Six to receive top N.C. award

Six North Carolinians will be honored with the highest civilian award the state bestows in a ceremony at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh Thursday, says the AP.

Among those receiving the North Carolina Award are Winston-Salem attorney Mike Leonard, High Point poet and author Carole Boston Weatherford, Greenville artist and teacher Robert Ebendorf, and Asheville painter and sculptor Donald Sultan.

Also being recognized are Margaret S. Newman of Winston-Salem, chairman of the board of directors of the N.C. Center for Nonprofits, and F. Ivy Carroll, a scientist in the field of medicinal chemistry.

The North Carolina Awards were created by the General Assembly in 1961 and have been presented annually since 1964. It recognizes contributions to the state and nation in fine arts, literature, public service and science.

Griffith, Watson and Caesar among newest N.C. Music Hall inductees

The N.C. Music Hall has announced its newest class (Class of '10). These pioneers will be honored in October in Kannapolis as the newest members of the Music Hall.

Among the honorees are Andy Griffith, Doc Watson, Shriley Caesar and Donna Fargo.

The induction ceremony will be held October 7 at the Core Labratory Building on the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis. The N.C. Music Hall opened there in 2009.


N.C. Music Hall Class of 2010
Performing Artists:
Maurice Williams, recording artist, Charlotte
Andy Griffith, gospel recording artist, Mount Airy/Wilmington
Donna Fargo, country recording artist, Mount Airy
Arthur Smith, country composer, performer, producer, Charlotte
George Hamilton IV, country recording artist, Winston-Salem
Doc Watson, country/bluegrass vocalist, musician, Deep Gap/North Wilkesboro
Curly Seckler, bluegrass vocalist and musician, China Grove
Dr. Bill Taylor, jazz pianist, composer, Greenville
Shirley Caesar, gospel recording artist, Durham

Deceased:
Don Gibson, country recording artist and composer, Shelby
Les Brown, Big Band leader, Durham
Oliver (William Oliver Swofford), recording artist, North Wilkesboro

Non-Performing Artists:
Don Schlitz, composer, guitarist and soloist, Durham

Asheville, Hickory & Wilmington: Overvalued cities?

A new study that lists the most overvalued and undervalued places to live in America places Asheville, Hickory and Wilmington in the "bad" column.

"A CNN website rating 330 cities across the country shows Wilmington is a bad deal for real estate, ranked 15th on the list," says WECT.

[Click here to see America's most overvalued cities]

While the study may or may not be accurate, experts agree that when you look into the details of how the research was compiled, you can see why Wilmington is near the top of the list.

Economist Dr. William Hall says bad loans are to blame, but also believes things are improving.

"Things are not declining as much as they have in the past," said Hall. "In fact, sales have may in fact stabilize, or beginning to increase. I'm not so sure prices have reached their low point but they are close to it."

The good news -- from the state's standpoint -- is a number of N.C. cities are on the undervalued list. Among those are Burlington, Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Rocky Mount and Winston-Salem.

An outsider's look at N.C. BBQ

Again, gotta love Google Alerts. If not for it, I would never have come across this blog piece.

"For (American) Northerners there remains a number of unfounded misconceptions about the South. People are fat. People are rednecks. People are racist. Yes, they are, and some of us above the Mason Dixon line hit those marks too," writes Nick Schonberger. "Despite consistent bad mouthing and classist snobbery one thing is universally acknowledged as better down South — the BBQ."

He gets some names and stuff wrong (Allen & Brothers instead of Allen & Sons in Chapel Hill; referring to ECU as "East Carolina State University"), but the romance is there.

To wit:

An almost mystic pull to down home, no frills, dinning, brought me to North Carolina for a weekend in May. Having toured Texas BBQ and Memphis, and sampled a number of places throughout Virginia, I’d largely ignored North Carolina in the past. Yet, the style is the most frequently copied (and ruined) in my regular BBQ consumption. “Carolina Pulled Pork” sandwiches litter menus at bars and taverns up the Eastern Seaboard, and given this an opportunity to investigate the authentic origins of the ubiquitous dish proved impossible to resist.

... Rolling through North Carolina, it became obvious that while blanket statements can define the taste, technique, and texture, there’s no accounting for individual twists and turns in the make up. ...

.. [w]e gathered remaining strength and hit Greenville. A ghost town. A place where even the locals are quick to tell you to leave. One did. A single toothed proprietor of the town’s Skate Shop. He told me, frankly, that there wasn’t a single good thing to eat within miles. I suppose his lack of teeth made living there possible. The best thing in town was a giant sculpture of a Pirate. The rest was genuinely frightening.

Three days. 8 giant meals. Hundreds of miles driven. The lesson learned, people in North Carolina certainly take BBQ seriously, and certainly place a highly localized stamp on a plate of pork.

ECU picks alum to lead football program

East Carolina athletics director Terry Holland said he didn't want to go out and get a "retread" to lead the Pirate football program. The AD stuck by his guns.

The week-long search for a replacement for Skip Holtz has ended with Holland selected Texas Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill -- an ECU alum -- to lead the Pirates, according to various reports.

“You’re always worried this late because you run into student-athlete recruitment and assistant coaches get taken, so the bowl becomes more shallow. But I had confidence we’d find the right person because I knew what Terry was doing and who he was evaluating,” ECU chancellor Dr. Steve Ballard said after the ECU Board of Trustees made the new hire official shortly after a 5 p.m. emergency meeting inside the Spilman Building on campus.

“I was a little concerned about the timing, but when I saw the people we were evaluating, I thought we’d be fine,” Ballard said. ...

“His human skills and his interpersonal skills are A-plus, and I think you’ll see that the minute you talk to him,” Ballard said of McNeill. “I had a great hour-and-a-half with him today. I did my own referencing on these people, and everybody who knows Ruffin says the same thing about him.”

Holland, who made the second football coach hire of his six-year tenure at the school, joined the trustees meeting via teleconference. Holland fired John Thompson toward the end of the 2004 season before hiring Holtz in December of that year.

“Coach McNeill’s interview revealed his strong commitment to doing things the right way and his love of coaching young men to grow in every part of their lives,” Holland said. “His excitement for what ECU football can become in the future was contagious and his deep and abiding appreciation for what East Carolina University has meant to him and his family was truly moving.” ...

Happy Fourth of July, North Carolina!

Images from the Asheville Citizen-Times (Melrose St. parade), Wilmington Star-News (fireworks), ShareTriangle (Greenville fireworks) and fanpop.com ("Jon & Kate Plus 8")

Quick hits: Burlington focuses on mass transit & journal focuses on state's humor

Burlington eyes public transit
"In Alamance County, the need for public transportation is growing along with the population – especially in Burlington, which is the largest city in North Carolina without a public transit system," said News 14 Carolina.

"Buses are filling up across the state as working class citizens opt to leave their cars at home. The best Burlington has to offer is 28 passenger vans. 'We do about 275 trips a day currently, and that demand continues to go up,' explained Dennis Williams, executive director of the Alamance County Transportation Authority. ..."

Annual journal puts focus on state's humor writers
"The 2008 North Carolina Literary Review showcases work by some of the state's best writers on the topic of humor," said the Greenville Daily Reflector.

"It may make you laugh out loud, or tear up in that 'laughed-so-hard-I-cried' kind of way.
Margaret D. Bauer, NCLR editor and Rives Chair of Southern literature at East Carolina University, admitted to having both of those reactions while she reviewed material for this year's edition.

"And she hopes readers — and listeners to special, supplemental CDs — will share the experience.

" 'Humor is a popular topic, and we thank these literary critics and the creative writers who responded to our call for contributions, and we know you'll enjoy reading the issue's content as much as you do listening to the CDs,' Bauer said. ..."

Oil rigs (literally) on the horizon?

On Monday, President Bush lifted restrictions on offshore oil drilling, which could have major implications on North Carolina.

"At issue for North Carolina are 300 miles of some of the nation's most undeveloped coastline. Waters off the state's coast contain significant fishing and birding habitats, while the coastal tourism economy is among the state's most important.

"But North Carolinians are paying more than $4 a gallon for gasoline, and most tell pollsters they support offshore drilling," said the N&O.

"The only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress," Bush said. "Today, I've taken every step within my power to allow offshore exploration" of the Outer Continental Shelf.

Such exploration and drilling would have almost no effect on current gas prices, though. Experts point that it would take at least eight to 10 years to produce oil offshore once all the bans are lifted.

Bush's action is the latest salvo in an election year that has seen Democrats and Republicans diverge sharply in recent weeks on offshore drilling. Republicans -- including presidential candidate John McCain and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole -- have pushed to search for oil in the Outer Continental Shelf. Democrats such as presidential candidate Barack Obama and U.S. Senate challenger Kay Hagan oppose drilling offshore. ...

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Farmville Republican, said states' governors and legislatures should make the call on offshore drilling. He has been hearing from constituents who are agitated over gas prices.

"At this point, I know that we've got a critical need in this country, and I believe it's going to get more expensive," Jones said.

Among the politicians who have changed their minds in recent weeks about drilling offshore are Dole, who faces re-election this year, and Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mel Martinez of Florida, all Republicans.

One person who has blatantly supported the potential of offshore oil drilling is Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, Republican candidate for governor. He told a Greenville audience earlier this month that this type of action could have major economic implications for Eastern North Carolina.

"The east has a higher unemployment rate and lower per capita income than the rest of the state, but it does not have to be that way," McCrory said. "With safe, environmentally sound drilling in the deep sea off our coast, we can create new high paying jobs, jobs that the people of our poor counties can fill."

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, McCrory's rival for the governor's seat, has said she is opposed to the idea, citing environmental concerns.