The Durham Bull Pen

So much like every morning here . . .

2009-10-24T20:55:00.002-04:00

A few more are on the cartoonist's youtube page.

Baby birds today

2009-05-09T13:44:00.007-04:00

(Double-click to get a bigger picture)

I discovered the cutest little baby birds tucked into a nest just off the front porch. I didn't want to get too close so the mom-bird wouldn't get nervous. She was constantly bringing food to the nest today. Check out the fuzzy heads--you can best see the fuzzy head on the bird on the right side.

A word about "Mother's Day"

2009-05-05T15:12:00.006-04:00

I recently learned of "Mother's Day" origins and it now has an additional meaning to me. "Mother's Day" was originally conceived as a day to inspire people to work for peace. I don't think Hallmark has a card with those sentiments for your Mother, sadly.

It began with American abolitionist and suffragist Julia Ward Howe who was horrified by the death and destruction wrought by the Civil War in the U.S. In addition to helping bring about what she called "A Mother's Day for Peace," she is also know for penning the lyrics to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"--which is an abolitionist song, by the way.

Howe wrote her "Mother's Day Proclamation" in 1870 and wished it to serve as a rallying point for women to oppose war, to promote peace, and encourage other women to take hold of their families' futures.

Howe, a pacifist, worked with widows and orphans during the Civil War, and witnessed first hand what war inevitably brings to innocents, forever disrupting their families' well-being.

Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation / 1870

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience.
We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says, "Disarm, Disarm!"
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Ms. Howe presented her poem around the world, particularly focusing on the terrible aftermath of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War.

Howe wanted Mother's Day to be a time when women would come together to mourn their losses to war, to urge more peaceful solutions to conflict, and to educate the world about how war ruins futures, lives, and families for years and years after a war has officially ended.

"The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Piedmont Farm Tour - Day 2 Slideshow

2009-05-01T01:21:00.004-04:00

On day 2 of the Piedmont Farm Tour last weekend, we visited Timberwood Organics, Fickle Creek Farm,Chapel Hill Creamery, Pickards Mountain Eco Institute and Four Leaf Farm:

If you'd like to see which farms are which, and some captions, you can see the Flickr set here.

Slideshow of Piedmont Farm Tour - Day 1

2009-04-30T00:46:00.003-04:00

I previously blogged about the Piedmont Farm Tour, which was held last weekend. I went both days, enjoyed myself thoroughly, and took some pictures. These farms sell flowers, produce, herbs, meat and eggs to our local farmers markets.

Below is the slideshow from the first day (last Saturday) and we visited several farms in northern Orange County: Maple Spring Gardens, Wild Hare Farms, Captain J.S. Pope Farm, Anatoth Community Garden, a farm not on the tour (a friend knew the farmers) and we saw llamas and alpacas there, and the last farm visited was Whitted Bowers Farm, a biodynamic farm.

Tomorrow I'll put up some pictures of the Day 2 of the Farm Tour.

If you'd like to see the captions of the pictures in the slideshow, detailing which farms the pictures are from just click here.

City slicker raccoons

2009-04-23T20:49:00.005-04:00

I live close in to city center in Durham. Nevertheless we get plenty wildlife encounters. Bunnies eat my lettuce in my tiny garden down to a nub. Squirrels try to make a home in my attic. A hoot owl makes haunting owl calls far up in the trees late at night. But the raccoons! They practically ring the doorbell and ask for leftovers. Here's a picture my neighbor snapped early one morning of some raccoons near my garbage can:

Cute, yes. But up to something no doubt.

Last week one was banging around trying to--I guess--lift the top of the tall green rolling trash can. That's what it sounded like anyway.

When I came home from work day before yesterday, I found out one had been on my front porch. There are the raccoon tracks, right there in the yellow pollen on my front porch:

A friend suggested maybe with all the pollen, he was looking for Benadryl. Perhaps.

Hey, want to tour some local farms?

2009-04-05T20:32:00.004-04:00

This upcoming Farm Tour definitely looks like something I'm going to participate in, and I'm surprised I didn't know about it before now. That's one big reason why I'm posting about it, to get the information out there in case you want to participate too.

If you've read books like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or The Omnivore's Dilemma, you might be more interested than ever in being acquainted with exactly where your food comes from. I am. And if you shop at your local Farmer's Market whenever you can, do you sometimes wonder what these farms look like, or how they operate? You should consider taking part in the 14th Annual Piedmont Farm Tour on the weekend of April 25 & 26th from 1pm to 6pm. A pdf map with lots of useful information can be found here.

This year’s Piedmont Farm Tour will bring together consumers, farmers, and producers in one of the largest farm tours in the country. It is a great time to go exploring in the North Carolina countryside. With over forty farms to choose from, you and your family can craft an exciting day visiting and learning about farming and agriculture.

If you’re looking for some animal action you can pet goats, hold chickens or rabbits and get up close to cows and sheep. Plant lovers can learn about growing flowers, vegetables, fruits, and berries. See how farmers manage their land with hoop houses, traveling chicken coops, irrigation systems, and greenhouses. Learn how prawns are saving farmland at Stagg Creek Farm, new to the tour this year.

There will be lots of opportunities to buy meat, eggs, poultry, and prawns, so bring a cooler. One button buys a carload of people two days of touring.

The above from Weaver Street Market.

You can buy the button for admission (for a carload of folks) referenced above here.

A list of participating farms at the pdf above or here.

Hope there's good weather that weekend. Sounds like a fun time to me.

Thanks to my pal Jack for letting me know about this tour.

On the big screen . . .

2009-03-26T16:42:00.006-04:00

You may've noticed that I'm a bit of a movie fan, and I think sometimes it's a real treat to re-visit older movies on the big screen, at the theater, the way they were intended to be seen. In Durham we have the ability to take advantage of doing so at The Carolina Theater from time to time.

In fact, I did that with one of my favorites, The Princess Bride, when it was shown a couple of years ago for its 20th Anniversary.

A few more are coming up at The Carolina that you might want to see again on the big screen, with a box of popcorn and giant soda. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II will be showing in May for one week only (May 8 - 14).

If you've never seen those two, now's your chance to see them at the theater. How cool is that?

Also for Star Trek fans, Star Trek IV and Star Trek First Contact, will be shown 4 days only, April 20 - 23.

Details are here.

It's an offer you can't refuse. (Sorry . . . I couldn't help it.)
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Cool color illusion.

2009-03-23T12:07:00.008-04:00

Instructions: Look at the black dot in the picture below. Stare at the dot until the countdown ends, and the black and white picture should look like it’s in color . . . until you move your eyes!

I've loved these little optical illusions ever since I was a kid.

Sliced Bread FAIL.

2009-03-17T22:44:00.007-04:00

So, I haven't ever encountered this before. Regular, sliced loaf of bread from the grocery store. Open the bag to grab a couple slices to make a sandwich. No slices. Just one unsliced loaf. Times are hard, I tell ya.

Okay, not necessarily all that interesting. Mainly just odd. Wonder how many loaves went out the door that day before someone flipped the slicer machine to the 'on' position. D'oh!

Ani DiFranco gives Red Letter performance at The Carolina

2009-03-10T23:13:00.006-04:00

Tonight was the first time I'd seen Ani DiFranco live. She's one of my all-time favorite singer-songerwriters and I regularly listen to her music, never tiring of my favorite tunes. I missed her a couple of years ago when she was at The Carolina Theater and I'd been kicking myself ever since for not going.

Just like her music, she is high-energy and rambunctious on stage. And her loyal fans were there filling every seat, soaking it all up, knowing all the words, dancing in the aisles, screaming "we love you Ani!" between songs.

I especially enjoyed how when she's wailing on her guitar, she bobs and weaves around on the stage, like a fighter, using her body to punctuate a guitar riff, practically levitating on the stage with her energy. Often when she really punches a chord on her guitar, she lifts her left leg in the air as if she's kicking it out to us in the audience. If you're a fan and never have seen her live, try to catch her next time. You won't be disappointed.

She appeared tonight at The Carolina with only two other musicians, drummer Allison Miller and Todd Sickafoose on upright bass. Their sound was huge and beautiful.

The show was to promote her new CD Red Letter Year, a review here, and she, of course, played many songs from it and many of her older songs too, like Shameless, You Had Time, Both Hands, As Is.

The song I liked best that she played from her new CD was Present/Infant. I already have her new CD and I think I'll be listening to a lot more of it now that I've seen her perform the songs live.

Keep on keeping on, Ani. You're just getting better all the time.

Hike on Cabe Lands Access & Eno Quarry

2009-03-07T20:40:00.010-05:00

We took advantage of the 80 degree day and hiked down to the old Eno Quarry. I'd never seen it before and it had always sounded intriguing to me, especially after I read this article in the Indy recently.

A little about the area is here.

As you enter, you can pick up a map and see a some items of interest on a covered bulletin board (click to make the pic larger):

Much of the trail is rooty and rocky, but my hiking partner did okay in her tennis shoes. There is a fair amount of uphill/downhill but nothing too strenuous. The trail is considered "moderate."

After a while, you'll get to the big scary warning sign about the Quarry:

Continue on down the trail and soon you'll hear frogs and crickets loudly singing. Water is close. The Quarry is close.

Right before the payoff of seeing the Quarry up close, you have to stone-step over a little creek. The stones looked mighty slippery to me and I was worried about slipping and falling and breaking my leg far down a trail, but I finally got over to the Quarry side (to the steps) safely and snapped a picture.

The Quarry was lovely. I was going to circumnavigate it because a trail does go around it according to the map, but I got my shot of the Quarry and headed back.

above, Eno Quarry 3.7.2009

Hiking out we saw some teenagers hiking in quite obviously going for a swim. I wondered about how cold the water must surely be since earlier this week the temps were 13 or so degrees a couple of nights.

A few other shots from the hike:

Great Blog: "North Carolina Miscellany"

2009-03-06T12:18:00.006-05:00

I've really been enjoying the blog "North Carolina Miscellany" so I wanted to give it a shout out here. From the blog:

North Carolina Miscellany is a blog produced, edited, and maintained by the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The North Carolina Collection, located in historic Wilson Library, is the state’s premier collection of published materials documenting the history, literature, and culture of the Tar Heel state. The collection is free and open to the public.

The North Carolina Miscellany will include regular posts discussing new and upcoming books on North Carolina topics, state history in the news, treasures from the stacks of the North Carolina Collection, and general “Tar Heelia.”

Really great stuff there.
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Easy Crustless Spinach Quiche

2009-03-05T22:08:00.002-05:00

Not sure I've ever even made a quiche before but I made this one for dinner (and probably lunch tomorrow too).

I used:

1 med. onion
1 10 oz. pack of frozen spinach
5 eggs
Pre-shredded cheese
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper

I'm not a precise cook, but here's what I did:

Dice up a medium sized onion and sautee with a little olive oil and garlic powder until the onion begins to turn brown (carmelize)

Microwave a frozen 10 oz. pack of spinach until thawed (3 min. approx) and drain and throw into the pan with the onion for a couple of minutes.

Break 5 eggs and whisk them. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add some shredded cheese of your choice in with the eggs (2 to 3 cups, depending on how cheesy you like it) and stir.

Mix the eggs/cheese mixture in with the spinach/onion mixture.

Scoop it all into a lightly greased 9 in. pie pan. Bake for 30 min. at 350.

I threw in a small handful of crumbled bacon I had, but if you wanted it vegetarian, don't do that. :)

Icicles

2009-03-04T12:31:00.000-05:00

Bye-bye snow and ice. Even this afternoon, though, we still had this impressive one on our gutter.

Ben Folds at the DPAC

2009-03-01T13:10:00.002-05:00

At the "historic venue" as he jokingly called our new DPAC, Ben Folds played for 2 solid hours last Wednesday night. Many songs from his new album "Way to Normal" but plenty of his older songs that the crowd enthusiastically sang right along with him--"Annie Waits" "Zak and Sara" "Not the Same" "Rocking the Suburbs."

The sound at the DPAC is fantastic, by the way.

Folds apologized for being too full of Mama Dip's banana pudding and patted his stomach appreciatively. He talked wistfully of moving back to Chapel Hill, but it might've been the banana pudding talking.

The Lorelei's from UNC and a band from Phoenix called Miniature Tigers (and sounding a bit like Fleet Foxes) opened.

(This blog posting is also a test to see if I can post successfully from my mobile phone.)

Stuff to do to that gets you out of the house.

2009-02-26T19:28:00.007-05:00

Spring is around the corner, right? Tons of stuff always going on through The Eno River Association.

Reading groups, star-gazing nights, various hikes, bird-watching excursion, night-time hikes, hikes for tots, and even a parents-night-out hike.

Here's the monthly calendar with all the dates and details.

Love the Eno!

Ten minutes on Durham.

2009-02-20T17:50:00.004-05:00

"10-minute Introduction to Durham, NC. Originially created by CurrentRutledge for Duke Law recruitment . . . "

Good stuff.

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Thank goodness for my Neti Pot

2009-02-17T18:31:00.005-05:00

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to avoid the current cold ripping its way through the population of Durham. A terrible head cold this thing is. Today my head was miserably stuffy, despite dosing with cold meds and Advil. Then I remembered my Neti Pot, and foraged through the shelves in the pantry and found it there in its box from when I used it last--maybe 2 years ago when I had my last headcold.

If you haven't heard of one, just let me say I was a skeptic at first too. And let's face it, there's a bit of a 'yuck' factor too.

It's a little pot that looks like a genie's lamp. Mine looks like this, purchased from Whole Foods for less than $10:

Fill it with a quarter teaspoon of salt and warm water to make a saline solution. Then lean over the sink with your head turned, pour the warm saline through the top nostril (remember your head is turned)--miraculously (or more like gravity) the saline travels through to your bottom nostril and comes out. Do it with the other side, and then you can BREATHE again. No, it doesn't hurt. Not at all. Yes, you can easily breathe through your mouth for the few seconds it takes.

Here's sort of what it looks like in action:

Here's an online demonstration I found on youtube:

I only use it when I have a headcold and it's always been easy for me to use. It's supposed to be good for people with sinus trouble or allergies, but I'm not a doctor so you'd have to ask your doctor about that I suppose.

There are some drops of herbal medicines for sale you can put in it if you want, but mainly the saline and warm water do the trick for me. I do it several times a day when my nose is uncomfortably stuffy.

Pres. Lincoln's 200th birthday is Thursday.

2009-02-08T23:23:00.003-05:00

I've been reading a lot of Lincoln books lately. One of the best books of the ones I've read is Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer.

Even if you know already know something about the topic, this book won't disappoint. The author makes it all seem like it just happened--urgent, suspenseful, well-written, well-researched. Once you pick it up, it's truly hard to put it down until you've read it to the end.

Our Durham library has a copy or two.

At the website I linked above, you can see a few accolades for the book, including historian Doris Kearns Goodwin who says:

"James Swanson has written a terrific narrative of the hunt for Lincoln's killers that will mesmerize the reader from start to finish just as the actual manhunt mesmerized the entire nation. It is a triumphant book."

The author, James Swanson, is a bit of an odd duck, or at least that's the impression I got from this article about him.

You can hear Mr. Swanson discuss his book at this link.

On a related note, the History Channel has been replaying its The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth which is interesting to watch after reading the book.
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What's in the proposed Stimulus Bill for NC?

2009-02-02T13:35:00.004-05:00

The website below purports to detail what is proposed as the Bill stands now.

Projects in North Carolina

Below are the "shovel-ready" projects for which the mayors of this state have requested federal stimulus funding. You can click on a project to read (and add to) its description. You can also discuss the project and vote on whether you believe it is critical or not.

Link ---> http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state/NC

FAQ of the site.

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Speed reducing measures coming soon for Gregson & Duke Streets?

2009-01-30T21:44:00.008-05:00

I found out this week after seeing some city surveying crews around Trinity Park that some traffic calming measures may soon be coming to Gregson Street and Duke Street. Drivers use those streets, right through pedestrian heavy neighborhoods, like freeways--at least in terms of speed. Several proposals have been made for slowing down the dangerous speeding, including returning the streets back into two-way traffic, which was met with mixed reviews from the neighborhoods.

What's going to be placed up and down Duke Street and Gregson Street is apparently like what's on Anderson Street, if you are familiar with that. If not, I took some pictures today of what Anderson Street has. It has traffic islands on the side of the road, marked with black/yellow signs (you can click the pictures to enlarge them):

What these traffic islands do is to make drivers feel a little squeezed, less wide-open like a freeway, and that has been shown to slow the traffic down. The more narrow a driver perceives a road to be, the less likely he is to accelerate.

The thing I liked on Anderson Street too is the permanent sign that gives drivers feedback on how fast they are going and what the speed limit actually is (seen in the first picture).

We've seen numerous close-misses, actual wrecks, and even fatalities, directly attributable to drivers speeding on Duke or Gregson Streets. Because there are slight hills on these two streets, drivers often top a hill traveling at speeds greater than their visibility allows. Thus, if someone is turning into their driveway, or a pedestrian is crossing the street, the speeding car doesn't have enough time to stop to allow for that and an accident occurs. While I don't think these medians will cure all speeding related accidents, I hope they help address the problem.
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Snow Day for us on Inauguration Day

2009-01-20T16:53:00.007-05:00

In this newly "blue" state of NC, we got a rare snow day on this Inauguration Day.

My car's back window at 10:00 am on 1.20.09. Believe!

The "Snowbama Man" my niece made. Nice cap!

Wonderful, memorable day.

A feast for the Chinese New Year

2009-01-17T23:11:00.004-05:00

At the Durham Bull Pen residence our favorite Chinese restaurant is Eastern Lights. The Eggplant in Garlic Sauce is excellent. Best Hot & Sour Soup in town too. Last night when we dined at Eastern Lights, our server mentioned that Chinese New Year is coming up--Year of the Ox, incidentally--and that they'll offer a special menu available on those nights, January 25th and 26th. There is even a special deal if you can get a group together for dinner that night, but make your reservations ahead (according to the menu below).

Click on the menu to better see the special dishes and deal for Chinese New Year:

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Mint in Chapel Hill

2009-01-14T23:48:00.006-05:00

My good friend Jack allowed me to post here at the Bull Pen his review of the restaurant "Mint" in Chapel Hill:
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MINT

We finally went to Mint, a new Indian restaurant that opened on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. We went for the lunch buffet today. We found the food to be very good. Fresh, medium spiced, and a nice variety of both meat and vegetable dishes.

The buffet today included Onion Bhajais, Aloo Gobi, Chicken Korma, Channa Saag, a black lentil dal (can't remember the name), tandoori chicken, another dish with cauliflower, peas, potatoes, and chick peas that was just the perfect blend of spicy and sweet, an egg curry dish, and of course basmati and a very light nan. The mango lassi was probably the best that I've had. Just very light and refreshing. None of the dishes were heavy at all. The decor was very nice. It was much lighter inside that the Sitar India Palace, which probably added to making the dishes feel lighter.

Since finding Sitar India Palace in Durham about 8 or 9 years ago, it's become our benchmark for local Indian food. I'm sure that I've been there about 40 times over the years and I've never left as much as a single grain of rice on my plate. Everything is just really good there. I have to say that Mint was every bit as good. If I could change one thing about our experience there today, it would be the music. While Sitar India Palace plays traditional Indian ragas and songs, the Mint had on something that I can only describe as new age.

The two desserts that were on the buffet were the traditional kheer (Indian rice pudding) and a sweet carrot dish which looked similar to a persimmon pudding. I had neither, as I was just stuffed from my first and second rounds at the buffet.

The lunch buffet runs $9 on weekdays, and higher on the weekends. Before we left, we asked to see a menu so we could see what else they had. And they had a lot. We want to go back for supper soon and order something a little spicier. I did see that they had goat curry (which I love) on the menu. I'll probably give theirs a try.

I definitely recommend it.

_________________________________________

Thanks Jack for the review and I can't wait to try this place out soon. -- DBP
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Something on fire south of American Tobacco

2009-01-12T22:44:00.007-05:00

It's smoky outside and as of about 10:30pm this was what it looked like south of American Tobacco. I didn't get close but it looks like the big ladder truck was there. Lots of smoke and sometimes flames seen. Lots of sirens and the news helicopter too.

You can click the pic to make it larger.

Maybe it just looked big, but whatever it is, it's throwing off a lot of smoke.

UPDATE: I think it must've been this fire. I hope the firefighter will be okay.

Durham County Library Interactive Calendar

2009-01-11T12:35:00.006-05:00

It's possible that I'm the last one to know about this online resource, but I inadvertently found it while looking for something else, so I thought I'd post it.

Durham County Library has a comprehensive calendar with all the arts & crafts workshops, kids' story-telling times and kids' movie times, computer workshops, ballroom dancing, community meetings, and everything else going on at the Library.

You can run your cursor over the program to get a pop-out of the event with more details. You can sign up online. You can even grab the RSS feed.

Here's the direct link to the calendar: Durham County Library interactive calendar. (I'm saying 'interactive' because you can evidently sign up for events by clicking on the links within the calendar.)

Bookmarked.

New Year's Day Hike - Umstead State Park

2009-01-02T23:15:00.014-05:00

For the sixth year in a row, some friends and I gathered for an afternoon hike on New Year's Day. This year we chose Umstead State Park. Umstead is fairly large, and there are entrances from both I-40 and Hwy 70. We'd done a hike on the Hwy 70 side before, so we tried the I-40 side, which enters off Harrison Avenue.

We walked the "Company Mill Trail" down to Crabtree Creek and a little beyond. The trail was rocky but well-marked. The air was cold and exhilarating. A nice start to the New Year. At the trailhead:

A sample of what the trail looked like:

Once down at Crabtree Creek, it's easy to see the ruins of the old dam that was in use at least as early at 1810.

There was also a grist mill in use at the site in the 1800s, and the old mill stone is now displayed beside the trail. The mill stone was thought to be lost, but in the mid-1990's it was found in the riverbed downstream from the dam and recovered. A National Guard helicopter helped pull it out of the creekbed and place it beside the trail.

Going along further down the trail you can see the old foundation of what was probably the mill operator's house. Also further down the trail--we didn't get that far--there is a bridle trail that is part of what was the "Durham Road" that is an old, old trail connecting Raleigh and Durham. Evidently an former stage road can be found bisecting this route too and I'd like to go back soon and find it. (This information is via Randy Johnson's Hiking North Carolina, a guide worth owning, in my opinion.)

There is a nice new metal bridge that crosses Crabtree Creek and another map on the other side of the bridge for checking your route. This section of the trail is nice for stopping and enjoying climbing the rocks, checking out the old dam ruins and the mill stone, and listening to the rushing water. The entire loop of the Company Mill trail is 4.8 miles. Down to Crabtree Creek and back is just over 2 miles.

I love to see the surprising green ferns peeking out of the brown leaves in winter.

It's a nice hike and closeby too. The park was very well kept with plenty of maps at the trailhead. A highly recommended afternoon hike.

"Cold Oven Pound Cake" . . . mmmmmm

2008-12-30T23:19:00.006-05:00

Over the Thanksgiving holidays, my 87 year old grandmother was reminiscing about how good a "Cold Oven Pound Cake" is, and how she hadn't had a slice from one in a long while. For Christmas, my mother decided to make one for her. I was fascinated by the "cold oven" part and so was my mother. Verdict? Heartily recommended. Honestly, it was hands-down the tasty pound cake I'd ever had, so I thought I'd share the recipe here.

COLD OVEN POUND CAKE

2 sticks butter
1/2 cup shortening (butter flavored Crisco was used)
3 cups granulated sugar
5 (yes five) large eggs
1 cup milk
4 tsp. vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour (measure first, then sift it)

All ingredients should be at room temp. Grease and flour a large tube pan. Cream together the butter and the shortening, then slowly add sugar while stirring. Add eggs, one at a time and beat well after each egg is added. Add the vanilla to the milk. Add a little flour and then a little milk alternately until it is all mixed in well.

Pour batter into the large tube pan. Place in a COLD oven and turn to 300 degrees and cook 1 hour. Turn oven to 325 degrees and bake 30 minutes more.

So moist and dense and practically melts in your mouth. Enjoy!

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Pompeii Exhibit in Charlotte

2008-12-23T00:59:00.007-05:00

Last week I realized that the Pompeii Exhibit "A Day in Pompeii" would be leaving Charlotte on January 4th. The exhibit was only in 4 U.S. cities and Charlotte was the last stop. I quickly arranged for an overnight trip to see the exhibit and to have a little Christmas gift of staying in one my favorite hotels, The Dunhill, which is just across the street from the exhibit.

After a Saturday afternoon drive through the misty, gray rainy weather, we arrived at The Dunhill, which incidentally had already picked up tickets for us, and off to the exhibit we went. The docent said no flash photography, so I disabled the flash and took a few pictures. The first part of the exhibit showed a typical day in Pompeii in 79 A.D. The cooking, the jars and jugs, the food, the houses, the worship, the utensils, jewelry, art and gardens. The last part of the exhibit explained the eruption of Vesuvius and how the people of Pompeii tried to escape, and what dying in the ash, gases, pumice, and other volcanic material would've been like. Dark, hot, increasingly hard to breathe. Terrible.

For hundreds and hundreds of years it was all left undisturbed under many feet of ash, rubble and rock, but in the 1700's archeologists began the work to uncover the city again. The most haunting images were the body casts of the people and animals that died. Here's how they were discovered (from the wiki site about Pompeii and Herculaneum):

"Giuseppe Fiorelli took charge of the excavations in 1860. During early excavations of the site, occasional voids in the ash layer had been found that contained human remains. It was Fiorelli who realised these were spaces left by the decomposed bodies and so devised the technique of injecting plaster into them to perfectly recreate the forms of Vesuvius's victims. What resulted were highly accurate and eerie forms of the doomed Pompeiani who failed to escape, in their last moment of life, with the expression of terror often quite clearly visible."

The room in the exhibit where the body casts were shown was dark, with black walls and a red floor. Spotlights showed the plaster body casts, and beautiful somber music played softly in the background. Something I won't soon forget.

Here are few pictures I took of the exhibit:

Triangle D now Trinity Food Mart

2008-12-19T23:15:00.004-05:00

The corner store at Trinity Avenue and Washington Street suddenly closed for a few days and re-opened with a new name, Trinity Food Mart and "under new management." I drive by nearly every day on the way downtown and occasionally stop in for an over-priced soda if the mood strikes. The place is open, but the inside is sparsely filled with convenience store items. I assume more stock will be arriving. Gas was more expensive than most, at $1.79 per gallon yesterday. Admittedly I've had to stop at the old Triangle D when my car was running on fumes and I needed the closest gas available--and was glad it was so close to work and home. And honestly, I've always liked the quirky old store, mainly because it's not a generic clone chain mini-mart.

Bull Pen Lounge

2008-12-16T23:24:00.004-05:00

Some friends and I found ourselves downtown after 6 pm on Sunday, having just seen Milk (yes, it's as good as all the reviews say) at The Carolina. We wanted to grab some coffee and sit a bit and talk about the film before we all went our separate ways for the evening. Blue Coffee was closed and every place else seemed to be too. So we headed over to the Marriott, which is conveniently hooked onto The Carolina Theater upstairs --I always forget about that--to see if the Marriott's "Bull Pen Lounge" was open. It was. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd been there.

The coffee wasn't bad, and we tried some desserts on the menu, and relaxed and dissected the film we just watched. The service at the Bull Pen was fine, although our server was wearing latex gloves, which was odd. We weren't rushed and the place wasn't busy on a Sunday night anyway. Here's what desserts we tried, and they were fairly tasty (but for the completely out-of-season 'fresh' strawberries which tasted faintly of strawberry):

Cheesecake

Creme Brulee

Strawberry Shortcake

Know Your Parking Lots.

2008-12-11T23:03:00.004-05:00

I don't get annoyed very often. With that said, this really annoys me: people who don't 'get' how parking lots work.

It seems obvious to me that there are at least 2 categories of parking lots. One kind has angled spaces and is meant for one way traffic only. You don't have to be a genius to see it. At Northgate Mall tonight, there was an example of the one way traffic category:

See? Designed to be one way. The spaces were angled specifically for cars travelling one way. So please don't come barreling down the wrong way, headlights blazing, looking for a space, okay? Because you are going to cause a wreck. And what kind of crazy turn will you have to make in order to get into the space angled away from your car? Just go to the very next row and that row will be for one way in the opposite direction. This is not hard.

Granted, there do exist parking lots designed for two way traffic. The tip off: the spaces are not angled and the row is bit wider to accomodate the two way traffic. An example of this would be the Durham Costco, if you are ever at that parking lot. Or Target.

Here's a drawing yoinked off the net for illustration:

This isn't about whether one kind of parking lot is better than the other, or whether we need less parking lots. But let's at least learn how to work the ones we got first.

Christmas Cactus

2008-12-08T01:09:00.006-05:00

This time of year when nearly nothing is blooming, my Christmas Cactus explodes with beautiful pink blooms. This one (below) was a gift from a friend a few years ago who came to our house one night for dinner. It's not too terribly hard to care for as outlined here. And it's not really a "cactus" as it doesn't grow in the desert, but rather is a tropical plant that grows in the rainforests of South America. Certainly grows quite well here hot, humid NC as long as it comes inside in the winter.

Christmas Cactus

One bloom

The blooms always looks like some sort of butterfly creature in flight--or maybe an angel if you are in the Christmas spirit when it blooms.

Heave Ho, Ho, Ho.

2008-12-06T12:14:00.006-05:00

City holiday decorations going up near Five Points, downtown Durham, yesterday morning:

It appears to be 3 giant snowflakes on some mountains . . . or maybe on Venus of Willendorf?

Durham Performing Arts pictures

2008-12-01T23:01:00.002-05:00

I attended the Open House for the Durham Perfoming Arts Center tonight. I managed to be standing right beside the Plensa sculpture when it was lighted. Jaume Plensa himself was there too (pic of him in my photostream below). Our arts center is beautiful--I went inside and sat on every level including the uppermost seat in the place. The seats are extremely comfortable with plenty of leg room, whether you have the expensive seats or are in the upper section. I drank some hot chocolate and managed to nab a cheese cube or two, but it was crowded around the food, natch. I even got a picture or two of the crescent Moon with Jupiter and Venus, which was spectacular once the clouds left town.

Durham Performing Arts Center Open House

2008-11-29T23:33:00.007-05:00

If you are interested in checking out the new Durham Perfoming Arts Center, it will be open to the the public this Monday evening, December 1st, for an Open House starting at 5:30pm. The Plensa sculpture will be dedicated at 6pm, and there will be self-guided tours of the building available, live entertainment, and refreshments. I drove by there tonight on my way back to Durham from my Thanksgiving festivities, and it was beautiful, so I took a picture:

Couldn't resist a few shots across the street of Durham's new "Old Bull" sign (which is moving neon--you can see the full movement here at Bull City Rising):

Both the new Durham Performing Arts Center and the Old Bull sign (click for a larger picture) :

What's flying around up there anyway?

2008-11-25T17:04:00.007-05:00

Neat site I just discovered at spaceweather to track what satellites you can see from your location (what time and where to look):

"US and Canadian readers, enter your zip code ... hit Go!, and you will find out what is going to fly over your area in the nights ahead. There are hundreds of satellites in Earth orbit; we cut through the confusion by narrowing the list to a half-dozen or so of the most interesting. At the moment we are monitoring spy satellite Lacrosse 3, the International Space Station, the Early Ammonia Servicer, and the Hubble Space Telescope."

Heck if you are looking up there in the night sky, you might even spot the lost NASA tool bag, estimated value $100K. It was lost in the current Shuttle mission and it's now streaking across the sky.

As uploaded to youtube (just a few seconds long) of the streaking tool bag:

Happy sky-watching!

A Berry Breakfast

2008-11-22T13:18:00.004-05:00

Outside my kitchen window this morning, a cold, fluffed-up cardinal chows down on berries. The berry tree was in the shade still but I snapped a few pictures anyway. (You can click the pictures to make them larger. )

Whether it makes you scowl or smile, the Beaujolais Nouveau's here.

2008-11-21T22:40:00.009-05:00

I'm certainly not a wine snob, nor a complete rube either. I'm merely reporting that the the 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau arrived (as always) the third Thursday of November, which was yesterday. We picked up a bottle and drank some this evening and it was pleasant.

According to French law, Beaujolais Nouveau, a red wine made from 100 percent Gamay grapes, is released at one minute past midnight on the third Thursday in November. This longtime tradition is celebrated worldwide with creative "Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrive!" events, from this year's midnight pajama party in San Diego to a weekend of events at Paris Las Vegas, commencing with a lighting of the hotel's famous "Eiffel Tower" Beaujolais red and delivery of the wine by helicopter at 12:01 a.m. More than 250 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau events taking place around the country can be found at www.chilledred.com. Georges Duboeuf is the most popular producer of Beaujolais in the world and the number one French wine brand in the U.S. (link)

Each year, Beaujolais Nouveau is the first taste of the grapes just harvested, and it wasn't such a great year for grapes in France as noted here:

Vintners hope the festive atmosphere surrounding Beaujolais Nouveau's release will bring some joy after a soggy summer that saw some of them lose their entire harvest. It was the smallest crop since 1975.

"Despite low yields due to bad weather this year, we didn't change the Beaujolais Nouveau's price much because we know it's hard for our customers in times of crisis," said Nicolas Pasqua, manager of Ma Bourgogne, a Paris restaurant specializing in Beaujolais and Bourgogne wine, near the Champs-Elysees.

His customers, sipping at lunch, were divided over the quality of this year's brew. Some say it tasted like pear. Others have noted raspberry tones.

The annual arrival of the young, fruity and heavily marketed wine is generally a cause for parties from Beijing to Las Vegas. Connoisseurs, though, say it is too light to be considered a serious wine.

In 2008, at least for Georges Duboef, the bottles arrived mostly by ship, not jet:

This year, in an unprecedented break from tradition, 75% of Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau was delivered by ship from France to the U.S. instead of by air freight. According to Bill Deutsch, this measure was intended to help offset the wine's carbon footprint. The boat shipment also helped offset an otherwise significant price increase due to rising fuel costs. Due to shipment by boat the wines remains at a retail price of US$10-12 per bottle.

The fact that there's usually lots of hype surrounding the release of this wine each year causes much consternation from a few. That's fine. As for me, I don't much like stamping out fun, even vapid fun, just for sport so I usually buy a few bottles and give the new crop a try, marveling that the grapes were basking on a sunny slope in France just a few short weeks ago.

If you want to try the 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau, it is available most anyplace you buy wine around Durham.

Not so Fabulous

2008-11-16T18:10:00.011-05:00

Yikes, on the end cap of an aisle at Food Lion tonight, 16-oz. colorful (Powerade-like) power drinks? Nope. 16 oz. bottles of colorful cleaning fluids. They're Fabuloso! Seems like a products-liability case waiting to happen to Colgate. They'd sure look like bottles of something to drink, especially to a thirsty kid.

Powerade, for instance:

Maybe I'm just being a Nervous Nellie about it, but it sadly looks like an accident-in-waiting.

Best. New Yorker Cover. Ever.

2008-11-14T19:26:00.009-05:00

I was thrilled when we got our New Yorker this past week because the cover is a real keeper. I'm almost always interested in the cover, and there's been some great ones and also some duds. This one is beautiful, with the "O" as a full moon over the Lincoln Memorial, with it all shining in the reflecting pool (another view of the reflecting pool, 1963, here).

Here's a slideshow of all 47 covers of 2007 from The New Yorker site.

Here's a slideshow of all 16 cartoons from this week's issue.

Got weeds? Hire the Goats!

2008-11-12T22:01:00.004-05:00

Instead of firing up the noisy weed-eater and possibly contracting poison ivy and a case of achy arms and shoulders, if you live 'round here, you can invite The Goat Patrol to your garden to handle your weeds and vines and unwanted vegetation. A friend mentioned she'd be witnessing The Goat Patrol taking down some weeds over the weekend and I was intrigued. Here they are in action a few days ago, doing their job and chowing down--not to mention providing entertainment.

You can even meet the herd before they come over to help you out.

Word was that the owner of the yard in the pictures above was very pleased after the job was complete, and that the little ones in the household were thrilled with the goats coming over for the day.

(Photos were provided courtesy of Wendy Evans.)

Matthew Sweet and The Bridges at the Cradle

2008-11-08T22:53:00.012-05:00

Matthew Sweet was at the Cradle last night and I've been a fan for quite a while now, so we went over for the show.

Matthew Sweet at Cat's Cradle:

Couple of observations. First of all, he and his band were LOUD. Too loud. Now I know that "if it's too loud, then you're too old" so I felt decrepit thinking they were far, far too loud for the space. Then I saw some people much younger than I am flinching and trying to get away from the speakers, so after that I didn't feel too bad for thinking so. The loudness actually interfered with Sweet's superb voice and outstanding lyrics, in my opinion. I didn't time him, but he didn't play for long, either. At any rate, he has a new CD out called Sunshine Lies and they played some tunes from it of course, opening with Time Machine from that CD. He also played some of his older ones that I enjoy such as I've Been Waiting, Girlfriend, Sick of Myself, You Don't Love Me, and Divine Intervention. You can hear a few of his songs in their entirety at his MySpace page here.

The opening act The Bridges are a group of siblings originally from Tarboro NC. I know--Tarboro! Young, with a highly melodic energetic poppy sound. Matthew Sweet produced their first CD, Limits of the Sky, and I liked their sound enough to spring for their CD. They currently have a video playing on MTV (they still show music videos?) that you can see here, and some of their songs can be heard here. The brief Boston Globe's review of the video said they "might win points for their pouting, comely looks in this video, but when was the last time you heard a group of kids making like Fleetwood Mac and actually pulling it off with a soulful, harmony-rich ballad?"

One online review at snob's music review said:

Limits of the Sky is the debut album from the family quintet. Produced by Matthew Sweet, it's a tremendous collection of bright medolic pop songs.

The group's songwriting demonstrates a pop sensilibility far outstripping their young age (all in their early 20s). Not since Ben Lee's debut have we seen a band show us this level of song craftsmanship right out of the shoot.

Vocals are definitely the focal point of the music . . . The Bridges clearly benefit from Sweet's guidance. The songs are chock full of catchy melodic choruses and vocal hooks.

The show ended around midnight so we hit TimeOut on Franklin Street for a quick bite then headed back to Durham.

So much music to see, so little time. Troika Music Festival is going on in Durham this weekend too.

Rainy Election Night Party for Obama

2008-11-06T00:09:00.006-05:00

By 7:30pm on Tuesday night, I was too antsy to sit at home and passively wait for the election returns. I knew that downtown a party would be starting for Obama volunteers and Durham residents so I suited up in my raincoat and hat, took my not-so-good camera due to the rain, and headed downtown.

Blue Coffee was chock full of people, the marching bands were playing, the ABC/WTVD satellite truck was there, and people were milling about, smiling and laughing and watching the giant TV in the rain.

Southern HS Marching Band:

Jumbotron:

Celebration, complete with cut-out of President Elect Obama:

Cool recycling receptacle (hadn't noticed these before):

Major the bull, watching the returns:

Around 10:30pm I was cold, wet, and tired of standing around, so I headed home. They called it for Obama on MSNBC at 11:00pm and so I got to see the reactions from Grant Park and Times Square. Glad Durham had their own celebration too, even if in the rain.

Map to see NC voting percentages by county

2008-11-05T22:12:00.004-05:00

If you click on this map and then click open a state, say North Carolina, you can run your mouse over the counties to see what percentage voted for Obama and what percentage for McCain. Pretty interesting to see how the counties break down in percentages. If McCain won, the county is depicted in red, if Obama won it, it's blue.

Incidentally, Durham County NC was bluer (percentage-wise) than Cook County IL for this Election.

Hundreds of newspaper front pages

2008-11-05T10:17:00.003-05:00

If you want to peruse hundreds of front pages from today, just click here for the Newseum's site. It has 684 front pages from all over.

If Obama wins, here's information about the Durham celebration!

2008-11-02T22:23:00.010-05:00

Just got a message about this, so I'm passing it along. (I don't have any information about McCain's event in Durham or I'd post it too.)

4 blocks blocked off, music, and a 2 story tall projection screen to watch the returns . . .

Barack N Roll

A celebration for Obama volunteers and citizens of Durham

Tuesday, Nov 4th, 8:30pm until

Historic Black Wall Street - Corner of Corcoran and Parrish Streets

Hosted by Durham for Obama, Blue Coffee Cafe - and the blue citizens and businesses of Downtown

Join us in Downtown for the biggest street party of the Century! Historic Black Wall Street (Parrish Street) and Corcoran Street will be closed off to create a four block celebration zone, including music, drum lines, marching bands and souvenirs. Watch live returns on a giant two-story tall projection screen. Stand shoulder to shoulder with your neighbors from across the City when the election is officially called on CNN via live satellite feed.

Cruise to different downtown restaurants and bars, each hosting their own election return parties. Eat, drink, roam and experience downtown as the true civic center of our community.

For more information, visit: Durham for Barack (scroll down a bit at that link)

Spread the word!

Really great Get Out the Vote (GOTV) music event

2008-11-01T22:47:00.010-04:00

Today we ventured over to Chapel Hill to see some great music that was part of a big push to get out the vote on this last day of early voting in NC. It was held beside Morehead Planetarium on the UNC campus, near--but not too close!--to the early voting site itself. What a beautiful, sunny fall day too. I sometimes forget how beautiful the campus is there. Today it was positively picturesque. But we were there for the music. I guess we stayed from about 11:00 until 3:30pm, when it was over. Coffee and snacks were being served and people were friendly and quite enthusiastic about the Election.

I'd never seen Billy Bragg perform live before and it was just as great as I thought it'd be. He had some inspirational words about the election--'the whole world is watching,' essentially. He's performing here in Durham tonight, and was kind enough to devote some time and some songs to this GOTV effort today.

Billy Bragg

I'd never seen the band Megafaun before and I liked them a lot! What energy and enthusiasm these guys have. Looking forward to seeing more of them in the future. You can hear some of their music on their MySpace page here.

Megafaun

Finishing things up were the dB's with Mitch Easter. Always enjoy hearing the dB's and Ask for Jill and Amplifier never fails to thrill the crowd. They sprinkled in a couple of new songs too. And even one especially about the election.

dB's with Mitch Easter

Peter Holsapple

I didn't get a chance to see everyone perform today, but I thank them for doing the big show today and for caring that people get out and VOTE.

By 3:30pm we were tired and hungry and decided to head over to the Carolina Coffee Shop, which we hadn't been to in forever, maybe even since I was in undergrad, and had a nice relaxing meal. A superb day in Chapel Hill.

UPDATE: Peter Holsapple of the dB's has a detailed account of the music today at his fine blog here.
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"Halloween on 9th: Let's start somethin'"

2008-10-29T19:19:00.003-04:00

Over on Facebook, a new and interesting Group has started and has nearly 200 members. The group's called Halloween on 9th: Let's start somethin'. Forget Franklin Street, let's have a fun time on our own 9th Street. Put on your costume and let's see what happens. From the group:

"Why drive to the police “state” of Franklin street on Halloween, when over 100,000 youngens are expected to take over the main strip causing: mass chaos, probable looting and overcrowding (at under themed) nightclubs. We get the rep for having a volatile city, while they have had a shooting every year since 2004 at Franklin’s famed Halloween “parade”. I say we start one of our own, a resurgence on 9th street. We don’t have to call it anything… we don’t need an agenda at all. Let’s just plan to wear our costumes, on our blocks, with civil, like-minded ADULTS, who want nothing more than to get dressed up, get drunk and dance wildly.

If you are in agreement, come to 9th street on Halloween in your costume. I say we start the festivities at 8pm.

Dain’s, Charlie’s, George’s Garage, G Loft, Blu Seafood, Sirens and Club 9 will be available to serve your wandering needs."

And, if that's not enough, just a block over, on Broad Street, at the Broad Street Cafe, my pal Jeff Hart has a gig and will be playing and singing and having a big time for his birthday, so come listen to him--the show starts at 9pm--drink a brew, and have a great Halloween on 9th Street and Broad Street.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Mary Gauthier at St. Philip's

2008-10-24T22:59:00.005-04:00

Attended another great Strings Attached concert tonight at St. Philip's downtown. Singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier gave a benefit concert for UMD. UMD does lots of great work in Durham as you can see if you click on their site.

When I arrived around 6:30pm, Only Burger's rolling hamburger stand was set up outside St. Philip's and the smell of grilled hamburgers was wafting through air. Drool. Only Burger of course had drawn a little crowd. Inside some folks were already enjoying their hamburgers and french fries before the concert started. Wow, it smelled so good. I didn't have an opportunity to try one but I will soon I hope.

Only Burger at dusk in front of St. Philip's

Gauthier came out at 7:00pm and played straight through, ninety minutes of riveting songs. I could certainly tell that a couple of her big influences were Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. I especially liked her song about Karla Faye Tucker, Karla Faye, and another called Camelot Motel. She's charming on stage, and after the show I picked up a couple of her CD's (Mercy Now and Genesis) and got them signed. Looking forward to listening to them. You can hear a few of her songs in full at her Myspace page here.

Mary Gauthier

Another great Strings Attached show at St. Philip's. Hope it raised some nice bucks for UMD and I'm on board for whatever the next good show will be. Props to Rebekah Radisch and Strings Attached.

Durham Arts Council

2008-10-23T23:53:00.009-04:00

A random picture from my hard drive I ran across tonight of the Durham Arts Council, as taken from my office in 2007:

It used to be the old City Hall before 1978, and the excellent Durham blog Endangered Durham has some great older photos of the building at this link (scroll down a bit at that link). The glass high-rise behind the Arts Council is the People's Security Building.

I like looking out and being able to see the Arts Council. I enjoy seeing full-of-energy kids taking classes there in the summertime, and their harried parents picking them up, and seeing the Durham Symphony folks lugging their instruments into the building some nights for practice, people taking dance classes and art classes, and various functions and art shows being attended all year long, but especially around the winter holidays. Lots of hustle and bustle there at the Arts Council and that seems like a mighty fine thing to me.

WooHoo! It's like the Durham Bulls made it to The World Series!

2008-10-20T18:30:00.006-04:00

As you probably know, the Tampa Bay Rays are headed to The World Series. The Rays are the major league team for the Durham Bulls, which means when one of our Durham Bulls players is "called up to the majors" then that player goes to the Tampa Rays.

Watching the Rays play has been thrilling because so many of the players were playing right here, just down the street at the Bulls ballpark only a few short weeks ago.

In fact 14 of the members on the current World Series bound Rays are former Durham Bulls players. How cool is that?

Wral has a bit more detail here and at the link you can get a list of the Bulls players now on the Rays roster:

If you watched the American League Championship Series and some of those players looked very familiar, there’s a reason for that.

A total of 14 current members of the Tampa Bay Rays played for their Triple-A affiliate, the Durham Bulls, en route to the majors.

The list includes the entire Rays starting outfield of B.J. Upton, Rocco Baldelli and Carl Crawford. Third baseman Evan Longoria, one of the best young players in the game, started the season in Durham.

Pitcher David Price, the No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft, pitched in Durham earlier this season. He came on in relief Sunday night with the bases loaded in the eighth inning and held on for the save.

Two other Rays, pitcher Scott Kazmir and designated hitter Willy Aybar, went to Durham on rehab assignments.

Yes, David Price was cool as a cucumber last night, brought in to pitch at the most intense point in the game, when the Rays were trying to protect their 2 run advantage at the end of the game and make it into the World Series. Price got the job done too and it was thrilling to watch him. He's just 23 years old.

Evan Longoria has wow'd them since being called up, hitting homerun after homerun in the post-season. Everyone now expects a homerun when he steps up to the plate.

I'm looking forward to tuning into the World Series and seeing our Durham Bulls players playing like the champs they are!

The Rays will be playing the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, and the first game is this Wednesday night on Fox. The complete schedule of the upcoming games is here at the MLB site.

Yes I did . . . vote early.

2008-10-17T16:14:00.002-04:00

I'm thrilled. Lots--and I mean lots--more African American voters at my early voting place than I have ever seen before. Lots more voters, period, too. We were #2133 and 2134 at our site when we fed our ballots through. Now I'm not saying I know how every African American voter is voting because I do not, but let me say this--we almost always vote early and there were many more African American voters voting at that early voting place than I've ever seen. This is at the main early voting site, the Board of Elections, so anyone in any precinct can vote there early. There are 8 other early voting places in the county I understand.

It was awesome! The place was packed, the energy was so high it fairly crackled, the line moved quickly, lots of smiles and camaraderie. The feeling of 'we are doing something monumental here' was in the air more than I've ever felt before.

Beyond the required 60 feet (you can't campaign within 60 feet of the voting place), there was a young woman selling Obama Biden yard signs for $5 a piece. They were going fast.

My shirt with my sticker:

Collard Green Sandwich?

2008-10-14T23:12:00.005-04:00

Yes. That's correct. A collard green sandwich. Never heard of them until recently and the only place I've ever seen them is at a stand at the Autumn Leaves Festival in Mt. Airy, NC. (It's a street festival, held on the downtown streets, not in a parking lot, incidentally. All the downtown businesses are opened and packed with customers with money in their pockets. I'm just saying.)

Anyway, this past Saturday I went to the Autumn Leaves Festival, and I already knew the line for the collard green sandwich would be long. It was about a 25 minutes wait in a long snaking line, and as people passed by they would shake their heads and say, "they sure must be good." I think the novelty of it can't be discounted either. They are tasty, however.

What are they? Simple--cake cornbread, sliced in two pieces, a big spoonful of collard greens, and a slice of crispy pork. I snapped a few pictures so you could see too.

And for dessert, a bit of sweet potato cobbler:

Pre-blowout.

2008-10-13T13:08:00.006-04:00

I drove up to the mountains late last Thursday night. I was nearly at my destination when I decided my tire was feeling funny (the way it felt on the steering wheel, if that makes sense), but no I didn't have a flat--it didn't feel or sound like a flat. I even looked at the tires once parked in the driveway at the mountain house, but again, no flat tire. It was dark outside though, and only the light of the porch shone on the car.

Friday, in the daylight, before leaving to go do errands, I looked at my tires again. Holy Cow! My driver's side front tire had a huge pre-blowout bulgy spot on it (on the sidewall of the tire). I can't imagine why it didn't blow out on the Interstate while I was driving--doing 65+ barrelling down the highway in the dark at midnight. So scary. If it had blown who knows if I would've been able to keep the car under control. Pretty much scared me to death. I snapped a cell phone picture of it:

The tire still had fairly good tread and wasn't all that old (but it was beyond the warranty period). I guess I was lucky that this was visible on the outside sidewall, and not located on the inside sidewall.

Be careful out there.

A great read: The Legal Limit

2008-10-08T21:12:00.012-04:00

Once in a long while I'll get so engrossed in a book that I stay up all night reading it. That happened recently with this book so I thought I'd do a quick blog entry about it. Here's the book, The Legal Limit:

The book is based on an actual murder that took place in Stuart, Virginia about 20 years ago, and the events that took place afterwards. The author, Martin Clark (Davidson graduate), is a judge in Virginia, and he wrote a fascinating, fictionalized account of the murder. The story has delicious and absorbing twists and turns in the plot, as well as truly interesting ethical questions.

It may've had an extra appeal to me because I've been in and around Stuart, Virginia--which is near Mt. Airy, NC and Fancy Gap, VA. Everything and everyone seemed so familiar in the book, it seemed like I was reading about something that happened to a friend. The characters and dialog flow like the real thing, like they should.

I long ago got bored with John Grisham's books, no offense to Mr. Grisham. This book stands head and shoulders above any legal 'thriller' books I've read recently. In fact, I'm not sure I've read any in that genre recently. This one is worth picking up and reading, in my opinion, if for nothing but sheer joy of the ride it gives, twisting and turning this way and that, with provocative ethical questions thrown in to mull over during the ride.
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Fishing at the NC coast

2008-10-06T13:04:00.003-04:00

Saturday I went fishing with my dad and nephew at the coast, off Topsail Island. We trolled and also did some bottom fishing. It was a spectacular day. The water was calm, the sky was blue, and the ocean was a beautiful blue-green. We stayed out on the boat for 7 hours and it passed by like 30 minutes it seemed. I took along my camera and here are some pictures (you can click to make them larger):

Sunrise, sound side, Topsail Island. I believe that is a Green Heron on the post:

Headed from the sound side to the ocean at daybreak:

Cannonball jellyfish:

Bottlenose Dolphin in Topsail Bay:

He's got a black sea bass there:

Octopus caught and went back into the water:

Turning bridge at Topsail Island.

Fish fry for dinner! (Thanks Mom & Dad!) Scallops, shrimp, slaw & hushpuppies too:

An Electric Lawn Mower?

2008-09-30T21:13:00.004-04:00

A few years ago, maybe 4 or 5, I bought an electric lawn mower. Lots of people said "okaaaay, but they don't have enough power to cut thick grass." Being the hardhead I am, I went ahead and bought it. I liked that it would be quiet (it is) and that I didn't have to fool with cans of gasoline and a persnickety lawn mower engine. I worried about the fact that I always wait until the grass is thick and high, so it might not be able to cut it properly with the electric mower.

I've been pleased with it, so I thought you might be pondering one. They do just fine. I took some pictures for the heck of it, just to show how well mine does, if you are thinking of trading in for an electric.

My Black & Deck Electric Mower:

My backyard a few weeks ago, needing a cut:

Cutting through just fine (the grass was damp):

All done!

The cord is never a problem because when I plug it in, I cut away from where I have the cord plugged in so it's always on the cut side of the lawn, seldom in the way. I'd like to try a cordless lawn mower, but this one has lots of good years left in it. It's never given me one bit of trouble.

Never failed to start, never balked at all. Easy.

Red Spider!

2008-09-25T21:24:00.004-04:00

Red Spider Lily, that is. Also called the Equinox Lily, Magic Lily, or Hurricane Lily. Or Lycoris radiata to be precise.

One of the many great things about owning an older home, in my opinion, is that someone may've planted cool things in the yard. The first time early fall rolled around after we moved into this house, and I stepped out the backdoor and these greeted me, I was enchanted with them. Here are some pictures I took a few days ago:

Taken from above.

Our cluster of Lycoris radiata.

Seems like these just pop up overnight. Boom, there they are, all red and bright and slightly Dr. Seuss-looking saying, "Hey, someone planted me here years ago so they could enjoy me." So I do make it a point to stop and admire them in their 2 or 3 weeks of glory and oddity. Thank you, whoever you are, for planting these. This house and its tended yard has been here since 1926 so it could've been long ago.

I've never done a thing but enjoy them each fall when they pop out of the ground, so they must do well here in our climate. They are native to China and Japan, often seen in groups on the ridge of rice fields.

If ingested they are supposed to give you lucid dreams. I wouldn't try that, though.

Blues Fest 2008 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park

2008-09-21T22:30:00.006-04:00

This year the Bull Durham Blues Fest (in its 21st year) was held at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park instead of the old ballpark, the DAP, because of its ongoing renovations. I took some pictures and included them in this blog entry.

First of all, I thought the new (maybe temporary, maybe not) location was a big hit. The stage was set up behind where 2nd base usually sits, and it's a nice big stage too. To preserve the infield, there was a flooring of interlocking 4 x 4 thick plastic squares laid down. They were great for dancing, and for setting up our folding chairs. Durable and neat and clean. Some vendors were out on the field, and some were up on the concourse. People could sit out with folding chairs on the infield, or sit up in the stands if they preferred. Plenty of room to move around, plenty of clean bathrooms, well lighted, well organized, a wonderful time. Kudos to the Hayti Heritage Center who puts on the event each year. Very nicely done!

The gates opened at 5pm and my friends and I were among the first in, and got a sweet spot on the first row. The weather was beautiful, with a cool hint of fall in the air. It even got chilly enough as the night wore on to pull on our jackets.

Friday evening started out with a band from Charlotte, The Contagious Blues Band, and they were very enjoyable. Next up, I really liked the zydeco music that Rosie Ledet performed and folks got up and danced.

Rosie Ledet (on the right)

Hard to sit still when good zydeco is being played.

Clarence Carter came out after Rosie Ledet and he played his hits, including the cheesy but fun "Patches" and ended his set with "Strokin'." Nearly the entire audience was up and dancing at that point. The headliner of the night, Marcia Ball, came on stage next and she was fantastic. Her new album is "Peace Love and Barbeque" -- I need to snag that for a bumpersticker incidentally. She plays the heck out of the keyboards. Phenomenal. At the end, she implored us all to "Please vote!" and that she knew that we in Durham "would do the right thing, you know what I mean!"

Marcia Ball

Saturday night my friends made sure we got front row seats again by sitting on line before the gates the opened. Another sweet fall-like evening and the music started off with Big Road Blues Band who got us revved up for the night. Next up was Bernard Allison.

Bernard Allison

This guy just floored me. He is unbelievably good and when he finishes, you feel like you've witnessed the blues in concentrated form. I could've listened to him all night. Denise LaSalle came out next and she kept everyone thoroughly entertained. Her patter to the audience was for adults only and I was wondering what the people with kids there might've been thinking. The headliner for Saturday night was Taj Mahal and he was worth the wait.

Taj Mahal

He came out and played a hollow-bodied electric guitar first that sounded so sweet to me. Then he stepped over to the keyboard and tore the keys up for a few songs. Next he picked up his banjo and played the blues on the banjo. He said, "One thing I like about North Cacalacky is that I can pull out my banjo to play the blues and people won't head for the doors." I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed his set. He even played my favorite song "Queen Bee." I especially loved "Fishing Blues" (youtube link to Taj singing "Fishing Blues") too.

Another great Bull Durham Blues Fest!

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Pitchers Mound at the DAP today.

2008-09-18T14:14:00.003-04:00

I wonder if that piece of equipment can hurl a fastball with its bucket?

Durham Athletic Park 9/18/08.

Renovations ongoing at the Durham Athletic Park.

You can click the picture for a larger version.

Thomas Frank at Quail Ridge Books

2008-09-17T21:44:00.004-04:00

We zipped over to Raleigh tonight to Quail Ridge Books to see the author Thomas Frank give a reading from his latest book, The Wrecking Crew. He's the guy who wrote What's The Matter With Kansas among others. The Durham Bull Pen household has several of his books already, so we thought we'd listen to him speak, read some from his latest, and get the books signed. The place was full, people standing the aisles even, to hear him. He's such an incredibly smart and funny guy. Lots of great questions from the crowd too.

He said he had to leave quickly after signing books but didn't say why. He cheerfully signed books and then left in a hurry, thanking everyone for coming.

We drove back to Durham, flipped on the Rachel Maddow Show (loving her new show on MSNBC), and there was Thomas Frank, being interviewed LIVE by Rachel. Funny moment. "Hey, we just saw him!" Guess he was on his way to the local NBC studio so he could be interviewed.

Thomas Frank at Quail Ridge Books

He's writing a column for The Wall Street Journal these days too, called The Tilting Yard, and here's the latest installment: Get Your Class War On.

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Five Points Cafe open (for real real)

2008-09-13T20:05:00.006-04:00

When I was downtown this afternoon I noticed Five Points Cafe (at 347 W. Main, beside Toast) was open and customers were enjoying food and beverages inside. This may have happened yesterday or last week or ?? I haven't been keeping close tabs on it, really, but it has opened and closed once or twice in the process of getting really and truly open-as I hope they are now. Going for something easy, I ordered a coffee to go and it was tasty. No Splenda packets yet, but I'm not one to quibble about the little stuff. I had my camera so I asked if I could take a couple of pictures (the lady at the counter was quite nice about the request albeit perplexed), so here you go. I asked for the menu, but was directed to the green chalk board, so I snapped a pic of it (you can double click it to make it large enough to read).

I also met a nice fellow from Democracy Durham inside, so a big shout-out to him!

We are "America's Foodiest Small Town "

2008-09-10T12:48:00.003-04:00

Or at least "Durham-Chapel Hill" is, according to Bon Appetit :

Imagine a place where foodies not only have a favorite chef, but also a favorite farmer; a place where the distance between the organic farm and the award-winning restaurant is mere miles; a place where a sustainable future is foreseeable. It's all a reality in Durham-Chapel Hill.

The article include recipes, such as North Carolina Peanut Pie and great shout-outs to all our favorite places such as Parker & Otis, Chapel Hill Creamery, Fickle Creek Farm, and much more.

Check it out: America's Foodiest Small Town

Thanks RR!

Sign up for new City Manager's reports online

2008-09-08T17:51:00.005-04:00

Looks like Durham's new City Manager Tom Bonfield has heard of the series of tubes called the internetz and will be releasing his reports online.

From this release:

Subscribe to the City Manager's Report
Receive the latest information and important City news via e-mail with the new City Manager's Report. The report from City Manager Thomas J. Bonfield highlights the latest happenings in Durham City Government. To receive this permission-based newsletter, please click {here for information}. The signup and subscription information are managed by iContact.

Looks like a brand new thing to me, but maybe it was happening all along and I wasn't in the loop. I am often not in the various loops.

Things that make us go BOOM! Or not.

2008-09-08T14:29:00.002-04:00

Looks like this Wednesday is going to be a big day in the science world. Nerdlingers like me are awaiting the re-enactment of The Big Bang. So hold on to your um, gravity and stuff. It's being done with a 17 mile long atom smasher that's being fired up on Wednesday:

GENEVA - It has been called an Alice in Wonderland investigation into the makeup of the universe - or dangerous tampering with nature that could spell doomsday.

Whatever the case, the most powerful atom-smasher ever built comes online Wednesday, eagerly anticipated by scientists worldwide who have awaited this moment for two decades.

The multibillion-dollar Large Hadron Collider will explore the tiniest particles and come ever closer to re-enacting the big bang, the theory that a colossal explosion created the universe.

The machine at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, promises scientists a closer look at the makeup of matter, filling in gaps in knowledge or possibly reshaping theories.

Now if you really want a better understanding of what's going on, please do go take a look at the cheesy but catchy music video that the folks at CERN put together:

The article goes on to say:

It will still be about a month before beams traveling in opposite directions are brought together in collisions that some skeptics fear could create micro "black holes" and endanger the planet.

So have a great month!

The "Mindset List" for this year's incoming freshmen

2008-09-05T22:47:00.004-04:00

Okay, I know it's a bit gimmicky, but I do still give The Beloit College Mindset List a look each August/September. This time it's for the incoming class of 2012.

Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. The List is shared with faculty and with thousands who request it each year as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

There's a full list of 60 items at the website, and you can choose prior years too (at the top of that site).

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead

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Here's a few I plucked out:

4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.

9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.

18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.

22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.

28. IBM has never made typewriters.

32. There has always been Pearl Jam.

33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.

44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.

50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”

Oh yuck. Centerfest to be in a parking lot again.

2008-09-02T21:36:00.006-04:00

I have always loved Centerfest in Durham since moving here. It has consistently been a fun and easy-going time. A real treat. Last year, however, it was crammed into a big asphalt parking lot near the Farmer's Market. The asphalt was steamy hot, the weather was hot, the people were jammed in, and it was miserable--at least for me and the people I was with. After inquiring last year, I understood that it was held there because it wasn't clear that the downtown street improvements would be finished in time. Okay, I was cool with that. But I just looked on the website and it is still going to be held in that parking lot.

So good luck with that. I was looking forward to it being downtown in the neat CCB (See Say Be) Plaza with Major, and up and down Main Street and Chapel Hill Street, showing off our new merchants downtown and our great looking new brickwork and streetlamps and all. Nope. The map for Centerfest is still directiing people to the asphalt parking lot.

Centerfest 2008 will be held September 20 and 21st, according to its website.

A Luna Moth!

2008-09-01T23:52:00.004-04:00

A big beautiful Luna Moth came to visit on my front porch for a while. So magical, named after the Roman moon goddess.

The Luna Moth also appears in one of my all-time favorite modern novels, Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

Hope you find a bit of magic in your life this week too.

New Waterlily Competition

2008-08-26T10:12:00.007-04:00

I took a walk at Duke Gardens on Sunday and the waterlilies in the koi ponds are just beginning to bloom. The ones that were blooming were simply beautiful. There was sign nearby that announced the following:

The International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society has once again chosen Duke Gardens to be the growing site for the organization's annual New Waterlily Competition, a contest that draws entries from skilled hybridizers around the world. The purpose of this competition is to promote interest in hybridizing new colors, forms, and sizes of both tropical and hardy waterlilies. In the past few years, several note-worthy new hybrids have been introduced as a result of the competition, including plants with unusual flower shapes and colors; new leaf patterns and colors; and new viviparous waterlilies. These one-of-a-kind lilies will be on display in the Fish Pool at the base of the Historic Terraces during July and August. Visitors are invited to see these new hybrids up close this summer and to choose their favorites as part of the second annual "People's Choice Awards". Votes can be cast in person using ballots, via cell phone using the Guide by Cell program, or here on our website.

So, you can stroll by and check out the waterlilies and cast your own vote for your favorite because there is a "People's Choice Award" for the lilies too.

Here are a few pictures I took on Sunday at the pond:

And here's the poster describing the competition and containing a ballot box (you can click it twice to make it larger and readable):

African Milk Plant

2008-08-24T13:07:00.010-04:00

Years ago, maybe 20 years ago even, my Mom gave me a small plant to put inside my tiny apartment. I didn't want anything that required a lot of fussing over, but I did want a house plant, something green, of some kind. It was a baby of a plant that Mom had received from her sister. I didn't even know the name of it at the time, but it was happy with sporadic water and some sunlight. It grew slowly.

Now it is pretty big and top heavy and is prone to tipping over, which it sadly often does. I've found that it is not a cactus, but a succulent, and is an African Milk Plant (Euphorbia trigona). I haul it outside in the summer, where it loves the heat and humidity and sunshine, and inside for the winter, when it goes dormant.

I wonder what will happen to it if it gets much bigger and I can't haul it outside in the summer because it is too tall and too heavy. It won't be happy all year round in the house, and I don't have a sunroom where it could stay year round and get enough light. Maybe I need to donate it to someone who does have a sunroom where it could stay in one place? I do have a couple of babies from it, the smaller of which is about the size of the plant when my Mom gave it to me years ago:

Oh, and it's supposed to be good luck to give one of these as a gift, so 20 years late I'd like to say, "Thanks Mom for the good luck gift! But what do I do with it now?"

Daisy Cakes, finally.

2008-08-23T23:21:00.003-04:00

I've had a few weekends out of town, so I haven't found a good chance to check out Daisy Cakes. Today on the way to the Durham Farmer's Market, we saw "Sugar," the Silver Airstream and stopped for a couple of cupcakes.

We chose a Raspberry Frosting on vanilla, and a Coconut, which was the special of the day. They were beautiful and tasty. Not out-of-this-world tasty, but very good--and I mean, heck, one can now stop at a cupcake and coffee place on the way to the Farmer's Market! That is a concept worth supporting, even if I have to definitely watch my cupcake intake.

Anyway, they'd sold out of a good number of things by the time we were there (sometime after 11am), but there was still some cupcakes and coffee left. Woo Hoo! The lady taking our order was pleasant, although I'm sure she'd been there for hours at that point. There was a small line but it went fast.

Here's a picture Sugar, the Daisy Cakes Airstream, parked at the corner of Geer and Foster, across the street from Man Bites Dog Theater.

Official site of Daisy Cakes for more information. Carpe Durham has some more information on Daisy Cakes, and so does Valerie at We Love Durham.

Roe, Roe, Roe your boat . . .

2008-08-20T22:35:00.004-04:00

At this point, I've sampled sushi from several different places in Durham and in Chapel Hill, and even in Atlanta, but so far the best, as far as I'm concerned, is at Sushi Love in Durham on Erwin Road.

Lenore blogged about Sushi Love twice at her place, here and here, and Carpe Durham blogged about it here. So naturally I had see what all the fuss was about. I went along with my 2 best sushi-eating pals. And, I might add, they concur with my assessment of it being the best sushi so far that we've tried.

Here's our boat of sushi. I thought the boat was very cool, but I like boats of almost any description anyway. If I can't be at the helm, at least fill it up with sushi and put it on table!

And thanks to Jack's hard work (thanks!), we have this illustrated picture of the sushi we three enjoyed (you can click it twice to make it larger):

The rolls tasted exceptionally fresh, crunchy when they were supposed to be, and soft when they were supposed to be. The rice was good and soft but held together well.

And one last observation. Our server was very patient with us. We wanted to really look at the menu thoroughly and make our choices together, so it took us a while to get our order together. She was very pleasant about that and I appreciated it.

I think overall I liked the Insane Eel Roll the best. We agreed that even the pickled ginger tasted above average.

We'll be back for sure.

Eno in Chicago

2008-08-19T00:01:00.015-04:00

This place caught my eye as I walked down Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Eno? Hey, I know an Eno (river, that is). So I walk over take a closer look and it looks like a place we might like. Another kind of Eno. Later that evening we take a stroll down brightly lit Michigan Avenue--it was a beautiful breezy night, sidewalks full of people and plenty of activity at 11pm.

Our view from our table:

A friendly Chicago greeting as we step inside, as I've come to expect and enjoy. Nice table by the window and plenty of time to peruse the menu. So many flights of wine, cheese, and chocolate. Oh what to pick on this menu!

We ended up getting the Faux Bordeaux and the Pinot Envy flights of wine. The wine we liked best of the six was the 2006 Eola Hills Pinot Noir.

For the cheese, we chose The International and the Silky Smooth flights. The Quicke's raw cow milk cheddar from Devon was the best of the cheeses we tried. The chocolate flight was one we picked out specifically with just truffles. The dark cherry flavored truffle was the best of the three.

Eno from the sidewalk:

I'd definitely go back and plan to the next time I'm in Chicago. I really should also try Durham's Six Plates and I'm sad to say I haven't so far.

In an unrelated matter, a spider waits in his web on a busy N. Michigan Avenue corner, in a planter. Not sure how good business is there for him:

Off to Chicago . . .

2008-08-15T00:04:00.004-04:00

Will be enjoying Chicago over the next few days. It's one of my favorite places and I'm looking forward to it, like visiting an old friend. The Art Institute, Crown Fountain, the Lake, Second City, etc. Last year when I was there I saw a fascinating exhibit on Charles Darwin at The Field Museum. I love The Field.

Here's a picture of Cloud Gate (or "the bean") at Millennium Park (another great place) that I took last year:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. ~ Carl Sandburg

Loggerhead Turtle Nests on Topsail Island

2008-08-11T21:09:00.004-04:00

We spent a long weekend on Topsail Island with my family and the weather was beautiful. A lot of the time we were on the beach swimming and playing in the sand and beach-combing and I am happy to report seeing several loggerhead turtle nests roped off just in one small section of coastline. They came complete with with warning signs--penalty up to $100,000 and also criminal prosecution with jail time. Everyone was very respectful of the nests.

One nest even had a little 'runway' dragged into the sand from the nest to the surf by the volunteers who help protect the sea turtles. Evidently the 'runway' means it's close to having the eggs hatch. It takes about 60 days from the time the mother loggerhead turtle lays the eggs until they hatch and the babies make their way out to the ocean. The nests will have volunteer babysitters (nestsitters?) to sit with the nests overnight so no idiot will vandalize the nests at night. An interesting article here from last Saturday about the nests this year: Sea turtles take over Topsail.

Topsail Island has one of the few "sea turtle hospitals" to help injured loggerheads recuperate and get back to the ocean. You can even vist Topsail's Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. It seems to be a big hit with kids . . . and big kids like me too.

Here are some pictures I took:

A roped off nest near the dunes

The "runway" down to the surf:

The warning sign (click it twice to make it readable):

Here's a youtube video (not mine) of some Topsail Island loggerhead babies making their way to the ocean. And also a very quick video of a mother loggerhead on Topsail crawling back to the water.

Grass Scraped Off at the DAP

2008-08-05T22:05:00.005-04:00

I pass by the Durham Athletic Park at least once a day on the way to downtown and work. The planned renovations have been under way a few weeks now on the old, well-loved ballpark. It's startling to see nearly all the grass scraped off the field. In fact, I stopped today and took a picture of it, through the construction fencing:

Durham Athletic Park, 8/5/2008 (click to make picture larger)

Some of what will be happening during the renovations were outlined by wral in this article:

Crews will repair the grandstand, install new bathrooms and clubhouses under the grandstand, renovate the concession stands, dugouts and broadcast booth and build a new maintenance building, picnic area and sand-based athletic field.

Field construction is scheduled to be done by the end of the year, with other work wrapping up by next March.

When it's finished, the old park will be a new training ground for minor league baseball. People will come to Durham to learn how to take care of fields and how to "flip" them from festivals to ballgames.

The former home of the Durham Bulls is also getting a new state-of-the-art field and will be home to North Carolina Central University’s baseball team in 2009.

Bull City Rising has covered the renovations and plans for the DAP, and Endangered Durham has some background and fantastic old pictures of the DAP.

4 Way Stop Intersections

2008-08-03T01:46:00.005-04:00

Are 4 Way Stop intersections more complicated than I think?

I learned years ago that one proceeds in the order that one arrives at the 4 Way Stop. The first one there goes first, then the next to arrive goes, and so forth.

Has this rule changed?

It's certainly not a complicated rule, but apparently at the intersection of Watts and Markham, it is a source of tremendous confusion for some. I'm starting to wonder if I simply don't understand the rule anymore and it's now as follows: wait to see if the person waves you to proceed, if they don't, you wave them to proceed.

Don't wave me on if it's not my turn! Let's just stick with the rules of the road, why don't we? I'm pretty sure that's a lot less dangerous for everyone since there's a predictability about who will be moving through the intersection next.

Former Michael Peterson house sells

2008-08-01T08:03:00.008-04:00

Looks like from the public records that after sitting on the market for a while the former Michael Peterson house sold, cash sale, at $1.3 million to this somewhat public person (click to make larger or go to the site linked below):

Screen cap yoinked from here

I'm sure I'm supposed to know who this is, but I don't.

Update: Bull City Rising has the story too, here.

A real treat to see John Dee Holman last week

2008-07-31T22:14:00.007-04:00

Let me mention again on how wonderful it is for us to have the Warehouse Blues Series. Great blues music. Free. My kind of deal.

Last Friday night I had the pleasure of seeing John Dee Holman at the Warehouse Blues Series at West Village. Andy Coates opened. I'd never seen either of them perform before, but Friday night's weather looked promising--low humidity and a good breeze--and some friends were going, so I went along as well. I'm so glad I did.

Andy Coates did a great job of warming up the crowd for John Dee. I especially liked it when Andy played the National steel and used a glass medicine bottle as a slide. He has a nice strong voice and knows his blues.

I kept noticing John Dee Holman waiting on the sidelines to come up next and I was anticipating hearing him perform. I wasn't wrong in my suspicion that he is the real deal. A local blues--a Piedmont Blues--guy who, at 79, can still put on a show. He had fans in the audience already, and I'm definitely a new fan.

I found some information on his style in this Indy article from a few years ago:

Born and raised in the Piedmont, John Dee Holman is a self-taught musician, and to blues aficionados, the man when it comes to being a living, performing exponent of the Piedmont Blues.

While the Delta Blues went north to become "Chicago Blues" and Texas bluesmen pioneered the West Coast Blues, the northern migration of African Americans from the Carolinas never resulted in any real "New York Blues" movement. For one reason, the Piedmont Blues developed as primarily a guitar-oriented sound--an instantly recognizable picking style played by the likes of Blind Boy Fuller that lent itself to acoustic, rather than electric, guitar (electrified, it's got more of a Lightnin' Hopkins sound). Thought to be derived from African-American banjo picking, this style--using the thumb to pluck out a rhythmic bass line while your fingers pick out a melody--is the blues tradition Holman carries on.

Some of the songs I liked were Chapel Hill Boogie, Give Me Back My Wig, Step It Up And Go, Mojo Hand, and John Henry.

I was too stupid to remember to get one of John Dee's CDs before I left Friday night, but I intend to. I believe I can order it through the MusicMaker site.

Not sure I have the time to go to tomorrow evening's performance, but from 6pm to 8pm, but "Slewfoot and Sons" will perform then.

Unbelievable. Infuriating.

2008-07-29T21:49:00.003-04:00

Watch as a NYC cop shoves a cyclist off his bike during a Critical Mass ride (it's a 1 minute 10 sec. clip):

Of course before the video surfaced, the Officer signed a sworn statement that the cyclist intentionally ran his bike into the Officer.

The videotape has raised concerns about police Officer Patrick Pogan's sworn account that the bicyclist deliberately drove into him last Friday evening during a Critical Mass bicycle ride in Times Square, a source said.

After the videotape surfaced, the NYPD took away Pogan's badge and gun, temporarily placing him on desk duty. The Manhattan district attorney also announced that it was investigating the incident, WNBC-TV in New York reported.

I read the story here. Thank goodness someone was filming. It's becoming a frightening necessity I suppose.

Easiest Corn on the Cob Ever

2008-07-26T23:12:00.005-04:00

I suppose chances are you know this already, but I ran across the easiest method for cooking corn on the cob (if you have a microwave) and it worked so well I thought I'd post it. First of all, I didn't want to heat up the kitchen by boiling a big pot of water. Nor did I want to stand over a hot grill, even though grilling an ear of corn makes them crazy tasty.

So here's what I did and it worked perfectly.

FRESH CORN ON THE COB (MICROWAVE)

Cook fresh corn on the cob in microwave with husks and silk intact. They will cook in their own natural moisture.

Place on paper towel. Turn ears over and rearrange after 1/2 cooking time.

Cooking Timetable:

1 ear - 1 1/2 minutes
2 ears - 3 to 4 minutes
3 ears - 5 to 6 minutes
4 ears - 7 to 8 minutes
6 ears - 8 to 9 minutes.

When ears are hot to the touch, remove and wrap in kitchen towel or foil.

Let stand at least 5 minutes. Remove husks and silk (which is easier than when cold) and serve.

So good!

Night-blooming Datura

2008-07-24T00:19:00.008-04:00

Several years ago, my great-aunt gave me a flower pot with little green plants sprouting. She said when mature, the plants would produce big trumpet flowers that are "sweet-smelling and night-blooming." She didn't know the exact name, but called them "moonflowers." After a little research on the internet, I found out they are actually "datura" and are desert plants, and thus, very drought tolerant. Here's one of mine:

They easily re-seed themselves each year, and require little care. They aren't fazed when I move the "baby plants" where I want them once they sprout up in the spring. Here's where I planted them along my driveway. At night, they open up and they do smell very good:

They have a funny-looking prickly seed head after the flower drops off, and then at the end of the season, the seed head splits open and spits out the seeds (these next 2 photos are from wiki):

According to the American Botanical Council, datura has a long history of being used in religious ceremonies because it is hallucinogenic, but then too, I think it could be very poisonous so don't eat them!

Live web stream of a nest of baby robins at Duke

2008-07-23T15:47:00.005-04:00

They are so cute! I got the stream to open best using the IE browser, which normally I don't use.

Here's the link:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/duke-university-baby-robins

About the birds from the link:

Two weeks ago, three baby robins hatched in a nest on a ledge outside our office window outside the Office of News and Communications at 615 Chapel Drive on the Duke University campus. Watch as the robins grow and prepare to leave the nest.

Cool John Ferguson at The Warehouse Blues series

2008-07-22T23:29:00.009-04:00

Caught a couple of sets from Cool John Ferguson last Friday night as part of the The Warehouse Blues Series at the West Village Courtyard downtown. He truly is one cool dude, and that's good, because it was extremely hot that night. A storm was blowing up just as 6 o'clock approached, so Cool John and his appreciative audience were ushered to a non-air conditioned (or it felt like) lobby area inside. Cool John rolled with the punches and played 2 great sets. Despite the sheen of sweat on everyone, people danced, clapped, drank cool beverages, and enjoyed the fact it was Friday and here we we were, enjoying each other and the music. Here's Cool John:

A few of the tunes from Friday night from Cool John were (She's a) Brick House, Stormy Monday, and the Stevie Ray Vaughn song, Pride and Joy. Many thanks to my pal Jack for remembering the names of a few of the songs. I thought they all sounded great, even though the acoustics in the lobby where we were seated left much to be desired. Even in the heat and the closeness of the space, people kicked off their shoes and danced:

A little bit about Cool John Ferguson from his Music Maker site:

He was born on Saint Helena Island off the coast of South Carolina. His mother is of the Gullah people and John grew up with the old ways all around him. His first guitar was a Harmony #1 with a one-coil pick-up, two knobs, and a Marvel amplifier. He still remembers the shape and look of it and the way it made him feel. He learned to play by listening.

You can listen to a few of his songs, including Durham Blues on his MySpace page.

Durham gets 67 new public bike racks

2008-07-20T17:51:00.006-04:00

From this Durham City website:

Durham bicycling enthusiasts now have 67 new bike racks to use throughout the city thanks to a recently finished installation as part of Durham's CityRacks Bicycle Parking Program.

All new bicycle racks are located on public property and a new map and list of all rack locations can now be accessed [here.] According to (Dale) McKeel, the City does plan to install additional bicycle racks in the coming year.

To request a specific location for a new rack, or to review the current map and list of all rack locations, see the links [found here] or contact McKeel at (919) 560-4366, extension 284 or via e-mail at dale.mckeel@durhamnc.gov.

Residents can also stay up-to-date with all bicycling and pedestrian activities by visiting the Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Web site at www.bikewalkdurham.org.

I've seen lots of bicycles on the road, some increase no doubt due to the price of gas. It's kind of scary how many bicycles are on the road at night around my neighborhood without any lights, or how many people aren't wearing helmets. I am glad to see so many people who've dusted off their bikes and started pedaling, however. The bike rack pictured above can be found at the Durham Farmer's Market.

Meet The Beijing National Stadium.

2008-07-20T14:00:00.007-04:00

Also called "The Bird's Nest," and you can see why.

I'm looking forward to watching a bit of the Olympics and I was interested in what the "Olympic Stadium" looks like in Beijing. This is where the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will take place, and other events such as Track and Field competitions.

Here it is:

Under construction, as seen from space.

More about the stadium here and here.

You can see other architectural renderings of the finalists in the worldwide competition for the design at this site.

In the Dog Days of Summer

2008-07-18T00:18:00.005-04:00

We are in the midst of the "Dog Days of Summer" which is the period of time in the summer generally from the first part of July until mid-August. In ancient times, this period of time was when the brightest star in the sky, Sirius (also called the "Dog Star"), rose and set with our Sun.

The ancient Romans recognized the "Dog Days" and called them caniculares dies ("days of the dogs") for the Dog Star.

They thought that the rising and setting of the big bright star Sirius with the Sun added to the heat we normally received from the Sun, making it extra hot during this period of time.

The ancient Greeks actually gave the Dog Star the name "Sirius" and for them, the rising of Sirius with the Sun was the sign that annual flooding of the Nile would begin.

Happy Dog Days and at least, unlike the ancients, we have a Locopops around the corner to help get us through the Dog Days.

Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

2008-07-16T17:51:00.007-04:00

Found these heirloom cherry tomatoes (below) at the Wednesday afternoon Durham Farmer's Market. Can't wait to eat 'em! The berries and peaches smell so good in my kitchen right now, and I decided to splurge and buy some Strawberry Chevre and Mediterranean Chevre to try from Elodie Farms.

The good thing too is knowing it all came from local farmers. How cool is that?

A moment of recognition.

2008-07-15T23:57:00.004-04:00

Yoinked from the internet.

Fairy Rings

2008-07-13T17:44:00.012-04:00

IF YOU SEE A FAERY RING

If you see a faery ring
In a field of grass,
Very lightly step around,
Tip-toe as you pass,
Last night faeries frolicked there-
And they're sleeping somewhere near.
If you see a tiny faery,
Lying fast asleep
Shut your eyes
And run away,
Do not stay to peek!
Do not tell
Or you'll break a faery spell.

~ William Shakespeare

A block or so away from my house I saw a burgeoning Fairy Ring, but alas no "tiny faery" as Shakespeare suggested I might see. I've always been fascinated by Fairy Rings, so I had to go back and get a better look and maybe a picture or two. Not sure what kind of mushroom this is specificially, however, because many different kinds of mushrooms can populate a Fairy Ring.

It's quite possibly a Scotch Bonnet 'shroom from the looks of it though. Edited to add: Don't ever eat mushrooms unless you are 100% positive what they are--and then double-check that.

Durham Farmer's Market today

2008-07-12T22:52:00.007-04:00

As Kevin noted over at his blog Bull City Rising, lots of stuff not to be missed at the Durham Farmer's Market today (and pretty much every Saturday--and Wednesday afternoons too).

Free Yoga on a shady slope:

Great music by The Blue Tailed Skinks:

Chef Ingram of Four Square giving out yummy samples:

Beautiful crafts at The Durham Craft Market:

Walking tour offered by Preservation Durham:

Oh, yeah, and the fantastic local food:

The Carolina Parrot

2008-07-07T23:19:00.011-04:00

Imagine seeing these beautiful, bright native parrots flying from tree to tree to in your backyard. You very well could have in Durham and not that terribly long ago.

It was the only parrot species native to the eastern United States, and the last one was killed in the wild in 1904, and the last one died in captivity in 1918. In Audubon's time, the now extinct Carolina Parrot was the only common parrot species in the United States, and he captured its likeness as shown above. And this is what he wrote about it and its food, found here:

Doubtless, kind reader, you will say, while looking at the figures of Parakeets represented in the plate, that I spared not my labour. I never do, so anxious am I to promote your pleasure.

These birds are represented feeding on the plant commonly called the Cockle-bur. It is found much too plentifully in every State west of the Alleghanies, and in still greater profusion as you advance towards the Southern Districts. It grows in every field where the soil is good. The low alluvial lands along the Ohio and Mississippi are all supplied with it. Its growth is so measured that it ripens after the crops of grain are usually secured, and in some rich old fields it grows so exceedingly close, that to make one's way through the patches of it, at this late period, is no pleasant task. The burs stick so thickly to the clothes, as to prevent a person from walking with any kind of ease. The wool of sheep is also much injured by them; the tails and manes of horses are converted into such tangled masses, that the hair has to be cut close off, by which the natural beauty of these valuable animals is impaired. To this day, no useful property has been discovered in the cockle-bur, although in time it may prove as valuable either in medicine or chemistry as many other plants that had long been considered of no importance.

Yes! This native bird feasted on those nasty cockleburs that are the bane of anyone who's hiked through brush or undergrowth in these parts. I used to have to pick them out of the shiny coat of my black labrador retriever, one by prickly one, after we'd taken long walks through the fields and woods.

Sadly, part of what contributed to the Carolina Parrots' extinction is that the flock would often fly back to the spot where one of the flock had been felled by a shot, and where of course more would be shot, as described by Audubon:

Should a person shoot at them, as they go, and wound an individual, its cries are sufficient to bring back the whole flock, when the sportsman may kill as many as he pleases.

I'm so thankful that at least Audubon got to see them, describe and depict them for us so that we can at least imagine what it might've been like to catch a flash of bright yellow, green and red in the trees as we hiked down the Eno River. Still makes me angry that they are gone forever.

Happy 4th of July.

2008-07-03T23:59:00.005-04:00

Or Perth Day, as is the case in the picture below. Not my picture, it was taken by Antti Kemppainen in 2007, and here's a little about it from NASA:

click pic to make it larger

USA Baseball at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park

2008-06-30T23:54:00.011-04:00

Sunday afternoon I had a pleasant time with a pal at the DBAP watching the USA Baseball National Team vs. Chinese Taipei. (Click on any picture to make it larger.)

Safe! Here's a slide back to 2nd base:

It wasn't exactly a nail-biter of a game (the USA team won handily) but it was a nice late afternoon, the beer was cold, and it'd been a while since I'd had a hot dog and beer and listened to the crack, sometimes literally, of the bat. Clouds began building during the game and sure enough in the 8th the storm hit with a fury, blowing loose bulletins and empty paper cups into the air and dumping rain fast and furious.

The pitcher for the Taipei team had a very low and interesting pitch:

No game would be complete without Wool E. Bull in his crazy go-cart, sumo wrestlers, and of course, a rousing rendition of YMCA:

It's a great way to spend the afternoon--even if you're not a big baseball fan. I can't believe I was kind of out-of-the-loop on enjoying baseball games until I went with friends a few times recently and I realized I truly enjoy it. And nothing beats seeing how much the kids love the game . . . and getting pictures with Wool E. Bull and drippy sticky sno-cones and the thumping music and the gestalt that is a baseball game.

"You will always be Rose of Sharon to me . . . "

2008-06-29T12:40:00.011-04:00

Props to my friend Jeff Hart on his great song "Rose of Sharon" which I'll forevermore hear in my head as I look out of my kitchen window and see my Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), also called an "Althea," blooming in my backyard:

I don't understand you,
all I know is that I love you
and that's a start.
If I can't have you,
and if I can't hold you in the dark . . .
You will always be Rose of Sharon to me
somewhere in your memory, save a kind word for me.

~ Jeff Hart, Rose of Sharon

I strongly suspect Jeff didn't write it for the flowering shrub, but it's a beautiful song, and it's lovely to see the Rose of Sharon blooming, not just in my yard but in others' yards too this time of year. I don't know who planted mine as it was here long before me, but I thank them.

New York City waterfalls

2008-06-26T19:15:00.020-04:00

"Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east
is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like
applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.
Now, uh... now you tell me what you know." ~ Groucho Marx

New York City has a cool new public temporary art installation, utilizing so-called "negative space":

A first hand description is here:

"This morning, as dawn broke, it looked as though the Brooklyn Bridge had sprung a gigantic leak: There's a 100-foot tower of scaffolding just under the roadway on the Brooklyn shore, with water cascading from the top — at a rate of around 9,000 gallons of water a minute.

There are three other waterfalls like the one under the bridge: one on the Manhattan shore on the Lower East Side, another on the Brooklyn shore near Brooklyn Heights and one on Governors Island in the middle of New York Bay.

The falls are between 80 feet and 120 feet high . . ."

Sounds enthralling, and I'd sure like to be able to see those before they go away, but that's probably not in the cards.

I have to say that my favorite outdoor art installation using water has to be the Crown Fountain permanent exhibit in Chicago by Jaume Plensa that I've had the good fortune to visit several times, even to shuck off my shoes and happily walk around in the water. Nothing beats watching the kids squeal and play, and to watch the faces on the towers. I took the following 2 pictures in 2006:

And its best at night, in my opinion:

Several years ago we happened upon an intriguing art installation by Japanese artist Murakami at Rockefeller Center. Several of these kinds of sculptures set up for people to ponder, touch, and enjoy:

I'm always drawn to water wherever I am, so I really love it anytime art and water collide. My dream for Durham would be to have some public art installations, especially interactive ones, around downtown, in addition to the "river" at the American Tobacco complex, which is beautiful. This pic I snapped a few weeks ago:

Heck I even like the waterspout installation at Northgate Mall, near the cinema. Note to self, must get picture of that.

Collapsible Rain Barrels at Costco

2008-06-26T12:20:00.003-04:00

Last January I blogged about ordering a collapsible rain barrel from an online vendor.

Last night I saw that Costco has them for $55 on that main aisle that you walk beside when you enter the store (in Durham).

100 gallon capacity. Looks really sturdy. We got one last night. Don't know how fast they'll go off the shelves, but this is just an FYI if you haven't gotten a rain barrel yet. And it has a spout made into it already.

It's made by "Heaven + Earth" and it looks pretty much like the one on this page. I couldn't find it on Costco's website.

Brunch at Alivia's

2008-06-22T01:26:00.007-04:00

Lately one of my favorite relaxing things to do is to enjoy brunch with friends on Saturday or Sunday morning at Alivia's, at the corner of Main and Gregson Street. First of all, it's close by. Second, the coffee is some of the best in town. Also, it's not cramped and you can easily spread out a newspaper and read without feeling rushed. There's plenty of space on the inside of the restaurant and on the outside too, where there are some tables in the shade to be found. It's relaxed and the staff is pleasant and not obtrusive or too-darn-peppy. I hate too-darn-peppy, particularly on the weekends before Noon.

My favorite dish for brunch is the Poached Egg with Steak Hash, and with a steaming cup of fresh coffee too. When I eat this, I'm not ready for supper until late in the day. Some of my friends' favorites are the Shrimp and Grits, and the Stuff Challah French Toast. To tell the truth, I've never seen anything coming out of the kitchen that didn't look delicious.

Poached Egg with Steak Hash

Stuffed Challah French Toast

Shrimp and Grits

After brunch, it's nice to stroll around BrightLeaf Square a bit, and I always find myself in Off-Beat Music, browsing the CDs and happily patronizing our local merchants over the big-box stores.

Have a great Sunday in Durham . . .