Archive for Open Thread
Friday Open Thread: Great Googly Moogly
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Fill out a Community Application (seriously – it’ll take you five minutes).
Come out to Asheville’s Google Fiber Initiative Town Hall meeting on March 18th at 6pm at the Asheville Civic Center Banquet Room.
While some may argue the virtue of diminutive pipes and the value of Charter, this is also a thread for everything else under your suns. Illuminate. Reflect.
Friday Reading and Open Thread
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve seen so many things to share with you, gentle readers. They’re after the jump. More importantly, I want to know what you’ve seen that you’d like to share with the world. It’s your thread.
Open Thread
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s my understanding that the usual cadre of Hooligan front pagers have their hands full juggling various cats. While we wait for those keen minds to return to this blogatorium, take this thread and make it your own.
Super Bowl Open Thread
Posted by: | CommentsThe Great American Holiday is upon us. I’m wearing pants made out of pretzels and sporting a fancy hard-hat beverage device.
While no judgement will be cast if you errantly support the city that stole a storied football team from old Baltimore, I urge you to consider the multiple character flaws you might accidentally embody by doing so.
Geaux Saints!
Use this thread for all your trash-talk and prediction needs.
Lurkers Only Open Thread
Posted by: | CommentsHi lurkers. You’re the folks who read Scrutiny Hooligans every day but never comment. You may do the same with this post, but I’d like to invite you to creep out from behind your monitors and say hello. Since it’s your first time commenting there will be a bit of lag while your comment gets moved out of the moderation queue. It’s there to keep the bad things from happening.
For the purposes of this thread, no one who’s ever left a comment here should comment in this thread. It’s lurkers only. Though everyone could take the opportunity to read the comments policy and think about how to make this blog a constructive, inviting place with good grammar.
We’re the voyeurs now, lurkers. Peek your head into this virtual living room and introduce yourselves.
Wednesday Potpourri
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There’s exciting doings all over the place, and this Councilman/Counselor can’t find time to properly blog about it all. Who wants to pay me to do this stuff full time?
The irascible ThunderPig reports that Dan Eichenbaum (R-Tetley), founder of the area’s 9/12 group, won another straw poll of Republicans, this time in Cherokee County. Dr. Dan hopes to face Heath Shuler this November.
Speaking of Heath Shuler, he closed the deal on the North Shore Road. That means Swain County will receive $52 million in compensation for a road never completed. Somehow Charles Taylor, who was an Appropriations Committee member for years, couldn’t ever get it done. Kudos, Congressman Shuler.
In other Congressional race news, Virginia Foxx, the woman who always has one eye on the kookier wing of the GOP, has drawn a challenger in NC-05. “Billy Kennedy, a Watauga County talk radio host and community leader, will formally announce his candidacy on February 8 for the U.S. House of Representatives, 5th District of North Carolina. The “Billy Kennedy Caravan” will stretch from Boone to Raleigh that day, with stops in Wilkesboro and Winston-Salem.”
Ellie Johnston attended the Copenhagen climate conference and has a thorough narrative of her experience there. Excerpt:
Friday Reading and Open Thread
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I took this picture on Dec. 19, 2009
The city apparatus is at the ready in case of a ’snow event’. I’m heading to work all day then attending an evening strategy session with a bunch of my favorite people. Snow or no snow, we’ll raise a glass to the week that was. Here are a few tidbits that may have flown under your radars.
Asheville’s housing market is the 6th most overvalued in the nation according to CNNMoney.com.
Buncombe County’s annual Democratic Party precinct meetings will be held on March 1st. at 6pm. This is the front lines of neighborhood organizing. Get thee to your precinct meeting! If you want to know where it is, contact Michelle Pace Wood – mpwood AT bellsouth Dot Net.
The Homeless Memorial Service to honor those who died this year while homeless, will take place Saturday at 2pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church. The last iteration of this event was snowed out in December, and we’ll see this go ’round.
8pm, January 31st at the Grey Eagle, Orbit DVD, Eye TV, and The Onion sponsor Found Footage Festival: “Two rules govern Found Footage Festival: 1) Footage must be found on physical format. NoYouTube. 2) It has to be unintentionally funny. Whatever it’s trying to do, it has to fail miserably at that.”
Tonight at Asheville Green Drinks (6:30pm, Bobo Gallery on Lexington Ave.) – The Waste-free Economy -
“What if we could balance supply and demand, in real-time, at the level of every transaction? What if we could conduct our businesses with a broader understanding of the economic value of interconnectedness? What if we could bring a new level of transparency to all of our business dealings? What are the privacy implications? How might transparency help us reduce the waste, and advance the cause of sustainability?”
This oughta be a veritable hoozhoo – “The Asheville Downtown Association (ADA) will host the State of Downtown Luncheon on Thursday, February 4 from noon to 1:30pm in the Civic Center’s banquet room. The event is co-sponsored by the City of Asheville.”
You still have a few days to apply to a City Board or Commission. We need smart involved folks like you to step up and help shape the future of our city.
Those things being said, this thread is your thread. Hook us all up with your news, opinions, and embarrassing misstatements.
All Ears
Posted by: | CommentsHowdy, Hooligans. In an effort to create ease of access to government, I’m opening this thread for all of your Asheville concerns. Tell me what’s on your radars. Whether it’s big picture or potholes, leave your observations, visions, concerns, rants, and gushingly laudatory remarks here. Spread the word – it’s a paradigm shifting new era for Asheville City Council.
Potpourri/Goulash
Posted by: | CommentsHanna 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. 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. 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. 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? If so, the organizers want to hear from you. 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. How can we partner, Commishes?
What Day Is It? Open Thread.
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’ve been maxing the holidays like I have, then you’re aware of that strange feeling of not knowing for sure what day it is. I’m having fun tonight, but tomorrow’s a workday. It must be Sunday. No, I worked today, and I’m having fun. It must be Friday. No, Friday is snowstorm Christmas New Year’s Eve. It must be some other day.
Your thread. Tell Old Man 2009 what you think of him. Baby’s on its way.
