I had not been in the man's company until recently when I spent a few hours with him riding to and from a foothills funeral.

In retrospect, I wish my mother had kept her Scripture to herself when I went off to college with the intent of becoming a lawyer.

You've seen them, hundreds of times, sitting on the sidelines as the game ends, their heads burrowed in their arms, their shoulders shaking with sobs.

game by game, pain by pain -- through Pat Conroy's latest best seller, "My Losing Season," I ran into the ghost of Everett Case, godfather of basketball in North Carolina and N.

Stopping by my office after visiting the drugstore, I was almost in the building when I remembered I had not locked the car.

Over the years, you've seen them standing there, children with cherubic faces.

Come let us sit and reason together on this business of sex education in the Wake schools.

On a clear day you could see forever. And it was a clear day when we rode up to the orchards at Cana, Va. The morning fog lifted as if God were raising the curtain on his own outdoor drama of the Blue Ridge's purple peaks looming darkly against a periwinkle sky smiling over hills and dales splashed with all the colors of Crayola's finest hues.

It was a single comment, tucked deep into Tim Simmons' fine article on the culture and learning gaps between Wake County's white and minority students. But it was bound to elevate the blood pressure of some teachers and supporters.

As many of you who have visited the Mother Country know, most hotel rooms are equipped with such amenities as teapot and tea, hair dryer, iron and ironing board or pants presser.

While recently reading Gil Troy's "Mr. and Mrs. President: From the Trumans to the Clintons," I came across the results of a poll taken in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration.

As one who writes a column I can identify with the more learned and legitimate sermonizers.