Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
WLOSers have been offering some rather dry fare this week. But Sheraldo finally spiced things up Tuesday night with a shout report about Playworld on Merrimon Avenue allegedly playing home to lots of illegal gambling action.
Sheraldo said 28 people were arrested in raids on Playworld and on homes around town. Police nabbed $100,000 in cash from the poker, dice and lottery games people were playing, Sheraldo said. He also explained the lottery game: people apparently buy lottery tickets, then watch Chicago’s WGN for the lottery numbers drawn on the air and those numbers are winners.
Back to Playworld for a minute: the game room-slash-pool hall remains open, but cops had to break a giant window to get in and serve warrants because the owner chained the door over the weekend and wouldn’t let anyone in, Sheraldo reported.
Also Tuesday, Cherub Charu delivered two extensive reports on the burial of Army pilot Mitch Carver, who was killed in Iraq when his helicopter was shot down a couple of weeks ago. Carver grew up in Buncombe County.
The military buried Carver in Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, so the reports were late. But Charu said she traveled with the family and had inside access to the proceedings. I couldn’t really see that her increased access brought us anything new – anyone who has visited Arlington knows the history of the place, knows the military history behind the unit that buries soldiers. As far as video is concerned, her photog brought back nice video of the cemetery, the 21-gun salute, the procession, etc., but nothing really new.
All that said, Charu’s package at 6 was well-done. She let the video and Carver’s family, friends and former teachers tell the story. She stayed out of the way. It was a fitting tribute. Charu’s story at 11 was a little more loaded with sentimentality, as she talked about Carver’s desire to be buried in Arlington. For Carver, “the call of Arlington was strong,” she told us. Carver had visited the cemetery a couple of times, but his parents “arranged for Mitch to go back to Arlington one last time,” she said in dramatic voice-over.
Finally, Jon “Punnyman” Le gave us a somewhat whimsical report about Jan. 24 reportedly being the most depressing day of the year. Le was apparently desperate for a story, so he found some egghead who had devised a weird formula showing that Jan. 24 was the worst day of the year because it’s cold, credit card bills are coming due and Christmas just a fading memory.
But Le took us out into the Carolina blue sky and sunshine of Ashvegas and Western North Carolina. He showed us people playing outside, the ducks swimming happily on a glassy pond.
Le took a weird turn, getting stuck on people who were born on Jan. 24. Of course, it turned out to be all of his personal comedy heroes: John Belushi and Neil Diamond and Mary Lou Retton and Yakov Smirnoff. Le told us that gold was discovered in California on this day; that the MacIntosh computer was introduced on this day; that beer in a can was first sold on this day.
So life really’s not all that bad. Not a bad little story. Am I getting soft? I need Jon Le to tell me that life is pretty good? Damn.
Spotted last week: Stan Pamfilis and famiily at Soup or Sandwich. “Shake Your Booty” or some other disco tune was playing and Stan tells his son, “That’s your mom’s favorite song.” And she nods and shimmies in her seat. Fun family!
