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Things and Stuff: 10/27/05
Notes from our business community
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THE COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE offers a free monthly home gardening newsletter. Anyone who would like to be included on their mailing list may contact horticulture extension agent Christy Bredenkamp at 586-4009.
LOCAL STUDENTS Courtney Clapper and Megan Nicholson are among the poetry winners featured on the N.C. Arts Council Web site this week. Visit ncarts.org, then click on the “N.C. Poet Laureate hosts Poets of the Week” link. Then choose “Click here for the Poet of the Week.” Kay Byer of Cullowhee, poet laureate of North Carolina, has chosen the winners of the haiku contest from April’s downtown Sylva Greening Up the Mountains festival as Poets of the Week. The winning haiku are available online as are the poems Byer wrote in response.
REP. CHARLES TAYLOR announced this week that he has re-launched his congressional Web site. The new site can be accessed by going to www.charlestaylor.house.gov or the previous Web address of www.house.gov/charlestaylor. The home page allows constituents to search bills on “Thomas” – the Library of Congress’ legislative database; view the most recent press releases from Rep. Taylor; and sign up for his newsletter Capitol Connection. The new site also has an expanded constituent services section, providing better access to information about receiving help from a federal agency, obtaining a federal grant, flag requests, visiting Washington, D.C., and more. Taylor said the expanded site is an effort to ensure that his office provides the most modern technology for residents of the 11th Distirct. “My goal is to give folks the option of handling as many matters as possible electronically, to cut down on the costs of mail and phone calls,” he said.
FROM 1999 TO SPRING 2005, the exhibit “North Carolina and the Civil War” drew thousands of visitors to the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. Although the exhibit is closed, interested persons can experience it online via the museum’s Web site at ncmuseumofhistory.org. The online exhibit features a virtual tour, detailed information from each exhibit section, close-up images of galleries and artifacts, a dramatic reading and much more. This compelling exhibit tells the stories of North Carolinians who lived, served and sacrificed during the nation’s bloodiest conflict. These stories come to life through personal belongings, photographs, military items and close-up accounts of men and women who endured the conflict. North Carolina and the Civil War highlights the diverse roles Tar Heels played both in battle and on the home front. Discover in-depth information about a soldier’s life in camp and battle, wartime industries, struggles at home and the uncertainties of postwar life. The exhibit explores the experiences of some 15,000 white and black North Carolinians who served in Federal regiments, as well. Listen to audio excerpts based on letters, diaries, newspaper articles and other primary sources. Hear the words of Brig. Gen. Lawrence O’Bryan Branch as he describes the fighting at Second Manassas on Aug. 29, 1862. Or follow an 1863 newspaper account reflecting the hardships at home caused by shortages and inflation. The article describes a bread riot in Salisbury, where approximately 50 to 75 women carried axes and hatchets to the depot of the North Carolina Railroad and escaped with 10 barrels of flour. Learn about the wartime experiences of Tar Heels, such as Orderly Sergeant Alfred May, the son of a prosperous Pitt County landholder; Abraham Galloway, a slave from Brunswick County who escaped to Canada and returned to North Carolina during the war; and Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston, a staunch secessionist who lived on Looking Glass Plantation in Halifax County. Visit the museum’s Web site to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges North Carolinians faced during a long and agonizing struggle, which ultimately claimed the lives of more than 40,000 North Carolinians — the most of any Southern state. For more information, call 919-807-7900 or access ncmuseumofhistory.org.
WE RECEIVED A NOTE from Patricia Hackett on behalf of the Second Hispanic Heritage Month planning group of Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, and the Jackson County Multicultural Taskforce “Bridges to Community. Hackett expressed gratitude for the participation and support of the recent second annual Hispanic Heritage Month in Western North Carolina. “At the end of the monthlong celebration I believe that we have accomplished the purpose of this activity, which is to promote and celebrate friendly awareness and understanding of the Hispanic historical and cultural presence in the United States and in the Western North Carolina counties where we live with a positive, truthful, and open outlook,” Hackett writes. She also invites everyone to join the Bridges to Community group in its effort to plan a celebration of the life and spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. in January. That group will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, in Sylva’s City Hall. |
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