The mid-week update

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Lottery, Lottery, Lottery
Lottery tickets are on sale NOW, sheeple. Did you go out and buy? What did you win? Did you buy a $1, $2 or $5 ticket? Were there lines anywhere? Just curious, because I’m looking for that hot store where you can get the winners.

At long last, North Carolina has realized the joys of gambling. It’s about time. After driving to Georgia, then to S.C., then to Tennessee for my lottery tix, I can finally stay right here and give some child a chance at a mediocre education.

Remember: you can’t win if you don’t play. And when the gravy train arrives, everybody rides.

We made a weak attempt at posting at the locations where people could buy lottery tickets in Western North Carolina, but the list wasn’t formatted correctly, so I took it down. Never fear, my pretties – I’ll repost it at some point today.

Punnyman and porn
What was up with Jon “Punnyman” Le and his weird report about a local company being featured in Penthouse magazine. The Blue Ridge Soap Shed makes soap with names like “Dirty Old Man Soap” and somehow they got written up in Penthouse.

So there’s Le – and note that he’s reporting this like a real news story, not one of those stupid “Absolute-Le” pieces – talking to the soap guy, who has his face buried in the crotch of the porn magazine.

It was just weird and smarmy. Le, am I supposed to go buy the soap or the Penthouse? By the way, I clicked over to the Penthouse web site to see if I could just click on the article, because men’s magazines are all about the articles right?, and I couldn’t find the link. I did, however, get sucked in by Pet of the Month Krista, who somehow convinced me to sign up for a free 30-day trial of an online subscription…

Nothing changes on The Block
Holly Headache had a weak report about new development proposals on The Block, the historic African-American business district in Ashvegas.

Every year or so, there’s a new plan to redevelop The Block. This has been going on for more than a decade. It’s just like the Ashvegas Civic Center. Talk, talk, talk. No action.

Holly’s report was weak because she only got one side of the story. How about talking to the Eagle-Market Corp., Holly?

Scenic Mobile Home Park going awway – or not?
In another terrible report, WLOSers tell us that residents of the Scenic Mobile Home Park on Tunnel Road are all worried about the impending sale of the mobile home park. They think they’ll be forced out, like people in the trailer park on Smoky Park Highway where the new WallyWorld is going.

Only at the end of the report, the trailer park owner says nobody is going anywhere – the trailer park is staying a trailer park, and the residents have been told that repeatedly.

So why is this a story???

News from 10 feet away
In the “news from 10 feet away” category of lazy reporting, WLOSers the other day did a live shot about the lottery from the convenience store right outside their studio. Lame, people. Lame.

Luxury condos
That giant condo building on Battery Park is just about complete and WLOSers took a quick tour. Pretty fancy. And great views from the penthouse. Too bad there’s going to be nothing else left on Battery Park Ave – Old Europe is moving, Amore has already moved and that little shop selling Irish goodies has closed.