Potpourri/Goulash
ByHanna Raskin has a tasty article on Roots Cafe in this week’s Mtn. X. The cafe is located at the corner of Craven and Riverside. There is no sign. Â Go to the back of the building, go inside, and get covered in yum.
If you haven’t drained outdoor water pipes and left a couple faucets dripping, then you’ve got some froze-up pipes by now. Â Please leave your plumber recommendations in the comments!
I’m going to share some very exciting data with y’all soon. I got to have a look at the draft yesterday. One daunting and important tidbit is this – While recycling rates are rising, so is the amount of solid waste that we’re all sending to the landfill. Â No bueno.
When you write your next insurance premium check, think of Edward Hanway.  ”CIGNA insurance company’s chief executive officer and chairman of the board H. Edward Hanway’s Dec. 31, 2009 retirement comes with a $73 million dollar bonus. Hanaway retired from his posts after serving for ten years in those roles. His overall compensation in 2009 exceeded $12 million.”
Did you attend Blue Ridge PRIDE last year? Â If so, the organizers want to hear from you. Â Click here to take a short survey, and help make next year’s PRIDE an even greater success.
Buncombe County Commissioners are examining ways to boost local farmers and local food. Â How can we partner, Commishes?
19 Comments
January 6th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Speaking of goulash, here’s an interesting chart. It shows the states that allow persons of the same gender to be married and the states that allow first cousins to be married.
I’m currently in the process of overlaying high school graduation rates, obesity levels, and the likelihood of believing President Obama is the Antichrist. I wonder what I’ll find.
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January 6th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Four members of the Airport Authority Board at Asheville Regional Airport are spending $17,000 on a trip to Maui next week to attend an aviation conference. The money to fund the trip is coming from the airport budget. Good conversation over at WLOS’s Facebook Page.
By the way, how does one get on this Airport Commission? I could do with a vacation.
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January 6th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
That recruitment stuff comes with some pretty high opportunity costs, huh? I need a job, maybe I could be on that commission too!
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January 6th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
I watched Flash Gordon and Commando Cody as a child, and I have a friend who’s a pilot and a Federal Flight Deck Officer. Does that qualify me? Hawaii is the one state I haven’t visited. It’s a sacrifice I’m prepared to make for my country.
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January 7th, 2010 at 8:54 am
“How can we partner, commishes?”
Well, if you really want to explore the possibilities of working with the Commission on this issue, maybe you could be a grown-up and call one of them. (If you have called, maybe you could report back here as part of your transparency campaign.)
Or you could just toss out a breezy invite to the “commishes” on your blog and pat yourself on the back for your outreach.
Sorry, it’s time to act more like a City Council Member and less like one of the blogger boyz. Reality is out here.
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January 7th, 2010 at 9:09 am
Thanks, Watcher, for being a part of the conversation. I like that you assume the best of people. In addition to blogging, I’m conducting all sorts of interesting meetings. It’s my theory that I can do both.
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January 7th, 2010 at 9:12 am
I’d suggest you consider conducting yourself in a more civil manner, Watcher, because you’re making yourself a an unwelcome guest in our living room.
Thank you.
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January 7th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Gordon – Perhaps the City could look at how it can facilitate and promote the various farmer’s markets around town.
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January 7th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Gordon- I think there are numerous opportunities to boost local food. The City of AVL and Buncombe Co should work together (sets a collaborative tone- yeah)- but I would also consider AVL/Buncombe taking the lead on a much wider regional effort (food systems-like other regional innovation systems- don’t respect political/geographic boundaries- and require a critical mass of innovation to garner the desired economic impact).
I suggest contacting other organizational leaders who are working on these issues to ascertain how best to support this effort. This sector has been identified as a definite regional asset, now how best can it be developed for increased import substitution and export opportunities? From my discussions, several of the organizations focusing on food systems have articulated a desire for some level of coordination/collaboration, but there are issues of organizational capacity (and the typical political dynamics) that may be thwarting this. (To be fair, this is a fairly ubiquitous situation in the region and across numerous sectors)
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January 7th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Firelady,
I’d love the opportunity to hear more about this from you and your colleagues. Please email me, so we can set up a meeting. I’m at gordonsmithasheville at Yahoo Daht com.
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January 8th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Okay, at times I’m a bit harsh. But I don’t say anything more strident than what you guys say about the people “out there” who don’t agree with you. How many times have I read jeering, mocking remarks about “wingnuts”, “mouth breathers”, and “knuckle draggers”? Yea, that kind of childish attitude is a sure recipe for productive government!
So I get it. Even though this is a political blog run by a city official, the welcome mat for your “living room” is out only for those who are pleasant and who agree with you. I guess that explains why only members of your clique comment here.
I was here to push back, to make sure you know that there is a reality besides your own. You all do Gordon a disservice to keep him in a bubble of sycophants.
Very well.
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January 8th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Watcher,
All we ask is that you treat the people who post here with the same courtesy as you would if you were a sitting in their living room. Is that too much to expect?
Dissenting opinions are most welcome, especially when they’re expressed with intelligence and humor, but like my grandma says, nobody likes a dickhead (something my libertarian friends still haven’t quite figured out). By the way, have you read our comments policy? Here’s the money shot:
I, for one, hope you will continue to comment (appropriately, of course). For a mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging wingnut, you’re pretty smart and seem to have a comparatively good command of the English language. Oh, and hey…why don’t you be a real man and come out from the shadows of anonymity?
MM
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January 8th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
I agree with both Michael AND Watcher. There seems to be plenty of name calling from both camps, light-hearted or not, and that’s the kind of debating all of us can do with less of.
I will say that not using your name to post under is a little cowardly; there can always be mitigating circumstances, but if you are not willing to claim your statements I mostly don’t feel the need to hear them.
Oh…….and I had to learn to drag my knuckles away from my cartoons. They were smearing the ink.
And I only mouth breathe when my sinuses are blocked up.
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January 8th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
“run by a city official”
I am a contributor to and partner in this group blog. I do not own it or run it.
Thanks for coming around, Watcher. It’s great to have a variety of voices.
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January 8th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
David – what are you hiding behind this ‘doodle’ of your appearance? Why don’t you submit to retinal scans like me, or dental records like Michael?
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January 8th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Is Barry your first or last name?
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January 8th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
“Is Barry your first or last name?”
Don’t change the subject! Speaking of which, Michael: is this a picture of you, and if so, what’s going on with those bears?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/08/the-best-animal-photobomb_n_416065.html?slidenumber=c1vHrnur0f0%3D&&&&&&&&&&&#slide_image
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January 9th, 2010 at 9:25 am
It is a picture of me, Barry. And those aren’t bears; they’re my friends Pierre and Maxwell outside the entrance to the secret city hall parking garage.
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January 9th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
eww.
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