BY LUIS H. GARAY | PG. 9
BUSINESS
PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com
PUBLISHER EMERITUS
Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com
OF COUNSEL
Jonathan Jones
EDITORIAL
MANAGING EDITOR
Sayaka Matsuoka sayaka@triad-city-beat.com
CITYBEAT REPORTER
Gale Melcher gale@triad-city-beat.com
SALES
KEY ACCOUNTS
Chris Rudd chris@triad-city-beat.com
AD MANAGER
Noah Kirby noah@triad-city-beat.com
CONTRIBUTORS
Carolyn de Berry, John Cole, Owens Daniels, James Douglas, Michelle Everette, Luis H. Garay, Destiniee Jaram, Kaitlynn Havens, Jordan Howse, Matt Jones, Autumn Karen, Michaela Ratliff, Jen Sorensen, Todd Turner
WEBMASTER Sam LeBlanc
ART
ART DIRECTOR
Charlie Marion charlie@triad-city-beat.com
COVER:
Mojito in Winston-Salem serves up fusion food like their masitas, or fried pork chunks bowl (courtesy photo)
Design by Charlie Marion
pick up Interstate 840 on Yanceyville Street — the Urban Loop! — on a brand-new exit that I swear wasn’t even set just a month ago. It’s 8:37 a.m.; nobody here but the SUVS and trucks and me.
Icontrol? Don’t mind if I do!
Soon I’m buzzing along at 75 mph, fast enough to make good time but not so fast as to draw attention, zooming through new overpasses that create sharp angles in the sky.
by Brian ClareyI’ve been waiting for this day a long time, since I bought a house in this disconnected quadrant of Greensboro 20 years ago, when the notion of an express loop around the city was nothing but a dotted line on a paper map, an aspiration, a metaphor. They wanted to call it Painter Boulevard back then, but now nobody even remembers who Painter was. (Note: It was Churchman Painter, Greensboro’s first city manager who served 1921-29).
And now here I am!
I take the eastbound entrance and start humming along that sweet, new highway that opened for the first time on Monday afternoon, but it’s already demarcated on Apple Maps. I’m sharing this splendid stretch with a few savvy truckers avoiding the tangle of city roads and some commuters eager to try this new shortcut to Raleigh. Cruise
Then I’m headed south, across Huffine Mill Road and the eastern piece of Wendover Avenue, avoiding the exits and then hitting the stretch where the loop is still listed as Interstate 785, and then 85. Just near Pleasant Garden, the road cuts southwest at a 45-degree angle, past South-Elm Eugene Street, which would drop me off at my office in 15 minutes or so, not too bad.
And then all of a sudden I’m near Jamestown and the Grandover. I skip over to Interstate 73 for another piece, crossing the southern portion of Gate City Boulevard before it hits High Point. Then I hit the opposite end of Wendover, Exit 102 in perhaps half the time it would have taken me to traverse that thoroughfare across town.
Near the airport, I pick up 840 again and just like that! I am at Battleground Avenue, with Lawndale and Elm exits just over the horizon.
I complete the Urban Loop at the Yanceyville exit at precisely 9:09 a.m. — just 32 minutes for this victory lap around the city, so long in the making and finally come to pass.
I’ve been waiting for this day a long time.
THURSDAY Jan. 26
Connections & Coffee @ Carolina Core Wellness (GSO) 8:30 a.m.
Join Women in Motion of High Point for a networking event to connect with other women in the area. A complimentary cup of coffee will be provided courtesy of Core Coffee Register at womeninmotionhp.org
Balinese Offerings @ Lam Museum of Anthropology (W-S) 10 a.m.
by MICHAELA RATLIFFMoon Tree Glow @ Painting With a Twist (W-S) 7 p.m.
SUNDAY Jan. 29
Sunday Sip ‘n Slay @ Oden Brewing Company (GSO) 10 a.m.
Balinese culture draws inspiration from Hindu religious practices that emphasize giving as an act of devotion. Head to Wake Forest University to view this exhibit featuring artifacts from Balinese traditions and their religious meanings. Visit events. wfu.edu for more information.
Virtual Book Launch @ Bennett College (GSO)
5:30 p.m.
Bennett College alumna Benin Lemus takes readers on a personal journey of loss, grief and celebration through a collection of poems titled Dreaming in Mourning. Join Lemus for a virtual launch of the book at bennett.edu/live
Cats @ Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts (GSO) 8 p.m.
A few tickets remain for this production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. The Tony Award-winning musical, based on “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” by TS Eliot, follows a group of cats called the “Jellicles” coming together for the annual Jellicle Ball where one cat is chosen to ascend to the “Heaviside Layer” and reborn into a new life. Purchase tickets at Ticketmaster
Join instructor Anna as she leads you through painting a scenic tree and water illuminated by the moon. Book your seat at paintingwithatwist.com
SATURDAY Jan. 28
Literacy Fair @ Kaleideum North (GSO) 10 a.m.
Join Twisted Warriors Yoga & Fitness for an all-levels yoga class focused on growing flexibility and balance. Admission includes class and one beverage of choice. Visit the event page on Facebook for more information.
Blood Drive @ Wise Man Brewing (W-S) 1 p.m. Give a pint of blood, get a pint of beer at Wise Man Brewing during this blood drive hosted by the Blood Connection. Donors will also receive a $20 eGift card and a $20 Wise Man gift card. Make an appointment at thebloodconnection.org
TUESDAY Jan. 31
Watercolor Mixed Media Series with Mavis Liggett @ Trotter Active Adult Center (GSO) 10 a.m.
Kaleideum North and community partners are hosting a literacy fair for readers in Pre-K through 5th grade to explore resources and hands-on activities to support literacy. Find more information and register at kaleideum.org
Them Pants @ the Ramkat (W-S) 8 p.m. Them Pants celebrates the release of their album Jeffership Starplane with an album release party at the Ramkat. Rick Randall, member of Them Pants, has written songs for HBO’s “The RIghteous Gemstones” and 2022 film Halloween Ends. Find more information and purchase tickets at theramkat.com
Creative Aging Network is offering two series of painting classes for adults to create unique works of art using both paint and watercolor pencils. Register at can-nc.org/classes
After a nationwide search for Winston-Salem’s next police chief that began after former Chief Catrina Thompson announced her retirement last July, the hunt for her replacement is finally coming to a close.
An announcement made by the city on Jan. 20 stated that the list of applicants for the position has been whittled down to four finalists. In the running are three of the WSPD’s own: Assistant Police Chief Wilson S. Weaver II, Assistant Police Chief Jose “Manny” Gomez and Assistant Police Chief William Penn, Jr. The fourth contender, Police Chief Scott C. Booth, hails from the Danville Police Department in Virginia.
Chief Thompson retired on Dec. 31 after helming the WSPD since 2017, with Michael Cardwell guiding the force in her stead as interim chief since Jan. 1. Thompson currently serves as a US marshall for the Middle District of North Carolina and was selected for the role by President Biden last August.
The city announced earlier this month that they would be hosting two public forums inviting citizens to express their thoughts on who should head the department next.
The comments, thoughts and suggestions provided by citizens at the first public forum held on Jan. 19 will be compiled into interview questions for the candidates. Citizens are invited to meet the four candidates at the Police Chief Candidates Forum on Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. at the Salem Lake Marina at 815 Salem Lake Road.
A decision is expected before the end of the month.
Community members poured into St. John CME Church to make their voices heard during last week’s meeting. Council member and Chair of the Public Safety Committee James Taylor, Jr. was in attendance, along with Mayor Pro Tem Denise D. Adams and East Ward representative Annette Scippio. City Manager Lee Garrity was also present.
In an address to the crowd, Interim Chief Cardwell requested the public’s feedback on how the police department is doing.
“Telling it to us straight helps us get the job done,” he said.
Following Cardwell’s speech, Assistant City Manager Patrice Toney invited Bishop Sir Walter L. Mack to say a few words to the community.
Mack said that Winston-Salem needs a police chief who would “come with some strategies.”
“See something, say something is not a strategy, because you’re putting the responsibility on the people who are already traumatized,” he said.
Noting the slew of shootings that have taken place in recent weeks, Mack said that the next police chief will have to deal with the issues that the violence is causing to communities.
“All of this that’s happening today, it’s about trauma,” he said. “It’s about people who are hurting.”
As for the person chosen for the role of police chief, Mack said that “a flute won’t suffice where a trumpet is expected.”
Attendees lined up to share their thoughts, many listing characteristics that they
would like to see in the new police chief. Honesty, integrity and transparency were prevalent among them.
Rev. Tembila Covington of Exodus United Baptist Church said she hopes that the new chief will invest in the community.
“The color of hope is now green,” Covington said, requesting that the police chief offer more support than “just showing up with a whole bunch of fanfare [and] community days.”
Vivian Perez Chandler said she wants the next chief to engage with Winston-Salem’s immigrant community.
“There’s a lot of trauma for our immigrant community…. The relationships that we have with police officers are not the same,” she said. “We come from a background of [corrupt] police officers where there is no safety. We do not trust police. That’s part of the cultural competencies that I think are very important… for the chief of police to bring to the department.”
Rev. John Dillard III of St. John CME Church also recommended that “any police chief that has to address problems in the inner city really needs to be a police chief that has familiarity with the issues that are unique to an inner city.”
In an interview with TCB, Dr. Pam Peoples-Joyner said that the most important qualities she’s looking for are “the three C’s: communication, commitment, and collaboration.”
As for Sandra Brown, she said she wants a chief who will understand the people they’re serving: “Someone that’s going to help instead of hinder.”
Assistant Police Chief Wilson Weaver started his law enforcement career with the WSPD in 1984. A native of Winston-Salem, Weaver currently heads the Field Services Bureau and his professional specialty is centered around the patrol division as well as the special operations division, which contains a number of specialized units such as the SWAT team, bomb squad and K9 unit.
Weaver said that his professional specialty is “the response to, mitigation of and recovery from all hazards.” He says being out in the community is one of the things that he has done for the vast majority of his career by choice.
“I embody all of the concepts of community-oriented policing,” Weaver said. “I have worked in all areas of our city…. Especially while I’ve been Assistant Police Chief, I’ve had a number of meetings with communities all over our city and I’ve gotten to know the residents of those communities.” Weaver said that he’s adept at working closely with communities to discover long-term solutions to crime-related problems.
A recipient of the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association Trilogy Award, Weaver says that he tells younger WSPD officers that they really don’t know how good they are until they train with law enforcement professionals from agencies across the country.
“I’ve done that; I know that I’m well-trained [and] well-educated,” Weaver said, expressing that he still has a desire to serve the community through his profession.
“I’d like to continue doing that as chief of police.”
Assistant Police Chief Jose Gomez has served with the WSPD since 1999 and currently commands the Criminal Intelligence Bureau, which includes the Special Investigations Division, the Firearms Investigation and Intelligence Division, and the Real Time Crime Center. He has served in the Field Services Bureau and the Special Operations Division, as well as with the street crimes unit.
In an interview with TCB, Gomez said that he’s fortunate to have served in many different roles during his time as a patrol officer and SWAT operator. Gomez said that he was in college when he was hired by the WSPD, adding that he was a beneficiary of the Police Cadet Program.
“And 24 years later, here you have me,” he said. “For me, it’s pretty exciting to be hired as a police cadet…and here I am now applying for the chief of police position. So I’ve been blessed that I’ve been afforded those opportunities here at the department.”
Gomez said he his time on the force has helped him see the different need across the city.
“I see what the needs are and I know that each community that we serve is a little
bit different than the other,” he said. “The west side of Winston-Salem has different needs than the east side. At the end of the day we can’t solve the criminal problems going on in Winston-Salem, specifically violent crime, without us having collaboration from many fronts.”
As far as his working style, Gomez emphasized the importance of procedural justice.
“All procedural justice is to me is treating each other with respect and dignity,” he said.
If he encounters someone out in the field, he wants to treat them the way he would treat his mother, “regardless of the situation that person finds themselves in.”
“They could be a victim of a crime, they could be a suspect of a crime,” Gomez said. “As long as we treat each other with respect and dignity, I feel like we can overcome pretty much anything.”
When it comes to community, Gomez feels like he has an edge.
“I’m bilingual, I’m able to speak Spanish,” he said. “It’s my first language…. I’m able to communicate to that Spanish-speaking audience in a way that no other leader has, at least in my time here at the police department. I think that community will find comfort in that, and it’s long been needed I believe.”
Assistant Police Chief William Penn has served with the WSPD since 1997 and currently leads
A monthly glimpse at the works in the current exhibition Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth. On view at the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNCG through April 8.
In Angela Fraleigh’s dynamic, large-scale paintings, female subjects culled from earlier images take on new lives. Throughout history, women have often been painted as objects for the male gaze, but in Fraleigh’s work, they exist for themselves and each other rather than for any viewer.
Here, she reimagines French artist Simon Vouet’s 1633 painting “Lot and His Daughters.” The biblical story recounts that when two angels came to visit Lot, the townsmen demanded he turn them over for their sexual pleasure. Instead, Lot offered up his daughters. The citizens refused the substitution, after which the angels destroyed the town. Believing no one else survived and determined to preserve humanity, the daughters intoxicated their father and slept with him to conceive children. Making him the unwitting subject of their sexual demands, their violation returned the fate he would have had for them.
Although interpreted by some scholars as a tale of both sacrifice and justice on the part of the daughters, painters historically exploited its erotic potential. Vouet represented Lot not as a passive victim, but an active seducer. Fraleigh has thought about how the story and its visual celebrations might also be perceived as a sort of “apologist tale for incest… a centuries-old way of normalizing something abhorrent.” In her interpretation, Lot is largely deleted, leaving the female figures to look not at him, but at each other. The two float in an idyllic world of their own, freed from their horrific narrative, and instead framed and supported by a tangle of gilded flowers and leaves.
Fraleigh took the floral design from the textile work of pioneering American artist Candace Wheeler, an advocate for women’s professional careers in the late 19th Century and the founder of the all-female design firm Associated Artists. Fraleigh has re-created the thistle pattern from a silk and metallic thread damask fabric that Wheeler produced with the Tiffany Company in about 1881, executing the pattern with gold leaf applied to appear tattered and worn, broken but still splendid. Underscored by the title “These Things are Your Becoming,” this gilded element honors both Wheeler and Lot’s daughters — and by extension the countless women who have taken control of their own fate — whether to excel or simply survive.
the Investigative Services Bureau. He has worked with the foot patrol, vice and narcotics, and crime prevention divisions, and has also served as District 1 commander and support services commander.
In an email to TCB, Penn said he grew up on the east side of Winston-Salem and has worked in every district of the city as a police officer. Penn said that he is service-oriented and believes in “truly knowing the community” that he serves.
“My community activities have allowed me to create impactful partnerships that allow me to seek opportunities to help everyone in our community,” he said.
Penn wants to be the next police chief because he believes that he can be an “agent for positive change within this agency and this city.”
“My professional experience, education and community relationships have prepared me for this position,” he said.
Penn says that he truly believes in the power of collaboration and that “those meaningful partnerships that will lead us to position the department for success, adding that he places a heavy emphasis on relationship building. Penn says he believes in the nobility of law enforcement, “especially the men and women of the Winston Salem Police Department.”
Police Chief Scott Booth has headed the Danville Police Department since 2018. Prior to his career in law enforcement that began in 1996 with the Richmond Police Department, Booth served in the US Army as a sergeant in a combat infantry platoon
and a military police squad stationed in the United States, Germany, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Additionally, his service during Operation Desert Storm earned him the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. His leadership experience as a police chief also includes his career with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in Washington, DC.
“I’ve always been a very collaborative leader,” Booth said in an interview. “That would be my vision for Winston-Salem, a true community policing model where the community and the police are working daily together to collaborate and problem-solve. That’s what I believe in, that’s what’s worked for me.”
Booth added that he wants to be WSPD’s new police chief because it’s a diverse city with more opportunities and challenges.
“I think it’s got a really solid police department,” he said.
“I see the greatness that’s already there and how I could really take it to the next level.”
American patriots pay their taxes. They don’t spend millions on creative accounting to avoid their obligation; they don’t pull dollars out of the US economy and park them overseas; they don’t lie about their income to get out of paying their fair share.
Like it needs to be said: Taxes are what pays for everything, including our roads, our schools, our cops, our military, our courts and all the other pieces of our infrastructure that everyone, particularly billionaires, use all the time and rely upon for our livelihoods.
So it’s telling when one party — take a guess which one — comes out against funding the Internal Revenue Service, which is still using technology from the 1980s and, due to a hiring freeze from 2011-19, is short nearly 100,000 employees.
The defunding of the IRS has been a plank in the GOP platform for most of our entire lives, and they finally got it small enough to drown in a bathtub. Now comes the next phase of the plan: The Fair Tax.
The Fair Tax is a national sales tax based on consumption, replacing our system of income and corporate tax rates with a straightup 30 percent sales tax on just about everything. Think of it: No more tax deductions. No more IRS. No payroll tax, no income tax, no estate tax. We would collect from non-citizens every time they buy something. Even billionaires would be forced to kick in every time they got a new yacht. Prices would drop precipitously when companies don’t have to factor taxes into cost, proponents say, evening out over
the long run.
And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to a vote on the Fair Tax as one of the concessions he gave to the Freedom Caucus to secure his election.
But like most of the ideas espoused by the Freedom Caucus, it is a terrible one.
It’s regressive, for one, benefiting the rich at the expense of the poor. Low-income households spend a much greater percentage of their income on consumer goods than wealthy households. Also, at 30 percent, it won’t raise as much money as our current tax system.
In 2011, when Mike Huckabee was touting the Fair Tax, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated that the national sales tax would need to be between 45-40 percent to maintain our current revenue stream.
And while advocates say the Fair Tax is formulated to include Social Security payments, we have serious doubts about the sanctity of the program once individual accounts are no longer tabulated. It also penalizes seniors on fixed incomes, who will be spending 30 percent more but taking home the same amount as before. The only ones who would see a reduction in taxes, according to the Brookings Institution which analyzed the Fair Tax back in 1998, are the top 1 percent, who would save about $75,000 per year in 1998 dollars.
Granted, our tax system sucks and needs reform — that’s what the 87,000 new IRS agents and boost in budget is supposed to address. But beware of those who would replace it with something worse for everyone but them and their friends.
Like most of the ideas espoused by the Freedom Caucus, this is a terrible one.John Cole Courtesy of NC Policy Watch
by Luis H. Garay
When Michael Milan first visited Winston-Salem in the early 2000s, he remembers driving into the city and thinking it looked like something out of a comic book.
“As I was driving into Winston from 52, and it looked Gotham City to me,” he says.
When Millan and his wife Michelle arrived in 2008 they found the city to be intriguing. They noted the low cost of living and how homeownership, establishing a savings fund, and raising a family all seemed possible in Winston-Salem compared to their hometown of Miami. Millan calls himself a typical Cuban from Hialeah, a city in the Miami metropolitan area and was a hotel chef in South Florida before moving to North Carolina.
“Being a hotel chef, I made decent money,” he says over the phone. “But when the bills came around every month, the money flew out of the window.”
Millan is the co-owner of Mojito Latin Soul Food, a restaurant located in Winston-Salem. In 2017, Millan and his wife started their first concept, Mojito Mobile Kitchen food truck which developed a loyal base of customers who knew them for their Cuban food. Having been a partner at Mary’s Gour-
met Diner for several years, Millan knew how to run a kitchen and a food business. In 2020, when they opened the brick-and-mortar restaurant, they wanted to move past what they had been pigeonholed into. They aimed to bring other Latin-American influences into their menu.
The menu at Mojito Latin Soul Food is a tour of food across the Caribbean and Latin America. It boasts Cuban staples such as the cubano sandwich and sweet cuban bread but also tamales from Mexico, arepas from Colombia and Venezuela, and even an Argentinian-style pizza, a special menu item on some nights.
The diverse collection is a reflection of Millan’s multicultural upbringing. He was a first-generation Cuban-American youth growing up in Miami who initially learned how to cook from his Japanese uncle.
His uncle owned a Japanese sushi house in Coral Gables, near Miami. At 14, Millan was washing dishes at the restaurant.
“I felt close to my uncle,” recalls Millan, whose chickens croak in the background of the phone call. “I felt I could be myself there and nobody there ever made me feel stupid or that a question was unwarranted.”
In his own restaurant now, he uses flavortes from his cultural roots and
other Latin American countries and remixes them. A tamale, which usually means a corn-based dough filled with various meats in a chili sauce wrapped in a corn husk, looks different at Mojito. Theirs is open with the corn husk supporting a cornmeal dough — no unwrapping necessary. Even the toppings are outside of the norm. Black beans, fried onion straws, mojito sauce, cilantro lime cream, and cotija cheese all mesh with pork, creating an ingenious flavor combination that surprises and satisfies.
Millan explains that the remixes are a reflection of his experience working as a young cook in various Miami hotel kitchens in the ‘90s. He remembers how the guys he cooked with brought familial dishes to work. They would share with each other, creating an informal, yet worldly potluck.
“The hotels in Miami, you get people from all over the world,” he explains. “Working in the hotel, I was meeting people from the Middle East, from Africa, from places in the Caribbean I didn’t know existed.”
And that kind of surprising variety is what Millan wants his patrons to experience.
“I don’t want you to come to my restaurant and have something you had at a particular restaurant,” he says. “I want you to have a variation that I have put a spin on.”
Despite the issues of the last two years including a pandemic, increasing supply costs and inflation, Millan is hopeful about the future of his business.
“I’ve met my goals,” he says. “I want something sustainable to be able to hand over to my kids and the next generation. We want to show people how much we do to put really beautiful food on your plate.”
Mojitos is located at 723 N. Trade St in Winston-Salem. Learn more about the hours and menu at mojitolatinsoulfood.com.
At the intersection of class and cultural differences sits the Community Bike Shop at Barber Park in Greensboro — a repurposed, spacious brick building surrounded by thick trees that served as a sewage treatment plant nearly 60 years ago.
Founded and run by multiple dedicated volunteers, the history of the shop is a long and complicated one, though the Barber Park Drive address is recent.
“The city knew what we had done all along, which was basically collect bikes, fix them up and give them away,” says Sheldon Herman, a local resident and full-time volunteer. “We had done the same thing for this Wheels on the Greenway program, through Action Greensboro, and it’s hard to know but maybe Action Greensboro were the ones that made the difference in getting the city to give us the building after all this time.”
Opened in the spring of 2022, the Community Bike Shop is a space where
anyone can experience the joys of bike riding while learning about safety and how to care for bikes for free. On Saturdays,visitors learn how to replace tires and repair brakes, among other essentials, and have the option of checking out bikes to ride around the park from the bike library.
The work of distributing bikes to those in need will continue to be done at the residence of one of the shop’s founders and part-time volunteers, Glenn Trent, who started working with Herman in 2017. Originally, Herman would collect disregarded bikes and send them to one or two other volunteers for repair. Then Trent would receive the fixed bikes and distribute them from his house in Glenwood, because he knew plenty of workers and children who needed bikes.
Trent’s lively house on Silver Avenue is well known by his neighbors and now considered an informal extension of Barber Park. Any day of the week, usually in the afternoons, there are young teenagers in Trent’s front yard
with bikes talking and laughing, often working on their pieces while Trent watches and assists.
“Thursdays we were teaching repair classes at my house, Sheldon and I, till it got too crowded,” Trent explains. “The shop itself is supposed to be a support place where we can actually teach a handful of people. So for now, instead of letting everyone go out to the bike shop, kids like Imari can go there and we can teach him and show him stuff that he can come back and teach others.”
Imari Rives is one of the young people who still regularly gathers in Trent’s yard. Only 12 years old, Imari was responsible for getting dozens of bikes ready for other children this holiday season.
Both Herman and Trent agree there’s an ongoing need for bikes and teachers of bike maintenance throughout Greensboro.
“We want to do more at Barber Park too, but it hasn’t materialized,” Herman says. “We want to do art and poetry workshops. We want to do all kinds of things there that get people from different communities that don’t ever really see each other in the same room together to get to know each other; that’s always really fun. There are other reasons it’s important, but it’s really fun.”
These kinds of community spaces help people from different backgrounds share values, which may lead to helpful realizations, the organizers say.
Ultimately, the collaborative history of the Barber Park shop is an ongoing love story, or an ode to the utility of bikes. A bike is an equalizer for communities divided into hierarchies; it’s a vehicle that gets someone to work or school, a weapon that fights against any corporate conspiracy to destroy the planet through petroleum products. A bike can improve a person’s physical and mental health.
“From what I can tell from working with friends that have mental health issues, myself included, is that a lot of times we have to get into motion before we start to feel better,” Trent says. “It’s an accomplishment, like I got myself up one hill, I can get myself up another one.”
The Community Bike Shop at Barber Park is currently looking for volunteers on Saturday afternoons to oversee the library and the shop’s social media pages, as well as donations in the form of bikes and or money that will be used to purchase necessities.
To learn how to get involved, send an email to bikesatbarber@gmail. com or follow the shop on instagram @communitybikeshop.barberpark. Please contact a volunteer before arriving at the shop to ensure service.
[A] lot of times we have to get in motion before we start to feel better.
BY CAROLYN DE BERRY
by Matt Jones
by Matt Jones
LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS: Across
1. Strong poker hand
6. Fruit-flavored Coca-Cola brand
11. Bitingly ironic
14. Alvin of the American Dance Theater
15. Creator of a logical “razor”
16. “Ni ___, Kai-Lan” (2010s Nickelodeon cartoon)
17. Migratory honker
19. “Jeopardy!” ques., actually
20. “It’s the end of an ___!”
21. First “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” host
22. “Of course!”, for short
24. “Rainy Days and Mondays” singer Carpenter
25. Korea’s national dish
26. School cleaner
29. Quilt piece
30. Napoleon Bonaparte et al.
31. “Ratatouille” rodent
32. ___ Technica (tech blog)
35. Minor damage
36. It comes in slices
38. Honor for Viola Davis if she wins her
2023 Grammy nomination
39. Ore-___ (Tater Tots maker)
40. Letter between Oscar and Quebec
41. Painter’s movement
43. ___-Roman wrestling
45. Kind of leap or physics
46. Larry, for one
48. “You’d think ...” follow-up
49. About the year of
50. “The Imitation Game” actress Knightley
51. Catchall abbr.
54. ___ Faithful (Yellowstone geyser)
55. “Only Murders in the Building” actress who’s less than half the age of her co-stars
58. Actor Kier of “Dancer in the Dark”
59. “In ___” (1993 Nirvana album)
60. “Buenos Aires” musical
61. “X” is gonna give it to ya
62. “Bye!”
63. Person evaluating something Down
1. Go up against
2. Unreliable informant
3. Forearm bone
4. ___ of Tranquility
5. Get some water
6. Insecticide device
7. Flip ___ (choose by chance)
8. Some mil. academy grads
9. Some proctors, for short
10. Hotel pool, e.g.
11. Question of possession?
12. Chicken nugget dip option
13. Mario Kart character
18. Lockheed Martin’s field
23. “Better Call Saul” network
24. Highland Games attire
25. Ancient Sanskrit guide to life (and I’m
sure nothing else)
26. “Star Wars” warrior
27. Involuntarily let go
28. Veruca Salt co-founder who left to go solo in 1998 (then rejoined in 2013)
29. Brick-shaped candy
31. Rapper with the alias Bobby Digital
33. Streaming device since 2008
34. Cherry attachment
37. Big Wall St. news
38. Cube master Rubik
40. Mythical creature with four legs and two wings
42. Scarlet songbird
44. “Arabian Nights” flyer
45. Grainy salad ingredient
46. Talent hunter
47. Mark in Spanish and Portuguese 48. Resembling lager
50. Bauhaus painter Paul 51. Cast out 52. Place for un beret
53. Old Russian ruler 56. Hot season for a Parisian 57. Anatomical eggs
‘Give it a Go’ — it’s been a long time.
