This being the clichéd column of cleaning out waste in the mental notebook, I present these thoughts that normally wouldn’t fit in an entire column.
Item: Congratulations to KIPP Pride High for winning Wednesday’s Quiz Bowl. They came prepared, never lost a round and were a team of well-spoken young men and women. Good job.
Item: Halifax Academy should have received credit for the answer of “forfeit” when answering a question on Mark 8:36 at the Quiz Bowl Wednesday night. Had the question been phrased so it was mandatory the King James Version be used for the answer then, no, they should have not been credited for using “forfeit” instead of “lose.”
Item: Roanoke Rapids High School could have shown a little more respect for the event Wednesday night. KIPP and Halifax Academy showed up in shirts and ties; Northwest in school issued polo shirts. Shorts and flip-flops are not appropriate for a Quiz Bowl. There will not be, nor should there be, debate on this matter.
Item: Congratulations to our friend Elle for her strong performance in the Pit of the Year contest on cesarsway.com. Elle, a registered therapy dog, won second place in the contest. As far as I’m concerned, Elle was the winner because the dog that won was a Cane Corso. I got banned from that dog’s Facebook page because I pointed that out. To me, when a contest specifies Pit of the Year, it doesn’t mean Cane Corso of the Year.
Item: The big head sports gurus at ESPN just won’t give N.C. State any love after having 20 wins this season. I expect big things from the Wolfpack in the coming years.
Item: If you missed Peyton Manning’s exit speech Wednesday, you missed a prime opportunity to see why sports in so many ways mirror this thing called life. I highly recommend you watch it. Nothing lasts for forever, he said, choking back tears.
Item: Call me naïve, but the announcement coming out of city council’s closed session Tuesday night that parties of both parts are dropping lawsuits against one another is reason to have a glimmer of hope Lafayette Gatling will buy the Roanoke Rapids Theatre. Personally, I think it will happen, just not in the time frame everyone wants it to happen. Won’t put money on it, however.
Item: Some folks are saying I have killed the “Spectre,” with my response to one of his columns. The “Spectre” didn’t run my entire response, which was written in column form. The only thing he ran was my response saying it was a cheap shot. I’m not running the column here because it deals with mature themes. Email me if you want to read it. I don’t think I have killed “X. Astor,” per se, just may have scared him into realizing more people know who he is than he thinks know who he is.
Item: Thought last week’s debut of the new feature Other Voices, Other Rooms got off to a good start. You can join the fray, too, just email me your column. I want to hear from everyone or as many people who would care to write something.
Item: One follower of rrspin.com says I should write more opinion pieces. I tell him I would like to but I don’t want to write a daily editorial or column just for the sake of writing one. I have to feel fairly passionate about an issue to do that or be in a mood where I think it’s time to resort to the clichéd column of cleaning out waste in the mental notebook — Lance Martin.