TCB Nov. 11, 2015 — Playing with the numbers

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com November 11 – 17, 2015

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Farmer college PAGE 20

Moving in, moving out PAGE 8

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Nov. 11 — 17, 2015

Jingle•Jangle•Joy Holiday Gift Show Opening Reception th

Friday, November 13

6-9pm

Art will be showing November 13 – December 4th th

Join us at Irving Park Art & Frame for this festive evening featuring art created by artists with intellectual and developmental disabilties.

2105-A W. Cornwallis Drive • Greensboro

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irvingparkartandframe.com (336) 274-6717 Mon.–Fri. 9:30am–5:30pm & Sat. 10am–4pm

Schcarole

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by Brian Clarey

15 It Just Might Work: MLB in the Triad 15 Fresh Eyes: Happy Veterans Day, from a vet

GOOD SPORT

COVER

29 Jonesin’ Crossword

16 Playing with the numbers

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

NEWS

CULTURE

8 Public housing, and a way out 10 HPJ: High Point’s civil history

30 Penny Road, High Point

22 Food: Down on the farm 23 Barstool: The other Foothills 24 Music: A musical journey through Tate Street 26 Art: Local comic

ALL SHE WROTE

UP FRONT 3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 6 Commentariat 6 The List 7 Barometer 7 Unsolicited Endorsement

OPINION 12 Editorial: Just business 12 Citizen Green: Treat yo’self

28 Forecast: Deacon blues

GAMES

31 It takes a village

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.

— George Orwell 1451 S. Elm-Eugene St., Greensboro, NC 27406 • Office: 336-256-9320 BUSINESS PUBLISHER Allen Broach

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING INTERN Nicole Zelniker

EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Brian Clarey

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SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Eric Ginsburg eric@triad-city-beat.com

NEST EDITOR Alex Klein

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EDITORIAL INTERNS Daniel Wirtheim intern@triad-city-beat.com

ART ART DIRECTOR Jorge Maturino SALES DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING & SALES Dick Gray dick@triad-city-beat.com

SALES EXECUTIVE Lamar Gibson lamar@triad-city-beat.com

SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green cheryl@triad-city-beat.com

NEST Advertise in NEST, our monthly real estate insert, the final week of every month!

Cover illustration by Jorge Maturino

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CONTRIBUTORS Carolyn de Berry Nicole Crews Anthony Harrison Matt Jones Amanda Salter Caleb Smallwood

TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2015 Beat Media Inc.

Noni would have never used store-bought chicken stock.

She never would have made the meatballs with turkey, either, preferring a mix of beef, veal and pork that she would have her butcher grind together. Noni, my great-grandmother, was the first in her family to be born on US soil back in 1900, and she would no sooner have bought ground turkey than she would have eaten raw kale.

I’ve been thinking a lot about family these days. It’s been about a year since we lost Grandma; we said goodbye to Uncle Gordon the same exact day this year.

Noni’s been gone since 1997, but at Gordon’s farewell service most everybody in the family who’s still kicking made it through to pay their respects, even Aunt Nellie, who’s got to be about 100 by now.

Anyway, despite my practical substitutions, I knew there was one ingredient I could not do without when making my Noni’s most loved soup: A nice head of escarole lettuce.

There are many dialectical nuances to the Italian language, but all up and down the boot they call it schcarole: that stout, curly chickory that the old ladies in my family could prepare a hundred different ways.

I only know the one: escarole soup, with little meatballs and pasta that looks like BBs — what Big Soup has labeled “Italian wedding soup” on all the cans, though nobody in my family ever called it that.

I made the meatballs by hand, one by one, each the size of a shooter marble, mixed with Parmesan cheese that I grated in the manner I imagine my Noni must have when she learned to make the soup as a girl. Because I was out of breadcrumbs, I ran some pretzels through the blender. Noni, who lived through depressions, recessions, a dust bowl and a handful of wars, would likely have understood this There are many dialectical kind of improvisanuances to the Italian tion. Sometimes I language, but all up and cook the meatballs down the boot they call in the oven a bit, but not this time. it schcarole I washed the escarole and cut it into strips, sautéed it with some seasonings and just a little bit of onion, then boiled it in the broth and dumped the raw meatballs in to cook. The acini di pepe No. 78 — tiny little pasta balls, but not so tiny that they turn to mush — cooked off in nine minutes. Besides the prep time, it’s the simplest soup I make.

The eaters in my house roundly agreed it was fabulous.

But next time I’m gonna have to make my own stock, with a bunch of garlic and maybe a Parmesan rind, the way my Noni used to make it.

triad-city-beat.com

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

CONTENTS

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Nov. 11 — 17, 2015

CITY LIFE November 11 – 17

by Daniel Wirtheim

THURSDAY Taste of the South @ Old Salem Visitor Center (W-S), 6 p.m.

Calling all wine-lovers, foodies and music enthusiasts to this happening in Old Salem. The sounds of the South are appropriately paired with the finest food and alcohol of Winston-Salem. To compensate for all of the noise, there will also be a silent auction and photo opportunities with Mayor Allen Joines, who will be attending. Proceeds go to Authoring Action, a non-profit empowering artistic youth. Find more details at authoring action.org

FRIDAY Taco Time @ Greensboro Children’s Museum (GSO), 5:30 p.m.

Don’t you think it’s time your tween learns to cook everything from scratch? This class is all about rolling up the sleeves and making flour tortillas, roasted green salsa, beans and vegetable fillings. Visit gcmuseum. com for more information.

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Leather Belt Making Workshop @ Centennial Trading Company (GSO), 6:30 p.m.

Centennial Trading Company has branded itself as a place for well-built attire, the kind of stuff that ages like wine. There’s the complex relationship between light, skin oils and water that affects the aging process. There’s cutting the straps from a full hide, sizing it up and punching those holes. There’s a lot to take in and here’s a chance to learn belt-making from the professionals. Find the event on Facebook for more information.

Babes in Toyland @ Christ United Methodist Church (H-P) 7 p.m.

This play is in homage to one of Disney’s most beloved and bizarre Technicolor musicals, Babes in Toyland. It’s about Mary Quite Contrary and Tom the Piper’s Son who are about to get married when a real jerk, Barnaby, shows up in a jealous tirade.

The story pans out in song, comic violence and dance. This live stage version features the High Point Community Theatre Youth Stage. Find more details at hpct.net

SATURDAY

triad-city-beat.com

Friday the 13th @ every city, everywhere Legends of the Knights Templar, tattoos and black cats; it’s that special day. This is the last Friday the 13th of the year — the next one occurs in May of 2016.

Holiday Tasting @ 1618 Wine Lounge (GSO), 1 p.m.

With the New Year and holiday season creeping up it’s a good time to stock up on a sophisticated bottle of wine. It’s for that reason that 1618 Wine Lounge is hosting their annual Holiday Tasting.

See what the connoisseurs have in mind for the season and get your snack on while you’re at it. Find the event page on Facebook for more details.

27 Views of Greensboro reading @ Greensboro Historical Museum (GSO), 3 p.m.

In a collection of essays and prose from some of the city’s most popular writers, 27 Views of Greensboro tells the story of a city nestled between mountains and sea with a long history of racial tension.

Three contributing authors (Tina Firesheets, Logie Meachum and Jeri Rowe) will read their contributions and sign your copy. The reading starts at 3 p.m. Visit greensborohistory.org for more information.

Americans Who Tell the Truth opening @ International Civil Rights Museum (GSO), 6:30 p.m.

Chelsea Manning, Dwight Eisenhower and Rachel Carson are Americans who have told the truth. At least that’s what artist Robert Shetterly thinks. He’s painted over 50 vivid, realistic and incredibly large portraits of all the Americans that he feels have told the truth. Union leaders, journalists, presidents and general truth-tellers are featured along with a quote and a short bio. Visit americanswhotellthetruth.org for more details.

Reanimator’s three-year anniversary @ Krankies Coffee (W-S), 8 p.m.

When Reanimator hosts an anniversary show, you go. This year’s lineup is pretty inclusive with electro-punk, chanting weirdos and that raw rock-and-roll sound you love. If nothing else check out Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, the bestial drum and bass duo from Maryland known for their hair-raising live shows. Visit reanimatorrecords.com for more details.

Debate Watch Party@ Collab Center, Forsyth County Democratic Party HQ (GSO/ WS), 8 p.m.

Bernie Sanders supporters have organized watch parties for the second Democratic Presidential Debate, which will be streamed from Des Moines Iowa. It’s either football or debate and you can guess which channel these folks will be on. Find your city’s watch party at go.berniesanders.com.

Dead & Company @ Greensboro Coliseum (GSO), 7 p.m.(ish) It’s the first tour of Dead & Company, the band with three of four remaining core Grateful Dead members.

Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann are there along with John Mayer and Oteil Burbridge of the Allman Brothers (standing in for Phil Lesh). Deadheads have been getting a lot of good things coming their way lately and Dead & Company coming to the Triad is kind of like the icing on the cake for this 50th year anniversary of the Grateful (not so) Dead. Visit greensborocoliseum.com for more information and tickets.

SUNDAY

Made 4 the Holidays Market @ Greensboro Farmers Curb Market (GSO), 11 a.m.

It’s best to get friends and family Christmas gifts with that “locally crafted” feel. With pottery, fiber art and handcrafted jewelry the Made 4 the Holidays Market is the place to get that shopping knocked out early. This market is like a living Etsy.com with live music and artisan-made snacks. Visit gsofarmersmarket.org for more information.

Mahler & More @ Stevens Center, UNCSA (W-S), 3 p.m.

The Winston-Salem Symphony is reverting back to its juvenile ways with three pieces meant to invoke the memories and visions of childhood. Mahler & More features Gustov Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, written to illustrate the experiences of a child in heaven, along with two compositions on childhood in the south: Rusty Air in Carolina and Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Maestro Robert Moody starts swinging the baton at 3 p.m. Visit wssymphony.org for more information.

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Nov. 11 — 17, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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Murder, he wrote Great story! [“The murder, the fire and the hanging”; by Brian Clarey; Nov. 5, 2015] I’ve enjoyed the song for years and years, ever since I heard it performed on Henry Whitter & George Grayson’s Victor 78 record. Interesting, isn’t it, that such a song can keep the story alive long past the time when the original participants have faded from memory?

Peter Feldmann, via triad-city-beat.com I’d like to read more stories like this one. Very interesting.

Genie, via triad-city-beat.com Drivers from (fill in the blank) are the worst Regional differences in land use patterns might have something to say about driving habits. [“The List: 5 things I miss about Northern drivers”; by Eric Ginsburg; Oct. 21, 2015] Northerners are more mindful drivers because their dense urban environment of congested streets requires them to be so. These streets often mix with pedestrians and cyclists, which introduces a humanized element in an otherwise automated, unsocial activity. Unlike the North, whose cities benefit from a history that predates driving culture, Southern cities largely prospered because of the highway. Sprawl dominates the landscape and erodes the social capital of our cities. People ignore other people because our built environment encourages it, whether it be in the form of a suburban cul-de-sac, a seven-lane roads, fast food drive-thrus, or a massive blacktop parking lot.

Too many of us will simply never step out from the box to actively participate in the civic livelihood of our cities.

Brian Rosa, via triad-city-beat.com Snark vs. sincerity at the furniture market Mine was way funnier. [“Fresh Eyes: An inside view of the High Point Furniture Market”; by Lauren Thomas; Nov. 5, 2015] Tim Nolan, Winston-Salem No, it wasn’t. “Hackneyed” might be more apt. And in case you missed it, Ms. Thomas’ piece actually provided insight into the goings on rather than empty, snarky commentary.

Mary McInerney, High Point I guess this woman rarely goes to the theatre or understands satire.

Not to say she’s taking things a bit to seriously, but maybe she isn’t quite getting the subtle humor in this piece. When I read it, I felt as vulnerable as the writer and the reasons (from his POV) he wasn’t worthy of a full shot of whiskey. This wasn’t an exposé to dig into the ins and outs of every aspect of the furniture market or about all the “wonderful” and sometimes destitute people employed by this event; it was entertaining and tongue in cheek in nature. Nolan wasn’t obviously there as a journalist (he is stated at the bottom as a bartender himself, and musician (artist). But kudos to her for making friends and bringing coffee to “these people.”

Haydee Thompson, via triad-city-beat.com

6 songs for a stakeout

by Jordan Green

1. “The Waiting” by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Log from Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015, ~ 3 p.m.: Triad City Beat sports columnist Anthony Harrison rolls into the Wells Fargo parking lot with a cigarette holder clenched in his teeth and sunglasses with green, neon frames while blasting “The Waiting” by Tom Petty. We’re undertaking a daylong stakeout of the Jamestown News and the song perfectly captures the tedium of the endeavor. The waiting is the hardest part. After hours of observing a continuous non-event, there would be a psychological payoff if something significant happened — some small flurry of drama. Ironically, the purpose of the stakeout is to prove exactly the opposite. We suspect that the Jamestown News’ sister paper, Yes Weekly, is printing about 17,700 papers instead of 43,000, as its marketing materials indicated (see story on page 16), but a Womack Newspapers employee had told Triad City Beat Associate Editor Eric Ginsburg that the remainder of the papers will be delivered later in the day. Boredom bears out our theory: The day passes without an additional delivery.

2. “Watching the Detectives” by Elvis Costello

This trenchant slice of punk fury and reggae inflection courtesy of Elvis circa 1978 turns the tables on the idea of surveillance. I’ve always thought the song title was ripe for journalistic appropriation in service of stories about FBI infiltration of anti-war groups and monitoring the Muslim community, not to mention electronic surveillance by the NSA.

3. “Every Breath You Take” by the Police

Just for the sheer creepiness of it, let’s throw in “Every Breath You Take,” with its rueful refrain: “I’ll be watching you.” “Every Breath” was an ill-considered favorite for many 1980s weddings, even though the song is clearly written from the perspective of a jealous lover obsessed with marital transgressions and infidelity.

Puff Daddy might have missed the point as well with his 1997 remake “I’ll Be Missing You” — a tribute to the late Notorious BIG. Then again, Puff’s rewrite inverts the lyrics from paranoid obsession into brotherly love and maximum respect.

4. John Lennon, circa 1971

I don’t know if John Lennon memorialized the FBI campaign to hound him out of the United States as a “strategic counter-measure” to his anti-war activities, but the episode overlapped with one of the ex-Beatles’ most fruitful and righteous periods of songwriting, including “Power to the People,” “Imagine,” “Jealous Guy” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).”

5. “Fingerprint File” by the Rolling Stones

While the politicized John Lennon was the one who was actually under surveillance, the hedonistic Rolling Stones nailed the spirit of the Nixon era better with a dark slice of funk, released in 1974, in which Mick Jagger declares, “And there’s some little jerk in the FBI/ A-keepin’ papers on me six feet high.”

6. “Stakeout Song” on “Teen Titans Go!”

Veering away from the serious business of government surveillance and repression, the tenor of the TCB stakeout at the Jamestown News was a lot more like “Stakeout Song,” an 18-second clip on the Cartoon Network show “Teen Titans Go!” The exclamatory lyrics in their entirety are as follows: “Stakeout! Hiding out in cars/ Stakeout! Eat some chocolate bars!/ Stakeout! Staying up real late/ Stakeout! Puke up what you ate/ Stakeout! It’s just what we do/ Stakeout! Shaggy, Scooby Doo/ Stakeout! Spot a creeping dude/ Stakeout! Bust a creeping dude/ Stop!”

New question: Can the Carolina Panthers remain undefeated for the rest of the regular season? Vote at triad-city-beat. com!

70 60

40

20

96% Yes

3% No

1%

Unsure

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I’m no bandwagon Panthers fan. As a New Orleans Saints fan, I’ve been pushing back against their NFC South rivals for as long as they’ve been in the same division. For years — decades! — my mantra has been: “What’s bad for the Panthers is good for the Saints.”

What I’m saying is, screw the Carolina Panthers.

But as a fan of the game, I have to give credit where it’s due. And even though it damn near kills me to say it, and even though he looks completely ridiculous in that flak jacket he wears under his jersey, I believe that Cam Newton may be the best quarterback in the NFL right now.

The numbers don’t bear this out.

Newton is ranked just 22nd among starters after this weekend’s win (worth mentioning here that Saints QB Drew Brees is currently No. 1) with a measly 53.7 completion percentage, averaging a scant 227 yards per game and a middling quarterback rating of 81.4 — by comparison, Brees rates 102.8.

They say Newton can’t throw the long ball, that he panics in the pocket, that he’s been lucky to get this far.

All that may be true, praise Breesus.

But what Cam Newton has done is win every damn game he’s played this season any way he could. He’s throwing the ball with authority, and when he tucks the ball and runs, he’s a monster. He’s run for 343 yards so far, more than any other QB in the league, and averaging 4.7 yards per carry, better than most running backs.

Now that the Panthers are 8-0, and beat the Packers, a really solid team, I can’t pretend that I think he sucks anymore. To be undefeated at this point in the season is truly remarkable.

I remember the last time the Saints went 8-0. Actually, they went 13-0 in 2009, the year they won the Super Bowl.

Let’s see Cam do that.

Cover Story

Readers: Well, that was a blowout. Apparently 96 percent of our readers are potheads (just kidding, but that many respondents did say “Yes” to our poll this week). Only 3 percent said “No,” while 1 percent said “Unsure.”

by Brian Clarey

Opinion

Jordan Green: Yes. I’m in favor of decriminalizing not only small amounts but any amount of marijuana. Growing up in rural Kentucky, where marijuana is widely used and also is one of the state’s major cash crops, I feel qualified to say that the drug poses far less of a public health risk than alcohol or tobacco. Beyond

Eric Ginsburg: Yeah, no doy, and I’ve never even smoked weed. I can’t believe this isn’t the standard around the nation yet, but I’m confident that wave will crash soon. The drug war is such an epic failure, and undoing its damage should be a primary concern for any government body, municipal or otherwise.

Cam Newton, begrudgingly

News

Brian Clarey: Yes, we should decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in our cities. Let me count the reasons. For one, pot is a plant, just like basil. Well, almost like basil. How can a plant be illegal? For another, our police have real crimes to fight and shouldn’t have to waste their resources on pot smokers. There’s more — a lot more. Prohibition doesn’t work. Marijuana is actually good for you in certain circumstances. The fibers and oils generated from the crop have thousands of uses. And if we legalize recreational use, there are millions — perhaps even billions — in tax revenue on the line. Am I out of space yet? I could go on.

the minimal effect of absorbing carcinogens (because, let’s face it, nobody smokes two packs of MJ cigarettes per day), the worst harm of smoking marijuana is stunted motivation. People don’t crash cars or develop cirrhosis of the liver from smoking pot.

Locking people up during their prime earning years, depriving them of the ability to provide for their children and be with their families, and shutting them out of the job market are the devastating consequences of the drug war. The only downside of legalization is that it would knock out the criminal black market for marijuana production and put a lot of my friends in Kentucky out of business.

Up Front

For this week’s Barometer, we want to know if you think Triad cities should move to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

Several cities — not just states— around the country have taken some sort of action along these lines.

Maybe it would involve instructing the police to de-prioritize such charges, or a resolution encouraging the General Assembly to change state law, or removing certain sections of the city codes. Regardless of the specific approach, do you think the Triad cities should explore the possibilities?

triad-city-beat.com

Should Triad cities decriminalize small amounts of marijuana?

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Nov. 11 — 17, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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NEWS

New public housing community opens as mayor emphasizes anti-poverty push

by Jordan Green

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines finds an ally in his initiative to combat poverty in Housing Authority of Winston-Salem CEO Larry Woods, who is attempting to push public-housing residents towards self-sufficiency.

Mayor Allen Joines peered into the master bedroom at the model apartment in the new 30-unit Camden Station public housing community in East Winston as Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke checked her makeup in the bathroom mirror.

Housing Authority of Winston-Salem CEO Larry Woods beamed in the hallway as Joines complimented the new apartments, which will likely welcome the first tenants in mid-December.

“This is such a pleasant feeling in here,” he said. “The colors are bright.”

Joines expressed interest in Woods’ testimony before the House Budget Committee in Washington, DC on Oct. 28.

“My comment is you don’t get them out of the system by cutting benefits,” Woods told Joines. “You’ve got to grow ’em out of the system.”

Joines has made tackling poverty one of the signature issues of his fourth term as mayor. He announced the initiative shortly after winning reelection in November 2013, and but only launched a so-called anti-poverty “thought force” last month after declaring that the city had ended chronic veteran homelessness.

The new units at Camden Place add to the stock set aside by the housing authority for tenants who commit to maintaining employment — known as “step-up housing” — part of Woods’ effort to prod residents towards self-sufficiency.

“This housing authority, besides providing housing, our goal is to help people move out of poverty and move back into the mainstream,” Woods said during the grand opening of the community on Nov. 6. “We call this development ‘step-up housing.’ The goal is for families to come here and experience market-rate living at affordable rates, at the same time availing themselves of other community services such as scholarship funds to go back to school and reading programs at Win-

ston-Salem State University.”

Joines took the opportunity during his remarks to needle the US Congress, while noting that the city made a $350,000 forgivable loan to help finance the $3.3 million project.

“Larry was in DC the week before last saying, ‘Congress, you’re hamstringing us in our efforts to move people out of poverty; you move people up and then they lose their benefits, so they can’t take that next step,’” Joines said. “So I appreciate you, Larry, taking the gospel up there, and hopefully they heard that.”

In his testimony before the House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Woods called the federal public housing system “broken.” Emphasizing that he neither advocates investing more money in public housing nor cutting benefits, he said, “It’s about implementing policies that actually provide a positive exit strategy for getting people out of the safety net. Right now, there is no exit strategy.

“We are simply warehousing people in our programs,” he added. “There’s no focus on getting people in, up and out.

Our focus has been exclusively on making sure people get in.”

Woods’ message elicited a warmer response from members of the Republican majority than from the Democratic members of the committee.

After insisting that “nobody’s talking about slashing programs,” Chairman Price sounded a theme very much in line with Woods’ vision.

“We’re simply interested in making sure that we shift from measuring the success of these programs by the amount of money we put in to measuring the success on what the outcome is — how many people are we actually helping, how many folks are we raising out of poverty and into self-sufficient, rewarding lives? And the numbers are not promising right now.”

Olivia Golden, the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Law and Social Policy, pushed back against the notion that antipoverty programs instituted in the mid-1960s are failing.

“The nation’s core safety-net programs are highly effective,” said Golden, who

Housing Authority of Winston-Salem CEO Larry Woods (right) jokes with a photographer at the opening of Camden Station.

testified alongside Woods. “They sharply reduce poverty and they improve nutrition for millions of children, families and individuals.”

Golden testified that safety-net programs enable poor people to work rather than discouraging them from doing so.

“The evidence, when you actually look at the research, is that these programs actually promote work,” Golden said.

“They provide incentives to work overall. And that’s for some very sensible, common-sense reasons. When you have nutrition, when you can go to the doctor, when your housing is stable, you’re more likely not to have your life disrupted and to lose work, that’s one reason. When you have help paying for childcare, the evidence is overwhelming that contributes to more stable and longer lasting work.”

Woods complained during his testimony that federal regulations prevent his agency from mandating that public-housing clients maintain employment. He said the regulations have hindered the success of the “step-up housing” program. In lieu of enforceable work requirements, his

JORDAN GREEN

agency is rewarding tenants who voluntarily enroll with choice units in newly constructed communities like Camden Station.

“Unfortunately, under the current regulatory and statutory structure we cannot fully implement this program,” Woods testified. “We have faced roadblock after roadblock, restrictions after restrictions, restricting our ability to require or incentivize our clients’ participation. Residents have told us until they are required to do something more than what the regulations require they are content to maintain the status quo.”

Chairman Price asked Woods to explain how federal regulations throw up barriers in local efforts to move people towards self-sufficiency.

Woods responded by noting that 700 families in Winston-Salem public housing live within walking distance of the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter. A couple years ago, he said, Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina offered a CD-L truck-driving licensing program “The program said that if you passed

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this program, which is about a 12-16 week program, you were guaranteed a job starting anywhere from $30 to $35,000,” Woods testified. “I went to the CEO and said, ‘I would like to pledge $28,000 so that at least seven of my tenants can avail themselves of this training.’ We offered it to all 700 households. Not one of them took us up on it. We could not figure out why. Why if there’s an opportunity to get training [and] it doesn’t cost you anything you won’t avail? And the comment was, ‘It’s not a requirement.’”

Woods later added that when his clients get a job, their housing subsidy is reduced, along with SNAP benefits, “and they find themselves in a worse condition than they were before so they say, ‘Why should I even try to work if I’m going to be in a worse economic condition?’”

Golden also had an answer for that conundrum.

“Particularly for parents raising kids, who are the people who are poorest, the ability to work jobs that pay a family wage and that you could get enough hours to sustain your worth is just not there,” she said.

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HIGH POINT JOURNAL

Documentarian’s second film explores city’s civil rights history

by Jordan Green

Phyllis Bridges wants to use documentary film as a tool to recognize the psychological wounds of the 1960s civil rights struggle in High Point so the city can heal.

Meeting some of the activists who put their lives on the line in the ’60s whetted Bridges’ appetite to dig deeper and set her on a path to become a documentary filmmaker. Her first film, High Point: A Phyllis Bridges was born in High Memoir of the African American Community, Point in 1964 — the year of Freedom broadly covered the city’s black history Summer in Mississippi and the year and premiered at High Point University President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the in January. Her second film, The March Civil Rights Act into law. It was a time on an All-American City, narrows the focus of mass marches to desegregate public to the 20th century civil rights movement facilities across North Carolina and from 1949 to 1969 and is scheduled for violent repression against civil rights release next summer. Bridges launched activists in the Deep South. a crowdfunding campaign through GoBridges attended integrated schools FundMe in September to raise $8,000 in High Point in the 1970s and ’80s, to finance the film. and eventually pursued a career as an The new film will begin with the interior designer in Washington, DC desegregation of the public swimming and suburban Maryland. The extent pools at City Lake Park in 1949, Bridges of her knowledge about the High Point said. civil rights movement was that 26 “I don’t want to tell what’s in here,” students sat in to integrate Woolworth’s Bridges said, gesturing to the newspaper in 1960 and that sisters Brenda and Lyn clippings. “I want to go in between and Fountain desegregated the city schools deeper. Some of [the activists] went in 1959. After returning to High Point, beyond High Point. In my interviews I Bridges opened Yalik’s Modern Art, learned that one of the little girls who an African-American art gallery that integrated the pool went on to be a operated on Washington Street from leader in Freedom Summer in Missis2008 through 2013. Elder visitors to the sippi. I was like, ‘Wow.’ Ronald Moose gallery who lived the history of the civil was one of the first males to integrate rights struggle began to fill in the picture Central High School. [Arlene Wilkes] for Bridges with photo-filled scrapbooks and Ronald Moose ended up going and reminiscences. to Tennessee to teach a workshop on On a recent Saturday morning, as she nonviolence.” sat at a table in the Heritage Research There were three organizations at Center of the the forefront of High Point Pubthe movement To support Phyllis Bridges’ lic Library with in High Point copies of archiGoFundMe campaign to finance — Congress of val newspaper Racial Equality, her documentary, The March articles splayed the Student in front of her, Nonviolent on an All-American City, visit Bridges wistfully Coordinating gofundme.com/TheMarch. appraised the Committee and qualities of the the NAACP — older generaBridges said, tion. and Wilkes was active in all three. The “If we had these same warriors like Rev. B. Elton Cox, a local pastor who we had in the ’60s in High Point, we’d organized the 26 students from William be a little further along,” she said. “We Penn High School to sit in at Wooldon’t have these fighters. These people worth’s, served as national field secrewere willing to die. Leaders today are tary for the Congress of Racial Equalmore about me, what I can accomplish ity and participated in the interstate and what’s on that résumé.” freedom ride in 1961.

Documentarian Phyllis Bridges looks over archival newspaper clippings about civil rights history at High Point Public Library.

Compared with the bloodshed in Mississippi and Alabama, desegregation in High Point and other North Carolina cities went relatively smoothly, but Bridges pointed to an archival 1963 news photograph showing police lining the street in front of a downtown movie theater with a cutline referencing black protesters and white hecklers as an indication of the stakes. Some people today want to minimize the tension, but the facts she’s uncovered suggest otherwise.

“It got tense enough to where tear gas was used, and water hoses were on standby, but they were never used,” Bridges said. “Okay, you’re using tear gas and water hoses are on standby, so it had to be a little tense around here.”

Many of the local veterans have put their experiences on the frontline of the struggle behind them, but Bridges said they come to life when they talk about what they went through.

“Some of these people, once they go down memory lane you can see they have that fire,” she said. “They can’t live it again, but you can see they’ve still got that fire. Their memories are sharp.”

As someone who attended integrated schools, Bridges was struck by the sup-

JORDAN GREEN

pressed pain that she uncovered when she started interviewing elders who endured spitting, racial slurs and threats of violence when they took to the streets to protest segregated facilities.

“Some of the pain and anger is still there,” she said. “There has never been a complete healing. It’s, ‘This is what was done to me or said to me, but I still feel it.’ This is a discussion that needs to take place, but we don’t have the guts.”

Acknowledging the hurt that was inflicted is difficult for both sides, Bridges said.

“With older people, they don’t want whites to know what they said or did hurt them,” she said. “And whites don’t want to admit what they did. The person who threw an egg or made a racial slur might be a Christian who goes church now, so they feel that we should just leave it alone and we’ll be fine. And we’re not fine.”

When The March on an All-American City is complete, Bridges wants everyone — black and white, old and young — to see the film.

“They can tell me,” she said, “but the person who hurt them needs to hear it.”

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Nov. 11 — 17, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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OPINION EDITORIAL

Just business We know how this looks.

It would be easy to interpret this week’s cover story that exposes discrepancies in Yes Weekly’s print run as the work of disgruntled former employees taking a shot at their former boss.

And it would be disingenuous to say there’s not some truth in that.

Our entire trio of editors worked at Yes Weekly for years; one of us was fired and two of us quit.

Together we started Triad City Beat.

The business we own together, Beat Media Inc. and its newspaper, were founded on the notion that an honest little company could make it in this market.

Ninety issues later, we’re still swinging away.

It’s hard enough when you play by the rules — which we do scrupulously. We have printing receipts for every issue, since we started, to prove it. But if the other guy is cutting corners, it’s even harder.

If a hotdog stand owner found out the guy across the street was using rat meat, we reasoned, he’d probably do something about it. And we realized that, though we weren’t the best candidates to expose this story, if we didn’t, the issues it raises would continue to go unreported.

Some might say the whole thing is not a big deal — what’s the difference between a few thousand papers? But those numbers set the basis for ad rates and readership, the two things It’s like urinating in by which newspapers live and the community well. die.

We only sell one thing: readers’ eyeballs. Penetration is a metric of meeting potential in our quest to attract readers.

A decrease of almost 60 percent affects every single department.

It hits advertisers the worst, though; when their message only hits a fraction — apparently less than half — of the people they thought it would, some of them start to think that advertising in newspapers doesn’t really work, a notion we would strongly dispute.

In that way, it’s like urinating in the community well.

The other thing is a matter of integrity.

How can a newspaper hold others accountable for their words, demand transparency from government and honesty from elected officials without itself adhering to those values?

CITIZEN GREEN

Those who show up decide how our money is spent If you had $500,000 of tax place that would bring people together.” money to spend however you When Lindenberg’s group reported its priorities, pedeswanted in the next fiscal year, trian safety enhancements at intersections around NC A&T what would you do with it?

University, including a crosswalk at Lindsay and Sullivan There are a couple paramstreets, and an unstaffed waterpark for children at Swing eters, as Community EngageRoad and West Market Street came up as highlights. ment Coordinator Ranata The idea of letting residents directly decide how their tax Reeder explained during a dollars will be spent — short-circuiting the priorities set by

by Jordan Green neighborhood assembly of staff with input from elected representatives — might seem Greensboro Participatory Budgeting on Monday evening at novel. But it’s actually happening in Greensboro, thanks to a the downtown Central Library. The funds must be spent for split vote to approve the process by city council in October public projects, which means they can only be invested in 2014 (Mayor Nancy Vaughan voted against it along with property owned by the city. The monies must be distribcouncil members Mike Barber, Zack Matheny and Tony uted evenly among the five city council districts. And they Wilkins). As consultants employed by the city on a contract can only be spent on capital projects that incur a one-time basis, Reeder and Lindenberg will be responsible for gatherinvestment, as opposed to new programming that requires ing ideas from residents through neighborhood assemblies recurring spending. and more informal “pop-up” meetings. Later, they’ll train After a brief presentation and a short film, Reeder and budget delegates to engage in proposal development. The Project Assistant Erica Lindenberg broke the meeting into next step will be project expos, which Reed described as two groups of about 10 people to brainstorm ideas. It didn’t being kind of like a science fair, where residents can learn take long for them to get started. about the proposed projects. Finally, in May, residents will Ryan Saunders, a transit advocate and champion of the vote on how they want to see $100,000 spent in each city creative class, suggested council district. street graphics using paint Participatory budgeting or decals to make bus stops has been used in New York Greensboro Participatory Budgeting more visible, perhaps at Elm City and Chicago, but only Street and Cornwallis Drive within particular districts, will collect ideas for public spending or other areas with heavy where council members hold at four upcoming assemblies: Interpedestrian traffic. control over discretionary A woman sitting in the active Resource Center, located at 407 spending in their jurisdicback suggested embedding tions. Greensboro is the E. Washington St., on Thursday at 5:30 reflectors along the outlines second city in the nation of bike lanes so motorists are p.m.; Benjamin Branch Library, located and the first in the Southeast more likely to avoid hitting to implement participatory at 1530 Benjamin Parkway, on Nov. 22 cyclists on rainy days with budgeting on a citywide at 3 p.m.; Windsor Recreation Center, limited visibility. basis. Vallejo, Calif. adopted “I don’t know if that’s participatory budgeting after located at 1601 E. Gate City Boulevard, eligible,” she said. the city was forced to impose on Nov. 23 at 6:30 p.m.; and Kathleen “Yeah, totally eligible,” a sales tax to sustain itself Clay Edwards Library, located at 1420 enthused Dave Reed, who coming out of bankruptserves on the steering Price Park Drive, on Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m. cy. Reed pointed out that committee of Greensboro Greensboro is the first city in Participatory Budgeting. the nation to implement cityOne person suggested wifi wide participatory budgeting hotspots in Latham Park, and another proposed the same using pre-existing funds, as opposed to revenues created for the new park under construction next to Union Square. through new taxes on residents.

“Honestly, wifi along the greenway would be pretty aweThe question remains as to who is able to take time out some,” Reed said. of work and family obligations to participate in this process, Reynaldo Diaz proposed stone, weatherproof chess but Reeder argued after the assembly that the time comtables in parks. mitment to show up for a meeting and offer ideas and then “I like that,” Reeder said. vote on final proposals in May is pretty minimal. There are “You know, it’s a grid,” Diaz continued. “You can play opportunities for people who want to volunteer more time chess or checkers. Or you could bring your board game. A to shape the budget proposals, she added.

while acknowledging it may not be the one that wins out.

“That dangerous crosswalk at Lindsay and Sullivan is probably what’s going to get the votes,” he predicted.

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“People in lower-income areas participate more [in participatory budgeting] than they do in traditional elections,” Reeder said. “We’ve seen that in Vallejo and New York. The implications for equity, diversity and inclusion are tremendous.”

From observing a participatory budgeting process in the Bronx, Reed said the projects that get final approval tend to be a mix of the practical and imaginative — maybe giving a slight edge to the practical.

“The free wifi on the greenway is totally cool,” he said, talking up his own idea,

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Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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14 All She Wrote Shot in the Triad

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Nov. 11 — 17, 2015

MLB in the Triad

Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

Allen Broach is the publisher of Triad City Beat.

Opinion

common in World War II, soldiers became battle weary and exhausted. During the Vietnam conflict the condition became known as PTSD. From my personal experience, I can say that no one goes through the horrors of battle without suffering at least some degree of PTSD. When I first returned home it was very hard to concentrate, loud noises made me jump and when walking in wooded areas I was on constant lookout for ambush sites. I had nightmares. I never dreamed about fighting in Vietnam, but during my tour I was always in a bunker fighting Vietnamese fighters. What I suffered was nothing compared to my fellow vets. Forty-six years later I still suffer some of the effects occasionally.

I was in Vietnam one day, and four days later back in North Carolina when my tour of duty ended. There were no discussions of how I was to adjust to civilian life or if I had a problem where I could get help. We were let go, and if we were to heal, we did it on our own. I hadn’t been in contact with anyone from those days until four years ago, when I received a letter from one of the men I served with. The group had been having reunions for about 15 years and had just found me. I went to one reunion. It was interesting to see these men who had been in their late teens and early twenties 40 years later.

Of the 15 who I had served with, nearly half were still on disability because of PTSD. Our government is still not doing an adequate job of caring for our wounded soldiers and veterans. The vets wait months to get care that they need and in some cases they have died waiting. We need to demand better care for those who served us. Although national tracking of veteran suicide rates is unreliable at best, the VA estimates that 22 veterans commit suicide each day.

This means about 8,030 veterans kill themselves every year, more than 5,540 of whom are 50 or older.

When I returned from Vietnam, many people were very unkind about my having been there. There was no ticker-tape parade for us until nearly 30 years later. Now, when people find out that I served overseas they thank me for my service. It nearly brings tears to my eyes every time.

This Veterans Day, I will call and send e-mails to a few of the men I served with and thank them for their service. If you know someone currently serving in the armed forces or who is a veteran, make a point to contact them and thank them for helping to keep us safer.

Happy Veterans Day.

News

In 1919, President Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as the first observance of Armistice Day, the day World War I ended. Today we honor our veterans on that day. As a veteran of the Vietnam conflict, Veterans Day has

by Allen Broach special meaning to me. I reflect on the horrible times in battle and when we lost men or were wounded. I also think of the good times, building such close bonds with those who fought with me. We were brothers.

Both my mother’s and father’s families have served in every war since the American Revolution up to Desert Storm. Because of that I have a special affinity for the men and women who serve our country in the military.

One of my ancestors is Brig. Gen Francis Marion, known as the “Swamp Fox.” He was one of the fathers of modern guerilla warfare. The British reviled him as a terrorist, and Gen. Nathanael Greene praised his leadership.

I was drafted into the Army but today our military is all volunteer. There are some great benefits to serving, such as education, both in the service and after completing the tour of duty. But there are many hardships.

There are months and years away from loved ones and there is always the one left at home to maintain the family.

Of course there are the risks while in training and in battle. Think of the thousands who have died protecting us, and many more who have been wounded and maimed for life. Think of their partners who will have to care for them.

Literary accounts offer the first descriptions of what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder as far back as Homer in The Iliad. The American Civil War marks the start of formal medical attempts to address the problems of members of the military and veterans exposed to combat. In World War I people were recognized to have stress-related problems. It was then called “shell shock” to describe the trauma of battle. It was a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting that produced a helplessness appearing variously as panic and being scared, or flight, an inability to reason, sleep, walk or talk. Cases of shell shock were interpreted as either a physical or psychological injury, or simply as a lack of moral fiber.

In World War II, the shellshock diagnosis was replaced by combat stress reaction, aka “battle fatigue.” With long surges

Up Front

Longtime residents remember: Back in the late ’90s, the Triad nearly landed a professional sports team.

To make a long story short, the Minnesota Twins almost left the Twin Cities, with Hickory-based businessby Anthony Harrison man Don Beaver proposing to buy the team and settle it in a new home between Winston-Salem and Greensboro in a $210 million stadium outside of Kernersville. The measure, which would’ve required a 1-percent prepared-food sales tax and a 50-cent ticket tax, didn’t pass referendum thanks to the efforts of the libertarian group Citizens Against Unfair Taxes.

So it didn’t work back then. But it could definitely work now.

The Triad has progressed by leaps and bounds over the past 15-odd years. A major-league team would add to a growing reputation.

With 679,970 TV homes, the Triad itself is a relatively small media market. But a team based in the middle of North Carolina wouldn’t just serve the Triad; it would attract people from across the state, South Carolina, Tennessee, southern Virginia — regions currently claimed by the Atlanta Braves, the only team serving the proper South, and regions which could add to our head count.

But hell, Cleveland and Cincinnati split Ohio. And no one worries about tiny Green Bay, Wis. supporting the denizens of Lambeau Stadium.

People especially would attend games if the team starts winning right out of the gate, evidenced by the Miami Marlins or the Arizona Diamondbacks, both teams that won the World Series within their first five years.

Speaking of bringing people to a community, think of the incredible boon to the local economy a professional sports team would represent for the Triad.

Proponents of bringing MLB to the Triad back in the ’90s estimated the venture could bring more than 3,000 jobs and revenues of $140 million per year. It’s hard to imagine both figures wouldn’t be significantly higher by now.

Another thing is abundantly clear: Raleigh supports the Carolina Hurricanes. Charlotte hosts both the Carolina Panthers and the Hornets. The only major metropolitan area in North Carolina not boasting a professional sports team could claim the only Big Four men’s sport unrepresented in the state.

If you didn’t know already, the Charlotte Hornets announced a development league basketball team would begin playing in Greensboro. That’s a clear sign we could support a big-league franchise.

I think baseball would be a home run.

Happy Veterans Day, from a vet

triad-city-beat.com

IT JUST MIGHT WORK

FRESH EYES

15

Nov. 11 — 17, 2015

PLAYING WITH THE NUM

Yes Weekly’s circulation has apparently plummeted, but what precipitated the change is even more interesting

Cover Story

by Eric Ginsburg

16

Last month, Yes Weekly reported a dramatic reduction in circulation, from 43,000 copies a week to just 18,000, but questions about whether the newspaper’s circulation was artificially inflated remain.

It happened quietly, without any fanfare or public announcement. You wouldn’t notice anything had changed, probably, unless you were looking for it.

But sometime on Oct. 15, the web editor for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s site changed the circulation number listed for Yes Weekly newspaper, dropping it from 43,000 to 18,000, about 40 percent of the original total.

Jason Zaragoza, the deputy director and website editor for the AAN — to which Yes Weekly, Triad City Beat and many other alternative weekly newspapers around the country belong — wrote a note next to the new figure: “(As of October 2015).” But Charles Womack, the owner and publisher of Yes Weekly, didn’t say exactly when the drop occurred, Zaragoza said in an interview. The notation for last month, he said, refers to when Womack provided the number after Zaragoza requested it, not necessarily when it happened.

The drop may look more sudden than

it actually is — while the AAN tries to update the number once a year, for some reason that hasn’t happened since the association accepted Yes Weekly into its ranks in 2010, five years into the paper’s existence.

But there are a bunch of plot points in between that don’t add up, and that’s a problem; papers like Yes Weekly survive off advertising, and ad rates are directly reliant on circulation.

!!!

This story actually begins earlier, and in order to be as transparent as possible, let’s pause to address the elephant in the room. Here’s a disclaimer, and it’s pretty big.

I worked at Yes Weekly newspaper for three years, beginning in January 2011 as an intern. That fall, Womack hired me part-time at the urging of the editor, Brian Clarey, and in early 2012, Yes Weekly offered me a full-time position. At the end of January 2014, I gave Womack my notice, handing him a letter of resignation alongside my colleague and editor, Jordan Green.

We had been invited to help launch a new venture, Triad City Beat, run by Clarey. Womack had fired him, on the

spot and with little warning, on Election Day the previous November. Green and Clarey worked at Yes Weekly from its inception, almost nine years prior.

I had a number of reasons for leaving, including frustration about an increased workload for minimal pay and low morale due in part to Clarey’s sudden firing. But on the whole, I was and still am incredibly grateful for the opportunity I was afforded to work at Yes Weekly, and appreciated Womack’s willingness to take a chance on me as a young reporter. After three years under my belt and with an intriguing opportunity before me, it just felt like the right time to make a transition.

During my time at Yes Weekly, on several occasions my co-workers expressed concern that the publication actually printed fewer copies than it claimed to advertisers. It’s a small office, and gossip traveled rapidly and frequently. I didn’t attempt to verify these concerns, even though they were primarily raised by a sales representative (who still works there).

Green and Clarey remember the same thing, as do at least three former sales representatives. In general, like me, they focused on doing their jobs and ignored the issue. But Green said that concerns about a possible discrepancy did contrib-

ute to his decision to seek other employment. Two former sales reps said they left Yes Weekly for similar reasons. After all, if a gap between alleged and actual circulation existed, it would mean advertisers only received a portion of what they paid for, meaning a sales rep would have misrepresented the truth.

Aly Colón, the John S. and James L. Knight professor of media ethics at Washington & Lee University, said in an interview that such an inconsistency could hurt the entire operation.

“The first victim of any type of inaccuracy or deception is the publication, because that credibility which is so essential to the publication is being assailed,” he said.

“It can affect the type of business [a publication] does, because usually circulation has an impact on what you charge your advertisers,” Colón continued. “The whole idea of a newspaper misrepresenting itself in any way has an impact on the whole newspaper.”

But none of us worked in distribution.

That was handled separately by people we rarely if ever interacted with; generally it remained out of sight and out of mind.

It fell under the publisher’s purview, and as much as possible we all tried to stick

!!!

to our respective departments and let people do their jobs. As Green put it in an interview for this article, he didn’t want the sales team meddling with what we were writing about, and so it didn’t make sense to stick his nose into the distribution, advertising or art departments.

Once Clarey, Green and I started Triad City Beat, we quickly gained a firsthand understanding of how distribution works.

Since its inception, we’ve driven weekly routes alongside a few colleagues to bring the paper to the public. That process — ordering papers, receiving weekly receipts for the 10,000 copies printed, seeing the invoice on top of the bundles, and so on — proved to be illuminating.

We wondered aloud how many papers Yes Weekly printed each week. The pallets used to be dropped off directly in front of the business’ office where we had worked, and we’d each seen it numerous times.

The figure on the publication’s website — 43,000 — as well as its AAN and LinkedIn pages didn’t sit right, especially after seeing exactly what 10,000 copies looks like and realizing it takes our team of five more than 50 aggregate hours to distribute them.

But we didn’t do anything about it.

Why? We feared it would look petty,

Yes Weekly prints at the Fayetteville Observer and is dropped off by a hulking white truck every Wednesday morning.

Usually, if the driver isn’t running late, he arrives at the Jamestown News office shortly before 7 a.m. with the delivery, leaving soon after unloading five pallets of Yes Weekly. That is, at least, according to the four different weeks in August, September and October when I waited in my car, parked in an adjacent parking lot, to observe.

Womack owns and runs Womack Newspapers Inc., which also owns the Jamestown News, the Adams Farm Gazette and recently acquired Creative Loafing Charlotte. According to an employee list printed inside of Yes Weekly, the paper’s distribution department consists of just two employees, Janice Gantt and Brandon Combs. I figured with even a small window of time before either of them arrived, I could see the invoice on top of the newspaper delivery.

On Aug. 26, I made my first attempt.

I arrived before I expected the delivery truck from Fayetteville to be there, pulling into the adjacent Wells Fargo parking lot and backing into a spot where I could see the area behind the Jamestown News in my rearview mirror. Slumping down, I could still film the entire thing on my phone.

At 7:12 a.m., the truck pulled away, and once it was out of sight I hustled over to the five Yes Weekly pallets, left near a

few unused newspaper boxes in the back parking lot. Each had a piece of paper on top listing exactly how many newspapers it contained, broken out by number per bundle, bundles per row, total number of rows, bundles on partial rows and any odd papers. And on the front of one of the pallets, I found an invoice.

The invoice is incredibly thorough, even listing the weight of the delivery and the driver’s name. It cites the customer as Yes Weekly and includes Gantt as a contact person. It includes the previous day’s date — likely when the order was placed — and states that it is “Truck 1 of 1.” Most importantly, there’s a total figure entered for the quantity of papers: 17,700.

I examined the other pallets in the order quickly, noting that each one was numbered, such as “Skid number 2 of 5,” and featured the date as well as Yes Weekly’s name. And then, before Gantt or Combs might see me, I left hurriedly.

!!!

Weekly, and she said yes.

Why then, I asked, did the invoice say “Truck 1 of 1,” pointing to the spot on the invoice she had picked up.

Gantt said somebody else was doing it and asked why I wanted to know, so I explained I was curious about the discrepancy between the 17,700 figure on the invoice and the 43,000 copies Yes Weekly claimed on its website.

Gantt again claimed another truck was coming, adding that it would also bring the papers to the Jamestown News.

Incredulous, I walked back to my car, and then waited.

That didn’t make any sense, so after enlisting the help of several other Triad City Beat staffers, the stakeout began.

We periodically checked the parking lot outside Yes Weekly’s office, at one point having someone sit on it for several hours, and even swung by Ziggy’s in Winston-Salem, a business owned by Womack, to look for any evidence of a delivery at a different location.

The stakeout ended after sunset, around 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 14.

No second delivery ever materialized during our stakeout. The next day, an employee in the Fayetteville Observer shipping department said only one truck had been scheduled for delivery to Yes Weekly the day before, and nothing was lined up for Oct. 15. Later, Gantt did not return a voicemail requesting an interview and Womack did not respond to an email requesting additional contact information.

triad-city-beat.com

MBERS

or like industry infighting. Our former employer is a direct competitor. Both businesses are free weekly newspapers, covering roughly the same territory. It would look like, and might be, a conflict of interest. Plus, we didn’t know how we’d go about gathering facts. So we sat on it.

Journalists, however, are pretty bad at ignoring their hunches. We enter this taxing industry because of an insatiable desire to tell compelling stories, to doggedly search for facts and to shine light on the truth. It’s that drive that allows us to sift through endless dead ends, spend hours in courthouse basements thumbing through records or wake up at 6 a.m. to drive to Jamestown to stake out a delivery truck.

In August 2015, about 18 months after we launched this paper and shortly after receiving several intriguing tips about Yes Weekly’s distribution, I couldn’t hold back.

We staked out the delivery site all day, waiting for the alleged second truck to drop off papers, but none ever arrived.

I returned about a month later, on Sept. 23.

I showed up with one of our freelance writers, Anthony Harrison, and we took his car to avoid being noticed. I filmed the delivery truck as it left at 7:02 a.m., and kept rolling as I approached and examined the stacks of newspapers.

Again: 17,700 copies on the invoice.

I took photos of the sheets on top of each pallet, or skid, that spelled out in detail how many papers each held. Later I added them up, and hit a clean 17,700.

I came back on Oct. 14, and nothing had changed save for the delivery driver running later and leaving at 7:26 a.m.

Again, the invoice listed the quantity as 17,700 and matched the other previous data. I figured I’d come back two weeks later, on Oct. 28, to have evenly spaced data samples, but with three matching invoices falling in three different months I had what I initially set out to document.

But before I walked away, Gantt pulled up right next to me in the lot.

!!!

After reminding Gantt who I was, I asked if this was the entire delivery.

“No, there’s more coming,” she said.

Surprised, I asked if she meant for Yes

!!!

The next day I talked to Zaragoza, curious about where the 43,000 figure that was currently on the Association of Alternative Newsmedia website had come from.

Some of the AAN members self-report their circulation numbers, and actually it’s pretty common, he said.

“I would say of our 113 papers, there’s probably 30 or so that are not audited,” Zaragoza said. His records didn’t list whether Yes Weekly self-reported or if one of three independent auditing groups confirmed the numbers, but after checking with the Alliance for Audited Media,

17

Nov. 11 — 17, 2015 Cover Story

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Circulation Verification Council and Verified Audit Circulation, he determined Yes Weekly would have to be self-reported.

There can be valid reasons papers choose not to be audited, Zaragoza said. As one of the people behind a small paper like Triad City Beat, which also isn’t audited, I completely understand.

“Each publisher, it really depends on whether they see the value to be audited,” Zaragoza said.

“It might be too expensive... It’s mostly going to be the smaller markets where advertisers aren’t going to be hung up on circulation and pickup rate and things like that.”

After the interview, he talked to Womack, changed the distribution number on Yes Weekly’s AAN page from 43,000 to 18,000, and again confirmed that the paper isn’t audited. To the outside world, it appeared that Yes Weekly’s circulation had just fallen about 58 percent in a matter of minutes.

Inside each issue of the newspaper, Yes Weekly lists several professional associations it belongs to, such as the AAN. But Yes Weekly is no longer a member of two groups named: the Southeastern Advertising Publishers Association, according to an association employee who said the publication last joined in 2012, and the Alternative Weekly Network, an advertising group that generally sells regional or national ads in its member papers around the country.

SAPA has circulation of 43,000 on file for Yes Weekly, an employee who declined to provide his name said. But he said the paper apparently failed to comply with its last audit in 2006, conducted by the Circulation Verification Council, or CVC. “They are not in good standing with the CVC at the present time,” the employee said.

Despite keeping the name on their masthead, Yes Weekly left the AWN late last year, the group’s media coordinator John Morrison said via email.

Executive Director Mark Hanzlik said that to his knowledge, Yes Weekly’s circulation had never been verified by an outside source.

“When Yes Weekly was member of AWN, they claimed 45,000 as their rate base circulation,” he said, adding that the AWN updates rates and circulation numbers for member publications annually. The 45,000 figure — which refers to number of copies distributed weekly — is the most current number Hanzlik has for Yes Weekly.

It was updated at the beginning of 2014, he said.

Yes Weekly joined Voice Media Group to benefit from the national advertising network after leaving the AWN. But Ben Crockett, a national sales assistant with VMG, has a different circulation number on file.

“We’ve been partnering with them to sell their national advertising for about two years now,” Crockett said. “Yes Weekly circulation is currently

at 38,000. Those are the number of papers that hit the streets each week.”

Generally, Voice Media Group checks in with its papers on a quarterly basis “to see if their circulation has fluctuated at all,” Crockett said. Yes Weekly’s circulation in 2014 and 2015 was 38,000, he said.

“We require audits for circulation for all of our papers,” he said. “If they do not have a third-party audit, we require a publisher’s statement. It’s basically a sworn affidavit.”

The last sworn publisher’s statement from Womack came in the beginning of 2015, claiming an average circulation of 34,500, Crockett said, adding that the circulation has obviously risen since then. Crockett also said he’s currently in the process of determining projected circulation for member papers for 2016, and “recently” asked Yes Weekly what number to use. Yes Weekly instructed him to go with 38,000, he said.

After seeing the 18,000 figure on the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s website, Crockett called the discrepancy “somewhat alarming.”

“It’s certainly concerning,” he said, adding that he would need to look into it.

Later, Crockett couldn’t be reached for comment about any additional communication with Yes Weekly.

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Later on Oct. 15 — the day after Gantt saw me checking the Yes Weekly delivery and claimed another drop was coming, and a few hours after Zaragoza changed the AAN’s figure to show a circulation of 18,000 — publisher and owner Charles Womack sent me an email.

“As you know Eric, we are not a mailed or paid subscription-based pub so we don’t keep as close an eye on this as a paid product — but we certainly are not embarrassed to discuss our numbers,” he wrote in an email that arrived at 9:05 p.m. “Womack Newspapers Inc. prints in excess of 51,000 papers per week. We approximate Yes Weekly to have 43,000 plus weekly readers based on an avg. press run of 20,000.”

Later, Womack did not respond to multiple requests for comment other than to paraphrase his earlier email in the body of a new message.

Emails and phone calls were not returned as of press time despite repeated requests for clarification.

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BEFORE We Know Our Readers.

Demographic Info / Weekly Readership 149,000 Young Four out of five readers are 18 to 49 and over half are under the age of 35. The median age of a Yes Weekly reader is 35. Slighlty more women than men read Yes Weekly.

18-34 ..................................................................47% 18-49 ..................................................................80% 25-34 ..................................................................35% 25-49 ..................................................................67% Affluent They have the education, they have the career, and they’re ready to spend. With an average household income over $65,000, our readers have earning power that translates into buying power. Almost half are professionals, managers, or are employed in a technical profession, and 15% own their own business. Two out of three Yes Weekly readers own their home.

$35,000+ ........................................................... 75% $50,000+ ........................................................... 53% $75,000+ ........................................................... 32% $100,000+ ........................................................ 18%

The original version of Yes Weekly’s demographic data on its website listed a weekly readership of 149,000 right across the top under the title (left).

Educated Our readship is interested in their community and are engaged with politics, the arts, and entertainment Some College ............................................................. 22% College Graduate...................................................... 27% Advanced Degree..................................................... 20% Financial Optimist .................................................... 61% Independent Yes Weekly readers are more likely to be young, active, and single than the market average. This is also an audience with more free time and more discretionary income than the average reader.

Single .........................................................................25% Married ......................................................................60% Under 35/Single/No Kids ....................................23% HHI $50K/Age 25-54 .............................................47%

5500 Adams Farm Lane (STE 204) Greensboro, NC 27407

Phone: 336.316.1231 fax: 336.316.1930

www.yesweekly.com

GREENSBORO • HIGH POINT • WINSTON-SALEM

From 2010 until Oct. 15, 2015, the paper’s page on the Association of Alternative Newsmedia website claimed a circulation of 43,000 copies per week.

It makes sense to pause here and briefly explain some industry jargon and terminology.

A free newspaper’s circulation refers to the number of copies that actually make it to the streets. That figure is generally considered to be lower than the number of readers or readership, The original version of Yes Weekly’s circulation map, retrieved from which is often calculated as circulation minus its website, clearly claimed that the paper distributed 43,000 papers as returns — the papers that don’t get picked up — opposed to a calculated readership of 43,000, as Womack’s email claimed.

But on Oct. 15, the day after Publisher Charles Womack learned I was looking into the paper’s circulation, the readership figure was removed (left) but not replaced with a new number. Similar numbers remained on the newspaper’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages as of press time.

On Oct. 15, 2015, the AAN updated the figure for Yes Weekly’s circulation after Charles Womack responded to an inquiry, saying that the paper actually distributes 18,000 copies.

On Oct. 15, the day after learning that I was looking into the paper’s circulation, someone removed the “43,000 papers” line from the map but did not replace it with a new figure.

Weekly’s website clearly stated: “43,000 papers distributed free every Wednesday.” The company’s LinkedIn page also explicitly says 43,000 papers and not readers each week.

As far as readership goes, the LinkedIn page claims Yes Weekly has “over 100,000 readers per week.” The newspaper’s Facebook page claims to be “serving over 140,000 readers throughout the Triad, 52 weeks a year,” and a demographic chart of readers on the site from 2014 claimed “Weekly Readership 149,000.”

The terms “circulation,” “print run,” “readers” or “readership” can be confusing, especially if you don’t work in the industry. But saying “papers distributed” is much more straightforward; it means exactly what it sounds like.

By the end of the day on Oct. 15, one day after Womack learned I had questions about Yes Weekly’s circulation, the weekly readership figure was removed from the demographic chart on the newspaper’s website. Also, the bottom of the circulation map, where it said, “43,000 papers distributed free every Wednesday,” had been clipped. But I had already saved screenshots of the originals.

The two figures weren’t replaced with anything, and after telling the AAN its circulation is 18,000 and emailing me to say the print run averages 20,000 later the same day, Womack didn’t put up any new figures for readership, circulation or print run on Yes Weekly’s online material.

The frequently used Facebook page, claiming 140,000+ weekly readers, and the LinkedIn page plainly stating “We distribute 43,000 papers weekly” were untouched as of press time.

triad-city-beat.com

AFTER

multiplied by 2.5 (think of someone grabbing a copy at a coffee shop and then putting it back, or bringing it home so a spouse or roommate can read it later). Readership will often include online readers as well, for which it’s much easier to obtain an exact number.

Press run can be the same thing as circulation.

It refers to how many copies a publication actually prints, as opposed to what reaches the streets.

Susan Harper, the publisher of Triangle-based alternative weekly paper Indy Week, said they will sometimes print extra copies of a popular issue such as the annual “Best Of” to keep or to hand out. In many cases, including at Triad City Beat, press run and circulation are the same number.

Also, it’s generally acceptable for the exact number of copies distributed weekly to fluctuate slightly as long as the average circulation number matches up. In other words, if a paper printed 41,000 papers one week and 45,000 the next, it would still be okay to claim a circulation of 43,000.

Why does any of this matter? Well, free weekly papers, even more so than paid dailies, are dependent on advertising for revenue, and ad rates are generally based on circulation and readership.

Advertisers agree to a specific price based on how many people they expect to reach. In larger markets, as Zaragoza said, advertisers might ask all sorts of questions about return rates, circulation and more. But regardless, what they’re paying is heavily contingent on a publication’s circulation.

Okay, so back to the email from Womack. He claimed that Womack Newspapers Inc. prints “in excess of 51,000 papers per week,” which would include the Jamestown News, Yes Weekly, and Creative Loafing Charlotte (the Adams Farm Gazette is monthly, and also serves a specific neighborhood). That 51,000 figure is difficult to understand, because Creative Loafing Charlotte “distributes more than 47,000 copies of its print edition each Thursday,” according to the newspaper’s website. Womack did say “in excess,” but even 17,770 copies of Yes Weekly added to the Charlotte total would mean considerable excess, and that’s excluding the business’ two other publications.

Just a couple hours after reporting to Zaragoza and the AAN that Yes Weekly’s circulation is 18,000 — a bit higher than the 17,700 listed on the three invoices I saw, but close — his email claims an average press run of 20,000.

But there’s a bigger problem.

Womack claims in his email that: “We approximate Yes Weekly to have 43,000 plus weekly readers.” Regardless of how he arrived at that figure, that’s not what Yes Weekly claimed before they knew I was looking into the issue and before Zaragoza’s call. A circulation map on Yes

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Several former advertising employees at Yes Weekly said in recent interviews that they worried about whether the circulation number they were told to use reflected the right amount. We’re granting anonymity because all of them feared retaliation and most or all still work in the same or a similar industry. None are employees of Triad City Beat.

One sales rep who worked at Yes Weekly for several years said that for the duration of employment, ad sales were based on a circulation of 43,000.

“I feel like I knew in my heart we didn’t do that, but I don’t think I ever had proof of it,” the former employee said. The former employee asked Womack about the perceived discrepancy, and said he was evasive but didn’t admit to a lower figure.

A second former sales employee who worked at Yes Weekly until a few years ago said the sales sheet she used for four years didn’t change, though she couldn’t remember the exact circulation number given.

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Nov. 11 — 17, 2015 Cover Story

“There were of course rumors inside of the office of Yes Weekly not printing the amount we said,” she recalled. “I remember staying out of it because that’s not my department.”

That environment of suspicion within the sales department, fueled by occasional disbelieving comments from potential advertisers, contributed to her decision to leave, she said.

“This number matters,” she said. “I was young and I was loyal and I listened to my boss. That’s not my department, but we should be involved as sales people. It’s basically the drivers. They’re the ones who get to see it on a pallet and know.”

A third former employee says she quit because of the rumors.

She remembers a specific incident where one of her accounts ordered inserts to go inside each copy of the paper. The total number of papers was somewhere around 40,000, she recalled, though she couldn’t put her finger on an exact figure. She picked up the inserts from the account and brought them back to the office, she said, but then a co-worker intimated that there would be far too many inserts to mate with the available papers.

“There was definitely an impression that there was a discrepancy,” she said. “It wasn’t the first time there was a discrepancy about how many go out versus how many we said.

That was actually one of the things that led me to want me to leave because I was concerned that I wasn’t delivering what I was promising.”

The former employee, who still works in media sales, said that’s a big problem.

“The only thing you really have is the circulation number,” she said. “The circulation number is really important for print. I never had return rates — how many that were left that you picked up. People are smart, and most of them know enough to ask. The sales reps, it makes them look bad.

“It’s not a victimless crime because you’re taking people’s money under false pretenses,” she continued, “but you’re also having your employees misrepresent, and that’s ultimately part of the reason I left.”

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Let’s return briefly to something else puzzling in Womack’s email on Oct. 15.

Womack claimed that “we don’t keep as close an eye on this as a paid product,” a possible comparison to the Jamestown News, a paid publication which he owns.

Does that make any sense?

Indy Week, the free alternative-weekly newspaper covering the nearby Triangle region, used to be printed at the Fayetteville Observer, where Yes Weekly prints.

Publisher Susan Harper said Indy Week switched their printing to the Charlotte Observer in early 2015, likely the first week of February. But the process in Fayetteville, which Indy Week followed for years, was consistent and specific.

“We would send them a press-and-ship order,” Harper said. “It would have the total number of copies we were having printed, times the number of pages per copy. We were literally telling them how many pages total we were printing. We would have a line that would say the number of copies… and how many bundles we expected and how many copies per bundle. I mean, that’s how explicit we got.”

The Fayetteville Observer expected a specified order each week, even if the amount didn’t change, and billed monthly for the cost, Harper said.

“We did get emailed invoices each week giving us a report confirming the print run and what the charge was for that week,” she said. “We would confirm that because we didn’t want to pay for papers that they hadn’t printed.”

Knowing the exact number printed is very important, she said, because each driver is given a specific assignment with stops and number per stop, so they need to receive the right number of bundles.

“We actually count out the number of bundles we have for our delivery people,” Harper said. “If we’re short, we need to know because we need to contact the printer.

It’s very important to us that we have the correct number of bundles and papers delivered to each place and that we know exactly how many papers there are; otherwise our drivers are going to be short while they’re out delivering.”

Kiffany Cain, who oversees commercial customer support for the Fayetteville Observer, said generally commercial publications send press orders before each print run.

“Any of our commercial jobs, and that includes other newspapers, would have to send in a press order,” Cain said, adding that the press order includes information about page count, the quantity, which pages are in color and shipping information, among other details.

The “bill of lading,” or invoice attached to deliveries, often doesn’t state the number of copies because it’s considered proprietary,

Cain said, but the number is still included for some clients.

At a minimum, bills are sent directly to the business or whoever is paying for the press order on a monthly basis, Cain said, but it’s usually more frequent for weeklies.

“Generally the commercial jobs, if they’re a weekly publication, I send them out each week,” Cain said of the printing bills.

She directed specific questions about Yes Weekly to Production Manager Pam Richards, who could not be reached for comment.

Indy Week prints and distributes 35,000 papers each week, and has 17 delivery people to get the job done, including restocking some stops on the weekend. For the sake of comparison, Triad City Beat distributes 10,000 copies using five drivers. Yes Weekly claims to employ two delivery drivers to distribute anywhere from 17,700 to 45,000 copies a week.

And that’s the question at the crux of the matter — how many copies does Yes Weekly distribute, and if the number has changed, when and why did the change occur?

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There’s another number we can include, based on the sales kit posted on Yes Weekly’s website. The list of advertising rates on the document, which says “effective June 1, 2014” in the top right corner, is explicitly for Yes Weekly (and not Womack Newspapers Inc. more broadly). Even though the publication pulled down some information about its circulation and readership after finding out that I was asking questions about it, the rate sheet document and other figures remained.

A quick glance at the list of rates reveals nothing — there’s no explicit reference to circulation or readership, just pricing based on ad size and frequency. But one detail at the bottom is telling.

The form says inserts cost $60/thousand, and that a “complete ROP” — which is industry jargon for “run of press,” or more simply, the press run — costs $2,580. If you multiply $60 by 43 (since $60 is the price per thousand), you get $2,580 exactly. Inserts are placed directly into each copy of a newspaper and distributed, so it’s safe to say that based on these numbers, Yes Weekly’s circulation as of June 1, 2014 was portrayed at 43,000 copies.

In his Oct. 15 email, Womack wrote, “As you know Eric, we are not a mailed or paid subscription-based pub so we don’t keep as close an eye on this as a paid product…”

Here’s a chronological breakdown of the numbers we have for Yes Weekly’s circulation. Find details about each in the article.

2010: Yes Weekly reports 43,000 copies a week to the AAN. 2012: YW reports 43,000 copies a week to SAPA.

2013: Former sales employees remember 40-43,000 copies.

Early 2014: YW reports 45,000 copies a week to the AWN. June 1, 2014: YW reports 43,000 copies a week based on insert rate.

2014: YW reports 38,000 copies to VMG.

Early 2015: YW reports 34,500 copies to VMG.

Later 2015: YW reports 38,000 copies to VMG. August-October 2015: I document 17,700 copies a week three times.

October 2015: YW reports “recently” (as of October 2015) to VMG that it will distribute 38,000 copies a week in 2016.

Oct. 15, 2015: YW reports

18,000 copies a week to the AAN after I prompt an inquiry, a day after I’m seen next to 17,700 copies.

Oct. 15, 2015: YW reports average print run of 20,000 to me via email, and scrubs the reference to 43,000 copies from the Yes Weekly website.

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A week after Womack told the AAN that Yes Weekly’s circulation is 18,000 on Oct. 15, the newspaper’s editor, Britt Chester, separated from the job. The Oct. 21 issue would be his last at Yes Weekly, and in the following issue, he didn’t appear on the masthead (which still listed defunct memberships in SAPA from 2012 and the AWN from 2014).

In a brief interview, Chester confirmed the split, saying, “I’m no longer the editor at Yes Weekly,” but declined to provide details about who made the decision to part ways, adding that any questions about the paper should be directed to Womack or Jeff Sykes, the news editor who stepped in to take his place. He declined to comment on any questions related to circulation.

On Nov. 4, two issues after Chester was fired or quit, Yes Weekly debuted a new look with adjusted sections, a modified logo and a greater emphasis on arts and entertainment while deemphasizing news.

Jeff Sykes, who joined Yes Weekly soon after Green and I turned in our letters of resignation in late January 2014, declined to comment on Chester’s departure, saying it’s a personnel matter. But he did offer some insight on the paper’s circulation.

“According to the email that I saw that Charles [Womack] sent you, it’s somewhere in the 17,000 to 20,000 range,” Sykes said. He added that he read the email referenced above and discussed the matter with Womack at the time.

“Obviously we discussed what it is you are wondering about,” he said. “I don’t have anything to hide.”

Sykes said that Womack told him there were “maps printed prior to 2010 that had a different number on it.” The only map on Yes Weekly’s site is the one that claimed “43,000 papers distributed free every Wednesday” and which someone

Delivery driver Janice Gantt claimed that 17,700 papers (above) only made up part of the order, but the paper’s publisher admitted to a circulation of 18,000 the next day.

scrubbed around the time of Womack’s email. And as for the AAN change, Sykes said: “I think there were outdated materials in the office and I think the AAN had not requested a circulation update in more than five years, is what they said to us.”

But in general, Sykes emphasized that he keeps his nose to the grind, focusing on producing content.

“All I’ve done is focus on interviewing people and writing good stories and getting the paper out on time,” Sykes said.

His attitude bears striking resemblance to Green and Clarey’s explanation of their approach to working at Yes Weekly, and it mirrors how I handled my time there as well.

Sykes either could not or would not provide any specific dates for when circulation may have dropped dramatically. But the industry overall is “in turmoil,” he said, pointing to circulation cuts at a local daily newspaper and describing a “competitive environment” with other weekly newspapers.

Newspaper revenues are “very difficult,” Sykes said, which is part of the reason that Yes Weekly is shifting to an arts and entertainment, or A&E, focus.

“We have sort of felt for a while now that A&E would be a more unique niche,” Sykes said, adding that he’s long been interested in turning Yes Weekly into a more “general interest magazine” and letting other weeklies handle local politics.

The change is a response to the revenue climate, he said, but so far he’s heard an “overwhelmingly positive response”

from readers, and he’s “very excited” about the paper’s future.

In his email, Womack offered a similar explanation for the drastic circulation drop, but like Sykes, did not provide any information about when the shift happened.

“I am not sure what your article is about,” Womack wrote, “but if it’s the economy, like everyone else, we have been hurt as well.”

But this explanation begs the question: If circulation has risen and fallen in the last two years, reaching as high as 45,000 and as low as 18,000 (or 17,700) now, were advertisers who pay based on the newspaper’s reach informed?

Sushi Republic advertises in Yes Weekly every other week, manager Andy Russell said. He’s been responsible for the Greensboro restaurant’s ad buys for about two years, and hasn’t seen a change in cost or been informed of a change in circulation, he said.

“We’ve been advertising with them for a fairly long time and we have an agreed-upon rate with them,” Russell said.

“I haven’t seen that change in the two years I’ve been here.”

He also said that Sushi Republic started running ads in Yes Weekly before he became the manager, and that he’s never been told any circulation number.

Scott Robinson, the owner at Taylor Tire in Greensboro, also said he’s never been given a circulation number for Yes Weekly, and he hasn’t asked for one either.

Robinson said he can’t remember seeing

a rate sheet or a circulation number. But he too has been paying the same rate for multiple years and was unaware of any circulation changes.

Taylor Tire and Sushi Republic both advertised in the Aug. 26 and Sept. 23 issues of Yes Weekly, and Taylor Tire also ran an ad in the Oct. 14 issue — all weeks when I documented a print-run invoice of 17,700 copies.

Additional advertisers couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Monday and Tuesday, save for developer Marty Kotis who ran an ad in the Aug. 26 issue of Yes Weekly and also said he didn’t request a circulation number in part because many of his ads with the paper are trade instead of cash deals.

The newspaper’s three current sales reps couldn’t be reached for comment.

triad-city-beat.com

In his Nov. 5 email, which is prefaced by saying “I wanted to make sure you had my statement,” Womack stuck to his original claim.

Are we to believe that Womack, who allegedly adjusted Yes Weekly’s circulation up to nine times (see the adjacent timeline) in less than two years, and who according to Indy Week publisher Susan Harper should be receiving weekly receipts from the Fayetteville Observer, doesn’t keep a close eye on his circulation numbers?

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There are many terms and numbers in this article. It can be confusing to keep them all straight. But that’s especially because something doesn’t add up.

You might expect this level of confusion from someone outside of the industry, or maybe somebody who didn’t know better. But that isn’t Charles Womack. He became the publisher of the Jamestown News in 1990, according to his LinkedIn page, and founded Yes Weekly in 2004. In 2014, Womack bought Creative Loafing Charlotte, another alternative weekly newspaper, and he acts as publisher. He previously owned the Outer Banks Sentinel, and in February 2015, he became the vice president of Womack Publishing, according to LinkedIn. Womack Publishing, not to be confused with Womack Newspapers Inc., is the family business, based in Chatham, Va., publishing 16 newspapers in North Carolina and Virginia. Womack is a third-generation newspaper owner.

Some people may not understand the difference between distributing 43,000 copies of a newspaper and claiming 43,000 readers based on an average print run of 20,000. Some people might not understand why the circulation number should be so vital for advertisers, or what would be wrong with misrepresenting the figure. Some people could easily find any of this hard to follow. But it wouldn’t make sense for Charles Womack — the vice president of a sizeable newspaper-publishing company who has worked in the family industry for at least 25 years — to be one of them.

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Nov. 11 — 17, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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CULTURE Brewing, bok choy and campus cuisine

by Eric Ginsburg

f I had smoked weed in college, seeing students hunched over rows of turnips or harvesting bok choy here would be a much more surreal experience. But during the last half-dozen years or so, this expanse formally known as the Meadows — where Guilford College students used to emerge from the campus woods to blaze in peace — has transformed into a serene experiential classroom.

There’s only one dedicated staff member who oversees the Guilford Farm — Nick Mangili — but increasing buy-in from the college has encouraged the farm to grow. Students in an Agriculture Revolutions senior seminar are assigned a fieldwork component, and their peers arrive for work-study and for community-service credit hours. There’s a proposed sustainable-foods major, Mangili said, a new sustainable-agriculture practicum and support staff, and last year’s senior class gift consisted of fruit trees and shrubs to add to the blossoming collection.

Situated between several plots of food and not far from a greenhouse and high tunnel sits a home under construction, a symbol of the school’s commitment to the venture. When it’s completed, Mangili, his wife Audrey and their dog will move in.

The house is a short walk from the school’s mushroom-growing operation, and on the way you pass by an unused hill that Mangili plans to turn into a small orchard. A little farther up the path, the trees give way to another field where kale, mustard greens and shoots grow, accompanied by several chickens and two beekeeping stacks.

Mangili has been in the position for just a year and a half, arriving at Guilford College after stints at various breweries. He joined the now-illustrious Fullsteam Brewing team a few months before the Durham brewery opened, later taking a job at Deep Ellum Brewing Co. in Dallas, where he briefly acted as head brewer. Later, back in North Carolina, he worked with the start-up Haw River Farmhouse Ales in Saxapahaw, easily one of the best breweries in this beer-saturated state.

But commuting from Greensboro, where Audrey was attending UNCG, grew tiresome, and Mangili found a gig in another one of his passions — farming.

The couple actually met while working at Coon Rock Farm in Hillsborough. Some mornings, Mangili would feed the pigs before heading over to Fullsteam, and then return to the farm to keep working. All of his knowledge about growing food and caring from animals came from first-hand experience, Mangili said, with the benefit of searching for information sporadically online.

But his inspiration for farming came from his Italian grandparents, who ran a family farm in California. In addition to Coon Rock Farm, Mangili and his wife also spent 10 months traveling the country, learning about organic farms as they went. After trying his hand in

I

Nick Mangili (squatting) talks to students about how to harvest some of the crops early one morning last week.

it, Mangili became obsessed with the self-sufficiency aspect of farming, and his enjoyment is palpable.

In a way, his dual interests in brewing and farming make sense: Both are compatible with that DIY ethic as well as the joys of experimentation. Though he isn’t sure if he’ll ever fully return to brewing, Mangili continues to homebrew, and recently attempted a beer/cider mix using pears. It’s the kind of thing you hear about in homebrew forums, he said, so he and Audrey decided to try it. They’re waiting to see how it will come out.

The Guilford Farm is a constant experimentation process as well — they’ve tried growing peanuts, had to troubleshoot sweet potatoes and are nurturing a small permaculture section. There’s a chance the number of chickens will soon multiply to 40, and a student who recently traveled to Cuba is talking about introducing a farming technique that would allow the farm to grow salad greens in the summer.

All of that suits Mangili, but it’s also easy to see how it benefits students (especially if you compare it to what my classmates did in these fields during my tenure at the school). The half-dozen students out at the farm around 9:30 a.m. on a recent Thursday were into it, chatting as they cut Swiss chard and joking about a student whose car got stuck in the mud near the mushroom operation.

It’s not just that the farming is educational or enjoyable though — it’s also practical. The bulk of what’s grown winds up in the college’s cafeteria, managed by a small company called Meriwether Godsey. And I have to say, after eating in the dining hall for several years and then again on Monday, it’s gotten pretty fantastic.

The school also sells its products, like carrots and

ERIC GINSBURG

salad greens, to Lucky 32, Bestway grocery, Deep Roots grocery co-op and at an on-campus CSA. Profits from the on-campus sales help cover a mobile market that students run at Glenhaven, an apartment complex in Greensboro that’s mostly inhabited by Nepalese and Bhutanese refugees and where students in the Bonner Scholars program are already active, Mangili said.

For a brief moment, as I watched Mangili and students bent over neighboring rows of Swiss chard and bok choy, I wanted to join them. If the farm had been in full swing during my days at Guilford College, I thought, maybe I would’ve made it out to the Meadows after all. But better yet, I decided, I can eat the fruits and vegetables grown there. And maybe Mangili will let me try that cider/beer when it’s done.

Contact Nick Mangili at the Guilford College Farm at mangilina@guilford.edu.

Pick of the Week Taste of the South @ Old Salem Visitor Center (WS), Thursday, 6 p.m.

This is the place to be if you’re into Southern cooking and kicking it with the Triad socialites.

Authoring Action, a nonprofit focused on empowering artistic youth, has selected the best of Winston-Salem’s Southern-styled eateries like Bib’s and The Porch Kitchen Cantina to cater this fundraiser event. They’re also featuring a nice selection of local breweries and wineries such as Hoots and Cellar 4201. There’s a lot to offer at this food-centric fundraiser. Find more details at authoring action.org

Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

There may already be eight breweries in the Triad’s three cities, with two others nearby and several more on the way, but only one of them has a beer menu broken down into two main categories: “IPAs,” and “not IPAs.” Even local beer fans who haven’t been out to Foothills’ tasting room, in a warehouse so far towards Winston-Salem’s city limits that it’s hardly recognizable as part of the city, could guess that the juggernaut would be the one to split its beers into the two camps.

These are the folks who brought us the Jade IPA — the most popular local beer among the Triad breweries’ lead brewers, a brew that will soon be released in six packs for the first time.

This is where you can find an IPA of the Month beer, or coming in 2016, a Hop of the Month brew, home of Hoppyum, ERIC GINSBURG Cornhole, a food truck, friends and beer — sounds about right for a HopJob, Seeing Double IPA and the Friday night at Foothills. wintery Frostbite Black IPA. Or if a hop bite isn’t really your thing, In some ways the Foothills tasting and when it’s Foothills, that kind of there’s page two of the draft menu, room — not to be confused with the hyperbole is permissible. with the classic Torch Pilsner, seasondowntown pub — feels like a really cool al Oktoberfest or —better yet — the basement, but it’s actually a mid-sized Gruffmeister Maibock. Page three right bar with a decent patio area tacked now is shorter, naming three beers in on to a production facility. The tastFoothills’ limited Foot Men Series: a ing room opened earlier this year, and witbier, an American wheat, and a wee though it’s an outlier, it’s worth checkheavy Scotch ale. ing out even just to ogle the brew tanks.

If you happened to show up at the When I showed up with three friends, tasting room in the we had intended to southwestern corstay for one drink ner of the city on Visit Foothills Tasting Room and head someFriday, Nov. 6 like Take charge of your mind, body and spirit at 3800 Kimwell Drive (W-S) where else with I did, you might’ve food, but aided by or at foothillsbrewing.com.

Test pH balance, allergies, hormones had the opportuthe King-Queen Balance diet, lifestyle and emotions nity to snag a pint Haitian Cuisine of any of them for Create a personalized health and nutrition plan food truck, which is based in Greensfree. boro but happened to be there that We never really figured out why one night, we ended up hanging around for of the bar’s patrons decided to pay for three rounds. Thanks to mystery man a few hundred dollars worth of beer for for the third. the couple dozen people hanging out This is the kind of place where you on the evening’s early side. Don’t ask might see a minivan full of middle-aged questions, a woman standing next to people pull up and pile out around 9 me at the bar advised when I wondered p.m. We did. And though we weren’t aloud at the source of our good fortune. alone in ranging from 26-32, most of Just take the free beer.

(336) 456-4743 the boozers were closer to retirement Later, as our patron saint played Iron than college.

3723 West Market Street, Unit–B, Maiden from his phone and sang along Not that we cared. Foothills is, as the as best he could, my friends obliged his Greensboro, NC 27403 youngest among us said right before ormood and joined in, complete with wild dering the November IPA of the Month, jillclarey3@gmail.com air guitar. one of the top five reasons he lives in www.thenaturalpathwithjillclarey.com It was the least we could do, really.

Winston-Salem. When you’re drinking,

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by Eric Ginsburg

The other Foothills

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Nov. 11 — 17, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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CULTURE A musical journey through Tate Street history

by Daniel Wirtheim

lassical music spilled from the window as Ian Pasquini carried his video equipment to the small, white, ranch-style home. He knocked on the front door, no one answered. He waited for a few minutes, knocked again and just as he was ready to leave the face of the woman he had come to know as the “mother of Tate Street” beckoned him in.

Pasquini, a musician, spent a year and four months capturing more than 20 interviews and calling people all over the country to document the evolution of music and venues on Greensboro’s Tate Street near UNCG and Greensboro College. His 15-minute video “Tate Street That Great Street” was uploaded to YouTube last April and he has plans to archive the rest of his interviews with UNCG. “No one uses the front door,” Leung said to Pasquini as he stood on her doorstep holding his camera. “It’s bad feng shui.”

Inside, the home was crowded with objects, but it was not cluttered. At Leung’s insistence Pasquini set the camera up to film her interview before a painting of the Great Wall of China. Meanwhile, Leung started preparing food.

Nearly all of the local musicians Pasquini had interDANIEL WIRTHEIM Ian Pasquini recorded more than 20 interviews for his documentary “Tate Street That Great viewed spoke of Amelia Leung, who along with her Street,” many of which he plans to archive with UNCG. husband opened Hong Kong House in 1971 in the space where Sisters and Boba House now operate. Leung was ing it to be a punk story, just a DIY, I-don’t-know-whatstory that was never confirmed. There were memories known for cooking foods with macrobiotics —reciI’m-doing thing.

It’s like, ‘No one in Black Flag knew of Henry Rollins from Black Flag rolling across broken pes that many considered “ahead of her time” — and how to play a guitar but they did it anyway, so that’s glass on the floor of Fridays, a punk and new-wave offering bands free meals for playing at the restauwhat I’m going to do.’” venue that operated where Jimmy John’s is now. Many rant. She catered to the burgeoning music scene and Pasquini set out arranging interviews with former people remembered Devo’s 1979 performance in even allowed an employee to open up another venue, band members, bouncers, promoters and venue UNCG’s Aycock Theatre and even more interviewees Aliza’s Café, in the basement. It was a series of phone owners who were active on Tate Street from the ’60s mentioned Eugene Chadbourne who played an electric calls and emails that had brought Pasquini to Leung’s through the ’80s.

He searched through archives for rake on Tate Street. house. photos and at one point took a bus to New Orleans You have all these people working towards a greater “I was drinking homemade green tea,” Pasquini to meet Chuck Alston, whom he had heard about goal, that’s what made it so great, Pasquini said. It was said. “She made these boiled eggs that were black. through other interviews. a place where everyone was connected.

They were either soy sauce or I don’t know — I’d never Alston was living alone and harboring three file And when Pasquini visits Tate Street today it’s not seen it before. But I’m trying to do an interview and cabinets full of Tate Street Memorabilia. According uncommon for him to meet someone who’s seen Tate she’s trying to shovel food down my throat. It kind of to Pasquini, Alston was wearing what appeared to be Street That Great Street with the good chance that, in painted this picture that Amelia is still the mother of pots and pans. some interview, he’s heard their name before. this scene.”

Alston had landed in Greensboro Pasquini grew up hearing stories Pick of the Week due to a technicality from his posiof the street’s culture and music Search “Tate Street That tion as a conscientious objector to from both of his parents who went Reanimator’s three-year anniversary @ Krankies Great Street” on YouTube the Vietnam War, Pasquini said. In to UNCG in the late ’70s. He found Coffee (W-S), Saturday, 8 p.m. to find Ian Pasquini’s film. Greensboro, Alston started a small the story of music on Tate Street With a lineup featuring Ed Schrader’s Music publication, the Greensboro Subcompelling but could only come up Beat and Drag Sounds, Krankies Coffee is the place stitute, and contributed his writing with a few articles on the subject, to be on Saturday night. If you haven’t seen Ed and painting to Tate Street culture. often cramming stories into 750 words. In other words, Schrader before, be prepared for a spectacle. He’s “It’s so intertwined. He starts these magazines and there were not enough primary sources for Pasquini, a a ferocious drummer, pounding away as tribal-like it’s all these musicians and artists from Tate Street. musician pursuing history degree, to understand what rhythms are chanted between himself and a bass Everybody is so interconnected,” Pasquini said. it was that made Tate Street a great place for music. player. The lights are quite spectacular as well.

The stories from one interview often overlapped The topic of his master’s thesis came easy to him; he And Drag Sounds (originally of Greensboro) are with one another, sometimes giving multiple interwould delve straight into the musical history of Tate always ready to discharge some good old rock n’ pretations of the same story. There was a fuzzy tale Street. roll steeped in punk and rolled in new wave. Visit that New York Pizza was involved with the mafia — a “I just tried to go at it,” Pasquini said. “I was expectreanimatorrecords.com for more details.

C

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CULTURE Local artist plans to release comic book series

by Daniel Wirtheim

I

t’s been 20 years since Earth was destroyed, and Ida and Kumi are making breakfast in their spherical pink spaceship, the Red Grape-

mother, who has a shrewd response to every situation. But Kumi is the real fighter, and she doesn’t fit the Amazonian archetype. She’s shy and endearing, with more sensitivity than one might expect from a comic book character. Some readers have told Stanley that they sensed a romantic relationship between Ida and Kumi. Others see them as completely platonic. Stanley said it could be either and it doesn’t matter.

“I think I always have been drawn to heroic female characters in movies books and comics,” said Stanley. “A lot of times they can almost be too cold.

It’s like they are a badass and that’s all they are, they hate COURTESY IMAGE everything and they Between working at a grocery store and raising a child, Barrett Stanley spent the last three years making Heartbreak Quadrant. don’t have a heart.

I think women are thinks this might be his ticket out of the grocery store. more complex, they have a more complex inner-life to “I feel pretty good about it as a piece and I feel me.” better when I put it in front of people’s eyes,” Stanley Stanley designed a signature color palette for said. “I’ve worked at Earth Fare for nine years and if I’ve “Heartbreak Quadrant.” He spray-painted color learned anything it’s patience. I’m not willing to give swatches of airy pastels and faded neon and scanned up anytime soon.” them into Photoshop, where he made a palette for

fruit.

Breakfast is simulated hash browns and some real coffee that they’ve been saving for a special occasion, which is now since they’ve just gotten the call they never wanted to get.

The vintage-item collection company is going nuts for a non-genetically modified girl and being that Kumi is the only one in light years, the girls are going to have to deliver some lethal punches in just a few comic book sequences.

It’s the world Barrett Stanley has lived in for the last three years. Between raising a child and maintaining a job at Earth Fare in Greensboro, he’s completed the first issue of his comic book series “Heartbreak Quadrant,” which he hopes to turn into a larger series through crowdsourced funding.

It started at the health-food grocery store as a few employees were taking their morning coffee and talking about comics. Someone had posted a Mœbius comic from the ’70s, a European illustrator known for his highly-imaginative fantasy style. Stanley had always appreciated comics and those morning chats were compelling enough to make a 36-year-old oil painter want to spend the next three years creating his own.

There was no real space to work. Stanley just sat down in his home with new inspiration stirring his mind as he started sketching. The concept came quickly.

It’s a world based on quadrants, each with it’s own distinctive feel. Earth was destroyed and his heroine’s job is to pursue Earth-items, which are then considered valuable collectables. Stanley flushes out the details, creating his own fictional pop-icons and new curse words. And like so many great comic book series, Stanley gives the world of Heartbreak Quadrant a villainous corporation that tries to control the collection trading industry. It’s a scrupulously detailed world that Stanley couldn’t quit fantasizing about, even during his shifts painting over the black and white outline sketches. at Earth Fare.

He wanted to step away from “It’s tough, especially if I go the digital and “sterile” feel of into work at night,” Stanley modern comics and create a Search for the “Heartbreak said. “Having to make that world where John Carpenter is Quadrant” campaign page on change is hard, to pull that a relevant historical figure.

Kickstarter or read a preview at plug out and go clock in to “I pick and choose things the store. In a strange way I heartbreakquadrant.tumblr.com. that I like,” Stanley said. “Most think some of the feelings of of it is the throwaway stuff, working at a company comes like an old movie or tape deck. out in the comic. As it goes on some of those villainous It’s junk to us now but it gives us a value because evcharacteristics come out in the characters. It has sort erything is gone. The whole thing is sort of a love letter of this anti-corporate theme.” to the ’80s.”

To stand against the evils of his comic world, Stanley Stanley feels good about the first issue and working wanted two heroines that he could relate to. Ida is on the second now. If his Kickstarter campaign reaches named after Stanley’s own tough and witty grandits goal, he’ll have the first one printed next year. He

Pick of the Week Leather Belt Making Workshop @ Centennial Trading Company (GSO), Friday, 6:30 p.m.

Culture is to be shared and the folks at Centennial Trading Company understand this.

That’s why they want to show you how to make your own belt. They think that clothing should be an investment, which means taking no shortcuts.

You’re going to learn how to cut straps from a full hide, size a belt and punch holes into that thing.

They’ll also show how to use chemistry to your advantage in keeping up with leather products. Find the event on Facebook for more information.

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GOOD SPORT Forecast: Deacon blues least, when the shots dropped.

And they played surprisingly well on defense. They forced 10 steals in that first half alone — three apiece from guards Quamain Rose and Keysheen Hinton — steals which added up to an embarrassing 17 Wake turnovers by halftime.

Their largest lead was eight points with 3:17 left before halftime. At that moment, I thought, Hell, I’m

by Anthony Harrison down for an upset.

But the Braves couldn’t convert the lead into double digits in the face of the Wake defense, which collapsed the whole time. on drives in the paint and trapped quickly in the backThe Nov. 6 game in Winston-Salem was a tale of two court. halves, for the Braves actually led the home team by a Rallying through the second half, the Deacs rarely point at the end of the first, 33-32. And that was only looked back over their shoulders. They left the first after a late-half rally by the Deacons. half behind and pulled it together for the ass-whipping I don’t want to seem glum or pessimistic… but I’m final score. going to have to be. Things aren’t looking great for They even started having fun the Triad’s lone Atlantic Coast with the game nestled in their Conference team. pocket, throwing up alley-oops Every team wants to win their Wake Forest University and slamming dunks against a first game of the season. Regardnext plays the University of weary, demoralized Pembroke less of whether it’s an exhibition, teams must enter their season Maryland-Baltimore County squad.

That’s a mark of an upper-echwith this mentality. It’s almost at Lawrence Joel Veterans elon team: Finishing strong, with a given that a team like Wake a flourish.

Forest should win their first game Memorial Coliseum on So here’s what’s not going well in a cupcake matchup against a Friday at 8 p.m. For tickets for Wake Forest. team like UNC-Pembroke.

They were appalling from the But David has been known to and more information, visit free-throw line, hitting only twodefeat Goliath. wakeforestsports.com. thirds of their 39 opportunities Going into that Friday night, th for extra points.

Pembroke was ranked 10 in the nation among Division II schools.

One fan behind me even shouted, “C’mon, Wake! Can’t shoot free throws worth a You may scoff, thinking, “Well, yeah, in Division II…” flip!”

Listen: You can say all you want about the difference Wake clearly needs work with controlling the ball. in talent or physicality or anything else between DiviA small team like Pembroke may take the rock away sion I and II, but I argue that if you’re ranked highly in more easily, but 25 turnovers doesn’t bode well, any sector, you can prove to be a threat.

Pembroke certainly started off looking like one for especially with the sweeping majority in the first 20 minutes. their Division I opponents.

On paper, Wake seemed dominant in the stats The Deacons are also slightly unbalanced. Senior forward Devin Thomas shined with 25 points and 16 of during the first half: 43.5 percent on shooting, a 12-rebound advantage over Pembroke, seven swatted shots.

Wake’s 49 rebounds. Two other players — sophomore These laudable numbers only improved during the second half.

But remember — they were losing by a point at halftime.

They may have been smaller, sure, but through most of the first half, the Braves played quick, clever ball. Pembroke didn’t shoot well; as aforementioned, they only scored 33 points on paltry 28.9 percent accuracy. But they hit four threes on 12 attempts and made seven of nine free throws, and initially, that made up the difference.

They also worked pretty well against Wake’s coverage, occasionally rolling out of traps to make splendid plays — at he Wake Forest University Men’s Basketball Team defeated UNC-Pembroke’s Braves 86-64 in an exhibition game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Nov. 6, marking a win for the Deacons’ basketball season preview. But it wasn’t looking like a blowout

T

forward Dinos Mitoglou and freshman forward John Collins — tallied 15 and 12 points respectively, with Collins contributing those points off the bench. Teams can only rarely support themselves on the back of one player alone.

Here’s harsh reality: Wake Forest University competes in the ACC. Carolina, Duke, Virginia and Notre Dame are all ranked in both major preseason polls.

And Wake will face all of them over the course of the coming season.

The Demon Deacons cannot allow a half like they played against Pembroke against teams of this caliber.

Any of those squads likely would’ve turned 17 first-half turnovers paired with a pithy performance at the line into an insurmountable blowout.

I may be kicking Wake while they’re down, though.

Recently, their program hasn’t had the same spark as they did in the halcyon days of the ’90s and early aughts. The program that produced Muggsy Bogues, Tim Duncan, Josh Howard and Chris Paul last reached the Sweet 16 in 2004 and hasn’t appeared in the NCAA tournament over the last four seasons.

But, excepting Thomas, they’re young. They have time yet to grow.

Here’s hoping this exhibition game was a learning experience, or the pep band will have to add some Steely Dan to their repertoire.

Pick of the Week Fish in a barrel Annual trout stocking @ Lake Higgins Park (GSO), Saturday It may be getting cold, but that doesn’t mean you can’t fish. Lake Higgins will stock their hatchery pond with trout on Friday before opening the pond to anglers of all ages the next morning. Those over 16 must have a North Carolina fishing license. The fee to fish is $1, and anglers must pay $4 for every pound of fish caught; there is no catch and release.

The fishing starts at 8 a.m.

14 beers on tap

Wednesday Night Trivia 9pm 343 S. Elm St. • Greensboro

GreysTavern.com

336.617.5341

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GAMES

‘The Bridged Version’ something is, uh, missing.

by Matt Jones Across

57 Dunkable dessert 58 Knock for ___ 59 Caldecott Medal winner ___ Jack Keats 63 50-50 share 64 “Talking in Your Sleep” singer Crystal 65 Pond hopper 66 “Frozen” snowman 67 Word after “going twice...”

68 “Sorry I broke your priceless Ming vase”

Coffee and snacks at 10:00am

Join one of our Life Groups today!

Develop speaking, thinking and listening skills in a safe, welcoming and supportive environment.

Mondays 6:30 – 8 pm

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This 6 session parenting program, designed by the Love and Logic Institute offers practical skills that can be used immediately!.

Mondays, Oct.26 – Nov.30 6:30 – 8:30pm

Gate City Youth (7th–12th grade)

We hang out, play games, eat, worship, have a Bible Study, and just talk about life.

Wednesdays 7 – 9 pm

gatecityvineyard.com

336.323.1288 204 S. Westgate Dr., Greensboro

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Visit gatecityvineyard.com/events-2 for more Life Groups and Events.

Shot in the Triad

Women’s Bible Study Every Tuesday 7 – 9 pm Men’s Bible Study Tuesday, Nov 24th 7 – 9 pm

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Join us in a walk through each book of the Bible!

©2015 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)

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Love And Logic Parenting Class

Answers from previous publication.

Opinion

1 Ear buildup 2 Approval from a f˙tbol fan 3 Harry’s friend at Hogwarts 4 Jordan River’s outlet 5 2011 NCAA champs 6 Ph.D. candidate, e.g.

7 Bacon quantity 8 Yahoos 9 Get overly concerned 10 Countess’s title 11 “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” coverers ___ Overkill 12 Oboe mouthpiece 15 Ben’s role in “Pearl Harbor” 21 Sty squeal 22 Certain mortgage, informally 23 Some hair conditioners 24 Archetypes 26 Record following?

28 Be

Sunday service @ 10:30am

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Down

30 Invalidate a law 31 Paints without care 32 ___ Haute, Indiana 34 “’___ the season to be jolly” 35 ___ Harbour, FL 38 Survey results between stories 41 Seeing red 42 Auto shaft 44 Pate de ___ gras 45 Cabbie’s question 47 Guys 50 Hitch in a plan 52 Brought (in), as music 53 Area below Greenwich Village 54 Mountain range between Europe and Asia 55 Boxer Oscar___ Hoya 56 Duncan toy 60 Frenzied situation 61 Kanye’s forte (other than selfpromotion) 62 Super Bowl highlights?

Up Front

1 Scrabble play 5 “___-daisy!”

9 Pronounce indistinctly 13 Burn cooler 14 Orange or lime, e.g.

16 Ending with soft or spy 17 “Hercules” character who got her own show 18 Locale of Universal Studios Japan 19 Slight advantage 20 “Please have a solid weave, rope!” wish?

23 On the upswing 25 L1k3 t415 t3xt 26 He announced he wouldn’t run in 2016 27 “In medias ___” 29 It’s never been done before 33 Levy for being stealthy?

35 “I couldn’t care less!”

36 “This ___ ripoff!”

37 Menzel of “Wicked” 39 Miles ___ gallon 40 Flood-prone areas 43 Clothes that don’t need people?

46 New Jersey county 47 “Your post is the best of all,” online 48 “World’s busiest airport” 49 “What ___can I say?”

51 Pitchman’s pitches 53 Dock where everything happens so fast?

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Penny Road, High Point

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Late afternoon at the Piedmont Environmental Center.

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ary’s Gourmet Diner

(336) 723-7239

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219 S Elm Street Greensboro, NC

336 274 4810

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Night Fridays 7pm — 2am

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At least these MDs won’t have STDs, but for god’s sake never beat them at golf.

Lawyer (Scientific name: Arguesalotis Assholius) Professional quarrelers, lawyers are always building a case against you. Their evidence file is vast and despite any number of character witnesses you might have — they will always win.

But either way, you lose.

Athlete (Scientific name: Baller Simpletonius) Physical specimens to be sure but it’s kind of like the time I interviewed the No. 1 draft pick for the Yankees and and asked, “The Yankees have a lot riding on you — what are your aspirations?” His reply: “I’m a Presbyterian.”

Musician (Scientific name: Brokius Sameoldsongian) If you enjoy vacuuming picks out of your carpet, dusting drum kits or seeing a spittle-filled horn piece in your sink then this is the guy for you. He speaks through his music more than his mouth so communication is limited. Be sure you really like his jam before you commit to a lifetime of picking up picks — and the check.

Construction man (Scientific name: Hammers Hardius) Usually both handy and handsy, hard-hatted and hard-headed, this tool belt-toting guy is a lot of fun to have around — as long as you don’t have white upholstery and there’s a wide berth between your front door and the nearest shower. His friends might pose a problem though — unless you enjoy entertaining a motley jobsite on a regular basis.

Chef (Scientific name: Stainless Steelius) This man may or may not bring home the bacon but he will certainly come home smelling like it. Be sure to invest in Irish Spring if you date one of these kitchen folk. They are overall passionate and appreciate nuances but how this failed to translate to chef pants is beyond me.

Fireman (Scientific name: Hold Hosius) Generally wholesome in nature, a team player who enjoys helping others — remember this is also a guy who has his pants down and is ready to go at all times. He also likes poles and hanging out with a bunch of dudes making chili.

Artist (Scientific name: Turpentinus Likesvaginius) He’s usually an extreme romantic — dying to paint, sculpt or channel your beauty into his art in some form or fashion. Just be sure to check out his oeuvre of work to see how many muses he’s committed to memory before you commit your heart to bronze, marble, acrylic or oil.

Writer (Scientific name: Scribblius Selfabsorbsius) The worst of the bunch, this blowhard with a laptop will not only steal your material, he’ll write about you under the guise of anonymity and then write you off with nary a The End. Mechanic (Scientific name: Dirtynailius Fixacarius) This guy likes to get his hands dirty — and that’s a good thing. Just make sure he spends as much time on your internal combustion engine as his own.

News

I was recently engaged with a group of thinkers and introduced to a musician who looked vaguely familiar and I observed that musicians out of their natural, stage habitat look totally different. My friend asked why. I said, “Because when they are playing they have that affixed face of concentration.

I call it the ‘sex face.’ And people — well, most people — don’t walk around sporting their sex face.” That got me to thinking about the occupational and avocational hazards of dating.

Here are a few of my findings from over the years.

Doctor (Scientific name: Godcomplexus DrivesaLexus) Egomaniacs of the ER, masters of the HMO universe, dictators of the dental chair, oligarchs of the OBGYN faction — no matter their specialty, these boys like their women with fast pulses, normal heart rates and below average brain power.

It takes a village

Up Front

other: So I guess now that you’ve dated a construction guy you’ve essentially dated the Village People.

Me: I’ve never dated a cop.

Mother: Really? What do you have against cops?

Me: Nothing. But like the Bukowski

by Nicole Crews character in Barfly I just seem to feel better when they’re not around….

Wait. When did I date “military man?”

Mother: Your West Point boyfriend.

Me: Oh, right. And I guess you are counting the gay Navajo guy I used to garden with.

Mother: He was charming. What was his name?

Me: I can’t remember.

M

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2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro geeksboro.com •

336-355-7180

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