“Good people are happy when something good happens to someone else.”
— Dean Smith
Year: 2015
Locally Notable
Romance Killers
When I saw that Second Empire made OpenTable’s 2015 list of the 100 “most romantic” restaurants in America, I cringed a bit. Not because I don’t think the restaurant is worthy, but because I felt bad for anyone who was there this past New Year’s Eve hoping for a romantic evening. I happened to be there with ten or so of my closest friends, and thanks to us, the room we were in wasn’t quite so romantic for anyone who was dining with us. Anyway, sorry folks.
Field of Play
Attack of the Future
National Signing Day for college football came and went this week and along with it came clear indicators of Dave Doeren’s plans for the Wolfpack’s future offensive attack. Highlighted by a pair of in-state, four star running backs, Doeren planted his flag firmly in staking his claim on in-state recruiting and a run-heavy offensive attack. Garner High School’s Nyheim Hines and Princeton High School’s Johnny Frasier highlight an incoming class that also features several solid offensive lineman. Obviously, the recruiting trail was blazed long before the Wolfpack’s late 2014 success; but that success, propelled by a run-first, throw-when-you-must attack, validates the recruiting strategy and should offer Wolfpack fans a mild dose of cautious optimism.
I’ve never been one to get sucked into recruiting season, favoring the dose of reality that comes in the fall over the pie-in-the-sky hope of less-than-perfect recruiting ratings systems. You can throw all the stars that you want at a player, but the player still has to play and the coach still has to coach. That said, I was drawn into this year’s hoopla by the mild national attention that a running back from my former high school received, even going so far as to watch the press conference announcing his commitment.
Taking the long view, I’m excited about the direction of NC State football. We have a young, enthusiastic coach who has tasted success and seems hungry for more. I just hope the university gives him time to grow and develop, just as many patient coaches work so hard to do with their young players.
Photo Credit: “Carter-Finley Stadium 1” by SMaloney – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Quoted
Lucky
“Anyone who’s ever been the greatest at anything has gotten outrageously lucky.”
Locally Notable
Super Locally Focused
We’re about 20 minutes from kick-off and no lie I just got a phone call from JB that goes a little something like this:
Hey, I had to take a break from the Russell Wilson love-fest …
So, it’s that kind of day for him. All Russell, All the Time is good for NC State shirt wearing Seahawks bandwagon fans but it’s a nightmare for anyone else in the Carolinas. And it’s especially tough for Tarheel fans who must have had a heavy dose of night tremors after witnessing the deja vu two yard Hail Mary play from Wilson a couple of weeks ago in the NFC Championship game.
But it’s okay, non-PackOfBadgers North Carolinians1, there’s still plenty of home state pride to be rooting for at Super Bowl XLIX. First of all, this is the first Super Bowl stadium and field to be lit by super awesome, energy efficient, super bright LED lights. And you know who’s lighting it up? That’s right, Durham’s own Cree.
Also over in Durham is SportsMedia Technology, a company that, according to the Triangle Business Journal, “develops and implements the graphics presentations and video enhancement technologies that help you understand the big game.”. The article is a nice, quick read and takes a look at preparation for the big game through the company’s eyes (hint: Sunday is the big day for the teams, but for a company like SMT, Saturday is the most important).
That’s all I’ve got for now. If you happen to know more local connections in this year’s Super Bowl, hit us up @itsworthnoting on Twitter and we’ll update the post.
Go ‘Hawks!
Sync
Coaxing Us Into Higher Prices
Google Fiber can’t come soon enough. From Quartz:
All of which helps explain why the price of cable TV is holding steady in the US, while internet bills rise. Take a look at Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second-largest cable company (behind Comcast, which is attempting to acquire it). For its residential customers, the average monthly cost of TV service is $76.08, just a dollar more than it was two years ago. But internet service prices are up 21% over the same period, to an average of $47.30 a month.
The rising price of internet service could have something to do with more customers eschewing cable TV service in favor of internet-only/streaming (thus, justifying a jump to a more expensive, higher-bandwidth tier). But my own experience demonstrates the cable companies aren’t too motivated to extended the attractive promotional pricing they offer for the first year of service. And with the FCC recently voting to change the definition of broadband, it’s going to be an interesting couple of years on the broadband front.
Locally Notable
The Sisterhood of the Burgeoning Restaurants
The Triangle food scene has exploded in recent years and people are taking notice near and far. Andrea Weigl is certainly on top of things. Her recent write-up for the News & Observer formed a narrative around the recent spate of female entrepreneur chefs and blazed a trail for a subsequent piece coming from the New York Times by Kim Severson.
First, a bit of level-setting primer from Weigl:
But the capital has a growing crew of women running successful downtown drinking and eating establishments. Some owned their own places long before Christensen was named best chef in the Southeast last spring by the James Beard Foundation; others, inspired by her success, took the leap.
To, perhaps, a little more depth from Severson:
The North Carolina food sisterhood stretches out beyond restaurants, too, into pig farming, flour milling and pickling. Women run the state’s pre-eminent pasture-raised meat and organic produce distribution businesses and preside over its farmers’ markets. They influence food policy and lead the state’s academic food studies. And each fall, the state hosts the nation’s only retreat for women in the meat business.
I especially love the pork chop analogy that Severson uses to open up her piece to highlight the more-the-merrier atmosphere the permeates all of this growth.
Both articles are short and well worth a read. Weigl does a great job of highlighting some of the new hotspots while giving a little bit of background for the ladies behind them. Severson digs deeper into the complete farm-to-table phenomenon while also highlighting the strong female influence at each stop along the chain. The positive socio-economic impact is significant, but most importantly to me, the food is great and I’m just happy to be around to enjoy the spoils.
Quoted
1,000
“There will be someone that will win more, but it is great to be the first one to 1,000 wins.”
Locally Notable
Fiber Optimism
A few weeks ago, my Internet Service Provider sent me a letter informing me that the special price I was paying for 50 megabit per second download speed was about to expire. Not to worry, the letter went on, because even though I would be paying $30 per month more for service unless I downgraded, I was still saving $9/month … off the regular price1 of service. What a gift.
This morning, Google officially unveiled plans to bring their fiber-optic gigabit internet service to the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area, as well as a few other cities. The announcement comes just shy of one year after announcing their selection of Raleigh-Durham as a target city, proving that as exciting as the news is, change is not going to happen quickly. In other words, I’m stuck with my scumbag of an ISP for a while yet, but I can at least be optimistic about the future of this first world problem2. And I don’t have to put all of my eggs3 in the Google basket, as AT&T and Frontier are making moves in the area as well.
It goes without saying that this is great for the area and it certainly can’t hurt our chances for continued growth. The build-out will be slow, but the reward should be great. It’s easy to overstate, but I think there is substance here – this has the potential to impact and transform the Triangle in many positive ways. Be excited, Triangle, this is a big win for Tobacco Road.
Photo Credit: Google Fiber
- Good luck finding the “regular” price of their service anywhere on their website or even if you call and talk to a representative.↩
- Indeed it is a first-world problem, but it’s worth noting here that the US is way way way behind in broadband speeds.↩
- Hatching personal information and browsing habits.↩
Quoted
Pleated
“I like pleated pants. The flat fronts just don’t do it for me. The pleats are going to come back in a few years.”