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December 26th, 2019 Greetings from Carrboro, They appear like clockwork this time of year. So many in fact that they scare Carrboro’s rather large deer population back into the woods. Like some rare flower that blooms once each year, an inordinate number of awkward extended families suddenly blossom on the streets of my neighborhood the week after […]

December 19th, 2019 Greetings from Carrboro, There’s this thing I do. Case in point: whenever I’m at the grocery store and my spidey sense says that I may be out of mayonnaise, I buy a large container of Duke’s. Thoughtfully precautionary. Or, that’s my rationale when I get home and put that jar next to […]

December 13th, 2019 Greetings from Carrboro, There’s the initial panic phase. The manic, early December hopelessness that is quickly soothed by the calm-down-and-have-a-cookie phase. Then I slide into a frisky oooh-the-mall-will-be-fun phase. Only to be harshly and immediately chastised by the what-the-hell-were-you-thinking-run-away-now phase. Which, in turn, leads back to a more resonant and insistent panic phase […]

November 28th, 2019 Greetings from Carrboro, It was brutally clear to Max. The word was dead wrong and I could not use it. Period. His point was this; there are dictionary meanings to words that are completely trumped by our experience of the word. “Share,” he said, “was destroyed by the 70s. Use divide instead.” And Max was right. […]

Greetings from Carrboro, I was nervous. And it wasn’t merely the illicit nature of the transaction. The first time she sold me some it was in a re-purposed Ragu jar. While that may reek of hipster authenticity, it is important to note that authenticity at first blush has the profound whiff of the seriously sketchy when […]

Greetings from Carrboro, It’s a personal struggle. I like to think that it’s possibly genetic. Though admittedly, my foray into 23&Me didn’t flag such hereditary hallmarks. But blaming parents is such an easy solution compared to wading into the hows and whys of my professional failings. Fate is such an enticing scapegoat. The truth is that I […]

Greetings from Carrboro, Walking through the farmers’ market, it sure as hell didn’t feel like fall. But “be prepared” was what I was always told in Boy Scouts. So I bought them anyway; climate change be damned. The calendar did say October if, just barely. And I had a job to do and a date […]

Thursday, October 10th, 2019 Greetings from Carrboro, I got a TV. The thing is wildly embarrassing. It’s like 4 times the size of any screen that I’ve ever owned. And weighs about as much as a large pizza. Is it me or does all of this newfangled modern stuff feel so much more rife with […]

Thursday, October 3rd, 2019 Greetings from Carrboro, Most of them are handwritten. Simple index cards, often front and back, the name of the dish underlined at the top left. Each one is attributed deliberately in parenthesis “(Clara, Mrs. R. D. Bunn)” at the top right. There are hundreds of them. My grandmother organized the recipes […]

Greetings from Carrboro, Potlucks are scary. Because, face it, a lot of people can’t cook. Ok, shouldn’t cook. Yet they somehow still feel guiltily tied to the mast of that sinking culinary ship and oh-so-kindly drag us along for the ride. Thank god there’s no equivalent assembly demanding everyone sport clothes that they made themselves. Lord knows, […]