For Andy Offutt Irwin, telling stories is a way of life. His stories will keep you on the edge of your seat, mesmerized, waiting for the next zany character, voice or noise coming from this comedian, storyteller and musician.
A native of Covington, Ga., Irwin started out in comedy and added music and storytelling because he had a lot more to say. He’s always on the go, performing at festivals, theaters and schools throughout the United States.
With his stories for kids of all ages (and their parents), Irwin has been a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tenn., and is an award-winning recording artist with five titles.
Bring the whole family to Rowan Public Library’s Stanback Room on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. for a free and hilarious night of stories with Irwin.
Friday morning, Irwin will be the featured teller and join 24 other storytellers as part of the ninth annual Stories by the Millstream Festival for second-grade students of Rowan County, sponsored by the Friends of Rowan Public Library, Rowan County Parks and Recreation and Rowan-Salisbury School System.
For information call the library at 704-216-7728.Jean Anderson on ‘Bookwatch’
Jean Anderson shares her latest, “A Love Affair with Southern Cooking” on UNC-TV’s “North Carolina Bookwatch,” Friday at 9:30 p.m.with an encore episode Sunday, Sept. 7, at 5 p.m.
Part culinary love letter and part cookbook, “A Love Affair with Southern Cooking” takes the reader “back-roading” as Anderson shares more than 200 of the best Southern recipes she has collected ó the classic, the contemporary, the homespun and the haute.
She also introduces the characters she’s met along the way, the cranky as well as the comical, and dishes up plenty of chatty tales, bits of folklore, and fascinating back stories about Southern cooks and Southern cooking.
For additional information about series guests and airdates, plus links to the Bookwatch blog and online book club, visit: www.unctv.org/ ncbookwatch.
You can still catch Bernie Harberts on “Bookwatch” today at 5. Harberts, author of “Too Proud to Ride a Cow” and “Woody and Maggie Walk Across America” and a sometime visitor to Salisbury, rode a mule (Woody) and horse (Maggie) from Oriental, N.C., to San Diego, Calif. “Too Proud to Ride a Cow,” is the account of his 13-month, 3,500-mile voyage.
Harberts is now traveling from Canada to Mexico in a mule wagon, exploring the fossil remains of the Western Interior Seaway, the shallow inland sea that flooded the Great Plains 75 million years ago.
A dulcimer player and graduate of N.C. State University, Harberts found this of little use in his voyaging. When he’s not living in a sailboat, tipi or mule wagon, he resides in Southern Pines.