Today's News

 I admit I’m usually very skeptical about any new or unusual fad diet or weight loss program. I’ve seen them come and go over the years and most aren’t healthy, cost a fortune or just don’t work. The key to most of these diets is: Iif it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Another thing about some of these fad diets is that most are so crazy that people can’t live with them for the rest of their lives and they don’t teach anything about healthy eating for the long haul.

 By John Nelson

Gloomy, gloomy, these misty spring days after all the ice and rain. One wonders if it ever will warm up and get sunny. And yet, there are plenty of early spring flowers out and about now to give us at least the perception of coming warmth and botanical bounty. As long as we are going to be out on a field trip, here is a little shrub that offers its cheery flowers to brighten things up a bit.

While spring has been slow to start here in Brunswick County, as it has been elsewhere in the state and country, the telltale sign of its arrival has been proclaimed not just by the yellowish-green haze on vehicles, but also by the sniffles of allergy sufferers.

Allergy experts told Time magazine the record-setting snowfall in some regions and the lingering below-freezing temperatures could mean a late flowering for trees. A quick look anywhere in our community shows this to be the case.

CALABASH — Just in the nick of time, the Calabash Fire Department has a new, larger station to accommodate a matching increase in calls.

Department spokeswoman Honey Shore said the figures as of Monday, March 31, speak for themselves.

From November 2012 to March 2013, the department had 619 calls. From November 2013 to March 30 of this year, it had 742 calls — an increase of nearly 20 percent.