Tar Heel Tavern #39

Welcome to the 39th week of the Tar Heel Tavern, blogging from or about the Triangle area. Maybe because the list of hosts was confused, I only got three actual entries this week - so I went fishing at NC Blogs.com - the site aggregates new postings from local blogs (beware, there are a lot of dead or rarely-updated blogs on the sidebar).

First, from two longtime loyal supporters of the Tavern, and somebody making her first submission:

• Bora at Science And Politics tells us how to Turn your your blog archives into a book (and sell it):

  So, you've been writing a blog for quite some time now. You are proud of some of your work. You are particularly proud of some of your old stuff, now burried deep in the archives never to be seen again. Who reads archives, after all? You don't want to repeat yourself over and over again, and have never felt at ease with constantly linking back to your old posts (I never had such qualms). So, what can you do to make your old stuff more accessible and available? ... Well, now you can turn it into a book form - yup, the real, physical book - and sell it through your blog, as well as through all the regular online booksellers.
  

  Details. And prizes!
  
  
• Dear Jane submits R & R?

  I spoke to my mother on the phone and she told me I would benefit from some psychiatric counseling. I knew I should have checked the caller ID before I answered the phone. Just to prove her right and completely lose my mind, we decided to pack up the wild banshees and drive to the beach for the weekend. It had been such a horrid week, that I figured why not cap it off with 3 screaming children confined in a small enclosed space with wonderful acoustics for several hours...

  
  
• At Ogre's Politics and Views youo'll find a review of
  the Carolina Renaissance Festival:

  I was wondering what it was about this fair that made it so much fun..
  
  ... It's amazing, but one of the biggest things that you do not see in this atmosphere is fear. I've thought about it, and that is the biggest difference between your every day life and a festival like this. Everywhere you go, everything you do in life today is primarily motived by fear.
  
  The news media cannot report anything unless it is designed to scare you. Most advertising is based on fear -- fear of rejection, fear of dying, fear of SOMETHING -- if you don't buy what they're selling.
  
  Everyone is just whoever they are, and no one else attacks you for who you are. No one is battling to be heard over the crowd so that you will give them special rights or permissions. No one is trying to take anything away from you. No one is trying to tell you what you should and should not do with your life. You can just be who you are and no one complains about it.

Ogre had collected a couple of entries for the Tavern and gave them to me to use here.

• An impressive photo display by 2sides2ron. One of the best things about North Carolina really is the scenery. Ron provides an impressive array of fall photographs. ... Be sure to note the impressive blue sky in the background. Any of you residing in the northern states may want to bookmark that page so you can remind yourself what they sky really looks like, since you're unlikely to see it again for many months...
  
  
• Erin over at Poetic Acceptance is having a real rough time with a publisher. But she tries to keep things in order, realizing what's really important. Erin, I hope things get better for you real soon!

Thanks, Ogre! Here are some more posts from around the area.

• arse poetica wrote Another Crooked Republican, Oh My!

  Report Says Ex-Chief of Public TV Violated Federal Law.
  
  Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting concluded today that its former chairman repeatedly broke federal law and its own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias.
  
  The corporation's former chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who was ousted from the board two weeks ago ... [according to a report issued by CPR] violated federal law by being heavily involved in getting more than $4 million in money for a program featuring the conservative editorial writers of The Wall Street Journal. ... The report said investigators found evidence that "political tests" were a major criteria used by Mr. Tomlinson in recruiting the corporation's new president, Patricia Harrison, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee and former senior State Department official.

  
  
• Unwonderful had a surly post called The Broom Whiffer about being dragged to church by Mom:

  When my foot hit the first step, I thought about how much I hate my front door neighbor's guts. He rides on a bicycle, hands off, while reading a book.
  
  Shoo, it sure smells Baptisty in here. Chewing gum breath, carpet dye and live flowers cleanse you from smoky pool rooms ... After a guilt wrenching service about us hanging by a cobweb with God holding scissors to plunge us into a place with no shine buckles and No More Tears, I left unsaved.

  
  
• At Pam's House Blend, Hell freezes over - the left and right take on Target:

  Both the Left and the AmTaliban are shunning the red bullseye (for different reasons). After Target defended its lame-brained, illogical practice of allowing pharmacists to deny women emergency contraception on ethical or religious grounds, pro-choice forces called for action (my post here).
  
  Now, the American Family Association is calling for stepping up its boycott of Target during the holiday season because it has, again, refused to have Salvation Army representation in front of its stores.

  
  
• AMCP Tech Blog has a post on the Sony malware fiasco: Sony Calls Back Infected CDs:

  Because of the huge uproar from the tech community, Sony is now allowing you to exchange your infected CD (yes, the one with that dreaded rootkit on it), for another one...
  
  This all comes after Sony releasing CDs with "Copyright Protection" built-in. The CD required you to install the rootkit and it was later found out that it would "call home", meaning make contact with Sony's servers and could tell Sony what song you were listening to and even the time.

  You can read this continuing story in blistering detail at BoingBoing (here is just the most recent post).
  
  
• A harried mom at Clothed [in joy], in Here, PLAY WITH THIS!, says:

  Shopping on a Saturday afternoon, is the best form of birth control. EVER.
  
  "Mommy, can I have it? Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please.

  
  
• You can see a very very mean and very funny duck triptych called Bad Parenting at White Noise.
  
  
• I got a good giggle from the Engineers Explained post at Justaskjudy. Here's one:

  Two engineering students were crossing the campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?"
  
  The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."
  
  The second engineer nodded approvingly, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit."

  
  
• At GreeneSpace, a report on Afro-Celts and other cultural cross-currents:

  Celtic heritage is not reserved exclusively for 'white' people," argued Michael Newton in a fascinating lecture yesterday sponsored by the Center for the Study of the American South...
  
  Newton's interest is in the Highland Scots, many of whom ended up settling along the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. Having come here as a result of the Highland clearances--harsh forced migrations as their lands were claimed by the British crown--they settled into lives that looked a lot like that of other white European southerners, including, sometimes, ownership of slaves. But white culture had its hierarchies too, and so the Highland Scots, like the Irish, were often considered by the Anglo-Saxon establishment (including lowland Scots) as no better than blacks or Indians.

  I heard this man on "The State of Things." He said there were places in North Carolina where sizeable black populations spoke perfect Gaelic, and maintained the language after many of the white Scots descendants had abandoned it. Fascinating!
  
  
• NC Conservation Network Blog asks: If a sonar sounds in the sea, but turtles can't hear, does it make a sound?

  The Navy held a hearing in Morehead City last night about their plans to bulid an anti-submarine sonar training range off the NC coast. According to a Raleigh News & Observer article, 150 people attended the hearing and none spoke in favor of the proposal...

  
  
• Opinions Nobody Asked For writes about The Budget Bill, And Things That Just Annoy Me In General:

  The House passed spending cuts that will cut money from such unnecessary programs as food stamps, student loans, child support, and Medicaid. It won't cut anything from Medicare. This is perfectly logical, since it's far more important to take care of rich old people than poor kids. And nothing is more important than making sure the rich don't have to pay more taxes. Yes, there are kids that need their insulin and want to go to college, but Mr. Throckmorton has to afford that fourth house somehow.

  
  
• And right here at Pratie Place, I enjoyed reflecting on Terry Teachout's All in the Dances and also learned how to make an animated .gif so I could include a self-braiding challah illustration in my challah recipe.
  
  
• Late entry: Laurie at Slowly She Turned mulled over her favorite charities deciding which to support with payroll deduction. Her list at Worthy Causes is excellent and this was her first choice (but visit to see the others):

  On a national level, American Farmland Trust has "three strategies for saving American farmland:

  • Protect the best land through publicly funded agricultural conservation easement programs;
    
    
  • Plan for growth with agriculture in mind through effective community planning and growth management;
    
    
  • Keep the land healthy for farmland through encouraging stewardship and conservations practices.

  
  With the recent budget cuts that skewered the Conservation Security Program, AFT has its work cut out for them.

  
  

That's it for this week!

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