Carolina Alumni Review - March/April 2010

Children are taught not to tease others. Adults are sermonized on the value of a kind word. All the same, swift criticism and idle judgments easily thread their way into daily conversation. Why? That conundrum led Susan Taylor Block ’ 73 to examine the phenomenon of gossip.

“It began when I got involved with
women in my neighborhood,” Block says.
“We walk for about an hour every day. We
talk about all sorts of things, but we try not
to get into toxic gossip. It is fun to know
what’s going on, but where is the line?”
The Wilmington native, who got her
start writing light verse, stumbled on a sub-
ject where she could mix her nose for his-
tory and her sense of humor. The result is

How to Gossip Nicely: A Southerner Ponders
the Grapevine, a short meditation on the
decorum for proper gossiping. Like any
good guide to etiquette, the book focuses
on situations where appropriate curiosity
crosses into indiscretion. She examines those
moments when even the most trustworthy
confidante finds himself or herself passing on
sworn secrets to those special secondary confi-
dantes.

HOW TO
A Guidebook for (Proper) Gossips

Susan Taylor Block ’ 73, center, strolls with walking partners Jeff Newell and Betty Rusher, who chat about proper subjects on their frequent outings.

MATT LETSON

Block insists that propriety doesn’t
mean total gossip abstinence. “After all,
it is only natural to want to know about
things in which friends, neighbors, rela-
tives, political candidates and even a
celebrity or two are involved,” she says.
“A reformed gossip can still stay con-
nected, thus keeping up with what is
going on around them — the good, the
funny, the eccentric and the unexpect-
ed.”
Block’s reflections on the gossip
grapevine are inspired by visits to her
grandparents’ vineyard: “Looking up
through the grapes looks like gossip,

random in the way it travels.” Block also
includes a set of recipes using musca-
dine grapes written by one of her walk-
ing-and-talking partners, Betty Baird
Rusher. And there are illustrations by
her niece, A.B. Moore, because, Block
quips, “Southerners like to use relatives
because we know them and have so many.”

— Susan Simone

ENVIRONMENT
Asking What It Means to Be Green
Her focus on environmental issues made
Bryant a co-winner of the N.C. Sustainable
Energy Association’s 2009 Legislators of the
Year Award, along with Wake County Sen.
Josh Stein. Bryant won the association’s
admiration in her role as chair of the House

Angela Bryant ’ 73 has supported the
environmental movement since her student
days at Carolina, but more recently, she has
been posing some hard questions: “How do
we make this green economy relevant to
poor people, rural people, small-town peo-
ple?”
Bryant, who also earned a law degree from
UNC in 1976 and has served on the GAA
Board of Directors, asks those questions from
her perspective as state representative for
Halifax and Nash counties in eastern North
Carolina.

COURTESY OF REP. ANGELA BRYANT ’ 73

“The cost, the terminology, the leisure time and the discretionary time required to do what we need to do to live environmentally friendly — that’s just not available for many people,” Bryant says. “We see a call to the future with all these smart appliances that can regulate themselves, but I’ve got people who don’t even have central heat. Smart thermostats won’t help them.”

N.C. Rep. Angela Bryant ’ 73 says supporters of environmentally friendly practices should ensure that “poor people, rural people, small-town people” have the resources to share in the benefits of a green economy.

Energy and Energy Efficiency Committee and, in particular, her sponsorship and shepherding of H1481-Energy to Commerce, a bill that consolidates all energy functions in one program under the secretary for energy.

“I wanted to be sure I had something that was important to my district,” Bryant says about being chair of the energy committee. “That’s the energy-efficiency portion — I knew there would be federal funding. I wanted to be sure that was done well and reached the rural and poor and small-town areas.”