designed to divert people from jail, hospitals by Jordan Green
Forsyth County officials are working on a plan to divert people with mental health and substance abuse challenges from the local jail. A new 24-hour crisis center to be operated by the regional mental health authority could provide an alternative to help offenders get treatment. A new, 24-hour crisis center expected to open in Winston-Salem next January could divert people experiencing mental health and substance abuse challenges from the Forsyth County jail and local emergency departments. The Highland Avenue Crisis and Recovery Center, a 43,000-square-foot building under construction across the street from the Behavioral Health Plaza, will include round-the-clock urgent care and evaluation, a 16-bed facility for up to seven days, a primary-care clinic jointly operated by Baptist Hospital and Novant Health, and a wellness center. The crisis center will be operated by CenterPoint Human Services, the regional mental health authority, on property leased by Forsyth County. “This is an outpatient facility allowing folks to stay up to 23 hours,” said Dr. Chad Stephens, the medical director at CenterPoint. “They can be triaged if they run out of medication. Once they’re stabilized and back on their medication, if they have safety issues, for instance if someone comes in suicidal and needs to be transported to a hospital under an involuntary order, they can do that. I’m really excited about that. It can be more of a recovery setting.” Forsyth County officials have expressed hope that the crisis center could divert people with mental health and substance abuse challenges from the jail, in addition to local emergency departments. “Let’s get people help and keep them out of the jail,” said Don Martin, vicechair of the Forsyth County Commission. “It reduces the jail population. It’s less expensive and it gets people the help they need, so from my perspective that’s a win-win-win.” The county commission approved a resolution in April to support an ini-
Frank L. Blum Construction is preparing a site on Highland Avenue for the construction of a 24-hour crisis intervention center expected to be completed by January 2017.
tiative to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in the jail and to study ways to minimize the contact that people with mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders have with the justice system, while helping them get treatment. The resolution states that “county jails spend two to three times more on adults with mental illnesses that require interventions compared to those without these treatment needs” and that “without the appropriate treatment and services, people with mental illnesses continue to cycle through the criminal justice system, often resulting in tragic outcomes for these individuals and their families.” Commissioner Gloria Whisenhunt brought the initiative to Forsyth County through her involvement with the National Association of Counties, which sponsored the Stepping Up Initiative. Forsyth County allocated $50,000 to hire a contractor to help implement the initiative. Doris Paez, a psychologist and statistician, came on with the county in November to fill the part-time position.
Paez is heading up an effort with a consortium of law enforcement, court and mental-health professionals to identify what types of people are going through the jail, what resources are in place to help them and how the system could be tweaked to divert more people into treatment. The consortium will be looking at five potential intercepts for diverting people from jail: first responders, initial detention, long-term detention, the courts and release. Paez hosted an orientation for first-responder agencies, including the Winston-Salem Police Department and Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, on Jan. 15. She said some law-enforcement officers have already received a Crisis Intervention Team certification through CenterPoint to identify potential offenders who could benefit from mental health services and substance abuse treatment. “Often times, that’s the problem — that’s the reason why these folks end up in a jail: There’s nowhere else to take them except emergency rooms,” Whisenhunt said. “They’re released.
JORDAN GREEN
It might be something as simple as sleeping on a park bench. Then they’re arrested and taken to jail. We’re hopeful it will help that population.” Whether diversion would be available to people with pending criminal charges remains unclear. Reporting by Triad City Beat brought to light the tragic case of Jen McCormack, a 31-year-old pregnant woman who was booked in the Forsyth County jail on multiple felony charges of prescription drug fraud committed to support her addiction to hydrocodone. McCormack experienced a heart attack after two weeks in jail and later died at Baptist Hospital. “You would bypass the jail and go right into court and be arraigned, and after that you would be staying at home,” Commissioner Martin said. “If she were taken to the Highland Avenue facility, then you haven’t been booked and you haven’t entered the criminal process. Any criminal activity issue is deferred until that whole process is adjudicated. If you fail to show up, then you would be taken into custody.” But Dr. Stephens, the medical direc-
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tor at CenterPoint, cautioned against the expectation that diversion would necessarily be available to someone who has already been criminally charged. “Once they’re in police custody, I’m not sure how much latitude the police have at that time,” he said. “One of the questions we are still working on is, what if someone’s picked up for possession? “If someone has been charged but they don’t have to go to jail at that time, this would be a fantastic opportunity to be hooked up with services,” he added. An ad-hoc committee comprised of Paez, Assistant County Manager Ronda Tatum, Commissioner Whisenhunt, Chief Deputy Sheriff Brad Stanley, Chief District Judge Lisa Menefee, Judge Camille Banks-Payne and Amber Humble of CenterPoint has been meeting from time to time to iron out details. “We’re at the very early stages of these conversations,” Paez said. “What do we know about these populations? What are the mental health issues? What kind of offenders are we talking about? Trespassing or felonies?”
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January 20 — 26, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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Old foes rematch in hot school-board primary
by Eric Ginsburg
Three of the Guilford County School Board races will be decided by the March 15 primary election, but the most competitive may be the matchup between incumbent Linda Welborn and former board member Paul Daniels, both Republicans, in the eastern part of the county. Newcomer Linda Welborn ended Paul Daniels’ tenure on the Guilford County School Board after just one term, beating him during his 2012 re-election bid. And now at the end of Welborn’s first term, Daniels is looking to return the favor. But this year’s contest between the two looks radically different than it did four years earlier. Redistricting by the state dramatically altered the school board, reducing the total number of positions on the board, redrawing district maps to match the Guilford County Commission and making the races partisan. And there’s a considerable chance that those alterations increase Daniels chances in 2016. Welborn currently represents District 5 on the school board, which runs across the southern edge of Guilford County. But she and Daniels live in the new District 4, which is more rural and extends the length of the county’s eastern border. With no Democratic candidates for the conservative-leaning area, the Republican primary on March 15 will determine who holds the seat. And given that Daniels is considered the more conservative of the two contenders, he likely has a strong shot at claiming the new district from Welborn. District 4 covers more land than any of the other seven, from the southeastern-most corner to the north-central part of the county and hooking into a small, northerly swath of Greensboro to Battleground Avenue including Christ Lutheran Church and Lewis Recreation Center precincts, among others. It includes McLeansville, Sedalia and Whitsett. The candidates said that the race isn’t personal, but Daniels added that the election presents voters with two distinct choices. In him, voters can find a budget hawk who has always been concerned with administrative accountability, school safety and budget transparency, Daniels said, characterizing his op-
Linda Welborn
Paul Daniels
ponent as someone who freely spends money on programs and who is overly focused on castigating state lawmakers for educational reforms. Welborn, who serves on the board’s legislative, governance and budget committees, said she has come under attack for her opposition to charter schools and for not embracing the Republican Party’s educational agenda wholesale. There’s even a website launched after the election began, lindawelbornisademocrat.com, that targets her stance on charters in particular. Daniels, who said he was unaware of the website, brought a copy of a 2014 op-ed Welborn wrote in the News & Record to an interview with Triad City Beat three days after the same letter appeared on the attack website. It is unclear who runs the website that calls Welborn a “progressive Democrat.” But Welborn doesn’t mind the criticism; she’s proud of her record and of her willingness to stand up for what she believes regardless of whether it fits with party talking points. She’ll vote for a Republican for president and certainly identifies as one, but Welborn stresses that she is her own person and isn’t beholden to a party or faction. Daniels said he is running because
he’s disappointed that the school board hasn’t made any progress on important issues including an achievement gap, graduates who need to take remedial classes in college, a lack of technical and vocational training to prepare students for high-paying local jobs and a lack of budgetary oversight. “I don’t think we’re preparing our kids for the good quality jobs that are out there,” Daniels said, adding that many students aren’t going to college and it would be great to set them up with the skills and certification to pursue available mechanic jobs. But Daniels’ biggest focus may be the budget. While school board members gripe about a lack of funding, it’s enough to buy an NBA or NHL team, Daniels said, adding that any time the former superintendent wanted money for a special project, the board miraculously found the funds. “There is a great deal we can do without worrying about what’s happening in Raleigh,” Daniels said. The board doesn’t spend enough time reviewing the budget, he added, and instead rubber stamps what staff proposes without a clear understanding of what initiatives will accomplish or if existing programs work. Instead, Daniels
supports a zero-based budgeting model touted by some conservatives as an approach where everything is evaluated and nothing is a given. “Let’s quit messing around,” Daniels said. “We’ve been doing the same old song and dance forever.” Welborn didn’t express concern about the board’s budget, other than the lack of funding provided by the state. She’s reached out to state legislators about the importance of “rebuilding a pipeline for strong educational professionals” who are passionate about teaching children; without it, Welborn is worried about the direction of public education in the state. “The constant disparaging of our educators has led to a decrease in the number of people going into the educational field,” Welborn said. That doesn’t just come into play with teacher pay or overall funding, but also with an evaluation system that labels schools as “low performing” based on a one-day test that doesn’t indicate whether a school has improved over time, she said. Welborn wants to see more of an effort to “deal with the whole child,” especially when it comes to a lack of mental health resources. Welborn said if reelected, she intends to focus on it as one of her issues, adding that addressing mental health would lead to safer school environments as well. Daniels said if more “wraparound” services are needed, he’s all for it, and would support partnering with churches and businesses “to get kids where they need to be.” Welborn said she’s approached her tenure on the board with a priority on the schools in her district but with a concern for the wellbeing of all students. That’s why she’s worked with educators in District 4 while serving in the old District 5, and why she is confident in her chances in the primary. She described herself as responsive, as someone who doesn’t give up, and as someone who keeps her word. And those are some of the reasons she first ran four years ago, after several years as an active parent and organizer with the Southeast Educational Advancement
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Coalition in the bottom quadrant of District 4. But Daniels said the school board in general isn’t proactive, and instead is led around by staff who don’t deserve blind trust. Pointing at Welborn’s 2014 column criticizing the NC General Assembly’s approach to education, Daniels said the current board is more inclined to complain about Raleigh than to fix problems within its grasp. “That’s not leadership,” he said. “Some things we can’t do anything about, but there’s a lot we could.”
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January 20 — 26, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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HIGH POINT JOURNAL
High Point considers reboot of revitalization program by Jordan Green
A proposal by a newly hired assistant city manager would reboot revitalization efforts in High Point’s core city. The city of High Point is drafting a plan for a new public-private partnership to lead downtown revitalization efforts. “The impetus was that we’re not getting done quite what we’d like to do in downtown,” Assistant City Manager Randy Hemann said. “We’ve done some planning, but now it’s time for implementation. This is very similar to what’s going on in Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Salisbury.” Hemann led revitalization efforts in the city of Salisbury prior to taking joining the city of High Point’s executive team in November. Under the proposal, the new downtown agency would have an 18-member board with representation from the mayor and city council and several outside institutions such as High Point University and the convention and visitors bureau. Other seats would be set aside for property owners and at-large members. The organization would operate as a 501c3 nonprofit in tandem with a new 501c6 that has the authority to acquire property for redevelopment purposes. Hemann said the city would contribute funding to support the organization, although the exact amount is still being worked out. He said he expects a proposal to come before city council before July, when the next fiscal year budget begins. The plan could mark a pivot point in downtown revitalization efforts dating back to the late 1990s that have floundered over the past two years in organizational disarray and political infighting. The turmoil peaked in early 2014, after the completion of a master plan by eminent urban planner Andrés Duany, when city council voted to reassign Wendy Fuscoe from her position as executive director of City Project to a position within city government. Denied a full-time employee, City Project has struggled to maintain momentum, although the organization launched a
Brown Truck Brewing, which is expected to open in the next several weeks in the Uptowne district, is one of the few bright spots in High Point’s efforts to revitalize its core city.
summer concert series that will go into its second year in 2016. The seeds of a course correction were sewn with popular discontent over city council’s handling of revitalization efforts and Fuscoe’s reassignment in 2014. Voters elected a new council, with new Mayor Bill Bencini and a governing majority that was friendlier to City Project. Richard Wood, chairman of the board of City Project, said he has been working with Hemann for three months to develop the plan for the new revitalization organization, describing his agency’s role as “instrumental.” Wood said he expects that two to five members of the City Project’s board of directors will carry over to the board of the new agency, which will likely adopt a different name. Some key figures in the city’s revitalization efforts, including Wood, will step aside, assuming that city council approves the restructuring plan. “Ever since my tirade in front of city council, we’ve kind of been on the bench ever since,” Wood said, acknowledging that his vocal advocacy alienated some on council. Wood said he remains disappointed about the pace of revitalization in High Point’s core city. “We’ve got to do some things to
entice investors to High Point,” he said. “I’ve been a little disappointed that the real-estate developers have not come forth. I hear about it happening in other communities. I think they’ve got to know that the city council supports them and that the city management supports what they’re trying to do, and I think [the new structure is] a better way to get a handle on that.” As bright spots, Wood citied the impending opening of Brown Truck Brewing and relocation of Sweet Josephine’s bakery — both in Uptowne — and the opening of Persnickety, a high-end furniture consignment shop in the old Lyles Chevrolet building on North Main Street. Plans to build a multifunctional athletic facility that would provide a home to the Hi-Toms baseball team and a venue for amateur sports are also promising, he said. In tandem with creating a new revitalization agency, the plan under development by Hemann also eliminates the position of core city administrator, where Fuscoe landed in mid-2014 with a salary of $104,397. Last year, Fuscoe crafted a plan approved by city council to create a municipal service district uniquely designed without enhanced taxes that allows the city to pay out financial incentives to defray the cost of
JORDAN GREEN
improvements to downtown properties. Fuscoe said several people have expressed interest in the incentives, but no one has applied yet. Fuscoe completely supports the move to eliminate her position, she said, despite the progress she had made on the city’s behalf. “It’s the only way to do it,” she said. “I believe 100 percent that it does not work to have a city employee working inside City Hall leading a revitalization initiative. It has to be a public-private partnership working in conjunction with the community.” Come the end of June, Fuscoe said she will be “looking around, finding a job,” but she is not interested in leading the new revitalization agency. “For a variety of reasons it’s time to step away,” she said. Aaron Clinard, a former chairman who still serves on the board of City Project, said the word “ecstatic” best expresses his feelings about the plan to restructure the city’s revitalization effort. The plan under development by Hemann, who started working for the city about four months ago, brings the city’s revitalization efforts full circle, Clinard said, although he prefers the term “vitalization.” When Clinard chaired City Project,
Clinard said the city has been taking small steps since former mayor Becky Smothers asked him to pull together a volunteer downtown committee in the late 1990s. “Now we’re at the point where we need to do implementation,” he said. “I think that’s what this plan is meant
to accomplish. What I’m trying to say is there’s a lot of good work that’s been done and good people who have put in that work. Now’s a good time to renew, refresh and step back, and start doing some things with measurable outcomes. Randy Hemann is the man to do it.”
Up Front News Opinion
Andrés Duany. It’s come full circle. Randy has set us on the path to having a master plan.” Like Wood, Clinard said he does not plan to continue on the board of the new organization. “I would be more than willing to step aside if it helps heal the wounds or smooth the way for members of council who have long memories,” Clinard said. “There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s time for fresh faces and fresh words. There are a lot of people in the city who want vitalization. I want to make sure that this is as easy as possible for city council with the funding mechanisms they need to do. The next step is finding someone to fill the executive director role.” Clinard and Wood said they expect that the new revitalization agency will pursue parts of the Duany master plan.
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he took the board on trips to neighboring cities to gather ideas to take back to High Point. Leveraging a family relationship with then-mayor Susan Kluttz — their children are married — Clinard arranged a trip to Salisbury. (Kluttz now heads the state Department of Cultural Resources.) “I asked her if we could take a look at what they were doing down there,” Clinard recalled. “She said, ‘Absolutely,” and she planned a full day of activities. She began with Randy Hemann, who was the head of their revitalization organization. He was able to show us facts and figures about monies and what the results were with capital improvement and taxes. We met with him privately later — me and Wendy — and he said, ‘You really need a master plan.’ We raised money to do that and found an urban planner, who ended up being
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OPINION EDITORIAL
Hating on the ’hoods We’ve heard your snickers, seen your derisive Facebook comments and withstood — on some level, even understood — your mockery. But let it be known, haters: LoFi is happening. The portmanteau describes the lower end of Greensboro’s Fisher Park neighborhood, a once desolate stretch that has been activated into a genuine district by new businesses, new residences and the incoming greenway. We came up with it in the office one day. And yeah, it reminded us of the “South Park” episode deriding this type of shorthand and the gentrification that generally accompanies it. Yes, haters: We saw the SoDoSoPa episode too. Ha ha. But no one’s laughing in DUMBO, the Brooklyn neighborhood down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass, or NoLibs, the Northern Liberties entertainment district in Philadelphia, or even the section of Charlotte north of Davidson Street known as NoDa. Truth is, SoHo wasn’t always SoHo. The name for the Manhattan neighborhood south of Houston Street was coined by an urban planner in 1963. TriBeCa, the triangle below Canal Street, was named by a neighborhood association in the 1970s. Real cities have distinct neighborhoods: the Mission in San Francisco and the Heights of Cleveland and Chinatown in just about every big city in the country. And real cities change every day. Some of these neighborhoods are maturing, making it necessary to amend the old map of the city to fit this new reality. That’s why there’s a Back of the Yards in Chicago, articulated when the meatpacking acreage became more residential, and a SoBro in Louisville, Ky. — an area of colleges, a library and residences south of Broadway. And that’s why LoFi. It’s a graceful moniker, conveying a sense of analog adventure with a hint of self-deprecation. We’ve also heard BatFish bandied about to describe this same space, referring to the intersection of Battleground and Fisher, which is totally badass but somehow not quite on point. Plus, there’s precedent for journalists giving names to sections of the cities they cover. Damon Runyon named Skid Row in Los Angeles. Neighborhoods are also named by the communities themselves, like the Irish Channel in New Orleans. And unless one of those two entities steps in, naming rights often go to real estate developers, like Marty Kotis’ Midtown. To be clear: We’re on board with Midtown. That stretch of Battleground and Lawndale deserves the recognition of a name. And you better get on board with LoFi, because it’s totally happening.
CITIZEN GREEN
The Episcopal Church, from elite to rejected The three-year suspension of the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion is not exactly the same as if the Catholic Church in the United States were to be placed on probation and by Jordan Green warned of excommunication by the Vatican. The two churches are structured differently: The Anglican Communion is a global affiliation of churches that share a faith tradition, while the Roman Catholic Church is a hierarchy. And yet it has to be regarded as a stunning turn of events for a church at one time synonymous with the US political elite to be demoted by a majority vote of clergy representing more socially conservative churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America over the issue of same-sex marriage. The Episcopal Church has given the United States 11 presidents, including Washington, FDR and George HW Bush, but over the past 60 years the church once derisively labeled the “Republican Party at prayer” has been steadily moving in a more liberal direction. Like other mainline protestant denominations in the United States, the Episcopal Church struggles to retain relevancy and faces dwindling membership, caught between rising secularization on one side and assertive conservative fundamentalism on the other. Meanwhile, for complex reasons, many of the more demographically robust churches established through British colonialism in the global South have wound up on more conservative ground. While the churches in the global South are by no means ideologically monolithic, many feel pressure to maintain a hard line against LGBT inclusion lest they open themselves up to charges of watering down dogma and capitulating to supposed western values. And they face stiff competition from Islam, conservative Catholicism and evangelical Christianity — creeds that often promote a more pious image. The rift between the Episcopal Church and its counterparts across the globe has been steadily brewing since the election and consecration of Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003. But Michael Curry, who comes from North Carolina, is reaping the windfall of discord less than three months into his tenure as the 27th presiding bishop. Curry is making history as the first African American to be elected presiding bishop in the 227-year history of the church. Given his longstanding commitment to racial justice and reconciliation, his election strikes many Episcopa-
lians as an expression of the church’s solidarity with the movement. And while LGBT rights was not the primary driver of Curry’s rise, his stance on the matter was no secret and certainly not a liability for him. As bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, Curry issued guidelines for the blessing of same-sex unions in 2004. And on the eve of the May 2012 primary, when North Carolina voters went to the polls to consider amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, Curry joined the bishops in the state’s other two bishops in publicly opposing the measure. In full disclosure, I’m a member of the church, and an admirer of the presiding bishop, whom I met when he visited my worshiping community a couple years ago. Curry’s response, unwavering but gracious, to the suspension vote has only deepened my respect for him. “We are the Episcopal Church, and we are part of the Jesus movement, and that movement work goes on, and our work goes on,” Curry said in a videotaped statement the day after the vote. “And the truth is, it may be part of our vocation to help the communion and to help many others to grow in a direction where we can realize and live the love that God has for all of us, and we can one day be a church and a communion where all of God’s children are welcome, where this is truly a house of prayer for all people.” Before the suspension vote was cast, Curry told his fellow clergy at Canterbury that the church’s commitment to inclusion is not a capitulation to worldly culture, but rooted in the belief that God loves everyone, and he cited the apostle Paul’s decree that through baptism in Christ the old distinctions between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female are set aside. He also spoke personally “as a descendent of African slaves, stolen from their native land, enslaved in bitter bondage, and then even after emancipation, segregated and excluded in church and society. “And this conjures that up again, and brings pain,” he said. Perhaps the true vocation of Christianity is to authentically experience rejection, to be in community with the vast sea of people who have been cast out and shoved aside by the structures of power that govern the world. The reward for following a faith modeled after a rebel who was executed by the political elite of Roman-occupied Palestine must surely be something greater than ballooning membership rosters and bursting financial coffers. Maybe this reversal is bringing the church of George Washington closer to its true calling.
Taking a cue from Charleston’s foodies by Joanna Rutter
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Thanks was able to locate additional state for your funds to purchase some of the fine article Richardson property. This and other on the nature preserves were purchased with Richardvoter-approved bonds, but also landson-Taylor owners on several occasions sold their Preserve land to Guilford County at a reduced [“Citizen price in order to permanently preby John Young Green: serve their land. The McKee-Huger Open space program leaves a lasting Preserve was given to the county with legacy”: by Jordan Green; Jan. 6, no compensation. And several of 2016]. It was wonderful to see that the nature preserves were purchased hiking trail, that should become part with Clean Water Management Trust of the statewide Mountain-to-Sea funds and other preservation funds in Trail, used by you and your young order to make taxpayers’ money go daughter. Your comments about the further than just the original bonds. nature preserve being there for the 3. The Guilford County Open long-term protection of the forest, Space Committee was only a citizen’s the streams, the wetlands, and to committee. Members of the open provide protection for one of city’s space committee were approved by water reservoirs and for wildlife was the parks and recreation commission excellent. and all recommendations (especially The Richardson-Taylor Preserve all recommendations about land that has 443 acres is one that reflects acquisitions) by the open space comthe help and generosity of everyone mittee had to be approved by the involved in the parks and recreation project: commission and 1. The Richmost importantly ardson family, as the board of county ‘Perhaps one day we you stated in your commissioners. can return to that article, sold 250 4. Many, many acres to Guilford spirit of cooperation.’ volunteers helped County at well to create the Bill — John Young below the apCraft Trail along the praised value. The Richardson-Taylor Morton family, Preserve walkways of Grandfather and foot bridges and Mountain fame, also sold 193 acres that major effort saved significant for this project at below the appraised money for both Guilford County and land value to the state who wanted the state of North Carolina. to use this nature preserve as part of So rather than contention and conthe Mountains-to-Sea trail connector flict, the Richardson-Taylor Preserve from Haw River State Park to the is an example of the Guilford County Greensboro watershed trails. (GuilCommission, the open space comford County citizens helped create mittee, the state of North Carolina, what became the Guilford County the property owner and engaged Open Space Committee, and one of volunteers working together to create their first preservation efforts was to this wonderful nature preserve in recommend and work for the creation Summerfield. Perhaps one day we of the Haw River State Park as well as can return to that spirit of cooperawork later for its expansion.) tion. 2. If memory serves, not only was the state of North Carolina involved John Young is a former chairman by fully purchasing the Morton/ of the Guilford County Open Space Taylor property, but Guilford County Committee. Open Space staff head Alex Ashton
Gra ha m H o lt
Up Front
It may not be popular around these parts to claim that Charleston is the foodie capital of the South, but for a city that has a population only slight higher than High Point, its status as one of the top food destinations in the country is impressive. What if the next wave of newcomers to Greensboro’s restaurant industry could instill the kind of pride for history and dedication to local cuisine that so famously defines Charleston? Greensboro restaurants like the Iron Hen and Sticks & Stones use local ingredients in their cooking, and others pay tribute to historical figures like Nathanael Greene. How about taking both of those themes further to replicate Piedmont-specific dishes? More top-shelf chefs punching in the same weight as the likes of Leigh Hesling of Print Works could be lured to Greensboro with challenges like paying homage to the Saura/Cheraw Native Americans who first inhabited the area with rich, gamey dishes featuring venison, corn and gourds, or putting a funky-yet-respectful spin on Lumbee tribal standbys like the collard sandwich or chicken bog (a gumbo type of dish with rice and sausage). Charleston spots like the Obstinate Daughter and Prohibition hearken back to certain eras in the city’s history; it’d be a welcome respite from the repetitive burger joints to see the next restaurant in Greensboro honor our Underground Railroad and sit-in history through Southern food. Quaker dishes like mush cakes and bacon potato dumplings could be served alongside spicedup local staples, all named after historic figures (Charlotte Hawkins hash browns… the menu writes itself). Names currently up for grabs include the Gate City Lunch Counter, Greensborough Larder, and Cone Bros. Ice Cream Co. Nurturing Southern foodie culture in Greensboro could add vibrancy and variety to the local restaurant scene. And the same could be said for Winston-Salem, which is already distinguishing itself as a Southern food destination — look no further than the grits at Mary’s Gourmet Diner. All it’ll take are a handful of enterprising chefs, daring investors and a whole lot of taco-weaned locals willing to try something new.
On conflict and open spaces
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IT JUST MIGHT WORK
FRESH EYES
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January 20 — 26, 2016 Cover Story
A group of friends brews excellence by the batch by Eric Ginsburg
Beer can, and usually does, begin as a solitary endeavor, especially for homebrewers.
They’ll often rise early on a Saturday morning, when it isn’t as tempting to crack open a beer and when it’s easier to carve out several uninterrupted hours. But for members of Greensboro’s Battleground Brewers Guild, the undertaking quickly becomes social. Several dozen people find community in the club, drawing in their partners and friends — especially when the beer is ready. “I can’t drink 10 gallons on my own,” said Walt Bilous, a tall guy in his mid-forties sporting a Wicked Weed Brewing trucker hat, “but I can give it away.” And frequently the process turns social before it’s completed, like when Bilous posted on the guild’s Facebook page to invite people to join him while he brewed on a recent Saturday. Beyond providing a formal organization to bolster homebrewing or host trainings, trips and competitions — all of which it does — the Battleground Brewers Guild’s bigger accomplishment is the meaningful bonds its members have formed, and the excellent beer they brew.
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By 10 a.m., Derick Shular had already loaded 26 pounds of grain into the portable cooler set atop his display table. He’d calculated that he’d need 31 quarts of water at 170 degrees, which he’d let sit in the grain for about an hour to pull sugar out of the malted barley. New brewers can just buy extract and skip this somewhat tedious process, he said, but that’s a little more expensive and more importantly, doing it himself allows Shular greater control over the beer. A small group of people stood around him, sipping coffee and snacking on a tray of cookies outside of Big Dan’s Brew Shed in northwest Greensboro on Jan. 16. Some of them, including Bilous, are homebrew club members, but a handful of the people who stopped by throughout the morning to watch Shular work were drawn in by the club’s public demo. The Battleground Brewers Guild organizes a few big-ticket events in addition to its monthly member meetings, including an annual excursion to the craft beer mecca that is Asheville and a brewers-only Skirmish in the Triad homebrewing competition. Shular’s demo last weekend, where he brewed something called Arnge Ale outside the homebrew supply store,
Derick Shular, a former president of the Battleground Brewers Guild, explains the process of
triad-city-beat.com
f homebrewing in a public brewing demonstration at Big Dan’s Brew Shed in Greensboro.
ERIC GINSBURG
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January 20 — 26, 2016 Cover Story
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was the club’s first event of its kind. The club does more than provide resources and a social network for beginning and amateur brewers; it produces champions and nurtures professionals. Mark Gibb and Sam Victory — owners of Gibb’s Hundred Brewing in Greensboro and the forthcoming Wise Man Brewing in Winston-Salem respectively — both emerged from the guild, as did former Natty Greene’s and current Small Batch head brewer Derek Meyn. And before he opened the brew shed a few years ago or hosted the club’s event on Jan. 16, Dan Morgan participated as a member, too. A circuit of similar clubs in North and South Carolina names a Carolina Brewer of the Year, and Battleground Brewers Guild members won for three years in a row thanks to Meyn, Morgan and another member from 2008 to 2010. And for the last three years, customers who started homebrewing with Morgan’s help took home one of the competition’s two awards, including both winners in 2015. Another member, Dennis Keaton, has won international homebrew competitions, Morgan said. The business takes up so much of Morgan’s time that he isn’t able to actively participate in the club much anymore, and he misses it. He’s still close to the craft, providing recipes to brewers and helping them “clone” beers they like, such as an out-of-production draft from New Belgium called Mighty Arrow. After trying to replicate the recipe and tweaking it to his liking, Morgan and a friend renamed it Drooping Arrow. But since then, the 5.8-percent ABV beer became known as Arnge Ale for its color and flavor. For the Jan. 16 brewing demonstration, Morgan donated the ingredients so his former club could execute the recipe. Shular, a former president of the Battleground Brewers Guild, usually makes 10 gallons at a time, figuring that if he’s going to labor through a four- or five-hour process, he might as well double up on the recipe. They encourage new brewers to keep it simple, and start with five gallons at a time, adding volume and complexity with experience. The two things inexperienced homebrewers are most likely to mess up is sanitation or temperatures, Shular said. It’s like baking, where measurements need to be exact and heat and timing are crucial, but regardless the end product is usually drinkable beer, even if it doesn’t taste all that great. Making a basic hard cider is simpler than a beer, which in turn is easier to manipulate and perfect than wine, Morgan said. “God makes wine, brewers make beer,” he quipped. Some people join the club with little practice making their own beer. Charlie Harris, a new brewers assistant at Natty Greene’s, showed up with his girlfriend Julia to check out the club. She’d bought him some brewing gear for the holidays, and former Natty’s brewer Mike Rollinson — who will be the head brewer at Joymongers brewery in Greensboro when it opens — recommended that Harris link up with the guild for experience. Harris, a High Point native who moved back to Greensboro from Colorado a few months ago, chatted
with club president Chris Bristol as they watched Shular work. One mustachioed member who hung around for a couple hours on Jan. 16 explained his reason for joining and remaining in the club to Harris, saying that it opened his horizons. He reached out to Bilous when he wanted to make a saison beer, who in turn joined the guild as a novice and learned to brew from Shular. Plus, members receive a nice leather koozie with the Battleground Brewers Guild name and emblem on it when they join. But the real motivation to join may be all the beer they’re able to try that will never reach the marketplace. The members of Greensboro’s homebrew club agree that they were the belles of the ball at the annual Summertime Brews Festival held in the Gate City. But that ended after the 2013 bash, when new state administrators interpreted North Carolina law more strictly and shut homebrewers out of such public events where they’d exhibit an assortment of kooky beers to the paying public. The guild joined the festival from its inception, and always garnered the longest lines, members said. But there’s good news for 2016 — the festival’s hosts plan to incorporate a competition run by the Greensboro club similar to the Great American Beer Festival. Commercial brewers from all over would be encouraged to enter their best beers for the showdown that would immediately precede the Summertime Brews fest, and as the judges, the contest would restore the guild to prominence with the beer bash. The Battleground Brewers Guild orchestrates a similar version of the competition — albeit not a public, ticketed
event — for homebrewers every fall. They receive about 300 homebrewed entrants in the Skirmish in the Triad. Some members suggested the skirmish is more tedious than enjoyable. Any homebrew competition is highly variable and unpredictable, a few said, with newcomers frequently winning on their first entry. But that doesn’t mean the competition isn’t stiff or that nobody’s having fun; Bilous, whose role in the organization involves convincing people to enter such events in the Southeast, described being an entrant as exciting. There’s a convivial, social atmosphere, Bilous said, and the unexpected element adds some thrill. One of his acolytes won a first place distinction his first time entering one of the region’s 11 homebrew competitions held each year, Bilous added. A homebrew party is not the sort of thing that ends at a reasonable hour. The night of the demo at Big Dan’s Brew Shed last week, the club held its annual holiday party, scheduled in January to avoid travel conflicts. A couple of new people who’d come out that day came and left in the events first few hours, but with eight homebrew taps flowing at club president Chris Bristol’s suburban home in Adams Farm, the party would show minimal signs of slowing at midnight despite beginning at 7 p.m. Dozens of members and their spouses circulated through the house, snacking on catered goods and sampling homemade beer and cider. A fire on the back porch almost got out of hand early, but with everyone still sober, the situation stayed under control. A foldable bar with eight built-in taps occupied much of the other side of the
Before Dan Morgan (above) opened Big Dan’s Brew Shed, he actively participated in the homebrew club and won several awards for his beers.
ERIC GINSBURG
triad-city-beat.com
Shular explains the homebrewing process as he filters the beer in process.
porch, courtesy of Dan Morgan who lent it to Bristol and his wife Beth for the event. Morgan didn’t make it out, but Eric Henriksen — a member who purchased Triad Homebrew Supply in west Greensboro — did. He stood near the taps and countertop covered in bottles of homebrew with Shular, who shivered a little in the winter air despite a scarf and a coat of booze as he chatted with the Bristols and Sara Farnsworth, one of the club’s lone female members. The banter, playful jokes and laid-back mood at the party in general, but particularly this corner, displayed the deep connections the club has forged, and other members like Bilous rotated in and out of the conversation with ease. Most of the club’s members are men, though a few of their wives do brew and participate in its events. Craft beer is male-dominated in general, Farnsworth noted as she described the lack of other female beer judges at events she attends. When the subject arose, the group started discussing the historical factors that contributed to the imbalance, including state and religious influences. The majority of the guild’s regulars are middle-aged guys — though some are older — who brew in their basements, kitchens or back patios. At least a few have backgrounds in chemistry. Morgan said some homebrewers are loners, suggesting that homebrewers are “wired a little differently.” While some might not find the camaraderie of a club like the guild or HOPS in High Point and Wort Hogs in Winston-Salem appealing, Morgan said they’ll come into his store and hang out for hours. Henriksen said he doesn’t directly compete with Morgan; instead, the battle is against other hobbies and ways that settled people with a little money spend their free time, he said. As a party at a private residence where nothing was sold, the club’s event is clear of state law, and members and friends took full advantage of the chance to swap brews.
ERIC GINSBURG
Club president Chris Bristol (left) talks with Natty Greene’s employee Charlie Harris. Second from right: Beth Bristol.
ERIC GINSBURG
Shular’s impressive Perry pear cider and two others inthe kitchen to be a bar, complete with a fridge with tap cluding a tart, 7.6-percent cherry cider held down one end handles on the side, a bar built by another club member, of the spectrum. Several bottles of a marvelous smoked stools and two televisions. Guests crowded into the room marzen anchored the heavier side of things, but most to watch an overtime battle in an NFL playoff game and brews landed somewhere in the middle, including a spiced took turns sampling the liquid mistletoe on draft. winter beer, He-Man Helles, a Jaded APA with Jade hops Sometime after 11, Farnsworth broke out a few bottles and a bottle of blueberry flavored beer. In an ice-filled tub to share, including a few highly sought after beers — near the door leading inside, a pack of Yuengling took up known as “whales” — that she’d been saving. The Bristols more real estate than some extra smoked marzen. grabbed some sample glasses so people could try the The selection underscored the diversity of the guild Black Damnation from De Struise Brouwers, a reserve members’ interest and exhibited series whiskey-barrel aged Fathead their talents — in a blind taste test, it from Nebraska Brewing Co. and the would be near impossible to distinBestway Corner Porter from Natty The Battleground Brewers guish any of them from a commerGreene’s that several partygoers Guild holds its next meetcially-brewed beer. And while some had never seen. were collective endeavors by more A small cluster formed in the ing on Feb. 17 at Craft City than one member, most were solo kitchen by the brews, next to the Sip-In (GSO) at 7 p.m. The efforts. equally delicious meatballs, cheesy club is also organizing Even in the Bristol household. bacon and potato nuggets and Beth and Chris used to brew brown-ale toffee bars. another demonstration at together more frequently, but Beth Shular just about lost it when the Triad Homebrew Supply in said that their approaches vary 120 Minute IPA from Dogfish Head enough that she decided to strike February. Check the group’s came out. He insisted Henriksen out on her own. Chris, the club’s and anyone else within reach try the Facebook page for details. current president, isn’t inclined to hoppy beer, which Chris Bristol had use extract, and Beth isn’t interested stored long enough that it had bein the longer process to make her own considering how gun to taste more like a barleywine when he broke it out. long brewing already takes. The party arrived at the peak moment to break this beer Brewers like Shular are quick to note there’s no “right out, Shular insisted — any longer and this beer would’ve way” to do it, and Beth has a blue ribbon from her first descended from the knife’s edge, deteriorating with time. homebrew contest entry — a chocolate hazelnut stout The Battleground Brewers Guild may be best known inspired by her love of Nutella — a few years ago in Chappublicly for its Oktoberfest, Mai Fest in the spring and el Hill to prove it. She enjoys crafting beers with unique particularly its former Summertime Brews table. But it’s flavor profiles, and though a blood-orange wheat she moments like this, with members joyfully sharing each tried didn’t come out well, a raspberry jalapeño wheat she other’s company and brewing artistry, that are the club’s made with a friend last summer fared better. biggest asset. Though the back-porch setup was a temporary arrangement, the Bristols recently remodeled a room off
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January 20 — 26, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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CULTURE Bullish on tacos and tortas in High Point by Eric Ginsburg
he mural would be jarring, I suppose, if nobody gave me a heads-up. The colorful piece takes up a large wall inside High Point’s Taco Toro restaurant, and it’s mostly a pastoral, airbrushed landscape painting. But the centerpiece — an Aztec warrior with rippling muscles, a cape and loincloth pointing a quivered arrow to the sky as a damsel with visibly erect nipples under her dress appears to nap on a bed of flowers at his feet — could rightfully be called softcore. But my colleague Jordan Green, who tipped me off to this restaurant in the back of a Mexican mercadito south of downtown High Point, warned me that in addition to a delicious torta, Taco Toro boasted a suggestive visual display. It’s not the first thing you notice when you walk into the mid-sized space — actually you’re so busy taking in the market you pass through and then orienting yourself to the restaurant that your eyes would likely glance over it. Instead, if nobody warned you, chances are you wouldn’t really take it in until after the chips and salsa arrived. I didn’t go because Jordan told me about the mural, though it did add a level of intrigue. I went to Taco Toro because Jordan offered an impassioned endorsement of the chicken torta, describing the crumbled cheese, the peppers, the glory of the large and affordable sandwich. He really sold it, and as I left the High Point courthouse around lunchtime ERIC GINSBURG (after narrowly escaping a year of service on a The torta with al pastor pork and A La Brava hot sauce (made in Winston-Salem) is just the punch in the face that I needed from Taco Toro in High Point. grand jury) I zipped around the corner to see how his claims held up. enough to try it?” but I held off on it, the treats from the bakery and the The courthouse had, as all courthouses do, sucked The answer needs to be yes. meat market, while landing on a bottle of A La Brava. some of the life out of me, and though I usually ask for The A La Brava sauce is the closest thing I’ve found I could’ve turned lunch into a casual taco crawl, chicken in my tortas, I wanted the meal to punch me in a bottle to one of the house sauces at Villa del Mar hitting up the Taqueria Taco Corner inside the Pequeño in the face and bring the color back to my cheeks. So I in Greensboro, my favorite to date. It doesn’t burn Mexico supermarket and meat market two doors ordered it al pastor — pork marinated in pineapple and as much as it simmers on your lips down and a taco truck positioned slightly farther down other tasty ingredients — and added and mouth, and should be applied South Main Street. But as it was, Taco Toro fulfilled my some hot sauce. sparingly if you desire a kick. I didn’t needs, putting enough of a glow on the day to overVisit Taco Toro at 810 That’s when things got interesting. realize until later, as I walked through shadow the courthouse’s early grip on my week. S. Main St. (HP), find The torta didn’t need any extra the market’s aisles, that this sauce is sauce, per se; it matched the bar it on Facebook or call actually made in Winston-Salem. Jordan had set, and then some. But I Sorry, Texas Pete. We had a good 336.885.5647. suddenly had four options in front of run together, but there are leagues me. between the two Camel City sauces. Pick of the Week When the server asked if I wanted When I finished, I only knew I was done because Tacos vs. burritos the sauces, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. The thin, red the food had disappeared. It didn’t fully register that Tex-Mex Throwdown @ the Porch Kitchen and Cantisauce and salsa verde each held their own, adding I’d filled my stomach until later; I just wanted to keep na (W-S), Saturday, 4 p.m. some of that extra punch I sought. But there’s already eating. A sign advertised “Tenemos ricas pupusas,” and Enjoy the festivities to find out which is better: a bottle of Valentina, a common salsa picante in MexI would’ve ordered some of the Salvadoran fare with the taco or burrito! The winning team will get a free ican restaurants around here, on the table. And next chicharones and cheese had Taco Toro not been out. beer. Proceeds will go to Triad Community Kitchen. to it, there’s something called A La Brava, a smoky The Oaxacan cheese in the parent store — a real treat, Tickets are available at squareup.com. orange-colored hot sauce that asks, “Are you brave if you’ve never had it — called out to be taken home,
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by Eric Ginsburg
8 things you don’t know about the Greensboro ABC
Up Front
If you’re drinking liquor in the Gate City — at home, in a bar or out to dinner — it almost certainly passed through at least two of the Greensboro ABC’s facilities. Unless, I guess, you’re drinking real moonshine, or you brought a bottle home from elsewhere. Unless you own a distillery, stock a bar or work behind one, you have no reason to understand how the organization works. And those folks probably don’t have the chance to ask Vickee’ Armstrong, the CEO of the Greensboro ABC board, every question imaginable about how it all works. But I do, and here are the most interesting things I learned:
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1. The three boards
5. The shipping
The Greensboro ABC board receives about four or five tractor-trailers full of booze to its distribution hub every week. That’s 4,500 cases on average, and up to 6,500 on a busy week. The team of six to eight people who handle the intake have to account for every bottle, and at times have up to 20,000 cases in stock already. Twenty thousand.
6. The sales
Before we go any further, take a guess at how many bottles of liquor the Greensboro ABC board sells in a year. That includes venues and individuals, and does incorporate a couple small outlying towns around the city’s edge. Have you made your guess yet, before we move on? What if I told you it came out to more than 500,000 gallons last fiscal year? Here goes: the final tally came out to more than 3.12 million bottles.
7. The revenue
The Greensboro, High Point, Triad and other ABC boards around North Carolina funnel about $329 million a year back into the state and municipal governments. Locally, the Greensboro ABC puts nearly $4 million annually into the
city and area municipalities’ operating budgets, which doesn’t include about $500,000 that goes to alcohol education and law enforcement efforts.
8. The biggest store
The Greensboro ABC board oversees 16 stores, and seven of them are also mixed-beverage outlets to service businesses such as bars, restaurants and hotels. The biggest mixed beverage outlet is on Cedar Street near downtown (and it used to be the only one), where the ABC office is located. But the biggest retail store in the city? It hasn’t been built yet. The Greensboro ABC plans to open a new, 6,000-square foot store at 4633 W. Market St. in the fall. It will be the flagship location.
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Vodka is the Greensboro ABC board’s biggest seller —no shocker there— but you might be surprised to hear that cognac is next up. Bourbon is on the rise, which matches with a national trend. In my mind, tequila is most frequently consumed in margaritas at Mexican restaurants and when “that one friend” buys everyone a shot, but the agave-based liquor is actually more popular with individual consumers than restaurants.
If a customer calls and asks the Greensboro ABC to carry something specific, chances are they will. But if something isn’t on the list of approved vendors with the state, you have to special order it by the case.
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3. The top sellers
4. Special order
ERIC GINSBURG
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The Greensboro ABC sells more booze for the Fourth of July than St. Patrick’s Day, but guess what’s more popular than both? Homecoming. Yep, North Carolina A&T University’s annual throwdown is deserving of its name as the Greatest Homecoming On Earth. It sits at the top with New Year’s Eve.
Nickie Garrett is one of more than 100 employees working for the Greensboro ABC. Here, she works in the tequila aisle on Tuesday.
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Considering that ABC boards semi-autonomous government entities, I figured there’d be one per county, or maybe one for each city. But as the Triad shows, the state isn’t carved up in a uniform way. There’s a Greensboro ABC board and one in High Point too, but Winston-Salem falls under the Triad ABC, which includes Clemmons, Yadkinville, Kernersville, Advance and Lewisville.
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January 20 — 26, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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CULTURE Recording studio evolves from punk collective to Legitimate Business by Jordan Green
he Greensboro punk band Totally Slow laid down an instrumental track at the Greensboro recording studio Legitimate Business for their new album on an overcast Saturday afternoon earlier this month. The instrumental is purposefully laid back, a kind of wild card that will act as a tonic for an album that is overall much more aggressive than anything else the band has done before. The song is buoyant and danceable, melodic with a warm churn underneath. Towards the end it unexpectedly goes into a gallop. “I can’t figure out what that sounds like,” producer and studio owner producer Kris Hilbert mused after the first take, with the band gathered in the control room. “Lungfish,” said Scott Hicks, the band’s guitarist and vocalist. “It’s the only non-DC band to be on Dischord.” “Lungfish,” Hilbert said. “I love it.” Despite 14 years of difference in age, Hilbert and Hicks share a similar sensibility and set of sonic preferences. “I don’t know if it’s because we have the same birthdate, but we just get each other,” Hilbert said after the band had returned to the big room to record another take. He added that he feels that he and Hicks are part of the same “karass,” the term for “a group of people linked in a cosmically significant manner” in the fictitious religion created by Kurt Vonnegut for his novel Cat’s Cradle. Hicks feels similarly. “I feel like Kris is a fourth member of this band,” he said. “He gets what we’re trying to do. It couldn’t be more comfortable. If I don’t do something well, he’ll say, ‘That wasn’t good. Do it over.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah.’” The two tend to appreciate the same kinds of music and for the same reasons, and also hate the same kinds of music. “This is an authentic punk band,” Hicks said. “I want it to sound honest and I want it to sound real. He helps me get there. It’s hard to be objective when you’re in it.” Since Hilbert started recording at Legitimate Business over the past five years, he’s amassed an impressive portfolio of projects, working with everyone from hardcore-metal standard-bearers Torch Runner to Anne-Claire Niver, a vocalist with classical training from UNCG. Throw in the prog-metal of Between the Buried and Me, the jazz-metal fusion experiment Trioscapes, the acid-pop-inclined Zack Mexico, noise purveyors Late Bloomer, emo-post rockers Ivadell, righteous indie emoters Junior Astronomers and the defunct surf-punk band Daddy Issues, and Hilbert has made a compelling case that he’s up for most any production or engineering job. “I do anything left of center,” he said. “‘Alternative’ is probably too specific a term. I record anything you
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Producer Kris Hilbert works the boards during a session with the Greensboro punk band Totally Slow at Legitimate Business earlier this month.
won’t hear on the radio. I don’t record Taylor Swift. It’s not that I’m against it. I just don’t do that kind of thing. Nobody’s asked me to.” Hilbert didn’t set out to become a producer when he came from Raleigh to Greensboro to study sociology in 2006. Making professional records evolved out of putting on shows with about a dozen friends, and making demos for his band and his friends’ starting in 2009. “Sociology is tied to criminal justice — something about being in class with people who wanted to be cops turned me off,” Hilbert said. “Someone would say something really f***ed up in class, and I said to myself: ‘Oh, this is where this is headed.’ When we did shows here I got wrapped up in it. I was here from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. three or four times a week. I wasn’t really interested in school. I never liked school. Making records is way more fun than looking at charts of sad statistics that you wish were different.” The name Legitimate Business dates back to when the enterprise was a collective of punks practicing their music and holding unsanctioned concerts. The transition from underground show space to professional recording studio happened over a three-month period in 2011 after the fire marshal shut down the venue and Hilbert got the opportunity to buy the building when the landlord went into foreclosure. He brought
JORDAN GREEN
in Andy Ware, the bass player for Hobex, to build the studio, and Eddie Walker, a local musician who plays in Big Bang Boom, finished the job. The studio walls are equipped with acoustic treatment — insulation covered with fire-retardant fabric — the three rooms are completely sound-proofed, and the studio is built with no parallel walls so that the sound is diffused. The joke now is that the studio very much lives up to it’s billing; Hilbert recalled with relish how the clerk at the Secretary of State in Raleigh reacted with confusion when he informed them that the business name
Pick of the Week A swingin’ singer John Anderson @ Carolina Theatre (GSO), Saturday, 8 p.m. Country music sensation John Anderson takes center stage performing hits, along with rising artist Logan Brill. From his first hit single “I’ve Got a Feelin’ (Somebody’s Been Stealin’)” in 1977, Anderson has had more than 40 singles in Billboard country music charts, including five number one singles including: “Wild and Blue,” “Swingin’,” “Black Sheep,” “Straight Tequila Night” and “Money in the Bank.” For ticket information and more, visit carolinatheatre.com.
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input, Hilbert cued the drum fill at the beginning of “Drug Mask” after an almost imperceptible pause, setting the stage for Hicks’ guitar riff to slam into place. Hicks leaned back on the couch, squinting his eyes shut and smiling slightly as the music washed over him. Then there was silence and Hicks and Hilbert looked at each other. “Boom!” Hilbert said. “We did something unplanned and magic in the studio.”
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was “Legitimate Business.” He was delighted when someone posted a picture of his building, replete with chipping paint, bars over the windows and weeds poking up between the sidewalk and street on the Fail Blog under the headline “Business Name Fail.” The item was captioned: “I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s probably not.” In the studio during Totally Slow’s recent session, Andy Foster was having some trouble with a drum fill at the point where the tempo of the instrumental song moves from a gentle surf to a gallop. “That was good up to that point,” Hilbert told the band over the intercom from the control room. He instructed them to play along with the recording and finish the botched part. Then he would go back and stitch the two parts together. After another take, they wound up with a solid track for the song’s finale, but the band concluded abruptly with a string of stray notes that seemed to hang tentatively in the air. “We don’t have an ending,” Hicks said. “Can you fade us out?” Hilbert got up from his seat and joined them in the big room. “Just curious,” he said. “Is that song going to be on the end of side A or the beginning of side B?” Hicks told him they planned to track the song at the beginning of side B. Hilbert thought it would be weird for it to fade out before the start of another song. “When you go into the fast part, with the dika-dika-dika-dika, I thought you were going into a new song,” Hilbert said. “Do you have another song that can come out of that?” Hicks thought a song called “Drug Mask” might work. Back in the control room, as the band worked out the intro to the new song, Hilbert said, “Totally Slow is a great example of how a band should be in the studio: They know all their s***, but they’re not inflexible.” As Hicks throttled into a monster riff, Hilbert grinned and said, “F*** yeah!” sliding the volume control forward. After a couple takes, the band assembled in the control room for the playback. “Turn it up, dude!” Hicks said. “This is where the magic happens.” The rollicking tidal surge of the instrumental gave way, and with Hicks’
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January 20 — 26, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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CULTURE Football: a way of life, a way out by Tori P. Haynesworth
igh school football players out of Salt Lake City huddle together before the game begins, reciting a Polynesian chant to pump the adrenaline in their young bodies to get a win. Stakes are high of making it after high school to be recruited by a college team, and then after that, stepping into the spotlight of the NFL. For the 240,000 Samoans and Polynesians that reside in Utah, parents and loved ones are only hopeful that their son, brother or nephew lands that golden opportunity. Football is what they have; it’s their drive for a better life. Inside Huber Theatre on the campus of Salem College on Jan.13, about 20 people were engrossed in the screening of In Football We Trust, directed by Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn. The film focuses on four Polynesian men, capturing their lives on and off the football field. Fihi Kafusi of Highland High TORI P. HAYNESWORTH Jane McKim, Communication Director of RiverRun (left) and Pat Crowley, head football coach of RJ Reynolds School balances his time between High School (right) have a panel discussion of the documentary, In Football We Trust. football and his Mormon faith. Harvey Langi of Bingham High that are affecting us in our culture in this day and age. tolerance for bad grades, so he does what he can to School has the pressure of earning football scholarWhat they do is bring audiences together to learn maintain a steady average. ships and hopes of making it to the NFL. Brothers Teviabout the topic and talk about the topic and see what Vainuku shows both sides of the spectrum of how ta and Leva Bloomfield go through personal struggles we can do to raise awareness and work on it.” the teens’ surroundings can make an impact, like when and gang violence, while keeping their love of the game Pat Crowley, head football coach of RJ Reynolds High Fihi’s mother makes sure the boys attend church every alive and looking out for one another. School, said he relates to the coaches in the documenweek. Then several scenes later Tevita and Leva’s father All four young men live in an overcrowded home tary. There’s more to being a coach just in the football speaks about his family heavily involved in gang relawith parents and many siblings. Besides football, they field, he said. There’s being a coach to life itself. tions and how football steered him out of that kind of value their families, and will do anything to help and “The struggles that they face [Polynesian players] trouble. provide in the households — even it costs them their are replicated in almost every area in the United This film can make a person open up to see what chance to impress college and NFL recruits. States,” Crowley said. “You have kids that have a lot one can do to make a difference in a young person’s life Indie Lens Pop Up, presented by of negative influences in their life, who sees that negative atmosphere every day. RiverRun International Film Festhey don’t have great role models, tival “Films with Class” program, In Football We Trust will air some have lack of structure and is a neighborhood screening series don’t have great priorities. In a on UNC-TV Jan. 25. To learn that brings people together for sport like football, I think it’s a more about other viewings Pick of the Week community-driven conversations great way of giving kids somepresented by RiverRun, visit thing to be a part of, rather than around films from the award-winA vessel of creativity ning PBS series “Independent riverrunfilm.com, or call being in a gang, or be with a group Fun with Vessels @ Sawtooth School for Visual Arts Lens.” of guys that are doing something (W-S), Saturday, 9:30 a.m. 336.724.1502. Jane McKim, communications that will lead them down the Learn how ceramics have played a role in many director of RiverRun, said In wrong path.” cultures as function and art form. A staff member Football We Trust is an eye-opener to the Polynesian The Polynesian teens in the film struggle to internalfrom the Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest culture. ize the lessons. One scene depicts a counselor trying University will present examples of ceramic pieces “These films all touch on issues that are out there,” to convince Leva that he needs to do better in his from around the world so students can make their she said. “Social justice issues, population issues, ecoacademics. In another scene, Fihi, who doesn’t really own. For more information and to register, visit nomic and scientific issues. There are all type of issues care for academics, knows that the coaches have zero sawtooth.org.
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erhaps I was too hard on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in my early estimation of the Triad’s sole ACC basketball program. I claimed they were “slightly unbalanced” in a game missing starting senior by Anthony Harrison guard Codi Miller-McIntyre. I foresaw them floundering throughout the season; instead, they’ve maintained a winning campaign midway through, logging quality victories against teams like Indiana, UCLA and NC State. In short, they’re doing better than I predicted. But sadly, things fell apart against the Syracuse Orange on Jan. 16. Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim, a certified if not controversial living legend of college basketball, returned to his position a week before and nearly routed a Top 10-caliber Chapel Hill squad at home. Before then, they’d been shut out in conference play at Pittsburgh and Miami and at home against Clemson, but managed victories against the University of Connecticut and Texas A&M University, both ranked teams. Now, Syracuse plays like a team cruising for a springtime run. Further proof: On Monday, they narrowly defeated the Duke Blue Devils in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Unfortunately, the initial show of resurgent, brute force had to come at the expense of our Demon Deacons. Have you ever seen any of those wonderful BBC
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Bright orange for the shroud documentaries narrated by Britain’s gift to the world of speech, David Attenborough? You know, like “Planet Earth” or “Life.” In these documentaries, you see the defensive behavior of a flock of starlings or a shoal of anchovies when a predator threatens the group. The collective actions of these individual animals will astonish you: They move as a singular organism against danger. That’s how Syracuse’s defense acted towards the Deacons nearly every time Wake went for the basket. Miller-McIntyre or another Wake guard would bring the ball to half court, but the Orange would be waiting on the borders of the key. Boeheim’s teams typically play a 2-3 zone, and this Syracuse team looked like a rhombus shifting below the arc while another player would pop out onto the wings to defend the Deacon handling the ball. My head-on angle from the press section may have assisted in this judgment, but I’ve never witnessed in person a zone so impenetrable in my time watching basketball. That’s the benefit of Hall-of-Fame coaching. All Wake Forest could do most possessions was pass the ball back and forth on the outside, which led to nil or negative results. The Deacons couldn’t handle the rolling ocean of orange. If the Orange didn’t force a turnover or a steal, Wake tried to throw up shots, but their accuracy suffered grievously under the pressure. Even Miller-McIntyre, who averages nearly 15 points per game, went 1-7 from the floor. The sole Deacon to crack double digits, 7-foot-1 freshman center Doral Moore, only crossed that barrier thanks to hitting four of five free throws.
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Unfortunately, the rest of Wake Forest did not perform so well from the line. I’ve mentioned before that this team’s ability to shoot foul shots must improve. In that outing, they shot 66 percent on free throws, inspiring a spectator to scream that Wake “can’t shoot free throws worth a flip.” Well, they did not improve. Rather, on this outing, they did even worse, only hitting 59.5 percent of their 26 shots from the line. As my late father always used to say, “You gotta make those if you wanna win.” On the other end of the court, everything came up roses for the Orange. Graduate student guard Trevor Cooney shot the lights out to begin the half for Syracuse, scoring his team’s first 11 straight points while Wake managed to put only four on the board. He’d finish with 21 points off 50-percent shooting on the afternoon. Curiously, another grad student, forward Michael Gbinije, proved to be a second explosive force for his team, playing with superstar form and flash. With about three minutes left in the first half, he made a steal and drove it back on the fast break all alone, throwing down a fierce, slashing dunk. Even the veteran sportswriters surrounding me seemed wowed, let alone the sizable Syracuse presence at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. So many Orange fans showed up to this Wake home game, you’d think Syracuse was just on the other side of Tobacco Road. Of about 11,600 fans in attendance, I’d wager nearly two of every five wore that bold, hunter orange. At times, it sounded like a Syracuse home game in there. I do not enjoy writing about what’s ostensibly a Wake Forest game in such a way that frames their opponent as the story. No matter my personal loyalties in the realm of sport, I respect the Demon Deacons, especially as the Triad’s team. But you have to call a spade a spade, and this game wound up as Syracuse’s clinic with a final score of 8355. They invaded the stadium and buried Wake Forest in bright orange.
It was a home game for the Demon Deacons, but the Syracuse Orange made their case pretty well.
ANTHONY HARRISON
Poetry in motion Kids Poetry Basketball Championship @ First Baptist Church (GSO), Saturday, 4 p.m. Two beautiful things, poetry and basketball, combine in this fun event. Kids are okay, too, but it’s mainly about teaching children literacy skills. Team Metaphor matches up against Team Simile; students from Archer, Bessemer, Rankin, Washington and Wiley Elementary Schools compose each team. The championship begins at 4 p.m.
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1 Coast Guard mission 2 Rating at the pump 3 Long looks 4 You may walk the dog with it 5 Guest quarters 6 Constantly criticize 7 Trade org. 8 Bush Labor Secretary Elaine 9 Relatives of nieces 10 Flea market 11 Hodgepodge 12 10 seconds for 100 yards, in running lingo 13 Old Spice deodorant variety 18 Big name in electric guitars 22 Renewable fuel derived from organic matter
25 Colorful sports artist Neiman 26 Load of gossip 30 Thin, fibrous bark (or one-third of a dance instruction for Lisa Simpson) 31 Become sharply attentive 33 Eric of “Pulp Fiction” 34 Basketmaker’s willow 36 Like people on some dating apps 37 “It’s hard to tell” 38 Process of determining gender, as zoologists do 39 Row of buttons on a screen 42 Seoul food 44 Latin for “higher,” as in the Olympic motto 45 Wee 46 Ramona’s sister, in Beverly Cleary books 48 2008 Jordin Sparks/Chris Brown duet 52 “Hook” sidekick 53 Twirl around 55 City that the band a-ha hails from 58 “Here Comes the Hotstepper” singer Kamoze 59 Coin collection appraisal co. (found in COLLECTING COINS)
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51 Fuzzy green stuff growing on a former Comedy Central “Dr.”? 54 “Buona ___” (Italian sign-off) 56 Air gun pellets 57 Hip bath in the great outdoors? 60 Pie-mode connection 61 Getting a move on, quaintly 62 Singer of “The Man With the Golden Gun” theme song 63 Daisy Ridley’s “Star Wars” character 64 Conducive to peace 65 Suffixes denoting sugars
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1 Optimistic 5 Riding around the city, maybe 11 “La ___” (Debussy opus) 14 Outside introduction 15 City on the Merrimack River 16 “___ seen worse” 17 Possible autobiography title for comedian Horatio? 19 Canceled (with “out”) 20 Chocolate stand-in 21 Hardly Mercedes quality? 23 French numeral 24 Part of IPA 27 Told 28 Some grads of RPI or MIT 29 ___-foot oil 32 Spring harbinger 33 Medium-hot chili pepper variety 35 Uno or Twenty-One, e.g. 36 Cracker you must hand over to get through? 39 Mexican restaurant staple 40 Demographic nickname coined in the 1980s 41 Have ___ with (chat up) 43 Condom material 44 Clerical vestment 47 Submitted 49 “Either you do it ___ will” 50 Falsehood
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Cotton’s court
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paupers, aren’t they? Mother: James, you do realize that I’m Greek, right? And was raised Greek Orthodox. And that’s essentially Catholicism without the guilt. James: That explains the olive oil and the gah-lic. Mother: Well she’s also applying to Columbia. James: And may God have mercy on our souls.
And so it came to pass that despite attending college in North Carolina my first serious boyfriend ended up being just that — an Irish Catholic Yankee. In reality he was more First Family Virginia (FFV) and a descendent of the state’s first governor, but being proletariat of nature he liked to stress the maternal Irish side of his blood kin. Plus he liked to drink so aligning himself with the Irish just seemed natural. He was vetted by my godfather and passed muster thanks to the Virginia hooey, an Ivy League pedigree and a fine set of table manners. The only hitch in the giddy-up was that he had recently sold his first book. Apparently in the South, unless your name is Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner or Eudora Welty, being a writer is about two shakes above horse thief. James: Oh good Lord. He’s written a nah-val. What’s it about? And is THIS what he’s gonna do? Or is he gonna get a job?
Mother: James, you do realize that your goddaughter wants to be a writer too. James: Exactly mah point. You can’t have TWO of them in the family. I hate to say it, but James may have been right. It’s kind of like that Scottie Fitzgerald line about her famous parents that goes something like, sitting next to a writer at a dinner party is fun, but you wouldn’t want to live with them. I’ve lived by that line for quite a few years but flash forward to the present and here I am, breaking the “no writer rule.” This time there’s a Connecticut lad come a courting and he’s both a writer and quite the Yankee Doodle Dandy (YDD). YDD, driving South: You have quite a few universities jam packed along the highway here, don’t you. Me: Yep, the Harvards of the Highway. That’s us. YDD: I’m getting close, I just passed “Elan” University. Me: You might get an ass whupping down here if you call it that. We say E-lon, like Eeyore. Same goes for A-rab. YDD: I have much to learn. Me: Indeed you do. It’s feeding time so I offer up the regional fixins: barbecue, biscuits or country cooking. Wisely, he opts for Greensboro’s famed Country BBQ. YDD: What is Brunswick Stew? Does it have anything to do with the Duke of Brunswick? Me: It’s a county in
All She Wrote
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y xenophobic godfather James: Joann, you can’t let Nicole go to school in Boston. She’ll end up marrying some Ah-rish Cath-uh-lic. Mother: James, what are you worried about the most – the Irish or the Catholic? James: They’re all Papist
M
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ALL SHE WROTE
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Virginia and a city in Georgia, but mostly it’s just good. They used to make it with squirrel. YDD: Ah. Well I want to try the barbecue but I’m wary of slaw after that story you told. Me: You mean about Big Bump getting salmonella at a chicken joint and then singing “I fought the slaw, and the slaw won” when he recovered? YDD: That’s the one. Me: No worries, this is red slaw. No mayonnaise within a mile of here — except maybe at the strip club next door. YDD: Is that a Southern thing? Me: Strip clubs next to BBQ joints? It might just be. Tomorrow we are getting you a cat head biscuit. That decidedly is a Southern thing. The next day we venture to Smith Street Diner in my neighborhood. I tuck into a bowl of gumbo smothered in collards and YDD orders French toast. Me (to waitress): Oh no! We forgot to order a biscuit. I wanted him to see how big they are. Waitress: I’ll bring one over. Just for fun. YDD: That’s what I like about the South. Y’all know how to have fun.
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HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY
Monday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. FOX8 WGHP A must-see discussion with the man who gave us personal computing.
High Point University’s Access to Innovators Series
Steve Wozniak
Everyone who uses a computer owes a great deal to Steve Wozniak who, along with Steve Jobs, founded Apple Computer in 1976. It was Wozniak’s design that became the Apple 1 and launched the personal computer era. In a thoughtful discussion that touches on Wozniak’s early influences, his belief in creative learning and his philanthropic interests,
Co-Founder of Apple Computer, Inc.
High Point University President Nido Qubein
ENJOY THE CONVERSATIONS THAT INSPIRED THE HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY.
introduces us to the man whose genius made Apple possible. Originally aired on PBS, Steve Wozniak’s encore appearance runs exclusively on FOX8 WGHP as part of HPU’s ongoing commitment to community service. Don’t miss it!
COLIN POWELL
Monday, January 18
SETH GODIN
Monday, February 1
MALCOLM GLADWELL
Monday, February 8
MONDAYS AT 7 P.M. JANUARY 18 MARCH 7 FOX8 WGHP TOM BROKAW
Monday, February 29
WES MOORE
Monday, March 7
JOHN MAXWELL
Monday, February 15
KEN DYCHTWALD
Monday, February 22
OTHERS IN THE SERIES
CONDOLEEZZA RICE
BONNIE MCELVEEN-HUNTER
Share the conversation. Email communication@highpoint.edu to request a complimentary DVD of the Access to Innovators Series. AT H I G H P O I N T U N I V E R S I T Y, E V E R Y S T U D E N T R E C E I V E S A N E X T R A O R D I N A R Y E D U C AT I O N I N A N I N S P I R I N G E N V I R O N M E N T W I T H C A R I N G P E O P L E . highpoint.edu