The other 9/11 A half-decade after hijacked planes plowed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside, the mention of Sept. 11 still has the power to evoke strong feelings. It spurs recollections of images seared into the mind: plumes of smoke from the collapsed towers or news clips of victims’ … Read more
Hey, watch where you’re putting that arrow: Hunting/fishing guide Garrett Thompson will compete in the 2006 Field & Stream Total Outdoorsman Challenge, Sept. 8-9 in Nashville, Tenn., giving the Marion local a chance to win the first-place prize of $4,000. During the competition, would-be Total Outdoorsmen must prove their mettle at seven different outdoor skills: … Read more
What:A series presented by Earth Fare with Culinary Specialist Chris Aquilino, featuring beer dinners that showcase regional brews and wine dinners that highlight local distributorsAmbiance: Dressed up enough that you forget you’re in a grocery storeOf Note: The next event, Sept. 28 at 6 p.m., will feature the French Broad Brewing Company Beer is quickly … Read more
For years now, the sound from North Carolina industry — traditional industry, at any rate — has been more funeral dirge than fanfare. Globalization, NAFTA, outsourcing, plant closings, you name it: The news hasn’t been good. Meanwhile, a major change has quietly been taking place in the industrial sector. As textiles and furniture manufacturing have … Read more
Our mountain communities are becoming nothing more than pictures in real estate pamphlets. There’s an old fellow and his wife who live up the creek from me. He’s getting up in years, well past 80, but he still puts in a big garden and a large tater patch. His wife cans some of the produce, … Read more
How green was my rooftop? I just read Mountain X‘s coverage of the last City Council discussion of the Civic Center with its leaks [“A Heaping Helping,” Sept. 5] and noted that Jan Davis was quoted as saying, “The biggest problem it has is its stigma. We have to change the image … of that … Read more
courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The earliest memory I have of my dad is of him losing a fish. We were standing on the mud bank of a green cow-pasture pond, watching our bobber sit inert on the water, and then — BAM! It dunked and zigzagged wildly across the small pond, my dad … Read more
It’s hard to overestimate the impact of the chestnut’s demise. It once covered fully 25 percent of forested land from Maine to Alabama. A chestnut branch My neighborhood trees have started dropping their green nuts, reminding me of all the nut trees I wish I’d planted over the years. I’ve grown apples, peaches and cherries, … Read more
Pottering around: Now is the time to start sizing up herbs and other plants you may want to pot up before frost. If you have pots available and a clear idea which plants you’ll be saving, you can wait until frost is imminent before doing the deed. It’s not a bad time to plan for … Read more
There’s a reason for the “starving artist” stereotype: It’s true. Making a living in the arts is hard for anyone, and that goes double in a relatively small city like Asheville. It all boils down to supply and demand. Our fair city may be a haven for creative types, many of whom moved here because … Read more
