Who's running?
By Gene Price
Published in News on February 2, 2004 2:01 PM
My credibility as a political prognosticator has been pretty well wiped out by results -- so far -- of the Democratic Party's gyrations to select a presidential nominee.
Dick Gephardt, a good man, was knocked out in the first round. Joe Lieberman, who must be among the best of the lot, manages to stay far back in the pack. And John Edwards, with his winning personality and positive, upbeat message, has scored well everywhere.
The field of good candidates fielded this year is a far cry from a short-lived dilemma preceding a Goldsboro election decades ago.
Weeks before the filing deadline, an overabundance of not overly impressive hopefuls had announced for mayor.
George Johnson, who covered city hall for the News-Argus in those days, received a call from what possibly was another political aspirant.
"Who," asked the caller, "do we have running for mayor?"
George silently reviewed the long list of already announced candidates, then responded:
"Nobody yet."
(In all fairness, the Goldsboro mayoral races historically have attracted some outstanding candidates -- as it eventually must have the year George received that call. And we always have had dedicated, outstanding mayors who loved their jobs and were loved by their constituents!)
Dr. Mike Gooden stopped me in a supermarket parking lot the other day. And, as always, he had some serious concerns. Mike is a loyal reader of the News-Argus and also can be a fine, constructive critic.
"Recently the paper made a reference to 'Canadian' geese," he frowned.
It should have been "Canada" geese.
Happily the mistake wasn't in my Outdoors column. I have been on guard about the "Canadian" goose business since Pete Kornegay, now a veteran fisheries coordinator with the Wildlife Commission, corrected me on that when he was still a student at Southern Wayne High School!
Dr. Gooden also suggested I remind our news staff that Santa's reindeer's name is "Donder" -- not "Donna" as it appeared in a December article.
The good doctor had an even more disturbing concern -- one he feels poses a grave threat to punctuation of the English language. He fears the "apostrophe" stands in danger of becoming extinct!
Why? Through an accelerated proliferation of misuse -- such as "it's," which is a contraction of "it is," for the possessive pronoun "its."
Be prepared for a crusade to save the apostrophe!