Raleigh Roundup: NCMA gets ed funding, Raleigh man balloons over Channel, and NCSU's Byrd to College Football Hall

Art museum gets $2.5 million

The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation this week announced a $2.5 million gift to the N.C. Museum of Art to support art education.

Multiple museum programs will benefit from the grant, including the in-gallery self-guided tours and the distance-learning initiative. The money will also support Art of Collaboration, a program for middle-school students that integrates visual art into core subjects such as math and science.

"Our educational programming has been recognized nationally for its innovation and positive impact in the communities we serve," museum director Larry Wheeler said in a news release.

Raleigh man crosses English Channel with balloons

"In a goofy yet mesmerizing stunt, an American adventurer crossed the English Channel on Friday tied to a bundle of helium balloons, ending a quiet and serene flight in the middle of a French cabbage patch," says the AP.

"Jonathan Trappe, 36, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was strapped in a specially equipped chair below a bright cluster of balloons when he lifted off early Friday from Kent, in southeast England.

"About five hours later, he lowered himself into a French field by cutting some of the balloons away.

State's Byrd and Duke's Hines make college class

"Former N.C. State defensive tackle Dennis Byrd and former Duke wide receiver Clarkston Hines have been named to the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame, it was announced today," wrote Ken Tysiac.

"They were among 12 players chosen from a national ballot of 77 candidates and a pool of hundreds of eligible nominees for induction. The class will be inducted at the Foundation's annual awards dinner on Dec. 7 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City and will be enshrined in 2011.

"Byrd, the first three-time All-ACC player, is the fifth N.C. State player to enter the Hall of Fame, joining Jack McDowell, Roman Gabriel, Jim Ritcher and Jim Donnan.

" 'Dennis Byrd is a part of a proud football legacy at N.C. State and we congratulate him on this well-deserved honor,' N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien said in a statement...."

More on Byrd:

The first player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to be named a three-time All-ACC selection, North Carolina State's Dennis Byrd becomes the fourth Wolfpack player inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Twice named a First Team All-American, Byrd was the first NC State player ever to garner consensus All- American honors. As a member of the Wolfpack's famed "White Shoes" defense, he led NC State to a share of the 1965 ACC title en route to earning the school's first-ever post-season appearance, defeating Georgia in the 1967 Liberty Bowl.

Drafted as the sixth overall pick in the 1968 NFL Draft, Byrd played only two seasons with the Boston Patriots due to a nagging knee injury sustained in the latter part of his senior season at NC State. He then embarked on a 30-year teaching and coaching career at the high school level and retired in 2001.

Byrd was named an ACC Football Legend and inducted into the NC State Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. He is also the only defensive player to have his jersey retired at his alma mater. Dennis and his wife Kimberly have four children, and they reside in Elizabeth City, N.C.

Read more: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/byrd-hines-make-college-hall-of-fame#ixzz0pENarDKw

We're just two weeks away from the World Cup!

The greatest sports spectacle on the planet gets underway in about two weeks. And if you're not already geeked for the World Cup, then maybe this Nike commercial will get you there.




Remember, the American team takes on England on Saturday, June 12 (2 p.m., ABC). To keep in the spirit, here are two recent ESPN SportsCenter commercials, featuring Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore, respectively.





And in order to keep this "Raleigh-centric," here's an old-school SportsCenter commercial featuring Alexi Lalas and N.C. State and World Cup legend Tab Ramos.

Ole!

Wanna go to Wilmington? Just take the (future) train

Imagine the possibilities.

Good friend and uber-reporter (he's been on fire of late) Chris Baysden of the TBJ reports that N.C. DOT's Rail Division "has applied for almost $7 million in federal planning funds that would allow for the expansion of intercity passenger rail service in the state – including between Raleigh and Wilmington."

There is no Raleigh-Wilmington train at the moment.

"The funds, from the Federal Rail Administration, would be used to conduct environmental studies, engineering and design work for future intercity passenger services, NCDOT said in a written statement. These studies would assess ridership, revenue, construction and operating costs on two routes: between Raleigh and Wilmington and between Salisbury and Asheville. ...

"North Carolina already won a large chunk of federal money for rail improvements this year. In January, North Carolina announced grants of $545 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for further development of sections of the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor located in the state."

(Photo from Carolinagolflinks.com)

What is this? A list Raleigh did NOT make it on?

Kiplinger's has announced the 10 cities that are best positioned for the next decade. And in the name of all that is holy and just, Raleigh -- somehow, some way -- did NOT make the list. I'm calling payola on Topeka!

Kiplinger's "focused on places that specialize in out-of-the-box thinking. 'New ideas generate new businesses,' says Kevin Stolarick, our numbers guru, who this year evaluated U.S. cities for growth and growth potential. Stolarick is research director at the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank that studies economic prosperity. 'In the places where innovation works, it really works,' he says."

Your top 10 are
1. Austin
2. Seattle
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Boulder
5. Salt Lake City
6. Rochester, Minn.
7. Des Moines
8. Burlington, Vt.
9. West Hartford, Conn.
10. Topeka, Kan.

Thoughts: The top 5 are Raleigh's "Best of" Brethren, so no surprise there. And at No. 9 ... longtime Whalers fans must be laughing.

And in extremely important news ...

... the Person Street Krispy Kreme will re-open on June 1.

Thank God*.

"The store," writes Sue Stock, "which is the only one in the Triangle where doughnuts are actually made, has been shuttered for a month while it underwent renovations. Area die-hards have been left buying cold doughnuts from the stores in Raleigh's City Plaza and in Knightdale in the meantime.

"The store on Person Street will reopen on June 1 at 6 a.m. The first person in line will receive one dozen doughnuts a week for a year. In addition, someone who is in line before 5:30 a.m. will be chosen at random to flip the switch on the store's iconic 'Hot Now' sign."

(*And, no, I was not being sarcastic.)

We live in an innovative place

Matthew Fortner reports that Forbes has named Raleigh third on America's Most Innovative Cities list, right behind Silicon Valley and Austin.

The list was based on the number of patents and amount of venture capital investment per capita along with the ratios of high-tech, science and "creative" jobs. Silicon Valley topped the list with cites including San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Cupertino that host technology juggernauts. ...

So the Triangle will have to settle for third which is not bad. Forbes noted the area's mix of academia and industry. The Triangle has its own substantial share of tech companies including Cisco, IBM and Lenovo benefiting from the near by colleges Duke, N.C. State and U.N.C.. The area recently topped Forbes' Most Wired list.

San Francisco was ranked fourth and Seattle settled into fifth.

You R really using free wifi

WRAL.com reports that use of the free downtown Raleigh wifi, "You R Connected," has increased by 90 percent since the winter, according to the Downtown Raleigh Alliance.

This city service, launched last October, is intended for casual use in outdoor public spaces such as City Plaza, Moore Square, Nash Square and Fayetteville Street.

Trends show that from mid-April to mid-May, the network totaled 15,229 sessions and 3,313 unique users. That's up from an average of 7,979 sessions and 1,831 unique users per month during the winter. ...

“This service is yet another enhancement, provided by the city, that makes our downtown user-friendly and provides people a way to stay connected while in the heart of the center city,” says David Diaz, President and CEO of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. ...

C'est magnifique! État Go!*

As reported in the N&O, France's largest business school, Skema, is "opening an outpost" on N.C. State's Centennial Campus this January. The move will bring about 300 students to Raleigh.

This is a big deal for State and for the city.

Don't believe me?

"It would be like if the University of Chicago located at a Raleigh-sized town in France," Steve Allen, associate dean at the College of Management, told the paper.

Skema development plans call for housing as many as 600 foreign students in the area. It plans to offer dual degrees with NCSU and to conduct research projects with professors and students at area universities ... The chance to place students in internships at companies in RTP was also an attraction, Allen said.

Skema is one of the rare foreign business programs to establish a physical campus in this country, Allen said. Typically, top-seeded foreign students subject themselves to cutthroat competition for the chance to study at an American university. This country's business schools are so sought after that American universities such as Duke University set up foreign campuses in India, Russia and China to meet foreign demand. ...

According to Skema's website, the school was created in June through the merger of the Ceram Business School in Paris and the ESC Lille School of Management in Lille and Paris. Skema has 138 professors and three campuses in France. It also has campuses in China and Morocco and is planning to open campuses in India and Brazil. ...

The French institution is working out the final details of a lease agreement at NCSU. Details under discussion include whether Skema will have its own library and student commons, or whether it will share NCSU's facilities, said Michael Harwood, interim associate vice chancellor for Centennial Campus development. ...

"It will be a nice addition to our international academic institutions," said Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. "We beat a number of other markets in the Southeast" to attract Skema here.

Selfishly, I think it would've been nice if Skema and State could've worked out a deal to place the "outpost" in Downtown Raleigh, not unlike how Campbell University's Wiggins Law School and the just-underway NCSU Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) are now in DTR. But I'm just psyched in general that the French school has picked Raleigh at all.

From Skema's website:

Establishing a campus in Raleigh, a gateway to the leading high-tech cluster in the US is no coincidence. SKEMA has forged a reputation and an identity for its schools in high-tech clusters (Sophia Antipolis, Suzhou) and world-class business centres (Paris and Lille, the cities in France with the highest concentration of business headquarters), thereby offering its students ample opportunity for involvement in business.

In addition to its economic opportunities, offered by the first US technopark, North Carolina is home to many universities (16 in total) as well as an exceptional quality of life for students. SKEMA was drawn to the region given the world renowned reputation of the 51-year old Research Triangle Park. North Carolina quickly emerged as the obvious choice.

At the academic level, the school has met with the three most prestigious universities in the state: North Carolina State University, UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University.

NC State’s proposal, with the infrastructure available on its Centennial campus, will allow SKEMA to offer complete service and academic excellence to its students. The school has come to an agreement with NC State College of Management to work on a number of academic projects together, which include dual degree masters programmes, Bachelor degree and Executive programmes, student exchanges and internships, and joint faculty research.

This primary partnership does not rule out academic relationships with the other universities. Thus, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with UNC Chapel Hill including students and professor exchanges and advanced discussions with Duke University are still underway.

(*If this translation is wrong, blame Google Translator)

Taz's new biz doing very well

After sweating through Mirazozo (motto: "After coming in here to enjoy our lights and stifling heat, the 90-degree temperature outside will feel wonderful!") at Artsplosure on Saturday, the family and I stopped into one of Taiseer "Taz" Zarka's downtown convenience stores for refreshment (some of what Taz calls the best slushies in town).

The man himself was behind the counter. If you haven't yet met Taz, do stop in and say hi. You'll be hard-pressed to find a more affable, charismatic business man OR a better ambassador for DTR. He is truly trying to make Raleigh Fan-TAZ-tic.

Taz's newest business, at 17 E. Martin Street, sells beer, greeting cards, offers outside wine tastings and even has tourist items (pictured) -- something that is sorely lacking in Raleigh.

And even in this economy, Taz stated that his new venture is doing 22 percent BETTER than he anticipated.

Congrats to Taz, and we wish him continued success.

(Photos by John Morris of Goodnight, Raleigh!)

Raleigh's new art museum sets benchmarks for Cleveland

The newly-expanded N.C. Museum of Art is garnering notice -- especially from supporters of other museums.

Even folks associated with the Cleveland Museum of Art -- a much larger museum with a much larger collection -- have noticed the expanded NCMA, according to The Plain Dealer.

(Note: I have not had a chance to visit the newly-expanded NCMA yet. Yes, I am ashamed of this.)

Three weeks ago, the North Carolina museum opened its new West Building, which represents the latest thinking on what a 21st-century art museum should look like. It's bathed in natural light and packed with hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of recently donated works of modern and contemporary art.

Seeing it is enough to shake assumptions about whether sunbelt cities outside California and Texas will always remain in the cultural shadows of northern industrial cities such as Cleveland.

The success in Raleigh is highly relevant to Cleveland because the man behind it, museum director Lawrence Wheeler, learned his stuff here. From 1985 to 1994, he was the Cleveland Museum of Art's director of development, marketing and membership.

"That's where I became totally absorbed by contemporary creativity and really spent a lot of time looking at contemporary art," Wheeler said of his Cleveland years.

This is not the first time I've heard such glowing reviews of "Larry." By all accounts, Raleigh -- and the entire state -- is supremely blessed to have him in the area.

Wheeler holds a doctorate in European history from the University of Georgia, not the advanced degree in art history that has been de rigueur in Cleveland.

But he's got skills that should be part of the Cleveland job description, including a razor-sharp vision and formidable powers of persuasion. The results are impressive. ...

Designed by New York architect Thomas Phifer, the new building is a reaction against Frank Gehry's 1997 Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which touched off a wave of architecturally spectacular museum and cultural projects around the world.

Set on the northwest corner of the 164-acre park in which the museum sits, Phifer's building is a self-effacing rectangular box sheathed in vertical panels of pearl-gray aluminum. It looks at first like a ghostly, mysterious warehouse.

As you approach from nearby parking lots, you notice the wavy pattern of skylight structures on the roof, the tailored precision of the aluminum panels, the glassy courtyards carved into the overall rectangular volume.

When you open the door, you're greeted by a refreshing bath of cool, northern light, enhanced by pristine white walls throughout the interior.

Galleries are configured so spaces flow into one another; visitors can navigate easily and make visual connections between art-historical periods.

Phifer's ingenious skylights, with their oval apertures, create a gentle, overall glow that changes as clouds pass overhead. The lighting is superb, especially for paintings.

Visitors can easily step outside to courtyards adorned with sculpture and sleek pools of water. The effect is mesmerizing.

The article does touch on the differences between the museums in Raleigh and Cleveland.

To be sure, the North Carolina museum isn't about to surpass the Cleveland museum in the art world's pecking order.

Established in 1947, the state-owned museum in Raleigh holds roughly 5,000 artworks, far fewer than the 43,000 owned by the Cleveland museum.

The Cleveland museum, founded in 1913, is rich in areas the North Carolina museum will never match, including Asian, medieval European and 19th-century American art.

With its small endowment for acquisitions, the North Carolina museum can spend only $250,000 to $300,000 a year to buy art on its own, far less than the $10 million or so that the Cleveland museum has had at its disposal.

But lack of cash hasn't hobbled the collecting at the North Carolina museum, thanks to Wheeler's charisma.

Jim Goodnight, co-founder and chief executive of the SAS Institute, a software firm with headquarters in Cary, N.C., was not a collector when he met Wheeler. But he was so impressed that he offered to buy 20th-century American paintings under the advice of a curator, and then declare in his will that they would eventually go to the museum.

"My husband gets his tax credit, I get to live with art, and the museum gets the art," said Ann Goodnight, Jim Goodnight's wife, a trustee of the North Carolina museum, director of community relations at SAS and owner of the Umstead Hotel and spa.

Promised gifts from the Goodnights on view at the museum include an 1885 Claude Monet landscape and "Weatherside," a major Andrew Wyeth scene of a barn in Maine.

Well done, folks. Well done. I particularly like this last bit:

In Raleigh, the North Carolina museum embodies the rising confidence of a sunbelt region competing with older cities such as Cleveland for people, jobs and investment.

"We are a major population center growing all the time, and we need to create a cultural infrastructure for the city," Wheeler said. "It's all set up to take it where people who love art want it to go."

In other words, we should look and act like the rising metro region we are. The expanded NCMA goes a long way in doing just that.

(Photos by Scott Frances)

MLL eyeing Raleigh expansion

Major League Lacrosse came back to Cary over the weekend, as the Chicago Machine took on the defending MLL champion Toronto Nationals at WakeMed Soccer Park. The Machine, it should be noted, are a team looking for a home.

They may have found one.

While the more than 2,000 fans is nothing to get too excited about, the growth in the sport in the Triangle is one carrot that Raleigh can dangle in front of MLL if they are looking to move the Machine here or just start an expansion team here.

As the Raleigh Sports Examiner's Peter Koutroumpis writes, "the Machine and the league are taking advantage of the opportunity to test out potential markets for league expansion and Raleigh was the first stop on the tour."

With Raleigh being identified as an MLL test market, Chicago Machine president Algie stated, "we've had great support from the North Carolina lacrosse community in helping to put this game on today." When asked how soon expansion could occur for the MLL, and if an interested group existed to bring it to the Raleigh area Algie stated, "expansion could occur as soon as next season depending upon what the Machine ownership decides on what to do. Expansion in the Raleigh-area is being considered and the Carolina Railhawks Soccer Club ownership has expressed interest in possibly bringing an expansion team here."

Is the Triangle this devoid of 'natural wonders?'

By now you all probably know that the Land for Tomorrow is asking people to vote for the top 10 North Carolina natural wonders. (You can read more about it here; you can vote here.)

Among the finalists are the usual suspects -- Grandfather Mountain, the Outer Banks, Jockeys Ridge, etc. -- as well as some "sleeper" picks -- Joyce Kilmer Forest, the New River, the Lumber River, etc.

The interesting thing is the fact that as far as I can tell, only one of the 25 (26 if you separate the 2 national seashores) natural wonders is located in the Triangle region. That honor belongs to the Eno River.

So my question stands: is the Triangle that devoid of so-called natural wonders? I understand it's hard for flat, clay earth, pine trees and suburbs to compete with majestic mountains, waterfalls, the coast and wild horses, but there must be at least some items of natural amazement, right?

Here's the really hard part: I can't think of anything. I hope that I'm just having a brain, uh, hiccup. Please tell me there are some Triangle natural wonders.

(Eno River image from Durham-NC.com)

More St. Aug accolades

More well-deserved kudos for what is basically my neighborhood college.

"Last month," writes the N&O, "members of the St. Augustine's College men's basketball team and the school's president, Dr. Dianne Boardley Suber, posed for pictures with Gov. Bev Perdue at the state capitol.

"Coach Lonnie Blow and his team were honored by the governor for their NCAA Division II season, which was memorable on and off the court. The CIAA champions went 27-5, the most wins for the team since 1997, and earned the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association highest grade-point average award among men's basketball programs. ...

"A few hours earlier, the team enjoyed lunch at City Hall before receiving a proclamation from Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker that declared the day "Saint Augustine's College Day."

On that particular day, it was the men's basketball team attracting positive light to the college, but recently the athletic and academic success of the entire athletic program has garnered praise and attention for the small private school located in Southeast Raleigh.

"With the baseball team winning the CIAA championship on April 17 for the first time in 11 years, the Falcons have won seven team conference championships during the 2009-10 season, producing one of the most successful seasons for the athletic department in the past 20 years.

"Along with the baseball and men's basketball teams, the men's and women's track teams took four titles and women's cross country collected one title.

"In addition, seven St. Aug's teams - men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, football, volleyball and baseball - produced the highest team grade-point averages in the CIAA. ..."

Not too shabby, Falcons. Not too shabby at all.

I take it back; NOW Raleigh has 'made it'

I wrote yesterday in Pop CultuRaleigh Speaking that it took an episode of The Simpsons from 1995 to prove that Raleigh had "made it." Obviously I was being a tad bit sarcastic.

Well, rev up the sarcasm train again!

In today's Rocky Mount Telegram is an article about Rocky Mount High School hoops standout Tashawn Mabry (a potential NCSU recruit) who was found not guilty of assault by pointing a gun at the head of another man.

The article states that "Jessie Lynch, 23, testified that, on Dec. 27 at a housing project in Little Raleigh, Mabry pointed a gun at her and at the head of her boyfriend, Tronyale Daniel, 27." [Emphasis mine.]

You mean there's a "Little Raleigh" in Rocky Mount? I'm somehow picturing it like a mini-Chinatown, smack-dab near the train tracks that separate Nash/Edgecombe Counties. But instead of massage parlors or bakeries, there are Holly Aiken stores, BBQ joints, Sperry shops and wine bars.

How far off am I, you Rocky Mount natives? And, for that matter, if a place actually DID have a "Little Raleigh," what would it consist of?

(Image from phyllisdobbs.info)

Pop CultuRaleigh Speaking

Welcome to what we hope will be a regular (or at least semi-regular) feature of this blog where we look back or just plain take a look at a pop culture reference of the City of Oaks -- for whatever that's worth. Feel free to email us with any other suggested pop culture references.


Hey, if we're in Capital City, shouldn't Ogdenville be close by?
It's not always a badge of honor to get "name-checked" by The Simpsons, but the Raleigh area has at least two such claims to fame over the years, if not more.

In "Homerpalozza" (original air date: May 19, 1996), Homer goes on the Hubbabalooza Tour as a freak show -- a man who can take a cannonball to the gut and walk away. One such location for the tour -- which features Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth Cypress Hill, and Peter Frampton, among others -- is a gig at the Raleigh-Durham "Skoal Bowl" -- an obvious allusion to North Carolina's tobacco heritage.


The second reference from The Simpsons (and actually an earlier one) was in "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" (November 26, 1995). In this episode, Sideshow Bob steals the Wright Flyer (another N.C. reference) in an attempt to crash into the civil defense shack near a military airfield, where his hated mentor, Krusty the Clown, is filming his TV show pirate-style after having his show cut from the air. Sideshow Bob flies the Wright Flyer toward Krusty's "makeshift studio on a kamikaze mission," according to The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family.

From SNPP.com:

Cut to Homer breaking the entry gate down with his car.  Sideshow Bob
and Bart fly over head as Lisa runs out.

Bart: Dad!  Help!
Marge: [screams] Ahh!
Homer: Hang on, Boy!  Daddy's coming to save you!
 [rolls over the tire trap and blows all the tires]
D'oh!
Lisa: Mom!  I found Sideshow Bob's hideout and I got a secret
message to the police and I had a blimp fall on me and I was
in an atomic blast but I'm OK now!
Homer: Well, I wrecked the gate, but you don't hear me
bragging.  Now let's roll! ...

Cut to Sideshow Bob and Bart in the plane.

Bob: Aah, for the days when aviation was a
gentleman's pursuit -- back before every Joe Sweatsock
could wedge himself behind a lunch tray and jet off
to Raleigh-Durham.
Bart: [spitting] Are you getting lots of bugs in your mouth
too?
Bob: [pause] Yes.  [spits]


So there you have it. Our fair metropolis "made it" back in the mid-1990s.

And it's been all uphill ever since.

Raleigh native wins prestigious writing award

Congrats to Broughton High and N.C. State graduate Rachel Wharton for her James Beard Foundation award, which honors chefs, cookbook authors, writers and others "connected to the culinary arts," according to the N&O.

Wharton won for her Back of the House columns that appear in Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan. Wharton is deputy editor of the publications. She is the first writer for any Edible magazine, regional food publications with small staffs, to win a James Beard award.

Wharton describes the column as a love letter to a restaurant. She tries to convey the scene, the crowd, the owners, so you know what it's like to eat there before you walk through the door.

Wharton, 37, attended Broughton High School and graduated from N.C. State University. Her first job was writing for N.C. Sea Grant's magazine. ...

James Beard was a culinary pioneer, one of the first television chefs and a cookbook author who championed regional American cuisine.

Triangle Wonders revisited

Just a reminder (in case you haven't heard), Thursday is the last day to vote in the Land for Tomorrow's "Top 10 N.C. Natural Wonders" poll. (Read more about it here.)

This talk of "wonders" reminded me of a couple years ago when the N&O had people vote for the "Top Wonders of the Triangle." Here were the results then:

-William B. Umstead State Park
-Dorton Arena
-Duke Chapel
-Sarah P. Duke Gardens
-N.C. Museum of Art
-Carolina Ballet
-Morehead Planetarium and Science Center

Do those "wonders" still captivate today? Or are there some new items that could be added to the list? For instance, I'd replace, say, the Carolina Ballet with the Shimmer Wall, for one.
(The one that has likely solidified its place on the list more than any other is the Art Museum.)

For what it's worth, back in '07 when this vote was going on, Society readers had also recommended the following as potential Triangle "wonders":

-N.C. State Capitol
-Christ Episcopal Church
-Mitch's Tavern
-Char-Grill
-The Rialto
-The NCSU Bell Tower
-The Governor's Mansion
-The "whisper disks" at NCSU
-The pedestrian walkway over the Beltline

Any other potential "wonders" to be added to the list?

(Pedestrian bridge photo from gribblenation.com)

Excitement in Packland

The folks over at HighSchoolOT are saying that old/new N.C. State basketball recruit C.J. Leslie will make his announcement official (right in front of people!) some time today. He then will soak in the adoration -- Ryan Harrow-style -- at an event at Sammie's tomorrow night. And just in case you haven't heard ...

A 6-foot-8, 210-pound combo forward, Leslie is the highest-rated prospect to ever commit to N.C. State under head coach Sidney Lowe.

Leslie picked N.C. State over Kentucky and Connecticut and had a number of other offers.

It's an exciting time for the Wolfpack. So exciting that people are storming H-boro street. In early May. For no apparent reason.