Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com November 9 – 15, 2016
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God help us. PAGE 8
Election results PAGE 8
Empty seat at the bar PAGE 21
Mean girls at Wake PAGE 30
Nov. 9 — 15, 2016
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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
CONTENTS
On election eve, considering the source
by Brian Clarey
UP FRONT 3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 6 Commentariat 6 The List 7 Barometer 7 Unsolicited Endorsement
NEWS 8 President, governor and US Senate 10 Guilford County results 12 Forsyth County results
OPINION 14 Editorial: What comes next
14 Citizen Green: High Point civil wrongs 15 It Just Might Work: End loose-leaf pickup
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24 Art: Sweeney exposes the truth behind childhood lies
SPORTSBALL
COVER
26 Stingers for the Swarm
16 The many lives of Ralph Speas, 1932-2016
CROSSWORD 27 Jonesin’ Crossword
CULTURE
SHOT IN THE TRIAD
20 Food: Antojitos is delicious 21 Barstool: Last call 22 Music: Two homemade everyman bands celebrate new releases
28 North Davie St, Greensboro
TRIADITUDE ADJUSTMENT 30 Mean girls suck
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Hopefully some nice, small carnivore had a good meal. — Ralph Speas, on losing his index finger in a woodcutting accident, in the Cover, page 16
1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 • Office: 336-256-9320 BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey
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SALES EXECUTIVE Lamar Gibson
SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green
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EDITORIAL INTERN Naari Honor intern@triad-city-beat.com
CONTRIBUTORS Carolyn de Berry Jelisa Castrodale Stallone Frazier Anthony Harrison Matt Jones
Cover design by Jorge Maturino
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SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green
TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2016 Beat Media Inc.
It’s the night before the election. I’m drinking some coffee and filing some last-minute writing before tomorrow, when I’ll eventually hit the streets with my notebook and see this thing through to the end — or, at least, as long as our late-night deadline allows. Best-case scenario: I get what I need by 11 p.m. and turn my piece around as fast as I can type it. Worst case… I don’t want to talk about it, but rest assured I have a plan. But before I wade into the thick of it, I still have to vote. I just pulled my sample ballot from the Guilford elections website, something that took me about eight seconds because of my familiarity with the site, and went through my choices. Then I spent a half hour or so researching the candidates at triad-city-beat.com, where I found straight reporting about every single race on my ticket. Because of my job, I’m pretty familiar with the candidates at the top of the bill, but even I get pretty murky when it comes to school board races and the more obscure judicial seats. Now I’m all squared away and ready to go. This is a fundamental function of journalism, and yet so many of my friends and relatives outside the business seem to have trouble deciphering real information from speculative spin. It’s important to me where I get my information, particularly as it concerns this election, which has created the largest, steamiest, most rancid pile of BS I have ever seen in my entire life: Because of my job, I’m pretty false claims from candidates, false familiar with the candidates poll results, false at the top of the bill, but stories from bogus even I get murky when it news sources comes to school board races which are then and the more judicial seats. force-fed through social media, given equal time with actual news and, among some of the more zealous, even more of the heft. There has been some spectacular reporting this election cycle from small publications like ours all the way up to the New York Times and Washington Post, but it seems that facts have never mattered less. This is how far afield we’ve gone when it comes to faith in reporting: A couple months ago I found myself in a social-media flamewar with a guy who didn’t trust the results of the US Census, let alone the New York Times. But the facts will always matter, even to people who say they don’t, because at some point, reality will always rear its head.
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Nov. 9 — 15, 2016
ALL WEEKEND
CITY LIFE November 9 – 15
Entrepreneur weekend @ Flywheel (W-S) Flywheel Coworking and the Center for Design Innovation host Start-up Weekend 2016. The weekend seminar, starting on Friday at 6:30 p.m., is dedicated to supporting people who want to turn their business ideas into a reality. More information can be found at flywheelcoworking.com.
WEDNESDAY
Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership fall meeting @ Embassy Suites, Grand Pavilion Ballroom, (W-S), 11:30 a.m. Ethan Kent, senior vice president for Project for Public, is the keynote speaker while Ed McNeal, director of marketing and communications for the city of Winston-Salem, takes the guest speaker slot for DWSP’s fall meeting, which takes place in the hotel’s Grand Pavilion Ballroom. Take advantage of this opportunity to network and hob-nob with the movers and shakers of Winston-Salem’s business community. More information can be found at downtownws.com.
THURSDAY
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by Naari Honor
Veteran story time @ New Winston Museum (W-S), 5:30 p.m. One key to healing wounds of the heart caused by tragic events is to share the story with others. New Winston Museum presents Veterans & the Healing Power of Storytelling, an open discussion. Professor Cyndi Briggs; Jacinta White, founder of the Word Project; Twin City Stage Executive Director Connie Schroeder; and Vietnam veteran Don Timmons come together to demonstrate the effects storytelling has on the healing process. For more information visit newwinston.org/visit/events.
Veteran’s Day performance @ Triad Stage Cabaret (GSO), 8 p.m. The Star-Spangled Girls take the stage to honor veterans who risked their lives to serve and protect the United States. The group, commissioned by UNCG’s Women’s Veterans Historical Society, share the stories of the women who enlisted in the military during World War II through performance and song. More information can be found at ttnc.org/star-spangled-girls-2.
triad-city-beat.com
FRIDAY
SATURDAY Veteran discount offering @ Greensboro Farmer’s Curb Market (GSO) The Greensboro’s Farmers Market begins its participation in the Thank a Vet program. All vets that have obtained a Guilford County Veteran ID card from the Guilford County Register of Deeds will receive a free shopper tote to fill with fresh goodies at a discounted price from participating market vendors. For information regarding obtaining a veteran ID and the Thank a Vet program visit myguilford.com/rod/thankavet. Holistic expo @ Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center (GSO), 10 a.m. Tune into your inner spiritual being while exploring the newest advances in holistic healing and metaphysical modalities. Greensboro plays host to the annual two-day 2016 Body Mind Spirit expo bringing experts in spiritualism and alternative health practices from the Triad and beyond. For more information visit bmse.net. Veterans parade @ downtown Greensboro, 1 p.m. The city of Greensboro hosts its first annual Veterans Day Parade to honor veterans and military personnel. Organized by veteran organization and community leaders, the parade starts at Lindsay Street and ends at the War Memorial Stadium parking lot. For more information, visit facebook.com/ GSOHonors, email gsohonors@gmail.com or call 336.355.8436.
SUNDAY Writing workshop @ High Point Public Library (HP), 2 p.m. Looking for a bit of fuel for your creativity? High Point Assistant Fire Chief Mark Levins shares arson investigation techniques and evidence collection with the help of actual closed case files. For more information visit Consider Arson as Creative Fuel Facebook event page.
TUESDAY
Immigration policy panel @ Holy Trinity Church, Haywood Duke Room (GSO), noon Immigration lawyer Ann Marie Dooley; Raul Pinto, staff attorney at the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project; Alexandra Sirota, public policy analyst and project director at the NC Budget and Tax Center; and Middle College at UNCG graduate Luis Flores talk about exclusionary immigration policies at the League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad’s luncheon at the Haywood Duke Room at Holy Trinity Church. RSVP required at lwvpt.org.
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Nov. 9 — 15, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
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Boomer confessional I am disgusted by what we boomers have left for younger folks. [“Editorial: Generational divide: Boomers, Millennials and GenX”; Nov. 2, 2016] And I cringe when I see those boomers who once cared (marched against the Vietnam war, for civil rights, for the atmosphere, etc.) now whining about not getting enough and building their “dream” homes. Young people, take us to task if you want a future! Demand fairness in student debt, reversal of climate deterioration, restriction of greed, and for heaven’s sake, vote! Then further demand better candidates for future elections. My hope is in you, for my daughter’s and granddaughter’s sakes! Art Kainz, Kernersville You’re not entitled to your own facts Where do you get this s*** from? [“Officer Cole promoted amid police investigation”; by Eric Ginsburg; Sept. 27, 2016] Travis Cole was never promoted nor did he resign. He was stripped of all his medal and his badge, and fired from the police department. Justinamazing, via triad-city-beat.com Eric Ginsburg responds: From the police department directly. What the hell are you talking about. And what medals? Two views on Renaissance Co-op So, how has the fresh produce sales been? [“Renaissance Co-op opens, filling considerable void”; by Eric Ginsburg; Nov. 1, 2016] How much has been spoiled and discarded? What is the shrinkage? Questions that will go to the heart of whether or not this store, heavily subsidized as it is, can survive. Andy Stevens, via triad-city-beat.com “A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled enterprise.” This definition from the International Cooperative Alliance clearly shows how ownership power can lead to more economic democracy when the community embraces cooperative enterprise as a solution. All the people who joined and invested in this business venture can call themselves “job creators,” to borrow a term from Reagan. Now, they just have to keep getting better and better and growing so they can keep their co-op grocery store, and meet the challenges of any business owner. I wish them luck! DavidW, via triad-city-beat.com
5 favorite “Criminal Minds” episodes by Naari Honor
1. The Lesson — Season 8, Episode 10
Crime thrillers have always had a way of holding my attention for hours and scaring me to the point that I must sleep with a nightlight. “Criminal Minds” is an excellent example of the kind of show that has become an addiction for me. One episode in particular, “The Lesson,” makes me cringe every time I come across it, but I can’t flip the channel. How could anyone turn away from a story featuring a serial killer who dislocates the joints and jaw of his victims’ primordium to make them loose enough to be strung up like marionettes?
2. Lucky — Season 3, Episode 8
Did you see the one about the cannibal who forced his victim to eat a few fingers? No, me neither until I saw this episode. Jamie Kennedy perfectly executes the role of a disturbed man placed in a mental facility as a child for taking a bite out of his sister. Once released at the age of 18 he went on to become a garden-variety cannibal who invented extravagant recipes out of his victims and was nice enough to share his famous human chili recipe with the good churchgoing townspeople.
3. Angels — Season 9, Episode 3
Between the drugged-out, pimping, woman-beating preacher and the sadist serial killer who tied up, ferociously carved and shot his victims in the head to set up said preacher, I had to say a few Hail Marys before going to sleep (after hiding all the kitchen
knives). Also, as a fan of the genius Special Agent Spencer Reid, the fact that he gets shot in this episode hit me in the gut.
4. Entropy — Season 11, Episode 11
“You don’t get everything you want just because you are pointing a gun at me under the table. You’re not the first killer to point a gun at me. You’re not even the first woman to pull a gun on me. Sorry.” Reid said as he sat across the table from an expert contract killer. While this episode is devoid of the usual blood and gore that I have come to stomach after a few Alka-Seltzers, this is one of the most memorable. Reid matches wits with a contract killer, Miss .45, during the hunt for the 12 serial killers who escaped in Season 10. What makes this episode so memorable is Reid’s frequent moments of assertiveness despite the gun pointed at his groin under the table and the close calls that make viewers think Reid has been outsmarted for the first time ever. The twists and turns of this one had me riveted, and praying.
5. The Boogeyman — Season 2, Episode 6
This episode starts off as a typical bat-wielding, child-killing serial-killer episode until we find out that the killer, who finds joy in beating his victims to a pulp, is a child himself named Jeffrey. Towards the end of the episode when we finally to witness the deranged kid in action, I couldn’t help but be shocked as he taps into his serial killer personality. His sudden evolution from helpful buddy to crazed killer during a short walk is actually quite haunting.
Join the Beat. Call Dick Gray for all your marketing needs. 336-402-0515
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Early vote or Election Day?
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Readers: More than half of our readers who responded (56 percent) said they voted early, which is higher than the turnout across North Carolina by more than 10 percent. Almost 40 percent of our readers who voted in the poll (39 percent) said they would vote on Election Day, while 5 percent said “Other,” which would include absentee, abstention and more. Our former intern Joanna Rutter selected “other” because she voted absentee by mail.
30 20 10
Vote Early
39%
Election Day
5%
Other Sportsball
One beer per week
Triaditude Adjustment
per week I’ve found only enhances my appreciation for the brew and makes me relish the occasion all the more. Last week, I booked a 5 p.m. Friday meeting at the Green Bean at the request of an organizer I know in Greensboro. I mistook it for a social call, although I later discovered his main intention was to pitch me on a story. It struck me that drinking a good beer would be the perfect cap to a long work week, and although my friend stuck with coffee, I don’t think he minded me unwinding during our meeting. I picked out a can of Fullsteam Cack-A-Lacky, the Durham brewery’s ginger pale ale. It was the perfect, civilized drink — crisp with a sharp gingery taste, leaving a clean palate. As most drinkers know, alcohol consumption is a game of diminishing returns, and the next drink is rarely more enjoyable than the last one. So after finishing my beer and saying goodbye to my friend, I was pretty happy to just leave it there.
Shot in the Triad
fetish. On the whole, my tastes were not terribly discerning — a shortcoming abetted by an unhealthy proclivity towards binge drinking. Lately, I’ve come around to Kim’s idea. Honestly, my motivation is more financial than anything else: The past three years have included some radical lifestyle changes, beginning with the birth of my daughter and continuing through the decision to help launch Triad City Beat, and then about a year later, to buy a house with my wife. Our income is significantly more limited than before, and just keeping up with mortgage, utilities and groceries takes far more planning than I could have ever imagined. I had to find a way to reduce my spending, and beer was the most obvious luxury item to cut. Likewise, my free time has virtually disappeared between trying to up my game as a journalist and carve out time to be involved in my daughter’s life, so drinking is not so much on my agenda. I still love booze, and beer in particular. Distilling the experience of drinking down to one, or maybe two drinks
Crossword
by Jordan Green One Friday around 5 p.m. in the spring of 2000, I dropped in at the Institute for Southern Studies, a Durham nonprofit with which I’ve maintained an association since 1997. My friend, Kim, then serving as a research director, broke out a six pack of Molson and offered me a bottle, which I gratefully accepted. I was astounded when Kim volunteered that she was limiting herself to one beer per week. Maybe it seemed strange to me because starting in high school I internalized an ethos articulated by a metal dude on my school bus who raised the question: “What’s the point of drinking if you’re not going to get drunk?” After high school, my drinking largely followed the cheap-and-plentiful pattern, encouraged by a friend a couple years older who would ply me with a fresh can of cold Bud before I’d finished the last one. Later, in college, I thought people who bought Newcastle Brown Ale were pretentious, although I embraced some regional swills like Genesee and Pearl, and developed a Guinness stout
Culture
56%
Cover Story
New question: How will you use your social media time now that the election is over? Vote at triad-city-beat.com!
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Opinion
Jordan Green: Yes, I voted early. Part of me wanted to wait until Election Day to maintain the tension through the end of the process, but my wife wanted to vote early. And I was intrigued to see what turnout would be like. Also, we thought it would be fun to bring our 3-year-old daughter and that’s a job for two adults. We voted on the second Saturday of early voting at the Old Guilford County Courthouse in downtown
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Eric Ginsburg: Early voting whenever possible. I find it to be incredibly easy and convenient, because I frequently have short periods of downtime. I’d rather avoid any lines and potential issues at the last minute. I cast my ballot at UNCG’s new rec center in Glenwood on the second Friday of early voting, alongside my girlfriend.
News
Brian Clarey: Though I love early voting — and one-stop voting even more — I have never actually used it. I like to vote on Election Day, say hello to Precinct Judge John Henry, who has been running my precinct forever, and size up the scene. But it baffles me that early voting, which seems like a wonderful convenience for people on tight schedules, favors Democrats.
Greensboro after we had a chance to review the Triad City Beat voter guide!
Up Front
More than 40 percent of North Carolina voters cast their ballots during early voting in the 2016 general election, but we wanted to know more about our readers’ approaches. Turns out our editors have varying preferences, too.
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Nov. 9 — 15, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
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NEWS
Top races last into the night, with Trump, Cooper in the lead At the top of the ticket, Republican gains are marred by a state Supreme Court loss and a close race for governor. President As of press time, Donald Trump was on his way to becoming the 45th president of the United States. God help us all. Donald Trump was winning North Carolina by almost 4 points at press time, garnering more than 2.3 million votes against Hillary’s 2.1 million. Trump won by big margins in the rural counties — in Carteret he garnered 70 percent of the vote. In Graham County, in the west, he got 78 percent of the vote. Clinton’s Democratic strongholds in the urban precincts came through. In Guilford, where Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney in 2012 by more than 16 points, gave Clinton a win of almost 20 points. Barack Obama won Forsyth County in 2012 by 7 points, about the same margin that Clinton secured this year by more than 10 points. Huge victories in Mecklenburg, the northeast quadrant and the Triangle — Clinton got more than 77 percent of the vote in Durham County — were not enough to turn North Carolina blue. At press time, Trump had secured 244 of the necessary 270 Electoral votes to win the race, with leads in the key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona. NC Senate race In a decisive victory that covered all but the most urban counties in the state
Donald Trump won North Carolina by 4 points as part of a swing-state near sweep that propelled him into a nearly unassailable position.
and a small cluster east of Raleigh, Sen. Richard Burr was able keep his Senate seat for a third term. Going against the conventional wisdom that says early voting favors Democrats, Burr took a slim lead in early and one-stop voting totals. His gap widened on Election Day, finalizing with a 6-point lead. Burr lost both Guilford and Forsyth counties, though, trailing challenger Deborah Ross in Guilford County by
more than 16 points. In Forsyth, Ross enjoyed a 5-point lead. When his victory was confirmed, Burr was introduced by Thom Tillis, the junior senator from North Carolina, at Forsyth County Country Club in Winston-Salem around 10:30 p.m. Burr’s victory speech took a sentimental turn, reflecting on his children growing up during his time in Washington, the loss of both parents in the
COURTESY PHOTO
intervening years after his first election to the Senate in 2004 and the birth of a grandchild. The words prompted tears from Burr’s wife, Brooke. On winning a third term to the Senate, Burr said, “I’m also reminded tonight that with this special privilege that only two senators being elected — not appointed — will have served more terms than I have, that being Jesse Helms and Sam Ervin.”
News Opinion BRIAN CLAREY
Sen. Richard Burr successfully fended off Deborah Ross to win his third term in the US Senate, ensuring that his party does not slip into the minority.
JORDAN GREEN
Culture
The Guilford County GOP set up shop at the Shriner’s Club on Gate City Boulevard.
Cover Story Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
NC Supreme Court race In the biggest of the judicial races, incumbent Bob Edmunds, appointed by Gov. McCrory, fell to Mike Morgan, flipping the balance of power in favor of Democrats 4-3. State GOP leaders tried to solidify Edmunds’ hold on the seat by staging a retention election — in effect cancelling the primary and allowing Edmunds to run against himself in November — until the law providing for it was decreed unconstitutional. Morgan won by about 8 points, ceding just a thin belt of counties running westward from Johnston to Mitchell, with a few outliers on the coast and the western Virginia border. Morgan won both Guilford and Forsyth counties handily, taking Guilford by 11 points and Forsyth by 9.
Up Front
NC Governor’s race A tight race that lasted into the night seems to have fallen in favor of outgoing Attorney General Roy Cooper, who led Gov. Pat McCrory at press time by a mere 3,000 votes with just two precincts left to report. The issue at the heart of the race was HB 2, the so-called “bathroom bill” that cost McCrory much of his political capital after high-profile music acts, sporting events, films and businesses began pulling out of the state. Cooper kept a low profile during much of the campaign, allowing McCrory to play defense for the last six months. McCrory’s message about the Carolina Comeback resonated in the rural counties, many of which he won by more than 20 points. But he was unable to claim Mecklenburg County, where he lived when he was mayor of Charlotte, or Guilford County, where he grew up. McCrory lost Guilford by 24 points. By contrast, he was losing Forsyth County by just 15 points as of press time.
triad-city-beat.com
With his victory, Burr helps maintain the Republican majority in the Senate. As his victory was announced at the Shriner’s Club in Greensboro Tuesday night, the loudest cheer of the evening went up. “You know what that means?” said Fred Starr of Sedgefield. “It means we got the Senate!”
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Nov. 9 — 15, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
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Republicans prevail in most Guilford County races by Eric Ginsburg
In what appears to be a surprising acrossthe-board victory for Republicans as of press time, Republicans carry bigger races in Guilford County including state Sen. Trudy Wade’s District 27 race against Democrat Michael Garrett in a close contest, while Democrats appeared to maintain a narrow edge on the Guilford County School Board. Democrats spent election night scratching their heads, not just at the presidential and gubernatorial race, but also local battles. Towards the top of the ticket, Republican Congressman Mark Walker, who represents North Carolina’s District 6, appeared to handily defeat Democratic challenger Pete Glidewell with almost 60 percent of the vote as of press time. Similarly, former Guilford County Commissioner Bruce Davis, a Democrat, was behind in the race for the state’s 13th District in the US House to Republican newcomer Ted Budd by more than 10 percent of the vote as of press time. Things didn’t go quite as smoothly for incumbent and arch-conservative Trudy Wade, a former Greensboro City Council member who endorsed Donald Trump, voted for HB 2 and attempted to restructure the city council from her post representing state Senate District 27. Democratic challenger Michael Garrett, the son of Guilford County School Board member Darlene Garrett, mounted a serious campaign against Wade, but Wade appeared to ultimately prevail as of press time, with more than 53 percent of the vote with just three precincts not yet reporting. At a watch party at 1618 Wine Lounge in Greensboro, Garrett and his supporters watched results slowly roll in with plaintive looks. School Board member Linda Welborn, a Republican with no challenger in this election, attended Garrett’s event, saying that she voted in line with her party towards the top of the ticket but adding that she is close to Garrett and his mother, who she serves with on the school board. Welborn said she even campaigned for her colleague during the day. Darlene Garrett spent part of the day
Michael Garrett, background, watches election results come in at 1618 Wine Lounge with nervous supporters. It appeared he ultimately lost against state Sen. Trudy Wade as of press time.
at the Greensboro Day School precinct, where Democrats and Republicans are represented almost equally, 1,076 to 1,010 respectively. At 1618, she said turnout at the precinct remained slow. She ultimately won her seat, defeating Republican challenger Mary Catherine Sauer. Several local races for the General Assembly were uncontested, including Republicans —state Sen. Phil Berger of Eden and state Reps. John Faircloth of High Point and John Blust of Greensboro — and Democrats — Reps. Pricey Harrison and newcomer Amos Quick of Greensboro and Rep. Cecil Brockman of High Point. Other contests might as well have been uncontested, as Democratic state Sen. Gladys Robinson and Republican state Rep. Jon Hardister sailed to easy re-election victories. Things grew a little more interesting further down the ballot in two contested races for the Guilford County Commis-
sion. In the rural District 4, covering the eastern part of the county, Democratic challenger and former commissioner Kirk Perkins apparently lost against incumbent conservative Alan Branson, who bested Perkins in a matchup last go-round. Over in District 6, represented by Republican Hank Henning of High Point, Democratic candidate Rick Forrester lost a very close contest, receiving 16,210 votes to Henning’s 16,967 with all precincts in the district reporting. Forrester spent part of Election Day at Smith Grove Baptist Church in Colfax, the biggest precinct in the county and one that leans Republican but one that is full of unaffiliated voters. Forrester said he hoped to cut into Henning’s strong support the incumbent received in the precinct last time around. He managed to bring in almost 39 percent of the vote, a good showing considering Republicans outnumber Democrats
ERIC GINSBURG
there almost 2 to 1. There are more unaffiliated voters in the precinct than Democrats, a bigger total number of independent voters than any precinct in Guilford County besides the one around the UNCG polling place. Loren Bailey, an independent voter in the Smith Grove Baptist precinct, said she voted mostly for Democrats, despite supporting Republican in state races in 2012. “It’s mostly the social climate in the state that I think we have to change,” she said. That’s why she voted for Michael Garrett over Trudy Wade in for state Senate, though she didn’t speak to the county commission race directly. Most voters leaving the polling place on Tuesday polled by TCB said they voted in line with their party registration all the way down the ticket. But the real local action remained in several school board races. Thanks
triad-city-beat.com Up Front News Opinion Cover Story
Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan, far left, campaigned for the four city bonds at Greensboro Day.
ERIC GINSBURG
School Katherine Jackson, left, stands with her daughter and goddaughter after voting for Democrats at Reid Memorial CME Church in Greensboro.
ERIC GINSBURG
Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
to redistricting and a decision from the General Assembly making the contests partisan and drop the number of seats, the new Guilford County School Board was bound to look considerably different than its current makeup, with several incumbents not running. Amos Quick’s jump up to the state House and former Greensboro City Council member Dianne Bellamy-Small’s successful attempt to primary incumbent and fellow Democrat Keith McCullough added to the guaranteed shift on the school board, and she faced no opponent in the general election. Former school board member Anita Sharpe, a Republican, appeared to win against incumbent Democrat Jeff Belton in District 2 as of press time, while Democrat Darlene Garrett appeared to hold on with one precinct remaining at press time with almost 1,000 votes above Republican Mary Catherine Sauer. Only newcomers competed in Districts 3, 6 and 7. A race in District 3 was too close to call as of press time, but it appeared that Republican Wes Cashwell would carry District 6 while Democrat Byron Gladden would take the District 7 seat. Gladden posted a campaign worker at Reid Memorial CME Church in east Greensboro — the precinct with the most Democratic voters in the county — for all of Election Day, joining the effort in person around 3 p.m. Board Chairman and lawyer Alan Duncan, a Democrat, prevailed over Republican Alan Hawkes in the lone at large race. In all, that means the new Guilford County School Board will likely consist of four Republicans and five Democrats, including Bellamy-Small in District 1 and unchallenged incumbents Linda Welborn, a Republican in District 4, and Deena Hayes-Greene, a Democrat in District 8. It’s difficult to conclude exactly what the new composition of the board will mean going forward given that it’s the first partisan race for the body, but it is possible that the slim Democratic majority will depart from the relatively liberal positioning of the current board, which has repeatedly gone to battle against the right-wing General Assembly. But again, all results were not in as of press time.
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by Jordan Green
Triaditude Adjustment
Shot in the Triad
Crossword
Sportsball
Culture
Cover Story
Opinion
News
Up Front
Nov. 9 — 15, 2016
Few surprises in Forsyth County at the low end of the ticket
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Michael Tyler (bottom) greeting a voter in Forsyth County.
The status quo held in local races for Winston-Salem City Council and Forsyth County Commission, respectively controlled by urban Democrats and suburban Republicans, in a topsy-turvy election that saw Latino voters surging against Trump along with some Republicans, and an unexpected reservoir of support for the Republican nominee among independents. The bitterly divided contest for North Carolina’s political soul saw two Winston-Salem Republicans boosted to council of state seats, with former state lawmaker Dale Folwell prevailing over Democrat Dan Blue III by about 6 points, in the battle for open post of state treasurer, and Winston-Salem/ Forsyth School Board member Mark Johnson appearing to oust incumbent
Democrat June Atkinson from the position state superintendent by 2 points. Folwell watched the results with fellow Republicans at the Forsyth County Country Club. “I feel like our message has been to attack problems, not people,” he said. “People were stunned to learn that we’re paying $6 million to a Wall Street firm, and that the teachers and state troopers could not afford premiums. I’m excited about taking my skills to Raleigh to tackle that.” With turnout amplified compared to the previous presidential election in 2012, Forsyth County’s contribution to the state’s pool of electoral votes, which went to Trump, remained virtually unchanged, with about 53 percent of the county’s voters favoring Clinton and
JORDAN GREEN
about 42 percent supporting Trump. Conforming to pattern across the state, turnout among unaffiliated voters leapt in Forsyth County. Many of them broke for Trump, however reluctantly. “I didn’t like either candidate,” said Stephanie Fabrikant, who voted at the Glenn High School polling place in Kernersville. “I think we could take four years of [Trump]. Hillary Clinton, giving her a promotion from secretary of state — I can’t imagine doing that. Take a situation like Libya that resulted in the deaths of four Americans: She lied and refused to take responsibility. People say Donald Trump is a loose cannon, but look at the situation with her private server: It shows she has no idea about national security and preventing cyberattacks.”
While Trump made up ground with unaffiliated voters, some Forsyth County Republicans defected from their nominee. David Hassen, who also voted at Glenn High School, chose Libertarian Gary Johnson for president, while selecting Sen. Richard Burr, Gov. Pat McCrory and other Republicans through the rest of his ballot. “In my opinion, he’s not qualified whatsoever,” Hassen said. “There’s a certain weight that the office carries, and he doesn’t have what it takes.” An activated Latino vote, particularly among young people, was also evident in Forsyth as a backlash against Trump. Jennifer Loya, an 18-year-old graduate of Parkland High School, cast her first vote in a presidential contest at the
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Republican incumbents also held on to the three seats in Forsyth County Commission District B. Democrat Selester Stewart, who placed a distant fourth, vowed to run again. “Even if I don’t win county commission, I won a lot of hearts,” he said during the final stretch of campaigning outside the Griffith Fire Station polling place. “I’m gonna come back. I’m gonna give people another chance to vote for me.” The vast majority of state lawmakers in the Forsyth County delegation, including Democrats Sen. Paul Lowe Jr., Rep. Evelyn Terry and Rep. Ed Hanes Jr., and Republicans Sen. Joyce Krawiec, Rep. Donna Lambeth and Rep. Julia Howard sailed to victory without opposition.
Triaditude Adjustment
their Republican opponents, each with roughly two thirds of the vote. Mayor Allen Joines ran unopposed, along with fellow Democrats on city council Derwin Montgomery, Vivian Burke, James Taylor, Denise D. Adams and Dan Besse, along with lone Republican Robert Clark. The Forsyth County Register of Deeds race went to Democrat Lynne Johnson, who unseated incumbent Norman Holleman in the primary. Johnson, who previously worked in the office for 27 years, prevailed over Republican Steve Woods, a former lawmaker. As expected, Republican Virginia Foxx easily won a new term as representative of the 5th Congressional District, winning by 17 points. Republican Debra Conrad also easily fended off a challenge from Democratic challenger Marilynn Baker.
Shot in the Triad
refrained from actively promoting the bond because of disappointment that it did not include funds for a new middle school on the east side of Winston-Salem. Voters also approved a $65 million bond for a new “learning commons” with “technology-rich design and maker spaces” on the Main Campus of Forsyth Tech, a new aviation center at Smith Reynolds Airport, and an expansion of the transportation center to support automotive technology, diesel and heavy equipment, motorcycle service and racecar technology programs. A separate bond for $15 million will pay for improvements to Tanglewood, Triad Park and Horizons Park. Democrats swept city council races, maintaining an 8-1 majority. In the two contested races, Democrats Jeff MacIntosh and John Larson prevailed over
Crossword
Trinity Moravian Church polling place in Winston-Salem’s Southside neighborhood. “I think we as human beings — we have rights,” she said. “I want people to live. We came over here to have a better life. I’m Hispanic. My vote counts.” Forsyth County voters overwhelmingly favored three bonds. Voters favored a ballot initiative to raise $350 million for public school construction, roughly three to one. The funds will pay for new, suburban schools in the Smith Farm area and on Robinhood Road, along with the replacement of Brunson Elementary, Konnoak Elementary and Lowrance Middle/Paisley IB Magnet. The Koch Brothers-based Americans for Prosperity mobilized conservative voters against the bond, while a coalition of urban community leaders that included the Winston-Salem NAACP
JORDAN GREEN
Sportsball
Semester Stewart at Griffith Fire Station.
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Nov. 9 — 15, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
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OPINION EDITORIAL
What comes next We’re sending most of the paper off to the printer before the election results come in, so as of this writing, we have no idea who won the most important presidential election so far this century. It’s been exciting in North Carolina as our battleground status inspired dozens of visits from candidates starting way back in primary season, with an unusual amount of top-ticket campaign activity in the Triad. It’s hard to know if the political acrimony between the factions in North Carolina is a result of the hardball campaigning we’ve seen all the way down the ticket, or if the campaigning merely reflects the polarized zeitgeist in our state right now. Once again North Carolina sits atop a bitter divide. We don’t need the election results to make that call. Has it always been this way? Jesse Helms was able to build his political empire on the power of 51 percent of the vote. And he never seemed to care much about the other 49. But this is not Jesse Helms’ North Carolina; his tarnished legacy fades more each day, as the demographic shifts against what was once the sole domain of white people, and before that, white men. And as the GOP platform looks ever backwards, their party becomes a tougher sell. After the 2012 election, an internal Republican postmortem reasoned that without increasing the party’s appeal to women and Latinos, it could not survive more than a few election cycles. Four years later they give us Donald Trump, with his tiny, grabbing hands and his wall. Even transplanted Northerners — the “halfbacks,” identified as a key demographic in NC this cycle — who have voted Republican all their lives don’t necessarily buy into this branch of the GOP, which seems less centered around free-market capitalism and more on social issues and racism. Because in the South and elsewhere, as free-market capitalism fails more and more working-class whites, the party needs to scapegoat minorities and exploit social issues to maintain its appeal to its core constituency. Still, no matter who wins the White House, the Senate seat, the Governor’s Mansion or the council of state seats, the General Assembly in Raleigh will still be controlled by Republicans. Politically speaking, a move to the center is the easiest way to mitigate the party’s problem of diminishing returns, finding common ground with more North Carolinians and bringing them — and, this is key, their interests — into the fold. The hard way would be to try to keep gerrymandering the districts, juggling the numbers to marginalize the majority, and preventing people from voting — but we’ve been getting flagged for stuff like that a lot lately. And even those moves serve only to delay the eventual end.
CITIZEN GREEN
A black history that demands engagement History can be a dangerous thing when it viscerally connects to the current conditions of people’s lives, when it inspires people to imagine what it would mean to attain full dignity and take collective risks to by Jordan Green manifest hope. At least the way most of us were taught it in school, history is supposed to be safe — a continuum of dramatic episodes involving distant actors that tidily resolve themselves and have no real implications on the present. Phyllis Bridges’ new documentary, The March on an All-American City, which premiered at High Point Theatre on Nov. 5, chronicles the local history of the civil rights movement in High Point, from official subterfuge in the 1940s to prevent blacks from using the city-owned golf course at Blair Park to the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. Yet the framing of the film begs the question of what the history means for African Americans in High Point today, with the opening frames interspersing headlines from the 1960s with a screenshot of recent coverage of the city’s firing of its black human relations director and images from the Black Lives Matter movement. The film’s relentless pacing, terse narration and use of strobe effects to introduce new episodes challenge the prevailing narrative of the sit-ins, and likewise resonate with the fraught atmosphere of the current moment, in contrast to the valedictory sensibility of many other civil rights documentaries. The disapproval that the demonstrators faced, even from parishioners in their own churches, brings to mind the vocal chiding received by a black protester earlier this year when she confronted Hillary Clinton about her “super-predator” comment at a fundraiser in South Carolina. The hostile and violent white mobs that greeted black students demanding service at lunch counters in Greensboro, High Point and other cities in 1960 seem not all that different from the Trump supporters attacking Black Lives Matter protesters at the candidate’s rallies over the past 12 months. While Greensboro is rightfully recognized as the site of the sit-in that inspired the wave of activity across the South, the same drama played out in city after city, each with its own distinct leadership structures, courageous actors and sustained commitment to keep coming back day after day in the face of violent opposition. In contrast to Greensboro and other cities, the backbone of the movement in High Point was high
school students, most of them between 14 and 16 years old. One of them was Brenda Fountain, who had already made history as one of the first two black students, along with her sister Lynn, to desegregate allwhite schools in High Point. Fountain recalls in the film that the news that four NC A&T students in Greensboro had launched a sit-in at Woolworths impelled her and her peers to action because they believed that the movement must spread to every city. “There was no black college in High Point,” Fountain says in Bridges’ film. “So we were like: ‘If not us, then who?’” The reaction was worse than many of the students anticipated. As Mary Lou Andrews (now Mary Lou Andrews Blakeney), who would go on to serve on High Point City Council, recalls in the film, the students were kicked and punched as they left the store on the second day, and pelted with snowballs packed with shards of glass as they walked back to Washington Street. The extensive interviews assembled by Bridges render a level of complexity missing from many accounts of the civil rights movement, which often give a one-dimensional treatment to the tactic of nonviolence. The high students underwent rigorous training in non-violence and agreed to sustain blows without responding, under the tutelage of a remarkable leader, the Rev. B. Elton Cox, who went on to serve as the national field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality. Blakeney recalls that when her brother started to throw a punch at a white man who shoved her, Cox promptly removed him from the lunch counter. No second chances. But Cox, who served as pastor at Pilgrim Congregational Church from 1958 to 1968, tells one interviewer: “I’m a non-violent person, but I’ve got two German Shepherds and five loaded guns to protect my home.” The Rev. Angela Roberson, who pastors the church — now Congregational United Church of Christ — that Cox once served, explored that tension during a panel discussion after the film screening on Nov. 5. She fielded a pre-submitted question about why nonviolence was so effective, which included the opinion, “But we seem to have stepped away from that approach today.” Roberson’s response suggested that maybe the posture of Black Lives Matter is not so different from their elders. Roberson observed that Cox “certainly was a very courageous man,” noting that he experienced multiple threats on his life and went to jail 17 times. “So there was a way in which he conducted himself publicly as a representative of the movement,” Roberson said, “which did not negate that he would defend himself if necessary.”
End loose-leaf pickup
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This will easily be one of the most unpopular things I will ever write. But free loose-leaf pickup is absolutely ridiculous, and a total waste of our money. When I mention the service — which is in place in Winston-Salem and Greensboro — to by Eric Ginsburg people who aren’t from around here, they have no idea what I’m talking about. They’ll look at me first with confusion, then incredulity. And I get it. The same is true in reverse, when I explain to people in the Triad that where I grew up, there is no municipal trash or recycling collection service offered. We separated our own recycling and took it to the facility adjacent to the town dump. That’s where the trash went too, but we produced enough of it that we outsourced the drop-off role to a trash collection company, just like our neighbors did, rather than schlep our refuse to the dump. I used to enjoy going to the dump, throwing glass bottles separated by color into a huge container and hearing the shatter, or watching old newspapers tumble down the side of the steep pile from our paper bags. But I’m not advocating for privatized trash and recycling services — those are basic needs, the latter of which the cities should really encourage and can profit from. I grew up in a small town, with about 23,000 residents, where such socialized services might not be as cost effective. But the concept of free loose-leaf pickup still irks me. Sure, it’s better than if the cities forced you to bag the leaves first, just creating more work for residents and ultimately more waste. But do we really need to socialize the cost of leaf removal? Maybe we could strike a deal, wherein once a year the city would make a pass to pick up loose leaves piled by the curb. Additional pickups could be scheduled by appointment at an additional cost, and considering the city already provides water, it might not be that complicated to tack on to a resident’s monthly bill. You want your precious lawn free of naturally occurring leaves at all times? Great. You can pay for it directly. Someone could argue that the same theory could be applied to trash pick up, somehow charging residents more for requiring more frequent collections or surpassing a weight threshold. I’d be just fine with that. It’s how we pay for electricity and water, so why not incentivize decreased wasteful habits around leaf collection and garbage the same way? It could be harder to pull off for trash, it could be argued, because such an approach might encourage littering or illegal dumping. The same can’t really be said for leaves, though — go ahead and throw them into the woods down the street from your home, and stop making the rest of us pay for it. After all, it costs the city of Greensboro almost $900,000 a year, and the money comes out of the general fund.
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IT JUST MIGHT WORK
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Nov. 9 — 15, 2016
The many lives of Ralph Speas, 1932-2016
Cover Story
by Brian Clarey
Ralph Speas was perhaps best known as the archivist for the Piedmont Blues Preservation Society, but before that he lived dozens of lives. Among them was his time as an international SCUBA instructor in the 1960s, just 20 years after Jacques Cousteau invented the Aqualung. COURTESY PHOTO
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This had been coming for a while. His atrophied legs looked like a couple of baseball bats under the sheet, and his long-lost daughter Rebecca had folded his spidery hands over his chest. His face still wore its death grimace, the top half mottled with deep purple shadows and the gape of his wide, toothless mouth swallowing his lips. His head was rocked back on the pillow, giving the impression of a long, silent moan. At long last he had given up every bit of vitality he had possessed. Rebecca — shocked, exhausted, sort of relieved that the last shoe had finally dropped — handed me a couple framed photographs of her father and a USPS Priority Mail envelope. “He would have wanted you to write something,” she said. I should have come weeks ago. I should have come every week. I should have bought lunch for Ralph Speas at least once a month from the day I met him more than 15 years ago, plumbed the depths of his experience and clocked the accumulated insights of a remarkable life. Or, really, lives. Because I believe we all live several lives during our time on this planet — stages, chapters, acts…call them whatever you like. And Ralph, I soon discovered, lived a good deal more than most: academic, adventurer, activist, philosopher. In this century, Ralph was best known as the historian for the Piedmont Blues Preservation Society — he was the old guy with the camera at every blues and roots performance within 50 miles. Through his lens he caught BB King, Gatemouth Brown, Luther Allison and more. But there’s a lot more to his story than that. The envelope contained three stapled pages, typed, under the headline, “SUGGESTED OBITUARY FOR RALPH SPEAS,” with handwritten notes in the margin and signed in hand at the end: “Ralph R. Speas April 12, 1998.” It is his own account of these lives he lived, in clean block paragraphs and, as per usual, drastically understated.
I met Ralph when I was covering music in Greensboro for Go Triad. A vibrant blues scene had taken root in Greensboro in the late ’90s, anchored by the blues society, which by the new century had been conducting its annual festival and hosting events all year long around the city. At one of these gigs — at the Flatiron, maybe? — as I sat with my notebook watching the band, Ralph slipped me a folded sheet of paper; on it he had written the names of everyone in the band, with correct spelling, and the instruments they played.
Do people outside of arts & entertainment journalism know how useful something like that is? The first time I really wrote something about him, he had just lost the index finger on his left hand in a woodcutting accident in his yard. He didn’t bother looking for it. “Hopefully some nice, small carnivore had a good meal,” he said. We spoke in that interview about his work with the artists, but he also gave me a bunch of amazing stuff I couldn’t use: His work as a police informant, the gymnastics and wrestling, the time he killed a shark. Ancient injuries and arthritis had conspired to create a state of constant pain for Ralph, but he told me he had trained his body to ignore it. Still, he winced when he moved every day I knew him. But I came in very late to the story.
I knew Ralph was smart. I didn’t know he was an academic. From his obit I gathered the extent of it. Ralph was born in Ames, Iowa in 1932; his mother died shortly thereafter and his grandparents, Quakers and farmers, took him in. His father, Richard, reclaimed him after remarrying, and brought Ralph along as he and his new bride, both teachers, worked the circuit of farming communities in the region. After graduating high school in Delmar, Iowa, Ralph jumped from Iowa State University in Ames to the slightly more cosmopolitan State University of Iowa in Iowa City. His degree in sociology and biology earned him a teaching gig in the Chicago area in the early ’60s. I can see Ralph Speas as a young man, newly degreed, teaching during the day and cruising Chicago blues clubs by night, trying to figure out what his life was supposed to mean. It was during this time that he discovered SCUBA, which had been revolutionized by Jacques Cousteau’s Aqualung breathing apparatus just 20 years earlier. He quit the teaching gig and traveled the world for a couple years, teaching underwater diving to both civilian and soldiers. Upon his return to the United States, he began accumulating degrees: a masters in family sociology from Florida State University, and one in child development and family relations from the University of Connecticut, where he also taught a human sexuality studies class. He taught in the Merrill-Palmer Family Life Institute at Wayne State University in Detroit, and then, in 1967, was appointed as a national teaching fellow at NC A&T University, which brought him to Greensboro in the long-ago year of 1967. He was 35. In those years he would attain more degrees and teach human sexuality everywhere in the Triad: Guilford College, Winston-Salem State University, UNCG, Greensboro College and Bennett College, where he was, for a time, interim head of the sociology department. And he
taught the first human sexuality course at the University of Wisconsin. It was later, after he had retired from academia, that he taught the first public-school human sexuality course in the history of Guilford County, at Dudley Open School in 1985.
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At the end, Ralph Speas’ body scarcely made an indentation in the hospice bed it had been confined to for the last couple weeks.
There’s an awful lot to unpack in those first two paragraphs of his obit, upon which Ralph spent perhaps 350 words. I want to talk to him about Chicago in the ’60s, and what it was like to dive deep into the largely unexplored oceans of the world. I want to know what it was like to teach human sexuality during the years of the Sexual Revolution, through the AIDS crisis and beyond. I want to know why he chose to move to Greensboro, and why he always came back. More, I want to know what it was like to introduce human sexuality to Guilford County Schools in the impossibly tardy year of 1985. And I want to know why, after a decade of conversations, some of which I was taking notes at, I had been so self-absorbed that I didn’t really know any of this.
A dive into the newspaper stacks fills in some color. Here’s a mention from the Aug. 27, 1955 issue of the Daily Iowan, out of Iowa City, about a program put on by the State University of Iowa’s Dolphin Club, under the theme “Rainbow Rhapsody,” featuring the sort of “synchronized swimming and fresh water gymnastics” for which they had become known. “Climaxing the program,” it reads, “was firediver Ralph Speas, a senior from Beamon, Iowa who dived 40 feet while flaming with fire into the field house pool.” And here he is in August 1970, testifying in an obscenity trial in Raleigh that made the local papers. Don Gary Childs had been arrested on several counts of selling obscene and immoral literature, and one count of showing an obscene film after two visits by police. Of the books and magazines Childs had been arrested for selling, Ralph, then an assistant professor at UNCG, said, “[T]o the best of my knowledge, these materials are available in all the major metropolitan areas in the whole world.” As an expert witness, he cited the research indicating no connection between literature of this type and criminal behavior before an overflow crowd in the courtroom. Still, Childs was convicted of all 14 counts, and sentenced to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, which in 1970 dollars is equivalent to more than $6,000 today. Here’s an old one, a photo credit in the Daily Iowan in December 1960, a shot of two cheerleaders for a story about a campaign to buy new megaphones. And one more, a position paper filed deep in the web-
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Nov. 9 — 15, 2016 Cover Story
site skeptictank.org by Alvin Rankin called “The Religious Right’s Assault on Gay Rights: A Parent’s Perspective.” In it, Rankin describes the 10th annual convention of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays — PFLAG — that took place in Charlotte in 1991 and the reaction of local conservative minister and radio host Rev. Joe Chambers, an acolyte of Jerry Falwell and colorful political figure in the 1970s. “Joe went bananas when he discovered that one of the workshops would be conducted by Ralph Speas, a Humanist Counselor of the American Humanist Association,” Rankin wrote. “He talked about nothing else during his regular weekly 60-minute program on a Christian radio station the week before the convention. His rantings and ravings had become so hysterically emotional, it wasn’t clear whether he had concluded that all homosexuals are atheists, or that all atheists are homosexuals.” From there his feud with Chambers deepened. An editorial in the September 1986 issue of the High Point College Hi-Po describes a Citizens Against Censorship concert at UNCG where Chambers was called to defend the state’s 1985 obscenity law. Ralph was there, too, poking holes in the Meese Report, a government study on pornography commissioned by President Ronald Reagan that had been released that summer. He told the students that the Meese Commission was “not political in any normal sense of the word, but powerful, nonetheless, and very intimidating. They were the ones responsible for the removal of Playboy and Penthouse from convenience store shelves.”
a soda jerk, farmhand, construction laborer, mill hand, truck driver, timekeeper, salesman, house painter, cement finisher and carpenter. He’d served as a surgical orderly, an EMT/ambulance driver, an underwater research diver, a lifeguard, a security guard and a photojournalist. And it still barely scratches the surface.
There’s so much more. Ralph was a founding member and eventual president of the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He chaired the law enforcement sessions of the first urban affairs conferences at NC A&T University and served on the citizens’ advisory committee for the NC Department of Corrections. He led encounter sessions between racial groups in churches, schools and military bases, and for the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce in the ’60s and ’70s. And he was involved in substance abuse and recovery since the earliest days of the subject in both Greensboro and Winston-Salem. He was a consultant, lecturer and debater for NC Citizens Against Censorship. And he founded the Association for the Repeal of North Carolina Abortion Laws in the late ’60s, a post which he held until 1973, when the state abortion law was, indeed repealed. I look around my newsroom, my home, my city, and I realize that in some ways, we are all standing on Ralph Speas’ shoulders.
Ralph’s obit lists the job titles he held during his 83 years, which paint as accurate a profile of the man as any biography can. In addition to his teaching positions, Ralph worked as
I remember another Ralph Speas interview I conducted, back near the turn of the century when Greensboro was in the process of reconciliation from the 1979 Klan Massacre while the current police department was in the throes of
a scandal that reached all the way up to the office of the chief. “There’s a lot of connection between those days and now,” he told me. “Some of the same people are in the department.” I had been interviewing him about a blues artist or some such thing, but pushed him on the statement. That’s when he told me he had infiltrated the Klan and other hate groups when he was younger, and informed on them to law enforcement. Chalk up another crazy job for Ralph. I remember coming back to the newsroom that day and thinking how strange it was that the nice old guy who takes pictures at the blues fest used to sneak around taking photos of burning crosses. And still I did not comprehend the scope of the man.
I came in at the end. Ralph Speas was already almost 70 years old when I met him — still vibrant, to be sure, a man in full. And I had always sensed a greatness in Ralph that he seemed reluctant to talk about… or, more probably, that I never had the time or inclination to discover. Ralph’s life ultimately stood for something more potent than the blues, though not entirely unrelated. It was about sex and power and freedom and knowledge, and I had no idea. How do you eulogize a man you didn’t know existed? How can a life with so many elements be properly honored, or even put into perspective? What can I say about my friend Ralph is that he may have been the greatest guy I never knew. And his legacy will long outlast his life.
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Ralph collected masters degrees as avidly as he collected wax recordings of the blues greats. He taught the first human sexuality course in Guilford County Schools. COURTESY PHOTO
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Nov. 9 — 15, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment-
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CULTURE Mexican dive delights with tacos, more uncommon finds by Eric Ginsburg
T
here are three things you need to know before you go to Antojitos las Delicias: Be prepared to wait because other people figured out the food is good here; be prepared to sit outside because there is no indoor component for the public; and, if you’re ordering the torta, be prepared to share it with someone else because it’s gigantic. You’ll learn other things about Antojitos, a walk-up Mexican restaurant just east of MLK Drive in Winston-Salem, on your first visit, but these are the big three you should know before arriving. The fourth thing to keep in mind is implied: The food is well worth the trip. The small East Fifth Street kitchen previously — and briefly — hosted a Jamaican restaurant named Kool Runnings, an homage to an idiotic comedy about a Jamaican bobsled team that entertained me to no end as a kid. Antojitos las Delicias hasn’t been open long, but it appears to be faring much better, with a long line stretching back towards the curb on a recent Thursday at lunch filled with Latino laborers, white jocks-turnedsuits, a couple families and the occasional neighbor walking up, keeping the wait around 30 minutes to order and receive food. When I first showed up at Antojitos soon after it opened — maybe a year ago for a casual lunch with Winston-Salem Journal food editor Michael Hastings — the line didn’t reach as far. But as I passed it weekly while running my former newspaper delivery ERIC GINSBURG It’s hard to grasp just how massive the torta is at Antojitos las Delicias, but this Germanroute, I watched attendance steadily build. My recent inspired sandwich comes loaded with meat. excursion at the suggestion of Mission Pizza Napoletana owner Peyton Smith, who loves the place, is the compared to a pizza-sized tostada hailing from the Come ready to share. longest I’d seen the line, but even then it proved worth southern Mexican state of Oaxaca — a heavily indigThe best way to experience Antojitos is with friends the wait. enous area that also gives the world excellent craftsanyway; they’ll make any wait time pass more quickly, I’ll tell anyone who will listen that I favor burritos manship, chocolates and moles. Huaraches are on the and it will be easier to order a variety of things ranging over tacos, even slipping my stance into our “Taco menu too, another item I recommend at Antojitos and from dishes you might eat a couple times a week to Town” cover story last week. But that doesn’t mean I one that is sort of like an oblong tostada popular in ones you may not have tried before. Think of it as Mexdon’t appreciate a good taco, and the al pastor one I Mexico City. ican tapas, with a few entrees and Central American ordered at Antojitos is the best classic taco I’ve maybe Peyton said he’s enjoyed the enchiladas verdes here, staples thrown in. ever had. Despite being a little overloaded with cilanand while the pupusas weren’t my favorite, I’m just tro, it arrived more flavorful, more ready to be conglad to find decent pupusas revueltas around here. sumed than others I’ve tried. The lime juice, radish and Don’t rely on the online menu hot sauce I added only enhanced for a complete listing of options; Pick of the Week the taste of the marinated pork Visit Antojitos las Delicias at several key meals are left off, and the fresh corn tortilla. Creatively drinking including the tortas, or sandwich1521 E. Fifth St. (W-S) or at The gorditas — fist-sized pockThink & Drink @ Pig Pounder Brewery (GSO), es. I’ve never seen a torta so big in ets of meat, cheese and other Wednesday, 6 p.m. antojitos-las-delicias.com. my life. goodies — are enjoyable here too, Rob Davis, executive director for the RiverRun Antojitos — a term synonymous though I prefer the open-faced International Film Festival, comes to Pig Pounder with Mexican street food, which delivery method of the sopes, fried masa cakes topped to share his vision for the organization as part of is appropriate for a restaurant offering only outdoor with meat and veggies. Sopes, if you’re unfamiliar, look the Think & Drink series. The happy-hour event, seating — offers a few different tortas, including one similar to tostadas, but the base is more akin to a fried instigated by Create Your City, aims to connect named for Germany featuring what looks like sliced corn pancake than a toasted tortilla. That often means Greensboro residents with business and organihot dog, among other ingredients. But what’s most less crunch but more flavor. zations seeking to help expand business. More notable about the sandwiches is their heft, not just There aren’t any tostadas on the menu here, techinformation can be found on the Create Your City because of the fillings but also the massive pieces of nically. But Antojitos does sell tlayudas, which can be and Pig Pounders Facebook pages. bread themselves.
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Last call
Up Front News Opinion Cover Story
The author floats down the Dan River with his dad and a Miller Lite in hand, enjoying one of his many booze-filled expeditions since this column launched.
Email brian@triad-city-beat.com to apply to be TCB’s new Barstool columnist. Include a sample 500-word booze column. The sooner the better.
Sportsball
they’d listen. As part of the hiring team, I’ll make sure to leave this column in capable hands, and I’m excited for the new perspective the hire will bring. It’s not last call for this column, so be sure to stick around. And if you feel so compelled, apply.
DAN GINSBURG
Culture Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment
Sometimes last call sneaks up on you. I’ve doubted the sincerity of a bartender’s call before, checking the clock on my phone in disbelief and wondering how the night got away from me. I’ve by Eric Ginsburg attempted to circumvent it too, inviting friends back to my place to keep the party going after 2 a.m. hits. But whether you expect it or not, and even if you prolong the evening, last call is eventually coming regardless. A different last call took me by surprise recently. I’ve known for a while now that I wanted to switch things up, to alter my paradigm and try something different. When I took the leap and accepted a part-time gig at the Center for Creative Leadership, I didn’t know exactly what it would mean for my continued role at this paper. At first we figured I’d hold onto this column in addition to maintaining my post as managing editor, but we ultimately settled on keeping me on the food beat, and turning this one over to someone new. So now, three weeks after the decision and with one left on the clock, my last call is coming up quickly. Someone else’s photo will start running in this space, someone else’s exploits and observations. That someone could be you. We’re looking for a writer who — above all else — is dependable and who can consistently file good copy on time. We want someone who is brimming with good ideas, someone who will put in the time to build relationships in the local booze industry, and someone who understands that we’re here primarily as a service to our readers and not to the establishments and people we cover. Being the Barstool columnist is an excellent gig. Chances are it won’t come open again soon. I conceived of the idea with our top dog, Brian Clarey, and I’ve held onto it fiercely ever since. I can’t imagine many assignments that would be more enjoyable. I’ve taken this column all sorts of places, from a dive bar associated with Hell’s Angels to recounting a puke-filled New Year’s Day story. I broke word of new breweries opening, covered the launch of the area’s first distilleries, profiled sommeliers, compiled beer issues, reported on state liquor law changes, went behind the scenes at the ABC board and retold some of our bartenders’ weirdest stories. You will take it somewhere else. I won’t be going far — my food writing will still be on the page immediately to the left, and I’ll be editing the new Barstool columnist, maintaining a close hand in the process. But it still feels appropriate to pause and thank you, dear readers. You made it all worthwhile, and you gave it meaning. Without you I’d just be a tipsy blogger, grabbing a stranger at the bar and hoping
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Two homemade everyman bands celebrate new releases by Jordan Green
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The Greensboro punk band Totally Slow, including Scott Hicks, Greg Monroy, Andy Foster and Chuck Johnson (L to R) played at Local Honey on Nov. 5.
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otally Slow, a Greensboro punk band of 2012 vintage, had launched into a bracing confection of sonic fury and vocal sincerity in the middle of the floor of Local Honey, Jay Bulluck’s downtown Greensboro salon, at 8 p.m. sharp. The full lighting should have been a giveaway that it was a soundcheck, but even with a 9 p.m. start time and three bands relaying to the finish line before 11, the show made for a fairly punctual ritual of mature punk-rock communal entertainment. Considering the seasoned stature of many of the people in the scene — fellow musicians, grad students, web designers and community organizers, all with considerable adult commitments — the timeframe made sense. Add kids to the equation and it’s a relief to not have to wait until after midnight to see the headliner. As Totally Slow frontman Scott Hicks noted in Facebook updates in advance of the show: “Family friendly if you are a punk family,” and, “Kids should be fine, just make sure their ears are protected — things will get loud.”
The occasion — a release party for Totally Slow, with the Bronzed Chorus also backing a new album, and a pop-up performance for the sporadically active Trashettes — on Nov. 4 felt more like a backyard party full of old friends than a proper rock show. A merch table set up near the entrance holding a glass “honor bowl” with a suggested $5 donation bespoke the high level of trust and fluid line between performers and audience. This is a scene where no one has any illusions about making it big or getting rich. The economics are right-sized to the measure of the effort: the kind of folks you might bump into at the post office, writing songs, rehearsing, working hard to make music they love and sharing it with friends, asking for only enough in return to sustain the enterprise. Bulluck greeted newcomers with a smile and a handshake. “I’m not making any money off this,” he said. “I just want to support these guys. I’ll be selling their merch here, so I guess I’m giving people some exposure
JORDAN GREEN
to it tonight. I’ll be here when people need to find a last-minute gift for Christmas. And maybe I’ll throw in a free record with a haircut.” As venues go, the Nov. 4 triple bill was a rare event. The last time Local Honey hosted a show was on Valentine’s Day of 2015 with the defunct Daddy Issues
Pick of the Week Singing from the rafters Concert @ First Presbyterian Church (GSO), Friday, 7:30 p.m. The critically acclaimed four man vocal assemble New York Polyphony comes to Greensboro to bless the ears of music lovers near and far in a unique performance of renaissance and classical works. More information about the performance presented by UNCG College of Visual and performing Arts can be found on the UPAS-New York Polyphony Facebook page.
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released on Sept. 16, opening their set with the reprise of the title track. Similar in feel to Loaded-era Velvet Underground song “Ocean,” “Bleed Out (Reprise)” is an atmospheric antidote to the loud and fast approach predominating on the rest of the album. In keeping with the communal feel of the night, the band accepted assistance from friends, including Sprague and producer Kris Hilbert, on a battery of augmenting instruments, including trumpet, keys and lap steel. Then the auxiliary musicians slipped back into the audience, leaving the band’s four core members to level the place. As a band committed to honest, straight-ahead punk, Totally Slow could easily come off sounding derivative or even nostalgic; it can’t be easy to sound fresh in a genre that’s pushing 40 — roughly the same age as its members. Like good writing, good music often takes hard work to sound easy. In Totally Slow’s case, the propulsive sonic barrage of guitarists Scott Hicks and Chuck Johnson, bassist Greg Monroy and drummer Andy Foster works because their riffs imperceptibly change texture, thinning into a lean jangle and shifting with a strategically placed drum accent before re-coagulating in renewed ferocity. Other touches, like Monroy’s smart pop backing vocals and Hicks’ abbreviated, mercurial leads enhance the experience without diminishing any of its power. The album and the band’s live performance both work as a thematically coherent body of music because of variations and surprises that create a transfixing experience. “Free Hugs,” a gently surging instrumental, gives the album room to breathe, providing a break in an otherwise relentlessly paced set. It also must be said that Bleed Out soars with some really good songs, like “BADBRX,” which opens with Hicks’ stoic, almost folky vocal and then leaps several octaves higher into near screaming as the band revs beneath him. Music like this doesn’t happen every week in Greensboro. “Don’t ask to play here, because you probably can’t,” Hicks said, after thanking Bulluck and Local Honey. “It’s a once-a-year kind of thing.”
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headlining. So it was fitting that the opening act was the Trashettes, an edited version comprised of half of Daddy Issues, with Lindsey Sprague on guitar and Hannah Hawkins on drums. The band only performs a couple times a year, but radically upped their quotient by following their Greensboro performance with an appearance the following night at FemFest in Winston-Salem. The Trashettes’ rudimentary but catchy songs — garage rock with a pop sheen — sound pretty close to what anyone reasonably familiar with Daddy Issues’ output would expect. Dressed in matching blond bouffant wigs, Sprague and Hawkins bashed out a winsome cave-lady stomp. Working through a set that included staples “Sucker Punch” and “Do the Wild Thing,” along with a tossed-off cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Hawkins matched Sprague’s minimalist rhythm guitar with a pared-down rig consisting of a tom and snare drum that she played standing up. The Bronzed Chorus, a Greensboro duo that has been dazzling audiences for the better part of a decade with a varietal of instrumental kosmiche post-rock, performed its new album, the Sept. 23 release Summering, start to finish in sequence. The first song, “Don’t Go to the That Pool Party,” immediately established the band’s value proposition. Adam Joyce’s textured playing creates the illusion of a guitar orchestra, sounding both epically heavy and impressionistic at the same time, while Hunter Allen’s double-time drum workout endows the band’s performances with a kind of shamanic rigor. Joyce and Allen are musicians’ musicians. There are no trappings, themes, narrative elements or costuming attached to the band, just two guys deeply invested in their music. Joyce approaches his instrument with a craftsmen’s concentration, fitting for someone who actually makes a living as a furniture maker, his one concession to the public responsibilities of his job being an appreciative wave in response to the audience’s applause. Allen tackles his part with utilitarian understatement, giving the impression of a NASCAR pit crew member breaking from his drumming only to take a quick swig from a water bottle or twist a knob on a keyboard. Totally Slow played a surprising angle with their presentation of Bleed Out, the singularly excellent album they
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CULTURE Sweeney exposes the truth behind childhood lies
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By Naari Honor
hen Sarah Sweeney sat down to write her essay, “Tell Me If You’re Lying,” for her nonfiction writing class at Emerson University, she had no idea that some five years later it would go on to become the inspiration and title for her first published book. “My professor called me the evening I turned it in,” Sweeney said, “and told me that he read it on the subway and cried.” After her professor shared his reaction with her, she realized the ability she had for longform storytelling. Prior to attending the nonfiction writing class, she had spent a majority of her time writing poetry. Tell Me if You’re Lying, published by Barrelhouse, contains 11 essays chronicling her sometimes heartbreaking and often hysterical adventures of growing up in Greensboro. “[The essays] all contain a component of self-discovery, lies and untruths,” Sweeney said in a phone interview. On Sunday, Sweeney returned to her hometown, the place that played a major influence in her collection of works, to launch the release of her first published book at Scuppernong Books in downtown Greensboro. For the first seven years of her life, Sweeney told her mom she wanted to be an opera singer, but she knew that she also had a passion for writing. While this collection is her first book, Sweeney has written about food, travel and music for the Washington Post, Oxford American and the Boston Globe. “I really like being a journalist and getting into other people’s minds,” Sweeney said. “I’m really good at getting people to tell me their secrets and making connections with people. I think it has to do with being Southern, warm, open and genuine. Being a journalist is one of the best thrills of my life, and I love it so much.” Even though Sweeney had written the essays over a significant period of time, she did so without the intention of compiling them in a book until she realized that each piece of written work related in some way to the others. “I gradually started writing essays about my life,” Sweeney said. “I realized that they all had a thread that went through them which was about self-mythologizing and the myths of our lives, the myths of our parents and the myths that are passed down as a part of oral storytelling tradition which helps to form our identity.”
Author Sarah Sweeney’s new book Tell Me If You’re Lying started with an essay that made her professor cry.
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Pick of the Week Shop and art ’til you drop Designer meet and greet @ Market Square (HP), Wednesday High Point Design and the High Point Design Center collaborate to host a day of showroom shopping and a presentation on “tablescaping”. Starting with brunch and ending with a grand cocktail party, the day of furniture shopping and design store hopping with designers and patrons is just in time for the upcoming holiday season. More information can be found at Table-The Art of Entertaining Facebook page.
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the success of her recent book that she feels would have pleased her father. “I found some healing in the stories and feel I compiled a portrait of my father that he can be proud,” Sweeney said. “I feel like he lives on in this body of work and it something he would have loved.” Sweeney expects to have her next book published by 2018 and hopes to reach an even larger audience. But for now, readers can enjoy reading all about her adventures in the poignantly raw Tell Me if You’re Lying.
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Sweeney had no problem bluntly divulging the details of her love affairs, experimental drug use and early adventures. Yet she was nervous about how her family would react once she recounted the intimate details of her life and reflected upon her relationships with them. “Because I knew my parents were a little wild, I was a troublemaker, and I knew my childhood was scary and weird, I knew I had stories to tell,” Sweeney said. “I did warn them, and they just mostly laughed.” Sweeney recently completed another collection of essays that weave the tale of a love affair she had on a boat while in Cozumel, Mexico. Soon she embarks on a weeklong writing residency at Martha’s Vineyard followed by a three-month getaway to Mexico where she will spend time editing her memoir entitled Loose Gringa. While her current book reflects on her experiences while growing up, Sweeney’s new book will discuss the difficulties many women encounter and will take on a more feminist tone, she said. Although Sweeney has moved on to work on a companion book to Tell Me if You’re Lying, her voice still bounces from
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Nov. 9 — 15, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball
Stingers for the Swarm
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n advance of the team’s big debut at the swanky new Greensboro Coliseum Fieldhouse on Nov. 12, the Greensboro Swarm announced its official training roster on Sunday. As it stands now, the 11by Anthony Harrison man lineup pools all types of talent: veterans, college ballers from power conferences and mid-majors — some with NBA experience — and three green recruits cherrypicked from the community tryout held here in early October. All things considered, the Charlotte Hornets’ D-League affiliate stands to make a splash in the league. Let’s take a gander at some of their bona fides. Center Mike Tobey distinguished himself in his tenure with the University of Virginia Cavaliers as alltime leader in games played with Virginia as well as 2015 ACC Sixth Man of the Year. A 6-foot-11 giant (or an even 7 feet tall if you go by his UVA bio), his career highlight is a 15-point, 20-rebound showing against the University of Louisville on Senior Night in March. Tobey also shows a propensity for blocking shots and hitting offensive boards, and even takes the occasional outside shot with decent accuracy. The Swarm flaunts another big man from a power conference — the Big 12, appropriately enough. University of Kansas power forward Perry Ellis led his team in scoring during both his junior and senior seasons, averaging 13.8 and 16.6 points per game respectively, vaulting him to the position of eighth-highest scorer in the history of the Jayhawks program. Quite like his new partner in the post, Ellis enjoys recording stuffs and racking up rebounds. The combination of these two in the paint could make frontcourt drives a potential nightmare for many opposing players. But a team can’t be all spring chickens fresh out of
PIZZERIA
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March Madness. with his two blocks from 2015, 39.1-percent shooting, Swingman Damien Wilkins, a North Carolina native, 36.2 percent from beyond the arc and 84.3 percent at played college ball at both NC State University and the free-throw line, he has an apparent joy for picking the University of Georgia, graduating in 2004. While opposing players’ pockets. Looking at his trends, he he went undrafted following his senior season, the improved in these stats by leaps and bounds in three bygone Seattle SuperSonics put some faith into him. collegiate seasons. Here’s hoping that momentum Wilkins came in handy after the Sonics suffered from drives Storey forward. injuries. Then, after legendary shooting guard Ray Prince Williams, another native of North Carolina, Allen departed for the Boston Celtics in 2007, Wilkins rounds out the Swarm’s guard corps. Born in Raleigh, assumed a full-time starting position, proving himself Williams attended East Carolina University and pilworthy with a career-best 41-point showing against the laged for the Pirates for four years; in his last season Atlanta Hawks. with ECU, he averaged 10.3 points, 3.8 assists and Since those halcyon days, Wilkins has 3.1 rebounds, shooting with scary 40 bounced from team to team, crisscrosspercent accuracy from downtown and ing both the country and the world from The Swarm flaunts 42.6 percent overall. At 6-foot-5, Wilthe Oklahoma City Thunder and the liams could prove a valuable jack of all another big man Philadelphia 76ers to the D-League Iowa trades and pull larger defenders to the Energy and the Beijing Ducks. But while from a power con- backcourt, opening avenues for slashing Wilkins’ greatest years may be behind ference — the Big drives. him, he’ll likely assume a powerful menRasheed Sulaimon is the elephant in 12, appropriately tor role for these young dudes looking the Fieldhouse. to improve their skills for a stab at the The talented Houston native began enough. big leagues. his collegiate career at Duke University Some members of the Swarm haven’t under the tutelage of head coach Mike enjoyed such a high profile — namely, the lucky three Krzyzewski; he exploded on the court right off the bat, from the community tryout. posting 11.6 points per game on 42.4 percent shooting Power forward Frank Rogers hails all the way from in his freshman season. Outside Cameron Indoor StadiSalinas, Calif. and played for the University of San Jose. um, though, demons chased him, including claims of Rogers broke out somewhat in the 2015-’16 season, sexual assault from at least two women. Krzyzewski, averaging 11.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game for in an unprecedented move, dismissed Sulaimon from the Spartans. He’ll take the long shot too, and for his the team, not citing the allegations in his decision. size posts decent, mid-30s accuracy from range. Even Sulaimon denied all allegations, and the university more valuably for the frontcourt, Rogers’ free-throw never filed charges following inquiry. percentage showed marked improvement over his last Sulaimon finished college play at the University of two years, jumping from 54.2 percent to 68.4 percent. Maryland, where he continued to produce fabulous It’s not the sexiest stat, sure, but sometimes the little numbers: 11.3 points, 3.5 assists and 1.2 steals per things win big games. game, all while improving his shooting percentage to Guard Kareem Storey led the offense at point for a staggering 46.3 percent, including 42.2 from downboth the University of Utah Utes and the Morehead town. State University Eagles. At 6 feet tall (5-foot-10 acSulaimon signed with the Hornets in September, cording to ESPN), Storey and I even saw him play against the Celtics in the may be the shortest of preseason, but the team decided to further develop his the Swarm’s bunch, but already prodigious skills here in Greensboro. he puts up some interesting numbers: Along
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Pick of the Week Feeling the buzz Fort Wayne Mad Ants @ Greensboro Swarm (GSO), Saturday, 7 p.m. The moment Triad basketball fans have been waiting for with bated breath has finally arrived: Professional basketball in Greensboro debuts this weekend. Availability for the premiere of this inaugural season against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants is very limited, but your chances improve with the purchase of season tickets or partial-season ticket plans. Visit greensboro.dleague.nba.com for details.
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‘Oh, Be Serious!’ they’re seriously in there. by Matt Jones Across
Monday, November 14 @ 7pm
Mystery Movie Monday
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God, to a Rastafarian I trouble? Unaware of office politics, maybe Pancake cooking surface On the blue As a group, in French “Top Gun” actor Kilmer Too cute for words The yellow striped ball Bob of “Fuller House” Side of the coin that comes at no cost? Platter shape Abbr. in an organizer Exclamations of surprise
Sunday, November 13 @ 6pm
Weaver Academy Monthly Talent Show
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Kimberley L Dymond Book Signing @ 1pm, Emmanuel Winter @ 8pm
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22 Mauna ___ 23 Suffix after land or man 24 Video game company with a famous cheat code 25 Philadelphia NFLer followed his coach’s orders? 27 Steve who played Mr. Pink 30 “Just a ___ like one of us” (Joan Osborne line) 32 Word with bird or fight 34 Sea off Sicily 35 Prepare for shipping 37 “This won’t hurt ___!” 39 Water source 43 “Taste the Rainbow” candy 48 Pigs, slangily 50 Aries beast 52 Jake’s brother in blues 55 Prepare for another take 57 Country with a tree on its flag: Abbr. 59 Flatten out 60 Feature of some Ben & Jerry’s pints 61 “Return of the Jedi” princess 63 “___ example ...” 66 “Bah!” 67 “Curious George” author H.A. ___ 68 Singer Morrison 69 “Exit full screen” button
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53 “___ Wedding” (“Simpsons” episode involving a fortune-teller) 54 Place walked into, in classic jokes 56 Cash register part 58 Aloha State goose 59 Winter product also known as rock salt 62 Lacking much flavor 64 “___ G. Biv” (They Might Be Giants tune) 65 Look inward? 70 Crater Lake’s st. 71 “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” refrain 72 Geometrical findings 73 “Game of Thrones” patriarch ___ Stark 74 Hit with a stun gun 75 Justin Timberlake’s former group
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1 Collapsible game? 6 Chris of the “Fantastic Four” series 11 Agcy. of the Department of Health and Human Services 14 Stress, cigarettes, handing car keys to your teen, e.g. 15 1976 Olympics star Comaneci 16 Letters on a tombstone 17 Comedian Mandel, shaped like an oval? 19 Mentalist’s claim 20 “The BFG” author Roald 21 Word on some campaign signs 23 Station posting, briefly 26 Japanese buckwheat noodle 28 Also 29 Barbecue needs 31 Noted streak enders of 2016 33 “___’s Irish Rose” 36 “Who’s the Boss?” role 38 Like some news days 40 Actor Max ___ Sydow 41 Good bud 42 Indecent, or a description of this puzzle theme? 44 Abbr. at the bottom of a business letter 45 Linguistic suffix with morph or phon 46 Vehicle with its own path 47 “All in the Family” daughter 49 “New Look” designer Christian 51 Person of the Year awarder
Wednesday, November 9 @ 7pm
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Mean girls suck
M
ost of the time, my dining options are in the dead center of a Venn diagram that features Things I Can Eat Over the Sink in the left circle and Things I Can Eat At a Stoplight on the right. A lot of my dinners are by Jelisa Castrodale either handed to me through the driver’s side window or passed over a sticky countertop in a still-steaming Styrofoam carton. That’s why I’m a regular at May Way Dumplings in Winston-Salem’s Reynolda Village, where I’ve spent a lot of evenings leaning against the cool glass of the front window, waiting for takeout and wondering whether I could ever love another human the way I love pork buns. The other night, I was doing that very thing, when three girls sitting at the counter got my attention. They were all twenty-something Wake Forest students, wearing so many monogrammed leggings, hoodies and vests that they looked like the result of a controlled explosion at a Lululemon store. “Like, did you see Kylie at practice today?” one with red hair and impossibly large earrings said. The other two shook their heads. “Like, I can’t even,” she finished, pushing a single noodle across her plate. The girls were all on the same varsity sports team with a girl named Kylie (that’s not her real name), and for 15 solid minutes, they viciously slammed her clothes, her classes, her major, her ex-boyfriend, her current crush, her workout, what she does and does not do at practice and her dream of going pro in the sport they all played. And for that same 15 minutes,
I hated all three of those girls from their Invisaligned smiles to the soles of their Ugg boots. I completely forgot about my boyfriend the pork bun and stood there trying to decide who to feel sorry for first. On the immediate, micro-level, I hated that Kylie had friends like this – and I’m putting the word “friends” in the most sarcastic of quotation marks – and I hated that she probably had no idea how awful they are. I hated that this isn’t unique to those girls, to that school or even to that generation. Mean girls aren’t new, not at all. (I’m entirely convinced that somewhere in ancient Mesopotamia, a group of women stared at Noah’s wife, rolled their eyes and said “Ugh, she’s wearing those shoes on a boat trip?”) But mostly I hate that women can be so brutal to each other, especially because we already face so much criticism from every other direction and demographic group. We don’t need to talk about how old I am, but I’m somewhere between being out of college and out of collagen, which means I do know a couple of things. I wanted to pull up a chair and sit beside those terrible little Kardashian larvae and tell them that it’s hard to sustain a friendship – or any relationship, really – if it’s based on nothing but criticism for others. I’d tell them that their looks will fade and that there’s nothing they can buy at Sephora that will contour the worst parts of their personalities. And most of all, I would tell them that one day, they’ll step off that well-manicured campus and realize that the rest of the world is waiting to tear them apart, for no reason other than because they have a matching pair of X-chromosomes. We face judgment, inequality and impossible standards. We get it from men, from what pass for societal norms and, yes, from other women, too. Just scan
the headlines printed on the cover of any women’s magazine, because every single month, there’s a new assortment of things that are wrong with us. Our faces are wrong, our bodies are wrong and, if we’re having sex with another person, we’re doing that wrong, too. I don’t know how this all ends, and I don’t have the word count to try to come up with a solution. I just wish that we wouldn’t be this critical of each other. I mean, if Kylie did something truly horrendous, like pronouncing it “expresso” or sneaking tuna salad into a theater – then call her out on it, sure. But stop dismantling her for sport. That’s not what your scholarship is for. By the time my order was ready, I wasn’t even hungry. When I walked out the door, the girls were talking about Kylie’s eyebrows — I wish I were kidding — and undoubtedly feeling superior somehow. I seat-belted my pork buns into the passenger side of my car and stared in the direction of Wake Forest’s campus, thinking that if this is what passes for Pro Humanitate, then we’re all screwed. I hoped that Kylie was over there somewhere, running repeats on the track, wiping sweat from her perfectly normal eyebrows and feeling good about herself. I hoped that she’d graduate and go on to kick ass in whatever she chooses to do. But mostly, I hoped that the real reason that those girls didn’t like her is because she’s not like them, not at all.
Jelisa Castrodale is a freelance writer who lives in Winston-Salem. She enjoys pizza, obscure power-pop records and will probably die alone. Follow her on Twitter @gordonshumway.
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Gate City Vineyard is a modern, Christian church that exists to serve the community around us. Our desire is to help people of all ages and backgrounds grow in their understanding of God. At the Vineyard you can come as you are and be yourself. Whatever your thoughts about church, whatever your beliefs about God … you are welcome here.
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