Yesterday's newspaper column, containing predictions for 2007, includes a guess that this will be my third most popular column of the year.

Headlines for 2007: You read ’em here first

by Edward Cone
News & Record
1-8-07

It was just an average Monday, except I wasn’t at work and there was football on TV and I was watching it because I had been slightly overserved the night before and the entire content of every newspaper I could find seemed to consist of lists and predictions. These were all indications that another new year had begun and that I needed to write a column of my own that listed my predictions for 2007, as required by Article II, Section 3 of the standard columnist contract.

My first prediction, made shortly after Boise State razzle-dazzled Oklahoma into submission in the Fiesta Bowl, was an easy one: The best football game of the year has already been played, and Boise State won it. Also, Wake Forest will not repeat as ACC champs, but we’ll all remain grateful for the nice ride they gave us this season.

In local news, bloggers will help break at least one major story in Greensboro. It might involve the disinterment of the hastily buried Project Homestead report, and Ben Holder, a.k.a. The Troublemaker, might be the guy wielding the shovel; his current work on city payments for the demolition of the Willow Oaks shopping center is worth reading, too.

Jerry Bledsoe’s epic Rhino Times series about David Wray and the Greensboro Police Department will not last longer than did Wray’s tenure in office, but it will come close; the saga will nonetheless conclude before the complete official story of the Wray fray is released; I will ask this paper to change the date and rerun my column from last January, the one urging the city to share more information on the Wray case and bring the matter to a timely end.

The mayoral race in Greensboro will be hotly contested for the first time in several years, whether or not Keith Holliday runs again. Nothing much will change, regardless of the outcome.

Greensboro’s new Center City Park will become hugely popular and easily justify the public funds used to maintain the privately funded project; some people will complain about it anyway. The International Civil Rights Center and Museum will announce an unexpected delay.

Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong will not become a professor of law at Duke. Former N.C. House speaker Jim Black will not become a professor of ethics anywhere.

The North Carolina Tar Heels will win the ACC basketball regular season but not the national championship, although I would like very much to be wrong about the second half of this prediction.

It will snow in March, and everyone will act surprised, even though it won’t be that surprising. It will be hot and humid in July, right on schedule, and people will devote an inordinate amount of time to discussing the heat and humidity.

An energized N.C. Democratic party will begin a very serious effort to capture the United States Senate seat currently held by Liddy Dole; despite speculation to the contrary, Dole will run for re-election.

Something will go right for George W. Bush. Anything. It’s just the law of averages or regression toward the mean. Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein will be more popular in death than he was in life.

I will write a handful of columns that involve hours of research and careful thought, but the one you are reading now will turn out to be my third-most popular effort of 2007, trailing only a recap of a family beach trip and an encomium to my dog. I will remember the predictions I got right and forget the rest of them.

And finally, a prognostication of which I am certain: This column will conclude with my sincere thanks to you for reading, and best wishes for a happy and healthy new year.

© News & Record 2007

Edward Cone (www.edcone.com, efcone@mindspring.com) writes a column for the News & Record most Sundays.