Aug
10
You are never too old for story time
Filed Under Editorial | 15 Comments
RFP hit its one month anniversary on Wednesday. To celebrate, I wanted to share a few observations I’ve made over that time period and then try something a little different with this post. First, the observations:
- Although news sources are abundant and available in a mind-boggling number of formats, their is still a healthy demand for amateur local writers to publish and share their thoughts with fellow citizens (over 130 thousand blogs were created on Wordpress alone last month)
- Our readers are passionate and well-educated when it comes to our fair city
- Running a website can be an extremely gratifying experience, but also quite time-consuming (mostly because you’re always thinking how to improve it)
- Spreading the word to a few is easy, but after you’ve exhausted your personal email contact list it’s much harder to grow your reader-base
- The true measure of any post, website, or product for that matter is the value it provides to the consumer
Ok, enough with the deep thoughts. I’m traveling this weekend so I want to try something new for this post. In true 3rd grade style, I’ll start a story about Raleigh and leave it open-ended. After that, it’s up to our readers to decide where the story goes from there by writing your own comments and continuing the story for the next person. If you haven’t commented before, give it a shot. You don’t have to register or sign-up and you don’t even need to use your real name unless you want to.
So without further ado:
The most interesting day I’ve ever had in Raleigh began with… (continue the story)
Aug
9
Top 10 Ways to Beat the Raleigh Heat
Filed Under Top 10, Other | 4 Comments
Temperatures in Raleigh continue to rise, but that doesn’t mean that you have to suffer. Below we offer a few serious, and a few tongue-in-cheek suggestions to help you battle the triple digit heat:
- Fishbowl margaritas from El Rodeo
- Slip-n-slide across the Meredith campus lawn
- Stand shoulder to shoulder with someone in any Raleigh public pool
- Pop open a fire hydrant on (insert your street name here)
- Befriend your annoying co-worker from Cary – join them in moving back to wherever it is they came from ;)
- Lock yourself in the meat freezer at the Angus Barn
- Lay beneath the peeing statue in the Rose Garden
- Play golf at RGA with only one ball – aim only for the water hazards
- Hijack one of Raleigh’s many annoying Ice Cream trucks, eat your fill, and then run it into Lake Johnson
- Help us finish off the list with some of your own ideas…
Aug
7
North Hills East - Will Kane be Able?
Filed Under Real Estate | 8 Comments
If John Kane has his way, North Hills Mall could be expanding – both out and up.
Kane Realty has purchased roughly 50 acres of land across Six Forks road near the current North Hills shopping mall, an area he hopes to develop into North Hills East. Like the existing North Hills area, this new development will be mixed-use (they’re even partnering with Duke to create an on-site continuing care retirement home). Unlike the existing North Hills though, the new development will be more vertical and will feature more green space around the planned buildings. Read more
Aug
3
A Different Kind of Happy Hour
Filed Under Food and Beverage | 7 Comments
Half-filled bars, loosened neck ties and yesterday’s sports highlights are what come to my mind when you mention the words “happy hour.” This isn’t your only local option though. If you’re looking for something different than the typical post-work brews, look no further than one of North Carolina’s up-and-coming wineries.
The words “winery” and “Raleigh”, or North Carolina for that matter, don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand. This is a part of the country and world that has never historically been known for producing much more than mountain moonshine. That trend may be changing though–right here in our backyard. Read more
Aug
2
Tax-Free Shopping This Weekend
Filed Under Business | Leave a Comment
Along with a number of other states, North Carolina is offering sales-tax-free shopping this weekend (3rd-5th). The N&O ran a little piece on what this means for retailers, so I figured I’d try to do the same for shoppers. Instead of recreating the wheel though, I recommend that you download this PDF, put together by The North Carolina Retail Merchants Association (NCRMA). It may not be the most user-friendly document I’ve ever read, but it does a pretty good job of outlining both taxed and non-taxed items, and breaking them down by category.
Personally, I’ve never really gone out of my way to participate in the tax-free weekends, but if you were going to make a significant purchase anyway, why not save a few percent.
Aug
1
Missing Child in Cary
Filed Under Other | 2 Comments
Raleigh Free Press is normally a light-hearted read, but the way I see it any attention we can help draw to this situation: “The Highway Patrol has issued an Amber Alert for a missing 18-month-old Cary boy last seen Monday afternoon with his mother in Cabarrus County” can only help.
Read the full story and see pics on WRAL.
Aug
1
My boss falls into a category I like to refer to as “olde Raleigh”. Nevertheless, I often make the mistake of talking to my boss as though I know more about Raleigh than she does. For example, the other day I mentioned that I heard Snoopy’s had the best hot dog in town. She immediately launched into a 20-minute diatribe about this place called the Roast Grill. Appalled that I had never been there, she actually ordered me to go to lunch there today.
For those of you who have not been there (and I suspect a lot of you “new” Raleigh folks have not) the Roast Grill is a tiny wiener wonderland located at 7 S. West Street, just off Hillsborough Street in downtown. Read more