Day: March 29, 2011
Small Bites
Bake it Pretty raises money for Japan Bake it Pretty opened in early fall of last year in downtown Asheville. The Wall Street store carries kitschy-cute cake decorating supplies — think whale cookie cutters and little beer stein cupcake toppers. "We used those last year for Oktoberfest cupcakes," says owner Amanda Krueger, holding a handful … Read more
Turning the tables
Local physicians will get a chance to become patients Thursday, March 31, as part of the local observance of National Doctors Day. From 6 to 10 a.m. in Mission Hospital’s lobby, doctors can receive a free medical exam, including a blood-pressure check, a tuberculin test and, for male physicians, a prostate exam. The holiday was … Read more
WNC Wellness review
Asheville thrives as regional center of integrative medicine "People from across the country now travel to attend Asheville's herbal medicine and massage schools, something economic development groups want to promote, along with the city's abundance of alternative medicine practitioners." — [Asheville Citizen-Times] Are you overdosing on dairy? "Everyone knows calcium-rich dairy foods are important for … Read more
Bill Branyon has more in common with Billy Graham than he would like to admit
For a self-proclaimed freethinker, Bill Branyon certainly seems unable to form his own philosophy [“We Still Cogitate,” March 9 Xpress]. He criticizes right-wing Christians while lauding the belifs (or non-beliefs) of Socrates, Nietzsche, Vonnegut, Ghandi and Marx … uh, that's Groucho Marx. Branyon and most fundamentalist hypo-Christians could still learn a bit from the teachings … Read more
Road rage recipes
Thanks to your paper, I now know the names of two of the people I might have seen in my rearview mirror, tailgating my bumper while I was driving 10 mph over the limit in the left lane and searching for a way to move over into a crowded right lane [“Drive, He Said” March … Read more
Lit up
Asheville City Council March 22, 2011 meeting Trash pickup may be retooled Living wage approved for city contracts To some observers, it may have seemed as though Asheville City Council members and Ingles Markets were playing a game of development chicken, reaching the cliff’s edge during Council’s March 22 meeting. In February, Council members balked … Read more
New codes, new economy — not new nukes
What would allow our North Carolina legislators to fulfill their campaign promises to create jobs [and] protect homeowners and the environment without new nuclear plants? They have a win-win opportunity if they adopt the new 2012 Energy Conservation Code, which would increase energy efficiency by 15 percent in new residential and 30 percent in commercial … Read more
Whole Foods: The bigger the worse?
Whole Foods Market of Austin,Texas, recently bought Greenlife Grocery’s two stores for about $15 million. When one reads the literature about Whole Foods, it is easy to lose count of the smaller, organic, green local food markets this $8 billion dollar, multinational corporation has bought out. I, for instance, didn't know that the $1 billion, … Read more
It’s working, but …
Local agencies are making progress in implementing the 10-year Plan to End Homelessness, but they need more resources and support. That was the principal message that emerged from the 2011 Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Summit, held March 25 at the Masonic Temple in downtown Asheville. More than 50 representatives of agencies such as Homeward Bound and the … Read more
