Lots of praise on the Internet for Allison Hussey’s oral history of the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ breakthrough record, Hot.
Writes Elisson: “I kinda discovered the Zippers by accident while going through bins of CDs at Borders. (Remember CDs? Remember Borders?) The Inevitable had an interesting sound. Did I care that it had a sort of swing vibe? I did not. It had a few cuts that had an old-timey feel, but what I liked about it was that it sounded different. It wasn’t quite like anything out there at the time. Of course, when Hot came out, I snapped it up immediately. At the time, my daughter lived not too far from the actual Squirrel Nut Zippers factory in Cambridge, Massachusettsthe one pictured on the cover of Hot. It’s smaller than you’d thinklike the band’s career, alas.”
“Great article, thorough and well-researched,” adds aburtch. “Plus, oral histories are a cool way to tell a first-hand, authentic story. Too bad Katharine [Whalen] didn’t want to be interviewed, but what can you do?”
Moving on to the world of politics. TonyD has some thoughts about Richard Burr’s attempts to tar Deborah Ross as insufficiently patriotic (Soapboxer, August 10). “Burr, if anyone has noticed, is nothing but an asshole and a corporate lackey. He works for corporations and not for the citizens of this state. He has supported everything bad that has happened here in our beautiful state, and, left to Republicans, our state will be nothing but poisoned water and land and air.”
On Twitter, DB Foland took Governor McCrory to task for the unfolding coal ash scandal at the Department of Health and Human Services (Soapboxer, August 17): “@PatMcCroryNC and the #GOP NC legislature continue to prove that corporate profits are more important to them than our kids health.”
Meanwhile, two tweeters pointed out that our post about McCrory’s decision to wade into the bogus Iran “ransom” hubbub might not have been newsworthy: “I adore you, @indyweek,” writes Open Mic Tourist, “but Pat McCrory having dumb thoughts can’t be news. If he ever has a smart thought, by all means.” Similarly, from Wilson: “The one thing @PatMcCroryNC does well is ‘dumb.’ He’s the King of Dumb.”
Chris Tiffany says last week’s story about the Durham Police Department’s plans to combat the city’s crime rate is smart. “Homicides are up by a third,” he writes. “Now they plan to use information and ‘intelligence to go after people who are committing crimes, as opposed to’ going after pedestrians violating secret fashion-police rules, color of clothes, hoodies and hats in rain and sun, skin color/race and sexundocumented racial profiling. Sounds intelligent. Go after criminals instead of non-criminals. Good.”
And, on Twitter, Steve Graff notes why the proposed Durham gang truce is so important: “I hope they do this. Three children (16, 11, 11) shot yesterday. This shit’s got to stop!”
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