“A word is dead when it is said, some say.

I say it just begins to live that day.”

-Emily Dickinson

By Roger McCredie-John Bartlett owned the University Book Store just off Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Like many booksellers in those pre-big box book vendor days, he was a pretty erudite individual; in fact he was known to be so intimately familiar with the contents of his inventory that students, professors and even rank-and-file customers often asked him to furnish appropriate quotes, off the top of his head, on any number of subjects. In 1855, he published Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, which is now in its eighteenth edition and, according to Google, is the longest-lived and most widely distributed reference work of its kind in the world.

Decisions as to who and what make it into Bartlett’s are made by the publisher’s own editorial department and the selection process is famously subjective; still it’s doubtful if any of the quotes below will ever find their way into Bartlett’s. Therefore, in its small and humble way, the Tribune has decided to try to help fill this culture gap with a random listing of what it feels

Article source: http://www.thetribunepapers.com/2013/12/29/ashevilles-2013-in-its-own-words-hey-we-just-report-em/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

BOONE, N.C. — “Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.”

Ray Russell, a computer science professor at Appalachian State University, didn’t set out to prove Mark Twain’s wisecrack wrong. He just wanted to get a better forecast for snowstorms across the High Country of Western North Carolina.

What started as a hobby with the weather station kit his wife bought him for Christmas almost 20 years ago has boomed into a thriving online business.

Clicking on RaysWeather.com, an average of 300,000 unique monthly visitors troop to about a dozen domain names that cover Surry County at the Virginia state line down the Blue Ridge to Asheville and Waynesville.

In the mid-’90s, when the Internet was in its infancy and accessed with clunky dial-up connections, weather data came out of Raleigh, covering everything from Wilmington to Murphy. Russell was frustrated that weather reports couldn’t predict when it would snow in Boone.

When he set up his backyard station, Russell had Boone’s first live feed of weather data, which he began to post daily on the Appalachian State University website.

What was a part-time hobby became a professional business. With a home office, his daughter handling bookkeeping and his wife selling advertising,

Article source: http://www.wral.com/nc-professor-turns-hobby-into-weather-website/13254348/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

MOSCOW (AP) – A suicide bomber struck a busy railway station in southern Russia on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding scores more in a stark reminder of the threat Russia faces as it prepares to host the Olympics in February in Sochi.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Volgograd, but it came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Sochi Games.

Suicide bombings have rocked Russia for years, but many have been contained to the North Caucasus, the center of an insurgency seeking an Islamist state in the region. Until recently, Volgograd was not a typical target, but the city formerly known as Stalingrad has been struck twice in two months – suggesting militants may be using the transportation hub as a renewed way of showing their reach outside their restive region.

Volgograd, which lies close to volatile Caucasus provinces, is 550 miles south of Moscow and about 400 miles northeast of Sochi, a Black Sea resort flanked by the North Caucasus Mountains.

The bombing highlights the daunting security challenge Russia will face in fulfilling its pledge to make the Sochi Games the “safest

Article source: http://www.citizen-times.com/usatoday/article/4239187 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Barsa’s local-sourced paella, which the upper King Street tapas bar earlier this month showed off at Abundant Seafood’s CFA stand, has earned the restaurant a spot on Travel + Leisure’s list of “Best Tapas Restaurants in the U.S.”

The magazine selected 20 tapas bars across the country for the honor. The Southeast had a strong showing: In addition to Barsa, the list cites Durham’s Mateo Tapas, Asheville’s Curate and Atlanta’s The Iberian Pig.

“Barsa, which bills itself as a Spanish-influenced restaurant with a Southern drawl, has been a local favorite on trendy Upper King Street for years,” says the blurb accompanying Barsa’s entry. “Chalk it up to the paella with ingredients sourced from local farms and the convivial atmosphere.”

Travel + Leisure specifically praised Barsa’s “Basque-inspired plates of octopus with smoked paprika, roasted chicken and kale croquettes, and Manchego-stuffed dates.”

Now featuring a slightly reformatted menu, Barsa is open every day at 630 King St.

Hominy Grill replaces its Windsor chairs

When I was in graduate school, a professor tried to make the point that objects don’t speak by setting before us a plain wooden chair.

Article source: http://www.charlestonscene.com/article/20131226/CS/131229712/1027/raskin-around-travel-leisure-adds-barsa-to-list-of-best-us-tapas-bars If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Tryon tours new museum/visitor center

Published 5:21pm Thursday, December 26, 2013

Tryon council, staff and residents toured what will soon be the town’s new museum and visitor center, located in the front of Tryon Town Hall.

Visitors to the Tryon Museum, which will open in 2014 (photos by Leah Justice).

The tour was done with refreshments before the council’s Dec. 17 meeting.
The official opening of the museum and visitor center, which will also house a gift shop will be announced sometime in 2014. A committee is waiting on responses from grant requests in order to obtain start-up funding. Volunteers will operate the museum/visitor center, including a gift shop that will carry local pieces and be a source of income for the museum.
Tryon has been working over the past few months renovating town hall to add a new museum and visitor center in the front portion of the building. The museum/visitor center will be located where at one time the town offices were housed.
Newly elected Tryon Commissioner Happy McLeod organized a committee in April to begin the museum and visitor’s center.Article source: http://www.tryondailybulletin.com/2013/12/26/tryon-tours-new-museumvisitor-center/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

NIGHTLIFE

620 STATE: Bristol, 620 State St. Dec. 26, 9 p.m., BorderLine; Dec. 27, 9:30 p.m., Shake It Like A Caveman; Dec. 31, 9 p.m., The Deep Fried Five, $10. 423-652-0314.

ACOUSTIC COFFEEHOUSE: Johnson City, 415 W. Walnut St. Dec. 27, 8 p.m., Misawa and A.O. Donovan; Dec. 28, 8 p.m., Kasey Williams; Dec. 31, 9 p.m., Bones Jugs N Harmony. 423-434-9872.

BIGGIES: Kingsport, 417 Stone Dr. Dec. 27, 9 p.m., Acoustifried. 423-765-9633.

BLUE BLAZE CAFE: Damascus, 132 W. Laurel Ave. Dec. 31, 8 p.m., Big Don The Koal Kreek Band. 276-475-5753.

BONEFIRE SMOKEHOUSE: Abingdon, 260 W. Main St. Dec. 31, 8:30 p.m., Billy Crawford Band. 276-623-0037.

CONLEY’S OVERLOOK: Kingsport, 130 VFW Rd. Dec. 27, 9 p.m., After Six. 423-247-4449.

COUNTRY CLUB BAR AND GRILL: Bristol, 3080 W. State St. Dec. 28, 8 p.m., Acoustifried. 423-844-0400.

DOWN HOME: Johnson City, 300 W. Main St. Dec. 27, 8 p.m., This Mountain, $15; Dec. 31, 9 p.m., Jill Andrews, $18. www.downhome.com or 423-929-9822.

THE HANGAR GRILL: Wise, 6104 Airport Rd. Dec. 27, 9 p.m., Rich Poor Holiday Show; Dec. 28, 9 p.m., Cornbread Mafia; Dec. 31, 9

Article source: http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_a3ba5150-6ca4-11e3-b39e-001a4bcf6878.html If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

ABINGDON, Va. — Nancy Garretson of Emory, Va., is the recipient of the Arts Depot’s Peoples Choice award.

This award is presented each year to the artist who receives the most votes cast by hundreds of visitors during the Arts Depot’s Annual Members Exhibit. Her winning piece is a richly textured, three dimensional tapestry, “Mountain Creek,” depicting a rushing woodland creek in spring.

Garretson has been a professional artist/weaver since 1972 when she moved to Southwest Virginia after receiving her master’s degree in crafts from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

“Coming from a fine art background, I saw weaving as a unique art medium,” she said. “For me, weaving has it all, the color and design of painting and the form and texture of sculpture. I weave tapestries mostly, some flat but others have textures and layers of cloth that are stuffed and shaped. Most of my pieces are autobiographical, even if they do not at first appear so. They are created out of my life’s experiences, landscapes, people and emotions. I am still searching and growing as an artist and

Article source: http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_89ce45f0-6e46-11e3-8d51-001a4bcf6878.html If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com