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January 30th, 2020   Greetings from Carrboro, At least I’m lucky enough to have an excuse; I work on Valentine’s Day. And Night. The rest of you, not so much. You can try to deny it. Bluster all you want about a Hallmark holiday. Fight the man! But my 30-odd year run of working every […]

Greetings from Carrboro, Forgive me. I don’t usually wade this deep into pop culture. But I couldn’t help it. Watching all the drama unfold around Prince Harry, William, Meghan, et al reminded me how much we relegate all sorts of things to sibling rivalry. The eldest and the youngest. And the privileges, foibles, and responsibilities […]

Greetings from Carrboro, We’d inevitably bowl on my birthday. Late January sort of dramatically limited the at-home party possibilities for a dozen kids. Plus, Park Lanes had hot dogs and pinball and all my friends liked wearing the green & red shoes. Mom would buy a cake from the Federal Bake Shop for us to […]

Greetings from Carrboro, The winery was fairly busy for a Wednesday afternoon. Couples were arrayed at the bar next to me, sipping and nodding California-like as the peppy sales team regaled them with the virtues of the different wines. I had an appointment with the winemaker and tried to appear nonchalantly un-sketchy in my solo-ness […]

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 […]