New Web addiction

I've found a free Web-based Tetris game. This, dear readers, could be my downfall.

I've been a Tetris fan ever since my parents bought me an original Nintendo for Christmas in the third grade.

I've kept my system for one reason - that game.

Actually, Tetris is the reason why I'm a reasonably good page designer. It's all a matter of making the pieces fit. Of course, that's oversimplifying things a bit. But if you keep playing the game, eventually you get better. I'd like to think my work has gotten better during the past few years, and I know my Tetris game has improved - I've been to level 21.

Community garden

Julie Young is handing over the reins of the Seeds of Hope Community Garden to me. I'll be at tonight's PSN meeting to talk about it.

The flier didn't upload well, but send an e-mail to SeedsofHopeShelby@gmail.com of you're interested in learning more about it.

Closet memories

Lifestyles ran a story in Thursday's Spot about how our clothing sometimes holds special memories (and sometimes groans of horror). Everyone has had the moment when they went through their closet and remembered a special date because of a special outfit and I'll go so far as to say that we've all had one of those "What was I thinking?" moments.

Take a minute to share your own clothing memory in the comments section.

Here's mine.

My mother used to make Sunday dresses and other clothes for me and my sisters. They always matched, especially those worn for major holidays. Although I don't have any of those items anymore, every time I see us in those photos I ask my mother if it was fun to torture us. Evidently it was because there's a lot of them...

Typhoid Mary

I don't watch a lot of TV, but in an effort to procrastinate last night, I watched part of a show on etv (South Carolina's public broadcast station) about Typhoid Mary.

I'd always heard the term used to describe someone who made everyone else sick, but I'd never learned about her in school or really heard anything about her.

Turns out, Typhoid Mary was a real person - Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant to the U.S.

She was discovered as the cause of several typhoid outbreaks. She claimed she couldn't be transmitting the disease since she didn't have it. Well, part of that was true. She was the first "healthy carrier" of typhoid fever. The New York health department sent her to an island where they housed other infectious disease patients and essentially had her in solitary confinement.

She fought back and it's probable that William Hearst paid for her legal fees in her lawsuit against the city. She lost that suit, but was eventually released. Mallon was told to never work in the kitchen again because that's how she was spreading the disease. She worked as a laundress for a while, but eventually went back to cooking. She was caught after a number of doctors, nurses and patients got sick with typhoid fever. When officials investigated, they found her working in the kitchen.

So they locked her up on the island again. She ended up dying there of a stroke a number of years later, at which time she was working in the hospital on the island in the lab.

Forty-seven illnesses and three deaths were attributed to Mallon. She didn't infect the most people, nor was she the only healthy carrier who lied and went back to work in the food industry. She was, however, the most severely dealt with - because she was obstinate and fought with the health department and because she was an Irish woman immigrant. Prejudice played a role in her treatment.

The whole thing, however, made me think: Is it right to confine someone with an infectious disease because it's in the interest of the public good?

And now the next time someone's called a "Typhoid Mary" I'll know where it came from.

Cleveland County football

Football here is like nowhere else.

I grew up only a few counties away - my high school won probably three games in four years. I probably went to as many games. I didn't even attend homecoming most years - we always lost anyway.

So when I came to Cleveland County for college, I was surprised to see that people really got into it around here. I guess it's because it's a tradition that people can pass on from generation to generation. It's good to win, but even better to be closer to the people you're around. Football is one of the many common threads in the fabric of this community.

That's something you can be proud of.

Ridin' with the king

It's been 30 years since the King's death and people are still singing his songs.

So I'm going to take a few minutes Thursday to try and convince people around Cleveland County to sing Elvis songs - on camera for shelbystar.com.

We'll see if there's anyone willing...

Here's one of my favorite songs that remind me of the King of Rock n' Roll:

B.B. King and Eric Clapton are singing this version, although John Hiatt does a good one, too.



Here's Hiatt's:


Of course, "Walking in Memphis" by Mark Cohn reminds me of him too... must be the blue suede shoes.


Speaking of those blue suede shoes... Here's the King himself:

Leaf peepers

I've noticed that there are a lot of trees dropping leaves in the past week or so because of the drought (especially poplars and maples). I wonder what this is going to do to this year's leaf watching season. If it keeps up, there may not be any leaves left by fall.

Here's the fall foliage forecast from Western North Carolina University: Western North Carolina leaf color could be spectacular -- or not.

Here are a few excerpts:

A long spell of dry weather during the spring and summer could provide some of the most brilliant colors seen in several years for leaf-lookers headed to the mountains of western North Carolina this autumn.

The key word is “could,” said Katherine Mathews, Western Carolina University’s fearless fall foliage forecaster and an assistant professor of biology specializing in plant systematics. Typically, drier weather during the spring and early summer results in a colorful fall leaf season beginning in October, said Mathews.

But below-freezing temperatures in early April – with a severe frost that damaged tender, young vegetation across the mountains – make this year’s fall color prediction trickier than ever, said Mathews.

Trees that could have been damaged:

Several nights of hard freeze around Easter weekend killed the new leaves and flower buds on early-emerging hardwood tree species, including the tulip poplars and fruit trees such as apples and pears. The later-emerging species such as oaks were not adversely affected, but the frost delayed the ‘greening up’ of the mountains overall. It’s hard to predict how the response of our deciduous trees will play out this fall.

The overall prediction:

The killing freeze was preceded by below-average rainfall in March and followed by severe drought in April and May, which is the prime growing season in WNC, Mathews said. “History has shown that fall leaf color is best in years with spring or early summer drought, when plant growth is stunted by a lack of sufficient water,” she said. “Depending upon the impact of the late frost on mountain foliage, we may see spectacular color throughout the mountains this fall.”

If temperatures in September and October cooperate and cool down, we should expect to see some brilliant fall colors this year, Mathews said.

That is, if they don't turn brown and die first.

In case there is a leaf season this year, here are peak dates:

• October 5-15: Highest elevations north of Asheville above 5,000 feet show the most color, especially at Mount Mitchell, Craggy Gardens and Grandfather Mountain.
• October 13-22: Color will increase in elevations greater than 4,000 feet, including the Mount Pisgah and Cold Mountain area, southwest of Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
• October 19-28: Many of the surrounding mountains around Asheville should show plenty of color this week, especially in the 3,000-4,000 foot elevation range. Take the Parkway north or south from Asheville in the Pisgah National Forest.
• October 24-November 3: The city of Asheville (2,000 foot elevation) and Biltmore Estate shows the brightest colors this week, along with areas around Hendersonville and Brevard. This would be the perfect week for a waterfall hike in Dupont State Forest.
• October 29-November 8: The color show will conclude in the Chimney Rock area (elevation of 1,300 feet). Ride to the top of Chimney Rock or take a boat tour on Lake Lure to enjoy the colors.

The color show begins in the higher elevations of the northwestern sections of North Carolina, typically in early October, and progress southward and down slopes through mid-October and early November. Yellow birches, red sourwoods, red and yellow maples, yellow pin cherries and yellow poplars will be the first colors to show. Yellows, though, may not be as brilliant, according to a forecaster, because of leaf browning in tulip poplars. They will be followed by the yellow and red of oaks and sweet gums, yellow of hickories, yellow and brown of beeches, and a variety of other color shades in the vines, shrubs and smaller trees beneath the forest canopy. Peak fall color should arrive five to 10 days after the first frost at any particular location, according to the forecaster.

Molly the mule

Here's Molly the mule before her bandage change.

Bandaging the mule

Bandaging the mule's leg

Summer cold

I don't get sick often, but it seems like my newly acquired summer cold is sticking around for the long haul. I have some serious congestion and a sore throat and I've been blowing my nose like crazy. Here's hoping it goes away soon.

Anybody else sick?