Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 105 of 153).

Raleigh #1 Best City in Businessweek.com ranking

Businessweek.com ranked Raleigh the #1 Best City in America. It’s just one more in a long list of accolades for my city.

I had to laugh when the article referenced Raleigh’s “attractive pedestrian mall” downtown, siting an obviously outdated city bio in Frommer’s. We got rid of that concrete abomination back in 2006.

Businessweek.com spent months working with data that would help us to identify the best cities in the U.S. We looked at a range of positive metrics around quality of life, counted up restaurants, evaluated school scores, and considered the number of colleges and pro sports teams. All these factors and more add up to a city that would seem to offer it all. When we began the process we had no idea which cities would come out on top. The winner? Raleigh, N.C.

via Which Is America’s Best City? – Businessweek.com.

Update 5:21 PM: Businessweek.com has since removed the reference to Raleigh’s defunct pedestrian mall. Now the only remaining questions are where are the 51 museums, 867 restaurants, and 110 bars cited in the story? Can anyone name them all? I think those stats might apply to a wider area than just Raleigh, though I’d be surprised if even the entire Triangle had 867 restaurants.

Eliza Greenough


Congratulations to my friends Erin and Scott Greenough on the birth of their beautiful daughter, Eliza!

Music to a parent’s ears

Yesterday, Kelly met with the kids’ teachers and got feedback on their performance thus far in the school year. Hallie’s teacher took note that she is “a very strong leader.” Travis’s teacher told Kelly “I love having him in my class. I wish I could clone him.”

If I get nothing else accomplished in this world, I will be happy to have helped raise two outstanding kids.

What should the White House do? Panic!

Here’s a CNN op-ed by James Carville. I think he’s on to something.

As I watch the Republican debates, I realize that we are on the brink of a crazy person running our nation. I sit in front of the television and shudder at the thought of one of these creationism-loving, global-warming-denying, immigration-bashing, Social-Security-cutting, clean-air-hating, mortality-fascinated, Wall-Street-protecting Republicans running my country.

The course we are on is not working. The hour is late, and the need is great. Fire. Indict. Fight.

via What should the White House do? Panic! – CNN.com.

Obama at N.C. State

Obama visits N.C. State


Well, any doubt I had about enthusiasm for Obama was answered today when Obama spoke in N.C. State’s Reynolds Coliseum. Actually, those doubts were allayed yesterday when I saw thousands of people waiting to get tickets for today’s speech.

I drove to N.C. State’s McKimmon Center around 9:30 and soon ran into my friend Alan Porter and his daughter, Audrey. We rode the shuttle to campus and waited in line together. Audrey was a wonderful companion, talking with me the whole time. I know she and my daughter Hallie would hit it off.
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Solar pioneers needed

Photo by Gray Watson


I got this email from a organization I signed up for, One Block Off The Grid. It seems Raleigh is only 67 homes short of qualifying for this program of group-purchases of solar panels.

If you’re interested in going solar, sign up at One Block Off The Grid and let’s close the gap!

Hi Mark,

Our national campaign for solar is going strong! So far, 2,198 counties in the U.S. have active group deals on solar available and hundreds of homeowners have received free solar roof evaluations in 40 different states. There are still 943 U.S. counties, though, where the group deal on solar hasn’t tipped yet.
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Job creation reminder at the NCGA

Since I don’t have a job I thought I would head over to the North Carolina General Assembly and remind the bozos in charge that their job is to create jobs. Shawn Rocco of the N&O snapped my picture.

How does this get me a job?

I might not have a job yet but at least my marriage is now safer from teh gays.

Update 9:39 AM Tuesday: My photo ran prominently at the top of page 6A of today’s paper. Maybe I’ll get my question answered, after all!

In all seriousness, I really, really do want the NCGA leadership to explain what this issue has to do with creating jobs. And they were wise not to take public comment yesterday because I would’ve given them an earful. My expression in this photo is one of legitimate frustration.

Ted Cassidy

The kids have discovered the Addams Family TV show courtesy of Netflix. I forgot how good the writing is on this show, and the humorous, amorous interaction between Gomez and Morticia.

While the show is full of great comedy actors, the star of the show in my opinion is Lurch, played by Ted Cassidy. Cassidy has the fewest lines in the show yet he manages to steal every scene he’s in. His timing is perfect. I love the way Lurch simply turns away from Gomez when he doesn’t want to do something.

Cassidy also played Thing in the show. He went on to play memorable roles in other TV shows and do voiceover work until his untimely death in 1979.

Point Roberts – America’s most exclusive “gated community”

I just hung up our new map of the San Juan Islands and became curious about a little sliver of America at the end of a peninsula that’s otherwise Canadian: Point Roberts, Washington. It’s one of a handful of quirky American places that aren’t connected by land to the continental United States. I’d like to check it out someday!

Point Roberts (known locally as “Point Bob” or “The Point”) is an unincorporated community in Whatcom County, Washington, United States. It has a post office, with the ZIP code of 98281,[2] whose ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) had a population of 1,314 at the 2010 census.

A geopolitical oddity, Point Roberts is a part of the United States (that is not an island) that is not physically connected to it, making it a pene-exclave of the U.S. It is located on the southernmost tip of the Tsawwassen Peninsula, south of Delta, British Columbia, Canada, and can be reached by land from the rest of the United States only by traveling through Canada. It can be reached directly from the rest of Washington and the U.S. by crossing Boundary Bay by sea or air.

via Point Roberts, Washington – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hasher run through Raleigh

Tonight a neighbor sent an email to the CAC list, alerting our neighbors to unusual activity. People were running through the neighborhood but they weren’t up to no good and the cops (as far as I know) weren’t chasing them.What were they up to? They are “hashers” on a hasher run, an activity that combines drinking and running.

My neighbor describes it as:

an extreme fun-run club that chases a ‘hare’ thru odd locations and they started their run at the Oakwood Dog Park tonite.

Some clubs describe themselves as “a drinking club with a running problem.”
It sounds like my kind of running club! According to The Wikipedia:

At a Hash, one or more members (Hares) lay a trail, which is then followed by the remainder of the group (the Pack or Hounds). The trail often includes false trails, short cuts, dead ends, and splits. These features are designed to keep the pack together regardless of fitness level or running speed, as front-runners are forced to slow down to find the “true” trail, allowing stragglers to catch up.

Apparently, hashers are given nicknames, many of which are bawdy.

If you’d like to engage in this irreverent foolishness, sign up with Carolina Larrikins Hash House Harriers or find another group near you!