Sunday, August 12, 2007
What color blue is that?
Here's a picture of something I picked up at the Grocery store this evening: In Georgia, it is against the law to purchase alcohol at the grocery store on Sunday. In fact the only place you can buy a drink is at a "restaurant." Yes there's a legal definition for what is a restaurant versus what is a bar. Here in NC, apparently you cannot buy alcohol at the grocery store on Sunday until after noon. The laws in georgia are often referred to as "Blue Laws". Since the law here in NC isn't as strict, I figured you might call them "Light Blue Laws." It is also interesting to note that Blue Laws in some states also restrict the sales of tobacco. Since NC is the worldwide capital of tobacco, it does not surprise me that there is no restriction on sales of that at any time. In fact, you might be able to get a pack of smokes in your Happy Meal up here. I haven't checked, but I wouldn't be surprised. As I was laughing to myself about the whole "Light Blue Laws" I heard a voice in the back of my head. It said,"That is not light blue, that is Carolina Blue! You see ever since I was a very small child there's been UNC blood in my veins, passed down from my grandfather to my father to me. I suspect my 30+ years in exile in Georgia never really squeezed it out of me, and it appears it only took a month to come back full force. I have distinct memories as a child of singing "I was Tarheel born, and I was Tarheel bred, and when I die I'll be Tarheel dead!" I really had no idea what it meant, but it sure sounded funny. I knew why the sky was not "light blue", but "Carolina Blue" (because God pulls for UNC, of course). I remember vaguely my grandfather and my father taking my brother and I to a UNC football game against "The Spiders" (Richmond). UNC had a quarterback whose first name was Jason. For the life of me I cannot recall his last name, but I do know that was the first time I can remember hearing of someone with the same name as me. I remember at the football game laughing at the goat with the horns painted gold. Of course modern football fanaticism and animal rights have forced them to change their mascot from a real goat (ram) to a guy in a costume ("Ramses"). I suspect it was due to the fact that the goat can't throw t-shirt and frisbees into the stands, and getting him to do cartwheels wasn't working out. The brown smelly mess that results from throwing a goat into the air after touchdowns is sure to mess up the cute cheerleader's outfits. I also remember we got these:  Now the reason I am not drinking my adult beverages this evening is simple: Tomorrow is a school day. Not only that but it's my first day at my new job. Well technically, i don't start on the payroll until Tuesday, but I have to go in tomorrow to see where I need to report on Tuesday. It's not a smart move to have alcoholic beverages the day before your first day on the job at an educational institution. And speaking of my new job. In case I hadn't told you, I will now be teaching at Cape Fear Community College here in Wilmington, NC. Every time I tell people where I am going to be teaching they hear "Cape Fear" and start thinking of that movie where Robert De Niro yells in a fake southern accent "Come out come out wherever you are!" Some might remember the much older version starring Gregory Peck. Oddly enough, the 1991 version is on right now on AMC right now (for another 30 minutes) and then the 1962 version will be on AMC at about 11:30 tonight. And yes that's pure coincidence. But that's sort of how my life goes. Cape Fear is named for the Cape Fear River. The school's main campus actually overlooks the river. And the river got its name because of how hard it was to navigate and ships would run aground and wreck, so sailors gave the river it's name. While I doubt I'll see De Niro around town. One Tree Hill is still filmed here and they use the downtown campus as a filming location for the outside of the school in the TV show. Also apparently this season they'll have some local newscasters doing cameos in the show. Really it doesn't matter a lot to me as I've never watched the show (or Dawsons Creek that was also filmed here). Frankly there isn't enough estrogen in my body to make me watch those shows. Lastly, given that I am finally going to be returning to work after roughly a month off, I strognly suspect my posts here are going to slow down for a while. Some of your are probably thankful as I have kept a rather furious pace lately. Until I get my new job under control and my classes moving in the right direction, the blog must take a back seat. And that may be a while since I will now be teaching MS Office 2007 (aka "MS Office for people who this backward compatability is stupid") But hang in there, I will be back. And Krystals will still be on the Thursday menu, so no worries there. Since I have fridays "off" you can expect Fridy updates at the minumum. So until then, Peace, Love, and Krystals! PS I changed the background of this post to "Official Carolina Blue" so everyone can enjoy!  |
Labels: CFCC, Wilmington
