Welcome to the twenty-third weekly installment of Tar Heel Tavern, a Carnival of North Carolina bloggers. My apologies for getting this up a bit late; it’s been a hectic weekend with a few unplanned activities (all enjoyable), but that’s another post for another day.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Getting Local.

It’s been hot in NC for the past few weeks. Erin at Poetic Acceptance gives us a few sultry stanzas on the Coming of Summer, while Val at Worldwright is grateful for the recent thunderstorms which have provided much-needed relief.

Only one person talking about the world of sport this week: Wade Minter at The Luney Bin is excited about the return of the NHL and, of course, our Carolina Hurricanes.

A fire broke out recently at the legendary Cat’s Cradle, and Brian of Geneffects was there to give us his eyewitness account.

George at Dirty Greek observes how North Carolina is increasingly recognizing biofuels, which provides a nice little segue into…

Getting Personal.

Lots of autobiography being thrown around this corner of the Tavern.

Jane from Pratie Place tells us a fascinating story involving Blueberries, Hot Sauce, Yoga, and deep-fat-fried Twinkies (from blueberries to the promise of biofuels).

Susan at Easy Bake Coven1 recalls a recent encounter with her daughter.

Jennifer at Open Book lives in NC now, but tells us about how she came to be proud of her birthplace.

Bora² at Science and Politics tells us about his long and circuitous career path in How To Become a Biologist.

Greg Cohoon aka Dr. Mellow got to be the good Samaritan this week.

From halfway around the world, Ron Hudson at 2sides2ron writes to us en route to Madrid3.

Getting Visual.

Presumably brought to you by the letter “M”:

A couple of beautiful photographs this week. Mandie of It’s a Pixelated Life… brings us a nice batch of red sunflowers.

Marie of Blue Ridge Blog shares the Best Photo I’ve Ever Seen Featuring Water Flying off of a Wet Golden Retriever.

Getting Political.

This portion of the carnival reminds me of how red the state I am in really is; that said, I enjoyed reading the post by Confederate Yankee on sucide bomber tactics as a justification for a police force’s decision to employ a shoot-to-kill policy when dealing with a suspected bomber.

Charlotte’s Steven Burr at Nothing Could be Finer points out some double standards in the voter registration process which seem to favor Democrats in local races.

Joe Guarino points out when it comes to the well-being of children, North Carolina ranks 40th in the nation despite having a tax burden that is on par with the other states surveyed

Getting Away With It (everything else)

And here we are at the Table of Miscellany, a place for loose ends that didn’t fit in a neat category.

From Laurie of ...slowly she turned, a parable illustrating what happens to people who try to pass off any old legume as a true butterbean.

Ogre at Ogre’s Politics and Views finds a link to the testimony of a former student of the Center for Purposeful Living.

Steven at ChristWeb writes about Islam’s Internal Struggle.

Craig at Newmark’s Door shares a quote on war.

Billy the Blogging Poet pens a paean to imagination (perhaps inspired by the Temptations’ similarly-named song).

Finally, Alex at The Spoken Alexandria Project narrates a NIMH brochure about Men and Depression.

Thank you to all who participated; I hope I fared well in being your host. Next week’s Tavern will be hosted by Anonymoses.

¹ Best. Blog. Name. Ever.

² I hope that you will accept my apology, Mr. Zivkovic, for calling you “Boris” in my invitation e-mail.

³ For those of you who care: I’m giving Ron a pass for being a day late because he’s been travelling and because he was one of the first responses I got with a promise to participate. Plus, I’m the host, so there.