North Carolina's Outer Banks Again: Destination - Cape Hatteras Light Station

Living less than an hour and fifty minutes from Nags Head, my staging area to the National Seashore, I am regularly drawn to the beauty of one of the most beautiful and unspoiled seashores on eastern coast of the United States of America. On this quick trip to the seashore, my wife would not accompany me. I was alone, but I would be undeterred.

On that fine spring morning, after a beautiful sunrise and with the early morning thunderheads threatening, I would leave for Cape Hatteras. It was my destination and I was determined to brave the inclement weather to climb to the top balcony ringing the light house at the Cape.

Early sunrise in Nags Head: abo... Read More

Elections can be Transformational

Washington City Government fixture and photo-op specialist Judy Jennette has lost the Washington mayoral race to City Councilman Archie Jennings 801 votes for Jennings to 607 for Jennette.

In the Washington City Council Election: Challenger Bobby Roberson was the top vote getter with 1,084 votes, Incumbent Doug Mercer was second with 1,036 votes, and Incumbent Gil Davis was third with 924 votes, Challengers Ed Moultrie and William Pitt were fourth and fifth with 860 votes and 793 votes respectively. Incumbents Richard Brooks, 726 votes, and Darwin Woolard, 613 votes, were defeated in their quest for re-election. Challenger Donna Lay received a respectable 626 votes in her unsuccessful bid to serve.

In... Read More

From Thursday, August 27th to Sunday, August 30th, 2009, I attended the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners’ (NCACC) annual conference in Hickory, North Carolina. I try to attend these conferences, whenever possible, for a variety of reasons, most notable of which is: The networking with other commissioners to gain a wider perspective on how to accomplish a more proficient governing process. I know it sounds like an oxymoron to include the words proficient and governing in the same sentence, but I am an optimist, and I wouldn’t have spent 13 years as a county commissioner if I did not think the proposition possible.

Comissioner Deatherage representing Beaufort County at the NCAA Legislative Conference in Rale... Read More

Sergio Leone’s Classic Film Almost Died on the Cutting Room Floor

As I mentioned in my forgotten review, Spring, 2009, of one of Sergio Leone’s best films: “Once Upon a Time in the West,” I wrote that I would eventually take a look at his next, even better film, “Once Upon a Time in America” in that same Forgotten Classics section of our Better Angels Now. And yes, as strange as it may seem, this film almost died a classic death on the cutting room floor, when it was released in theaters, in 1984, in the United States at 139 minutes of runtime.

The film was intended, by Director Leone, to be much longer: It was 227 minutes when it was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival. Sadly, this was the only ti... Read More

Lone Leaf Gallery Unveils the Showing of a New Artisan and Bids Goodbye to the Last

In Washington, North Carolina, on the southwest corner of Market and West Main Streets, is the recently opened Lone Leaf Gallery, featuring an eclectic collection of work by local, regional and national artists and artisans. The gallery, studio and shop, within this small, quaint and most efficient space, is owned by local residents Neil and Meredith Loughlin. Both owners are artisans / artists themselves, having both graduated some years past from East Carolina University School of the Arts, and have both forgone graduate school to continue to create their expression through various works, and to serve the community by creating a space to display, and s... Read More

Arlington Cemetery

Washington, District of Columbia is one of the most important cities in the world. It is a young city, even by The United States of America's standards; but considering the legislation and executive decisions that have been made within its limits over the last 70 years, it is unarguably, the most important city in the world over that period. The southern, across from Virginia, side of Washington, D.C. is the most significant: architecturally and in regards to the city planning and design.

That city's design began with George Washington himself. The newly elected (by the electoral college only) president picked the location for the capital to be planned and built across the Potomac River from land he owned had once ow... Read More

Since 1937, the Foster family of Hatteras Island has been helping would-be anglers find their sea legs aboard daily charter boat fishing excursions.

It’s 6:05 a.m. at Hatteras Island, and the sky has brightened to a canvas gray. Captain Ernie Foster has had the diesel engine of the Albatross III warming for 15 minutes. He glances down at the glowing instrument cluster for his last-minute check of engine pressures and temperatures. His mate, Clyde, has stowed all gear from the charter party, loaded fresh bait aboard, and is standing ready to cast off all lines.

Capt. Foster turns from his console, looks down off the bridge, tugs at his baseball cap. “Cast off,” he says. The mate moves swiftly from bow to stern, as the en... Read More

In All Legal Endeavors There is Honor

“Sunshine Cleaning,” the low budget drama about the human condition, is a robust success as a small film that showcases the best within beaten down people, who struggle to clench a measure of dignity, as they grasp for a crumb from the table of the American Dream. This thoughtful, well paced and wonderfully acted film told a real story of regular people, by giving the audience a glimpse into their work lives, as it peeled back the layers of the fragile psyches of these two very different sisters.

As different as these two sisters were, they were similar in the one immutable fact; they have a past. It is a past of sorrow and a past of struggle, in Director Christine Jeffs’ and Wri... Read More