I put the copy of 'A Christmas Carol' that my grandfather had first read to me 60 years ago on my desk and I began to write. The result for better or for worse is the 'Christmas Spirits.' I plan to read it to my grandson.
The upheavals of adolescence silenced 'A Christmas Carol' for a few years. I became a firebrand atheist. Christmas - humbug! Too commercial! Then I became an agnostic. Christmas was a pro-forma affair basically a chore. Buy mother a book dad a new tie my brother and sister small gifts. Pretend thanks for the fountain pens and shirts I received.
A Christmas Carol is such a fool-proof story you can't louse it up.
I love the excess of Christmas. The shopping season that begins in September the bad pop star recordings of Christmas carols the decorations that don't know when to come down.
Christmas carols always brought tears to my eyes. I also cry at weddings. I should have cried at a couple of my own.
In the depth of the near depression that he faced when he came in Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress provided 'recovery funds' that literally kept our classrooms open. Two years ago these funds saved nearly 20 000 teacher and education jobs - just here in North Carolina.
Since my retirement I've spent a lot of time trying to help the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina. A society like this just can't afford an uneducated underclass of citizens.
South Carolinians are strong independently-minded people. At the end of the day they make their own decisions. And I respect them for that. And I welcome that. And I told him that from the very beginning.
It will be about which candidate which of the two candidates remaining is best suited to make a positive difference in the lives of North Carolina families and I submit to each of you tonight that I am that candidate and Elizabeth Dole is not.
We talked about politics constantly in my family growing up in North Carolina. There were always debates. Being of Greek background it's in our blood to drink coffee and talk politics.