Columns

As I sat Tuesday at another fabulous annual retreat of Sunset Beach Town Council, I pondered how much things have changed in just a year’s time.

This time last year, I was posted next to a box of free-flowing Kleenex, having been finally taken down by some kind of terrible February bug after six years of relative virus- and bacteria-free health.

I was really ticked, because this thing seemed to have come from nowhere—some unknown, invisible place (isn’t that where colds usually originate?)—and it had messed up my health record.

When I settled into the editor’s desk in 2007, one of my most vocal critics was Rich Cerrato, the current mayor of Sunset Beach.

Back then Rich wasn’t an elected official. He was Average Joe Citizen who regularly attended town meetings and frequently took everyone—including this newspaper—to task.

Being assigned to cover a days-long trial like last week’s Lewis vs. Rapp libel case at the Brunswick County Courthouse is a mixed bag, for sure.

On one side of the courtroom, you have a rare, fascinating case involving our own Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Ola M. Lewis, who for nearly three years has been relentlessly pursuing her day(s) in court as a plaintiff seeking justice against libel.

I want to be a winner. Who doesn’t?

It’s better than the alternative.

Maybe that’s why I made one of my rare treks to a sweepstakes facility this past Monday afternoon. I was also doing investigative reporting about the confusing status of sweepstakes businesses in Brunswick County and beyond.

This latest visit was to Winner’s World in Calabash, which for reasons not yet made clear, seems to be one of the last surviving sweepstakes institutions in the Seafood Capital—for now.