A retraction of sorts

Reporters are always supposed to admit their errors, so it’s time to owe up. For several stories unrelated to the upcoming city commissioner election, I printed the name of candidate Twyla Maxwell Sickmiller with a hyphen separating Maxwell (her maiden name) and Sickmiller. My mistake. I was foolishly relying on one source — [...]

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Mayberry Daze

Just curious. I know Mayberry Days is a big thing for the community from a tourism standpoint. But if you’re from around here, is it something you eagerly anticipate, or take part in, or do you find something else to do outside the area to avoid the crowds here?

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Halo 3 – Is it worth the hype?

So we’ve been waiting for YEARS for the last installment of the Halo series. How many will actually show up to get the one million copies of the game? And is the $130 version worth that much money? I say no, but obviously a lot disagree. I’m one of the people that had a copy [...]

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The real rivalry

Already folks are looking ahead to next week, figuring on the Mount Airy-East Surry football game being a battle of the unbeatens (thanks to the Cardinals getting a forfeit win in a game they lost on the field). Is Mount Airy-East Surry really “the” rivalry? Or is it Mount Airy-North Surry? Or Mount Airy-Elkin? You [...]

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Can we really save the planet?

So, at the agriculture celebration on Saturday, I received one of those crazy new light bulbs that are supposed to last ten times longer and use less energy, all while putting out cleaner light. I like the lights, if for no reason other than they look like they came out of a science-fiction story. And [...]

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Festival Fun?

After complaining for weeks that there wasn’t anything going on here during the weekends, I got overwhelmed with options Saturday. The Grape Jam, Latino Fest, Agriculture Festival, SCC benefit concert and Shelton concert series all piqued my interest, but there was hardly time in the afternoon for any more than one (to say nothing of [...]

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Ringtones in the workplace

When you’re working in a small, open area everyone else’s ringtone can begin to really grate on your skull. There are several people in our office whose ringtones match the person’s personality far too well. One would be Phil Goble, who has a really cheery Super Mario Brothers kind of ring tone on his phone. [...]

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Most maddening machines

On Monday i wrote my column about hating vacuum cleaners. They’re an appliance we desperately need, but their designs create more frustration than anything else. Now my son Owen has chimed in, saying that what a vacuum cleaner is to the home, the copier and fax is to the office. “No two work the same [...]

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Are schools really “failing”?

It seems so damning at first glance. Five of Surry County’s 16 schools have “failed.” And one of them, Westfield Elementary, for the second straight year. The thing is, that’s not really the case. Some small segment of the student population didn’t achieve some arbitrary goal, so the entire school is judged a failure. The [...]

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Who’s minding the store?

So the Flat Rock/Bannertown water extension has only half the customers it needs, and they’re only using half the water they need to. That all adds up to a financial mess. The water district is on the hook for the cost of the new lines, $2.5 million to be paid off over 40 years. If [...]

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