"A lifetime of global observation grounded locally in the colloquialisms of central North Carolina"
Across at least thirty-six states, people have taken to sawing down the poles that hold up automated license-plate cameras. Meanwhile Doris at the Cut & Curl has been running a more accurate surveillance network since 1981, for free, with better customer service.
Read more →
The quarterly report is a ritual of numbers dressed as narrative. The county fair is narrative disguised as numbers on ribboned pies.
Read more →
Predictive analytics and kudzu both forecast where we are headed. One is a spreadsheet, the other is already on your porch.
Read more →
There's a particular brand of confidence that comes from reading The Economist cover to cover and another from having survived sixty years in Chatham County. Both are insufferable. Both are occasionally right.
Read more →
I've been to forty-seven countries and the thing I've learned is that everywhere has a version of my neighbor Clyde.
Read more →
At the World Economic Forum they talk about stakeholder capitalism. At the Siler City flea market, Miss Delores has been practicing it since 1978.
Read more →
The Economist devoted four pages to cryptocurrency. My mechanic asked a better question: If you can't hold it, is it real?
Read more →