Jenkins:It had been a while. I moved out of my nice little house in Wake Forest 10 or 11 years ago, after a five-year hitch in that sweet place north of the Capital City, and hadn't returned much.

Jenkins:Some of my best laughs, and most interesting times, over the last 21 years in Raleigh happened in the Wake County jail.

Jenkins:Who was Ida May Fuller? A pretty significant person in American history, she was.

Jenkins:News item: Major university sports programs and booster clubs in the U.S. of A. last year raised $1.2 billion, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Jenkins:Sitting behind the desk in his Salisbury Street office, Rufus Edmisten looks the picture of health. But all is not well, literally, with Edmisten.

Jenkins:You've heard 'em: Apparently the radiator isn't the only thing that can occasionally overheat in a State Highway Patrol cruiser.

Jenkins:Last Saturday in Asheville was mostly spectacular, as many fall Saturdays in such a place are.

Jenkins:Raleigh's Central YMCA on Hillsborough Street was very famous once, you know. It was mentioned in several episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show," when Deputy Barney Fife would go on vacation to Raleigh.

Jenkins:The first time I met this particular fellow, the conversation veered into religion and that wasn't good.

Jenkins:His friends were eager to lionize Karl Rove, the White House political strategist hailed by President Bush as a great American and appreciated by the Republicans he guided to victory in 2000 and 2004. They called him a genius.

Jenkins:In a way, I felt some sympathy for Dan and his mates as they joined parents (I'm a godparent) on the "tax-free" shopping weekend designed to draw customers into stores in the dog days of August.

Jenkins:Gov. Mike Easley has generally followed the tradition of his predecessors in using a sort of behind-the-scenes strategy to deal with the legislature.

Jenkins:It is plain to see that as the honorables on Jones Street watched former pooh-bah Jim Black get slapped with five years and then some in the Big House, they -- some of them, anyway -- began to wonder if maybe they ought to pass a few more ethics regulations.

Jenkins:You don't hear applause at the end of too many movies, but that's what's happening at screenings of Michael Moore's "Sicko."

Jenkins:My grandma was an abundant source of wisdom, and one of the things of which she oft reminded me was, "If you don't have anything good to say about somebody, don't say anything at all."

Jenkins:The thing about it is, Gov. Mike Easley is not an ego sort of guy. He's down to Earth, fairly soft-spoken and modest, and people like him for good reason.

Jenkins:The elderly gentleman had come in to The N&O offices to take out a classified ad. As he was leaving through our front lobby, he said, "Now that Dennis Rogers. We're sure gonna miss him. Would you tell him we're gonna miss him?"