N&O editorial cartoonist Dwane Powell retired Wednesday after 35 years (of slopping ink on himself and his desk and his floor), an immeasurable loss to this newspaper. Even when I didn't agree with him (if I had a nickel for every time I have heard Dwane Powell scream that George W. Bush should be in prison – that would be every time George W. Bush has been mentioned in an editorial board meeting, in fact), I found the way Dwane was able to get to the heart of the matter so well with pictures rather than words invaluable and often brilliant. He is the master of detail, and I enjoyed playing "Where's Waldo?" with his cartoons, searching for the small but priceless comic touches he added to nearly every drawing.

What I will miss more, though, is listening to him and his editor, Steve Ford, giggle like little girls when they finally got a cartoon over the bar. Sometimes, Dwane would be giggling all the way from his office even before he got to Steve. This would necessitate breath-holding on my part, hoping for Dwane's sake that Steve was going to think it was as funny as he already did.

There's going to be a lot less laughter around ye ol' opinion shop now, that's for sure.

Dwane sat down for an interview before he left Wednesday. You can find the results of that interview here, put together with a roundup of cartoons by our multimedia editor Scott Sharpe.

As part of his visit with The N&O editorial board, state GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer pointed out that Americans need to remember that our sovereignty lies not with our government but with us, and he said that being an American comes with important duties and requires harder work than most realize.

He also said that we tend to overanalyze every nuance of every election and that he has come to an important realization: the ground game rules.

Here are excerpts of his talking of these things:

State GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer met today with members of The N&O's editorial board and other reporters and editors. Fetzer, who said several times that he's tired of political fighting and weary of labels, predicts good things for Republicans in 2010, including a big re-election win for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.

Fetzer said he takes no glee in what has happened to former Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, but he did say that the Democratic dominance of state politics for 100 years is one thing to blame. Competition, he said, keeps politics honest. And he said nobody likes to see good people ruined. He traced North Carolina's political troubles back to when the State Constitution was amended to allow the governor two terms instead of one and said it's time to change that back.

Fetzer rejected the notion that conservative Republicans have to move to the center to get elected and said his party needs to do a better job of explaining the GOP tent rather than enlarging it. If people better understood what limited government means, they would embrace it.

Here are some excerpts of Fetzer talking about Easley and about the current troubles of Gov. Bev Perdue.

Some people tell me they can't read on exercise machines because they get a headache. I'm lucky, I suppose, because I've been able to stay on the cross-trainer machine at the Alexander Family YMCA for an hour or more reading books at a clip of about one a week. (The sublime to the ridiculous: An Abe Lincoln story one week, a biography of Bonnie and Clyde the next.)

On occasion, though, I have to go to magazines, and while on vacation recently, I'd run through about everything so I got a copy of Esquire's "Black Book," which I take it is supposed to be a definitive guide on how to dress. This was a mistake. The "guide" was full of instructions and recommendations, which included suits at $4,000 or so, shoes in the hundreds, various forms of cashmere that ran a grand or so for a scarf. Usually, my philosophy is...well, I don't know why somebody would want anything but corduroy, anyway.

But feeling somewhat inspired, I repaired to a local department store and picked up a sport coat for $75 that was referred to by a sales person as "faux cashmere," meaning that it looks and feels like the genuine article.  Now don't get the idea that you can get faux cashmere at that price all the time. Nosiree. I ran into a sale. 

However, no goat or sheep fur was sacrificed for my coat, whereas I think that's the case with non-faux cashmere. I think for mine, a few polyesters were cut out of the herd. 

My friend Jayne, who reviews such purchases, reckoned the coat to be OK, but said that when we go somewhere, I need to keep my mouth shut about the fact that it's "faux" because she doesn't want people assuming she's also clad in faux. So to say anything would be a faux pas.

Aw, give me a break. You knew it was coming.

Here's a glimpse inside N&O cartoonist Dwane Powell's sketchbook, where he writes cartoon ideas and where he doodles during editorial board meetings. It's the Where's Waldo edition. See whether you recognize any N&O columnists.

Here is a piece on the Wake County school board race from Ashley Osment, a senior attorney at the Center for Civil Rights at UNC School of Law; Leah Aden, a fellow at the center, and Stephanie Horton, a third-year law student at the School of Law.

In it, they address points made repeatedly by school board critics, one being that ending 'busing' would save money (Charlotte spends more on school
transportation) and one being the dismal graduation rate for economically disadvantaged students (a doubling of the ESL population since 2000 is one cause).

As the school board election arrives Tuesday, we're getting more offerings than we will be able to print. Here is a piece by research scientist William T. Lynch against "shuttle busing," saying," If maximum diversity within the school were to be the preferred mix, then the schools with intermediate FRL (Free & Reduced Price Lunch) percentages would be showing the best results. If the “researchers” looked at this existing data they would find no instance where this
expectation has been realized."

We're planning to post several more things today. You can also find more letters about the school board race on tomorrow's "Other Opinion" page and in Sunday Forum on Sunday.

Despite the fact that the "letter to the editor" form on this blog and on our page at www.newsobserver.com/opinion sends you to an error page once you hit submit, rest assured that your letters are coming through. No need to keep sending them repeatedly. The problem is on the list of technical issues that are being addressed.

In the meantime, you can always just e-mail your letter to forum@newsobserver.com.

Our Wake County school board endorsements, coming tomorrow on the Editorial page, necessitated some juggling among our editorial lineup, pushing Notable Numbers out this week. So get your numbers fix here. Add your own in the comments.