Note to self

A Five Point Plan for May
1) Begin recording all phone messages you receive from angry readers.
2) Assemble them into an album, a multimedia project or at least a section of some website, as they have at the San Francisco Chronicle.
3) Somehow parlay this into enough money to retire and move to a country where it’s [...]

Sunday morning coming down

I suppose it’s inevitable that you get to a point where you’re no longer just your parents’ child — you’re another adult. Not quite a contemporary, not quite an equal, but not just a child looking up at them, wondering if you’ll ever get that old.
And then, right around the time you begin to realize [...]

They should have seen American Gigolo…

An Indian court has issued an arrest warrant for Hollywood actor Richard Gere after he kissed Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in public.
Gere, 57, kissed Shetty, 31, several times on the cheek at an AIDS awareness event in Delhi earlier this month.
The court in Jaipur in Rajasthan state called it “an obscene act”, after a local [...]

The Sound of Feedback: Virginia Tech edition

Wrote a small piece this week about a group of Virginia Tech Alumni from the area gathering to see what they could do to help out after the recent shootings that claimed 33 lives.
Today I get this call:
“Hello, is this Joe Killian?
“Yes, ma’am.”
“At the News & Record?”
“Yes, ma’am. How can I help you?”
“I just read [...]

To: The Universe Re: The last week

Oh, come on.
Give me a break already.
I pay my effing taxes.
I like kids.
I’m not wild about animals but I’m never cruel to them.
I never, ever litter.
Do you think I could catch my breath for a moment before you shove my head back under?
Let me know what it is I’m doing to you. I’ll stop. [...]

Wiccan pentacle now OK on government-issued headstones

MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) — The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on government-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday.
A settlement between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Wiccans adds the five-pointed star to the list of “emblems of belief” allowed on [...]

Legendary journalist David Halberstam dies in car crash

From CNN:
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam has died in a car accident in Menlo Park, California, near San Francisco, the San Mateo County coroner’s office said Monday.
In 1964 Halberstam, then with The New York Times, shared a Pulitzer for international reporting for his coverage of the early years [...]

The peaceful protest

This week, after nearly a year at the News & Record, I saw something I wasn’t sure would ever happen in Greensboro.
A large protest with significant opposition that didn’t dissolve into hostility or end in arrests.
For me the whole thing began a few weeks ago when I found out national anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was [...]

The Sound of Feedback: Locke Clifford edition

Over the last two weeks I wrote a profile on veteran Greensboro lawyer Locke Clifford, the go-to lawyer for the area’s prominent and troubled.
Despite a grueling work schedule (at 64 he jokes he is now working half days — no more than 12 hours) Clifford allowed me as much access as I could have wanted. [...]

How Amanda commands respect from editors

My best friend Amanda finally gave in and shot a gun with the military guys she covers for The Cape Cod Times.
But not just any gun.
The M-16 Assault Rifle.

Amanda says she can now say:
“Yeah, I did it. Not that impressed. Not interested in doing it again.”
This was not how I felt when I got [...]

The Sound of Feedback: Anti-war rally edition

Two calls about the rally story already this morning.
The first:
“Hello…you wrote about the anti-war rally in today’s paper.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And I see again here that you have accused Moveon.org of having ties to the communist party.”
“Um…no, sir.”
“Yes, you have.”
“No, sir. I didn’t mention Moveon.org anywhere in the piece. The group organizing the rally is The World [...]

Anti-war rally will face opposition

GREENSBORO — When national activist Cindy Sheehan arrives at Saturday’s anti-war rally in downtown Greensboro, she will be met with a large number of counterprotesters, police said Thursday.
Members of the Greensboro Police Department’s Special Operations Division said they have been working for weeks to prevent a violent confrontation.
“For their own safety and the safety of [...]

Maraniss on Blacksburg

David Maraniss (author of two of my favorite non-fiction books, “First In His Class” and “The Clinton Enigma”) writes about Blacksburg, Virginia in today’s Washington Post.
And, if you’re a working journalist or have pretensions toward being a non-fiction writer, he makes you feel like a piker.

The awful truth

Everyone knows fast food is never as delicious-looking in real life as it is in advertising.
But to see just how short of the mark real fast food falls, you’ve got to take a look at this blog on the subject.
Below: A side-by-side comparison on what may be my favorite of all fast food sandwiches, the [...]

The Night Gallery

I checked out the first season of “Night Gallery” from the Greensboro Public Library this week.
For those who don’t remember “Night Gallery” — either during its original run or, as I saw it, in reruns:
This is the television series Rod Serling created after The Twilight Zone. Each episode began with Serling walking out of [...]

How the tragedy proves I’m right

In the wake of 9/11 this little gem began floating around the Internets and this week there are some who are suggesting it could easily be rewritten in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy.
With the squawking of this sort I’ve heard this week in the blogosphere and elsewhere it seems about right.
Many people will [...]

What your car is costing you

I wrote this week’s Fast Forward column on how much it costs to operate your car in North Carolina every year.
Just in case you thought you thought it was just YOUR car that was sucking you dry.
According to a study by AAA Carolinas it costs the average North Carolinian more than $7,000 to drive their [...]

Doctor, Doctor

This week’s Yes Weekly has a new edition of Framed, the non-fiction comic by my friend Chris Lowrance.

This week it’s on Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School — a cool monthly event being held at Two Art Chicks in downtown Greensboro.
Burlesque girls dance and pose as sketch artists — pros, students and those of us who can’t [...]

Not gonna buy five copies for my mother, but…

Great issue of Rolling Stone out right now.
I don’t get to say that often enough.

If the cover image of Rosario Dawson and Rose McGowan standing bottom-to-bottom wearing only a string of bullets doesn’t get you, just open the thing up.
There you’ll find the excellent cover story on the girls, their guns and the guts of [...]

Best mug shot ever?

This is, I swear to God, the actual mug shot of a man accused in a Greensboro homicide.
It was e-mailed to me tonight by the Guilford County Jail and I have not retouched or altered the image in any way.