Anonymity has always been a major appeal of online life. Two decades ago, The New Yorker magazine ran a cartoon with a dog sitting in front of a computer, one paw on the keyboard. The caption read: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” At its best, anonymity allows people to speak freely without repercussions. It allows whistle blowers and protesters to espouse unpopular opinions. At its worst, it allows people to spout off without repercussions. It gives trolls and bullies license to pick arguments, threaten and abuse.

But anonymity has been eroding in recent years. On the Internet, many people may know not only your name, but also your latest musings, the songs you’ve listened to, your job history, who your friends are and even the brand of soap you prefer.

“It’s not so much that our offline lives are going online, it’s that our offline and online lives are more integrated,” says Mark Lashley, a professor of communications at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Facebook, which requires people to use their real names, played a big part in the seismic shift.

“The way the Web was developed, it was unique

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Veazey, Hart compile memories of Dean Smith era

Dan Veazey, far left, with the 1975-76 UNC team.

By Bill Moss, Published: December 25, 2013

Dan Veazey was on the bench when Carolina was 8 points down with 17 seconds to go. Dave Hart was there when Michael Jordan hit the shot before it became “The Shot.”

Both are iconic moments in the collective memory of the Carolina Nation. Yet, those are not the stories that spring to mind when Veazey and Hart reminisce about their time as team managers under Dean Smith and his longtime assistant coach, Bill Guthridge.
Dan Veazey and Dave Hart, both Morehead scholars and UNC basketball managers, compiled “The View from the Bench.”Veazey, a Hendersonville physician, tells about the time Coach Smith secured a near-impossible-to-get seat for a huge game for his mother, hours before game time. Hart, a financial adviser in Asheville, recalls how the NCAA gave the team 22 national championship watches after that 1982. Counting players, coaches, trainers and managers, the winning team totaled 23 people. The next day, Smith called Hart into his office.
“Coach Smith thanked me for all the work I had done and handed me a box saying, ‘You

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VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis offered a Christmas wish Wednesday for a better world, praying for protection for Christians under attack, battered women and trafficked children, peace in the Middle East and Africa, and dignity for refugees fleeing misery and conflict around the globe.

Francis delivered the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (Latin for “to the city and to the world”) speech from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to 70,000 cheering tourists, pilgrims and Romans in the square below. He said he was joining all those hoping “for a better world.”

In his first Christmas message since being elected pontiff in March, he asked for all to share in the song of Christmas angels, “for every man or woman â?¦ who hopes for a better world, who cares for others,” humbly.

Among places ravaged by conflict, Francis singled out Syria, which saw its third Christmas during civil war; South Sudan; the Central African Republic; Nigeria; and Iraq.

In Iraq on Wednesday, militants targeted Christians in two attacks, including a bomb that exploded near a church during Christmas Mass in Baghdad. The separate bombings killed dozens of people.

The Vatican has been trying to raise concern in the world for persecution and attacks on

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But any sort of major renovation would require much more funding.

“Any money like that, which would likely be in the multimillion range, would be a (City) Council decision, if it meant funding to help spur growth in that (south slope) area,” said Roderick Simmons, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, which oversees McCormick Field.

“It would take a (financial) partnership — the Tourists, the city, (Buncombe) County, the (Tourism Development Authority, which provided about $4 million to help renovate the U.S. Cellular Center), the private sector,” Hawkins said.

There are already plans for redevelopment in the area around McCormick Field.

“Private sector developers are creating several hundred new market-rate rental housing units in the area,” Powers said. “The city would like to add to the mix additional affordable and workforce housing for folks who are working in the area.”

A fixer-upper

McCormick Field opened as a wooden structure 89 years ago.

That was torn down and rebuilt with concrete and brick in time for the 1992 season, with a baseball game capacity of about 4,500.

In addition to the land-locked problems of sitting on a hill, surrounded

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The WNC Agricultural center is hosting the largest drive-through, synchronized LED Christmas light show in the world.

Created by Shadrock Productions, this is the first year the show has appeared in Asheville. The company presents similar shows in Sevierville, Tenn. New Market, Md. and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Judging from a recent visit to the Asheville site, the attraction seems to be popular. On Dec. 23, traffic stretched for more than a mile down Airport Road with cars waiting in line to enter. Once inside the gates, visitors were greeted by a series of lighted features inspired by the lyrics of “Twelve Days of Christmas”: partridges in pear trees, french hens, geese laying golden rings and more. A corresponding radio frequency beamed in music that was synchronized to blinking and strobing lights in the form of Christmas trees and tunnels. At the end, there’s a “Christmas Village” featuring hot cocoa and other treats.

All in all it’s a unique experience, full of opportunities for kitschy fun.

The attraction is open from dusk until 10 p.m. every night through Jan. 1. It costs $20 per car

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Seasonlong events

Christmas at Biltmore, through Jan. 12, Biltmore Estate. Regular admission applies until dusk. Additional charge for Candlelight Christmas Evenings, through Jan. 4. Visit www.biltmore.com.

National Gingerbread House Competition, viewing of winners and other entries through Jan. 2, The Omni Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa, 290 Macon Ave., Asheville. Community viewing Sunday-Thursday. Parking $10, with proceeds going to six area charities. Call 800-438-0050, ext. 1281.

Holidays for Hospice. Asheville Mall hosts the CarePartners Garden of Memories. For details on memorial ornaments, visit www.carepartnersfoundation.org. Call 277-4815.

“The Polar Express,” through Dec. 29, Bryson City. Travel through the wilderness to the North Pole on Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. Santa will board the train, greet each child and give children a silver bell as in “The Polar Express.” Times and dates vary. Tickets start at $40 for adults, $26 for ages 2-12. Visit www.gsmr.com or call 800-872-4681.

Shadrack’s Christmas Wonderland light and music show, dusk-10 p.m. through Jan. 1, WNC Ag Center, Fletcher. Drive-thru, synchronized LED light and Christmas show. Santa, children’s activities, food for extra fee. $20 for cars or family vans, $30 van/mini bus/limo, $75 bus.

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I first heard one of my now favorite Christmas stories on NPR on Christmas Eve, 10 years ago.

I was driving home from work, and let’s just say I was not in a receptive mood for any nonsense about sweetness and light. Don’t get me wrong, working at the bookstore through the holiday is wonderful – you get to be Santa Claus hour after hour, day after day. But after a month of this, Santa can get tuckered out.

By 6 o’clock this particular Christmas Eve I was dog tired and not at all looking forward to our usual holiday rituals of opening presents and a big family dinner. Like Ebeneezer Scrooge, all I wanted to do was crawl into bed, sleep and be left alone. Looking for some help in staying awake on my 20-minute drive, I turned on the radio.

The man on WUNC had a familiar Southern voice, but I couldn’t quite place it. He was telling a story, in the first person, of a socially awkward loner named Verne who was managing a pet shop in a mall, somewhere along an interstate in North Carolina.

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