Deciphering supermarket labeling when it comes to beef is no easy feat What exactly is the difference between USDA-certified choice beef and USDA-certified select beef? These grades may seem like mandatory government labels, but they’re actually paid for by beef producers. About 84 percent of beef produced in the United States is given a grade by the USDA at the…
Straight from the Farm (All farms are by appointment only unless noted.) Baucom’s Best 1002 Baucom Rd., Monroe 704-254-0742 Gilcrest Natural Farm 1164 Lowes Ln., Iron Station 704-308-1431 Peaceful Meadows Farm 1740 Camden Rd., Marshville 704-233-4902 peacefulmeadowsfarm@windstream.net Poplin Farms 16647 NC 73, Albemarle 704-699-2208 Proffitt Family Farms 150 Old Home Pl., Kings Mountain Open Fridays 2-7 pm or by…
Like most black-coffee drinkers, I am a bit righteous about it. When a server asks if I want cream or sugar, I proudly answer no, making sure all at my table hear. When a barista or some- such offers to leave room for cream, I decline confidently and wait for the nod of approval. But the truth is this: I…
I never order biscuits and gravy at restaurants, because there is no way it could compete with my dad's. At restaurants, it's often white and gelatinous, like creamed lipids, on a soggy biscuit. Not so with Dad's, which is rich and spicy and utterly delicious. I asked him once for the recipe. He gave me a blank look. So I…
Aaron To / Itchyart.comTHIS MAY BEWILDER or bother plenty of people, but here goes anyway: Jim Bakker hosts a religious TV show with his perky wife. At age seventy-one, he preaches God’s love while peddling Jesus pendants and the like from a new Christian retreat in Blue Eye, Missouri, which looks a lot like his old Christian retreat in Fort Mill….
By the time Kevin Geddings arrived in Charlotte, he was already a man on the rise. The Wofford grad had made his name as a politico four years earlier in helping Jim Hodges win the 1998 South Carolina governor's race, then established a successful public relations firm. He quickly became a key figure in the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party and…
ARCHIVE: DON STURKEY, COURTESY ROBINSON-SPANGLER CAROLINA ROOM, PUBLIC LIBRARY OF CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG COUNTYIn 1957, Don Sturkey photographed Dorothy Counts on the first day of school as she integrated Harding High and CMS.ON THE MORNING of September 4, 1957, fifteen-year-old Dorothy Counts set out on a harrowing path toward Harding High, where-as the first African American to attend the all-white school -she…
The teenage boy was accused of murder. He'd been chased by an older local bully through his downtrodden neighborhood and into his house. He grabbed a gun and shot the bully dead. The boy needed a good lawyer, but his family was poor. They turned to Isabel Day, Charlotte's public defender. Day argued self defense and won the case. Then…
Ten Charlotte women had been killed by the man known as “The Charlotte Strangler” before police realized what the victims had in common, aside from being young, poor, and black. They all knew a man named Henry Louis Wallace. He had even been to some of their funerals. Wallace had been a likeable and popular kid growing up in South…
Once upon a time in a very different Charlotte, there was a bunch of powerful men who became known as The Group. Some called them the Titans or the White Guys, for obvious reasons. It included iconic characters like John Belk, Ed Crutchfield, Bill Lee, Hugh McColl Jr., and Rolfe Neill. The Group, left to right: Bill Lee, Ed Crutchfield,…
The Carolina Panthers played in Clemson the first season while Bank of America Stadium was being constructed. Courtesy of Carolina Panthers It's difficult for longtime Charlotte residents to believe, but there is an entire generation of sports fans who don't know this city without its own NFL team. Kids born in Charlotte today are growing up Panthers fans, sporting Muhsin…
North Carolina was known as a basketball state. More precisely, a college basketball state. But in 1985, Kannapolis businessman George Shinn believed he could bring professional hoops to Charlotte. It was a long shot, but with an alliance of local powerhouse entrepreneurs including Rick Hendrick and Felix Sabates, he felt he could convince the NBA that Charlotte was ready. "When…
Unlike many members of his rarified fraternity, George Shinn’s ownership of a pro sports team wasn’t a dalliance or a diversion, it was his primary business. It’s a business Shinn is preparing to leave after owning the NBA’s Hornets for more than two decades. The sixty-nine-year-old Kannapolis native is no stranger to tumult, first in Charlotte, where the expansion Hornets…
The Charlotte Observer photographed Stewart on Tryon Street in 1995. ARCHIVE: The Charlotte Observer We asked him to re-create the shot for us. Chris Edwards The Mel Stewart story — the one about the Charlotte swimming prodigy who breaks the world record in the 200-meter butterfly and then wins three medals, two golds and a bronze, at the 1992…
Andrew Reyes seemed destined for big things in Charlotte. He'd appeared on the scene in the early 1990s and quickly established himself as a power player and philanthropist -as well as a major political donor, giving more than $500,000 to Democrats and Republicans combined. By 1999 the thirty-three-year-old Reyes was chairman of the Mecklenberg County Democratic Party, a bit of…
When he worked for WAYS-FM, Jay Thomas became Charlotte’s first shock jock. Now living mostly in Los Angeles, he’s still on the air, and he acts in movies.For a moment, Jay Thomas ponders the interview's theme. "Where are they now?" he says, sounding amused. "Well, f—, I'm right here." Actually, Thomas seems to be everywhere. He's just wrapped up his…
Ben Long, once the best-known artist in Charlotte, now lives and works in Asheville after spending time in Paris. Chris Edwards Ben Long lives in Asheville, has for about fifteen years. But lately, he's been on the road, driving to Chapel Hill once a week. The artist has an important commission, a portrait of University of North Carolina president Erskine…
When Tully Blanchard defeated a bloody Dusty Rhodes with a boot to the head at Tribute to Starrcade (a reunion of sorts for old-school wrestlers and fans in Spartanburg, S.C.) in 2005, a gym full of fans chanted the long-retired wrestler's name and booed good-guy Rhodes. At one point Rhodes even slung Blanchard, then fifty-one, over the ropes and suplexed…
Nikita Koloff never intended to become a wrestler. "The idea of two sweaty guys grabbing a hold of each other didn't appeal to me. Let me knock somebody's head off," says Koloff, fifty-one. In 1984, he was awaiting a tryout with a team in the short-lived United States Football League when a pro wrestling friend called with a job opportunity….
Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin’s wife played the role of Precious, his valet. Now just Jimmy Williams, he tossed his tights when he quit wrestling and now flies planes Courtesy of Highspots During his years in the ring, Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin donned sequined pants, matching jackets, the occasional feather boa, big bushy eighties hair, and a beard. But when the civilian known…
Ivan Koloff was one of the most hated characters in wrestling. Each night he stepped into the ring with a wicked look on his face, sinister Fu Manchu, embroidered black velvet robe, and sometimes chains draped over his shoulders. Backstage was a different story. Koloff was more teddy bear than Russian Bear (his nickname). "I don't know anyone who's ever…
"Tackle. Two-count. Back to the lockup. Up and over." Squatting in the corner of a wrestling ring that's surrounded by blister-packed action figures of pro wrestlers stacked floor to ceiling, George South rattles off instructions with the focus of an NFL quarterback and the speed of an auctioneer. Two fledgling wrestlers in the center of the ring do what he…
No faction in wrestling was bigger than the Four Hoursemen. But naming the original team of NWA title-wielding bad guys was no marketing strategy. It was either a fluke or pure luck on the part of the Horseman Arn Anderson. The biblical reference spilled from his lips during a twenty-second promotional interview with fellow Horeseman Ric Flair, Ole Anderson, and…
Magnum TA's fast-rising career ended abruptly in 1986 when his Porsche 911 Turbo careened into a telephone pole on Sardis Road, five minutes from his home. "I hydroplaned on a wet road in pour- ing-down rain. My head hit the roof and I broke my neck.I was paralyzed from my neck down," recounts Terry Allen, fifty-one. He was a natural…
