New bloggers

A couple more people have signed on to blog with us:

Jamie Stamm is our community editor. Aside from the legendary R.V. Hight, Jamie is the only person in the newsroom who predates my arrival. In the newsroom, that is, not, like, the earth. Jamie is a blast to work with and I’m sure you’ll enjoy her blog. Check it out here.

Josh Smith is our advertising director. Josh’s new blog will likely focus on his wife and two sons, as well as his fandom for the University of New Jersey at Durham. Sorry, Josh.

Click them links!

Keep on Shreddin’

This is not real. But it sure is funny.

I’m still laughing, I think. The funniest part is whoever did this obviously knows how to play guitar pretty well. The music wouldn’t be sync’d up so well if he didn’t. People never cease to amaze me.

There are a whole bunch of videos like this on youtube. Most of your favorites are represented.

Too much going on today

Things you can look for in tomorrow’s Herald:

*There was an attempted bank robbery in Sanford this morning. The alleged robber is supposed to have threatened tellers with what he said was a bomb. There was no bomb. The guy was caught. Nobody got hurt.

*The trial of Quintis Spruiell on murder charges is getting off the ground this week at the Lee County Courthouse. I’ll be covering more of this trial as it goes on. Spriuell is alleged by police to have shot another man at Harbour’s Car Wash on Woodland Avenue in November of 2005.

*There’s an alcohol-sales referendum in the unincorporated parts of Lee County today. Jon Owens is writing this story. However it turns out, I’ll be weighing in with my opinion here on my blog after the outcome.

*The Sanford Area Chamber of Commerce is having its annual banquet tonight. Jon Owens is writing this story as well.

*Sports editor Alex Podlogar are working on a story that I can’t talk about just yet. Lots of people have been asking about this for a number of months. Keep your eyes peeled.

I have to get back to things now, but I was thinking about how I didn’t mention Star Trek once in my recent list of favorite shows. I ran across a blog done by a friend of mine that I grew up with in Southern California. He’s lives in L.A. and works in the entertainment biz now, but he’s also part of the reason why I love that show so much. He wrote this the other day, and I couldn’t have said it better:

Star Trek, for the most part, is a really smart, really classy, er, enterprise. For all the theatrical rubber foreheads and karate chops, I’ve come to appreciate the sincerity and ambition of Gene Roddenberry’s idea that — someday — human beings will be better. It pervades the canon, from how decent and noble Starfleet officers are expected to be, to how many stories involve smart people suddenly evolving into superior beings, and to how often greed, violence, and ignorance lead to unhappy endings. It really is a beautiful body of work.

Dead on. Live long and prosper! See you all later this week.

Mitt: What Could Have Been

It was a typical Friday afternoon at The Herald’s newsroom. Everyone was trying to finish up whatever work they had left so they could get their weekend on with earnest, but simultaneously feeling the Friday afternoon fatigue that makes your feet drag when you should be working the hardest.

Anyway, my boss forwards me an e-mail 4 p.m. It’s from the mother of some Cub Scout, saying her son’s troop has been selected to display flags at the Sanford Airport when Mitt Romney comes for a visit on Monday.

Mitt Romney? Sanford? Monday? Cub Scouts?

I’m no fan of Mitt, but it’s always interesting to see these people up close. I met Elizabeth Dole, and I met Richard Burr, and I met Erskine Bowles, and I met Bob Dole, and I saw John Edwards up close once (right before one of his handlers told me I should be standing in a different place). I like politics, what can I say.

Billy asks me if I can cover it. I tell him sure. I tell him I’m going to write a preview story for the weekend. It would have appeared in today’s paper, by the way.

So anyway, I started making some phone calls. I know the folks at the airport, and I figured if anyone knew anything about it, it’d be them. I called both numbers and repeatedly got the whine of a fax machine. This was getting frustrating. I had other things to finish.

I decided to call Bob Heuts, Lee County’s economic development director. Bob works closely with the airport folks and usually has a pretty good grasp on what’s going on out there.

“I haven’t heard anything about that, and given the security measures all of the candidates take these days, I’d be surprised if we didn’t already know something,” Heuts told me.

This wasn’t making any sense. I asked Bob if he could call around and see if there was anything to what I was hearing. I mean, why would a Cub Scout mother lie about something like that? A few minutes later Bob did call me back but he still hadn’t heard anything. He was in the middle of telling me that one of the charter services based out of the airport had done some flying for Mike Huckabee’s people when Billy yelled from his office into the newsroom “never mind, it’s Sanford, Florida!”

I could feel the word “idiot” glowing across my forehead, a hot, stupid fire. I apologized for taking Bob’s time and got off the phone with him. I was a little miffed at the diversion, but I mostly felt like a dweeb. Of course it’s Florida, the state where Romney faces a huge political battle today. Why in the world would he come to North Carolina right now? Stupid. So stupid.

Even stupider: The e-mail that started the whole mess began with the line “Mitt Romney will be at the Sanford, Florida airport on Monday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.!”

Analysis: My blog

I think anyone who has followed this blog with any regularity since its inception can tell you I ain’t the best in the world when it comes to being regular with my entries.

That said, I’ve made a strong effort this month to stay on top of it (part of my new year’s resolution to flex my creative muscles a little more often, I guess), and as far as I can tell, it’s paying off.

I still don’t have record numbers of visitors to this thing, but since Jan. 8, the numbers have shown a sizeable increase. Since that date, I’m averaging just over 56 hits a day. That includes the two best days to date — 102 and 88 views.

Like I said, not huge, but it’s quite an improvement over the previous 18 days, when I was averaging about 21 hits per day.

What am I doing different? Well, I’m blogging more, mostly. Over the two stretches I mentioned, I had 13 and 2 entries. Guess which number goes with which.

I’ll do my best to keep the entries coming. I’ll try almost as hard to make them relevant. Thanks to everyone who reads this.

On another note, I’ll echo my boss Billy and point out that this blogging thing seems to be catching on around Sanford. Several new blogs have popped up recently. Some of the Sanford blogs include:

Joe Jon Bryant: I haven’t met Joe Jon yet, but he’s a regular presence in Lee County’s little corner of the blogosphere. Seems like a good guy.

Kim Pritt: Same deal as Joe Jon. Updates regularly.

Emily Page: I think I’ve met Emily once or twice, but I don’t really know her. I do know here husband Ed from his time as a prosecutor here in Lee County. Good people. Her blog is brand new.

If you’ve got the itch, sign up for a blog at wordpress.com. If you want, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll link your blog.

I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Linda Watts, etc.

Hopefully I’ll have a story this week about what I understand is the upcoming trial of two men who were charged more than two years ago in the murder of Linda Watts, a former mailroom employee here at The Herald who was last seen in May 2004.

I don’t have all the details yet, but I understand the trial is set for March. Watts left work one night on foot and was last seen being beaten and shoved into a car on McIver Street. Watts’ body has never been found.

The men were charged months later, either in 2005 or 2006. They remain in the Lee County Jail without bond.

In other business, I’m still looking for anyone who might be interested in talking to me about the Endor Trail Greenway project. Send me an e-mail, leave a comment here, or call me at (919) 718-1221.

Greenway news

In Saturday’s Herald, I’ll be writing a story on the progress of the greenway and hopefully be able to provide some maps and artist renderings so everyone can get a preview of what to expect.

Additionally, we’ll be running our “take 5″ feature with Bob Bridwell, a city planner who has kind of been the point man on the project.

To top the story off, I’ll be speaking with people in the area who enjoy walking and look forward to what the greenway will offer them. While you’ll be able to find me in the next couple of days doing my reporting the old fashioned way (I’m going to go find people walking and ask their opinions), I fear the cold may keep many good quoters indoors this week.

So if anyone who regularly reads this blog has an opinion about the greenway and wants to share, leave me a comment here and I’ll get in touch with you. If you’d feel more comfortable contacting me, send an e-mail to anderson@sanfordherald.com or call (919) 718-1221.

I’m looking forward to hearing what you’ve got to say. 

Young Tracy

tracy

Originally uploaded by snob parade

I’ve been sitting on this for a few days, but I’ve got to get it out there.

I found this old photograph of our sheriff around the newsroom recently and have been wondering what exactly to do with it. It’s too good not to share.

The date on the back says 1992, 16 years ago. Tracy is, I think, 40 or 41 years old now, so that would make him younger than I am in this picture.

I know it’s never a good idea to poke fun at a guy who carries a gun and has a team of similarly-armed deputies under his command, but I couldn’t resist.

I hereby apologize in advance to my roommate if someone kicks the door in one night and hauls us in for questioning about my blog. Sorry, dude.

Television

In R.V. Hight’s column in today’s Herald, he talked about his favorite TV shows. I thought I’d do the same. These probably aren’t in any specific order, other than the last couple.

10. The First 48
I can’t get enough of this show, in which homicide detectives are followed around by cameramen while they investigate murders. The premise is that if detectives don’t get a credible lead during the first 48 hours of a murder investigation, their chances of closing it decrease dramatically. As a crime reporter, this show gives me a lot of insight into the people I cover every day, and it’s just really good TV. Cop dramas like CSI or Cold Case don’t do much for me, because they seem so fake. This show is anything but, and it can also be pretty funny, as most of these detectives seem like pretty laid back guys.

9. Cheaters
This show is pure trash, but I watch it pretty much whenever I see it on. The premise is that people who suspect they’re being cheated on agree to go on the show and have an investigation conducted into their partner’s activities. Once it’s determined that the person is cheating, there’s a confrontation at the end. These people are always trashy. In one episode, the host gets stabbed after boarding a suspect’s boat to confront him. This is one of those lowest-common-denominator shows that I know I shouldn’t watch, but do anyway.

8. COPS
There’s not a whole lot to say about this show that you don’t already know. It’s like the longest-running show on TV, and it’s consistently hilarious. You can find it on pretty much whenever.

7. Mr. Show with Bob and David
This sketch comedy show on HBO really did it for me during my high school and college years. The humor is pretty adult, but it was so, so, so funny that it really doesn’t matter. I think of this as the best sketch comedy since Monty Python. It blew Saturday Night Live out of the water and I think it’s yet to be topped. You probably recognize David Cross from his many movie and TV appearances, and he’s a hilarious guy (I saw his stand-up act in Raleigh a few years back and got to meet him for a few minutes), but Bob Odenkirk is really the genius behind this show. Odenkirk also did a lot of TV writing before and after Mr. Show’s four-year run, and his most recognizable work is probably Chris Farley’s “Matt Foley, motivational speaker” character.
This is one of my favorite sketches: “Rap: The Musical“This one is family-friendly, and Odenkirk’s part toward the end about the gold tooth hasn’t failed to make me crack up in more than 10 years.

6. Hogan Knows Best
Another reality show, which follows the life of one of my childhood heroes, Hulk Hogan. The format is pretty unoriginal, as it really just copies The Osbournes, but I enjoyed it while it was on anyway. It won’t be on anymore, Hulk and his wife have split, but it was a lot of entertainment. I think you can still catch reruns on VH1.

5. Rob and Big
This MTV show is hilarious. Rob Dyrdek is a professional skateboarder and the show just follows his adventures. He’s paired up with his bodyguard, who goes by the name Big Black, and both guys are pretty funny. He’s also got a cool bulldog named Meaty. Pretty good stuff.

4. The Shield
I can’t wait for the final season of this show. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend renting the first season on DVD. You’ll be hooked by the third episode. After that, you’ll want to plow through all of them. That’s what I did this summer, and I’m concerned about how I’m going to handle dealing with watching one episode per week, and having to deal with commercials.
The show is about Vic Mackey, a corrupt cop who still manages to garner your sympathy somehow. There’s no character on the show who is completely good or completely bad. It really makes you think and it moves at like a million miles an hour.

3. Cheers
Who didn’t grow up watching Cheers? There’s not a whole lot to say that hasn’t already been said, but most any episode of the show is awesome and hilarious. It really relied on a great ensemble cast, and I don’t think that’s something that has been done as well since, Friends included.

2. Seinfeld
Again, I don’t know many people who don’t like this show. Just completely hilarious. This clip is one of my favorites ever.

1. The Sopranos
Just a classic, in my eyes. Tony Soprano is a mob boss in northern New Jersey who also has family problems. The first episode begins with him seeing a shrink due to panic attacks, a relationship that lasts througout the series’ six seasons. While about half of the show deals with actual mob business, any astute viewer recognizes that the show isn’t about the mafia. It’s about, among other things, the flawed protagonist’s interaction with his family.
Throughout the nearly 100 episodes, I can think of maybe two that I didn’t care for.

The Big Day

Today, that is.

Two of my colleagues, Jon Owens and Randy Quis, are taking an eating challenge at the new Andy’s restaurant near Wal Mart.

My numbers might be a little off, but my understanding is that both of them will be required to eat a 50-ounce stack of cheeseburger, including toppings, plus fries and a 24-ounce soda in under 30 minutes.

Both Jon and Randy came along and laughed when I got tasered. So today is my payback.

Plus, the two have added a second layer of drama to this event. They’ll also be competing against each other. The level of trash talk has been high in the office of late.

I love this job. I’ll write some analysis of the event when it’s over.