http://www.yesweekly.com/articles.sec-245-1-staff-column.html The story of Ben Best%uFFFDs rise to Hollywood fame and fortune is one that should be told over a cold beer. One, because it%uFFFDs hilarious and two, because that%uFFFDs where it all began %uFFFD just two friends hanging out on a hot summer day drinking cold beers and dreaming. ]]> Driving north on US 52 at sunset, the blue haze hung over Pilot Mountain like a warm blanket on a chilly autumn evening. The beatific vision released a floodgate of memories. The giant rock on top of the mountain known as %uFFFDthe guide%uFFFD to the Saura Indians is the iconic image of my childhood. ]]> To all the panicky idiots who waited in line for gas recently %uFFFD some of whom probably didn%uFFFDt even need it, making it that much harder for people who actually did need it to put a couple bucks in the tank %uFFFD you may want to read this. ]]> three years writing for advertising and public relations, I%uFFFDm incredibly thankful for the opportunity to put to print a subject that I%uFFFDm most enthusiastic about (except for possibly fantasy football, but I%uFFFDm still holding my breath for that). ]]> The candidates trooped into the gymnasium at New Light Baptist Church in Greensboro on a recent Tuesday evening, toting yard signs and pressing the flesh. A good politician is an inveterate networker, if nothing else; a smile and a handshake are the basic units of currency. ]]> I pulled all the keys off my key ring today and lined them up in a row: Two house keys, a Winston-Salem office key, a Greensboro office key, two Square One keys and a couple I couldn’t place. I like to think you can measure the depth of your commitment to a community in keys. ]]> Here we go again. Another e-mail in my inbox with “Fwd: FW: FWD: FWD: Fw:” forming half the subject, sent by some relative to me and about 20 other acquaintances. They started as a trickle — the usual tales of footprints in sand and photos of Jesus on toast, either asking or warning me to forward them to a dozen people by sundown. ]]> What a week it has been since I left you last. My dad has finally gone out on his own and opened up an automotive restoration shop in Lewisville, Joe’s Garage, opening soon. The whole family ordered pizzas and helped him move in on a late Sunday afternoon. ]]> I’m not too proud to predict that the Food Not Bombs network, founded in Cambridge, Mass. in the early 1980s, will be remembered as a seminal piece of our national historical fabric and an example of American-style anarchism. ]]> The Wyndham Championship, nee Greater Greensboro Open, unfurled itself along the lush green of Sedgefield Country Club last week, dangling uniformed cops like tassels all along the lower reaches of High Point Road. The security detail slowed traffic to a crawl in places, which was a pain. ]]> I never went to summer camp, but if I had, I think it would have looked something like this. It’s a bright day with a blue sky — mostly blue, anyway — tall trees and a crowded activity bus with a novelty horn that blasts “Dixie. ]]> It was inevitable that the Buracker report — an exhaustive review of the policies, procedures and performance measures of the Greensboro Police Department — would be read as a verdict on the changing of the guard that took place in January 2006. ]]>