JDC

Looks like Sports Illustrated has picked up the story: Click it! If it were my call, I'd go for an artificial surface to maximize the "multi-purpose" potential and let 'em train their groundskeepers elsewhere. It could also be tied to a piece of movie trivia: Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) said in the film there should be "a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf (and the designated hitter)."

Still haven't been to Fishmonger's even though it's only a stone's throw from home. I guess seafood isn't an obvious choice when you're living with a vegetarian! It's great to have crowds most nights at the Brightleaf-area establishments, but the exodus of Fowler's leaves a big hole. I'd love to one day see buildings where the two large parking lots in the middle of the Brightleaf district are, with parking moved toward the old Medical Arts building and westward between Main and Peabody Streets.

oh snap

nurple

I don't like it, but it's true. As Raleigh grows and grows (I mean, it's bigger than Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Cincinnati) I think it deserves to be regarded synonymously with the metro area. But the area being what it is, I don't imagine Fuquay-Varina and Wake Forest natives telling out-of-towners that they're from "Raleigh," and I think we've got decades to go until folks from the Triangle's other two thirds start calling "Raleigh" home. Transplants are a different story. If I were from Detroit and moved from got a job at RTP and moved to Morrisville, I'd probably tell my Detroit friends I was going to Raleigh.

I just hope they don't continue to call it "Raleigh-Durham," as if it's just one city like Winston-Salem. If you want to use both names, use a slash instead.

If that's the case then they can go ahead and replace Orlando ( ) with Portland, Oregon, microbrewery capital of the world.

Jo and Joe's didn't go "out of business" in the traditional sense. The owner, Jo Ann, sold the place due to family obligations in Belize.

^ Seems that way. This was an excellent read. It's refreshing to get some good press from one of the biggest and best papers in the nation. Certainly beats having the N&O slinging mud at us.

I'm looking forward to taking a trip down to Greenville this spring, especially now that Gabe Kapler's the manager!

Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Live at the Royal Albert Hall

last call

I'm planning on moving back north in about a year. My girlfriend and I (and our dog!) are going to be looking for a place to rent in Brookline or Allston, where lots of our friends are living these days. We're hanging on to our property in NC (where we live now) though, taking advantage of one of the hottest housing markets in the nation. I guess that makes me a "carpetbagger," huh?

I hate to kill the continuity, but seriously, this soda can't be "barrel aged" for real.

It'd be a lot cooler if they kept the hotel and never built the "WE WANT OPRAH" building. At least we've got the Marriott now, where I recently spotted some U. Miami football players.

hair

Build apartments and condos that working people can afford to live in. Blend the new buildings with the old. Don't let new buildings build parking structures within them. Charge people to park in the city garages and on the streets; their SUVs take up far too much space to let them park for free. Then when the combined costs of gas and parking (and tolls someday) are too high, people might consider mass transit. When mass transit is a more convenient option than driving, then people will be on the streets. There will be a demand for the buses to run later. Nightspots will stay open later and there will be more of them. People in Glenwood South won't have to drive drunk or designate a driver. Non-entertainment business will follow, brining amenities to the residents and workers of the city. Raleigh has the body of a great city. It just lacks the soul.

lemon

A bit obvious, but I'll say it anyway: affordable housing I don't mean housing projects, I mean condos between $100-200k and more apartments that rent for less than $700 or $800 a month. Get more people living there, and drive up the demand for places to stay open into the evening. I find it quite odd that when I take the bus into Moore Square on a weeknight that the sandwich shops and coffee houses are all closed - even before sunset.

Raleigh & Durham were the number one ranked city (well, cities) on the Men's Health story, "Where's life's a gamble," which lists 95 cities ranked on how much gambling takes place there. Greensboro came in at #2 and Charlotte at #4. Really, with #3 Anchorage, Alaska aside, the odds (no pun intended) of you gambling in the state of North Carolina are much lower than anywhere else in the country! from Men's Health *Places with no legalized gambling (SLC and Honolulu) and New Orleans/Baton Rouge (due to recent catastrophes) were left off the list.

Oh, god. I hate hearing people call it that. I grew up not too far from Marshfield, MA. EVERYONE I knew there called it Marsh-vegas. I don't get it!

I took an out-of-towner to DT Raleigh via the S Saunders route. When we rounded that curve when the skyline appears right in front of you, she gasped!

Yeah, Rachael Ray is pretty much queen of the boneheads. "Little" does she know that "Little" Durham (pop. 204,000) is bigger than Providence, Savannah, Salt Lake City, Ft. Lauderdale and "Little" Rock. Durham County's population is closer to the 250k figure. And yes, there's around 6000 undergraduate Dookies at any given moment.

I don't get that channel. Wish I could see that show.

Good stuff. Cure for Pain is great to listen to after a hectic day (or night).