Richard Hart

It’s been a spectacular end of summer in the Triangle. We dodged the rampages of hurricane wind and rain that have beset our neighbors to the north, south, east and west. We’ve had a luxurious flirtation with cool days and cooler nights, the coolest ones (for me, anyway) being at the Bull Durham Blues Festival, […]

This time of year, there’s no question about the best food out there: fresh tomatoes. Late in the summer, when the vines are creeping and sagging everywhere, after the rains and bugs have done in the cucumbers, sweet, wet, seedy tomatoes are still ripening, waiting to be sliced fat for sandwiches and quartered for salads. […]

The “debate” over John Kerry’s record in Vietnam has finally turned away from the incredible attacks by Bush supporters. Now, it’s a question of why journalists would repeat such unproven charges in the first place–knowing it’s the campaign strategy of Karl Rove to tell and repeat the biggest lies possible. It’s as unbelievable as deciding […]

I have a vested interest in this week’s cover story about the revival of downtown Durham. I just about live there (a couple of neighborhoods over), my son goes to school there, I walk there, I eat there, I drink there, I shop there, I watch movies there, I hang out there, I listen to […]

Once again, the Bush administration is abusing intelligence information for political gain at the expense of people’s lives and the nation’s security. It was hard to believe when it happened two years ago. That they would do it again is even more incredible. Then, many warned that the administration’s bluster about mobile labs and aluminum […]

The good thing about conventional wisdom is that it’s just one step from being passe. The conventional wisdom on political conventions is that they’re become nothing but parties and scripted programming, with none of the backroom politicking of the days of old. Well, who says those days were so good? In fact, as Bob Geary’s […]

Correction : The best subject line in an e-mail I received last week was, “The ghost of Abe Ribicoff…” It was from one of several alert readers (and obviously ones with a better memory than me) who, ahem, gently reminded me that former Connecticut Sen. Abraham Ribicoff was indeed a Democrat, not a Republican (moderate […]

There was a time in the South when Republican primaries didn’t exist, much less matter. Growing up in Louisiana, no one bothered to say that winning the Democratic primary (always held on Saturdays, by the way) was “tantamount to election.” It was the election. Republicans were few and far between, and it seemed like most […]

It seems like a little thing. I like to wear low-top Converse All-Stars. I’ve been doing it since college. They’re comfortable. They’re versatile. They used to be really cheap. But now, the corporatization of my old sneakers, like the corporatization of the media and the war in Iraq, is turning me into a radical. And […]

The scene in January was the looming dining room of Spice Street in Chapel Hill, and the atmosphere was warmer than any of Giorgio’s spices. The Independent was honoring the winners of last year’s Citizen’s Awards and the Indies, our Triangle arts awards, and there was an air of appreciation all around. Artists like Andre […]