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I was out for a few days to finish Christmas shopping, eat too much turkey and catch up on movies.

Mission accomplished on all counts.

Some random observations from the holiday break:

The Miss USA scandal was surreal. With sex, Kentucky and Donald Trump thrown in for good measure, it was a "Saturday Night Live" skit already written.

"Beautiful Star" at TriadStage was excellent. It ought to become a holiday tradition round here.

Jon Stewart's exchange with Bill Kristol on Dec. 18's "Daily Show" Monday was priceless.

I agree that the latest shooting at Four Seasons Town Centre was disturbing, but I am not convinced the mall has become unsafe.
Nor am I sure what, if anything, the mall could have done the prevent the abject follishness that happened in the Gap Kids store, with one man shooting another and then, shades of Barney Fife, shooting himself while stowing his gun.

As for movies, Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" is beautifully filmed but gratuitously bloody. I'm not the squeamish type, but some of the gore Gibson depicted was beyond unnecessary to the plot or theme of the movie -- which, beyond its exotic trappings and subtitles, is exhilarating but pretty standard action fare.

"Rocky Balboa" is in many ways a retelling of the first "Rocky" (weren't they all in one way or another?) but it is skillfully and lovingly written, directed and acted. Two gloved thumbs up.

"The Pursuit of Happyness" made made feel so good I wanted to cry.

It's a sure sign of the painful puzzle in Iraq that the administration has greeted Saddam Hussein's execution in such muted tones.

Even more telling is the general public's subdued response.

Saddam is gone, but unrest, violence and civil war remain.

We have tangled a web of shifting objectives, misinformation and arrogance into a hole that gets deeper, and bloodier, by the day.

I agree with JR's resolution about more civil comments on blogs.

That's why I am not responding over and over again to some commenters who raise the same issues and ask the same questions they've asked for years on this blog regarding the same school issues.

They probably would benefit, as one commenter complained after they'd hijacked yet another thread, from creating blogs of their own.

There is, after all, plenty of space out there for more.

In case you missed it, this comment came in Monday from a reader who identified himself as Tim:

"I noticed in today's News & Record editors section about the notion of Roy Caroll building a 30-story twin next to Center Pointe. With a little photo editing I took the liberty of giving everyone a glimpes of what a 30-story tower could look like and how it would improve Greensboro's skyline. Here are the photo links:

http://www.downtownstadium.org/CPphase2.jpg
http://www.downtownstadium.org/CPphase3.jpg

Is that graffiti (or at least the bleached remnants of it) on the West Market Street facade of the Lincoln Financial Building?

Update: I called a Lincoln Financial spokesman today to confirm whether the blemish is indeed graffiti. Frankly, he said, he wasn't sure. But he'll let us know Monday.

As you may have read, we lost another member of the News & Record family today.

Cole C. Campbell, a former reporter and editor here and at our sister newspaper, the Virginian-Pilot, in Norfolk, died in a single-car accident in Nevada.

The suddenness of all this is shocking and more than a little bit numbing.

At the time of his death, Cole was dean of the journalism school at the University of Nevada at Reno, a perfect job for a man with such a brilliant mind and such a passion for journalism.

Cole was only 53 and left behind a new wife and new daughter. JR offers a touching remembrance of his longtime friend and colleague over at his place. Here are my recollections:

Cole was nothing if not creative, and delighted in new angles and fresh approaches.

He was a superb editor, a deep thinker and a commanding speaker. He edited some of the News & Record's brightest talents, including Jerry Bledsoe and Greta Tllley.

He was scary smart, a Morehead scholar at Carolina, where I met him as an undergraduate.

But most of all he was the quickest wits I've ever met.

When we were students at Carolina, Cole desperately wanted to be editor of The Daily Tar Heel. When he lost the election his senior year, he stuck around another year for grad school, I suspect, simply so he could run again. He did and he won.

He was professorial even in those days, but make no mistake ... as much as Cole loved the classroom his true major was Daily Tar Heel.
School was something to do between editions.

This week's column:

Make no mistake, I'm a Greensboro guy born and bred. But I'll always hold a special fondness for Winston-Salem.

I lived in Winston for nearly 10 years before returning home to Greensboro.

I like a lot about that town … the rolling hills, the little big-city skyline that hovers impressively over Business 40, historic Old Salem on the southern doorstep of downtown and colorful citizens such as the late legendary Winston-Salem State basketball coach Clarence “Bighouse” Gaines; mayors Wayne Corpening and Martha Wood; and former Black Panther turned city council member Larry Little.
I've continued to follow developments there and still treasure the friendships I made there.

Most recently, Winston-Salem's planned downtown ballpark caught my interest. It should be a welcome addition to a center city that's making similar strides to Greensboro's.

Impressed by the success of First Horizon Park in Greensboro and hopeful of revitalizing a craggy corner of downtown, the owners of the Winston-Salem Warthogs plan a 5,500-seat ballpark that they hope will see its first pitch in 2008.

The $189 million project calls not only for baseball, but for a second phase consisting of a multiplex theater, offices, stores and residences.

Winston leaders toured the stadium here before proceeding with plans for their own. But there are some significant differences.

Greensboro's ballpark was, by and large, a private endeavor. In Winston-Salem, owners of the Warthogs want $29 million in incentives from the city and another $14 million from the Forsyth County commissioners.

No way that would fly in Greensboro or Guilford County.

The sweeping effort seems in part an attempt to resuscitate a development that would have been anchored by a new Krispy Creme corporate headquarters before the doughnut maker's fortunes suddenly turned sour.

It's certainly a more appealing concept than original plans for a downtown pro soccer stadium in Winston, which predictably went nowhere. (What a dumb idea.)

As for how the two cities compare, they aren't all that similar, as I see it. Each has a distinct culture and a unique feel to it.

Which is a better place to live?

A sign of the times: The BBC reports that the demand for qualified call center employees is so great in India that job-hungry Europeans are pulling up stakes and moving there.

Says the BBC report: "Entry and mid-level employees are recruited from European countries on Indian salaries [italics mine] to service their native markets from India.

You could say that India is importing workers from other countries that are exporting jobs there to keep pace with the jobs those other countries are exporting there.

Meanwhile, in Guilford County, the market for call center jobs appears steady, if not growing. The CitiCards call center seems to constantly advertise for jobs.

I am teaching classes at UNCG and N.C. A&T this semester.

This gives me the chance to tell my A&T students, "So you think you've got parking problems?"

Tim's recommendation to check out the Web site Urbanplanet.org. is a good tip.

Among the discussion topics I discovered: Winston-Salem's need for a new downtown library (heck, even Greensboro has one); the demise of Lucky 32 in Winston-Salem and the progress at Center Pointe.

Among the more interesting threads is one on the impact of college and universities in touch (that's tough) neighborhoods.

I'm pleased to welcome Keith Monroe to the News & Record editorial staff as a part-time writer.

We were able to lure Keith out of a life of leisure to help us pontificate on the issues of the day. He and his wife Debbie (a News & Record alumna), just happened to be in the neighborhood, having chosen to retire in Greensboro.

Keith is a former editorial writer with the Winston-Salem Journal and former editorial page editor of our sister newspaper, the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk.

He has won a number of press awards in Greensboro and Virginia. We hope you enjoy his work.

Deena Hayes has never been one to mince her words, and, frankly, sometimes she should.

She is a passionate advocate, particularly for black and poor students, in the Guilford County Schools. I've seen little that would make me doubt that. She is direct (often brutally so) and well-spoken. She seems consistently informed on the issues.

Yet while I respect her forthrightness, I've often disagreed with her. And I've found her too shrill and brusque in making some of her points.

To say she can use inflammatory words to express her views is, well, an understatement.

True, elected officials take a lot of guff from the public, not all of it warranted, but it comes with the territory. And even when the elected official is right and the public is wrong, there is an appropriate and constructive way to say so.

Consider the snitty e-mail Hayes sent to a parent in an cyber-debate over High Point school attendance lines in March 2003 that said white parents' concerns were motivated by "racist attitudes."

The e-mail said, in part, to Maureen Huckabee, a parent in the Southwest district: "I would love more than anything to leave the racist attitudes of many of the people in your community right where you are, and I am trying to figure out how to do that.

"I feel obligated to many of the white parents at Andrews who are stuck in the middle of this situation; they have racist attitudes as well, but they can't move to your neighborhood so all of you can live together."

She continued: "Your ancestors handed down a terrible moral and social debt to you and you should be really angry with them."

I believe Hayes had a point in those angry words -- that she was hearing what she considered condescending remarks made in obvious reference to black students.

But she could have expressed herself more tactfully. That's part of being an elected leader.

Sometimes I totally disagree with what she says and how she says it, as in her opposition to a proposed schools partnership with police called School Watch because she saw it as a means to make "snitches" out of students.

But in the most recent dust-up concerning Hayes' comments, which were made almost three weeks ago, I believe she was misinterpreted.

Mike Nifong finally has done the right thing.

The AP reports that the Durham district attorney has asked the state attorney general's office to appoint a special prosecutor to take over the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case.

It's about time.

Nifong has seemed reluctant to make this inevitable choice, but in reality, he really had no choice.

His case seems to be crumbling. He faces possible disbarment for unethical conduct.

He should have stepped away from this case long ago.

There is no doubt that the Tar Heels are the most talented team in the ACC and perhaps the country this year.

But as their loss to Virginia Tech today shows, this team lacks heart.

It tolerates off-and-on intensity and it sometimes sleepwalks on defense.

It has no on-the-court leaders.

So far it the whole is less than the sum of the parts.

I know that's a pretty harsh indictment of a 15-2 team but they deserve it.

They'd better get it together before the NCAAs or they're coming hme early.

This week's column:

Deena Hayes has never been one to mince words.

During her brief but stormy tenure on the Guilford County school board, she has been a passionate advocate for black and poor students. She is direct (often brutally so) and well-spoken. She seems consistently well-informed on the issues.

Yet for all her forthrightness, Hayes also has a notoriously short fuse. She can be shrill, brusque and provocative.

Why prick you with a needle when she can use a pick axe?

"There's a community out there that supports my outspokenness," Hayes said in a recent interview. "I'm not out here by myself just saying what I'm gonna say. I'm not some lone radical out here."

True, elected officials take a lot of guff from the public, not all of it deserved. But it comes with the territory. And even when the elected official is right and the public is wrong, there's an appropriate and constructive way to say so. And vice versa.

Consider an e-mail Hayes fired off to a parent during a debate over High Point school attendance lines in 2003 in which she referred to "the racist attitudes of many of the people in your community."
Hayes used the R-word a lot and she defends its use. Black people have been made to feel reluctant to use that word, she says, but racism does exist.

"White people have bullied black people about this too long," she said.

She's got a point, although you can invoke the word "racism" so much —and see racism where there is none — that the word loses its impact and legitimacy.

A positive side effect is that Hayes makes other African American school board members more effective by making them, by comparison, appear more moderate. For example, when she makes volatile statements Amos Quick, who might someday be chairman, doesn't have to.

But she is bright and committed enough that she has so much more to offer than the "bad cop" role.

"Borat" made me laugh. Out loud. Many times.

Officially titled "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," the film also at times made me uncomfortable, especially its derogatory references to Jews (Cohen is Jewish but Borat isn't) and in some of its dead-on observations about Americans.

And I must admit I felt a little sorry for the poor high society types who entertained Borat at a dinner party.

Sadly, Sasha Baron Cohen won't be able to pull this type of comic mock documentary stunt again.

Most of the people in this movie were real, not actors. They thought Borat was real, not a character. They won't be fooled again.

Meanwhile, "Children of Men" was bleak and compelling. It deserves much more attention than it has received. And it definitey deserves Oscar consideration.

I'm waiting this week for Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin in "Last King of Scotland." At least I hope it gets here by then.

You know how theaters can be around here.

in a shocking development, interim manager David McNeill has been named permanent county manager (such as permanence is in the Guilford manager business).

Give McNeill credit for swimming with the sharks for more than half a year and not getting eaten.

And give the commissioners credit for handling the hiring maturely.

I'll be a guest on the "A&T Today" radio show Friday 10 a.m. on WNAA (90.1 FM).

We'll discuss civil rights progress in Greensboro since the sit-ins , among other topics. You're welcome to tune in and join the discussion.

As the News & Record's Don Patterson reports today, the facade of the Southeastern Building in downtown Greensboro will be restored to its original design come June.

The nine-story building has been a prominent fixture at the corner of North Elm and East Market streets since 1920 and its impending comeback could add precious juice to the sleepier northern end of Elm. Especially after baseball season ends, that part of the center city remains relatively dormant while the southern end of Elm jumps on nights and weekends. Center Pointe, the new Center City Park and now the Southeastern Building ought to help change that.

Of course, downtown plans have to be greeted with cautious optimism. Some will happen as advertised. Others, as in a hotel first on South Elm and then on Greene Street, and as in Bellemeade Village, have gone nowhere. At least so far.

But hope springs eternal.

I remember the Hub men's store being a first-floor fixture there when I was growing up.

Coliseum Managing Director Matt Brown never has been a shy guy.

He's been holding court over at Scoop the last couple of days about the failed swim center and War Memorial Auditorium bonds among other stuff.

I spent much of Saturday exchanging one of those new-fangled flat-screen high-definition TVs for another one.

I'd been through this before, and it had been similarly exasperating. The original TV had gone bad, so I had exchanged it for an identical model two weeks ago. When that model, too, suffered from the same glitch, here I was again.

I disconnected the TV, loaded it into its box and squeezed it into the back seat of my car. Then I unloaded it, stood in line for a while at customer service, stood in line at the tech support booth and then stood in line at the home theater department.

When someone finally acknowledged my presence in home theater, I presented one of the people there with a videocassette documenting the problems I'd had with the flickering picture on the returne TV.

I wanted to make sure the problem was the TV and not something else.
He looked at me as if I'd handed him an eight-track tape.

Anyway, he found one of the handful of VCRs at the store (they're apparently going the way of the record player) and hooked one up.

Eventually satisfied that the problem was the TV, the guy advised me to pick out a new TV. Fair enough.

Problem was, it became nearly impossible after that point to find someone who would actually talk to me about my options or the nearly indecipherable numbers and alphabet-soup terminology.

Time was when buying a TV meant looking for the one with the best picture and taking it home.

Anyway, I was there for several hours. The people were generally nice but seemngly overwhelmed with too many customers and too many questions.

This experience ranked right up there with a trip to the dentist or the DMV.

I just wanted a decent, reliable TV to watch in the comfort of my den. This was like camping in line for Duke-Carolina tickets.

Too bad that the latest bid to secure a hockey team for Greensboro has stalled.

The coliseum sorely needs a regular tenant between concerts and other special events.

Not to be cynical, but I still question how well a new team would do here anyway, given how poorly the old Generals fared.

But hockey has had a wacky, hot-and-cold relationship with Greensboro.

The old Monarchs set attendance records. Yet, when they moved up to the American Hockey League, they lost their chemistry with fans.

Sports Illustrated poked fun at all the empty seats at Carolina Hurricanes games during their stopover here.

Seems we can't live without pro hockey here. But we can't live with it either.

It also seems that Greensboro is in general -- no pun intended -- a lousy sports town.

I may have a different take than others on the Truth and Reconciliaton findings and the City Council's reluctance to respond officially to the TRC's final report.

I would like to talk further with council members firsthand about their reactions that range from ambivalence to outright hostility.
I think that's only fair, since I didn't attend their retreat over the weekend where a testy exchange on TRC included Tom Phillips' pronouncement that TRC was "a crock."

But as I recall, the council has expressed more than once its intent to respond when the report was complete.

It's complete.

As for conclusions that nobody cares about the report, I'm not sure, based on the level of community interest I saw at the hearings (most of which I attend) and other related TRC events.

I've tried to rebut the arguments that TRC shouldn't matter 27 years later until, even with my complexion, I've turned blue in the face.

What an odd thing to say in a city that's preparation to celebrate its bicentennial. Based on the logic, who should care? That was 200 years ago.

I will withhold judgment about plans by City Manager Mitchell Johnson and the City Council to hold weekly news conferences beginning on March 1. It all depends on what is said (or not said) at those sessions.

Could be a valuable communication tool. Also could be a waste of time.

There is considerable blog-buzz about Joe Guarino's relatively ho-hum reaction to the alleged assaults of Palestinian students at Guilford College.

Joe is a community columnist for the News & Record and a generally thoughtful blogger.

But this comment, which part of a longer post, frankly, was surprising and a little unsettling:

"Based on any objective indication of the injuries sustained by the victims, the incident was not terribly newsworthy. Kids get beat up in school across the country, probably every hour of every school day, here and elsewhere. Comparable injuries are seen all the time."

True, we don't yet know all the facts in this case and supposed eyewitness accounts vary wildly. But the event hardly is business as usual on any college campus.

C'mon, Joe, you can't be serious.

A town's mayor changes his mind on an attempt to ban the n-word by law.

As destructive and distasteful as I find the word, this was a bad idea even if it was fueled by good intentions.

A violation would have been punishable by a fine up to $500.

We should squeeze the life out of this despicable word by choosing not to use it, not by levying fines for using it, and not by violating the First Amendment.

We have met before with High Point University President Nido Qubein as did again this week, but I continue to be amazed at the force of his personality and the power of his vision.

Small wonder the school is growing so fast.

This week's column.

"Thou shalt not park here," says a sign near the entrance of New Garden Friends Meeting.

The friendly warning reflects, in many ways, the Quaker tenets of openness, good humor and gentle resolve.

I have attended several services there and have always been taken by the peaceful spirit of those sessions.

I'm particularly impressed by the Quakers' practice of quiet reflection — of just sitting there in long stretches of meditative silence and of speaking only when they had something to say.

As a Baptist, I am used to more, uh, frenetic Sunday mornings, where a preacher might work up a bigger sweat than an NBA forward. But I appreciate the Quakers' courage to hear the sounds of their breathing and heartbeats, and to stare into their hearts and souls, without needing something else to fill the silence. And I admire their willingness to slow down and think things through.

Those tenets are being tested now, as Guilford College wrangles with the type of controversy that you'd expect anywhere but there. Five Guilford football players have been arrested in the alleged assaults of three Palestinian students — two who attend Guilford and one who was visiting from N.C. State.

The athletes have been charged by Greensboro police with assault and battery as well as ethnic intimidation. The three Palestinian students, whose injuries included concussions and a broken nose, say the attacks, early on Jan. 20, were unprovoked. They also say racial slurs, such as "camel jockeys" and "sand niggers," accompanied the beatings.

The episode has thrust the little northwest Greensboro Quaker school into the national news and embroiled a campus known for its pacifist ideals in a heated debate about hate and violence.

So Guilford students, faculty and staff crammed into the main sanctuary of New Garden Friends Meeting, across the street from the Quaker college, for an emotional forum on Wednesday. They filled every inch of every pew and spilled into the vestibule and down the hall. And they vented.

No, I won't say I was wrong in questioning the Tar Heels' hearts and minds in a previous post.

I fretted about their defensive intensity and lack of on-court leadership.

Yes, they impressed me with their ability to demoralize Arizona Saturday on national TV, even while missing two key players.

But they did so by playing strong defense, something they don't always do.

That said, these guys can be so good it's scary.

While I agree that restaurants ought to have the right to decide whether to be smoke-free (and customers have the right to decide not to patronize them for enforcing, or lacking, such policies)the state legislature's ridiculous authority to require local governments to set aside smoking areas in government buildings needs to be snuffed.

I personally avoid restaurants whose ventilation is inadequate to accommodate smoking and nonsmoking sections. To me, nothing renders a good meal as unpleasant and unappetizing as wafting smoke exhaled by somebody else.

This is not easy to say for someone whose mother retired from Lorillard and whose brother still works there. Well, actually, it is. Air space is public space.

Meanwhile, the air at the next family dinner make be smoke-free, but it may not be 100 percent tension-free.

Although I support the efforts to learn useful lessons from Nov. 3, 1979, I agree fully with Doug about the Truth and Reconciliation Project's statements about the ethnic tensions at Guilford College.

This Sunday's Ideas front will explore the notion of local governments banning transfats in restaurants.

Should Greensboro consider such action?

I personally say no. It ought to be a personal choice. And it ought to be an informed choice.

Customers need enough clear, understandable data to make informed choices.

Syndicated writer and best-selling author Molly Ivins, who for years delighted and angered local readers with Saturday columns in the News & Record, died Wednesday following a long battle with breast cancer.

Ivins, who famously referred to President Bush as "Shrub," died at her home at the age of 62.

Ivins' columns ran in the News & Record until the spring of last year. Some people cheered when she was dropped. Others were fightin' mad.

That's the thing about Molly -- however you felt about her you felt strongly.

She even found humor in her struggle against cancer.

"I'm sorry to say (cancer) can kill you, but it doesn't make you a better person," she told the San Antonio Express-News.

For the Washington Post obit, click here.