What do you tell a chicken who starts sitting on a pile of eggs just as the weather starts getting cooler? What do you tell her sister who moves in next to her in the row of laying nests on her own pile of eggs? Spring is the perfect time, days are getting longer, everything […]
John Valentine
Bio: John Valentine lives in Hillsborough, where he's written about life on and off the farm for more than two decades.Email: [email protected]
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School supply serenade
The ordered chaos of transition to back-to-school is a family right of passage. That first week is something just to get through. With two kids, in two different school systems, starting three weeks apart, our house has been in a sustained state of want lists and calendar spreadsheets. But we “needed” one last trip to […]
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Parent/Child Best Bets
The Play’s the Thing You already know the Triangle is awash in theater companies. Half a dozen local ensembles regularly present the fruits of their talent. You can’t go out on the weekend without running into a thespian. But here’s the real scoop. High school drama classes are booming, from Cary to Carrboro, Durham to […]
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Getting tucked in
I got knocked over by a chicken the other morning. What happened was, somewhere between plying my wife with her second cup of morning coffee and lining up the breakfast bowls and lunch boxes, I went out to feed the chickens. The sun still hadn’t risen, so I entered the chicken coop blind. The mama […]
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A is for Antfarm
“I used to think about it a lot back in school. Now I don’t. We just do it.” Dave Wofford, of Horse & Buggy Press, is describing the art that Antfarm creates in their two-story renovated brick warehouse that long ago used to be the home of Carolina Washboards on Raleigh’s west side in Boylan […]
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Simpsons Studies 101
“The donut-eating contest is our way of trying to boost the intellectual climate of the university,” says Erica Eisdorfer, manager of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Bulls Head Bookshop, laughing. Taking a break from planning the Second Annual Simpsons D’ohcathlon, Eisdorfer sighs. “We had a million people last year. This time we have so many events, so many […]
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Turning the corner
Rounding that banked, frenetic, cluttered curve that takes us from September flat out into fall, I’m gauging the transition, wondering what summer events will end up as my kids’ keeper childhood memories. Summer’s unexpected delights are already becoming grainy snapshots: catching a rogue mini-wave, riding it high into the shore, noticing at the last second […]
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Snow on the mountain
So this buddy of mine is out hiking the Cascades in the Northwest with his family. He’s the healthiest guy I know. His youth soccer teams always go undefeated. He jogs, mountain bikes, doesn’t eat meat. True, he’s just celebrated a bummer midlife birthday, but hey, he still gets out to the Cradle for Dar […]
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Shilling for the bastards
As he says on page three, he invented it. Rock writing. Richard Meltzer’s pieces from Crawdaddy in the late ’60s have the same amount of energy as the music itself. He’s sharp, he’s funny and he is in that moment when rock was the revolution, as in: See R. Meltzer sleeping with Jefferson Airplane at […]
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A postcard from paradise
Camp Riverlea is heaven on earth, 100 acres of rolling fields and woodlands bordered on two sides by the Little River in northern Durham. Betsy Umstead’s summer mecca for kids aged 5 to 12 celebrates its 30th year this season. Counselors lead daily activities ranging from archery, tennis and swimming to drama, music and kayaking. […]
