Highway autopilot

Cato Institute Senior Fellow Randal O'Toole doesn't like the idea of government-owned train systems, but Talkers couldn't help but note that he's okay with government-mandated "driverless" cars.

Word power

Talkers are big fans of facebook. Sure, the social mega-medium can be a seemingly endless loop of imbecilic ephemera. But sometimes, we come across posts whose power is amplified by their brevity.

It is said that good fences make good neighbors. But in this case, that would be akin to the Chinese and Mongols discussing the finer points of pillaging at the Great Wall of China or East and West Germans swapping wienerschnitzel recipes at the Berlin Wall.

Although nobody is talking about it publicly, some local officials considering the fate of the local 911 police dispatch system, located at the Cornelius Police Department, are no doubt thinking about the most recent, highly visible snafu at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's dispatch center.

Thought provoking

One thing Talkers know is that, when a publication has a provocative cover, it usually gets some kind of emotional response. And so it has been in recent weeks that the covers of this newspaper have brought about some reader reaction. And that's good.

Out of the woods

Talkers hear that other talkers around the area are talking about the choice of Davidson Mayor John Woods as this newspaper's "Citizen of the Year" for 2011. One particularly well-known businessman actually took the time, on New Year's Eve, to engage in a text message exchange that began "John Woods Citizen of the Year? Are you smoking hooch?"

Idiot is as idiot does

In the enigmatic land known as Iredell County, New South progressiveness and Old South sensibilities separate themselves as surely as melted butter on congealed grits.

Highs and Lowe's

Talkers have always been impressed with Lowe's. The home improvement giant headquartered in Mooresville is an outstanding corporate citizen and a contributor to nearly all things beneficial to residents of the Lake Norman community. But as an industry leader, Lowe's is also a big target for those eager to promote their own agenda.

Talkers were shocked! How could this happen? When did this happen? And where were we when it happened?

But there it was, in the Charlotte Observer's weekly Lake Norman News.

"New tower puzzles commuters," the headline screamed.

As it turns out, some Swiss company called ABB built a 430-foot concrete silo right under our noses in Huntersville. Talkers are just grateful that Charlotteans like Coy Powell were alert enough to notice and contact the Lake Norman News about the sudden appearance of the tower.

"Who would think of Huntersville as having any type of skyline, much less one that can be seen from I-77...?" Powell wrote in an e-mail to the News.

Gosh, Talkers sure never would have thought about it. Thank goodness them Queen City folks is so accustomed to lookin' up at them big ol' skyscrapers.

Which got Talkers to thinking, what's next in Huntersville? A kids' museum? A new police station?

Next thing you know, they'll be talking about something really crazy, like a commuter rail and freight line running through town.

Talkers just hope those eagle-eye Charlotte commuters will stay on the job, rooting out those hidden stories that us local rubes have missed.

E-mailgate exposed

Sometimes what you don't report defines you as a professional news outlet as much as what you do report. Talkers note that another publication in the area recently spilled the beans about the party responsible for the Bill Russell e-mail hacking brouhaha of a few months ago. Through its own investigation into the matter, this newspaper knew more than six weeks ago that it was former Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce staffer Janet Rollins, who has since been let go by the Chamber.