Thursday, May 21, 2009

So Proud to be a North Carolinian

As it happens, I am flying back to the US tomorrow morning. Won't be back to Germany until Thursday morning. I will be visiting the lovely Ms. Mungowitz, and we will celebrate (a bit early) our 23rd wedding anniversary. We have reservations at Shell Island, up on the northern end of Wrightsville Beach. Notice it really is on the northern tip. Above it, only a long sandbar and some birds. How quiet and romantic!

In anticipation of going back to NC, I did look at the paper a bit on-line. And this article....well, just read it. These are my people, folks.

UPDATE: I missed this at first. One of the commenters on the article said, "This is unbelievable, but it is so sweet..This is the first time i have ever heard about a love story like this...well, possibly love conquers all." Um....ma'am.... SHE....SHOT....HIM!

6 comments:

Robert S. Porter said...

That is such an old Photo of the hotel. I stayed there with family back in '99 or so and then, like now, the hotel is on the verge of falling into the ocean which, as it would happen, has a nice rip current.

That said, I enjoyed my stay. Have fun and congrats!

Anonymous said...

What Mr. Porter said:

Back in the day (~25 years ago, when the resort opened,) there used to be about a mile of sand between the hotel and the inlet seperating Shell Island and Figure Eight. If you take a look at the arial shot Mr. Porter took, those little squiggles in the upper-right of the photo are sandbags.

Seems the Shell Island condo-owners association are hell-bent on keeping their property, even if it means destroying the beach. The ocean really doesn't give a rats nose about zoning. That it did not dawn on the homeowners in the northern part of Wrightsville is called 'Shell Island' (note there are no causeways or bridges when leaving the rest of WV) when they bought their properties is no excuse for them to lobby for the Corps of Engineers to turn the gem of the east coast into the Jersey shore.

Shell Island is a principle reason why I could never identify with the Libertarian Party (despite voting for you in the last election.) The comments section of the N&O is a principle reason why I could never identify with conservatism. God, what idiots.

That said, nothing beats the North Carolina coast. Going to be in Brunswick County this weekend, myself. Let's hope for some good weather.

Anonymous said...

I'm missing something, I think.

Aren't you arguing that the state, and the Army Corps, should NOT have "nourished" the beach (their word, nourished) at taxpayer expense? That IS the Libertarian position.

And while the picture is old, it is once again accurate. It is 2 tenths of a mile from the entrance to the hotel to the water, at low tide. Millions and millions of taxpayer dollars for the benefit of a tiny few, at a private beach with essentially no public access.

El General said...

Next time you're going to stay at Shell Island let me know. My uncle owns two places in the building and i'm sure we could get you in there for less than regular price. 100% serious

Mark said...

Whoa partner. These is yo' peeps also.

http://www.liberalorder.com/2009/05/red-house-furniture.html

Anonymous said...

"Aren't you arguing that the state, and the Army Corps, should NOT have "nourished" the beach (their word, nourished) at taxpayer expense? That IS the Libertarian position."

No, I am not referring to the Corps of Engineers replenishment. I'm talking about the libertarian ethos of 'Screw you, I own this beach front palace, and if I want to build a wall around it to keep out the forces of mother-nature (and undermine the strand for other property owners for miles on either side) I can and will.' See also Shell Island Resort Hotel versus the forces of mother nature.

One reason North Carolina is a gem compared to most other eastern states is the state government has done a great job of restricting the kinds of stupid edifices property owners can build that accelerate beach front-corrosion.

Decades ago, I had many spirited discussion with a friend whose family business was jetty and sea wall installation in Florida. He took a coincidentally conservative/libertarian property-rights view about beach access and modification.

Beach replenishment is idiotic, expensive, but temporary. Sea walls and jetties are more idiotic, slightly cheaper, but are not temporary.