.....Advertisement.....
.....Advertisement.....

Features

  •
    'Margaret, Pirate Queen'...

    After several years in the making, “Margaret, Pirate Queen” is ready to set sail.

    Brunswick County resident Marsha Tennant, who along with her students wrote the illustrated book based on the pirate adventures of her late, great dog, Margaret, is thrilled the book once targeted for publication by Scholastic has finally been released by a new publisher.

  •
    Reelin' 'em in

    In Brunswick County, it’s a no-brainer: Fresh fish is better, and locally caught is best.

    That’s the basis of Brunswick Catch, a group of commercial fishermen, seafood dealers and restaurant owners spawned two years ago to promote locally harvested seafood.

  •
    BLT to bring ‘Annie’ to Odell...

    BOLIVIA—The enthusiasm level in the room gets higher every time another young cast member in “Annie” enters the rehearsal space at Brunswick Community College.

    The young girls portraying the orphans were laughing, joking and horsing around before a recent rehearsal, but once the director told them to start, they became a professional, polished theater cast.

  •
    It's show time: Cool fun and...

    Looking for a cool place to enjoy a hot movie this summer?

    Coastal Stadium 10 at 5200 Bridgers Road in Shallotte has just the tickets.

    The air-conditioned movie theater offers daily show times of the latest 2D and 3D movies.

    The Kids Summer Series continues for the next three weeks, with $1 movies for ages 1 to 100 at 10 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. “Night at the Museum 2” is the featured flick this Thursday.

  • Small Tails: New column will focus...

    Everybody thinks they want to be a vet—until they think about.

    I didn’t so much think about becoming a vet, I just was. Some say it’s a “passion” while others call it “pathology.” Either way, working and living with animals is all I’ve known since I was “knee-high to a grasshopper” as we used to say in South Georgia.

    Sure, it’s hard to become a vet and even harder to be one, but it’s the only thing I’ve ever seen myself doing.

  •
    Beauty permeates along historic...

    “A canopy of moss-draped trees leading to the Intracoastal Waterway” is one way to define Gause Landing.

    Or how about “George Washington slept here”? Or “Hurricane Hazel hit here”?

    Jackie Stanley Varnam is among locals who grew up in the area just west of the waterway and south of Ocean Isle Beach, on Hale Beach Road running parallel to Gause Landing Road.

  •
    Seafood Capital celebrates legacy...

      CALABASH—Diners lining up in the Seafood Capital during a busy summer suppertime can see the good-natured debate and choices live on when it comes to eating Calabash-style.

    “This is it!” proclaims a sign and arrow pointing out Beck’s Restaurant near the corner of Beach Drive and River Road.

  • 'The Music Man' plays...

    Fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill has hit River City, Iowa—and Wilmington—looking to con the townspeople into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys’ band.

    Opera House Theatre Company is presenting its third and final week of “The Music Man” this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 23-25, on the main stage at Thalian Hall in Wilmington.

    Based on Meredith Willson’s classic production, this local rendition plays at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday with a 3 p.m. matinee Sunday.

  • One Titan, two Olympians gather

     Look in the sky. Is it a plane, a UFO or leftover fireworks from earlier this month? 

    If the time is just after sunset and you are looking west, it is the goddess of beauty, the god of war, and the god of agriculture.

    Huh? They are normally enemies, a strange trio to be gathering in a small group. The group is three planets, which are the namesakes of these gods and goddess. From brightest to dimmest the list reads: Venus, Saturn and Mars. To view, look west and up at 9 o’clock.

  •
    St. Brendan to dedicate new...

    After three years of construction, St. Brendan Catholic Church on Ocean Highway in Shallotte will officially move into its new sanctuary starting with Sunday Mass at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

    That afternoon, at 2 p.m., the congregation and staff will dedicate the new 9,000 square-foot building, with seating for 1,100 people, with a special ceremony including a speech from Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Raleigh.

  •
    Hole in one?

    Grady Eyler, 3, of Haymarket, Va., teed off at River Country Miniature Golf on Ocean Isle Beach on a recent summer day. It was the family’s first stay on the beach, but Grady’s mother said it wouldn’t be the last.

  •
    Bowling, laser tag, cosmic golf...

    Summer fun awaits at Shallotte’s own celestial venue for convivial pursuits.

    Planet Fun, at 349 Whiteville Road, is designed for fun-seekers of all ages.

    Highlights in the 50,000-square-foot entertainment center, beside Lowe’s Home Improvement, include the 32-lane constellation bowling alley, four lanes of mini bowling, a two-story laser tag arena, nine-hole black-light miniature golf, a soft indoor playground, arcade, party rooms, concession stand, pro shop and a restaurant, the Starz Grille.

  •
    Churches undergo renovations,...

    Two Shallotte churches have “topped” off their renovations with brand new steeples in recent days. Members have been working to expand and rebuild to serve their growing populations.

    At Unity Worship Center, a small church with a membership of about 50 on Holden Beach Road, congregant Bobby Batson made a steeple just for the church. On Monday, he and other supporters placed it atop the 100-year-old building as church members and the Rev. Tom Stephenson looked on and cheered.

  • Where is the center of the Milky...

    Where is the center of the Milky Way? If you answered right in the middle that would be correct and funny, however, I was thinking about the location of the center as judged by the stars.
    What direction in the sky should you look during a humid summer night to be looking toward the center?
    To find it, all you have to do is find an archer and a scorpion, and look in between them, and you are staring at the center of the Milky Way. That sounds easy enough to accomplish.

  • Koletar’s latest book on shelves...

    Winding River resident Joe Koletar’s third book targeted to businesses, “Rethinking Risk: How Companies Sabotage Themselves and What They Must Do Differently,” will be available for purchase this week.

    During his career as a fraud investigator, Koletar wrote extensively about fraud in various professional journals, leading to another career for the now semi-retired expert.

    “I started writing an article for a professional journal. I got carried away,” he recalled.

  • Resorts, inns make website’s top...

    Clayton Bartizal, business development manager at resortandlodges.com, said recently various teams of writers and editors write “top 10” articles once or twice each month based on social media reviews, price ranges, the size of the units and how resorts meet customers’ needs.

    “We get a lot of [website] traffic from that,” Bartizal said. “It’s a lot of great free traffic our partners get.”

    While many of the sites chosen are advertising partners with resortandlodges, many are not, he said.

     

  •
    Formerly an FBI and fraud...

    From chasing bank robbers to poring over Swiss bank records to find fraud, Joe Koletar’s career has spanned more than 40 years, numerous countries and countless adventures.

    After graduating college, he served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Special Security Group. From there, he was recruited into the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he got his start investigating bank robberies.

  •
    Ocean Isle’s The Winds named state’...

    Ocean Isle Beach—Even as an unusual early-summer heat wave sets in, guests and employees at The Winds Resort Beach Club don’t mind at all—as long as they can hang out at the pool, enjoy drinks at the tiki bar and walk onto the strand whenever the mood strikes.

  •
    Calabash Seafood Hut named ‘best’...

    Coastal Living Magazine has picked Calabash Seafood Hut as having the best seafood on the East Coast in this month’s magazine.

    “I think the long lines out on the benches speak for itself,” Calabash Mayor Anthony Clemmons said. “It’s the hottest little spot in Calabash.”

    Calabash Seafood Hut is a small restaurant—it can only seat about 65 people in the dining area—but that has not stopped customers from waiting outside.

  •
    Glenda Ansley and Teen Court: Crime...

    BOLIVIA—For every defendant who goes through Teen Court, one less defendant goes through Brunswick County’s criminal justice system—alleviating an over-burdened justice system.

    Teen Court is funded through state grants, not county funded, so it saves Brunswick County taxpayer money, Teen Court Director Glenda Ansley said.

    But of all the ways Teen Court benefits the court system and the taxpayers, Ansley said it benefits the participants—defendants and volunteers—the most.