A morning work call brings talk of ice cream — and a treat for News & Observer readers
Editors jump on a video call at 8:30 a.m. on weekdays.
Our 15-minute meetings have a comfortable rhythm. But there are days when the staccato beat dissolves into a clanging crescendo with all the artistry of a wandering toddler who discovers two lonely pan lids in need of coupling.
To say these meetings are like herding cats would be unfair and disrespectful to the true cats that show up on our calls.
(Many of our editors start their workdays from home. Besides, no one herds Wally. Who is … a cat.)
We have experienced editors and talented journalists who care deeply about The News & Observer audience, the Triangle and North Carolina. On most days, we’re offering an array of stories and visuals that reflect our community.
Those are the staccato days.
And then there are mornings when I pop onto the call and editors are talking over each other about ice cream.
Those are the clang-clang days.
I’m a bit more tolerant these days. As an early-stage grandparent, the wandering, wailing, clanging moments can be cute and video-worthy. Oh, look, she really nailed those lids that time. I think she’s going to be a classically trained musician AND All-American softball player!
An ice cream declaration
And when the brilliant Brooke Cain — an editor with a penchant for listening first — is the surprise pots-lid banger, you do like those vintage E.F. Hutton commercials and listen.
Brooke started the meeting by declaring the Chocolate Chess Pie ice cream at Two Roosters is the best she’s ever had.
And then all hell — arguably a metaphor for many meetings — clanged loose.
The best ever? Editors chittered and chattered with no breathing between sentences. The screen tile for each participant bounced from one voice to another. We became the Google Hangout of 1970s flashing boomboxes.
I waited for that moment to do the meeting version of a transition paragraph — but got stymied by laughs disguised as exclamation marks.
Clang-clang, though, became win-win.
Brooke isn’t the hyperbole type. (In comparison, I drop more best-ever and or worst-ever statements per day than North Carolina State basketball star Saniya Rivers averages highlight moments. (And, as Wolfpack fans have every happy reason to note, Rivers scored 33 points against UConn.)
Out of the clanging, a story emerges
What arose from the good-natured clanging was a wonderful story filled with a sense of place.
Read Brooke’s best-ever ice cream story for the full experience. If you’re in a hurry — because it’s the start of THAT season — this passage from Brooke is a sweet sampling:
My mother started making chocolate chess pies when I was a kid — and no, it’s not the same recipe as the one made famous at the Angus Barn steakhouse in Raleigh. And for what it’s worth, my mom’s is better. It’s probably my favorite pie, not just because it’s chocolate but because it’s very chocolate. It’s that dark, rich chocolate that, along with my Aunt Dot’s chocolate cake, has become my life’s chocolate standard.
This isn’t about ice cream.
It’s about memories.
About family.
About sharing.
Enjoy Thanksgiving, everyone. Find your clang-clang.
Bill Church is executive editor of The News & Observer. He’s had Chocolate Chess Pie twice since becoming a first-generation North Carolina resident. He liked it both times.
