Mountain Xpress 01.13.21 by Mountain Xpress

OUR 27TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 27 NO. 24 JAN. 13-19, 2021

JAN. 13-19, 2021

MOUNTAINX.COM

C ONTENT S

FEATURES

PAGE 22

WELLNESS

NEWS

NEAL’S GAMBIT 8 MONEY FOR SOMETHING WNC starts to spend $600 COVID-19 payments

12 CHANGE OF PLANS MLK Day events shift to online platforms due to COVID-19

18 PANDEMIC PARADOX With interest in birth centers soaring, local facility struggles to cover costs

For the debut of Xpress’ new Arts & Culture section, we check in with WNC’s Neal Harris, one of only 10 members of the N.C. Chess Hall of Fame and a sought-after coach for young players. COVER PHOTO Thomas Calder COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick

4 LETTERS 4 CARTOON: MOLTON 5 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN

GREEN

6 COMMENTARY 20 A WIN FOR CONSERVATION SAHC tallies nearly 3,000 conserved acres for 2020

8 NEWS 14 BUNCOMBE BEAT

A&C

16 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 23 FRUIT LOOPS Mountain Food Products keeps trucks loaded and rolling through COVID-19 challenges

18 WELLNESS 20 GREEN ROUNDUP 22 ARTS & CULTURE

A&C

26 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 25 ENTERTAINMENT ROUNDUP ‘Minari’ wins top honors; all-age stage; Sandburg slam; more

26 CLASSIFIEDS 27 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

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STA F F PUBLISHER: Jeff Fobes ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER: Susan Hutchinson MANAGING EDITOR: Virginia Daffron ASSISTANT EDITOR: Daniel Walton ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Thomas Calder OPINION EDITOR: Tracy Rose STAFF REPORTERS: Able Allen, Edwin Arnaudin, Thomas Calder, Molly Horak, Daniel Walton COMMUNITY CALENDAR & CLUBLAND: Madeline Forwerck CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Peter Gregutt, Rob Mikulak REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Mark Barrett, Leslie Boyd, Bill Kopp, Cindy Kunst, Alli Marshall, Gina Smith, Kay West ADVERTISING, ART & DESIGN MANAGER: Susan Hutchinson

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OPINION

Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.

What the numbers (and attitudes) say about Asheville area Apparently, Asheville has earned the dishonorable distinction of placing in the top 10% of most violent cities in the entire country [avl.mx/8uz]. Wondering how much it has to do with this: “Asheville Rents Up 4.3% Since Start of Pandemic” [avl.mx/8v0] or this (a local law enforcement sergeant’s response to my statement on a community social media site regarding the need for a more diversely staffed police department): “That premise states that only an ethnicity or gender can equitably apply fairness of the law to the same group. Creating such an environment, by its own declaration, implies that no group can equitably and fairly serve other groups.” Ahem. Time to start looking for a new place to call home. — Angie Song Black Mountain

Woodfin board should address development concerns The community has serious concerns about the proposed development on Richmond Hill. I feel the Woodfin Board of Commissioners should publicly address these concerns in a formal statement through the local media well before the zoning variance hearing: 1. Who will be responsible to pay for the bridge? 2. Who will be responsible to pay for expanding River Road to cover the increased traffic flow? 3. Has the town of Woodfin made any concession to the developer, such as tax cuts?

JAN. 13-19, 2021

My crimes are great, but cannot surpass The power and glory of thy grace. Great God thy nature hath no bounds So let thy pardoning love be found.

C A RT O O N B Y R AN DY M O L T O N 4. Who will be required to cover costs if things don’t go as planned? 5a. Richmond Hill is a residential neighborhood in the city of Asheville lacking connections that could handle increased traffic flow. How will Woodfin commissioners prevent traffic to this development from being directed through Richmond Hill? 5b. If commissioners fail to prevent traffic through Richmond Hill, what plan do they have to compensate the city of Asheville to manage the infrastructure load? Please respond publicly before the zoning variance hearing. — Karl Kuhn Asheville

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NC should catch up with Michigan on death penalty In 1830, in the dusty frontier village of Detroit, Stephen Simmons beat his wife to death in a drunken rage. There was no question of guilt. The trial lasted one day, and a public hanging was ordered by the judge. Invitations were sent out, and bleachers were built for the crowd. An excited atmosphere reigned in Detroit on the day of the hanging. Simmons climbed the steps to the gallows and surveyed the crowd. Rather than address the crowd, as convicts were allowed to do before their execution, it’s reported that Simmons began to sing in a strong baritone: Show pity Lord, O Lord forgive, Let a repenting rebel live. Are not thy mercies full and free? May not a sinner trust in thee?

After hearing about the execution and Simmons’ actions, some local ministers called it un-Christian, and newspapers denounced the spectacle as barbarism. In 1828, a Michigan man, Patrick Fitzpatrick, was hanged in neighboring Ontario for the rape and murder of an innkeeper’s daughter. In 1835, shortly before he died, Fitzpatrick’s former roommate confessed to the crime. Patrick Fitzpatrick was exonerated but dead. The story of this injustice and the finality of the punishment made a deep impression on the people of Michigan. After a decade of deliberation about the two cases, the Michigan Legislature approved a law eliminating the death penalty for all crimes except treason. It became the first jurisdiction in the English-speaking world to ban capital punishment. The death penalty is back in the news. By the time Donald Trump leaves office on Jan. 20, his 13 executions will claim the record for the most of any president in more than a century. These deaths can be viewed as long-delayed justice, but what if the police got the wrong person? What if these individuals were convicted because they were defended by overworked rookie lawyers or witnesses perjured themselves to save their own skins? New evidence has a way of cropping up, sometimes decades after a trial. A group called the Innocence Project has applied DNA testing to old cases and exonerated 375 people of crimes they did not commit — 21 of them had spent time on death row. The N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission uncovered evidence

CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN that freed two intellectually disabled men from death row in 2014. North Carolina still has the death penalty on its books for aggravated murder, while our sister state of Michigan abolished it 174 years ago. North Carolina’s capital punishment has not done a better job deterring murder than Michigan’s life-in-prison rule: Homicide rates for the two states are virtually the same. The failure of capital punishment as a deterrent can also be seen in national statistics reported by the Death Penalty Information Center. Year after year, homicide rates are higher in death penalty states than in nondeath penalty states.

Despite North Carolina’s laws on capital punishment, executions are seldom carried out these days. The example from the waning days of the Trump administration, though, should serve as a warning. North Carolina has 137 inmates on death row. Someday, in the turnover of politics, we may have a governor who is eager to follow the Trump example. Then there will be no time for either repentance or exoneration. The time for North Carolina to eliminate capital punishment is in 2021, before that happens. — Tom Fehsenfeld Asheville

2020 WAS A TOUGH YEAR FOR EVERYONE.

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JAN. 13-19, 2021

OPINION

High anxiety

chunk of our federal tax dollars will be going for a long, long time.

Welcome to Buncombe County’s new mascot

BY BILL BRANYON

Thanks to a recent vote by our Board of Commissioners, Buncombe County will soon have a new mascot: the fantastic F-35 Lightning II family of fighter planes. The unanimous vote awarded $27 million worth of economic development incentives to Pratt & Whitney to ensure that they’d site an aircraft engine component factory here. That bundle of money comes on top of the $15 million in incentives already promised by the state and the 100 acres of land deeded to the company for $1 by Biltmore Farms CEO Jack Cecil. And while P&W rep Dan Field told the commissioners that 80% of the local facility’s output will be

for commercial aircraft, the airfoils made here will also power the F-35, ensuring that county taxpayers will be getting a lot of bang for our millions of incentive bucks. For, according to The National Interest website, our plane is intended to “rule the skies until 2070.” The jet’s own website, f35.com, claims, “Missions traditionally performed by specialized aircraft — air-to-air combat, air-to-ground strikes, electronic attack, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — can now all be executed by a squadron of F-35s.” In other words, the manufacturer believes the plane will make many other jets and weapons systems redundant at best.

Our high-tech fighter is designed to “rule the skies” until 2070.

JAN. 13-19, 2021

MOUNTAINX.COM

BILL BRANYON What’s more, according to Field, our new factory will pay salaries averaging about $68,000: great news for the roughly 800 Buncombe residents lucky enough to snare jobs there. The jet’s website provides dramatic videos and detailed descriptions of the plane’s capabilities: For instance, one version, the F-35B, can speed to a battlefield at 1,200 mph, stop in midair and fire 55 nearly beer-bottle-size rounds a second at enemy planes or ground troops, and then descend like a helicopter onto an aircraft carrier deck — or into Asheville’s City/ County Plaza. The jet can also sneak up on other aircraft, thanks to radar and radar-jamming systems immensely more powerful than those of previous-generation planes, and thus will fight most of its battles beyond visual range. It can launch a superintelligent, $1 million AMRAAM missile and be speeding back to base while the fire-and-forget projectile finds and obliterates, say, Russian MiGs or Chinese Vigorous Dragons before they even know the Lightning is in their vicinity. In addition to carrying Sidewinder missiles and two guided bombs, the Lightning may soon be able discharge a devastating fiber laser. Of course, the F-35 is also the most expensive weapons system ever built, according to numerous sources. The Nation pegged the program’s lifetime cost at $1.5 trillion. Thus, the jet is where a significant

REAL VIRTUAL REALITY

Part of what makes the plane’s stealth technology so effective is its confoundingly, aerodynamically elegant shape: If the F-35 even registers on enemy radar, Wikipedia says it might look like “a metal golf ball.” Its potentially radar-alerting weapons are hidden inside the aircraft till they’re needed; its supersmooth shape scatters and deflects radar, while its high-tech skin absorbs it. Thus, the Lightning can literally “hide in the skies,” rendering both the enemy’s radar and their human eyes obsolete. Meanwhile, the eyes of a Lightning pilot are dazzlingly up to date, because they’re following the enemy’s movements on their $400,000 helmet’s visor. The smart device displays information provided by the plane’s core processor, which can complete 400 billion operations per second, f35.com reports. This means the pilot doesn’t even need to look at the instrument panel, as they have to do in every other plane ever made. It’s similar to looking through a virtual reality headset, except that what you’re seeing is a real-time display that factors in the radar that’s tracking the enemy planes as well as any bullets, missiles or radar coming either from them or from ground sources. What’s more, the visor instantly coordinates its info with data coming from every other American or allied plane, ship, ground vehicle or command center within range. According to Aviation Week, Asheville’s contribution to this spectacular plane will be part of a Pratt & Whitney F135 engine that generates roughly one-quarter the thrust of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket. Knowing that we have such brilliant skin in the game could boost Buncombe residents’ interest in and unquestioning support for any future wars America might fight — and perhaps also our contempt for those pesky peaceniks who clog Asheville’s streets whenever their thin skin gets rankled. And if a Lightning ever is shot down, we’ll have the satisfaction of knowing we’re helping make replacements, while generating additional income for some county residents.

NUCLEAR PENTECOST

Hopefully the mere possession of such an awesome fighting machine will deter other coun-

LAND OF THE SKY RULERS? The amazing F-35 Lightning fighter plane. Photo by Getty Images tries from doing things that might impel America to bomb or invade them. If they persist in impelling us, however, the hate and violence could escalate till we find ourselves embroiled in yet another no-holdsbarred conflict: World War III. Yet even then, our Lightning would not have to bow before the majesty of the intercontinental ballistic missiles that would be used in such a war, for this stunning jet can also deliver B61 nuclear bombs. The “primary thermonuclear gravity bomb” in the American arsenal, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, this formidable ordnance costs $28 million apiece to produce and offers “dial-a-yield” options ranging from 0.3 to 340 kilotons. Theoretically, a 340-kiloton setting could annihilate about 22 times the approximately 200,000 people killed by Little Boy, the roughly 15-kiloton bomb dropped on Hiroshima. That estimated death toll includes both the corpses left behind by the initial explosion and the subsequent fatalities from radiation poisoning. Projections like these should always be taken with a grain of SALT. Still, a B61 dialed to 340 kilotons could conceivably eliminate 4.4 million people, at a cost of only about $6.36 per corpse! And that incomprehensible devastation would stem from just one bomb dropped by a single plane,

proudly powered by the engine our factory helped produce. By that logic, the planned U.S. fleet of 2,456 Lightnings, each carrying one nuclear bomb, could collectively kill about 10.8 billion people. But since there are only about 7.8 billion people worldwide, the F-35s could theoretically, without the help of land-, submarine- or other bomber-based nuclear weapons, kill everyone on Earth — and 3 billion of them twice! Knowing that, should nuclear holocaust ever become necessary, county residents will help provide the power to deliver those Armageddon bombs is simply mind-boggling. We could play a vital role in ending history! And in the meantime, we’ll get 800 well-paying factory jobs. Buncombe is already home to two other arms manufacturers, Kearfott and General Electric. The county seat also sponsors the USS Asheville, a nuclear attack submarine. Isn’t it time we jettisoned effete epithets like Paris of the South, San Fran of the East and Beer City USA in favor of such macho monikers as Land of the Sky Rulers, World War III City — or, with a nod to a term that was widely used in connection with the U.S. Senate’s 1930s-era Nye Committee, The Merchants of Death Metropolis? Books by freelance historian Bill Branyon are available on Amazon or branyonsultimatefreethinking.com. X MOUNTAINX.COM

JAN. 13-19, 2021

NEWS

Money for something WNC starts to spend $600 COVID-19 payments

BY DANIEL WALTON dwalton@mountainx.com Andrew Fletcher made sure to treat himself with the $600 check he received from the federal government as part of the coronavirus relief package passed on Dec. 27: He bought a 3 Musketeers candy bar, retail price 99 cents. The musician and acting chair of the Asheville Downtown Commission, who says his performance income for 2020 was down 90% from what he expected due to pandemic-related business closures, spent the rest of that money to cover three-quarters of his combined rent and bills for one month. An informal poll of Xpress readers found that Fletcher isn’t alone in putting his federal COVID-19 relief funds toward the basic necessities of life. Other Western North Carolina residents said they spent their checks on health insurance premiums, phone bills and repairs to the homes in which they’re spending much more time due to social distancing guidelines. The $600 checks, distributed to all Americans who earned less than $75,000 in 2019, represent the first federal assistance many in WNC have received to cope with the economic fallout of the pandemic since the first

22, the latest point for which data is available, compared with Jan. 15, 2020. And housing website Apartment List reported that median Asheville rents were 5.4% higher in December 2020 than they were a year prior. “I am not confident that just this one-off payment in January is going to yield the same impacts in terms of what we saw with the March payments,” Lawlor says. “We’re so dependent on the tourism sector and so many people working for restaurants and breweries and as musicians, and all of that has been shut down for a long time. … For Asheville in particular, this is not going to be enough.”

RED, WHITE, BLUE AND GREEN: Western North Carolina residents who earned less than $75,000 in 2019 are receiving $600 from the federal government as part of the latest COVID-19 relief package, an amount many say is insufficient to match the economic damage they’ve sustained from the pandemic. Photo by Getty Images coronavirus relief package was signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27. Kathleen Lawlor, an assistant professor of economics at UNC Asheville, says the $1,200 individual payments included in that legislation helped area residents avoid falling into poverty early in the crisis.

But as Lawlor points out, the new, smaller payments will arrive after nine months of business closures, high unemployment and rising local rents. According to nonprofit research project Opportunity Insights, employment among Buncombe County residents making less than $27,000 per year was down more than 34% as of Oct.

INSUFFICIENT FUNDS

Lawlor’s analysis squares with the situation being reported by area charitable organizations. MANNA FoodBank notes that food insecurity across its 16-county WNC service area has increased 68% since the start of the pandemic, higher than the national average increase of 60%. Pisgah Legal Services, which offers free legal aid to those facing eviction, has also recorded thousands of phone calls in recent months from residents in danger of becoming homeless due to coronavirus-related income loss. Although a statewide eviction moratorium remains in effect through at least Sunday, Jan. 31, Jackie Kiger, chief operations officer for PLS, points out that all rent will come due when

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N EWS

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JAN. 13-19, 2021

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that moratorium expires. The delay has given renters more time to pay, but for those who remain unemployed, the bills continue to grow larger. “Many of our clients are also struggling to keep the heat and lights on and put food on the table for themselves and their families, and $600 doesn’t go far,” Kiger says of the new coronavirus relief. “With the increased numbers of COVID-19 in our region, state and country, additional protections to ensure housing during the coldest months of the winter and additional support for payments of rent, utilities, mortgages and other basic needs are very necessary at this time.” It remains unclear whether the federal government will provide additional support, at least in the short term. Although both Trump, a Republican, and congressional Democrats have proposed that $2,000 direct payments be sent to individuals, legislation to that effect was blocked by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the end of December. Democrats have objected to a subsequent proposal by McConnell that would tie the money to the repeal of liability protection for social media companies and the creation of a new election integrity committee. Republican Madison Cawthorn, WNC’s House representative, did not commit to supporting either McConnell’s bill or stand-alone $2,000 checks in a response by spokesperson Micah Bock to an Xpress request for comment. Although Cawthorn acknowledges that the $600 relief payments are not “enough to revive NC-11’s economy,” Bock wrote, he thinks that government assistance isn’t a long-term solution to the coronavirus’s damage. “Madison believes that the fight between $600 and $2,000 misses the point,” Bock explained. “Madison wants North Carolinians to have an extra $20,000 or $200,000 by slashing regulations, supporting small businesses and keeping taxes low.” But Lawlor maintains that extra aid is needed to match the unprecedented disruption of the pandemic and plug gaps in existing programs. She points out that some workers, particularly women, left jobs or scaled back hours to care for children who were not in school due to COVID-19 closures. Because such moves are considered “voluntary,” those leaving were ineligible for unemployment insurance. “What would be better would be if, since March, [Congress] had enacted some sort of program that provided regular, monthly direct payments to households to give people some certainty,” Lawlor says. “People need to know what’s going to happen next month and the month after that.”

SHARE THE WEALTH

Even as great need remains among WNC’s lowest-income residents, many of the federal checks are headed to households in comparatively stable economic shape. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2018, at least 10,000 Asheville households fell between the area median income of $44,900 and the $112,500 income cutoff for heads of households to receive the full $600. Lawlor says economists debate whether that broad approach to payments is more effective than programs that are tied directly to employment or that target the poor more tightly. She argues that because of administration problems with more complex programs — as of September, 12 million Americans were still waiting for owed unemployment benefits, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Census Bureau data — it’s better to cast a wider safety net. “There’s risks when you do targeting that you’re going to miss a lot of people, particularly in this context of economic disruption,” Lawlor says. “If you are going to do targeting in this coronavirus context, it has to be very generous, and it will inevitably include some upper-middle-class people that perhaps don’t need the payments.” Several readers told Xpress that, after analyzing their own financial situations, they’d decided to donate the entirety of their relief money to community causes. Cindy Amberg of Asheville said that she and her husband, as active retirees on a fixed income, wanted to help those who had been more deeply affected by the pandemic. “With the federal funds, we will support Asheville Strong, which is doing great things (including Feed Our City and grants to local businesses), MANNA FoodBank and Asheville Humane Society, to name a few,” Amberg said. “We are also getting takeout food more frequently from restaurants and food trucks.” Lawlor applauds that civic-mindedness as a sort of grassroots corrective to the broad relief payments. Political leaders should nudge their well-off constituents to invest their checks in local nonprofits or businesses, she says — a message that she’s found lacking throughout the pandemic. “I think it’s a missed opportunity to really encourage a spirit of civic engagement and remind us of how we’re all connected and we need to support each other,” she says. X

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JAN. 13-19, 2021

NEWS

Change of plans MLK Day events shift to online platforms due to COVID-19

BY THOMAS CALDER tcalder@mountainx.com Since 1981, Oralene Simmons, founder and chair of The Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Asheville and Buncombe County, has watched the organization’s annual prayer breakfast grow from 50 or so attendees to several thousand. Now in its 40th year, the association is preparing for its latest gathering. But unlike in the past, the 2021 commemoration will take place exclusively online. The decision, made in response to the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, is bittersweet. The prayer breakfast “brings together so many people and kind of sets the tone for the rest of the year,”says Simmons. “We hope we’ll be able

JAN. 13-19, 2021

to reach the same number of people with our virtual programming.” One hurdle, explains the association’s vice chair, Joseph Fox, is the platform itself. While younger supporters have embraced the move, many of the community’s older residents continue to call Fox’s office, unsure how to access and view the prerecorded videos, which will be posted daily on the association’s YouTube Channel beginning Friday, Jan. 15, and concluding Tuesday, Jan. 19. “That’s probably the major challenge,” says Fox. “To shift the mindset of folks who are used to meeting face to face for our events but who are now being asked to attend online.” Highlights from the weeklong series include a candlelight service to honor community lead-

MOUNTAINX.COM

VIRTUAL CELEBRATION: Unlike the previous 39 years, the 40th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast will be held online. Oralene Simmons, pictured, will provide the keynote address. Photo by Virginia Daffron ers; updates from the Buncombe County Remembrance Project, a community coalition aimed at researching racially motivated lynchings in the region; a rec-

itation of the names of people of color recently killed by police and vigilantes; and a keynote address from Simmons, who will reflect on the association’s continuation

of King’s legacy over the last 40 years. It hasn’t been an easy road, Simmons notes. In the early days, she remembers threatening phone calls in the middle of the night. “Being the founder made me a target for some folk who probably did not believe in social justice and our efforts to make a change for the better and bring people together,” she explains. Today, adds Fox, the push for racial equity remains an ongoing struggle. From housing to employment, health care to education — inequities and biases remain, he says. Meanwhile, “hate groups have been emboldened” by current political rhetoric.

Still, both Simmons and Fox look to the future with hope. They note that the summer protests over the police killing of George Floyd have led to deeper discussions and ongoing actions toward a more just society. “It’s been a long time coming,” says Simmons. “And it has come to fruition by people speaking out, negotiating and coming to consensus.” Local support remains strong, notes Fox. “Looking ahead, we are optimistic that the current movement will counter the hate groups that have felt emboldened in recent years. We have hope that our supporters will continue to stand up for the principles that guided Dr. King.” Learn more at avl.mx/8ux. X

UNCA’s MLK virtual events

Brittney Cooper; photo courtesy of UNCA UNC Asheville will host a pair of virtual events for its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration. On Tuesday, Jan. 26, Brittney Cooper, associate professor at Rutgers University, will deliver the 2021 keynote address, “Reimaging Black Liberation.”

Why I support Xpress:

Cooper is the author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower and Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women, winner of the 2018 Merle Curti Intellectual History Award from the Organization of American Historians. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and Cosmopolitan. On Thursday, Jan. 28, Whitney Pirtle, assistant professor of sociology at the University of California Merced, will deliver the online lecture, “COVID-19 Death Gaps: Understanding How Race and Class Inequities Shape Pandemic Health Outcomes.” Both events are free to view. To learn more, visit avl.mx/8uy. X

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BUNCOMBE BEAT

Slow progress marks Buncombe vaccine rollout “I sense the frustration in each of your questions and the exasperation behind your masks. I think the masks are probably a good thing for you right now,” quipped Dr. William Hathaway, Mission Health’s chief medical officer, during a Jan. 5 presentation on COVID-19 vaccination efforts to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners. Hathaway’s facilities, Buncombe County Health & Human Services and national pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens have been responsible for the local distribution of coronavirus vaccines since they became available in mid-December. According to North Carolina state plans, only health care workers, first responders and long-term care facility residents were able to receive the shot until Jan. 11. Commissioners were thus eager to understand how and when others among their constituents could

JAN. 13-19, 2021

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SHOT IN THE ARM: A firefighter receives a COVID-19 vaccine as part of the Buncombe County vaccination rollout. Photo courtesy of Buncombe County expect to be vaccinated. But Fletcher Tove, Buncombe’s emergency preparedness director, emphasized the need for patience. “People seem to think this vaccine solution is a problem for the spring, and it’s really not,” he explained. “This is going to be something we’re working on solving for the majority of 2021.” Stacie Saunders, the county’s public health director, said the biggest bottleneck to rapid distribution lay with manufacturers, which are ramping up production after the December approvals of the vaccines by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Vaccine allotments for the county health department and local hospitals, she added, are determined at the state level, with no other options for sourcing the shots. Even the limited vaccines that Buncombe has received so far, however, haven’t been fully deployed. Of the 1,675 doses allotted through Dec. 28, the county had given just over 1,000 doses through Jan. 4. Neither Saunders nor Tove explained why all of the vaccines hadn’t yet been given to eligible individuals. Although Hathaway did not share an exact figure for how many doses the Mission Health system had received, he estimated the amount was “almost 10 times as much as the county.” Of those shots, he said about 3,700 had been administered to Mission employees across the 18

Western North Carolina counties the system serves. Hathaway also did not directly address why Mission’s doses hadn’t been distributed more quickly. He did note that many health employees are “apprehensive and waiting to get [the vaccine],” an observation that mirrored Jan. 5 remarks made by Dr. Mandy Cohen, the state’s secretary of health and human services. The third major avenue for distribution, federally funded vaccinations at long-term care facilities by CVS and Walgreens staff, remains a black box to county officials. “We don’t get too much more information about what that looks like, as far as how many they’ve done,” Saunders said. Anecdotally, Saunders added, county communicable disease nurses have reported that some long-term care facilities have received their first doses. However, Tove said that Buncombe staffers had “already seen some hesitancy” when trying to vaccinate residents in the 90 county facilities not covered by the federal program. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, North Carolina had the 12th-lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate per capita as of Jan. 5. The state had reported 1,162 vaccinations per 100,000 residents; South Dakota, by comparison, led the country with 3,231 vaccinations per 100,000.

— Daniel Walton X

MOUNTAINX.COM

JAN. 13-19, 2021

COMMUNITY CALENDAR JAN. 13-22, 2021

Justice Matters Tour Behind the scenes at Pisgah Legal Services. FR (1/22), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/7ur

For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, ext. 137. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, ext. 320.

FOOD & BEER

In-Person Events = Shaded

Feed Our City: Free Meal Pop-up To-go meals distributed by Gypsy Queen Cuisine. SA (1/16), 10:30am-1pm, Free, Asheville Masonic Temple, 80 Broadway

All other events are virtual

WELLNESS Council on Aging: Introduction to Medicare How to avoid penalties and save money. WE (1/13), 2pm, Registration required, Free, coabc.org

Cake Cake Cake: Baking as Resistance Artist Yvette Mayorga in conversation with curator Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy. TH (1/21), 4pm, $5, avl.mx/8v2

MUSIC

Early Bird Yoga Family-friendly yoga and mindfulness. Register: avl.mx/8ve. SA (1/16), 9:45am, $8, Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

Pack Library: Jazz by Request Featuring pianist Michael Jefry Stevens. WE (1/13), 5:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8u0

Steady Collective Syringe Access Outreach Free naloxone, syringes and educational material on harm reduction. TU (1/19), 2pm, Firestorm Books, 610 Haywood Rd

Thursday Night Live: Jeremy Loeb In-gallery French and Chinese piano concert. TH (1/14), 6pm, Included with admission, Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square

ART Slow Art Friday: Views of the World Discussion led by touring docent Barbara Pressman at Asheville Art Museum. FR (1/15), 12pm, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/8u9 Center for Craft: Ask the Curator Q&A on the exhibit Sleight of Hand with Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy. FR (1/15), 4pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8tu Jackson Arts Market Live demonstrations by local artists. SA (1/16), 1-5pm, 533 W Main St, Sylva Asheville Fringe Arts Festival Showcase of music, dance, drama, film, comedy, spoken word and more. SU-SU (1/17-24), ashevillefringe.org

Short Takes: TJ Jeter Live soul performance from Tryon Fine Arts Center. TH (1/21), 6:30pm, $10, avl.mx/8v8 LEAF MLK Day Celebration: Sweet Honey in the Rock A capella ensemble performance. SU (1/17), 3pm, $15, avl.mx/8v1 Short Takes: Lecretia Ann Live country performance from Tryon Fine Arts Center. TH (1/21), 6:30pm, $10, avl.mx/8v8

LITERARY Conversations in the Arts: Storytelling from Mountain to Modern Presented by Connie Regan-Blake, hosted by Tryon Fine Arts Center. TH (1/14), 10am, Registration required, $5, avl.mx/8v7

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Metro Wines: Blind Tasting League Led by Asheville School of Wine director Andy Hale. WE (1/20), 5:30pm, Free, avl.mx/8v6

JAN. 13-19, 2021

CIVICS

FRINGE BENEFITS: In its 19th year, the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival will virtually showcase drama, dance, film, comedy, spoken word and more from local artists. Highlights include Trainwreck, a puppet theater tribute to the “new literary canon” by Kate Holden, pictured, and Katie Jones of Chick Lit. The show will share a double feature with Stephanie Kline’s Potshots, a one-act dark comedy on love and mental health in the military, Sunday, Jan. 24, 4 p.m. Find the complete lineup of events at ashevillefringe.org. Photo courtesy of Asheville Fringe Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance: Reader Meet Writer Featuring David Zucchino, author of Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. TH (1/14), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8un Malaprop's Book Launch Featuring Daniel Loedel, author of Hades, Argentina. FR (1/15), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8uo Great Smokies Writing Program: Writers at Home Featuring work from The Great Smokies Review. SU (1/17), 3pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8uq Firestorm Visionary Readers Group Introductory meeting for the biweekly course. MO (1/18), 7:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8um Malaprop's Author Discussion Ed Tarkington presents The Fortunate Ones. TU (1/19), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8ur

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Malaprop's Book Launch Abigail Harrison presents Dream Big! How to Reach for Your Stars. TH (1/21), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8us

Jackson NAACP: MLK March & Rally Featuring Enrique Gomez and Dana Murray Patterson. Register to get Zoom info: jcnaacp54@ gmail.com. MO (1/18), 2pm

THEATER & FILM WNCHA Documentary Screening: Julian Price Featuring director Erin Derham. TH (1/14), 6pm, Registration required, $5, avl.mx/8tt Magnetic U: Writing Sketch Comedy Taught by actor and television writer Paul Vonasek. SA (1/16), 2pm, $30, avl.mx/8va

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS Asheville Wisdom Exchange Open forum on spiritual renewal. WE (1/13), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/8u5 Pack Library: Spanish Conversation Group For adult language learners. TH (1/14), 5pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8ty Asheville Friends of Astrology Monthly meeting. FR (1/15), 7pm, fb.com/ ashevilleastrology

Asheville Wisdom Exchange Featuring author and psychic Frank Mares. WE (1/20), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/8u5

Asheville Affordable Housing Advisory Committee Special meeting. WE (1/13), 9am, avl.mx/8re Asheville Area Riverfront Redevelopment Commission Regular meeting. TH (1/14), 4pm, avl.mx/8ub Buncombe County Library Board Regular meeting. TH (1/14), 6:30pm, Registration required, avl.mx/8v5

ECO & OUTDOOR MountainTrue Holiday Recycling Event Collecting trees, wreaths, lights and greeting cards. SA (1/16), 9am, Jackson Park, 801 Glover St, Hendersonville Home Gardening in the Mountains: Vegetable Gardening Workshop Hosted by NC State Haywood County Extension. Register: mgarticles@charter. net. TU (1/19), 5pm, $10 Casting for Beginners Ages 12 and up. Register: avl.mx/8v3. WE (1/20), 1pm, Free, Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education, 1401 Fish Hatchery Rd, Pisgah Forest

SPIRITUALITY Jewish Power Hour Hosted by Rabbi Susskind. TH (1/14), 6pm, avl.mx/72s Baha'i Devotional: Nearer My God to Thee Devotional with prayer and music. WE (1/20), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8vb

CLUBLAND

Online Event= q WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13 HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Woody Wood (folk, blues), 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia Night, 6:30pm

ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Dinner & Beats w/ Phantom Pantone DJ Collective, 8pm

FRIDAY, JANUARY 15

THE PAPER MILL LOUNGE Karaoke X, 7pm

TRISKELION BREWING CO. Carver, Carmody & McIntire (roots, blues), 6pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA q Poetry Open Mic, 8pm, avl.mx/8uc

EL GALLO Dinner & Beats w/ Phantom Pantone DJ Collective, 7pm

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14

ISIS MUSIC HALL The Darren Nicholson Band (bluegrass), 7pm

THE 2ND ACT Mr Jimmy (blues), 6pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. Jason's Technicolor Cabaret: Music & Comedy, 6pm

BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah's Daydream (jazz), 5pm

SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia Night, 6:30pm

EL GALLO Dinner & Beats w/ Phantom Pantone DJ Collective, 7pm

THE PAPER MILL LOUNGE Karaoke X, 7pm

ISIS MUSIC HALL The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers (Americana, roots), 7pm

THE GREY EAGLE q The Travis Book Happy Hour, 7pm, avl.mx/8ut

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 SWEETEN CREEK BREWING The Lads (acoustic originals), 2pm ISIS MUSIC HALL The Traveling Pilsburys’ Benefit for Asheville Guitar Bar, 7pm

SATURDAY, JANUARY 16

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20

SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Roots and Dore (blues, rock), 3pm

HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Woody Wood (folk, blues), 6pm

SOVEREIGN KAVA q Poetry Open Mic, 8pm, avl.mx/8uc

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21 TRISKELION BREWING CO. Jason’s Technicolor Cabaret: Music & Comedy, 6pm ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Dinner & Beats w/ Phantom Pantone DJ Collective, 8pm

Total individual donations grow 65% in annual campaign for good Mountain Xpress’ 2020 Give!Local campaign to raise funds and awareness for 44 community nonprofits wrapped up on Dec. 31 as the most successful to date. The sixth annual effort saw 570 individual donors give a total of $233,564, a 65% increase over the previous year’s total of $141,207 from 400 donors. 2020’s impact was boosted by $63,671 in matching funds, making for a combined impact of $297,235. Thank you for your support of the local organizations putting in the work to improve the quality of life in Western North Carolina! And three cheers for the sponsors making the program possible, especially to Ingles Markets for printing the Give!Local guide and Blue Mountain Pizza for covering all credit card fees so that 100% of the donations go straight to the nonprofits. Voucher books with fun local rewards have been sent out to donors, and additional goodies are being assembled to thank large donors with tokens of gratitude such as gift cards and local products. If your business would like to be included in rewarding donors, please contact us at givelocal@mountainx.com or call 828-251-1333. Even as we continue acknowledging our donors and tying up loose ends from the 2020 campaign, we’re looking ahead to the fall with plans to continue growing the impact of this initiative. Nonprofits may apply now to be part of Give!Local 2021 at avl.mx/8p4. X

Wellness 2021 Issues

Publish Jan. 27 & Feb. 3 MOUNTAINX.COM

JAN. 13-19, 2021

WELLNESS

Pandemic paradox

With interest in birth centers soaring, local facility struggles to cover costs BY LESLIE BOYD leslie.boyd@gmail.com When Emma Strickland learned she was pregnant with her second child, she started looking for an alternative to a hospital birth. It wasn’t just that she was concerned about encountering COVID19 in a hospital setting — she also wanted more say in how she gives birth than is often the norm in a hospital. “It seemed like it was either a hospital or home,” Strickland says. “And I didn’t want to give birth at home.” Then she heard about the Western North Carolina Birth Center, a freestanding birth center minutes from Mission Hospital. The center is open during the COVID pandemic but has had to scale back on some of its services, like gynecological care and breastfeeding support. Ironically, that’s led to a shortage of income at a time when women like Strickland find themselves increasingly drawn to a birth center. The pandemic has also put traditional fundraising events on hold. Taken together, those challenges and others have led the nonprofit to launch an ambitious online donation drive that seeks to generate $250,000 to support the center’s ongoing operations.

JAN. 13-19, 2021

LARGE AND IN CHARGE

Birth became highly medicalized during the middle of the 20th century, and until the 1970s, women had little to no say in how they gave birth. Family members — even fathers — passed the hours in waiting rooms, not allowed to be present at the birth of their children. The way women labored was too often dictated by hospital or the doctor’s preferences. While most hospitals no longer insist laboring moms stay in bed and no longer strap them down to a delivery table, many still don’t offer options such as having a midwife deliver the baby or allowing a mother to use a birthing pool. “I’m looking forward to being in charge of my own labor and delivery, since I know my body,” explains Strickland. Her first child, a daughter, was born 2 1/2 years ago in a hospital in Hawaii. But that was before COVID-19 began filling up hospitals. This time around, Strickland wanted a place she felt safer. The center seemed like a sensible option, and she is excited about making her own birth plan and knowing it will be respected unless something unexpected happens. “We’re unlearning a lot of things now,” says Dylan Babb, who gave birth to her daughter, June, at the

MOUNTAINX.COM

CUTE AND CUDDLY: Dylan Babb and daughter, June Zumwalt, who was born March 6 at the WNC Birth Center. The photo was taken in August, courtesy of Babb WNC Birth Center in March. “We’re unlearning a lot of things we thought were true. There’s these traditions around midwifery care like delayed cord-cutting and immediate skin-toskin contact.” Babb’s husband, Nathan Zumwalt, was able to be there during her labor and delivery, to coach her and to be among the first to see their daughter.

Babb, a member of the center’s board of directors, is part of the team working to raise money to fund its operations.

WHAT CAN THE REGION SUPPORT?

The center is one of three freestanding birth centers in North

2021

Carolina, says Sarah Dumas, clinical director of the Women’s Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill, which opened 25 years ago, and which helped Asheville get its center up and running in 2016. The third is in Statesville. Business has picked up since COVID-19 hit last March, Dumas says, with some women simply hoping to avoid hospitals during a pandemic and others actually moving from larger cities, where the coronavirus seemed to be spreading unchecked, late in their pregnancies. “Centers have been able to upstaff, but the question now is whether the demand will stay as high,” she says. That increase in patient volumes is counterbalanced by the local center’s ongoing reliance on financial support from the Chapel Hill center — a situation that’s not sustainable over the long term, its leaders say. The center also wants to expand access to women of low income, who might not otherwise have access to a birth center. Those goals are sometimes at odds with fiscal realities. As a nonprofit, WNC Birth Center relies heavily on donations and on grants from foundations. But grant money is usually restricted in what it can be used for, and most grants will not cover operating expenses, just specific programs. And since the center is not part of a hospital, reimbursement rates from insurance companies and Medicaid are lower. Even having a midwife attend a birth is reimbursed at a lower rate than that for a physician, Babb says. “We get a facilities fee, but it’s not what a hospital gets for a birth there,” Babb says. “And because of COVID, some of the other services we offer have been scaled back or put on hold because we can’t do them safely. … Part of the way we make up for these lower reimbursement rates is by offering gynecological services, well-woman care, lactation consulting and other related services.” With fewer opportunities to make up the shortfall — the center’s two big fundraisers, on Mother’s Day and an event in October, had to be canceled this year — a fundraising campaign became necessary. “We have to learn whether the region can support a free-standing birth clinic,” says Nancy Koerber, co-founder of New Dawn Midwifery and now executive director of the WNC Birth Center. “With Medicaid covering just 40%-50% of

what they pay for a hospital birth, we lose a considerable amount on every birth.”

Wellness Issues

A HOPEFUL VISION

But the center won’t stop accepting Medicaid patients, since offering low-income women services they need is part of the mission. The center’s location, on South French Broad Avenue, near public housing, is ideal for women who live there and lack reliable transportation. The center has three birthing rooms and the staff to support them, but it’s looking to expand staff so midwives can offer in-hospital services (all of the center’s midwives have privileges at Mission), and so the center can offer more of its ancillary services: well-woman care, postpartum care up to four weeks after delivery, classes and consulting services. “We have to be sure we have 24/7 services at the center, too, and we know we can’t be two places at once,” Koerber says. “We think it’s important to have a midwife, no matter what time of day you want one.” COVID-19 has caused a few changes at WNC and other birth centers, including closing family waiting rooms and no longer allowing children to accompany their parents to appointments. “That’s a real sorrow for us,” Koerber says. “We love having children here.” But like hospitals, the center is allowing only one person to accompany a woman giving birth, and everyone entering the center is screened. “We can’t really do all the things we were doing, and that’s hard,” Koerber adds. “We look forward to doing all the things we used to do again when this pandemic is over.” X

Coming Jan. 27th & Feb. 3rd advertise@mountainx.com | 828-251-1333 x 1

Want to help? Despite the growing popularity of its birthing center services, The WNC Birth Center has lost revenue during the pandemic due to disruptions in other services such as lactation support and gynecological care. To contribute to an online fundraiser that’s seeking to generate $250,000 to support the center’s operations, visit avl.mx/wordcaoz. X

MOUNTAINX.COM

JAN. 13-19, 2021

GREEN ROUNDUP by Daniel Walton | dwalton@mountainx.com

SAHC tallies nearly 3,000 conserved acres for 2020 Even amid the challenges of COVID-19, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy recorded a banner year for land conservation in 2020. The Asheville-based nonprofit closed more land projects over the past year than in any previous year since its 1974 founding, bringing 2,986 acres throughout Western North Carolina and East Tennessee under protection. “There is something tangible and reassuring in preserving land — it’s something you can put your hand on,” said Carl Silverstein, SAHC’s executive director, in a press release summarizing the year’s accomplishments. “These conservation projects help preserve cultural connections to the past, places to connect with nature and vital resources we rely on now, and which will be increasingly critical in the future.”

NEW TRAILS AHEAD: A hiker visits the 54-acre Tiger Creek property protected by the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy as part of the nearly 3,000 acres preserved in 2020. Photo by Travis Bordley, courtesy of SAHC

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The nonprofit’s work included both valuable wildlife habitats, such as the Wiles Creek and Little Rock Creek preserves, and prime farmland at risk of development. Sandy Hollar Farms in Buncombe County and Bowditch Bottoms in Yancey County were among the agricultural projects completed last year. “The events of 2020 have underscored the importance of being adaptable,” noted Silverstein. “SAHC’s conservation work is critical in securing natural resources that ensure the region’s resilience in response to climate change.”

nonprofit is amplifying submissions through its social media channels to inspire others in their progress toward organic living. “We’ve noticed in 2020 that more people are choosing to grow their own food and eat locally — a lot of us were forced into that with grocery

shortages,” says Carrie Moran, communications director for OGS, about the impetus for the program. “And I think this year highlighted some food justice issues. People are out there looking for support, but also for inspiration.” One such submission came from Angel Lunn, a former OGS marketing associate and owner of Zänë Acres Farm in Kannapolis. “Honestly, my land may not be much to look at to others. It’s half an acre in a residential area, backed up to a school track and field,” Lunn says. “But none of that matters because it’s ours: We own it. By sharing our land aspects, we allow people to explore the possibility that they don’t have to own acres of land to sustain growth, to feed their families and to change their communities.” And Olivia Ramos, who co-owns Soil Shine Farm & Ferments in Burnsville with her husband, Rocky, says she wanted to celebrate how local agriculture thrived in 2020 despite the pandemic. “It’s so wonderful how many new people got introduced to gardening and farming this summer, either because other plans changed or they realized their dependence on the land,” she explains. “We were so lucky to be a part of that shift and get to work with extra apprentices who came from all sorts of nonfarming paths.”

Save the date

• A new citizen photography exhibit featuring photos of Southern Appalachian landscapes debuts at The N.C. Arboretum’s Baker Exhibit Center Gallery on Saturday, Jan. 16. The images were taken by

Organic Growers School debuts Show Us Your Land campaign Asheville-based Organic Growers School is encouraging farmers, gardeners and home growers throughout Western North Carolina to share pictures and stories of their operations through the recently launched Show Us Your Land campaign. The

MOUNTAINX.COM

LAND OF PLENTY: Farm manager Rocky Ramos, right, and apprentices at Soil Shine Farm & Ferments in Burnsville enjoy farm-fresh melon slices. Photo by Olivia Ramos

• The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s 18th annual Business of Farming Conference will take place virtually ThursdaySaturday, Feb. 25-27. New workshops at the event, including Direct Marketing in the Time of COVID and Optimizing Your Online Store, are designed to help local producers respond to the pandemic’s impact. More information and registration at avl.mx/8ul.

STILL LIFE: This photo by Jennifer Powell, a student of documentary photographer Susan Patrice, is among the works to be displayed at The N.C. Arboretum, starting Saturday, Jan. 16. Photo courtesy of The N.C. Arboretum participants in a virtual workshop led by Asheville-based documentary photographer Susan Patrice and will remain on display through Sunday, May 2. More information available at NCArboretum.org. • EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems, a project of N.C. State University, holds multiple free virtual workshops throughout January and February. Highlights include Butcher Basics for Home Consumers on Tuesday, Jan. 19, and the 2021 Winter Vegetable Conference Wednesday-Thursday, Feb. 24-25. More information and registration at avl.mx/8up. • The Land of Sky Regional Council marks the retirement of Bill Eaker, the organization’s senior environmental planner, with a Zoom party on Thursday, Jan. 21, at 11 a.m. Eaker’s 40 years of service to the community have included co-founding the French Broad River Foundation (a predecessor to RiverLink) and chairing the Haywood County Planning Board. More information and registration at LandOfSky.org/Bill. • The Creation Care Alliance offers an online symposium ThursdayFriday, Jan. 28-29, exploring the ways people of faith can work toward environmental and social justice. Shantha Ready Alonso, executive director of the national nonprofit Creation Justice Ministries, will be among the featured speakers. More information and registration at avl.mx/8uj.

Raise your voice

• Biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission seek information on sightings of the mudpuppy, a rare aquatic salamander native to Western North Carolina. Mudpuppies are often mistaken for hellbenders but can be distinguished by their spots, smaller size (12 inches versus 16-17 inches) and red, feathery gills. Sighting information and photos should be sent to commission biologist Lori Williams at lori.williams@ncwildlife.org. • The Woodfin Planning and Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled to hold a hearing on a 92-acre mixed-use development next to Asheville’s Richmond Hill Park at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1. The area is known to be habitat for several regionally rare species, including the marbled salamander and Eastern fairy shrimp, and borders the French Broad River. • The N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation asks for public input on the Hickory Nut Gorge State Trail, a proposed trail network of over 130 miles across Buncombe, Henderson, Polk and Rutherford counties. An online survey on which construction projects and priorities should be emphasized is available through Friday, Jan. 15, at avl.mx/8uk.

Community kudos

• Asheville GreenWorks received a $50,000 grant from the Gannett Foundation to support urban tree planting. The foundation is the charitable arm of Gannett Co., the parent company of the Citizen Times. • Lisa McDonald, the founder of Sweet Bear Rescue Farm in East Flat Rock, is spending January helping to construct an earthship — a type of passive solar, earthbased sustainable structure — as a school building for students in Haiti. McDonald hopes to construct an earthship on her own property this summer, which will

HEMLOCK HELPERS: Volunteers with the Southeast Regional Land Conservancy and Hemlock Restoration Initiative treated 279 trees for the hemlock woolly adelgid in December. Photo courtesy of Karin Heiman be available for educational tours and vacation rentals. • N ational nonprofit The Conservation Fund announced that 205 acres would be added to the Pisgah National Forest near the Linville Gorge. The addition, supported by the Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina, the Blue Ridge Conservancy and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, protects the view of Long Arm Mountain from the

gorge and conserves the Bull Branch Creek watershed. The Southeast Regional Land • Conservancy recently treated 279 hemlock trees in rural Madison County for protection from the hemlock woolly adelgid. SERLC volunteers received cost-share and staff support from the Hemlock Restoration Initiative, a program of Asheville-based nonprofit WNC Communities. X

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JAN. 13-19, 2021

ARTS & CULTURE

Checkmate

Introducing the Arts & Culture section You might notice this week’s paper looks a little different. As the local businesses that support our publication navigate economic hardships associated with COVID-19, Xpress is slimming down through the winter months. One of the changes you see this week has been under consideration for some time: As we strive to continue bringing our readers the most relevant, most interesting and most informative stories each week in a smaller format, we decided to combine our Food and Arts & Entertainment sections under the masthead of Arts & Culture. The new name will provide additional flexibility to follow those beats wherever they may lead. As 2020 taught us, we can’t always know exactly where that will be, but this change in the section’s name doesn’t alter our mission. We look forward to continuing to bring you the latest news and updates concerning our region’s art, music, dance, literature, beer, craft and culinary scenes. And as always, we strive to spotlight unique voices from our region’s diverse creative communities. Thank you for your ongoing readership as we carry forward Xpress’ 27-year tradition of community journalism. X

The Neal Harris experience

“How do you eat an ice cream cone?” Harris asks rhetorically. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

THE REAL DEAL: Local resident Neal Harris is a U.S. Chess Federation National Life Master and one of only 10 members of the N.C. Chess Hall of Fame. Photo by Jarrett Van Meter

BY JARRETT VAN METER jarrettvanmeter@gmail.com At a West Asheville picnic table, Neal Harris — one of only 10 members of the N.C. Chess Hall of Fame — ticks my pieces from the board with almost comical ease. In the process, he shares stories and insights from his decorated career as both a chess player and local teacher. On the other side of the board, I am as helpless and bewildered as one of Beth Harmon’s opponents in the popular Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit.” Harris grew up in McDowell County, where he taught himself to play the

game he has since built his life around. As a player, he ascended to the level of a U.S. Chess Federation National Life Master, which is traditionally earned by maintaining the minimum master rating of 2,200 for 300 consecutive chess games. He has won his fair share of tournaments along the way, defeating several grand masters. His task on this day is far less strenuous. When I, playing as black, make a particular move, he tells the story of a second grader named Christopher who defeated a man named Grumpy after the latter committed the same error I just made.

PRIME RIB

ROAST

COLD WAR KID

Harris discovered his passion for teaching the game of chess to young players in the early 1990s, after the Cold War ended— a discovery made through defeat and resulting necessity. As the top-level Russian and European players began making their way to America to compete, many of the top American players were suddenly relegated to lower echelons of competition and consequently prize money. Since that time, Harris has coached hundreds, if not thousands, of students throughout Western North Carolina. Prior to the pandemic, he spent the workweek traveling among chess clubs at Odyssey School, Veritas Christian Academy, Avery’s Creek Elementary, Thrive Education Center, Koontz Intermediate School, Valley Springs Middle School and T.C. Roberson High

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JAN. 13-19, 2021

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School, as well as Asheville and Black Mountain home school groups. The students ranged from kindergartener to high school seniors, but all were treated to the self-described “Neal Harris Experience.” “I try to teach in three directions,” Harris explains. “The first one is I have a demonstration board that I hang on the wall and physically make the moves with the pieces. You have a board in front of you, almost like a computer screen, and you move the pieces on the board. And then I try to playact it out sometimes. Have one person be the king, one person be the knight and explain what I am trying to do.”

SIMPLE AS THAT

Despite COVID-19, Harris saw a spike in tutorial inquiries following the October debut of “The Queen’s Gambit.” A casual viewer, Harris appreciates the show’s attention to detail. “It does not deviate like some of the chess movies you’ve seen where the king and queen are on the wrong square or something like that,” he says. But his lessons are largely on hold until he is able to resume in-person classes and deliver instruction with his signature flair. He hopes the momentum the game has gained in recent months will continue once restrictions are lifted. “I have tried online teaching, and I don’t like it,” Harris says. “The Neal Harris Experience has to be live, simple as that.” As for our game, it didn’t last as long as even he had anticipated. “Checkmate in four,” he says shortly after we began. Indeed, four moves later, I was picking up the pieces, both literally and figuratively. X

FOOD

Fruit loops

40%,” he explains. “I don’t think that would be sustainable for the long run, but in the short run, to get us through the worst of it, we can do it.” By the arrival of the fall tourist season, the business had managed to achieve about 85% of its pre-pandemic capacity. But now, with winter settled in and restaurants struggling to remain in business with little outdoor dining and further reduced indoor capacity, Mountain Food Products has seen its business dip again, dropping to 65%-70% of what is normal for this time of year. Although sales are down, the company is still operating within its sustainability target, but unpredictability has proved to be another challenge, Ainspan says. For example, he had not expected to be as busy as he was on Jan. 2, with his team hustling to fill orders while short staffed. But he continues to be hopeful about the future. “The new stimulus they finally signed will help provide a bridge,” he says. “By spring, weather will improve, and people can sit outside again. The vaccine is rolling out. ... We’ve gotten to January, and we’re still here. Ninety days from now I think the world will look a lot different.”

Mountain Food Products keeps trucks loaded and rolling through COVID-19 challenges At 8 a.m. on the first Saturday of 2021, a rapid and practiced choreography unfurls at Mountain Food Products’ warehouse and loading dock behind the WNC Farmers Market. Meghan Bosley, MFP’s local grower coordinator and wearer of many hats, is juggling phone calls and monitoring orders on a computer screen from a raised desk at the entrance with another worker at her side. Employees inside the large walk-in coolers load boxes of produce and products onto hand trucks, which other workers wheel out to the loading dock, then, assisted by drivers, pack onto box trucks for delivery to accounts in Buncombe County. Ron Ainspan, a former farmer who started the produce sourcing and distribution business in the early 1980s, performs the role of conductor, pitching in wherever needed. Like hundreds of other businesses in Western North Carolina, Mountain Food Products has been hanging onto the COVID-19 roller coaster for dear life since the pandemic abruptly changed everything in March. “I saw it coming about a month before, though there was no way to know what exactly was coming,” Ainspan remembers. “We started putting heightened sanitation and safety practices in place and then, like everyone else, we got hit like a brick in mid-March.” “Everyone else” as it related to his company were the 300-plus restaurants, retail outlets and institutions Mountain Food Products serviced weekly with everything from leeks to lemons, garlic to greens, mushrooms to mangos. Though Ainspan originally launched Mountain Food Products to help develop a market for the produce he grew, he soon heard from restaurants — including his first customer, Mark Rosenstein, founder of The Market Place restaurant — that there was a need for a local distribution system and a source for specialty produce not grown in the area. Over the years, as Asheville’s restaurant scene flourished, so did Mountain Food Products, which on any given day lists as many as 400 products on its price sheet. Some of those items are locally grown — defined by MFP as within 100 miles of Asheville — and some are organic, but restaurants also need produce from outside the area, such as avocados, cranberries, citrus

— Kay West X

EGG-SENTIAL WORKERS: From left, Mountain Food Products employees Jim Sexton and Meghan Bosley and owner Ron Ainspan prepare to disburse and deliver free-range eggs from Sexton Dairy Farms to MFP accounts. Photo by Shawn Willett and bananas, and those items arrive weekly via tractor-trailer. In mid-March, with restaurants closed to indoor dining and scrambling to figure out their own new ways of operating, Mountain Food Products’ accounts stopped ordering. “It basically killed 80%-90% of our business, and I had to lay off our entire staff — about 30 people,” says Ainspan. Some of his employees, though, refused to be laid off and continued coming in to do whatever they could, he notes with a laugh. Among the alternative models he explored and put into place were a home delivery service his daughter created called The Mobile Vegetable, an open-air market at their loading dock and in front of Vinnie’s Neighborhood Italian restaurant on Merrimon

Avenue, adding more clients to MFP’s existing community-supported agriculture program, increasing deliveries to businesses like Mother Earth Food and creating new relationships with groups distributing food boxes to the community, such as the YMCA and Bounty & Soul. About a month into the crisis, Ainspan realized that if he could get MFP back to doing 40% of its pre-pandemic business, the company would be sustainable. He gives kudos to the state for helping him achieve that mark by maintaining reasonable lease rates. “That, coupled with having the flexibility to shrink labor by as much as we had to shrink sales volume, made us workable to where we could cover our rent and utilities and things like that at MOUNTAINX.COM

JAN. 13-19, 2021

ARTS & CU L T U R E

FOOD

What’s new in food A mix of good news and uncertainty kicks off 2021

SMOKE SIGNALS

Brian Hough, chef and general manager of Smoke Black Mountain, wants to clear the air about what’s cooking in his kitchen. “The main idea of the menu is smoked meat,” he says of the newly opened concession trailer parked behind Black Mountain Brewing and across the street from Black Mountain Kitchen + Ale House, all owned by John Richardson. “I don’t want to engage in that endless debate about which barbecue is best. There are a lot of people around here doing barbecue; that’s not what we’re doing.” What Smoke Black Mountain is doing in its custom-built black metal smoker is smoking everything within reach — from olives to mushrooms, lobster to rabbit, as well as usual suspects like pork, sausage and brisket. “John always wanted to add food options to the brewery, so I suggested getting a truck or a trailer,” Hough explains. “He did that part, then handed it off to me.” Hough worked with his culinary team — Phil Guyer, Greg Buchanan and Patrick Manley — on the menu and fired up the smoker on Jan. 1. Besides the mains, sides will include mac and cheese, curly fries and slaw. Order pads accessible by smartphone are on tables inside Black Mountain Brewing and online with pickup at the trailer. Smoke Black Mountain, 131 Broadway Ave., Black Mountain. avl.mx/8ue

2021

Wellness Issues

Coming Jan. 27th & Feb. 3th 828-251-1333 x 1 advertise@mountainx.com

JAN. 13-19, 2021

ORDER UP: Smoke Black Mountain general manager Brian Hough fired up the smoker of the new food trailer behind Black Mountain Brewing on Jan. 1. Photo by John Richardson

FISH OUT OF WATER

Tommy Quartararo and his wife, Kristen Onderdonk, have two busy seafood restaurants in Key West — the Thirsty Mermaid and Little Pearl. About three years ago, they bought a getaway home in Fairview, where they were spending spring break with their two children last March when the pandemic hit. Ten months later, Onderdonk and kids are still stationed in Fairview while Quartararo travels back and forth to Key West to tend to the restaurants. During the first week of January, the couple partnered with chef John Inglesby to expand their business with the launch of Little Pearl Asheville in the space that formerly housed Rise Southern Biscuits in Peaks Center across from the Asheville Mall. “Kristen and I walked in, and she said, ‘Absolutely not. We do not need another restaurant!’” Quartararo says with a laugh, recalling a visit to the location last summer. “But the space had a hood and tons of equipment, and I felt like the area needed more options than fast foods and chains.” The team knocked down walls and redesigned the space to add a bar and an open kitchen. Little Pearl Asheville will be more casual than the dinner-only Key West location and will be open all day, but its menu will be similar. Highlights include East

MOUNTAINX.COM

and West Coast oysters, littleneck clams, ceviche, shrimp, lobster, crab and fish (including Sunburst Farms rainbow trout) as well as burgers and wings for nonpescatarians. Little Pearl Asheville, 15 Peaks Center Lane. avl.mx/8uf

MAD PLATTER

When mom is craving sushi, dad wants wings and the only thing your picky teens will eat are burgers and fries, The Madness Asheville Sushi, Burgers & Bar serves family harmony. Aaron Cheng, who also owns Yum Poke locations in Asheville and Arden, was intrigued by a similar concept in Charlotte and decided the new West Park Center on Smokey Park Highway was the perfect place to launch. “Aaron’s thinking was that there are not a lot of sit-down, full-service restaurants in that part of town,” says Nick Levine, who does marketing and social media for Yum and Madness. “He didn’t think people who live there should have to go downtown for a great dining experience.” The Madness menu is extensive, covering small bites, soups and salads, bento boxes, nigiri and sashimi, classic sushi rolls, chef’s specialty rolls and burgers. The burger lineup leads with The Madness, which is topped with a spicy crab roll. And for those morning-into-afternoon-afters,

there’s The Hangover with cheddar cheese, bacon and a fried egg. The Madness Sushi, Burgers & Bar, 275 Smokey Park Highway. avl.mx/8ug

SANDWICH BOARD

Avenue M executive chef Andrew McLeod recalls that he was chewing the fat one day with chef Graham House of Session at Citizen Vinyl about their mutual passion for the juxtaposition of high-brow and lowbrow cuisines when the notion to one day do a Sunday supper on the theme segued to a more immediate plan for a sandwich pop-up. McLeod mentioned the idea to Chop Shop owner P.J. Jackson, who noted that COVID-19 had caused him to suspend his once-robust sandwich business. Before you could say pastrami on rye with spicy mustard, the three had teamed up to plan the delivery-only sandwich pop-up, Trashalachia. Launched Jan. 4 exclusively through KickbackAVL, the menu offers six sandwiches, from a double cheeseburger to the aforementioned pastrami on rye, on Geraldine’s Bakery bread. Trashalachia will initially operate Mondays and Tuesdays when many restaurants are closed; preorders are accepted and encouraged. For details and to order, visit avl.mx/8uh.

BREAK-ING NEWS

Facing cold weather, limited daylight and the traditionally slow winter season, Smoky Park Supper Club, Avenue M and El Gallo revealed plans in early December to take a winter hiatus. A Dec. 23 announcement from city and county officials that indoor dining capacity would be reduced from 50% to 30% from Jan. 2 through at least the end of the month precipitated more hard decisions. As of Jan. 4, Blackbird, Cucina 24, Jargon, Zambra and Avenue M are among the local independent restaurants that have placed a “closed for now” sign on their doors. Jane Anderson, executive director of AIR, says she expects the 30% capacity policy will cause others to join the list of the organization’s members taking an unplanned winter break. On Jan. 1, Cristina and Jesson Gil, owners of the three Early Girl Eatery locations, announced on Facebook that the North Asheville location on Merrimon Avenue will permanently close.

— Kay West X

ENTERTAINMENT ROUNDUP participating. Submissions are due by Friday, Jan. 22. Videos will be posted on the Sandburg Home’s Facebook page Wednesday, Jan. 27-Friday, Jan. 29, and the winners will be announced on Saturday, Jan. 30, at 10 a.m. nps.gov/carl/planyourvisit/slam.htm

‘Minari’ wins top honors from NC critics

Smoky Mountain arts stroll

IMMIGRANT STORY: From left, Alan S. Kim, Steven Yeun, Noel Cho and Yeri Han star in Minari. Lee Isaac Chung’s drama won four awards from the N.C. Film Critics Association, including best narrative film. Photo by David Bornfriend, courtesy of A24 The N.C. Film Critics Association has named Minari the best narrative film of 2020. Lee Isaac Chung’s ’80s-set drama about a Korean family attempting to start a farm in Arkansas also earned the best original screenplay award for Chung and best supporting actress for Youn Yuh-jung. In addition, co-star Will Patton, who attended the N.C. School of the Arts, received the Ken Hanke Memorial Tar Heel Award. The prize is named in honor of the late Xpress film critic and recognizes a film or performer with a special connection to North Carolina. The remaining three awards for performing went to Frances McDormand (Nomadland) for best actress, Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) for best actor and Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7) for best supporting actor. Other winners include Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) for best director and best adapted screenplay; Joshua James Richards (Nomadland) for best cinematography; Tenet for best special effects; Soul for best animated film and best music; Another Round for best foreign language film; and Dick Johnson Is Dead for best documentary film. The 4K Blu-ray release of The Lord of the Rings trilogy was awarded the inaugural best restoration prize. ncfilmcritics.org

All-age stage

Flat Rock Playhouse’s Studio 52 is offering an array of virtual classes this winter. Courses are designed for artists ages 5 and older, and will be taught by theater professionals and Playhouse alums, aka Vagabonds. Elementary-age artists can explore improvisation, characterization, costume design and musical theater; middle school and high school students can take acting, musical theater, Broadway dance, audition preparation and acting for the camera classes; and adults can join playhouse scenic designer Dennis C. Maulden to learn the process of designing a show or study acting basics with Bill Muñoz. The semester begins the week of Monday, Jan. 25, and runs for nine weeks. frpstudio52.org

The singing journalist Asheville-based musician/reporter Jonathan Ammons releases American Splendor on Friday, Jan. 15. The former Xpress contributor spent the last year and a half writing and recording the album, on which he plays every instrument used in the 10 genre-bending songs, with an assist from area violinist Olivia Springer. “It is largely a record of stories based on conversations I have had through interviews for local publi-

cations, radio shows or podcasts,” Ammons says. “All everyday stories from everyday Americans struggling to achieve that American dream.” jonathanammons.bandcamp.com

Sandburg slam

In honor of Carl Sandburg’s Jan. 6 birthday, the Carl Sandburg Home in Flat Rock invites storytellers to submit a five-minute video of them reading a true story. Works should reflect the theme of “seasons,” such as nature’s change of seasons, a story from a favorite season or the seasons of life. A panel of judges will award a $100 first prize, $75 second prize and $50 third prize, and all storytellers will receive a small thank-you gift for

Artists with studios in Haywood County are invited to participate in the annual Haywood County Studio Tour. Applications are due by Friday, Feb. 5, and the free, self-guided tours will take place Saturday, June 26, and Sunday, June 27. Studio artists may choose to open their workspaces to the public or join with another studio host. The Haywood County Arts Council will act as a liaison between artists needing a host site and studios that have space for additional artists. haywoodarts.org X

MOVIE LISTINGS The Mountain Xpress Movie section’s run has come to an end, but reviews by hosts Bruce Steele and Edwin Arnaudin — aka the Asheville Movie Guys — will continue online at AshevilleMovies.com. This week’s reviews of new films available to view via local theaters and popular streaming services include: HERSELF: Clare Dunne (Spider-Man: Far From Home) shines in this powerful Irish drama about a domestic-abuse survivor and mother of two who rebuilds her life with help from a supportive network of friends. A more accurate title might have been Themselves. Grade: A-minus. Rated R OUTSIDE THE WIRE: The charismatic Anthony Mackie as an android officer, fighting alongside robot soldiers in the near future, only adds so much excitement to this otherwise lifeless military action flick. Grade: C-minus. Rated R

Find full reviews and local film info at ashevillemovies.com patreon.com/ashevillemovies

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JAN. 13-19, 2021

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): As you ripen into a more fully embodied version of yourself, you will summon ever-greater discrimination about where to seek your inspiration. I trust that you will increasingly divest yourself of any tendency you might have to play around with just any old mediocre fire. More and more, you will be drawn to high-quality blazes that provide just the right amount of heat and light — neither too much nor too little. And you will steadfastly refrain from jumping into the flames, as glamorously dramatic as that might seem — and instead be a master of deft maneuvers that enable you to get the exact energy you need. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Denstu is a major Japanese advertising agency headquartered in Tokyo. Annually since 1925, its new employees and freshly promoted executives have carried out a company ritual: climbing 12,388-foot-high Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest peak. The theme of the strenuous workout is this: “We are going to conquer the symbol that represents Japan more than anything else. And, once we do that, it will signify that we can do anything.” In anticipation of what I suspect will be a year of career gains for you, Taurus, I invite you to do the following: Sometime in the next six weeks, go out in nature and perform an equivalent feat. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Today I received a new email from a Gemini friend who lives in London. It was date-stamped Jan. 15, 2015. Weird! In it, she talked about applying for a new job at a publishing company. That was double weird, because February 2015 was in fact the time she had gotten the editing job that she still has. Her email also conveyed other details about her life that I knew to be old history. So why did it arrive now, six years late? I called her on the phone to see if we could unravel the mystery. In the end we concluded that her email had time-traveled in some inexplicable way. I predict that a comparable event or two will soon happen in your life, Gemini. Blasts from the past will pop in as if yesterday were today. CANCER (June 21-July 22): Eugene Sue (1804–1857) was a popular French author whose stories often offered sympathetic portrayals of the harsh living conditions endured by people of the lower economic class. Writing generously about those downtrodden folks made him quite wealthy. I’d love to see you employ a comparable strategy in the coming year. What services might you perform that would increase your access to money and resources? How could you benefit yourself by helping and uplifting others? LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The beautiful and luxurious fabric known as silk comes from cocoons spun by insect larvae. Sadly for the creatures that provide the raw material, they’re usually killed by humans harvesting their handiwork — either by being stabbed or boiled alive. However, there is a special kind of silk in which manufacturers spare the lives of their benefactors. The insects are allowed to mature into moths and escape. I propose that we make them your spirit creatures in the coming weeks. It’s an excellent time for you to take an inventory of everything you do and evaluate how well it upholds the noble principle of “Do no harm.” VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Any time that is not spent on love is wasted,” declared the Italian poet Torquato Tasso. Although I am sympathetic with his sentiment, I can’t agree that acts of love are the only things ever worth doing. Sometimes it’s healthy to be motivated by anger or sadness or skepticism, for example. But I do suspect the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to be in intense devotion to Tasso’s counsel. All the important successes you achieve will be rooted in an intention to express love and compassion.

JAN. 13-19, 2021

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I heard a story about how a music aficionado took a Zen Buddhist monk to a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. The monk wasn’t impressed. “Not enough silence!” he complained. I’m puzzled by that response. If the monk were referring to a busy intersection in a major city, I might agree with him, or the cacophony of a political argument among fanatics on Facebook. But to want more silence in one of history’s greatest pieces of music? That’s perverse. With this in mind, Libra, and in accordance with astrological omens, I encourage you to seek extra protection from useless noise and commotion during the coming weeks — even as you hungrily seek out rich sources of beautiful information, sound and art. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal,” wrote Scorpio author Albert Camus. If you’re one of those folks, I’m happy to inform you that you have cosmic permission to relax. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to explore the pleasures of NOT being conventional, standard, ordinary, average, routine, prosaic or common. As you expansively practice non-normalcy, you will enhance your health, sharpen your wits and clarify your decisions. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Our lives tend to be shaped by the stories about ourselves that we create and harbor in our imaginations. The adventures we actually experience, the problems we actually face, are often (not always) in alignment with the tales we tell ourselves about our epic fates. And here’s the crux of the matter: We can change the stories we tell ourselves. We can discard tales that reinforce our pain and dream up revised tales that are more meaningful and pleasurable. I believe 2021 will be an excellent time for you to attend to this fun work. Your assignment: Be a self-nurturing storyteller. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author Edgar Allen Poe named “four conditions for happiness: life in the open air; love of another human being; freedom from all ambition; creation.” I’m accomplished in three of those categories, but a failure in being free of all ambitions. In fact, I’m eternally delighted by all the exciting creative projects I’m working on. I’m VERY ambitious. What about you, Capricorn? I’m going to contradict Poe and speculate that your happiness in the coming months will require you to be at least somewhat ambitious. That’s what the planetary omens are telling me. So what are the best goals and dreams for you to be ambitious about? AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It’s time to launch Operation Supple Watchdog. That means you should be tenderly vigilant as you take extra good care of everyone and everything that provide you with meaning and sustenance. It means you should exercise rigorous but good-humored discernment about any oppressive or demeaning ideas that are flying around. You should protect and preserve the vulnerable parts of your life, but do so with tough-minded compassion, not ornery overreactions. Be skeptical, but warm; breezily resilient but always ready to stand up for what’s right. (P.S. The better you shield yourself against weird surprises, the more likely it is you’ll attract interesting surprises.) PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The atoms that compose your body have existed for billions of years. Originally created by a star, they have been part of many forms before you. But they are exactly the same in structure as they have ever been. So in a very real sense, you are billions of years old. Now that you know that, how do you feel? Any different? Stronger? More expansive? More eternal? I bring these thoughts to your attention, Pisces, because 2021 will be an excellent year for you to come to a more profound and detailed understanding of your true nature. I hope you will regularly meditate on the possibility that your soul is immortal, that your identity is not confined to this historical era, that you have been alive and will be alive for far longer than you’ve been taught to believe.

MOUNTAINX.COM

MARKETPLACE

BY ROB BREZSNY

SKILLED LABOR/ TRADES

GENERAL

MOUNTAIN XPRESS IS LOOKING TO ADD A NEW MEMBER TO OUR SALES TEAM. Ideal candidates are personable, organized, motivated, and can present confidently, while working within a structure. Necessary skills include clear and professional communications (via phone, email, and in-person meetings), detailed record-keeping, and working well in a team environment. While no outside sales experience is required, experience dealing with varied and challenging situations is helpful. The position largely entails account development and lead generation (including cold-calling), account management, assisting clients with marketing and branding strategies, and working to meet or exceed sales goals. If you are a high energy, positive, cooperative person looking to join an independent, community-minded organization, please send a resume and cover letter (no walk-ins, please) explaining why you are a good fit for Mountain Xpress to: advertise@mountainx.com ASHEVILLE AREA HABITAT FOR HUMANITY JOB OPPORTUNITIES Asheville Habitat is looking for an Operation Associate, a FT and PT ReStore Associates, and a VP Finance and Operation. Please visit our website for detailed job descriptions: https:// www.ashevillehabitat.org/ careers. JOB OPPORTUNITY FOR SECTION 3, LOW-INCOME PERSONS Minority Participating Commercial Contractor seeking to offer Section 3, Low- Income and Very-Low Income eligible Businesses, Vendors, Subcontractors, or individuals’ economic opportunities of job training, employment, and contracting work to promote local economic development and individual self-sufficiency. We will provide economical units to allow for minority participation as well as provide assistance for bonding and insurance for Section 3 businesses. Also, quick payment policies to help minority suppliers and contractors participate will be available. We are committed to satisfy Section 3 obligations and our goal is to provide opportunities for Section 3 Businesses throughout this entire housing project. If you are a Section 3 Business or resident in the County area and seeking work, please contact us at 828-548-3675, email to ad949@bidsec3. com, or via fax at 828-5483682 to become part of our HUD-assisted project and help promote quality housing and community development in this area. Plans are available at: https://parker.box. com/v/Jasper-Section-3.

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PROFESSIONAL/ MANAGEMENT

HOME

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LEGAL NOTICES NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE NORTH CAROLINA, RUTHERFORD COUNTY Under and by virtue of a Power of Sale contained in that certain Deed of Trust executed by Benjamin Adam McNeely and Autumn Elizabeth McNeely dated July 26, 2006 recorded on July 28, 2006 in Book 910, Page 379 of the Rutherford County Public Registry (“Deed of Trust”), conveying certain real property in Rutherford County to Jackie Young, Trustee, for the benefit of JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. Default having been made of the note thereby secured by the said Deed of Trust and the undersigned, having been substituted as Trustee in said Deed of Trust, and the holder of the note evidencing said default having directed that the Deed of Trust be foreclosed, the undersigned Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at the courthouse

T H E NEW Y O R K T IM E S C R O S S W O R D P UZ Z L E 1

edited by Will Shortz

19 Establish a standard that’s easy to reach

22 Cameo, say

19 22

20 25

25 Vincent van Gogh or Queen Elizabeth I, notably

28 32 35

26 O, in the W.W. II Army/Navy alphabet

ACROSS 1 Pain in the neck 6 Four are credited for a grand slam, briefly door of the county courthouse where the property is located, or the usual and customary location at the county courthouse for conducting the sale on January 26, 2021 at 1:00 PM, and will sell to the highest bidder for cash the following described property situated in Rutherford County, North Carolina, to wit: Being the same property as described in deed from James Kenneth Johnson and wife, Lucille J. Johnson, to Claude Lowery Real Estate, Inc. dated December 6, 1985, being described according to said deed as follows: Being Lot No. Four (4) of the Charles D. Owens property, River Hills Subdivision, II, located on Rollins Road, Forest City, N.C. said plat being duly recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds for Rutherford County, N.C., in Plat Book 11, Page 63, for which reference is made for a complete description. Being the same and identical property conveyed by Diane D. Carraway to Tory Scott Wheeler by deed dated March 15, 2000 and of record in Deed Book 749, Page 866, Rutherford County Registry. Save and except any releases, deeds of release or prior conveyances of record. Said property is commonly known as 500 Bob Rollins Road, Forest City, NC 28043; PIN: 1549-91-4020 A cash deposit (no personal checks) of five percent (5%) of the purchase price, or Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($750.00), whichever is greater, payable to Bell Carrington Price & Gregg, PLLC, will be required at the time of the sale. Following the expiration of the statutory upset bid period, all the remaining amounts are immediately due and owing. Pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 45-21.30, if the highest bidder at the sale, resale, or any upset bidder fails to comply with its

10 Channel that a telly may be tuned to

14 Dough

15 Contraction in “Jingle Bells” 16 Formal turndown 17 Remnant of an oceanic volcano 18 “The way I see it,” to a texter

bid upon the tender of a deed for the real property, or after a bona fide attempt to tender such a deed, the clerk of superior court may, upon motion, enter an order authorizing a resale of the real property. The defaulting bidder at any sale or resale or any defaulting upset bidder is liable for the bid made, and in case a resale is had because of such default, shall remain liable to the extent that the final sale price is less than the bid plus all the costs of any resale. Any deposit or compliance bond made by the defaulting bidder shall secure payment of the amount, if any, for which the defaulting bidder remains liable under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 45-21.30. Third party purchasers must pay the excise tax and THE RECORDING COSTS FOR THEIR DEED. Said property to be offered pursuant to this Notice of Sale is being offered for sale, transfer and conveyance “AS IS WHERE IS.” There are no representations of warranty relating to the title or any physical, environmental, health or safety conditions existing in, on, at, or relating to the property being offered for sale. This sale is made subject to any and all superior liens, including taxes and special assessments. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the current owner(s) of the property is/ are the Heirs of Benjamin Adam McNeely. An Order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 45-21.29, in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold. Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving

the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement by providing written notice of termination to the landlord, to be effective on a date stated in the notice that is at least 10 days, but no more than 90 days, after the sale date contained in the notice of sale, provided that the mortgagor has not cured the default at the time the tenant provides the notice of termination. The notice shall also state that upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination [N.C. Gen. Stat. § 45-21.16(b)(2)]. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination. If the trustee is unable to convey title to this property for any reason, the sole remedy of the purchaser is the return of the deposit. Reasons of such inability to convey include, but are not limited to, the filing of a bankruptcy petition prior to the confirmation of the sale and reinstatement of the loan without the knowledge of the trustee. If the validity of the sale is challenged by any party, the trustee, in their sole discretion, if they believe the challenge to have merit, may request the court to declare the sale to be void and return the deposit. The purchaser will have no further remedy. Cape Fear Trustee Services, LLC, Substitute Trustee _____ ___________________________ __, Attorney W. Harris, NCSB No. 48633 5550 77 Center Drive, Suite 100 Charlotte, NC 28217 PHONE: 980-201-3840 File No.: 20-46401

13 Fuel for a funny car

No. 1209

45 Big name in pasta sauce 47 Song words after “Speaking words of wisdom …”

46 Yours, in Tours

49 Most serious 51 Not meet expectations 53 As well

27 Expressions of enlightenment

54 Big name in cosmetics

29 “Between Two ___” (Zach Galifianakis show)

55 Pitch deliverer, perhaps

30 With 41-Across, make every effort to be accommodating

60 Like excited fans in stadiums

32 Ivory, but not ebony

59 “Gross!”

61 “Crossing my fingers!” 62 B&B

33 Gobbled

63 Go-___

34 One who might have to create an account

64 Contest described by 19-, 30-/41and 51-Across

36 Utah senator Mike 39 Green New ___

DOWN

41 See 30-Across

1 “This is ___”

43 Many city layouts

2 Kia subcompact

puzzle by Owen Travis and Jeff Chen 3 “___ complicated” 4 Got nice and toasty? 5 Home of the boy band BTS 6 “Divergent” author Veronica 7 Rude people in stadiums 8 “Who’da thunk it?!” 9 Utensil farthest left in a five-piece place setting 10 Standard contract text 11 Kvetch about 12 Groups in stadiums 14 Source of the line “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” 20 Bookstore section 21 Perlman of “Cheers” 22 Variety of tea 23 Sarcastic comeback 24 Stopped being so loud

28 Its capital is Oranjestad

44 Fame 45 Leader of an Episcopal parish

31 Hot 32 Fix in place 35 More in need of a lift? 37 One taking a bow for getting couples together? 38 Prepare for publishing

48 Mideast port that was home to Sinbad the sailor 50 To no ___ 52 What incubators provide

40 Actress Falco

56 Old-fashioned tattoo

42 Gave a friendly greeting, in a way

57 Police dept. alert

43 Squatting muscles

58 Start of many an art movement

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE O H S N A P

M A K E M E

E Y E W E A R

E X C C F O O I L N O R I G E T N D Y E

N S A O T C H K E X R G R A A I L M E D E L S S S H S O A H T T A H D A

T H E W A V E S Z E P H Y R

O A D A V E S O F S W O N F A E L E L D W R I R I G R I N E I T G E S H H E R I S S E D E F I A S

L I P O

G R A U M M A O N S D R E I F O T C O R U Y S

B A I T I N G

T N N

S C E N I C

T I E D T O

D O S

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