Obiter Dicta

Are Any of Us Safe Now?
In a couple of months, I am planning a business trip to Europe. I don't scare easy, but despite the fact that I'm an American...
CSA

News From Around the South, 4/14 to 4/21
NORTH CAROLINA: New N.C. bill would introduce AAPI history to school curriculum A new bill in the N.C. General Assembly is calling for Asian...

South’s Best Barbecue Joints
Each year in our South’s Best poll, we ask our readers to name their picks for the South’s Best barbecue joint in each state. The results have been fairly consistent in recent few years, with a familiar cast of old favorites tending to bubble to the top. There are always a few surprises in the mix, though, and the top picks for 2025 are quite reflective of the current state of barbecue in the...

Volunteer Archivists Decipher Thousands of Untold Stories from the American Revolution
In 1777, drunken British soldiers stormed into Sarah Martin’s home in Woodbridge, New Jersey and demanded that she cook them ham and eggs. Hostile...

Fayetteville Museum Aims to Right the Record on Civil War History
The N.C. History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation & Reconstruction will use local stories to tell “the truth with all its blemishes”—even...
Recent Articles
Are Any of Us Safe Now?
In a couple of months, I am planning a business trip to Europe. I don't scare easy, but despite the fact that I'm an American citizen and have committed no crime, I am worried about what might happen when I attempt to come home. Will Customs and Border Patrol agents...
News From Around the South, 4/14 to 4/21
NORTH CAROLINA: New N.C. bill would introduce AAPI history to school curriculum A new bill in the N.C. General Assembly is calling for Asian American and Pacific Islander history to be taught in public schools. House Bill 835 would launch a statewide K-12 curriculum...
Taking Easter Seriously
"That God, which ever lives and loves, One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves." — Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) When American colonists were oppressed by British monarchs, the word most frequently uttered in...
South’s Best Barbecue Joints
Each year in our South’s Best poll, we ask our readers to name their picks for the South’s Best barbecue joint in each state. The results have been fairly consistent in recent few years, with a familiar cast of old favorites tending to bubble to the top. There are...
Obama Speaks Out. Where is George W. Bush?
President Barack Obama finally did last week what so many of us have been waiting for him — and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — to do. He stood up and spoke out about the threat to our constitutional democracy posed by Donald Trump. There is a very nice tradition...