Madison Taylor

Jay Ashley fills a lot of important roles in his position as managing editor of the Times-News but perhaps none is more important in my eyes than that of in-house historian. There’s nothing unofficial about this title. And we make use of it again and again.We did so once more last week when Jay penned an editorial about the anniversary this past weekend of the Battle of Alamance. Jay designs the Opinion page each day and we both contribute to the content that winds up there. When readers see an editorial about something involving the history of our area, well, it’s very likely Jay who wrote it and wrote it well.A reader who writes to me often applauded Jay’s editorial on the Revolutionary War battle and related it to current times. Mr. McQueen, you strike again.

Sometimes I go back and forth with readers by e-mail. One frequent writer is Mike K who really, really hates the newspaper. From what I gather he’s a former reader who now lives out of town and reads us online. He wrote me last week about our “tabloid” coverage of the Kevin Hopkins case. I wrote him back very simply that our only other option was to not cover it at all. I always respond to Mike even though he never believes anything I tell him.

But his original e-mail got me to thinking about how we covered the case, which resulted in a column in Sunday’s Times-News and the post prior to this one.

Anyway, before those were published he wrote me this note back.

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“Please tell me why you could not tell us the story without all the detail? You must know that to claim all or nothing is not proper. You know it was tabloid and all the little people just could not wait and had to see what he or she said next or did she do this or did he do that. The problem with your paper is that none of you will admit when you are wrong. You only find fault with others but you are always right. You are violating what should be an oath that you should have to take. If you are straight only or if you are that and garbage tell us. I challenge you to tell me another paper that would have done the tabloid style as you did other than the piece of well you know in Graham. Please show more integrity.”—Mike K then went on to say that a friend from another paper told him they would  have never covered the trial just the results and charge. He said “it was clear that you were sensationalizing the deal.”

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I submit that Mike’s friend is either misinformed about what our stories were about or is a simply a bad journalist. A trial involving a police officer or any public official on a similar charge would be duly covered by any newspaper. Can I name other newspapers that would write such stories — almost any in a large metro market.  The News and Observer, the Charlotte Observer, that Atlanta Journal Constitution. Name me a newspaper that wouldn’t.

The truth is, we don’t cover this kind of thing every day and usually only report the results. Again, because the trial involved someone in a position of responsibility we decided to cover it. Again, we left out lots of stuff.

Will we do so again in similar circumstances? Yes. And we will also pay attention to what we should and should not report. Sometimes the line is pushed and every so often we go over. Did that happen here? Perhaps. I’d also like for people to understand that what’s published online isn’t always what’s presented in the print edition. 

Check local listings?

 I got a phone call from a reader last week who noticed we ran the wrong TV grid in Friday’s paper. He noticed because the show “Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader” was listed as coming on at 8 p.m. It’s a Thursday program. When he pointed out the error I picked up on it because “Lost” was listed at 10 p.m.

I’d say both were metaphors for this debacle.

Because I was unaware of the problem until he called at around 9 a.m. the caller was surprised. “I would’ve thought a lot of people would call,” he said.So would I, which makes me wonder: How many people use the daily TV grid anymore. Most can mark programs ahead of time in the weekly TV guide we publish on Saturday or use the listings on cable. If there’s a page cut needed, this may be one to look at. 

The truth hurts 

Another caller on Friday noted that we had yet to run the full Alamance County results from last week’s election. Yes, we had the local races covered but not how Alamance voted for president, governor, etc.I was stunned. I knew the reader was right. We had talked about it being done but didn’t make the important leap to getting it done. I was frankly embarrassed. We made sure to include it in Saturday’s paper.

“So what does it say about ya’ll that it took this long to get the totals in?” the reader asked. I think he believed it to be a rhetorical question.

I, however, did not.

“It means we sucked on this one,” I told him.

And I meant every word.  

Stimulus stimulation

 Over the weekend a reader sent me this e-mail. I had no ready answer for him. Do you?—“Did I miss something when the news organizations were telling about the checks. $600 if you had $3,000 or more “earned” income. $300 minimum if you have no income but filed a return. There is a little other thing. You are limited on the $600 by the amount of tax liability for 2007. Lets say a person earned $12,500 in 2007 but had a lot of deductions and his total tax liability was $480. Then $480 is all that person’s check will be for. I didn’t really see that in the news. Mike Clayton in Prospect Hill.”    

A couple of readers popped in with comments over the weekend. Now I’ll spread some of the credit where it’s due.
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And at the end I’ll tack on a letter to the editor with a timely message for drivers. I couldn’t post it as a letter because the reader didn’t want a name used. It’s a shame because there’s nothing in this letter that’s in the least bit embarrassing.
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On with the show …
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Got this message Sunday night from Jeff Tudor of Graham who wanted to talk about the candidates forum we co-hosted with WPCM radio last week. He was also commenting on  about it published in the print edition Sunday.
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I had been meaning to contact the Times-News to congratulate and thank you for the commissioner candidates forum this past Tuesday night. Your column in Sunday’s paper gave me a contact person.
My wife and I are lifelong residents of North Carolina, but have lived in Alamance County only about four years and knew little about the commissioner candidates. The weekend before, we had been discussing taking advantage of early voting and I had expressed my concern about voting with any confidence for any commissioner candidate. Then, I saw an article in the Times-News about the forum and we knew we had to go.
This forum was a terrific public service. I expected more people to be there Tuesday night, but the radio broadcast surely reached many more. I agree with you that the evening would have been better without those few candidates for other offices making speeches instead asking questions, but I was still very pleas ed to have had this opportunity to listen and learn.
I voted on Thursday and my wife on Friday. That’s two fewer people for the poll workers to deal with on May 6.
One other thing - I’m glad to see that you have kept the mutual fund quotes in the paper, but I have questions about the first column heading for the quotes. Every day it reads “3 year return” even though the key to the table says Tuesday is 4 wks, Wednesday is 12 months, etc.
Looking forward to the “tweaked” forum for the general election. Thanks again.
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This is the kind of response we were hoping to see from the forum, which included candidates for the Alamance County Board of Commissioners and those for and against liquor by the drink in Graham. I want to thank the Tudors for taking advantage as others did last Tuesday.
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The credit for putting on the show goes to several people. Bill Whitley, John Brockwell and Byron Tucker of WPCM played huge roles as did Times-News city editor Brent Lancaster. While the newspaper had hosted similar forums before, we hadn’t done so with the radio station. We enjoyed the partnership and hope they did too. Brent’s experience with forums was a key to our success and I thank him.
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The idea for a mixed media forum actually originated with John who contacted me last fall about doing a forum during the elections for city council and mayor. By the time John and I hooked up it was too late for the city races but I promised we’d work together in 2008. I called John in April and we began to set things up.
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I, too, look forward to the fall.
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The next message had nothing to do with elections but about remembering a respected leader in the community who passed away. In this case, Anita Bryant.
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Thank you Madison for the beautiful article on Mrs. Bryant, it was not hard to do because she was such a kind and beautiful lady, thank you so much.
Delacie Jacobs
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I sent thanks back to Ms. Jacobs, of Burlington, on this one. When we found out that Mrs. Bryant, the matriarch of Hargett and Bryant Funeral Home, had passed way we wanted to do a story about it. Mrs. Bryant was a pioneer in Alamance County and among the first black women in business. In life, however, Mrs. Bryant was modest and never wanted a story done about herself — even though we tried. When she died, we had very little information in our archives about her and no obituary was immediately available from the funeral home.
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Ms. Jacobs contacted us asking why there was no story right away. I explained our situation and she agreed to take be interviewed. When the family supplied more information we were able to put together remembrance of this important woman</a> in our area. Ms. Jacobs in no small way helped make it happen. Our reporter Isaac Groves wrote a great story. Sadly, we’re losing Isaac this month as he leaves for greener pastures.
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Readers like Ms. Jacobs are critical to the work we do every day. We hope our readers will contact us and participate in the stories we do.
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Thanks again.
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And here’s the letter to the editor as promised. The reader is from Southern Alamance County.
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Here it goes …
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Like many of you, within the last week I have been through a random license check and have passed a parked patrolman checking speeds via RADAR. As you know, such practices are not uncommon. The local police department, the sheriff’s office, and the Highway Patrol all conduct these types of checks. My concern is with the average citizen. I’m not sure how the tradition of blinking your headlights at oncoming traffic to warn of a speed trap ahead began, but it is something that we all need to think about.
Years ago it was done out of common courtesy for your fellow motorists, and for the most part this is still true today. However, times have changed. Years ago we didn’t have terrorism or gang activity to worry us to the degree it does today. Crime is rampant. Reports of robbery, drunken driving, illegal drug trafficking, assault, murder and illegal immigration flood our televisions and newspapers. When we send out a warning signal by blinking our headlights, we could unwittingly be aiding and abetting a criminal in his or her escape by giving them time to turn around and avoid capture.
All that I am asking is that we, the proud citizens of this great and blessed country, give this practice careful consideration and allow our fine men and women in uniform the opportunity to do their jobs in trying to keep us safe. So the next time you go through a license check or a speed trap, please “Think Before You Blink.” It could make a difference in getting a dangerous person off the streets … and after all, if I am speeding, I probably deserve a ticket anyway.
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I hope this reader reconsiders supplying a name for publication. I love letters to the editor and personally think we can’t print enough of them.

A guy named Ross Gosse of Locust — that’s Locust, N.C. — sends me his editorial cartoons every so often. He takes on state issues and will do local ‘toons on political subjects or issues if we buy his service. I’ll open this week with one and close with another. As always, feel free to tell me what you think.
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Otherwise, didn’t get a large batch of mail this weekend but had one great message from Rett Davis, the retired chief of the Alamance County Cooperative Extension office and a regular garden columnist for the Times-News.
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He had a good story idea for us to pursue. Here he goes.
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Madison
In all the rhetoric about the new Jordan Lake rules I have not read whether we are the first county in NC to be subjected to these new standards. I do know that other counties such as Wake are under more stringent watershed rules than Alamance with no obvious affect on development. However, are the proposed rules for Alamance different and more restrictive?
It may be worth the investigation to see how other communities in our state have dealt with these rules and the results from abiding by them. We could get a clearer picture on the real costs and consequences.
Thanks and keep up the good reporting,
Rett Davis

I do believe we’ll follow Rett’s suggestion. Thanks, as usual, for some good thinking.

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Here’s a note concerning our story published Monday “Into the woods: County wants to open Duke Forest Land to Pleasant Grove” from a regular e-mail writer.
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Mr Taylor:
Does County government do anything right these days? If you guys would check the property that these camera buffs are trying to seize or utilize butts up to a hunting club with 30-06s buzzing around your ears would you go out and take a stroll? Ask Bobby Kinbrell he owns the club. Oh, maybe we can put cameras out in the new park and catch a pilgrim getting his or her head blown off. You’d think the county would learn seeing as how they have on film the beating of the 15 year old boy down at the jail. Question, is the family of this young man going to sue Boss Terry and Boss David?

If they can’t control spending, maybe if this kids family sues for enough they can take over the county and run it with an eye to belt tightening in this period of recession.

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And my friend Jim Harris had this to add to my post about former President Clinton’s visit and his love of barbecue.

Madison
As you know, Arkansas is home state for the wife and I. I went to the U of A and knew many of Clinton’s running buddies. Matter of fact I proposed to my bride in the Law Library garden when Clinton was a young law prof. I also was in the Army ROTC program when he sent his letter saying “I am not going” that became an item of discussion in ethics. But that is another story.

The better story is that my dad and I were commissioned from the same ROTC program.
Wooo Pig Soooie
Jim

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Please, somebody yell Woo Pig Soooie on Wednesday when the former prez is introduced. It’ll make him feel right at home.
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By the way, this cartoon by Ross hits the point on gas prices.
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A longtime acquaintance called on Tuesday with some issues about our Palm Beach Diet, skinnier Times-News, which we rolled out for readers on Monday.

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And this one knows the newspaper inside and out.
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“You said you haven’t received any complaints, well I have one,” said Sally Bell of Burlington, who knew me here back when I was a sports writer with more energy than common sense. Sally was among our staff of page builders in the 1980s — when there was such a thing. Years ago newsroom copy desk staffers would send crudely drawn page designs upstairs to the Times-News composing room where talented and patient folks such as Sally would assemble our text, headlines and photos into the pages delivered to readers each afternoon.
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They worked with Exacto knives and line gauges, constructing works of art from drawings even our copy editors couldn’t read if asked five minutes after they finished it. I worked with Sally and lots of other people in composing: Clyde Sipe, Tom Day, Sylvia McCormick, Kaye Howell, Frank Scheretz, Frank Handy … the list goes on and on.

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Today those jobs are done on computers by the copy editors. I’ll always miss going to composing, though. I’m old school. Can’t help it.
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Anyway, Sally called on Tuesday and reminded me that we worked together. I knew she was still in the area because I speak to her husband Jack frequently about things in the newspaper. She made sure to tell me that she was glad I had reached this position at the Times-News and enjoyed knowing me years ago.
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But she had a complaint.
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“It’s just so odd-shaped and hard to read it,” she said of our new 46-inch paper, with an inch missing from each side.

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She also felt that our space is more limited these days.
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“There are too many ads and no news,” she said. “There should be more national news in the A section and not in the Region section.”

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On the subject of space in the A section, she has a point and a good one. We’re working to improve this but so much has to do with advertising sales. More ad sales usually equal more pages. When the economy improves, hopefully our space may as well. But I’ll definitely keep my eye on it.
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“It’s hard to get used to something that’s so radically changed,” Sally said finally.

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In many ways, I know how she feels.
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Got a call from a reader on Wednesday who said the classified section was almost impossible to read now. And I’m not even an older person.”
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“I’d almost rather pay more for the paper than to make it this small,” she said.

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I heard from more readers on Tuesday afternoon with positive comments, including a call from a man who did not give his name that closed with this quote.
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“Thank you very much for having a good newspaper.”

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I’d be less than honest if I didn’t say that this is perhaps my favorite thing to hear from any of our customers. In fact, it likely falls in the top five on a list of things I like to hear — somewhere after “Hey, you just won the Powerball Lottery!” and “Free beer.”

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He also said this:
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“I don’t notice the inch or so. That’s great. It’s good to know you’re conserving resources to keep the cost of the paper down. It’s an example for the entire community to save, especially with high energy costs these days.”
“I also appreciate your online service. It’s good to be able to check obituaries throughout the day to see if anybody you know has passed on.”

“Thanks for the paper. It’s a tremendous improvement over the past year, especially the past few months.”

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As the Cowardly Lion said in “The Wizard of Oz,” “Shucks folks, I’m speechless.”
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A reader in Caswell County who has taken the paper since the time when her daddy had to sell the crops in order to pay the subscription rate for the year, called to say how much she likes the Times-News.

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“I’ve been reading it all my life and I’m 71,” she said. “The day wouldn’t be complete without the paper.”

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I’d like to clone a fleet of readers like this.

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Got our first real complaint about the new Ultra Slim-Fast Times-News this morning. It came from a woman who felt that the print overall is getting tougher to read.
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“The paper looks OK but the print’s getting smaller and smaller. I guess when you get older you won’t be able to read the paper.”

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Because we did not make our news text print size any smaller, I asked if she could be specific about what she was unable to read. A lot of our ads, she said, were small. She said some stories, too — but she couldn’t be more specific.
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It wasn’t our goal to make reading tougher on our older customers. In fact, the opposite is true. I hope few are having the same trouble.
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But lots of people seem to like our new format and size. Even a couple of local politicians who called on Monday were complimentary.
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Then this morning I got this from a reader who had nice things to say and even had a retort for my old friend Jim Wicker, whose comments I posted on Monday’s blog.

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Mr. Taylor,
Just wanted to let you know that I love the new format of the newspaper! The front page looks great and reads more like a webpage. I half way thought my paper would be late on Monday, but not even that … it was there on time, as always. What a great job everyone at the Times News must have done to make the changes go so smoothly (at least from a readers point of view). Also, as a woman, I like the new format better, not so huge…. And tell Jim Wicker that nobody wraps their fish in newspaper anymore anyway!
Keep up the good work!
Karin Cousineau

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Here’s another comment — this one from a caller.
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“I’m very happy you cut one inch off. I recently had rotator cuff surgery and it’s very hard to open a larger paper.
Lorraine Quinn of Burlington.

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And a caller had this observation.

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“I was reading your blog and saw that you hadn’t had any (complaints) about the change but I have one. The height of the paper, that’s the problem we had before. It seems that papers in other parts of the state are more square. This one is so high it’s hard to maneuver on your lap.”
That’s the only thing. Other than that, I love the paper. I think it’s great.”

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We both agreed that because the paper is more narrow it does make the pages look taller somehow. That’s what a change in perspective will do. She even measured Monday’s edition against that published Sunday and found them to be the same height.
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She seemed certain the Times-News was always taller than other newspapers. I was equally sure we’re all the same in terms of height. Because I don’t jump to conclusions I did set our paper beside the Greensboro News and Record and Raleigh News and Observer. Heightwise, we’re the same.
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And one reader, Jean Reilly, called about something else but added this.
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“I do like the new paper. You don’t have to stretch your arms from Greensboro to Durham to read the pages.”

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But Ms. Reilly wanted to take us to task for publishing a photo submitted by a user of a young boy working on a car.
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“I don’t think it’s right to run that picture in the paper. It gives kids bad ideas to get under a truck. I wouldn’t let my grandchildren under there no matter how high it was jacked.”

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Her point is well taken. We don’t wish to give children bad ideas or put them in harm’s way. In this case, however, all four wheels of the truck were firmly on the ground. The child in the photo was in no danger.
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And on that note I’d like to thank readers for sending us their photos online and hope they will continue to do so.

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I expected to arrive at my office this morning and find a blinking light on my telephone. The blinking light lets me know there’s a message.
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Personally, I hate the blinking light.
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Anyway, I figured there would be a few readers out there with comments or concerns about our new look Times-News — the skinnier, Nutri-System version — we unveiled today. Not only did we make the paper more narrow but we changed the front page and altered the comics and puzzles.

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Lots of grist there for second-guessing. And I anticipated a lot.
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So far, thankfully, I’ve had no phone calls criticizing our look — except, of course, from former longtime reporter here Jim Wicker who had this to say, “It’s not a fish wrap anymore it’s a sardine wrap.”
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Nice to know you can count on your friends.
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On the other hand, we have received many flattering e-mails.

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Here are a few.
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Hi,
I would like to express my appreciation for and approval of the new T-N format. For years I’ve wanted to see the comics and puzzles in the same section, at least. And now they are on facing pages. I love it…
And I’ve liked Pickles for years and look forward to seeing The Argyle Sweater.
I had noticed that the paper was folded differently by my carrier, but know I can see why. It’s a little more compact. I barely notice the decrease in size.
I also like the “5 Minute Times” on the front page. A quick overlook that allows me to get a scan of what’s in there.

Thanks,
Kenneth Youngdah
Mebane

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Here’s another.
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Good job! Wonderful to handle! Easy read!

Thanks!
Joyful,
Eleanor

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And one more, with an additional comment about a story on our front page regarding the Burlington City Council and the Jordan Lake Rules.
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Mr Taylor:

First, I think your new print look is OK. Just as good if not better than the old. Second, Madison just in case I can’t be at the Tuesday meeting, please have someone ask these stooges from Raleigh two questions. What have they done since all this started to help their own situation other than demand that we upstream pay for their overpopulation in Raleigh and Cary? Finally, why can they not build a state of the art treatment plant at Jordan Lake and purify the water as they remove it? Oh, I’m sorry that would involve asking the people of Raleigh and Cary to pay for it!

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Then got this telephone call. When I asked the caller if I could help her she responded this way.
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“You already have! I love the new size of the paper. Now I don’t have to overstretch my arms in order to read it. Thanks and keep up the good work!”

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On that last one I added my own exclamation points – and was happy to do it.
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Thanks to all our readers for their responses. I’ll post more as I receive them — the good, the bad and the ugly.

Not really an e-mail but …
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Sunday afternoon a nice gentleman approached me at a grocery store. I was in the checkout line perusing the magazine selection (hey, there’s news about Brit and Kevin!!!!) when he came up, offered his hand and introduced himself. Then he very politely mentioned that there was a mistake in our Saturday editorial Ups and Downs. He had the right guy on all counts. Not only am I the one in charge but I usually compile this weekly look at the good, bad and ugly in the area.
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He didn’t want to quibble over what I had written — just wanted to let me know that I had something factually wrong. Here’s what was published. See if you can find it. I’ll give the answer at the end of this post.
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THUMB’S DOWN to taking action when it’s too late. The state should be ashamed that it took the brutal slaying death of the college president at the University of North Carolina to get people in state government talking seriously about anti-gang legislation.

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Now back to the past few days of e-mails. Here’s one that takes on a couple of issues — both covered by the Times-News.
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Mr Taylor:
First, thanks for the articles on the homeless! Do you think the city of Burlington needs to support the group of people in this town who seem to be motivated by such hate. I still contend that instead of spending $950,000 on a new building to house more worthless bureaucrats like Bob Ward the money could be better used to build a public shower for the homeless. Your articles indicated that one major factor in their not being able to get and hold a job was that they could not get a bath each day.

Now to Boss David’s budget shortfall. If he and the Republican Commissioners had listened to Ann Vaughn last June at the budget meeting then we probably would be in good shape now. I would also like to point out that his empire at EMS could have been paired down if he would have approved the private firm that applied for the nonemergency service, at no cost to the county, and with no reasonable faults in their plan that I could see. Now, you are paying for a collection agency to collect these bills, whereas if the private company had been given a chance we would not be paying for any extra expense. I believe the Alamance News’s article on the 20 or 30% more EMS workers in Alamance County vs other counties could be relieved by the private service.
Boss David’s excuse for denying the private service was the same as in the paper. He said that 10 or 15 years ago in Guilford County he heard rumors that a private ambulance service was not doing a good job! Rumors! The reality of the situation is that the EMS makes more money from the nonemergency services that they provide, so therefore private enterprise is muscled out. And we wonder why government is destroying this country.

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One note here I’d like to make. There is some question about the county’s budget vote last year. Republicans contend that Commissioner Ann Vaughn’s budget plan would have actually cost more.
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This e-mail had to do with changing the photo that accompanied a story about the Graham students arrested over spring break in Myrtle Beach, S.C. We had a half dozen photos to choose from via Myrtle Beach Online and one showed the female student with face in hands in the police station. After a few days we put in a more generic photo showing the car being pulled over. A reader thanked us for the switch and offered another observation.
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Thanks for modifying the online story about the former Graham High School basketball player arrests. The pictures of Kaci so predominately displayed were heartbreaking and probably not helpful to her recovery.
And thanks for your personal story in your blog.
Unfortunately, I think you may be writing more and more about underage drinking and drug use. I don’t think we are doing enough as a community to challenge and engage our kids in school. Plus our school policies are punitive rather than instructive.

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I wrote back telling the reader that we plan to do some stories this year on the affects of alcoholism on society. Schools will likely play a large role.
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And this was just a nice comment from a reader in Durham.
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I really enjoyed the piece I read on the coffee shop in Graham. It is nice to know there are people out there trying to help others! Great job and keep up the great work!

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Now back to the problem in Saturday’s editorial. The alert reader I encountered Sunday wanted to point out that it was the UNC student body president who was murdered in Chapel Hill, not the college president.

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“I thought you would get a lot of calls about it,” he said.
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“This is the first time I heard about it,” I told him but assured the reader that I did know the difference between the college president and student body president. It’s just one of those late week brain … farts.
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I told him that this is the kind of typo that’s often hard to catch. It’s just correct enough to be misleading. The reader acknowledged as much.
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“I didn’t really see it the first time I read it,” he said. “I had to go back a couple of times before I caught it.”
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I thanked him for bringing it to my attention. Then he said this:
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“I like the paper. I’m not like Bill Huff or anything.”
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I assume he was referring to my longtime acquaintance Bill Huff of WBAG who’s one of the hosts of a morning talk show that looks at things in the news and in the Times-News. I’ll admit that I’ve probably listened to less than 10 minutes of the program in the 11 months I”ve been back in Burlington. It airs at a busy part of my day and I simply don’t have time to tune in. People sometimes tell me about things they talk about on the show — usually the stuff most critical of our work here.

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I’m truly glad they take the time to read our paper and talk about it on the air. It’s good for the community to have an open forum in this way. But it makes me sad that Huff has such a rep as a hater of what we do here. It wasn’t that way when we covered sports together back in the day.

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Bad weekends normally mean more e-mails — not to mention phone calls — on Monday.
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And this was a bad weekend.
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The biggest headache, as it turned out, wasn’t our package on street panhandlers and the homeless, even though lots of online readers have plenty to say on the subject. And it wasn’t even the story about the Graham students (and former star basketball players) who got caught misbehaving at Myrtle Beach — which when I was in high school was the misbehavior magnet for the East Coast.
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Apparently still is.
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Anyway, we were inundated with telephone calls, notes and e-mails about a problem with our crossword puzzles. There were a couple. This is what Jean McMillan had to say.

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I really subscribe to your paper to work the crossword puzzles. I have had to cease working the Sunday’s puzzles long ago as they are so small that I ended up having to use a magnifying glass to read it. Now you are publishing the daily puzzle in such small print that it is impossible to read the words and identify the numbers in the blanks. So much for The Times News puzzles. Not worth the effort or eye strain.

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I’d like to say to Ms. McMillan and others who contacted us about the puzzle size that this was not meant to be a trend. We have no plans to make the daily puzzle smaller and it would be my eventual goal to make them all a little larger if I get the chance. This was simply a mistake when the puzzle was placed.
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The second puzzle puzzler occurred on Saturday and Monday when we published the wrong puzzle by mistake, which mean the answers were wrong for puzzles published on the previous days. The readers who could actually read the puzzles called us about these issues, including a very polite Scottish gentleman from Mebane who left a voice message for us to “get it right, will ya.”

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Sir, we absolutely hope to. In Tuesday’s Times-News we are publishing the Saturday and Monday puzzles again on page D3 in the Accent section.
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A couple of readers sent e-mails to let me know I had misused the word “illicit” in my Sunday column. I have no good explanation except to say that it was a hectic Friday and I tried to do too many tasks too quickly. I know better but sometimes things creep in for no real reason I can point to other than this one.
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It was a brain fart pure and simple. I’ll try to keep those to a minimum.

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Anyway, here’ s what Susan Fearon had to say about it and other stuff in my column. I appreciate it.
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“I know you get these all the time, but I do hope the use of the word “illicit” instead of “elicit” was a slip of the word processor. Thought the cover story today was very good. You’ll probably get criticism for it, but I thought it was informative. I also agree about the Easter editorial - excellent. I still don’t understand why people get so offended by what is in the paper. Do you think that reader truly was offended by a picture of the Tar Heels practicing at the RBC? That’s taking offense mighty easily. Oh well -best wishes!

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And I got this from frequent writer Jane Lewis. I thank her for keeping me on the straight and narrow.

“Please, please know the difference between illicit and elicit. Illicit means illegal; elicit means to draw out. This misuse is becoming very common.”

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And I’ll wrap up with one incredibly nice comment directed at me personally. On Friday Lark Johnson of Gibsonville sent this via a user comment online.

While visiting DC this weekend, I was reading my beloved Washington Post and lamenting to my family that I miss having access to that caliber of writing for local stories. Then today, I read Madison Taylor’s blog where he included an article written about a fallen Marine. The information included was actually researched, well thought out, written beautifully and had an emotional depth so rarely found in this paper. Please, we may be a small community but we deserve a quality paper with substance. ENCORE!

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Lark, we’re working on it. Please stay with us.

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Got a handful of e-mails over the weekend on a variety of topics — and one a pretty far-fetched (as it turned out) boast about what might happen in the NCAA Tournament.

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I’ll save that one for last.
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The first one is from a frequent writer who keeps an eye on area schools. Julie was commenting on a column I wrote in Sunday’s Times-News about our coverage of a an incident at Southern High School where graffiti was spray-painted on the walls, which created some concern about some students and parents.
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Here’s what Julie had to say.

I had to smile at your admission of being shamed by a friend about the Southern High coverage.

One of the benefits of being an adult is being able to recognize and side step emotional blackmail. I urge you to rethink your reaction to David Vaughn’s comments.

The comments of “some younger students” captured on video are worth hearing. When there is abuse, it is most often directed to the weakest of a group. In this case, it sounds like it is directed at the “youngest” at the school. And for David and Danny to say that if you had talked to older students you would have gotten a different story is to try to minimize the impressions of the younger students and to try to make them less important. And for an administrator like Danny to take sides as he suggests when he talks of the disgruntled is legally dangerous. Doesn’t he know that he is responsible for the safety and protection from harassment of all students, not just those on “his side”?

Are you buying into the group think that because 95% of the students are not disgruntled that the voices of the other 5% are not worth listening to? Will you allow yourself to be used by those in power to perpetuate the status quo and not help to stop any harassment that may be taking place?

My 14 year old was in a church group with some boys from Southern. Their frequent talk of hunting and guns made him uncomfortable since we live in the city and do not hunt or own guns. He is 6 feet tall and plays lacrosse. He simply changed groups at church so he did not have to sit with them. I don’t know if the situation would have been so easily solved if he had been a 5 foot tall 14 year old girl of a mixed race who was exposed to racial slurs and having to walk by redneck wall every day.

Thanks for covering the schools from all perspectives and publishing the letter from the faculty. The administrators are to be commended for their quick clean up.

I am interested to know which graffiti was derogatory to white male students. Several have mentioned that the graffiti was directed at all groups. If I remember correctly, one student said there was something to the effect that blacks and Jews should not be at the school. If the graffiti it was directed at all groups as has been reported, what was the derogatory graffiti directed at those who hang out at redneck wall? It seems to me that the references to tractors, banana pudding etc are a celebration of all things southern, not derogatory remarks.

Thanks again for the coverage and for all your hard work.

Julie

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First, thanks Julie for writing. Second, I’d like to correct any impression that I was shamed by our coverage. I wasn’t. I have no doubts that the perspectives of the younger students have some validity and should have been heard.
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But I do hate to disappoint any of our readers, even though I know that’ll happen more often than not. And I did think the point about talking to more students was a good one and I wanted to give that perspective some space in our newspaper. I also wanted to let the faculty and staff have their say. I had a call after the column was written but before it was published by Heath Lloyd, an African-American member of the Southern High staff who agreed with that assessment. I’ll post his comments when I get back into the office on Tuesday.
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Incidents like the one last week at Southern are troubling in that they continue to happen on campuses everywhere. I fear that the things that have always divided us as a nation will continue to do so.
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Got an e-mail on Friday from Mr. McQueen. I’ve never met him but he writes to me about once a week. This one was about the hysterics online and on a local radio talk program about state Rep. Cary Allred calling online posters at our web site “bottom-feeding carp.” I and many others had some fun with it on www.TheTimesNews.com. Check comments on some of our stories.
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Anyway, Mr. McQueen had this to day about our carpe diem …
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Mr Taylor:
I like Cary Allred and agree with him on many issues, however he is wrong on the blog issue. For one, there are people who work for the government who are privy to inside information who cannot go public without risking their jobs, ex Ms. Crane who was fired by the Governator for exposing to the News & Observer the sorry state of Mental Health Care in this state. This is by the way a state tragedy and Easley is a jerk!
Number two, Cary just doesn’t get the fact that poking fun at people in the public arena is fun for all concerned except government officials who have something to hide or who are corrupt in some way.

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Speaking of Debbie Crane, who appeared at Elon last week to talk about open government, or more to the point, a lack of it these days. She sent me a nice e-mail concerning a story I wrote about her speech.
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I loved your lede….my mom will be pleased, because my house has been so remarkably dirty until now!
Seriously, nice story…it is appreciated
debbie crane

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Thanks to you for coming to Elon and filling in the blanks so many of us find when it comes to covering the government. Good luck in your next job.
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And finally I won’t give a name here, let’s just say an anonymous person sent me this bold prediction over the weekend.

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…Tomorrow we will read in the sports section the results The Razorbacks will make the final four.
Woo Pig Sooie

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If it makes this writer feel any better, on my bracket I have Duke in the Final Four. I guess I can kiss that new Jaguar goodbye.

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