Signs of hope persist amid losses, cutbacks

Anybody remember when we were hot stuff? Sweet Charlotte, darling of the Sun Belt, belle of the New South.

Let's learn some useful phrases, mis amigos

This is America. So speak Spanish.

You have to understand: Mary Easley is an artist

Really, now. That's quite enough snarcasm. It must stop.

Water leaks, stalled towers – and now eels

A plague of unpleasantness has been unleashed upon us. And in stout Charlotte spirit, we need to find a way to ignore it.

Read any good rage on the road lately?

People who slather their cars with stickers are more likely to be road-ragers. This is the latest news from the scientific realm.

It's getting stuffy in here … A-hem. Must be uptown

For the second time this year, the prospect of a new watering hole in uptown is being tut-tut'ed.

Gimme a w-a-s-t-e! That spells football!

Every now and then, an idea swims by that is so awful, so whacko, so let's-take-a-nap-on-a-nest-of-fire-ants bad, you just have to appoint a blue-ribbon panel to study it.

• UNCC chancellor's football report sobering

Hop aboard for view of what's down the road

Some of you folks expect gasoline prices to retreat when sanity regains its throne.

Hey, grads, pause the iPods, listen

It is an honor to address the Class of 2008. I will be brief as I share advice that you should cling to throughout the future.

An octopus we need to handle

Let's just say you're in the octopus business. You send out your octo wranglers and they bring back a steady supply.