Mr. Bean gets new owner

Mr. Bean Coffee House on Jefferson Davis Highway will have new ownership Wednesday.
Kathleen Wright has sold the business, which she has operated for almost two-and-a-half years, to Barbara Dickinson.
"I'm just ready to do something else," said Wright.
Dickinson said she plans to keep the business the way it is for now, but may look into expanding in the future.
"I've very excited about it," said Dickinson Monday.
The coffee shop features a wide variety of coffee, fruit drinks, ice creams and other treats to drivers down the busy highway in Tramway.

Fighting on youtube

Earlier this year, we at the Herald ran a story about Lee County High School students posting staged fights on Youtube. Well, if you read my Thursday story, you'll know that you can now watch another kind of fighting on the web, also known as the Lee County Board of Commissioners meetings. Simply follow this link to watch the meetings:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22Lee+County+Government%22

In all fairness, the meetings are usually pretty tame, unless you count the occasional bickering between Linda Shook and Robert Reives. But they are also very important. Local government is probably the most important branch to you as a Lee County citizen in all of politics. Every action the commission takes has an effect on your life. You can't say that about Congress, the presidency or even the N.C. General Assembly.

So I implore you to watch the meetings. To be an informed electorate. To know where your money is going.

Other than that, I really don't have a lot to report right now, except that we at the Herald, especially me and Gordon Anderson, are very excited to have a third reporter coming on board soon. We can release very little right now except to say that she is very talented. Some even say she can write circles around us. Stay tuned for more.

I am anxiously awaiting a weekend bachelor party trip to the beach - the last hurrah for my best friend since Kindergarten before he takes the plunge - so my mind has been elsewhere this week. I have two days to talk him out of it.

Just kidding.

I'll just leave you with this. It's the funniest picture I've ever seen:

Notice the pickles on the bun and the eating helmet!!! If there is a restaurant in town that could create a burger so big it would require me to wear an eating helmet, it would definitely be worth a note in my business column.

Have a good weekend. I know I will.

Harry Potter

Five or six years ago I asked my then-nine year-old niece Kaylee what she wanted for Christmas from me. Being the cool uncle that I am, I expected her to ask for a new bike or the hot new toy of the year, or at least a cool Carolina shirt or basketball tickets since I was in college at the time. Instead, she responded "Harry Potter."
I didn't know who that was, but I figured it was an action figure or doll or something. I went to Wal-Mart and found out it was a huge book. I got past the confusion, though, resigned myself to the fact that my niece was a nerd, and bought the book.
But by the time Christmas rolled around, I understood a lot better. Kaylee was not a nerd. She was the norm. Harry Potter was a cultural phenomenon. In an age where kids have any information in the world available at the touch of a mouse, this nerdy little English kid was defying all logic and making it cool to read books again.
Kaylee is a teenager now and entering her freshman year of high school. She has always been a very bright girl, but I have to say that I think the Potter books made her love to read — and read actual thick books, nonetheless — a hobby which has so many benefits.
I have no doubt that she will go on to do whatever she wants to do in life, partly because of the gift me and a little English kid gave her.
Reading opens a child's mind to different ways to think and worlds they can't imagine otherwise. It teaches patience. It improves vocabulary, which is sure to help in the real world and the job market, and is beneficial in countless other ways.
I can't say that I love reading — well, books, that is. I have loved to read newspapers and magazines since I was three. But my hobby is golf, one that has very little practical applications beyond making girlfriends mad and shrinking my wallet.
And I had never and still haven't ever read a Harry Pottery book or seen one of the movies. Come to think of it, I've never even read a book as thick as a Harry Potter book, unless you count the countless, mind numbing textbooks I've suffered through over the years.
My generation didn't have Harry Potter. We had Teddy Ruxpin — a talking stuffed bear — and Nintendo. Not exactly brain-busters. And partially as a result, it is often said that we will be the first generation in American history to be less successful than our parents.
So please, go by the last Harry Potter book this weekend for your kids. Somebody has got to take care of us lazy Gen Xers when we are old, broke and playing Madden 2035.
And because I still don't read, somebody tell me whether he dies or not...actually, I'll probably just buy it for Kaylee and let her tell me.

Sanford boat stores expand south

While at the beach this weekend, I ran across two Sanford-related business tips. First off, while traveling from Holden Beach to Little River on N.C. Highway 17 to hit a casino boat — a trip that ended very badly for my wallet — I spotted the newly opened Choplin Marine 2, a boat store, in Ocean Isle.
Choplin Marine is based in Sanford just off Jefferson Davis Highway. Chris Mace, the Sanford store's sales manager, said Monday that Choplin had opened the second store several months ago to take advantage of the dramatic population and traffic increase along that stretch of the coast. It plans to sell mostly salt water crafts at the second store.
Mace said the location is also ideal for a service center, which the company plans to add in the near future.
The second tips is also related to the Sanford boat sales industry, which seems to be booming throughout the state even though the closest substantial body of water to the Brick City is at least 20 miles away. And I'm sure you've all noticed this before, but when traveling down N.C. Highway 211 I notice several billboards advertising Chatlee Marine. I also saw several advertisements for Chatlee on my last trip to The Streets of Southpoint in Durham. Just thought it was interesting and comforting to travel so far away and still see Sanford's home-grown businesses having a major impact around the state.