In 1956, the chiseled Burt Lancaster, playing a confidence man, put a match to Katharine Hepburn’s spinsterish but intrepid heart, bringing rain to a drought-stricken Southwestern town. Not even Greg Fishel could explain the complex meteorology behind that weather system. But when a skeptical rancher told Lancaster, “We don’t believe in rainmakers,” Landcaster immediately bit […]
Cat Warren
Posted inNews
Jonesing for Jordan
Lake Jordan, polluted and sediment-laden, is looking downright gorgeous these days to cities desperate to install new pipes that can suck its impaired waters into treatment plants and then through a half-million faucets and sprinklers across the region. “Drought-resistant” and “under-allocated,” say state and city officials, pointing to the fact that Jordan Lake is a […]
Posted inUncategorized
Durham City Council still drags feet on drought
The drought in Durham book-ended the City Councils agenda Monday, and as usual, little was accomplished. Councilor Eugene Brown, an outspoken critic of the citys conservation policy, questioned the placement of water restrictions as one of the last items on the agenda. Its always the last item on the agenda. I think this is one […]
Posted inNews
Thirsty? Dirty? Sorry.
Summertime, and the living’s not easy. The fish are dying. The taps have run dry. The checkout lines at Food Lion are deep, and the waiting is longer. The pyramids of bottled water evaporate as people frantically load them into carts. The scenes are the same everywhere: Harris Teeter, Kroger, Wal-Mart. The official North Carolina […]
Posted inNews
When short showers aren’t enough
Gov. Mike Easley’s current bully pulpit cry that it is citizens’ “patriotic duty” to turn down the taps has resulted in a paltry 11 percent drop in water use in the City of Durham over the same time last year. That falls a tad short of the goal of “Operation Halve It.” Yet, the city […]
Posted inNews
Drought tolerance
It’ll rain in the next nine months. But probably not a lot. Those pesky climatologists and meteorologists keep telling North Carolina politicians and citizens what they would rather not hear. We are in deep silt, smack in the dry river bed of denial. But don’t worry, kids! Durham, with the lowest supplies of any municipality […]
Posted inNews
Tobacco ads and the First Amendment
Dissing the tobacco industry seems passé these days. The CEOs, exhausted from their conga line in front of Congress, have a yellowish ’50s patina. For advertising deconstructionists, once Joe Camel’s nose was fully exposed, everything else felt like the morning after. There’s just no artistry left in anti-smoking activism. Besides, smoking in the United States […]
Posted inNews
Dick Gordon connects with the Triangle
The Story with Dick Gordon isn’t indescribable. It’s a radio show on WUNC-FM. With Dick Gordon. Once it airs at 1 p.m. Thursday, similes will spring forth and adjectives will abound. But at this moment, as it balances on the verge of the airwaves, it’s not easy to elicit a quick descriptioneven from its creators. […]
Posted inNews
From “Senator No” to Senator N&O
The News & Observer has provided lots of publicity for Jesse Helms’ paean to himself, Here’s Where I Stand. And as Jesse slowly begins his exit stage right, The N&O is there to mark every movement–from “Helms’ bold voice fades” to “Helms offers new take on segregation” to “Conservatives gather to pay tribute.” One or […]
Posted inNews
A flood of facts in the perfect storm
If we are going to find our standard story of hope to cap off a grim newscast, one week and one day after the levees gave way, it’s going to take some desperate casting about in the enormity of a tragedy vastly compounded by criminal government incompetence and indifference. Let us not turn to President […]