Hello! This week, I’m trying out a slightly new format, so just roll with me.

The story’s not really all that old, but it’s time to revisit the conditions that led to this quote uttered by a man 25 years ago on September 11, 2001: “As bad as what happened today in New York, I just don't think it'll have the effect on America that the death of Dale Earnhardt did.” It’s a story about absurdity, yes, but also about coping.

Also, I was unaware until this week that one of the men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks went to college in North Carolina and earned a degree from A&T in 1986. He is one of several others who are still awaiting trial.

Last thing about September 11th. My son learned about the attacks in school, but I haven’t really tried to explain to him how that day led to, well, the background music that defines our current existence (although this 25-year-old Onion article “for kids” was remarkably clear-eyed on the conditions that led to the attacks). Instead, talking about it feels like it’s pointing out a bunch of data points. Some of my New York expat neighbors up the street used to set up a 9/11 display in their front yard, which consisted of a lot of American flags and plywood replicas of the twin towers. My town, Oak Ridge, just got an actual piece of steel from the south tower and put it on display at the park. There have been so many moments of silence and stories of victims and survivors that were retold last week.

I’ve remembered a lot of stuff as small flashbacks from that day. I found out what was going on when I walked into a 9 a.m. film audio course at Ohio University taught by John Butler, who was briefly Mr. Rogers’s sound guy. He had NPR on, and I thought it was a trick—some War of the Worlds-style demonstration of the power of audio—until we all kept listening in silence and gradually realized that it was real. I remember lying in bed that night, thinking how bizarre it was that there were no planes in the sky anywhere in the entire country. I remember one of my friends driving to New York to help, even though he really didn’t know where to go or what he could contribute.

Since I’ve been under the weather for a few days, I spent some time on my couch watching the original NBC Today Show broadcast from the morning of September 11, 2001. I realize that it might be triggering, but it was a jarring and clarifying way to see the first draft of history being written on the fly, especially with the benefit of 25 years of hindsight.

If there’s any point I’m making, it’s probably that there are few pivot points in history that neatly reveal themselves as single events, and this was one. It almost feels cliche to state the startlingly obvious thing: The entire country, maybe for the last time, watched a terrible thing unfold on live television, and everyone, even the kids who weren’t even born, are still dealing with the trauma. It’s not history. It’s still here.

Maximum Overdrive! I have written about this movie before because it’s completely batshit, but that was from an outsider’s perspective. Cliff Bumgardner talked to people involved in making the actual movie, who described how batshit it was behind the scenes as well:

Anyhow, this was a joint story between WUNC’s The Broadside and The Assembly to celebrate the movie’s 40th (!) anniversary. It’s great. Read it, then watch the movie. It’s all summed up nicely by a grip named Jock Brandis: “Maximum Overdrive may have been the most chaotic movie I ever worked on, and considering I’m a veteran of a movie called Death Bed: The Bed That Eats People…that’s saying something.”

The Chuck E. Cheese in Pineville is one of only five left in the country that still has its original, creepy, animatronic band, WBTV reports. It’s so old that it’s hard to find replacement parts for the band members when they break down. Drink in the experience:

According to reader James Gilbert, Charlotte could have had itself its own soulless cookie-cutter multi-use stadium! The Three Rivers of the South! I, for one, would like to point out that this looks exactly like something you’d see on display to this day in Tomorrowland. BEHOLD, THE CHARLOTTE OF THE FUTURE:

This guy named Phil Edwards, who says he’s all about “researching and reporting on rabbit holes” (wait), did a whole video about how teal became the color of the ‘90s. SPOILER ALERT: Alexander Julian’s original Charlotte Hornets jerseys did the trick:

A side note: In 2013 while I was working on a WCNC-TV story about the Charlotte Hornets, I took the file footage of the original uniform unveiling and uploaded it to YouTube, and that clip now shows up in Phil’s post and in other places around the internet. Good people, I’m here to serve.

The cardinal is North Carolina’s state bird. That’s pretty basic. But I did not know that there was such a thing as a Thicc Cardinal, who goes by Gary.

I was on WCNC’s Charlotte Today with Colleen Odegaard and Eugene Robinson last week to talk about some Panthers-related Rabbit Holes. You can watch the whole clip here. I’ve known Colleen for more than 20 years—my first job in North Carolina was working the overnight shift to produce the morning TV show she anchored—and yes, she’s lovely and terrific.

Before I went, I stopped in at Pressley Park Restaurant, which sits in an industrial park and was a place where I was a regular during my time in Charlotte. It looks exactly the same inside, from the signs touting the endorsements from Creative Loafing and Jim Celania on walls, to the posters of the 1990 Charlotte Hornets above a booth. The new owner says the old owner still owns the building. The food is still fairly cheap, fairly fast, and hearty.

But! As I was wrapping up, a woman came out and put a whole 24-pack of tiny bottles of flavored alcohol-free Heineken on a table with a handwritten sign that said “Free.” I had to go before I could ask why. I just shoved two into my pockets and left. Sometimes, the universe provides.