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Jeff Davis photo
A Winter Move . . .
A long exposure shows the movement of the clouds as they fly through Randolph and Chatham County last week. The thirty second exposure also caught the streaks of light from a passing vehicle
moving down the road. The old oak tree is also a stark reminder that winter is still here and hopefully Spring will be here quickly.
And the
Groundhog
says . . .
Well, by now we should
know.
No, not who won the Super
Bowl, although if you didn’t
know, New England pulled
out a win.
But as far as Groundhog Day,
which was Monday, February
2nd and whether
or not
we’ve got six
more weeks
of winter or
if Spring is
coming sooner
than expected.
Mr. P, as I refer to him or
Punxsutawney
Phil, the notorious groundhog from Pennsylvania where
they make a big ta-do. I mean
it is the official site of the
Groundhog Club.
They bring him out and parade him around. Then let the
critter decide if we get more
winter . . . or not.
Now, I don’t know about
all you readers out there, but
Chatham County has their fair
share of woodchucks, a.k.a
groundhogs.
I see them about everywhere
around here, munching on
grass by the side of the road as
I go whizzing by.
And they don’t bat an eye when
a 3,000 pound or so vehicle
comes barrelling through.
Guess they must like the
breeze.
Of course, then there are the
ones that get a little closer than
they should to the road and
find themselves in perilous
danger and they don’t seem to
be as quick as they think they
are, winding up on the short
end of the
stick, if you
know what
I mean.
Use to, you
wouldn’t
find them
around,
By Jeff Davis especially
close to the
city limits.
I don’t remember seeing one
around when I was little.
It’s like they multiplied and
moved into closer quarters.
But the tongue-twisting saying has been around forever.
“How much wood could a
woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? “
Whoever came up with that
must of had some problems
with the ole woodchuck,
ahem, groundhog.
Growing up I would always
hear of the Groundhog Party,
that get-together that former
Congressman Ike Andrews
would have.
I would hear about it, then
Feb. 5, 2015 Edition
My
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An entertaining phenomenon
My earliest movie-going
memory is of seeing, at the ripe
age of five, Clint Eastwood in
the World War II action film
“Kelly‘s Heroes.”
For days after during that
summer of 1970, I pretended I
was a soldier, operating a tank,
fighting Germans. “Kelly’s
Heroes,” like a handful of
other war movies of that era
– “The Great Escape,” “The
Dirty Dozen” -- made grand
entertainment of war while
also making war look like
fun, which is appealing to a
five-year-old boy.
In the years since, Clint
Eastwood has produced a
steady stream of movies, both
as an actor and a director.
Sometimes, his movies
spark debate, as the gritty classic “Dirty Harry” did in the
early Seventies. Sometimes,
they’re mindless fun, like
“Every Which Way But
Loose,” in which Eastwood costarred with a comical orangutan named Clyde.
His latest movie, “American
Sniper,” which he directed, is
something else: a cultural phenomenon.
When we saw it at the multiplex in Sanford a couple of
weekends back, it was already
carrying that weight, drawing
in big audiences while dividing
critics, with many praising it as
Randall
Reflects . . .
By
Randall
powerful and hailing Bradley
Cooper’s portrayal of the late
Navy SEAL Chris Kyle; others
criticizing it for simplifying or
muddling our recent history in
the Middle East.
The theater on the Saturday
afternoon we went was packed
to near capacity, the audience
rapt, a handful of viewers applauding at the end, and everyone exiting the theater as the
final credits rolled in solemn
silence.
Documentary
filmmaker
Michael Moore, whose work
I’ve also enjoyed, seems everready for controversy and
sparked some on Twitter, calling snipers “cowards.”
Eastwood
himself
has
weighed in, describing the controversial film as “anti-war.”
After seeing the movie,
something noted scholar Noam
Chomsky didn’t even do before
he weighed in with criticism, I
agree with Eastwood. Nothing
about “American Sniper”
makes war look glamorous or
pleasant.
They really are
‘grand’ children
Siler City’s Leslie Fletcher
often remarked when speaking of his grandchildren that
if he’d “known how much fun
they were I’d have skipped
over having children and gone
straight to grandchildren.”
While that quote wasn’t original with him, he was quick to
utter it when speaking of that
generation and how much its
members meant to him. I don’t
think I’ve ever said it but I do
understand the thought. That’s
not to say I don’t care for and
about my own offspring, the
two 30-somethings (although
one has aged out of that) who
used to be teenagers who
lived at my house. Through
the years I have enjoyed them
. . . and still do.
But the people they have produced bring me considerable
joy and pleasure of another
kind. Since the first one arrived a little more than nine
years ago, I’ve tried very
hard not to show the 23 pictures in my wallet to everyone I see. And I don’t have a
“Let Me Tell You About My
Grandchildren” bumper stick-
er on the truck.
And since I don’t do social media, there are no pictures from
me of the cute little things at
various stages of their existences. But I do relish their time
spent with me and always want
more
Movin’
Around . . .
By Bob
Wachs
At the moment there are three
of those folks with another one
due to put in an appearance any
day. That little one will be my
next door neighbor, joining his
or her older sister in that category. And while I don’t have
favorites (honestly) I do get to
spend more time with the nextdoor model since she’s here and
the other two aren’t.
And as I think of her and time
we spend together, the lessons
in life and insights that come
from that time are sometimes
overwhelming. First of all,
for instance, is the reality that
when she enters the house
and immediately starts looking for me and holds up her
outstretched arms on finding
her quest that I become mush.
It is absolutely necessary, at
least it is to me, that I devote
full time and attention to her
and whatever is on her mind.
There is no substitute for not
being focused. When I’m with
her I’m with her.
After a few moments of whatever we’re doing she turns to
something else. That same
uplifted hand holds itself out,
knowing I will reach down
to have my finger grasped
tightly so we can wobble on
to our next adventure. Her
smile and/or jabber is reward
for knowing I have acted appropriately.
At this stage of her game, her
wants are few and simple . .
. to be held or read to again
(and again) from a favorite
book, especially one about
giving a pig a party or ten little
Feb. 5, 2015 Edition
Where “Kelly’s Heroes,”
shot and released during the
Vietnam War, used war as a
comic backdrop for high adventure, “American Sniper,”
shot and filmed during the
ongoing and seemingly neverending War on Terror, is an altogether different experience,
realistic, intense, moving.
But at the end of the day,
they’re both just movies and
both do very well what they
set out to do, which is entertain.
A season
to govern
By Tom Campbell
The writer of Ecclesiastes
was correct. For everything
there is a season and a time for
every purpose under heaven.
The 2011 and 2013 legislative sessions made, arguably,
some of the most dramatic
changes in the past century.
As this new session of The
General Assembly begins its
work let us declare that this is
a season to govern.
For the first time since 2008,
North Carolina’s unemployment rate is below the national average, another indicator
that we are recovering from
The Great Recession. In response to that recession state
spending was cut and our legislative leaders determined
the way to economic recovery was to make cuts to personal and corporate income
taxes. Financial experts ran
models to forecast how these
cuts would impact our state,
but they were, at best, only
projections. Nobody knew
for certain their impact but
early indications show state
revenues are lower than projected. Not sufficiently low
to cause panic, but enough to
warrant attention. Now isn’t
the time to make more major
changes to the revenue side
of the state budget.
Better governance might
consider ways to make government work more effectively. We’ve tried spending
more for results and we’ve
tried across the board budget
cuts when we didn’t think
government worked as well
as we wanted, but with a $20
billion state budget let’s concentrate on making governFeb. 5, 2015 Edition