Harder than it seems

We tried the Sno-cones and realized why our parents didn't like the contraption... it's too darn hard to put together, as Graham demonstrates here.

Here's video of the experience.

Sno-cones!

When those of us in the newsroom get the chance to bring back a pleasant part of our childhoods, we jump on it. Such was the case when we found out the makers of the Snoopy Sno-cone machines were bringing them back.

We determined that most of the younger crowd had one - Joy Scott, The Star's interactive editor, reporter Cherish Wilson and I each had one.

Allison Flynn, the assistant lifestyles editor always wanted one, but her mother never would buy it.

So we contacted the company that makes them.

After a week's waiting, our Snoopy Sno-cone machines have arrived!

I called my mother at work and hassled her about the one I had as a kid. She wouldn't let us use it. She claims today that our ice cubes were too large to go through the grinding mechanism. Lame excuse, mom. (Just kidding) I suspect that it was really because the darn thing was so messy.

In either case, we're going to break this thing out!

Oh yeah, we got a second one to give away to a lucky Star reader. So, if you're interested in winning one for yourself (or your kids), use the following requirements:

Did you have a Snoopy Sno-cone Maker as a kid? Do you want your children to experience it?
Are you willing to share what you or your children think about the reissued machine? If so, send us a card or e-mail telling us about yours as a child or about how you wanted one. We’ll give one away so you can review it.

Remember to include your name and phone number with your reason.

E-mail: starlifestyles@shelbystar.com

Mail: P.O. Box 48, Shelby, NC 28151, attn: Lifestyles Sno-cone

Freedom communications associates and their families are not eligible to win.

Memorial Day

When I left The Star Friday afternoon, I wasn't particularly looking forward to Memorial Day weekend. I anticipated a lot of family drama...

But to my pleasant surprise, I had a fabulous time.

The weekend was filled with family dinners, meeting new people and learning a lot about what it's like for soldiers in Iraq.

My cousin who just came back from Iraq brought her new fiance with her for my aunt's wedding. Mandy (my cousin) is an Air Force nurse and her fiance is also in the Air Force. They're both a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to a lot more family get-togethers with the future cousin-in-law.

The two of them put together a slidewhow of pictures they took while they were in a hospital in Balad, Iraq. Highlights of that photo show include a thermometer that read 120 degrees in the shade, a giant scorpion made out of scrap metal, patients' before and after photos and pictures of what it's like to work in a tent hospital. It's fitting that we watched the show on Memorial Day.

I also had the chance to have a few brief, but frank talks with my little sister about her future job and future husband, and got to have a little fun with my littlest sister.

We also had two births while I was home. One was a new cousin, and the other was a horse. I'm not sure which is cuter...

Overall, a good time... I wouldn't mind doing that about every weekend...

Anyone else do anything for Memorial Day they'd like to share? Post it in the comments section.

Ron Rash continued

I had a rough week last week and didn't have time to post this, but I received a surprise phone call about my blog and a column I put in the paper a few weeks ago.

The caller was Ron Rash - yay!

He said he was glad to be closer to home and said thanks for the coverage.

It made my day, but I was so surprised to get it that I flaked out and couldn't remember what I should say... I wasn't "star struck" in a traditional sense... I just lost my head...

Have you had a "star struck" experience or met a celebrity? Let me know in the comments section.

A sneak-peek at food

It's mid-afternoon on Tuesday and I thought it might be fun to give all the foodies out there a sneak-peek at what's going on in this week's Food section.

For one thing, there's Brazilian food - a unique mix of old-world food and new-world spicy flair.

The other thing is NASCAR food - Although the person writing about a new NASCAR cookbook is a little (in my opinion) harsh about the book's contents, its contents do seem to have a seriously southern flair. Some of the recipes would work well this weekend, considering there's a big race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. A book like this one may even get a few guys away from their Memorial Day weekend grilling... but I'm not sure the lure of NASCAR cooking is strong enough for guys to give up beer and pretzels... even during commercial breaks.

Let me know if you try any of this week's recipes.

great book

A few years ago, I read a book that changed the way I look at literature from Southern writers.

It's title: One Foot in Eden. It's author: Ron Rash.

I love the book because I can picture exactly how it happened. What makes it stand out is the fact that he wrote the book from several peoples' points of view. The reader advances through the story by seeing it from those different perspectives. It's my favorite book, which means that it has to stand up against other great American novels like The Color Purple, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Last of the Mohicans, Gone With the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye.

Rash's repertoire doesn't stop there. He's published several other books, including two novels, short stories and volumes of poetry.

I'm also a little biased toward him because (like me) he's a Gardner-Webb graduate.

We received media copies in the mail about a week ago for his newest book of short stories, "Chemistry and Other Stories." After reading it, I decided wholeheartedly that it lives up to my (extremely high) expectations of Rash's work.

I read it in several sittings because it's like fine chocolate - you want to savor it and make it last.

I don't want to give away too much of it, but the first story about the old men is one of my favorites.

The other advantage to these short stories (and his other work) is that it has a local setting. He actually mentions Shelby in one of the stories in the book.

Here's the link to his publisher.

Here's a link to some of his poetry.

Notably, Rash will be in the area on tour in the next few months. Read my column on Thursday's Spot calendar page to find out when and where.

Have you read Rash's other work? Did you like it? Hate it?

If so, leave comments.

Happy Birthday

With a little more than a week before the Cleveland County courthouse's centennial birthday celebration, I'm trying to put together some of the final pieces of The Star's coverage for the event. It's a big undertaking for us, and a monumental project for the Destination Cleveland County people like Brownie Plaster and Marta Holden (and many more) behind it. As I've worked on the project, I've come across scores of interesting historical photos. Hopefully, I can post one or two here every now and then. These first two images are postcards that were circulated during the last century. The one on the top has people looking at the confederate monument and courthouse on the square. The other is unusual because it's the view of the historic courthouse from a corner. Normally, postcards are looking straight-on at a building.

Do you have memories of the historic courthouse or courtsquare? If so, please share your stories in the comments section.

NYC trip photos and more

I think this man was a little delusional.

The Chrysler building (you can see the storm clouds rolling in)

The top of the Empire State Building (the conference I went to was held in one of the building's below-ground levels)

What good journalist could go to New York City and not take a photo of the New York Times?

Rockefeller Center

My trip to New York City this weekend went well. I attended a conference for journalists and was able to meet up with several people I met a few years ago at a similar conference. The group sponsoring the event was the World Journalism Institute. The conference itself was great - I took home a lot of great information and made a few friends.

There were a lot of excellent speakers, including three guys who were at the New York Times from the 1950s until recently. One point I took home from their comments was that the Jason Blair scandal never would have happened if people took the time for face-to-face personal interaction, as opposed to simply sending an e-mail. They also said that because there's so much privacy in the Times' newsroom of today (with voice mail, cubicles, etc.) that it's much harder to detect when something is going wrong. That makes me at least a little thankful that the newsroom at The Star is cubicle and voice mail free. I happen to like the face-to-face interaction and the accountability it affords.

I also got to do some sightseeing Saturday night and had planned to do so all day on Sunday.

Nature, however, blew away that plan.

My flight out was originally scheduled to leave the city at 7 p.m. Sunday (so I could spend as much time as possible sightseeing), but everyone said a nor'easter was blowing. Rumor had it that officials were preparing for severe flooding and that there may be widespread power outages in the New York City area because of high winds.

The more worrisome rumor for me was that scores of flights would be cancelled.

Armed with that information, I called the airline and had my flight changed to one of the first ones out - my goal was to get out before flights started being seriously delayed and/or cancelled. I did not, without a doubt, want to get stuck in LaGuardia for hours (and maybe days) if the storm plays out the way it was predicted.

On the Fox news ticker outside its building Saturday night, the main story was that the storm was to be the largest one to hit the city in about 25 years.

It was a good thing I left at 11:30 a.m. as a standby passenger. Winds slammed into the plane for the first 45 minutes of the flight and for the last 15. That only left 30 minutes of peaceful flying. I think I took the whole situation rather well, but another woman sitting near me went into a panic as the plane pitched around. I was glad the pilot made everyone leave on their seat belts for almost the entire flight, because if we hadn't, I think some people would have been jostled out of their seats.

Here's one news report about the storm.

Here's what an AP story said about it:

"Airlines canceled more than 400 flights at the New York area's three major airports, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Kennedy Airport, on the wind-exposed south side of Long Island, had sustained wind of 30 to 35 mph with gusts to 48 mph, Conte said."

In any case, I'm glad I'm on solid ground again, and after attending the conference, I'm feeling a lot more refreshed about my profession.

travel

I'm taking a trip to New York City later this week, and I'm getting a little worried about flying to and from there, and also transportation while I'm in the city.

I've never been a big fan of flying and I'm terrified of getting lost in the airport and missing my flight.

The first time I flew anywhere, my mother dropped me off at the airport door and basically told me "Good luck."

While not exactly comforting at the time, I do realize that she did it in part because she wanted me to depend on myself and also because she was confident I could figure out on my own what I should do.

The weather for my first two flights was terrible, with heavy cloudcover and thunderstorms. The plane did a good bit of bucking around, which did not make me feel very safe. I'm hoping my flights this week will be much better.

Has anyone else had a terrible (or wonderful) flight experience? If so, share it in the comments section.

As for transportation in the city, my pal Jason once lived there. His advice Sunday on cabs: "Hold on." When I asked more questions about it, his response was simple. "It'll be an experience." That's comforting.

All in all, though, I'm sure I'll be fine when the time comes. I just have to convince myself of that.

Allergies

I read in a Reuters story today that a Mediterranean-style diet can help reduce allergies.

Well, bring on the grapes, olive oil and tomatoes.

While that may be (OK, it is) an oversimplification, it still has a grain of truth to it.

The article cited a study where Greek children don't suffer as much from wheezing and allergy symptoms. Researchers found that children who ate the most fresh fruits and nuts were the least likely to suffer from breathing allergies, and those who ate the most margarine were the most likely to.

That certainly makes sense to me. Eat healthy fresh foods and you'll have fewer allergies. That's certainly news I can stomach, especially with allergy season in full swing.

Does anyone else have any allergy-reducing tips? I'm definitely game to try a few home remedies. Post your suggestions in the comments section.