Madison Taylor

Some highs and lows, extremely so, in today’s stock report.
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THUMB’S UP to news that the old Buckhorn Road flea market, the dilapidated, renegade bazaar that’s operated along the interstate for more than two decades, will go away and is to be replaced by a massive retail destination potentially anchored by a Cabela’s outdoor gear emporium. If indeed it is Cabela’s — and a traffic report strongly indicates it is — that should create boom times on the interstate corridor and could have economic impacts from Mebane to Hillsborough. But some nagging questions remain? Can Mebane meet the sewer demand (and water, too) and what kind of incentives will it mean? Stay tuned.
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But THUMB’S DOWN to news that GoldToe Moretz will close its manufacturing site on Plaid Street in Burlington, leaving more than 425 people without jobs. The closure is part of a reorganization of the company that will lead to expansion at its international sites in Mexico and Asia. By coincidence, the news comes just after the best stretch of employment news in several years.

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THUMB’S DOWN to the loss of a local landmark. Sharkey’s Grill has been a popular Burlington hangout for decades. It’s a working man’s bar and grill where folks like to nurse a cool one for awhile, have a burger and talk about sports, politics and why jobs are going to Mexico. At places like this folks don’t always solve the problems of the world but they feel a little better about it for awhile.
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THUMB’S UP to Gibsonville Police Chief Mike Woznick for asking town leaders to rethink a law that allows folks to shoot squirrels within the town limits with the permission of authorities. In most reputable places firing a gun inside the city or town limits is against the law and for good reason — innocent folks could be hit by accident.

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Getting a late start on the jolt — with more to come, promise.

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THUMB’S DOWN to the Burlington City Council and its hapless stalling on a decision over who will replace new Mayor Ronnie Wall’s now vacant slot on the council. By any rationale the new council member should be Celo Faucette, a two-time candidate who’s more than qualified to serve and won the support of more than 2,000 city voters in the November election when he finished third in the four-candidate race for two available seats. The move by council to restart a nomination process is wasteful and slap in the face to those who take the time to be involved in the elective process. This is why politics should be taken out of the hands of politicians. They’re simply not qualified to do it correctly. Shame on the council and the new mayor.
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THUMB’S UP to Western Alamance, of course. Reams of paper — and gobs of online space to boot — have been used to tout the prowess of the Warriors who brought home an unbeaten season Saturday and the Class 3A championship by rolling up 62 points on North Gaston. And, of course, this means that the Times-News has won its bet with our sister newspaper in Gastonia. We’re waiting on our shipment of SunDrop, socks and that fried fish dinner. We’re still mulling that tattoo thing.

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THUMB’S DOWN to early numbers indicating that even with water restrictions related to the ongoing drought Burlington’s H2O use is actually up for this time of year by about 40 million gallons, according to November figures. The problem? Sales to Greensboro and growth. Likely neither can be avoided (Burlington can’t really shut Greensboro off without attracting the attention of state officials) and the area is in no mood these days to turn down business. That simply puts the onus to conserve more squarely on the backs of residents. By the way, saw someone on Westridge watering their yard last night. Is that really necessary this time of year?

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THUMB’S UP to Graham City Council for setting a date to hear what folks have to say about Sunday beer sales — at the moment there ain’t none, if you believe the law. But the old rule is so outdated and long-forgotten that restaurants have been selling brews to customers on Sunday for 15 years or more. The hearing is to gauge potential public outrage over changing the law to allow beer and wine sales on the Sabbath, something many in town have opposed for quite some time. We applaud the council for not rushing into a decision. We also say with Graham’s current growth, the time for legal Sunday beer sales is probably here.

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Catching up today after navigating the cruel and often harsh world of updating newspaper comics — not that I’m complainin’ or nothin’.
And just to get it out of the way, congrats to our own Frances Woody who was named Tuesday night as the Alamance County Civitan Club Woman of the Year. Believe me when I say they couldn’t make a better choice.

THUMB’S DOWN to danger over the holidays. That Christmas tree in your house — that beautiful brightly lit formerly green thing in the corner of your home. Well remember it’s also a dead thing that is decaying before your eyes and if you’re not careful it’ll be a fire hazard. Water that tree! Don’t forget. We hate doing stories about home fires at Christmas sparked by poorly maintained Christmas trees.
True story. I was working on a Christmas tree lot two years ago when a guy walked up to me, pointed to one of the dozens of trees we had lashed to stakes, and declared, “This tree looks dead.” I hesitated, I hemmed, I hawed, I absolutely fought off the urge to scream, “That’s because it is dead you doofus. They’re all dead. Been dead for two or three weeks now. This is basically a Fraser fir morgue. They’re cadavers for tree surgeons and future mulch for your rose garden!!!”

Here’s what I said instead: “Sorry ‘bout that.”
Now that’s good customer service.
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THUMB’S DOWN to proposed high school sports conferences set to start in 2009. The plan, which has not been officially OK’d yet, would shift Southern Alamance into the largest classification and with no natural rivals such as Williams, Graham, Eastern Alamance … well the old Mid-State 3-A as conference foes. No, the Pats will take on Greensboro Grimsley, Page and Dudley — not faraway lands to be sure but not a jaunt over to Cummings either. We miss those back yard brawls of yore — another reason to bemoan the county’s exceptional growth in its southern regions.

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THUMB’S UP to word that the economy, while wheezing its way to early winter in 2007, isn’t quite as bad as some say it is. Alamance County is holding its own while many areas are dropping into potential recession. Across the board, the county’s figures are more stable than those of our neighbors, including foreclosures. But that don’t mean the news is particularly good either. The region still hopes to finish with a flourish in ’07 and gain a little big mo heading into 2008.
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THUMB’S UP to Elon University’s Student Government Association for its role in organizing a campus-wide “Penny Wars” fund-raiser and using the $500 in proceeds to help Eastern Guilford High School, which was decimated by a fire a year ago when Elon was celebrating its homecoming. It’s nice to know that Elon students are in tune with what happens outside the campus and so willing to lend a hand.

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THUMB’S DOWN to the fuzzy headed politicians who have delivered this newest piece of weird taxpayer math: The national debt has grown to the point that every man, woman, child and infant in the United States is $30,000 in arrears if we hope to pay it off. The national debt is growing at a rate of $1 million a minute under the guidance of the formerly fiscally conservative President Bush and Vice President Cheney — the latter once claimed during the first term that the Bush administration needed all the money it could find in order to govern effectively. By that logic, those who governed should pay it off. Cheney, with help from his pals at Halyburton, should finish off the debt themselves — so our children won’t have to.
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THUMB’S UP to the Alamance County Board of Commissioners for taking on junk mobile homes. A new set of regulations will give the county some recourse for dealing with abandoned and dilapidated mobile homes should people in the community complain.
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THUMB’S DOWN to the toughest job a policeman — or nearly anyone — faces, telling someone a loved one has been killed under tragic circumstances. We wish this kind of news would never need to be delivered at all. But we salute dedicated officers like Burlington Police Sgt. Brett Taylor who try and handle this horrible chore with sensitivity. After 18 years on the force he’s delivered a lot of bad news but he still understands how much it impacts those he’s delivering it to. That kind of empathy can’t be taught.

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The jolt continues — almost caught up from the long weekend and two days of avoiding troopers on interstate highways. Hey, we saw about a dozen on Wednesday night and a similar number on Sunday coming home. But the empty patrol car on the median east of Raleigh didn’t fool many folks though, at least not in our lane.
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THUMB’S UP to all the folks who are paying us a visit these days. According to the Travel Industry Association of America guests are popping in at Alamance County locales at a higher frequency these days. According to the study, travelers spent $131 million here last year, up 9 percent from 2005. That ranks Alamance 26th among the state’s 100 counties. Our guess is that many come to shop but there plenty of other sites to visit here these days as well. Just imagine what we might do if we had a beach or a mountain?

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THUMB’S UP to the non-profit Flying Colors Bird Sanctuary in Haw River and its director Catherine O’Brien. O’Brien and co-founder Bradley Dirks, keep and nurse abandoned, abused or unwanted exotic birds such as parrots or cockatiels. Frequently these long-living birds run afoul of their sorry owners who lose interest in them. O’Brien’s niche is finding a good place for them to roost and perhaps be adopted. It’s a noble effort that takes lots of patience and the ability to tune out loud noises. We salute both attributes.
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THUMB’S UP to Lester Jessup, a retired contractor who’s become a master carver, churning out wooden ducks, horses, swans and pigs that line the shelves of his showroom. Jessup, 88, took up the art when he got tired of fishing and enrolled in a class at Alamance Community College. Since then, it’s one keepsake piece after another.
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THUMB’S DOWN to the sad series of events that led to the city of Graham pulling up a gravestone a man placed on the site where his stepson was buried. That the man inexcusably wasn’t notified that the city was planning to remove the headstone because it did not comply with city regulations is only part of the story. This is also a cautionary tale for those who shop online. Local makers of gravestones could’ve told the buyer his online purchase didn’t meet city specifications. There are lessons aplenty in this story. One is about government using good manners when it takes action — even over a holiday period (did they really have to remove it at Thanksgiving?) and for the customer a reminder about the adage “buyer beware.” With so many places to shop, that message has never been more apt.

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THUMB’S DOWN to morons who pass stopped school buses. Authorities are cracking down in Guilford County and deservedly so. There’s no excuse for passing a bus with the stop arm extended — nobody’s in too big a hurry to care about the life of a child.

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A belated and shortened jolt after a weekend of grubbing on turkey and this incredibly tasty cranberry-nut thing my sister-in-law made. Dang it was good.

THUMB’S DOWN to the idea of Alamance County — or any county really — hiring a lobbyist to plead its case in Washington D.C. The county Board of Commissioners held such talks last week with a for-hire company willing to tout Alamance County for $55,000 a year and potentially secure more federal funds and other doo-dads. It seems as if there is already somebody in Washington who’s supposed to be doing this particular job. They call him Howard Coble.
So when it comes to taxpayer dollars for lobbyists please just flush my tax dollars down the toilet instead. Wait a minute, on second thought, that’s a tragic waste of water. Safely deposit my money in a nearby trash receptacle. Thanks.
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THUMB’S UP to Laura Sams, the choral and musical theatre director at Williams High School for nearly a quarter century who asks not for perfection from her students — merely a dedicated effort. Sams in November was named Teacher of the Year but other choral teachers statewide with the N.C. Music Educators Association. Being selected by peers makes the notes of this melody all the sweeter.

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THUMB’S UP to Western Alamance High’s football team, which battled its way to the fourth round of the 3A playoffs with a hard-fought 21-6 victory over Bertie County. The victory kept the Warriors march to a fourth state title game appearance on track. Here’s hoping they finish the job this season.
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Speaking of football, THUMB’S DOWN to the BCS, what some call the Bowl Championship Series. The system for picking a national champion in college football is now one big ol’ tangled mess. The complex formula for ranking teams is mystifying to anyone but an MIT professor, or acolytes of Murphy’s Law and has left this situation — teams like Ohio State can actually not play their way into a championship game appearance. BCS? Just swap Bogus for Bowl and you might be on to something.

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THUMB’S UP to the former students of Jordan-Sellars Senior High School who gathered over the long Thanksgiving weekend to hold an event that’s long overdue — a schoolwide reunion. Alamance County’s all-black school closed its doors for good in 1970 ending what was, for all practical purposes, a community into itself. Before integration black schools were the backbones of the black community where future leaders were groomed. More than 400 people came to Burlington for three days of remembering.

THUMB’S DOWN to the two teenagers who were charged last week with beating up a guy in a cow suit. Actually, the boys kicked the mascot for Chick-fil-A on a dare at the Garden Road store. It probably seemed like a funny idea at the time but we doubt the mascot had much to laugh about. Now if those kids took on that creepy TV Burger King mascot …

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They say that catching up is hard to do …

THUMB’S UP to efforts geared toward restoring the interior of the
Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk. The memorial itself is a majestic sight and the accompanying museum is a tribute to the ingenuity it took to propel man in flight. Making the interior presentable so many of those museum pieces can be returned to their original home seems only fitting.

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THUMB’S UP to a truly helpful Web site, DonorsChoose.org It’s where teachers and potential donors can meet and make projects happen in some classrooms. The site is hardly new. It was founded seven years ago but has been available to North Carolina and Alamance County teachers for the last four. It seems like a good marriage of education and the support often needed to make a difference in the classroom.
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THUMB’S UP to some in the community whose ship seems to be approaching the dock. The IRS, the bad guys on April 15, are looking for thousands of people in North Carolina who for whatever reason didn’t get their tax refunds this year. The checks, returned to the state as undeliverable (is that a tragedy or what), are still out there for the taking — if folks’ll only check the list to see if there name’s on it. If you’re not sure whether the government owes you money or not (and shame on you if it’s true), then go to special.thetimesnews.com/tax_info on this Web site. Tell the IRS I sent ya.
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And neither a THUMB’S UP or nor THUMB’S DOWN to Fred Smith, a Republican running for governor in next year’s primary. But that’s only because we ain’t taking sides in any of these races, whether they be Democrat, Republican or registered Contrarian (on second thought, we might like the registered Contrarian). Anyway, Smith, a state senator, took the time to stump in Alamance County on Monday as part of his forced barbecue-infused march to all 100 North Carolina counties. It’s a noble goal and one Smith intends to stick with, no matter what it does to his arteries or cholesterol level. Smith stopped by the Times-News en route to a talk with the Homebuilders Association and a barbecue dinner in Hawfields and spent more than an hour answering questions. We thank him for spending the time in his bid to emerge from a field that includes Salisbury attorney Bill Graham and former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr.

One thing I’ll say for Smith, he passed my personal Bob Jordan test. Smith arrived here early, fresh, ready to answer questions and looking like if not a million bucks, maybe $250,000. In the 1980s former Lt. Gov. Bob Jordan stopped by my office at the Reidsville Review at what was obviously the end of a long day. The Mount Gilead Democrat was rumpled, took his shoes off to rub his feet and had trouble holding a thought. Downright exhausted was what he was. At that point, governor material he wasn’t. He reminded me of the Robert Redford character, the one running for U.S. Senate in “The Candidate.” There’s a scene in that early 1970s movie in which Redford, after making the same stump speech dozens of times, gets punchy in the back of his limo. It gives new meaning to a political candidate’s usual “yadda, yadda, yadda.”

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The weekend in a nutshell …

THUMB’S UP to holiday parades. The
Burlington event last Saturday was only the beginning of a month full of seasonal highlights including parades, music, chorals, caroling, plays, cantatas, decorating — well you all know the rest. Grumps like us always say that the Christmas season gets here too early and well, we’re right. But when the time really does arrive after Thanksgiving we say, then it’s full bore ahead. Have a great season. We plan to. By the way,
check this out on YouTube.
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THUMB’S DOWN to conditions that lead to wildlife run amok. Yes, a deer recently burst its way though a dentist’s office in the area — and not out where development is pushing the woods out of existence in West Burlington either. Yes, deer are also creating havoc in downtown Burlington and with the mating season in full swing, more of the same isn’t out of the question. If we keep building — and driving — there won’t be much space in the future for deer to roam. And that’s a shame.

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THUMB”S DOWN to the incessant debate over global warming. A new report by climate experts released through the United Nations indicates that it’s not a figment of the wild imaginations of Grizzly Adams-like tree-worshipers. It’s a situation that’s worth doing something about and could touch off global drought in some parts of the world, floods in others and a cataclysmic loss of some species. Doubters say the world has always been in a state of climate flux and there’s nothing to worry about by the environmental misdemeanors of little ol’ us. Both sides may have a point but one fact remains a constant. Whether there’s global warming or not, being good stewards of the riches we have on this planet is a worthy goal and we should shoot for that.
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THUMB’S UP to Elon’s Phoenix football team which finished its regular season with a victory over Stony Brook, capping the biggest season for Elon in football since 2000. The 7-4 Phoenix finished ranked 24th nationally in the Football Championship Subdivision and was a more than respectable third in the tough Southern Conference. With many returning players, including a strong-armed young quarterback, it seems that Pete Lembo has the program going in a positive direction.

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THUMB’S DOWN to news that the drought now in its fifth month, is going to have a major long-term negative impact no matter how much rain, snow, sleet, hail … we might get next week, or even next month — if indeed that happens, which seems unlikely. Well diggers report that they’re going down 600 feet or more before hitting appreciable water. That doesn’t bode well for farmers next spring — like planting in a desert.
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THUMB’S UP to news that we’re rich! According to William R. West, who penned a special report in the Times-News Accent section this week, North Carolina is absolutely chock full of unique stones, gems and metals — including Snow Camp Crystal right here in Alamance County. We’re going to have to spend a few weekends out with rock hammers and cloth rather than tossing money into the various trinkets and wares for sale to those who just want to pass some time.

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And in a final note. This is a well-deserved so long to
Mr. Whipple, the fictional grocer who was fixated on a particular brand of toilet tissue and a certain proclivity his customers had for it. Actor Dick Wilson implored folks to “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin” for decades. Here’s to you Mr. Whipple, a TV icon.

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