On a brittle morning last February, Will Blozan and his colleague, Jess Riddle, along with fellow arborists Jason Childs and Josh Kelley, drove west from Black Mountain to Cataloochee Valley, in the eastern part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The peaks that surround the valley—Mount Sterling and Mount Guyot—were a confection of frozen … Read more
Efforts to end the long-running controversy surrounding Greenlife Grocery and its Maxwell Street neighbors have been plagued by repeated fits and starts and false hopes of a final resolution. But now that Superior Court has dismissed Maxwell Street resident Reid Thompson‘s lawsuit against the city and Greenlife has come up with a plan to take … Read more
Flavor: Old-fashioned, wood-smoked barbecue, no fancy trappings Ambiance: Clean, plain and cozy A drastic highchair shortage in a self-billed “family restaurant” is a serious problem. Then again, it also proves the moniker right: Opened last fall in Swannanoa, Okie Dokies Smokehouse is nothing if not a family restaurant. On a recent Friday-night visit, approximately one … Read more
Lynda Doucette is the South District supervisor for resource education at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I sat down with her recently to learn more about her career in the National Park Service and her experiences in the nation’s most-visited park. On the job: Great Smokies ranger Linda Doucette … Read more
Perhaps you’ve already resolved to quit smoking, lose weight or just generally be a better person in 2008. But why stop there? Maybe this is the year you resolve to make a career change—or at least take steps to make your current career more successful and meaningful. Going places: Looking for your calling? Life coach … Read more
Is there a doctor in the house?: Next month, Nantahala Outdoor Center will play host to a Wilderness First Responder course. The nationally recognized program trains participants to render aid when emergencies happen in remote settings. The 80-hour curriculum includes savory things such as wound and infection management, realignment of fractures and dislocations, improvised splinting … Read more
“Exceptional” is a deceptive term when used to describe the current drought in most of North Carolina. If it’s so unusual, we may feel we don’t need to plan for a repeat of such conditions in the future. But most climate-change scenarios predict that we’ll probably have more periods of extended drought in the Southeast. … Read more
Just what is a Super Tuscan anyhow? And can you discern it from a Chianti? For those many, many wine drinkers who couldn’t respond with a confident “si,” Asheville Wine Consulting is offering a class in Italian Wines. “Italian Wine Demystified” is scheduled for the evening of Jan. 17 at Hops & Vines, 797 Haywood … Read more
Drama fans likely recognize José Rivera as the writer who penned the screenplay for The Motorcycle Diaries—the award-winning film about revolutionary Che´ Guevara’s early life. That film earned Rivera the distinction in 2005 as the first Puerto Rican to be nominated for an Oscar, although his playwriting career began more than two decades earlier and … Read more
I am sick of all TV political ads, in particular those from Romney and Huckabee. I find them offensive. They are playing to only one segment of the U.S. population and say only what their “people” want to hear. Like all Republicans, they are not interested in serving or representing “we the people,” but only … Read more
