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Greetings from Raleigh, North Carolina
Feb
20
Lame
Filed Under Editorial, Sports | 2 Comments
This is lame.
Due to budgetary restraints this year, the Technician was unable to print this year’s edition of the Daily Tar Hell — the annual spoof edition of UNC’s student newspaper. The edition historically came out on the day N.C. State’s men’s basketball team faces the Tar Heels in Raleigh.I know many of you have come to expect the Daily Tar Hell each year, and we apologize for not being able to run it. It’s an edition that we enjoy producing and something we look forward to each year.
Any thoughts on us not printing the edition this year are welcome as always. We are grateful for your continued support and interest in our newspaper.
I’d love to know what took financial precedence. Considering that to many (myself included) this was the best issue of the year, it seems that priorities are misaligned. And why not at least put out a digital copy? I wish I had known sooner–I definitely would have tried and picked up the slack.
Tip-off is at 7 and the game will be televised on ESPN.
Feb
1
Is the Joke on Us?
Filed Under Editorial | 4 Comments
70 or so days ago, when it was reported that we were going to run out of water in that amount of time, I started a countdown timer on the site to track our aquatic demise and to encourage people to conserve their water. The timer has recently expired– and while we still have water, the drought is far from behind us.
Along those lines, there was a short but thought-provoking note in today’s N&O Editorial section. It caught my eye and is listed below.
The Jokes on Us
Yet another drought story Jan. 30: “As lake dries, Raleigh drinks more.” I just realized this whole drought thing is nothing more than a scam. We aren’t in any danger of running out of water. If we were, certainly the City Council would have acted responsibly by now.
- Diane Hamilton, Raleigh
Maybe it’s just a slam on the Council, but I also think it’s a (possibly tongue in cheek) thought process that I think a lot of other people share. One that has us trained to believe that our leaders will protect us from ourselves, and that our personal responsibilities take a back seat to regulation and enforcement.
Food for thought, not to be washed down with Raleigh’s H20.
Dec
21
Since our first “goes live” post back in July, we’ve managed to share 72 other posts with members of the World Wide Web. Some are certainly better than others, and what would this time of the year be without some sort of “best-of” recap.
These posts are a highly unscientific combination of the most viewed and most commented articles of the year. If you happened to miss one, you may want to check them out.
- Support Your Other Local Media
- North Hills East–Will Kane be Able?
- 10 Restaurants That Won’t Leave You Wanting More
- OBX/OMG
- Where is Issac Hunter’s Tavern
One final note—posting has really slowed down on the site of late. To keep track of new, possibly more sporadic posts, you can always subscribe to our RSS feed or receive new posts by email. Also, we always welcome posts from our readers. Send them to us through the contact form, or just drop me a line and I’ll provide an email address.
Cheers and Merry Christmas from RFP.
Nov
15
(Dog) Food for Thought
Filed Under Editorial | 9 Comments
I remember watching an episode of 20/20 in December of last year that explored the charitable contributions of several wealthy individuals such as Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Ted Turner and SAS founder Jim Goodnight, among others. In the episode, host John Stossel cited Goodnight’s monetary worth, acknowledged the millions of dollars he had donated to various efforts, and went on to point out that despite these contributions he was not on the list of most generous philanthropists. He continued with the interpretively antagonistic question, “Shouldn’t you give more?” Goodnight’s response: “I think I give enough.”
I thought back to this interview when reading about the ground breaking of the new 115,000 square foot animal hospital to be built off of Hillsborough Street. The animal hospital will be funded in part by a $20 million dollar private contribution from the R.B. Terry Jr. Charitable Foundation.
I don’t think it was just to question Goodnight’s generosity nor that of the Terry Foundation, but I’ll admit that I caught myself selfishly considering other ways that money could be spent–mainly on humans. So, in Stossel-esque fashion I ask: “Is a contribution of that size best served on a hospital that will treat animals?”
Nov
2
Get Out, Really?
Filed Under Editorial | Leave a Comment
From the N&O:
The N.C. Department of Transportation is inefficient, unfocused and inflexible, according to a consultant’s report released Wednesday.
The report is based on surveys filled out anonymously by nearly 9,000 employees and on interviews with dozens of state, business and local officials.The department, which has a $3.8 billion budget, hired McKinsey & Co., an international management consultant, to evaluate the agency.
The department agreed to pay McKinsey $1.1 million for an evaluation and an additional $2.5 million for help in making changes.
In similar news, we’ve also heard rumors that postal workers may be disgruntled, the DMV may not be the model of efficiency we once believed and select public officials may have personal agendas. These facts are purely speculative at this point, but final reports will be created, concealed, denied and then released once we raise eleventy billion dollars.
Full story from the N&O here
Oct
31
The N&O has relaunched their triangle.com site. You can read their launch message here.
I hardly know where to take this post, as it’s one that I’ve been trying to write since we launched RFP–a post that addresses the changing landscape of news dissemination, the battle for print pubs to grab their piece of the consumer-powered pie and how this is starting to shake out in our neck of the woods.
I most definitely don’t have the strength to push out all of these thoughts now as I struggle to keep my eyes open, so I’ll throw some observations out there and hopefully entice some input from our readers. I’d much rather discuss this in a conversation setting, as it generally causes you to consider your words much more closely and is much easier than staring at a blank canvas and trying to paint a masterpiece.
* The Independent recently ran an story titled “Stop the presses, The future of the newspaper—without the paper.” I’d highly recommend giving it a read if you’re at all interested in this topic. Regardless of your stance, the article is so full of notable pull-out quotes that to choose only a few would be an injustice–like hiding the fine print on your no-interest mortgage only to–wait, that’s a different post. Read more
Oct
22
80/20 - Has the Drought Made its Way into Your Raleigh Lifestyle?
Filed Under Drought, Editorial | 3 Comments
Is the drought getting through to the people of Raleigh? Do they understand the situation and what they can do to help? From conversations I’ve had and observations I’ve made, I’ve gathered that to people who are “into” Raleigh, the same type of people who visit this website and others similar, have probably made contentious strides to conserve their water, while others, making up the large majority, go about with their daily schedules completely oblivious to the situation we all find ourselves in.
There is certainly no shortage of news coverage. It’s rare to scan the headlines and not find at least mention of a drought-related story. But is this really penetrating the lifestyle of the average Raleigh resident? My completely unscientific approximation of the situation would be that something like 5% of the population has made serious strides to curb their water usage. These are the people that actually deprive themselves of common water-related comforts. Then there is probably another 15% who are aware of the situation, make efforts to manage their water supply, but don’t really go as far as to drastically alter their lifestyle. And then there is the final group, 80% strong, who are either completely oblivious to the drought and the possible implications, and/or either don’t care, don’t know, or aren’t willing to sacrifice - after all, what can just one person do in the scope of things. Read more
Oct
18
I’m a Fair Virgin
Filed Under Editorial | 8 Comments
Well, sort of. I actually tan quite well and I’m a happily married man. But, I’ve never been to the State Fair, and quite frankly I’m a little hesitant to start.
Besides my fear of Carnies and the fact that I don’t like cabbage, I’m a creature of comfort and hesitant to break my unimpressive streak. Maybe I’m afraid of finding myself stuck in a horde of red-eyed fair-goers in need of a deep fried fix, or maybe I just can’t bring myself to shell out hard earned cash when it could go to something far more practical, like, say, the Education Lottery. Now, I’d buy that for a dollar.
You see, when I think of the fair I envision some guy named Earl with just enough “smarts” to be dangerous, building amusement rides after a roll in the hay with the yak lady and as many teeth as he has completed years of a high school education. Think, the Waffle House plus NASCAR, divided by the horsepower of the General Lee. Read more
Oct
10
Sticking It to the Man
Filed Under Editorial | Leave a Comment
I neither claim nor strive to have the deepest of intellect when it comes to local news. On that note and as an NCSU alum, I thoroughly enjoyed running across this article in the N&O today: NCSU’s ‘gum wall’ is tradition that stuck. Read more
Oct
8
OBX/OMG
Filed Under Editorial | 17 Comments
Hello again friends. This time out, I have a brief comment on an issue not at all related to education, schools, or why a certain commissioner whose name rhymes with “surly” (coincidence? Nay.) needs a crème pie in his grille. Nay, my comments this evening are in an automotive aesthetic vein.
I just have to vent for a bit on the gross profusion of black and white oval stickers on motor vehicles in Wake County. You’ve been to the Outer Banks. We get it. How much cache does that really have when you live in Raleigh? It’s not like you live in Idaho or Jakarta, et cetera. I don’t know; maybe people in those places have “SPUD” and “INDO” on their cars. I doubt it. Read more
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