Mike & Me: In print and online.

Don't let this little dusting of white snow keep you from grabbing a copy of today's News and Record. Both Mike and I co-authored the cover story wherein we hit up the trio of theaters here in Greensboro, each with the word 'Grande' or 'Grand' in their names to shed light on the confusion, and rank them from least to greatest.

How did Greensboro wind up with three movie theaters named the Grand(e)? Even after all the research that Mike and I did, it's still a mystery. The Carousel Grande opened first. However, a rep for Consolidated Theatres says they called dibs on the name the Carousel ever opened.

Making the story itself was a lot of fun. We visit all of the theaters fairly often anyways, so it was really more of an issue of slowing down, paying attention to concession stands (something we usually bypass for health reasons, lest both of us wanted to gain 100 pounds in a year), and taking lots of notes. The only difficult part was deciding what to cut from our rough draft. Perhaps in a week or two, I will post a 'Director's Cut' so you can read the bonus 600 extra words or so that wound up on the floor.

We were photographed, too, which meant Mike had to smile - something he doesn't do very often, except when he's laughing at something wildly inappropriate. Then, in the same day, Mike and I had to head down to the News and Record offices to shoot a supplemental 'Popcorn Taste Test' video. You can view that here, but be warned, the bright studio lights made me want to squint my eyes. So in the fight to keep my eyelids opened, I'm making sort of a serious face the entire time. Michael McQueen directed the video, and did a great job of taking what few ideas we brought to the table and enhancing them through his own creativity and editing prowess.