With a lot of hurt in the world, we need diversions. Here’s the week’s best from The N&O
There’s been a lot of hurt in the past week.
No matter if you’ve been watching CNN from morning’s start to late into the night. Or texting and calling friends and family, wondering why hate always is personal.
No matter how many times you’ve shaken your head in disappointment at how public hearings rarely seem to be about the public. (Please read Anna Johnson’s story in The News & Observer on Trey Brooks, the grieving father of 11-year-old Hailey, who showed dignity and courage in questioning why no city leader could find a phone to ask how to honor their daughter after last year’s fatal Christmas parade.)
And no matter how often we’ve wondered if anything has changed since five people lost their lives in the Hedingham neighborhood a year ago.
How do we divert our attention when Congress can’t do what we all learned to do picking sides in dodgeball?
Even the Jardiance commercial has us at odds about blood-sugar management, weight loss and flash dancing in bright-colored clothing. (A workday never goes by when I don’t want to leap onto the retaining wall surrounding the Big Acorn on City Plaza, snap my fingers and sway my arms, and sing like I’m auditioning for “America’s Got Talent.”)
And don’t get any shopper started on the most divisive issue of 2023: How many food items do we possibly need that include pumpkin spice? It’s as if Bubba Gump met Jason from the “Friday the 13th” movie. There’s Frosted Flakes with Pumpkin Spice, Goldfish crackers with Pumpkin Spice, Philadelphia Cream Cheese Pumpkin Spice, Pumpkin Spice Flavored Spam (in limited edition for some reason), and — because every dog whines about it — Milk-Bone Pumpkin Spice Crunchy Biscuits.
And before any of y’all sniff at how the cranky ol’ editor should focus on dull-but-important stuff, one of the top-trending stories on newsobserver.com’s digital sites is about where copperhead snakes go when the weather turns cool. For whatever reasons, snakes remain a fascinating topic in our capital city.
Our best storytelling diversions
If you need diversions — we all do — there’s the North Carolina State Fair.
It’s the one moment when I forgive local broadcasters for live shots that say little. Because fairgoers lost in every direction, the dog doing tricks during the weather segment, turkey legs bigger than your head — that’s what we need.
The N&O’s Kimberly Cataudella has done a fine job of answering all your questions about the fair. I appreciate Kimberly for addressing issues for those who need wheelchairs or wonder if fair buildings meet standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Only Martha Quillin can bring world-class storytelling to a state fair story on how an “Olympic-level” pumpkin set two records.
Here’s Martha getting all the writing style points on why it matters: “Competitive fruit-growing is like every other sport: it becomes an obsession, a quest, except that where others are trying to squeeze the most torque and horsepower from a race car, or get the most height and the best rotation in an uneven-bars routine, these contestants are going for girth and heft.”
The N&O’s Drew Jackson has been busy, not only proving his knowledge of North Carolina’s changing barbecue climate — with we’re-not-worthy bowing for Robert Willett’s photos — but also ranking the new foods at the state fair. Drew is a kind soul, but his description of this item is culinary shade at its best: “This scramble of smoked turkey, cheese, eggs and potatoes was invented to soak up the belly ache and fog of a long night. It might be better if the diner is in fact hung over.”
Writing that fulfills the mind and heart can create the best diversion. Thank you, Martha and Drew, because it’s been a long week.
Even the 51-percent-plus-standard-deviation-notwithstanding glass-full community can feel melancholy, especially when the planet keeps spitting back at us.
So take care of yourself.
Bill Church is executive editor of The News & Observer. He may treat himself to a doughnut (or two) this weekend. But it won’t have pumpkin spice.
