The Gospel According to Jerry: Fur­nishing the Great Room

Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of Jerry Sternberg’s continuing “Life in Seely’s Castle” saga. It could have been the set for one of those stuffy old English movies where the royalty sit around in their robes surrounded by their fittingly dressed councilors and courtiers harrumphing about the commoners’ shortcomings. The very enormity of […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

Editor’s note: For the first two installments of this continuing saga, see “Seely’s Castle, an Asheville Wonder” (May 9 Xpress) and “Buying Seely’s Castle” (June 20). The first question people would ask when they heard about my acquiring Seely’s Castle was “What’s it like living in that place?” The answer was, “Actually we just camp […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

Everybody dreams of being king for a day, but I became a king for several years. Not really, though I did get to live in a real castle, which was certainly a very special life experience. High above Asheville, right off Town Mountain Road, sits an imposing stone castle offering spectacular panoramic views. The 20,000-square-foot […]

The gospel according to Jerry

I’ve been having a hard time getting my head around the Occupy Asheville movement. After reading many news reports, I’m still bewildered. I may be classified as a member of the 1 per cent, but I strongly believe that many in the 99 percent are getting the short end of the economic stick. Over the […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

If you own a home, farm or business, you could suffer huge losses when Jesse James and his Eminent Domain Gang ride onto your spread — unless you know what to do. I speak from experience here, having recently concluded a run-in with the Metropolitan Sewerage District. I’m not a lawyer, but here’s my take […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

In case you haven't noticed, Asheville and Buncombe County have been inundated by a political tsunami. As an amateur political seismologist, I can tell you that the underlying political earthquake came from several directions and still caught most of us by surprise. There were the national tremors caused by the bad economy, unemployment and huge […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

Two recent Asheville Citizen-Times articles really caught my attention. One said that Rep. Heath Shuler had co-sponsored a bill to withdraw government funding from Planned Parenthood. The other reported that state Rep. Patsy Keever, with whom I’ve had serious political differences, bravely cast the lone vote against a law banning anyone considered a sex offender […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

I am about to commit an act of blasphemy that will rival Salman Rushdie's insult to the Prophet Muhammad and may create an equivalent firestorm. But before you start heating the tar buckets and fetch the rail, please keep in mind that at this point, I am merely postulating, not advocating. Still, with March Madness […]

House of triumph

Every so often there’s a story that just cries out to be told; this is one of them. There are two classes of very special young people at A.C. Reynolds High School. These “intensive intervention” classes serve young people ages 15 to 21 who’ve been diagnosed with a wide range of disabilities, from autism to […]

Hand-me-down memories

As I begin my ninth decade of living in Asheville and reflect upon holiday memories from my youth, I find an interesting dichotomy. Here are a couple of examples. I’ve written about attending the city schools in the 1930s and ’40s and my discomfort at having to endure daily Christian prayers and Bible readings as […]

Then and now

Watching the children scurry around getting ready for school again, I can’t help but remember my own first entrance into that huge, gleaming-white, Merrimon Avenue monolith known as Claxton School some 74 years ago. I had lived in the neighborhood for two years, and now I was finally ready to join my older pals as […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

For some time now, I've been reflecting on the astonishing visit of our president and first lady, who chose Asheville to enjoy a brief respite from the unbelievably trying duties of the office of president and the leadership of the free world. It's significant that these two people of color chose to stay at the […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

The recent discussions among Asheville's "progressive-leaning" City Council members have cooked up some real food for thought. In a recent City Council meeting, Council member Gordon Smith made an eloquent appeal to provide city employees with same-gender partners — I don't agree with labeling them "same-sex partners," because we can't assume that they have sex […]

The Gospel According to Jerry: Hawaii oh no

I am mad as hell about the Airport Authority delegation's $13,000 trip to sunny Hawaii in the dead of winter to attend the Aviation Issues Conference. I'm not mad because the delegation went to Hawaii; I'm mad because the local press irresponsibly sensationalized the issue. They served up this red herring to a populace already […]

Turkey in the straw

When I attended UNC-Chapel Hill in the late '40s, most students viewed the holiday season as a time to relax. For me it represented economic opportunity. My parents had saved to pay my college expenses, but I was responsible for earning my spending money. My first year home from college, a close family friend gave […]

Traffic Calming

The city gaveth, and the city must taketh away. I have been on a crusade of sorts for the last year and a half. At issue is the city's inept, ineffective and dangerous attempt at traffic calming in north Asheville, on Charlotte Street and on Macon and Kimberly avenues. In the spring of 2008, City […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

By 1936, the Great Depression had savaged the nation and the world, and Asheville and Buncombe County were left in dire financial circumstances. Schoolteachers were being paid in scrip (IOUs from the county that some local merchants reluctantly accepted, at deep discounts, so that teachers could buy the bare necessities of life). Land was still […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

I suffer from the same senior malady as most of my peers in that I can’t remember what I had for breakfast or where I left my cell phone, but I am blessed with an uncanny recall of things that happened when I was a very small child. Given the present economic situation, I thought […]

The Gospel According to Jerry

Ever wonder why Asheville is such a clown town when it comes to local politics? Our City Council works very hard with good and honorable intentions, but they seem to trip over their personal agendas, egos and lack of pragmatism. My conclusion is that this is because they’re elected by, and only hear the drumbeat […]