Maurice Washington’s brother-in-law was gunned down, caught in a drug dealers’ crossfire, while walking outside the Shiloh Community Center five years ago. And Washington says drug pushers are still terrorizing that traditionally black neighborhood. He wants to know what city officials are doing about it. That still-burgeoning drug problem was the chief concern aired by […]
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Notepad
One man’s trash… With all the enthusiastic recyclers in our area, it should come as no surprise that Asheville will soon host the Carolina Recycling Association’s 10th annual Shoot for the Stars Conference and Trade Show. The regional association, said to be the largest state-based recycling organization in the country, bills the conference as the […]
Letters to the editor
Free speech vs. our culture of complaint The estimable C. E. “Buzz” Johnson’s sloppy column, “Free Speech 2000” [Commentary, Feb. 23] is a paranoid, self-righteous, vague lecture on civility in free speech. “Buzz” bleats, “Should we really be allowed to insult, put down, attack, threaten, etc., fellow human beings … without some sort of reprimand […]
If I were mayor
One of my favorite games is If I Were Mayor. It has one player: me. Naturally, it’s lots of fun — because I always win. But then, you can play, too. The rules are simple: You are the mayor and supreme ruler of your city or town. (If you’re a county resident, you get to […]
Head of the class
Humor and religion are two things people rarely associate with each other. They sample the latter as an intermittent opiate — something to assuage the insecurities of day-to-day living — or else elevate it to a life-or-death matter. Either way, it’s not very funny. But Maripat Donovan and Vicki Quade — authors of the wildly […]
Whispered annihilation
When Lillian Hellman sat down to write her first play 65 years ago, she surely had no idea that her virgin effort would land her squarely in the bright, hot spotlight. But The Children’s Hour is as bitingly fresh today as it was in 1934. Hellman’s dramas are legendary for stripping away the various disguises […]
Lifting the veil
How to know God? For humankind, this fundamental question can also be one of the most perplexing — if not the most daunting — tasks of our oh-so-earthly existence. But renowned physician, author, theologian and alternative-medicine exponent par excellence Deepak Chopra offers a road map for that very quest in his new book, How to […]
Labor of love
The acronym may be borrowed, but the music of AVAS — the Acoustic Vibration Appreciation Society — is some of the freshest newgrass to hit the scene in years. AVAS is made up of members of several hot local groups, and their self-titled debut CD (Little King, 2000) is proof that they merit recognition among […]
Strength in numbers
There’s a different sort of energy generated when women gather without men to make art. Of course, 50 percent of the world’s population should already be aware of this — though the other half may choose to ignore, denigrate or fear that energy. Or, they could explore it: Women working together (if I may be […]
Prime Prine
He’s written from the point of view of a middle-aged woman racked with disappointment and regret, and a lonely elderly man reminiscing about long-dead friends and family. Sure, John Prine’s chameleonic metamorphosis into his characters in songs like “Angel From Montgomery” and “Hello in There” (both from his 1971 debut album) is impressive. But the […]
Undoing past mistakes
[Editor’s note: As we went to press, news arrived that the Haywood County Commissioners had voted on Feb. 25 to withdraw from the two-county WNC Regional Air Pollution Control Agency, effective July 1, sending agency board members and staff into turmoil. A special meeting of the board has been called for Wednesday, March 1 at […]
Nuggets from the baghouse
[Editor’s note: A “baghouse,” industry’s cheapest and most commonly used air-pollution-control device, is a box filled with conical or cylindrical filters — like giant vacuum-cleaner bags — that trap particulates in dirty air before it is sent out the smokestack.] Natural gas burns much cleaner than regular gasoline — which is why the APCA is […]
Asheville City Council
After killing the proposed Parks and Open Spaces Ordinance by a 3-3 vote, the Asheville City Council, at its Feb. 22 formal session, directed city staff to explore the possibility of establishing conservation easements for all city-park properties. (A tie vote automatically kills any item coming before Council.) The easements would deter the city from […]
Letters to the editor
Wave that flag (upside-down) While we’re on the subject of flags, why don’t we fly the American stars and bars upside-down — to remind us of the atrocities that the U.S. government committed against Native Americans? — Don HumphriesAsheville Local means of affecting U.S. foreign policy In the waning days of Apartheid, South Africa found […]
Artists or vandals?
Walking along any random day in Asheville, one may choose to look at the many buildings, the multivarious concoction of people, the ground — or sometimes, even, the writing on the walls. A great many people consider graffiti, and other such forms of expression, a public nuisance. The truth is, though, these modern hieroglyphics reveal […]
Civic Center circus continues
“Well, it looks like they’ve done it again. Paid good money for something that’s not worth a tinker’s damn. The thinking doesn’t make sense. Never even reaches a logical conclusion.” — former city engineering-staff member Instead of spending maybe $25 million on renovation of the Civic Center, the latest professional consultant thinks we ought to […]
The straight poop
[Editors note: Colonic hydrotherapy is just one of a long line of “alternative” therapies particularly popular in Asheville — and purported to cure what ails you. What follows is one man’s personal odyssey into his innermost being.] The journey into my inner “self” began innocently enough, with an article I read in a men’s magazine. […]
While Rome burns
When I was a kid, it was considered quite proper to give your father a carton of cigarettes for Christmas. And, years later, my mother-in-law, who was a doctor, told me that the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company used to send cartons of Camels to physicians of all types (including pediatricians), in order to make […]
Asheville City Council
Council member Charles Worley is still reeling from the effects of nine hours’ worth of brain-twisting debate. Stricken with a staph infection and confined to a hospital bed, Worley nonetheless managed to keep a telephone plastered to his ear until the bitter end of Council’s Feb. 8 formal session, which lasted till 2 a.m. But […]
Notepad
Don’t do me any favors When Mountain Home Fire Chief Jimmy Gasperson agreed to burn off the brush in a far corner of Henderson County’s Mill Pond Cemetery, little did he know he was about to become embroiled in a flap that would attract the attention of local newspapers and even the nightly news. But […]
Letters to the editor
Break the (e-mail) chain If you have an e-mail account, you probably receive silly forwarded chain-letter e-mails. I’m so sick of chain e-mails. Some are merely annoying — like the “Good Luck Teddy Bear.” Others are vaguely interesting, but replace actual conversation — like the form letter asking mildly nosy questions like, “Describe your first […]