greensboro

Chris Knight's avatar

Dear friends and family in the Greensboro, North Carolina area:

It has come to my attention that after an absence of several years, red light cameras are due to be installed again all over the city.  These first appeared circa 2001 and it was soon apparent that they were more a liability than they were an asset.  Well, not an asset to anyone but the city government and the company running the cameras (who got a healthy percentage of each ticket issued).

I could spend all day writing about why the cameras are wrong.  How they violate our rights articulated in the Constitution.  How it also seems that the intersections equipped with the camera have speeded-up the yellow caution lights so that there’s more a chance of running the red light and getting your car’s photo taken.  Volumes have already been published about how bad the cameras are and why....

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Margaret Moffett is a journalist’s journalist, and I would say that even if I had not known her for quite many years now.  She has brought her enormous talent to bear wherever she has gone, whether it was at The Reidsville Review (when we first met) or at the Greensboro News & Record, where she was reporter and editor of a number of sections.  She has earned my respect many times over.

So when her essay “Below the Fold” was published a few weeks ago, about the decline of what was at one time North Carolina’s third largest newspaper, I was more than intrigued.  Having watched the fall from grace of the News & Record during the past decade or so, I wanted to see what a firsthand witness to what transpired had to say about it.

To be brief: it was heartbreaking to read.

Moffett chronicles a series ...

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Despite now being a few years and several hundred miles away from my spawning grounds in Reidsville, I still tend to keep an eye on goings-on in north-central North Carolina.  Part and parcel to that is every so often visiting the website of Greensboro’s News & Record… even though it’s been years since that newspaper bore any semblance of objective reporting.  The decline has notably accelerated lately, along with most other “mainstream” journalism.

I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me when I saw the headline of today’s News & Record web edition, given the “historicity” of the anniversary.
Number-one rule of healing: you don’t rip the Band-Aids off the wound.  And throughout all of recent memory the News & Record has not only yanked away the bandages, it does its damndest to keep the sore nice and festered.
It’s not the best source to cite but Wikipedia has a
...
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Okay, to be fair, there has not been any formal notification of exile.  But having attempted to make comments with five different browsers and automatically being directed to a Facebook “blue screen of banishment” with each one, it’s safe to say at this point that I am now persona non grata from adding to reader commentary on the News & Record website.  It was discovered two days ago and no correspondence has been returned from their staff about it so, looks like I’ve been dispatched to the hinterlands… or at least those where Greensboro, North Carolina’s “newspaper of record” is concerned.

As for why the banning has taken place: if it was in violation of terms of service, I can’t find a single example.  And I went back through the past few months, from around late spring when I began leaving comments on their published letters, editorials, and some ...

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When I first heard the news I didn’t expect to be feeling this much heartbreak.  But I am.  Maybe ‘cuz I’m understanding how much The Rhinoceros Times was an influence on my early years as a writer and for long, long after…

The Rhinoceros Times, The Rhino Times, The Rhino, newspaper, Greensboro, North Carolina, John Hammer, William Hammer
Just one of the many fine editions of
The Rhinoceros Times produced
between 1991 and 2013.

It was first reported this morning that The Rhinoceros Times is going out of business.  The issue on the stands right now is the final one that will be printed.

So for those not from this are who are wondering: The Rhinoceros Times (or simply The Rhino Times or just “The Rhino”) found its origins in a bar called The Rhinoceros Club in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina.  From a one-sheet newsletter started by John Hammer in 1991, The Rhinoceros Times fast found an eager audience among those who hungered for an ...

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The talk of the area since yesterday morning has been this billboard on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro (North Carolina). In big bold letters on a wrathful red field it reads thusly: “Michael- GPS Tracker – $250, Nikon Camera with zoom lens – $1600, Catching my LYING HUSBAND and buying this billboard with our investment account – Priceless. Tell Jessica you’re moving in! – Jennifer”.

That LED billboard has caused at least one car wreck (was his name Michael?!).  Some have said the photos are fake but it’s really been on display.

Battleground Avenue, Greensboro, North Carolina, billboard, Jennifer, Jessica, Michael, cheating, cheater, infidelity, wine, Yodaddy's, Yo Daddy's
(Photo credit: Fox 8 WGHP)

Now there is evidence that the entire thing has perhaps been, rather than a jilted wife airing her husband’s dirty laundry on Battleground Avenue, a marketing ploy by a restaurant instead.

At right you see the new message that showed up on the same billboard today.  It’s now alternating with the original ...

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The News & Record in Greensboro – the region’s largest newspaper – has a story on the front page of today’s edition about last night’s resolution by the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners to restore the Confederate Soldiers Monument in downtown Reidsville (see earlier post here).

For some reason or another Joe Gamm – the reporter who wrote the story – chose to include the following in his article…

“After a court approved replacing the monument, vandals spray-painted the words ‘Monument is coming back’ on an auto body shop run by an African American businessman who outspokenly opposed returning the statue to its original spot.”

Could somebody please explain to me: What does the above reference by Mr. Gamm have anything… anything at all… to do with what happened to the Confederate monument from the time of the accident in 2011 up ’til today?

Because I can’t find ...

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Lately quite a number of good people that I know have decided to start up their own businesses. Here’s another one and as always, this blogger is more than happy to direct y’all’s attention to it 🙂

Based out of nearby Oak Ridge, Two Girls & A Truck Landscaping is a landscaping and lawn servicing company owned by Tammy Marcum Buck, Linda Marcum and Oscar Marcum. Don’t have time to mow your lawn? Let the Two Girls do it for you! They can help you wherever you’re at in the vicinity of Greensboro, Oak Ridge, Summerfield, Madison and Mayodan etc. And right now they’re offering a special: $35 of cutting, weed-eating, trimming and blowing for up to half an acre. They’re also offering a 10% discount for elderly and disabled. Two Girls & A Truck Landscaping will give you a free estimate on your landscaping needs and annual contracts are ...

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Hey y’all, been a few days since an update. All that can be said at the moment is that I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire, so to speak 🙂

Here, maybe this’ll make up for it. My good friend and brother in Christ (not to mention fellow Star Wars ubergeek) Joshua Ausley shot, edited and produced this head-slammingly rockalicious music video for a band called Death Proof out of our very own Greensboro, North Carolina!

Behold the pure awesome that is “Rip It Up”!

And if you wanna know more about Death Proof then click on over to the band’s Myspace page....

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