This discussion took place at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 7, 2006, and is now closed.

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Moderator: In your recent column about kicking your smoking habit, you called for smoking to be outlawed. That's hot-button. What sort of feedback have you gotten? And knowing what it took for you to quit, do you think hardcore smokers are listening?

DR: The feedback has been about what I expected. At least a hundred people wrote in to tell me exactly what date, time and place they had their last one. And they all encouraged me to hang on, that it gets easier as time goes by. As far as hardcore smokers, they've heard it all before. I was one and I ignored such tales. And they will, too.

Moderator: You're no fan of the Jaume Plensa sculpture/fountain planned for downtown Raleigh. If they asked you to "fine tune" the design, what would you suggest?

DR: Tough one. I like the sculpure a lot but I just think it is the wrong piece at the wrong place. The whole idea of opening the street was to visually connect the Capitol and Memorial Auditorium, not break it up with this thing. I'd fine tune it by putting it somewhere else, like in a vacant lot in the Warehouse district. Make it a destination, not an obstruction.

Moderator: Speaking of downtown, what do you think of the overall Fayetteville Street plans? And how about those chandeliers?

DR: I'm mixed on the chandeliers, which aren't chandeliers at all, but that's what they've come to be called. Again, I'm looking for a classic main street, not a midway. I think those fixtures would look great along Glenwood South or in the Warehouse (now called the Depot) District.

Moderator: Do you think the project will help revitalize downtown or has the area just become too suburbanized?

DR: I think what we're likely to end up with is a downtown that exceeds skeptics naysaying but is not as good as its boosters say. It will be somewhere in between.

Moderator: You often write about the importance of Southern heritage. What's your take on the various efforts to remove symbols of the Confederacy from public spaces?

DR: Our southern history is what it is, partly noble and partly ignoble. The Southern mind is able to deal with two opposing notions quite easily. We can seperate the reasons for the Civil War from those ancestors who fought in it. I don't know a man or woman alive who would defend slavery, for instance, but would rise to defend their ancestors. I would, too. So when we see those monuments, we see tributes to our loved ones, not symbols of slavery. We see our heritage, not hatred.

I would be very upset if, say, the Confederate monuments were banned from courthouse squares and the state Capitol grounds. But the flag, particularly the infamous battle flag, is another matter. We lost that battle when we didn't rip it from the hands of racists who used it as their banner. That's over, and that's why it is smart of North Carolina to fly the First National flag on Confederate holidays.

Moderator: On a (much) lighter note, Ed R. writes: "i'm a big fan, having read your column for about as long as you've been writing it. how about another spam column sometime soon? maybe about the efficacy ot the new spam/bacon product?"

DR: Ed, you're making me hungry. My wife and I chanced upon this new Spam the other day. I was standing there, all but applauding with tears in my eyes from the joy of the thing when I noticed that my wife had moved away so as not to be seen with me. I don't know what that meant. I have not had this new Spam but I intend to give it a nibble. But I gotta tell you, it has got to be something to beat the old stuff, Spam jelly and all. I consider it one of life's great unfairnesses that Spam is now all an internet curse word.

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