Category Archives: North Carolina

Local Pastor vs. NC Legislature

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A local Baptist pastor was invited to offer the NC legislature prayer for a week.  He was told what the approved method of prayer was (in a nutshell, non-sectarian) and that if he didn't adhere to those standards he would be uninvited to pray.  He refused to adhere to those terms, which is his right, and the legislature uninvited him, which is its right.  Now the pastor wants an apology and the opportunity to open a legislative session with a prayer in the manner he sees fit. A quote from the story:

"I was made to feel like a second-class North Carolinian when I was told that my services would no longer be needed if I could not offer the opening prayer in the manner prescribed by the House of Representatives, rather that in the manner my biblical faith requires," Baity said.

I guaran-damn-tee you that he's on the side of the sectarian prayer advocates in the case being fought here in Forsyth County.  To refresh your memory the pro-sectarian prayer folks are saying that they should be able to pray in whatever manner they wish, much like the pastor is arguing here.  The anti-sectarian prayer folks are saying, no, you can't because then the government is put in the position of endorsing a specific religion.  

Here's the irony to me: what the pastor is saying, that he's being made to feel like a second class citizen, is exactly how people who don't want to be forced to hear sectarian prayer at a government meeting feel when a clergyman is invited to give a sectarian prayer to open the meeting.  

Walk a mile…

I’m, Like, Gonna Be Famous

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Esbee asked me to write about my experience test driving the Cheerwine Kreme filled Krispy Kreme so that she could post it on Life in Forsyth.  For my friends from out of town that's about as big-time as it gets around here.  

My thanks to Esbee for treating my treatise with a gentle editing pen.  

I’m Betting It Will Smell Like a Poot

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Someone's come up with the concept of a billboard that emits a smell.  With the possible exception of the french fry smell coming from a McDonalds I've found that smells that you would assume to be great, like the smell from a BBQ restaurant, usually morph into a rather unpleasant odor that would appear to be emanating from a car passenger's backside.  

Want to Force Me and Kenny Beck to Shave Our Heads?

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Anyone who's been watching WXII this week knows that they're making a serious push to raise food for Second Harvest so that kids won't go hungry this summer.  One of their morning show members, Kenny Beck, has been doing goofy stuff like the chicken dance in exchange for financial donations.  I asked him via Twitter what it would take to get him to shave his head and he said $1,000. When I indicated I might be serious he said he was too, and we agreed to a low setting on the clippers (not bald, but pretty short).

This dovetails nicely with the food drive that my office is doing for Second Harvest and I thought that if Mr. Beck has the guts to do it, then so should I. So here's the deal:

  • If you want to donate to Second Harvest please contact me via email at jon.lowder AT gmail.com and coordinate the donation with me.  Once we amass $1,000 I'll arrange to get it to Kenny and we'll get his head shaved.
  • Once we pass the $1,000 mark for donations I'll start adding to the tally for TAA's food drive.  If you tell me you're donating in hopes of getting me to shave my head then once we reach another $1,000 I'll get my head shaved too (most likely a high and tight like the Marines). I'll post pictures on this blog, my Facebook profile, Twitter, and anywhere else. It won't be pretty, but it's for a good cause. BONUS FEATURE: The largest single donor actually gets to do the hair cutting on me (can't offer that up for Kenny).

So that's it.  If you want to see Kenny Beck and me get our heads shaved then email me at jon.lowder AT gmail.com, or call me at (336) 899-0238 to arrange donations. You can also simply mail a check made out to Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina and write "Make Kenny and Jon Shave Their Heads" in the memo field and mail it to me at:

Triad Apartment Association/Attn. Jon Lowder
3407 West Wendover Ave., Suite E
Greensboro, NC 27407

Of course you can mail it directly to the Food Bank, but if you want it to be counted towards our impending baldness you need to send it to me so I can keep track of our progress.

Also, I've also set up my very first Facebook group for the cause. If you visit it you can see one of the worst pictures ever taken of me Photoshop'd to show me bald.  Like I said, it's gonna be ugly.

In NC Hotels You Have to Make Like Lucy and Desi

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Those of you who have never seen I Love Lucy re-runs won't know what the title of this post is referencing, so just keep in mind that during the early days of TV married couples were always depicted as sleeping in separate twin beds. Apparently here in North Carolina they want to keep that tradition alive, because according to this list of stupid laws in each American state:

In North Carolina "All couples staying overnight in a hotel must have a room with double beds that are at least two feet apart." 

I Wonder If It Was Cathartic?

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I read the front page article in the Winston-Salem Journal about the public airing of grievances by UNCSA's outgoing conductor at his final concert and thought, "I wonder if it felt as good to vent his spleen as he expected it to?"  Who hasn't daydreamed about letting loose like that at their boss/teacher/nitwit co-worker in a big public venue?

Back in the mid-90s I worked for a company that could best be described as a soul sucking black hole run by amoral jackals.  I fantasized about calling my bosses on the carpet at a large company function and listing their various misdeeds in excruciating detail.  Alas I just quit and went to a better job, but to this day I wonder what it would have felt like to let it rip.

BTW, check out all comments on the article about the conductor's rant.  Based on the number you'd think the article was about an illegal immigrant representing the ACLU in a protest against sectarian prayer at the county commissioners' meeting.

Pray for Our Horses

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Anyone who thinks Forsyth County is just another sleepy, southern county that's home to a medium-sized city that was founded by members of a mainstream religion that hardly anyone outside of NC or PA has heard of, is smoking crack.  Where else would you have government officials who are simultaneously fighting in court to be able to continue practicing sectarian prayer at the beginning of their public meetings and on another front are lobbying the state legislature to allow them to establish parimutuel betting on horses? 

Budget shortfalls sure do have a strange effect on people.  I mean sheesh, it wasn't that long ago that you couldn't buy booze on Sunday and now we're looking at legalizing gambling in order to fill a budget hole.  If we're that desperate let's go for casinos and brothels and do it up right.  Think of the selling points, not least of which is the easy flight from DC to PTI so that the naughtiest people on Earth (Congress, especially those "conservative" skirt chasers) can easily partake of our wares.  We're also pretty close to some prominent televangelists and they seem to go for this kind of stuff on a regular basis. They could come to fight for public meeting prayers by day, and to explore their sinful natures by night.

The more I think of it the more I think we may be on to something.

Regionalism

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I'm a big proponent of regionalism and I like the idea that some North Carolina and Virginia counties are joining forces to promote their region as a tourist destination, lines drawn on a map be damned.

Several Triad counties are among a group that has formed to promote themselves as a single tourism entity. 


They have branded the areas as Cascade Highlands for the way the Blue Ridge highlands of southwest Virginia cascade into the Yadkin Valley of northwest North Carolina.


The group includes nine counties across two states — Stokes, Surry, Yadkin, Wilkes and Allegheny in North Carolina and Carroll, Grayson, Patrick and Smyth in Virginia.