Category Archives: Piedmont-Triad

Love of the Game

Leave a reply

WXII has a story about a boy in Yadkin County who is playing youth soccer despite some serious physical obstacles.  This one hit home with me because Erin has stepped up to Challenge level soccer where there are things like tryouts, not making the cut, no guaranteed playing time, etc.  While there’s a place for all levels of youth sports, from rec league to serious AAU-level competition, I think this story exemplifies what the fundamental purpose of youth sports is all about: participation, exploring boundaries, overcoming obstacles, exceeding your own expectations, dealing with joy and disappointment (winning and losing) and playing with kids of all types of background and ability.  Oh, and there’s that little thing called teamwork.  Love it.

Note: The WXII video didn’t play well with my Firefox so I suggest viewing it in Internet Explorer.

Want to Help Save a Newspaper’s Butt? The Greensboro News & Record is Hiring

Leave a reply

The Greensboro News & Record is hiring a Digital Media Director.  From the job listing:

The (Greensboro,
NC) News & Record, the Piedmont Triad’s leading daily newspaper for
more than 100 years, is seeking a results-oriented, innovative Digital
Media Director to lead News & Record Interactive, the digital media
division of the News & Record. The Digital Media Director is
general manager for the digital media department with a key focus on
leveraging our content into new multimedia platforms and revenue
streams. The Digital Media Director is responsible for developing the
strategic direction of the department, maximizing revenue
opportunities, increasing profitability and supporting the growth and
development of the interactive staff. As a member of the Company
Leadership Team the director works collaboratively with other
departments and reports to the President/Publisher. Successful
candidates have a minimum of 2-3 years management experience in digital
media and a minimum of 5 years mid-management level experience with
P&L responsibility. Bachelor’s degree required and a MBA is a plus.
Candidate must be highly conversant in digital media, able to work
effectively in team-based environment with creativity and resiliency to
adapt to changing business or market demands.

I’m tempted to throw my hat in the ring.  Okay, I don’t have "2-3 years management experience in digital media and a minimum of 5 years mid-management level experience with P&L responsibility."  But, hey, I did start an online publishing operation for a b-to-b publisher back in 2000 and it did pretty well.  On top of that I’ve successfully uploaded three videos to YouTube (there’s your digital) and I’ve thought long and hard about doing my own podcast.  That’s gotta count for something, right?

If you want to throw your hat into the ring with Lex and John then update that resume and send it to the N&R by August 17.

Greensboro Man’s Battle With Cancer and How He Shared His Journey via His Blog

Leave a reply

A Greensboro man named Brian Stoll, whom I never met and had never heard of until today, lost his battle with cancer and passed away on July 15.  I’m not sure how I came across his blog but when I did I was captivated by how he shared his experiences from the original diagnosis until two days before his death.  His family wrote a final post on the 15th.

The blog is difficult read when you know that Brian has already lost his battle with cancer, but I think that by sharing his struggles he created a valuable resource for people who are just beginning their battles with cancer or those with a loved one recently diagnosed with cancer.  If nothing else they will get an idea of what lies ahead for them and perhaps they won’t be blindsided as often as they would have been without reading his blog.

Brian was a man of great religious faith so his writing alternates between being a straightforward account of his deteriorating health and an account of how his faith is an integral part of dealing with it.  If anything his faith got stronger as his body got weaker.  Here’s a sample from a post titled "Give me some oxygen, PLEASE…":

The outpouring of response from my Preparing to Die post has
been overwhelming. I haven’t been able to respond to everyone yet. My
lung capacity continues to shrink, making simple conversation a
difficult chore. Thank goodness for email and this blog. It is so easy
to communicate with everyone via the written word versus having a
conversation. This brings me to my next update. My physical ability is
so limited now. How so? Walking up a flight of stairs is darn near
impossible. I now have to sit on the bottom step, with my back facing
the steps, and “rear end” my way up the stairs over a two or three
minute process. Walk outside to get the newspaper? Thank goodness my
driveway is only about 50 feet long. Run around the house terrorizing
the dogs while everyone else laughs? No more. Go hiking with Brookie in
the mountains. Unfortunately, those days are gone. Play a round of golf
with friends? Never again. This has been one of the difficult mental
obstacles to overcome. I have so much time on my hands now, so I tend
to sit and think about all the fun stuff I have done in my life. Brooke
and I love to go hiking. It is classic daddy/daughter time, plus we
both love nature and the outdoors. I can’t do that anymore. Dammit,
that thought makes me very angry and sad at the same time. I am being
robbed of my ability to enjoy my family. That’s not fair! BINGO! Poor,
pitiful me. You selfish idiot. Why can’t you relish the fact that you
WERE able to enjoy these things in your life? Do you not understand
there are some people who will never go hiking, who will never see a
beautiful mountain stream, and never be able to enjoy God’s wonders?
Sometimes I feel so stupid. I really do have to work on getting away
from the selfish junk and being thankful that God has blessed me in so
many ways. The reality angel that sits on my right shoulder can really
give it to me sometimes.

Another mental obstacle that I have
finally succumbed to is the fact that I need a wheelchair to get
around. Truth be told, I simply cannot walk more than 50 feet without
getting winded. The wheelchair makes it so much easier to get around,
plus it’s a real snazzy new model. Lot’s of bling,ya know? I also got a
handicapped placard for my Suburban. Although I may not live to be 90
years old, I sure do feel like it now! I’m also very dependent on
oxygen. When your oxygen content in the bloodstream gets below 90% you
become oxygen starved. This causes panic, anxiety, disorientation,
restlessness, shakyness in my speech, etc. When this happens, I feel
like a fish out of water. Panic is the first thing to set in, and then
I realize I can’t do anything to help myself. This turns into a very
precarious situation resulting in a panicked frenzy. Kimberly will get
the oxygen machine turned on and puts the tubing in my nostrils. Then
she sets up the morphine nebulizer. Ah yes, the morphine nebulizer.
It’s a little machine that takes small amounts of morphine and saline
and turns them into a mist, which is then inhaled through a pipe. This
is starting to sound like illegal drug activity, eh?!? The morphine
calms down the lungs by changing the way it processes oxygen. Simply
put, it helps me to breath once again. Lately I have been taking 3-4
morphine treatments a day. The events leading up to the treatments tend
to be very frenzied to say the least. Never a dull moment.

In his last post Brian lamented about how he was no longer able to provide for his family and he quite openly discussed the financial devastation wrought by his cancer treatments.  I can easily imagine the frustration he felt and I’m sure it was extraordinarily difficult for him to write and ask for help, but that’s what he did with his last post.  His childrens’ college funds were spent on his treatment so his family set up a fund called "Breanne and Brooke’s Future" at Wachovia so that people who want to can help out (just visit any Wachovia branch to make a donation if you want). 

It takes a very big man to put aside his pride and ask for help and by doing so I think Brian showed exactly what kind of man he was.  After spending just a few minutes reading his blog I truly regret that I never had the chance to meet him. 

His family wrote, "Keep the family in your thoughts and prayers and remember that we were
blessed to have had him but Heaven is in Awe at what it has received."  The man obviously left a great legacy.

Fec Obviously Married Above Himself

1 Reply

I’ve met Fec and his wife so I can attest that he did indeed marry above himself, as have I.  From his blog:

The Wife and I ran outside this
morning in response to cries for help and screams from a dog. We
arrived in the street beside our house to find an elderly neighbor
walking his small dogs. A large tan pit bull was attacking a small
white terrier. The Wife pulled the pit bull off the terrier. I got
between the pit bull and the neighbor as he and his pets returned home.

The Wife dialed 911 and a GPD officer arrived momentarily. He called
in an Animal Control Officer. These two brave souls armed with a
shotgun entered the yard and had the owner barricade the pit bull in a
fenced patio behind the home…

BTW, heroic behavior from the Wife is nothing unusual. I approached
at a trot as the Wife sprinted past me. I was wondering which forearm
to sacrifice for the terrier. Apparently, no such thoughts plagued her,
as clad only in a kimono, she was on that Pit Bull and it was over
before I arrived.

The Wife once rescued a swimmer caught in a riptide and has
successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver several times. God only
knows how often she’s saved me from injury or death without my
knowledge.

Yadkin Valley Times

Leave a reply

I came across a new blog/website called the Yadkin Valley Times which is written and hosted by Andy Mathews the former editor of The Yadkin Ripple.  What interests me the most is that I found the site via a story in the Triad Business Journal about the publishers of some small newspapers in NW North Carolina who resigned after their papers were purchased by Heartland Publications.  The  Biz Journal story used Mathews’ post about his interview with one of the publishers in its reporting, so for those keeping track you have this progression:

  1. Editor of small mainstream paper starts his own online news venture (looks like he’s using WordPress)
  2. Said editor interviews publisher of his former paper (and the Elkin Tribune) about the publisher’s resignation.
  3. In its story about the resignations a mainstream business news publisher cites material from the new online news service.

Add to this mix the fact that another mainstream paper in the area, The Winston-Salem Journal, just did a front page piece on how Yadkin County is struggling with the tension between residents who want to keep the old conservative "country" flavor of the county and those who want the county to evolve into a more cosmopolitan area.  Then the Journal’s managing editor, Ken Otterbourg, writes a post in his blog about the print piece and ties it to the story about the publishers resigning.  If you look at all of these pieces together you have a nice snapshot of the todays media lifecycle.

Now all we need is for some turkey at one of the local TV stations to decide they need a "war room" like CNN’s "Situation Room", hire a 20-something woman to stand in front of a large flat screen monitor and then do 45 second broadcasts of her surfing around local online sources and in the process have her tell us what we’re seeing.  Heck they might even have her play a Youtube video shot by a local citizen who happened to be in the right place at the right time, which of course might lead them to lay off all their camera folks (sorry Lenslinger).

In all seriousness I am interested in what Mathews is doing with the Yadkin Valley Times, if for no other reason than it might be an early sign of what could be a promising development.  That is, with lots of professional journalists hitting the streets as their former employers struggle with legacy businesses, we might begin to see more and more of them plant their own flags in the ground and start their own publishing concerns.  After all they don’t have to sell that much advertising to match their old salaries, and if enough of them do it and then create a kind of co-op that they can pitch to advertisers (the former city hall beat reporter teams up with the former sports reporter) then they might create some legitimate competition for their former bosses.  That would be kind of cool to see.

Foxx in the Glass House

Leave a reply

Ed Cone has a nice little post about my US Rep., Virginia Foxx, and points out that those who live in glass houses should be very careful of the rocks they throw.  Below is the video of Rep. Foxx deriding some of the bills she sees as a waste of Congress’ time and here’s the link to some of the resolutions that Rep. Foxx has sponsored, including a resolution to recognize the Christmas tree industry and my favorite, H.CON.RES.205: Recognizing the spirit of Jacob Mock Doub and his contribution to
encouraging youth to be physically active and fit and expressing the
sense of Congress that "National Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day" should
be established in Jacob Mock Doub’s honor.

In all fairness I should point out that I’m not a fan of Rep. Foxx and have made that clear.  I also think that she’s sponsored some good bills (Example: H.R.1499 :
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow members of the
Armed
Forces serving in a combat zone to make contributions to their
individual retirement plans even if the compensation on which such
contribution is based is excluded from gross income.)  That said, I also think Ed’s right that she’s being a little hypocritical in this case.

BTW, Rep. Foxx and another junior NC Rep., Patrick McHenry, are part of a Republican effort to get the Democrats to air the earmarks on the pending Homeland Security bill now, before it goes to conference with the Senate, and not after it goes to conference.  Basically they’re calling the Democrats out on campaign promises to make the legislative process more transparent.  Of course when their party was in power they were calling for no such thing, but I guess that’s neither here nor there.

Constituent Relations by State Rep. Larry Brown

Leave a reply

North Carolina State Rep. Larry Brown from Kernersville sent a cute little email to Anglico of Blue NC.  Blue NC is a site for NC Democrats and Rep. Brown is decidedly Republican so you it isn’t surprising that they don’t see eye to eye, but the Representative’s tone is a tad harsh.  For those of you who don’t like to follow links here’s what Anglico wrote, followed by the Rep.’s reply:

Anglico: Dear Hard-Working Representative,

Following the recent convention of the North Carolina GOP in Charlotte, a number of Republican Representatives wrote to me, complaining that the Democrats in North Carolina really aren’t the majority party in the House because their candidates actually received more votes in 2006 than Democrats received. One of my colleagues recently completed an analysis of that talking point, which I am sure you’ll find interesting. Her report is posted here for your easy review.

Rep. Brown:  I cannot tell you in a kind way what you liberals can do with all your waste that would make the hog lagoon issue look like a diaper. Enjoy while you can. Post that on your web page and come visit me anytime. Larry Brown

Ed Cone linked to this piece and in the comments of that post Anglico wrote this:

Two comments:

1. Nothing I sent to Larry Brown was disrespectful or rude in any way. I challenged the Republican talking point that they "really won" in 2006 and should be in the majority in the NC House. Mr. Brown apparently has trouble reading, or else he simply objects to anyone taking issue with his point of view.

2. Most offensive of all is Mr. Brown’s blatant and gleeful disregard for anyone in his district who has liberal political leanings. He wrote the following to me:

I cannot tell you in a kind way what you liberals can do with all your waste that would make the hog lagoon issue look like a diaper. Enjoy while you can. Post that on your web page and come visit me anytime. Larry Brown

And this to one of his own constituents:

When you liberals try to send me a bunch of trash I respond. I did not initiate the exchange, but I will not yield one inch. I did not bully anyone or use foul language. You people can wallow in all your " votes for sale " attitude all you want, but I am not a part of your conspiracy to rob the citizens of North Carolina honest service.

All your buddies have not been sentenced yet. If Republicans take money for votes I want them to go to jail too. Get a real life. I am not coddling to a bunch liberal ideas either like lifestyles or sexual orientation. If you do not like it that is too bad. I am sure I will lose a lot of sleep over it.

BlueNC sent me an email and I answered just like I did with yours. If I never hear from you again, you will never hear from me. Have a nice life.

For Mr. Brown, a serious analysis of the facts on the 2006 election apparently qualifies as a "bunch of trash."

Gives new meaning to the term public servant, don’t you think?

In a way it’s kind of refreshing to see a politician not engaging in double talk and fence sitting, but on the other hand I’d kind of hope that a person who can vote on billions of dollars in state spending would be more thoughtful.

Who’s Reading About Lewisville Elementary?

1 Reply

Last Friday I posted a piece about the suspension of Lewisville Elementary science teacher Allan Snow.  That post has garnered more comments (by a lot) than any other post I’ve written so I thought it would be interesting to see where the folks who are reading the piece are coming from.  Thanks to Google analytics I can tell you the following:

  • 37% from Yahoo!
  • 18% from Google
  • 11% from the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system
  • 7% from the Winston-Salem Journal
  • The rest from various sources

The one that interests me the most is the school system number.  Obviously there’s a lot of interest in this story within the schools, especially Lewisville Elementary, but unfortunately all I can offer is rumor, conjecture, emotions, etc. and most of that is contained in the comments and not anything that I’ve been able to "report."  I would LOVE to be able to offer facts, findings and the like but that won’t happen unless or until the sheriff’s office and the school superintendent’s office release their findings.

So Who Prays for Forsyth County?

3 Replies

After I vented my spleen yesterday I got to thinking that maybe I’d spouted off about the Forsyth County commissioners a little to rashly.  Specifically I said:

The Forsyth County commissioners and sectarian prayer supporters
consistently point out that the commissioners invite representatives of
different religions to open their meetings and so the current policy is
fair.  I’m left to wonder if they think that inviting Baptists,
Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans and Moravians qualifies as different
religions?  Exactly when was the last time a Pagan was invited to give
the opening prayer?  How about a Muslim or Buddhist?  Heck, what about
those Mormons that scare the crap out of your average Baptist?

I started thinking that maybe I should have checked before I wrote that, and I should probably look into it to be fair.  So I did.  I checked out the minutes for all the regular meetings held by the commissioners from 2000 to 2006 and the meeting summaries from meetings held in 2007.  That’s 175 meetings held from January 10, 2000 to April 9, 2007, each of which began with a call to order and then the attendees standing to hear the invocation and the pledge of allegiance.  Here’s who gave those 175 invocations:

  • 152 were delivered by representatives of Christian institutions (Churches, Salvation Army)
  • 16 were delivered by board members
  • 2 were delivered by a representative of a Unitarian Universalist congregation
  • 2 were delivered by a representative of Forsyth Jail Prison Ministry (both in 06)
  • 1 by a Rabbi (November of 06)
  • 1 by a representative of Carolina Dianetics (Scientologists) (1/22/07)
  • 1 (3/12/07) the notes only say "invocation" and do not indicate who delivered it

I guess I was safe in my spouting off.  Although I did see the occassional Seventh Day Adventist included I didn’t see any Mormons, Muslims or Buddhists.  I find it interesting that the Dianetics person was invited last month since that occured after the commissioners received the letter from the ACLU.  Another interesting point is that the board member who most often gave the invocation was Dave Plyler who lost his seat in a close election last year to Ted Kaplan.  Kaplan is one of the three commissioners to oppose proceeding with the court battle that the commissioners voted yesterday to pursue.

I wonder if we’ll see more diversification of invocators as we move forward thanks to the attention from the lawsuit?

Local News, Bloggers and Media

1 Reply

We’ve had two big local news stories over the last week and a half.  One was about a local TV news anchor who allegedly drove drunk, ran over a man and killed him and the other was about a Boy Scout who got lost in the woods for three days.  The latter became a national story and happily the Boy Scout was found alive today and reunited with his family.

An interesting thing happened with the first story.  A few days after Tolly Carr allegedly commited the crime of driving while intoxicated and running over a pedestrian rumors started floating around that Carr had commited suicide.  We heard it from our son, who’d heard it from his bus driver, who in turn heard it from a friend via a cell phone call.  We checked the news and saw nothing about it and quickly we forgot about it.  The next day I was reading the blog of Ken Otterbourg, the Winston-Salem Journal’s managing editor, and he posted a piece about the rumor, how many phone calls they received about it and the effort they made to run it down.  What made this so interesting is that the rumors never made the newspaper itself, but because he has a blog that discusses the inner workings of the newspaper Otterbourg was able to "cover" the rumor from the paper’s perspective.  It was fascinating to me that the rumor had become so widespread that the newspaper had to investigate, and it was also of interest to see how a professional news organization handles such a case.

The Boy Scout story generated some interesting developments as well.  I was in the barber shop when one of the news reports mentioned that the boy had been left behind with one of the counselors while the rest of the group went for a hike.  One of the men in the barber shop instantly said, "Why they leavin’ a young boy alone with a Scout leader like that? I think we have an idea why that boy might have run off."  The implication, of course, was that the scout leader had been doing something untoward with the boy and the boy fled the scene.  Later that evening I was catching up on my blog feeds and I noticed that one had a post about the Boy Scout case and made the same assertion that the barber shop patron had made.  The difference, of course, is that the blog was out there for the world to see and from my own experience I knew this post would be read by others and the writer would be taken to task for publishing such accusations without a shred of proof.  Since I consider the writer a friend I was going to write him and advise him that he might want to re-think the post, but when I clicked the link for the post it had already been taken down.  It turns out Ed Cone had beaten me to the punch, as he writes in his post Local Blogging and Responsibility.

I can’t help but notice the relationship between these two cases.  One features a mainstream newspaper editor using a newly found tool, his blog, to delve into the evolution of a rumor and how his organization deals with it.  The other features an "amateur" writer with a local readership and a newly found responsibility to think twice before tapping "publish" or risk becoming intimately familiar with the terms libel and slander.  Somewhere in there I think we’ve found the face of local news in the future.