Because of the Memorial Day weekend, you won't find any coupon inserts in this Sunday's News and Observer.
Take a break from coupon clipping and enjoy the time off with your family and friends.
No Sunday coupons for holiday weekend
Submitted by AmyDunn on 04/05/2012 - 14:13With Easter this weekend, there won't be any coupon inserts in this Sunday's News & Observer.
Enjoy the clip-free weekend.
Or, if you're like me, use the time to catch up on clipping and filing.
Sad to say, but I have yet to clear my binder of all those coupons that expired March 31.
Dedicated to the one you love
Submitted by tleonard on 02/13/2012 - 13:14
In 1978, John Havel, an exhibit designer with the NC Museum of History came upon some rather unusual valentines.
"America and England went through a stage of very cruel, nasty valentines in the 1840s and 1850s," Havel said. "They were printed cards, and people sent them to spinsters, widows and drunkards. ..."
Here's an example of a not-so-nice card mailed around 1850:
"Gone to Seed"A lass you are, but hard you tried to wed,
But alas, for you, the male fools all are dead.
When you were young, your heart did pant and throb
but a pair of pants ne'er answered to your sob.
You were a rose -- remember it now, I can't;
But now you are a faded century plant ..
You've gone to seed! On manhood 'tis a blot
That such a maid as you should go to pot.
-- The News & Observer 2/10/1978
By the 20th century, Valentine sentiments were a little more familiar. The February issue of Wrightsville Beach Magazine has an article about love letters sent from the USS North Carolina during World War II. You can see a virtual copy of the article with images of love letters and Valentine's Day cards online.
Raleigh collects nearly 800 gallons of cooking grease and oil
Submitted by paigemaxwell on 01/30/2012 - 12:03The City of Raleigh collected 797 gallons of cooking oil and grease in its third annual holiday collection program.
Save your sanity with tips to declutter from the holidays
Submitted by paigemaxwell on 01/03/2012 - 10:41Is your house about to burst at the seams with all the stuff you've gained from the holidays? Do you feel compelled to just toss everything in the trash just to get it out of the way? Here are some tips to help bring sanity to your household and declutter for the new year.
Tips to score best holiday clearance deals
Submitted by AmyDunn on 12/27/2011 - 16:22If you can stand the thought of shopping for next year's holidays, now is the time to score deep discounts on Christmas and Hanukkah items.
Between now and mid-January, prices on everything from artificial Christmas trees to Hanukkah gelt will be marked down drastically. Right now, most items are 50 percent to 60 percent off. But as the days go by, the discounts will get deeper -- as high as 90 percent, in some cases.
I know some shoppers who haunt the aisles of Target and the drug stores just waiting for those 90 percent off signs to go up.
Here are a couple of hints to get the most bang for your clearance buck:
Back to business after Yule Leave
Submitted by tleonard on 12/27/2011 - 12:15
George Randall, who headed North Carolina's prison systems in the 1960s had a reputation for stressing rehabilitation and work-release programs, saying these community-based programs were "a hard-nosed approach requiring the offender to work to support his family, to pay taxes and to obey the law." In 1969, one of his jobs was to round up the inmates who had failed to return from "yule leave."
The holidays are over for all but one of the more than 450 prison inmates granted Christmas leave.
As for the one -- "We'll get him," said deputy Corrections Commissioner George Randall.
"We only had 12 out of all those people who messed up," Randall said. One escaped, one died, two showed up late. The rest celebrated a little too much and ran afoul of laws against intoxication.
"A couple of guys were drunk on return to the prison," Randall said. "Three more were drunk and picked up by police. One went to sleep while drunk and set fire to a sofa. Another was arrested for driving under the influence, hit and run and damage to property.
"And another one was picked up for being drunk and threatening his wife."
Randall was pleased with the results. "Only 12 out of 450 isn't bad at all. And only one not showing up out of the 12 is really good.
"Last year, we had about 80 out for Christmas leave and only two of them got in trouble, so we've got a pretty good thing going." Randall added. "It looks like everybody's had a pretty merry Christmas."
Those granted Christmas leave were given from one to four days of freedom.
Included also were inmates whose sentences were set to expire between Dec. 22 and Jan. 1.
To qualify for the four-day home visit, an inmate must have been in the work release program 60 days or more and be on honor grade. Around 100 inmates on work release for 60 days -- but with no previous trips home -- received a one-day holiday beginning Christmas Eve and ending the night of Christmas Day.
Randall said some didn't qualify due to a number of things. "Mainly, we didn't feel they had the proper home atmosphere to return to and, in some cases, a kind of home atmosphere they didn't want to go back to at Christmas." -- The Raleigh Times 12/30/1969
George Randall (right) points out some of the features of Central Prison to a visiting professor in 1962.
Wake wraps up the holidays with recycling program
Submitted by paigemaxwell on 12/22/2011 - 11:00Don't toss that holiday waste — recycle it with Wake County's Holiday Wrap-Up recycling program.
Residents can drop off Christmas trees (without lights, ornamentation, etc.), wrapping paper (excluding foil and bows), holiday greeting cards, corrugated cardboard, chipboard (i.e. cereal boxes, paper roll tubes, etc.), SBS Board (i.e. shirt and gift boxes), magazines and catalogs at the following convenience centers:
A Christmas Carol
Submitted by tleonard on 12/19/2011 - 16:15
Long before the Theater in the Park version made its debut, North Carolina audiences enjoyed Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol (published on this date in 1843) as read by Dr. Frederick H. Koch, founder and director of the Carolina Playmakers at UNC.
In Raleigh, Dr. Koch brought the voices of "Old Scrooge, the meanest pinch-penny in England, and Tiny Tim, the sweetest invalid" to the Ambassador Theatre.
Each year Dr. Koch, who has passed his 200th public reading of the Carol and is as busy as Santa Claus around Christmas time, includes Raleigh on his itinerary. And each year hundreds have been turned away because the Ambassador Theatre could not accomodate all those who wanted to get in.
[...]
Dr. Koch's reading of the Carol has brought such a deep sense of the Christmas spirit to so many thousands that he is in demand all over the country.
In Chapel Hill and several other North Carolina cities, his reading has become an annual institution, and the people go to hear him again and again -- if they can get in.
Dr. Koch reads the entire Carol with only a slight rest between the cantos. His voice creates vivid impressions as it moves from Scrooge's whines to the somber tone of the ghost to Tiny Tim's plaintive "God bless us every one."
He first read the Carol to a group of friends in 1905 and that started something. His audience at the University of North Dakota demanded a repeat performance the next year, and the audience grew until hundreds were turned away for lack of space. He was urged to read the Carol in nearby cities and towns. By 1935 he had read the Carol 125 times, by 1938 more than 160 times, and now he is looking forward to his 200th time. -- The News & Observer 12/11/1941
The following year, Dr. Koch gave 19 readings in 17 North Carolina cities and towns. He continued these performances until his death in 1944.
Dr. Frederick Koch (left), with his student Paul Green. North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.We have a winner...in the Starbucks gift card giveaway!
Submitted by AmyDunn on 12/17/2011 - 16:00Thanks so much to all of you who entered my giveaway for a little holiday splurge in the form of a $10 Starbucks gift card.
I asked you to leave me comments on your favorite holiday splurges and your responses were so fun to read. Even we frugal folks have our guilty pleasures!
And, of course, I especially liked how some of you described obtaining your holiday splurges on the cheap.
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