Story moment: Rescue

Most of those forwarded e-mails that go around are lame... but I thought this one was pretty great, and it got me thinking about something.

Take a look at this sequence of photos:

















You might be suspicious -- I was -- if this really happened. It's real. The dog's name is Bibi.

What it triggered for me (besides "awwwwww") was this: A rescue is a powerful story, no matter the setting.

Did you ever pull off a rescue? Or have you ever been rescued yourself?

Project #3: Your Toy Story

This has happened now at the last three or four Pixar movies. They get to a certain point -- in "Up," it's that sequence about the old couple, and if you've seen it you know what I'm talking about -- and all the adults in the theater start crying. Most of the kids aren't crying -- a few are, because they see their parents doing it -- but it's the adults who are just walloped with emotion.

The same thing happened this year, at the end of "Toy Story 3." We saw the movie months ago and I still think about the last few minutes. It's the reason Pixar is the current heavyweight champion of storytelling -- their movies balance on that pivot point where kids start to learn what it means to be grown up, and grown-ups remember what it was like to be a kid.

The "Toy Story" movies have a perfect vehicle to get the audience to that pivot point. They're about toys. A favorite toy might be the first thing you really took care of as a child. And it's probably one of your fondest childhood memories as an adult.

That's the basis for my new project: Your Toy Story.

I want you to tell me a story about your single favorite toy. (One toy only, please.) Keep it as brief as you can.

You can either post your story in the comments below, or you can e-mail me at ttomlinson@charlotteobserver.com.

We'd love to have photos and video to go with this project. If you have a photo of you with your toy, send it in an e-mail. If you have video, the easiest thing to do is upload it to YouTube and let me know. If those methods don't work for you, e-mail me and we'll figure something out.

If you happen to still have the toy, and you have a photo of you with it now, we'd love that too.

Here's a quick story before you go off to write. I had a G.I. Joe when I was little. My mom tells a story about how my dad took me to J.M. Fields department store one day, I begged him to buy the G.I. Joe, and he just about fell over when he found out how much it cost. We didn't have much money. But he swallowed hard and paid.

At some point the G.I. Joe lost one hand (even though it had the dreaded Kung Fu Grip) and the hair on one side of his head had been shaved off. I have no memory of how either of those things happened. But Joe took me along on hundreds of adventures, into river gorges (ditches) and through jungles (bamboo patches) and across enemy lines (the fence between our house and the neighbors').

At some point, of course, I quit playing with Joe and started watching "Saturday Night Live" and listening to Molly Hatchet records. But for years after, kids who came to our house would find Joe in the back of a closet and have their own adventures.

It makes me wish toys could talk, like the ones in "Toy Story." I would love to hear G.I. Joe tell he how he lost half his hair. But for now we'll have to settle for our stories about our toys. Sit down and tell me yours.

12to1, Queens workshop, Ben Folds, and other good things

Coming later this week: One new project about childhood; another new project based on a remarkable photo story; some thoughts on Alvin Greene as performance artist; maybe a little Panthers preview (short version: I think they're gonna be bad this year, but really good next year.)

Here's what's going on right now.

-- I've heard from a bunch of people already about the 12 to 1 project... Several students have written in, and I've heard from three teachers who are having their senior students take it on as an assignment. If you're a high-school senior who'd like to give some advice to new first-graders, e-mail me at ttomlinson@charlottobserver.com. We'll be taking entries for several more days.

-- If you're interested in some in-depth talk about writing, there are still a few spots left in the workshop I'm teaching at Queens University starting next week. It runs four Thursday nights from Sept. 9 to Sept. 30. We'll be talking about reporting, interviewing, writing, creativity and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." (Love of Gordon Lightfoot not required.)

-- Keep checking for more comments on the One Good Thing project and the Scars project... I'm getting some late e-mail that I'm going to stick into the comment threads. And if you haven't added your own, the door's still open.

-- Three of my favorite things came together this week. For years I've loved Ben Folds, the North Carolina piano man, and Nick Hornby, the British novelist. They've collaborated on a record that comes out in a few weeks. But as a teaser, they've released a cut they did with Pomplamoose, the duo that specializes in "video songs," where you see how each song is put together. (My favorite is their cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies.")

Here's the result. (It might help a little to know that Nick Hornby is a hugely successful writer. Four of his works -- "Fever Pitch," "High Fidelity," "About a Boy" and "An Education" -- have been turned into movies. So don't feel too sorry for him.)

The difficulty of One Good Thing

On Sunday I put out a request to readers -- a little project called One Good Thing. I wanted people to say one good thing about some group they oppose. The idea was simple.

But simple doesn't mean easy.

"Perhaps I can find something good to say about lawyers," said a reader named Greg. "I'll work on it."

"I have been wracking my brain and I still can't find a positive thing to say about the Dems other than I will love them when they leave," said my Facebook friend Tom.

Other people gave it a try, but couldn't quite hand over an unadulterated compliment. There was always a catch.

"As much as I dislike..."

"Even though they are completely wrong..."

"Despite the fact that I choose to spend my life as far away from them as possible..."

It took a day and a half before I got the first pure compliment, from a reader named Jessica:

"I admire the Tea Party for actively using their Right to Assembly as I don't know if I would ever have the guts to attend a political protest."

But by the time Jessica weighed in, it was clear that the story wasn't about how people could find ways to say one good thing. The story was how hard it is to do it at all.

Why is that?

Maybe it's the way we've turned life into sports. We argue a lot of issues now the same way crazy basketball fans argue Carolina vs. Duke -- there's nothing bad about our guys, there's nothing good about the other guys, no quarter, no surrender. Giving an inch, or conceding the other person might have a point, doesn't show that you're reasonable; it shows that you're weak.

Maybe it's that we're overwhelmed. The more information that we need to process, the more we need filters. It takes time and effort to think about some group you oppose and try to find some common ground. It's a lot easier to just filter them out as bad guys.

Maybe it's just that it feels good, in a frustrating world, to have a nice soft pillow to punch.

"I don't mean to undermine your attempt at creating a bridge to understanding, but I don't think the bridge will withstand the weight of fear and anger that is growing," a reader named Tim said back on Sunday.

He could be right.

But as the week went by, other voices stepped in.

Brendan said, "I respect those who frequent the Epicentre for their energy and zest for life."

Doc B said, "I am impressed with the attitude and courtesy I've seen from high school age students."

Bonnie said, "One good thing about Rush Limbaugh is he has saved AM talk radio."

And Tom said, "The Board of Education for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System deserves a pat on the back. They have a daunting job that requires commitment, passion, and understanding. I am not sure I could deal with all of the criticism, pressures, and issues they face daily."

Tom wrote in a little later to say he had been a high-school teacher but had decided to resign: "Believe me, it was a tough task to say something positive about the school board."

So it turns out it's really hard to say one good thing about a group you don't like. But it's possible.

And, I believe, it's necessary.


Here are more attempts at One Good Thing... some of these didn't quite qualify as unadulterated compliments, but take a look. -- Tommy

Republicans: I admire their commitment to national security. -- Esther

One good thing about Atlanta: you do not have to travel far when you decide to move to Charlotte. -- Fori

I admire the Muslims' uncompromising dedication to moral purity. A lot of Christians, myself included, should pay more attention to that.-- Rod

One good thing about the Panthers is that they are located here in Charlotte.-- Tawanya

I really get annoyed at panhandlers. When necessary, I look the other way, cross the street or turn around. My radar is up and I can sense when I am going to be approached. After capturing the scene below, I have been thinking I spend a whole lot of time and money of stuff that may seem important; it's not really. I should at least speak to the person. An urban camper has no less standing than me.
-- Scott (who also took the photo)

People who want to be sure I’m constantly aware of who they know and where they’ve been and what they have drive me crazy. But those things make them happy and I like happy people.

-- Kathy

I believe that the Republican Tea Partiers are right in their belief that something is wrong.
-- Roy

Far-right radio and TV talk show commentators surely love their families as much as I love mine. -- Sandy

I think Nancy Pelosi sticks with her convictions through thick and thin... no matter how wrong they may be! -- anonymous

Status report

We've got three projects in the mix... you can still contribute to them all. To catch you up:

Scar Stories: We published some of the best in the paper today. But people are still adding their stories to the original post.

One Good Thing: We'll publish a best-of in the next day or two -- here's an example of a good entry. I'll be writing a column-ish piece to go with it. So if you've been thinking about this, now's the time to speak up.

12 to 1: A couple of teachers wrote in saying they've got students working on this... so we'll hold this open until next week sometime. If you're a high-school senior -- or an adult with some influence over a high-school senior :) -- jump in.

OK, you've endured all that... Check out this dude and his yo-yo.



(via kottke.org)

Project #2: 12 to 1

Today's the first day of school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg public schools, which means thousands of first-graders are starting the long journey to 12th grade -- the last year of high school. That thought led to my new interactive project, 12 to 1.

I'm looking for incoming high-school seniors to participate.

Here's the idea: If you're an incoming senior, what advice would you give to incoming first-graders?

What would you tell them about what the next 12 years will be like? What would you tell them about how to make it through? How have you changed since you were in their shoes? What stories do you have that might help them understand?

Incoming seniors: Send your thoughts to me at ttomlinson@charlotteobserver.com with the phrase "12 to 1" in the subject line. Make sure you say on there who you are and what school you're going to.

And if you happen to have pictures of yourself now AND when you were in first grade, send them along, too.

Teachers and parents: If you want to nudge your seniors to do this, it won't hurt my feelings a bit :)

We'll collect these over the next few days... in the meantime, if you're NOT an incoming senior, but you have advice for first-graders, well, that's what the comments are for.

Story lunch: Scars

So as part of this new gig, I'm going to send out a story around lunchtime a few times a week... just a little something that might entertain you or make you think. I'll be showcasing storytellers from all over the Web. If you run across something good, let me know.

Today's story is part of a series The Human Project did about people with scars, and how they got them.

the human project - matty from the human project on Vimeo.

I've got a few scars myself... I suspect you do, too. Where did yours come from? And what do you think about when you look at them?

One Good Thing: Now we're talkin'

Got the best response so far to my One Good Thing project -- it's a model of how I hoped people would jump in. This is from Jessica:

I admire the Tea Party for actively using their Right to Assembly as I don't know if I would ever have the guts to attend a political protest.


That's the idea. Short, sincere, meaningful. It's fine if you want to talk politics, but I'd also love to hear from you about other stuff.

Now... what have YOU got?

(Here's some more on what One Good Thing is about, and how to contribute.)

One Good Thing, and some other things

Good morning. If you were out having a life and missed the news this weekend, there's a bit of a change around these parts. So let's get caught up.

I've gotten a bunch of responses to my first interactive project, called One Good Thing... but y'all aren't really in the spirit of it yet. Here's a fairly typical example:

“I believe that the Republican Tea Partiers are right in their belief that something is wrong even though they are completely wrong about what is wrong.”

I appreciate the effort, but that pretty much defines the phrase "backhanded compliment."

My idea -- and my hope -- is that you can find one unadulterated nice thing to say about a group that you don't like. For example... I don't enjoy seeing the Jehovah's Witnesses who make regular visits to our neighborhood. But I admire the courage of their faith.

Of course I have an agenda here. I've always thought, at our core, we are more alike than different. But when we look at other people, we often define them by the ways they're different than us -- and then, over time, we can't see anything but the differences. I suspect that's not good for humanity in the long run.

So... let's keep trying. One good thing. Sincere and pure. And brief! There are lots of ways to contribute:

-- Email ttomlinson@charlotteobserver.com. (You can also send photos that way.)

-- Send me a message on Twitter (@tommytomlinson), or post a tweet with the hashtag #onegoodthing.

-- Send me a Facebook message.

-- Leave a voicemail at 704-358-5227.

-- Upload a video to YouTube and send me a link.

Whatever format you use, put "One Good Thing" in the subject line or label it some other way. If you want, let me know who you are and how to get in touch. I wasn't clear on this last time, but it's OK with me if you're anonymous... you just have to be sincere and anonymous.

Before I go, I want to share a few inspirations for what I'm trying to do here. I'll be putting these and some others in a blogroll shortly.

I've been fascinated with PostSecret for years... I could scroll through the cards for hours. We all have secrets we want to tell, if the circumstances are right.

The Moth is an amazing little storytelling event that started in New York. Go here and listen to some great stories, in front of an audience, no notes.

And StoryCorps, which came through Charlotte not long ago, has unearthed some brilliant stories from ordinary people. I'll leave you this morning with the true story of Danny and Annie. Keep tissues nearby. And when you get a chance... tell me a story.

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Project #1: One Good Thing

So if you're here you've probably seen that I'm trying out a new job, and part of what I'm going to do is create projects with readers. The first one we're going to try is something I call One Good Thing.

The idea is simple: I want you to say one good thing about a group you don't like.

If you're a Democrat, think of one good thing about Republicans. If you're an atheist, one good thing about people of faith. If you're a Carolina fan, one good thing about Dukies.

Those aren't the only categories, of course. Think about the one crowd you most complain about, the one club you'd never join. Now: Come up with one good thing to say about them. We'll be rejecting all sarcasm, cynicism, and backhanded compliments. You have to be sincere.

My inspiration for this is Ze Frank's 52/48 project, done just after the '08 election. Here's what it ended up looking like.

You're welcome to just write. But I'd also love photos, audio, video -- however you want to make your point.

Here's how to contribute:

If you write something, email ttomlinson@charlotteobserver.com. (You can also send photos that way.)

To leave it as a voicemail, call me at 704-358-5227.

If you want to put your response on video, upload it to YouTube and send me a link.

Whatever format you use, put "One Good Thing" in the subject line or say it right up front. Also, let me know who you are and how to get in touch. You should assume that whatever you send could go online and/or in the paper. We'll take contributions until we've got a good batch, then publish them.

We've got a lot more projects coming up -- including one in the next couple of days exclusively for high-school seniors. In the meantime, think of one good thing. And send it on.

Steven Slater , taking the slide

Of course the best way to start this Steven Slater story is the Taiwanese animated re-enactment. For many more Slater updates, check here (some NSFW language, it probably goes without saying).

Steven Slater is a hero. The JetBlue flight attendant acted out the fantasy of millions of working people. He told off the jerk who had cussed him out, then he quit his job in style -- in his case, by grabbing a beer, popping the emergency slide on the plane, and gliding off to freedom. Take this job and shove it, I ain't working here no more.

Steven Slater is a jackass. He overreacted to a rude passenger, made it all about himself, got arrested, and became instantly unemployable anywhere except for reality TV.

Steven Slater is a symbol -- a symbol of disgruntled workers, a symbol of our in-your-face society, a symbol of the everyday torture that comes with riding the airlines, and working for one.

To me, more than anything, Steven Slater is a warning. Because he did the kind of work most people will end up doing in this country. He wasn't a maker, he was a server. And not everybody is cut out to serve.

You know the score, but here's a couple of details. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Carolinas lost 460,000 manufacturing jobs between June 2000 and June of this year. Over the same period, the Carolinas gained more than 93,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality field.

That's a lot fewer working in mills and factories, and a lot more people working at customer service desks.

That's not a knock on service jobs -- my mama was a waitress for 20 years. It's just reality. People are doing different kinds of work in different settings that require different attitudes.

Here's the main difference. If you work in a manufacturing plant, you have one or two bosses. You might grumble about them -- everybody grumbles about the boss -- but you probably learn to deal with it.

In a service job, you have those bosses, too. But the real bosses are your customers -- hundreds of them, maybe thousands. And in a group that big, somebody's bound to set you off.

Steven Slater didn't flip out at a supervisor. He flipped out at a passenger who had been involved in a preflight dispute about the overhead bin. There are several versions of the story, but two parts are consistent: Slater took a shot to the head when he tried to break it up, and after the flight landed, when he approached the woman, she four-lettered him.

No doubt it was a bad scene. But lots of service workers put up with worse, every day, and hold their tongues.

The customer is not always right, and lots of times the customer is flat-out wrong. Customers leave popcorn boxes on the floor of the theater. Customers stiff waiters making $2 an hour. Customers return pants they've worn 10 times. Customers do all sorts of crazy things, and then rant when they don't get immediate satisfaction.

A professional in the service business has to take that junk, swallow it, and figure out a way to make the customer happy. Most customers are good ones, and if all you do is focus on the bad ones, you'll drive yourself crazy. Which Steven Slater, at least temporarily, did.

Steven Slater isn't a hero or a jackass. He's an ordinary American worker who was faced with what's becoming a more and more ordinary situation.

What happened makes you wish that, when we're in customer mode, we have a little more appreciation for the people on the other side.

And it makes you hope that, when somebody feels the need to pop the emergency slide, we can provide the kind of job that's a good place to land.

Come talk about writing with me

I wanted to let y'all know about two workshops I'm teaching in September... they're both good chances to talk about writing and to hear my speaking voice, which can best be described as "obscene phone caller in training."

The first one is at Queens University -- it's a four-week class on Thursday nights starting Sept. 9 and ending Sept. 30. Here's the signup page. It's a repeat of a class called "Writing In 3-D" that I did last month -- but spread out a little, and held at night, to accommodate people on a different schedule. This workshop is heavy on writing tools -- lots of practical ways to get better.

The second one is a one-day workshop Sept. 11 at The Farm at Weathers Creek in Iredell County. Here's more information on that one, which is part of a writers' series they have up there. There's some overlap with the Queens class, but this workshop will have a little bit more focus on creativity -- building a creative life for yourself.

I leave lots of time for questions, comments, tangents, etc., and these classes always end up being lots of fun.

Holler in the comments or drop me an e-mail if you have any questions.

Now that you've read all that, you deserve a reward. Here's the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Lindsey Graham, Shirley Sherrod, and the death of thoughtfulness

Today we give props to Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, who -- for this week at least -- appears to be the only thoughtful person in Washington.

Graham was the only member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to cross party lines in the vote to confirm Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. All 12 Democrats voted with Graham to confirm; the other six Republicans all voted no.

It's fair to say Graham is no fan of President Obama. He stumped for John McCain in the 2008 campaign, and voted against Obama's stimulus package and health-care bill. But he has studied what the framers of the Constitution intended for the Supreme Court nomination process. And Graham believes that as long as the candidate is qualified, the president's choice should stand -- regardless of party.

That last paragraph might have sounded weird if you read a lot about politics. Because you don't often see a political story where someone makes a decision regardless of party -- much less that they'd studied it first.

Around the same time Tuesday that Graham was explaining why he supported Kagan, a more typical Washington story was breaking.

Shirley Sherrod, who ran a Department of Agriculture office in Georgia, gave a speech back in March at an NAACP banquet in Douglas, Ga., not far from where I grew up. A Web publisher named Andrew Breitbart put out a segment of video from the speech. In the segment, it sounds like Sherrod admits she deliberately didn't do her best to help a white farm family in trouble. Breitbart's cut features a special appearance at the end from Geraldo Rivera, so you know it's quality journalism.



Problem is, when the full video was released, it's clear that Sherrod did exactly the opposite. The whole thing is 45 minutes long -- you can also read the key parts of the transcript.



It turns out Sherrod did end up helping the family, and told the story as an example of how she struggled with her own prejudices and overcame them. That's exactly what we want in a leader, right? Someone honest enough to admit her flaws, and capable enough to learn and grow?

Um, no. What we really want, at least in Washington, is somebody who won't give a sound bite that will help the other side.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asked for (and got) Sherrod's resignation Tuesday, after the short version of the speech had come out but before the long version. I've actually spent a little time with Vilsack; he was on a fellowship in Boston when my wife and I were up there. He seemed like a decent guy. But in this case it looks like he acted without knowing or caring about the context of the speech, just so the Obama team could salvage a bit of the 24-hour news cycle.

So let's try to sum up: A right-wing blogger clips a woman's words to twist them exactly backwards. (Breitbart, for his part, said this on Fox News: "I could care less about Shirley Sherrod, to be honest with you.")

And a Democratic official, instead of backing her up or even waiting for the full story, dumps her on the side of the road.

In other words, a woman who was humble and brave was run out of her job because of arrogance and cowardice. Nothing that happened was because a principle was at stake, or because it mattered to the business of America. No one involved thought about anything but winning.

And so, at least for today, let's appreciate Lindsey Graham. He took a difficult issue, thought about it for more than five seconds, and went against his own party to do what he thought was best for the country.

As Shirley Sherrod could tell you today, that's a rare thing.

UPDATE, 6:25 p.m.: Vilsack has apologized and offered Sherrod a new job with the USDA.

A little more on comments

My post yesterday on the comments on our Dean Smith story triggered an irony alert: I had to delete a couple comments in a post about the high quality of comments. (Just FYI, if you start comparing people to Hitler, your comment is not long for this world.)

While we're on the topic, here's two other things you should read:

The Buffalo News is doing away with anonymous comments. As you might imagine, there are a lot of comments about that.

And Gene Weingarten likens comments on some stories to a sirloin steak with a side of maggots. Although I suspect Gene would admit that some news stories resemble Salisbury steak instead. And I've written a couple of things more like that protein loaf they serve in prison.

Gene does say he generally likes comments. I do too. But we can, and ought to, make them better. Thanks for the ideas so far.

UPDATE: NYU's Jay Rosen tweets (@jayrosen_nyu) in response to the Buffalo News story: "Just so typical of newspaper thinking that the middle way—persistent identity using a pen name-is removed from the debate."

I think Rosen is talking about getting rid of the ability to post as Anonymous, but letting people post under an assumed name. This is how the Observer does it on our regular stories online, but not on blog posts, which run on different software. Do you think assumed names work?

Dean Smith, comments, and you

On Saturday we published a story on Dean Smith that I'd been working on for a while with Robbi Pickeral, the great UNC basketball beat writer for the Raleigh News & Observer. Now that the story has been out in the world for a couple of days, the most gratifying thing about it is something I had nothing to do with: the quality of the online comments.

As I write this, there are 66 comments about the story on the Observer's page, and all but a couple are respectful, thoughtful and touching. Several Duke fans have written in to say that, even though UNC is their biggest rival, they still admired the way Smith coached and leads his life.

Comments often add a lot to the understanding of a story -- they can flesh out details in stories, pick out flaws, start debates, and even break news. Sometimes the comments are better than the story (and that includes a good number of my stories). I don't mind that it sometimes feels more like a saloon than a salon. The best answer to free speech is more free speech.

Having said all that, sometimes it's depressing to see how the comments turn out. Complicated thoughts can get reduced to political talking points. Vulnerable people can get pounded by personal attacks. A small group of posters can dominate the discussion, and drive out people who want to have a conversation instead of a shouting match.

The comments on the N&O's site about the Dean Smith story have more of an edge to them, although they're still mild compared to a lot of other stories we publish.

I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on how to make our comments better -- or your thoughts on why you like them the way they are.

And we really appreciate all of you who wrote in about this story. The comments really added to the discussion, and that's always our goal.

The Friday Wrap

Here's a recap of the last seven days here at the ol' paragraph factory.

A guy who grew up in Charlotte wrote a cool book about the vocoder. (Plus DVD extras!)

Now you have to remember if you're in the Orange Zone or the Green Zone. (Several readers made a smart suggestion: The recycling bins should've been orange or green, depending on what zone you're in. But you'd still have to remember which week you take out recycling. Maybe they could've stamped a calendar on the lid.)

LeBron chose away over home.

A quick follow-up on that... NOBODY looked good after The LeBron Show last night.

LeBron showed all the emotion of an insurance adjuster and seemed to have no idea how deeply he was crushing Cleveland fans by renting ESPN for an torture session of kissing them goodbye.

ESPN chucked its credibility and spent an hour kissing LeBron's ring. Well, he doesn't HAVE a ring, but you get the point.

Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert wrote a letter hammering the guy he loved and coveted up until the very minute LeBron decided to go somewhere else. It must have been a blast to write, but conveniently fails to mention that Gilbert just finished getting rid of the Cavs' coach and general manager -- so much for loyalty -- and also fails to understand that he sounds like a ninth-grader who got dumped a week before the prom. Which, in a way, he is.

The only people who came out of the whole thing with unadulterated happiness are Miami Heat ticket scalpers. Good news, Junior, that college fund's back in play.

A few of the things I linked on Twitter (@tommytomlinson):

RT @Pogue Did the Jetsons predict the iPad, FaceTime, and streaming video news sites in 1962? http://bit.ly/bQJByg

Alvin Greene's stimulus idea: Alvin Greene action figures. I'm beginning to think this is performance art. http://bit.ly/chSbD0

Gator walks into a building at LSU. (Insert SEC joke here.) http://bit.ly/aGN4hd

Not sure I agree with all this from the great @williamfleitch... but damn, is it well-done. http://bit.ly/aWm0Gl

Former co-worker @tTribble helped come up w/the awesome cover for the Cleveland P-D today. http://bit.ly/cgf3Kx

Finally, some music. Smashing Pumpkins are coming to Charlotte next week. It's about a decade past their glory days in the post-Nirvana era, but I saw them when they were here in 1997, and they were really good. Here's a clip of Billy Corgan doing an AC/DC cover on the street in Italy. You'd never know from a Smashing Pumpkins show that Corgan can be charming and goofy... but he is here.



Enjoy the weekend, everybody.

LeBron's choice

LeBron James is a father of two who lives in Bath Township, Ohio. It's about 10 miles from Akron, where he grew up, and less than 30 from Cleveland, where he works for a living. He makes as much in salary as the NBA allows, plus millions more in endorsements, and his home is a 33,000-square-foot mansion. But set aside the dollar signs and he's like thousands of others from his hometown. Grew up poor. Didn't go to college. Maybe dreamed that one day, if things broke right, he could load up the car and drive north on I-77 for a life in the big city.

Things broke right. Now, in this awful economy, LeBron James is a rare soul: a 25-year-old with multiple job offers. All he has to do is decide what he wants.

When you were 25, did you know what you wanted?

Because of the way we live now, when LeBron announces his new team tonight, it will be on an hourlong ESPN special, with the main interviewer (Jim Gray) chosen by LeBron himself, all tied into LeBron's new website and new Twitter feed. (This morning's reports -- unconfirmed -- say that LeBron will announce he's playing for the Miami Heat.) Even before the TV special happens, it's being ripped as a giant ego stunt, an overhyped me-fest for a player who, as great as he is, has yet to win an NBA title.

I'm sure LeBron has an ego. But I'm not sure this is about ego. Maybe it's about control.

When you were 25, did you feel like you were in control?

The choices among his suitors seem fairly clear. If basketball -- winning championships -- is the main thing, he has to go to Miami or Chicago. Miami re-signed its superstar, Dwyane Wade, and is adding top-flight forward Chris Bosh. Chicago has dazzling point guard Derrick Rose and just signed All-Star Carlos Boozer. Either of those teams, with LeBron, is an instant favorite to make the NBA Finals.

If glamor is the thing, he has to go to New York. The Knicks have been awful for years; even with LeBron and free-agent pickup Amar'e Stoudemire, they might not be great. But in New York, LeBron can go on Letterman anytime he wants, and get standing O's at the Yankees games, and have a shot at being the biggest guy in the biggest city.

If loyalty is the thing -- and LeBron has a LOYALTY tattoo along his rib cage -- he has to go back to Cleveland. I'm not sure what kind of team he could put together now. Nearly all the big free agents have already signed. Whatever he assembles there would probably be underdogs to Orlando, Chicago, Miami and maybe Boston -- and that's just in the Eastern Conference. A long-term deal with Cleveland might mean three or four years before he has a prime shot at a title. And after 10 or 11 years of NBA pounding, even the best bodies start to break down.

But if he does win it all in Cleveland... it becomes one of the best sports stories in history. Kid grows up rooting for the local team, ends up playing for the local team, and wins a title for the local team -- but not just any local team, CLEVELAND, the city wrecked by decades of epic sports heartbreak. Could LeBron make up for all those times Cleveland fans have wound up doubled over in grief? Maybe only LeBron could.

Here's the thing, though. LeBron got to play for the local team. But he didn't choose to. He ended up in Cleveland because the Cavaliers won the 2003 draft lottery. If the Cavs hadn't won, LeBron could've opted for college. But more than likely he would've stayed in the draft and ended up with Detroit or Denver or one of the other teams with a high draft pick. And now, as a free agent, he'd have a chance to come back home.

As it worked out, he never went away. He's never been away. Even though he's played all over the country as an NBA star and all over the world as an Olympian, he has always lived within a few miles of where he grew up, and from his house it's a half-hour drive to work. Just like all those kids from Akron who grew up dreaming of a big house in town and a good job up in Cleveland.

Those are fine dreams. But other kids dream other things. They get to be 25 and they start to wonder what it might be like to set down roots somewhere else, to unpack your bags in a fresh town, to see how starting over changes you. It's not about rejecting home. It's about forcing yourself to grow by reaching for something new.

LeBron James is still a young man, but he has experienced things most of us can barely imagine. He's already one of the best ever at what he does. Fans adore him. The biggest sports network in the country is handing him an hour tonight to say what he wants to say. Millions of people are waiting for his choice.

And what I keep wondering is: Does he really know what he wants?

Does he dream about it?

And if he does, when he dreams, is he home or away?

Recycling, brain cramps, and overload

Clearly the best way to handle this Charlotte recycling bumfuzzle is Monty Python-style:



We need to create jobs, right? Just hire a guy in every neighborhood to walk the streets with a bullhorn. Bring out your recycling! Bring out your recycling! All plastic bottles except #6! No pizza boxes!

It might not be the most efficient idea. But the current plan isn't working so hot.

We're three days into the city's new recycling program, and apparently for some of us it's harder than Final Jeopardy. More than 1,200 people called the city with questions on Monday alone. People are putting out their bins on the wrong day, in the wrong week, with the wrong stuff inside.

This is despite the city attaching instructions to the new bins, sending out at least three notices in the mail, putting the information online, and discussing it at 200 community events.

There are several possible reasons we're still confused:

• It turns out people throw away ALL their mail, not just the bills.
• Nobody pays attention to public service announcements about the importance of blah blah blah.
• Maybe some folks are going by Mayan calendars.
  
• Collectively, we're as dumb as a sack of hammers.

You could make an argument for any of those. But here's the real reason: There's just too much junk floating around in our heads right now.

We're not stupid, we're overwhelmed.

Think about all the mental debris you tote around -- logins and passwords to computers and websites, PIN numbers to credit cards and debit cards and ATM cards, the schedule for the kids' ball games and dance lessons, what hours the library's open (hint: not as many hours as it used to be), the faces and names of all those people you see only at the grocery store or the barbershop or at church on Easter. Plus all that long division and high-school Spanish trying not to get sucked down the memory hole.

Not only that, every little device is its own galaxy of choices. I'm pretty sure my cell phone could launch a nuclear sub if I had the right app. The other day I toured a hangar that housed some vintage airplanes. The cockpits didn't look all that more complicated than a universal remote. And pilots don't have to worry about programming the DVR.

In our complicated lives, we need some things to be simple. In Charlotte, garbage and recycling were simple. You rolled out the garbage can and set out the recycling bin on the same day every week. You didn't even have to think about it -- your body did the work on autopilot.

Now there's a new recycling bin, and pickup for that is every OTHER week, even though garbage is still every week, although for most people it's now on a different DAY, and to get it all straight you have to figure out whether you live in the Green Zone or the Orange Zone.

That's not complicated, in and of itself. But piled on top of all the other numbers and maps and codes, it makes us crazy.

In the end, of course, we'll figure it out -- we'll clear out a little corner of our brains (bye-bye, Spanish!) to make room for the new schedule. We're also recycling more stuff, which is good for the planet, so we've got that going for us, which is nice.

But next time, before anybody else rolls out something else to complicate our lives, do us a favor. Spring for the bullhorns.

DVD extras for Sunday vocoder column

Hope everybody had a good Fourth. For us it involved a trip to Oklahoma and a drive through the flatlands of Kansas on July 4 night -- fireworks in every direction and Conway Twitty on the radio. That's America, y'all.

Now that I'm back at work I wanted to share some supplemental material that goes with my Sunday column on Dave Tompkins, who grew up in Charlotte and just wrote a very cool book about the vocoder.

Buy a copy on the book's official page or on Amazon.

Here's a story from New York magazine.

And now to the music:

This is "Clear," the song that Dave fell for when it came on WPEG back in 1982.



Here's "Pack Jam" by the Jonzun Crew -- a glorious mix of Devo, Michael Jackson, the Oakland Raiders and "CHiPs."



This is Midnight Star's "Freak-a-Zoid," which you heard if you visited a dance club anytime in the mid-'80s.



And if you want to go all in, check out this 75-minute vocoder megamix from Dave's site.

I think it's fair to say that the vocoder changed Dave Tompkins' life. Is there a song, or a sound, that changed yours?

Links for oil spill column

Here are some links that go with my Sunday column on the Gulf oil spill:

Brie Williams's photos from Grand Isle.

A live camera from the spill. (I tried to link to the cameras on BP's site, but they weren't working for some reason. That's not sarcasm, by the way.)

And here's the YouTube video from Destin. The part I mentioned happens about 2:30, but before then you can see some oil on the beach up close.