Thanksgiving in the ville

Didn't get a chance to blog during the Thanksgiving holiday in Fayetteville due to the lack of wi-fi at my folks' house (disappointing legions of fans).  


However, there are some good wi-fi places in the 'ville, namely the 'Coffee Scene' near my parents house across from the Westwood shopping center.  Not coincidentally, it's Greek-owned by one of my first baby sitters, Kiki (Parrous)  Manis.  It's a funky, family-owned joint with good coffee.  It's so funky and cool and urbane that you would forget you were in Fayetteville (if not for the Roses and Food Lion across the street in the downscale Westwood Shopping Center).


Another place is 'Rude Awakening' coffee shop on one of the rehabilitated blocks on Hay Street downtown. We went downtown on Friday night for the annual Dickens Christmas celebration. There is the some there there as Fayetteville has worked hard to made downtown a destination. For 30 years of downtown was full of notorious strip clubs and seedy bars and Hay Street was synonymous - all over North Carolina - with prostitution and drugs.  


But give Fayetteville credit - they wiped out the seedy blocks, and there are a number of local businesses now on Hay Street: Rude Awakening, an art-house theater that packed in audiences to watch Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 911', and a half-dozen restaurants ranging from a brew pub to a diner to a couple new American cuisine places.  


So if you ever visit Fayetteville hit the Coffee Scene and downtown and help Fayetteville make a comeback.


Evan would move to Fayetteville tomorrow if he could.  He loves North Carolina almost as much as I do, and would like nothing more than to move anywhere close to my parents or his cousins Paul and Alex.


A Few Random Notes

• Of course, if we visit God's Country we have to visit the Southern Part of Heaven.  On Friday we met Johnny and his family at Time Out for lunch (so Ariadne and Alison could enjoy a chicken and cheddar biscuit; with our homecoming visit Evan's eaten 3 of those in the last month).  
• The boys then headed to Fetzer Field to watch the most dominant dynasty in the history of sports, the Carolina women's soccer team.  The Heels jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on their way to a 5-2 win over Wake Forest in a NCAA regional final.  The win means the Heels qualified for their 25th final four (out of 28 years of NCAA women's soccer tournaments) and will shoot for their 21st - 21st! - national championship next weekend.
• It's obviously a skilled and talented team but I was most impressed by Carolina's first goal.  Jessica McDonald ran down a pass and reached it just before it went out of bounds in the corner.  Barely slowing down McDonald nailed a perfect cross - on the run -  into the box where Carolina's All-Everything Casey Nogueira (a North Carolina native, BTW) headed it in for a 1-0 lead. 
• On a down note, the Carolina football team saw their 4-game winning streak snapped at rival NC State on Saturday afternoon, 27-28.  The Heels played well, especially in the first half.  But mistakes cost them, especially a key fumble at the goal line in the first quarter, some terrible penalties on State's first drive of the second half, and a blocked field goal was too much for the football Heels to overcome.  State's offense was also able to move the ball against Carolina's impressive defense, something ranked teams like Miami and Virginia Tech were not able to do.  The loss will likely keep the Heels out of the Chic-fil-a Bowl on New Year's Eve in Atlanta, and the Heels will probably end up in Charlotte's Meineke Car Care Bowl (a terrible name, not nearly as romantic as the original Continental Tires Bowl) in late December.
• That said, this was a pretty good year for the Heels and Butch Davis.  Most of the defense will return, and the young offensive line has really improved down the stretch so this team could be scary-good next year.

Finally, a few caustic notes

• Regardless of the details, Tiger Woods lost whatever manhood he had over the weekend. Anyone who totals his car running into a FIRE HYDRANT and has to have his wife rescue him by smashing his windshield with a gold club has NO manhood left. 
• For the latest example of how disgusting capitalism is, check out the front page of today's SundayStyles section of The New York Times. Above the fold is a series of photos of a 10-year old girl being surprised in school by her father as he returns from Iraq. At the bottom of the page is an ad for Gucci complete with pouty/bored/wealthy/stupid looking models.  We value one thing, the market another.