In a matter of seconds, it began. Using some unnamed criteria, human pairs were assigned to sleds. I crawled onto ours as my partner stood behind me to drive. And in a flash we were off, gliding through a pristine winter forest behind the pounding feet of 6 Alaskan Huskies. They had greeted us with … Read more
Imagine making the excruciating decision to leave your family. Spending all of your meager savings for a one-way ticket. Enduring a physically exhausting journey in cramped and putrid conditions. Arriving in a land where you don’t know anybody and don’t know the language. Imagine how bad conditions must be to make that decision. Ultimately you … Read more
The 125th anniversary of the Wilmington NC coup is upon us. To mark the anniversary, I recommend reading Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino. I’m embarrassed to admit that despite living in North Carolina for nearly 3 decades, I didn’t know the details of this … Read more
It’s that time of year. You smell brats on the grill. You taste pretzels and malty beer. You feel a refreshing breeze. Uh, scratch that last part. No cool breeze makes its way to North Carolina in September. But somewhere, some place, the air is turning cooler. And then there’s that sound. Faint at first, … Read more
Last year when Icelandair announced a non-stop flight between my mid-sized city and Reykjavik, I jumped at the opportunity. With only one other non-stop to Europe, getting to the continent in only 6 hours was an obvious choice. And so we were on our way for a 10 day self-driving tour. Self-driving, by the way, … Read more
I saw her out of the corner of my eye, watching me as I hovered over the display table. I’d circled it four times already, running my hand over the books, marveling at their sleek feel and their unbroken spines. I picked up a few, read a small bit of the description and a random … Read more