This week’s entry from the Editor’s desk is simply a “catch-all” column on different subjects.

Has anyone checked out the fairly new self-service ice machine located in Newmarket Shopping Center in Ahoskie near Golden Skillet? What a great concept….ice, when you want it and it’s cheaper than the bags we’ve all had to purchase at one time or the other from convenience stores or supermarkets.

What I really want to know is how much the ice company that owns this particular location has to pay the person inside that little building. Plus I hope he (or she) wears plenty of warm clothing.

Did everyone out there satisfy their shopping urge on Black Friday? I heard stories of some local folks pulling nearly a 24-hour buying shift on Thursday night into Friday. That’s just a bit overboard for my taste. If I’m inside a retail store for more than two hours then I must be waiting way too long in a checkout line.

For those of you keeping score at home, there are only 25 shopping days left until Christmas. In other words you all have less than a month to purchase my gift!

Here’s another interesting question….who drove to Raleigh and lit a fire under the NC State football team? After beating the hated Tar Holes, 13-0, on Nov. 5, the ‘Pack promptly lost, 14-10, the following week to Boston College, one of the worst teams in the ACC.

Then they turned around and laid a 37-13 whipping on then seventh-ranked Clemson, a team they always seem to struggle against.

To top that off, State, with a post-season bowl bid on the line, hosted Maryland this past Saturday….another team that always seems to have the Wolfpack’s number. True to form, State dug itself a 41-14 hole early in the third quarter before storming back to win 56-41, the second largest comeback ever in ACC football history, thus securing itself a spot in a December bowl game.

Speaking of the Wolfpack, I’ll leave you with this great joke shared via email last week by a good friend and Wolfpack buddy, Pam Odom.

A man dressed in red and white walks into a Chapel Hill sports bar with a small dog under his arm. He says to the bartender: “Hey, can I leave my dog here while I go the UNC/NCSU football game?”

“A dog in my bar? No, absolutely not,” the bartender answered.

“But he’s a special dog,” the State fan says.

“In what way,” quizzed the bartender.

“Well, he’ll watch the game on TV with you. When State scores he will walk up and down the bar on his hind legs. When UNC scores he will walk up and down the bar on his front legs. When State wins, he will do back flips all the way down the bar and back.”

“Wow,” the bartender says. “That’s amazing. What does he do when UNC wins?”

“I don’t know,” says the State fan, “He’s only five years old.”

Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are!

 

Cal Bryant is Editor of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. He can be contacted at cal.bryant@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7207.