Slimantics: Mandela the prisoner

Today, free people and people throughout the world pay homage the memory and legacy of Nelson Mandela, whose courage, foresight and spirit transformed a nation.

Slimantics: It's only a game ... or is it?

In 1996, shortly after making the move from Mississippi to Northern California, I had the opportunity to attend the Stanford-Cal football game, known around the Bay Area as "The Big Game."

Possumhaw: The lady in the funky sweater

"Standing in the checkout line, I watched as a white-haired lady began to put her groceries on the conveyor belt. She caught my attention because her sweater was funky and full of life. She'd already put a few items on the counter when the cashier said, 'I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm closing."

Ask Rufus: The night the cotton burned. Or did it?

There was a huge fire at Columbus on the night of Nov. 25, 1865. It destroyed the former Confederate Arsenal Building, which is southeast of the old Marble Works. The building had been taken over by the occupying Federal troops and was being used to store property seized as having belonged to the Confederate government.

Sarah Fowler: Columbus at its best

Something in the air changes as the first leaves begin to fall and the holiday season nears; we began to pay closer attention to things we take for granted the rest of the year. One of those things, the generosity of this community and its willingness to work together for a greater good, was made clear to me on Thursday.

Slimantics: No shortage of home-grown turkeys

A couple of weeks ago, Butterball, one of the nation's largest turkey suppliers, announced that it would have a shortage of large turkeys available for Thanksgiving.

Possumhaw: A day with the ladybugs

One ladybug chased the other, and this made me think that perhaps I had captured a male and a female. I'm no entomologist, but I'm thinking maybe.

Birney Imes: Cats in the basement

About 10 years ago Dispatch pressmen Jerry Hayes and Jamie Morrison found a litter of kittens nestled between the walls in the basement. Hayes, now retired, and Morrison worked in the dark, cavernous space that houses our Goss Urbanite printing press.

Ask Rufus: Tecumseh's journey

Three years ago marked the beginning of a series of the bicentennials of the events leading directly to the founding of Columbus. November of 1813 was a month in which those events linked directly with one of greater national significance. That story is told in the nation's newspapers of the day.

Local voices: The JFK assassination: A reporter's perspective

The world has turned over many times since that fateful day in Dallas 50 years ago when President Kennedy was killed. Anyone who was old enough to understand what happened knows exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the president was dead.

Commentary: Clint Hill's leap into history

We use the term "dramatic irony" in plays when the audience learns from one character something that another character does not know, usually to his detriment. In the field of history, the reader always knows more than the people he's reading about. He knows how the whole thing turns out -- something the historical figures cannot know.

Slimantics: A sobering response, then and now

Possumhaw: Ladybug, fly away home

Ladybugs swarmed by the thousands. They whirled around the porch ceiling; they crawled on the side of the house, the garage, the boat shed. Ladybugs landed on our arms. When one took flight, three took its place.

Holiday Shopping Guide 2013

Best of the Triangle 2013

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