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They call it their “marital home,” and now Birkhall, on the edge of the 50,000-acre Balmoral estate, has become King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s official destination for post-Christmas relaxation. The cream-colored lodge in the Scottish Highlands is their most private residence. They cherish Birkhall for its old-fashioned charm and complete seclusion. Their decision to start the New Year there breaks a tradition set by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who went to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk every year after her father died on February 6, 1952.

King Charles was due to attend the Easter Matins service today, where he plans to sit slightly apart from others at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, for the sake of his health. The King is still taking his recovery steadily, although he has been increasingly resuming duties. This will be his first official public appearance, since his diagnosis. A palace source told The Telegraph it’s a “sign of things heading in the right direction”.

This week’s guest article is written by Monk, a native of North Carolina and co-founder of the Barbecue Bros blog. Along with his friends and fellow Barbecue Bros Speedy and Rudy, Monk has traveled around eating, rating, ranking, and reviewing barbecue joints since 2012. If you would like to write a guest article for The Smoke Sheet, please get in touch. From the moment I first tried Palmira Barbecue at the former Port of Call food hall in Charleston in 2022, I knew pitmaster Hector Garate and Palmira were destined for bigger things than simply being one stall in a small-ish food hall (which has since closed.

You probably remember the story: five children win a lifetime supply of chocolate and a tour of Willy Wonka's factory. The hero, Charlie Bucket, is kind-hearted and generous, and the others...well, Augustus Gloop is a glutton, Veruca Salt is spoiled, self-obsessed Violet Beauregarde is a gum-chewing fanatic, and Mike Teavee—Mike is somewhat rude and maybe likes to watch too much TV. The novel is infused with sympathy and admiration for Charlie, loathing of the others, and approval of each child's fate—horrible bodily transformation for everyone, except Charlie, who receives the entire factory as a parting gift.

It’s time for Fútbol Friday, The Charlotte Ledger’s weekly newsletter getting you up to speed on Charlotte FC, the city’s new pro soccer team. ➡️ Need to sign up for Fútbol Friday and other Charlotte-focused email newsletters from The Charlotte Ledger? You can do that here. ➡️ Ledger subscribers can add or drop individual newsletters on their “My Account” page. Charlotte FC celebrating goals like Brandt Bronico’s on Wednesday night and playing the game — together.

The following article appeared in the April 12, 2024, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here. Cell phone location data shows a visitor to Jeffrey Epstein’s island came from the Charlotte areaHow’s this for enhancing Charlotte’s status as a “world-class city”? ncG1vNJzZmibmJa%2FrbvTrZylnZScsrN60q6ZrKyRmLhvr86mZqlnk52us7jOraueZZyeu6yxw2arqGWamrOnvsSyZJ6oo6myqrrS

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, May 17, 2022 - Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound, one of the most beloved businesses in town, has posted on Facebook and on a sign next to the restaurant, that this will be its final season. “It is with heavy hearts we announce that 2022 will be our final season for Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound. We will be here through our normal schedule, (Memorial Day Weekend, through October 31), but as it stands now, we have been placed in an impossible situation with insurmountable odds.

I am so excited to announce that my biography on Charmian Kittredge London has just been released in audiobook format. You can download your copy here. For this week’s post, we’ll be celebrating Charmian Kittredge London (born November 27, 1871, died on January 14, 1955). Charmian (pronounced charm-me-in) Kittredge London married the best-selling American author Jack London on a cold Chicago night, November 19, 1905, and immediately stepped into the critical public eye.

Meaningful and persuasive speech is essential to politics. It is what makes politics into a realm of human activity distinct from coercive violence or business transaction. Elections are the central events of democratic politics. So when a democratic leader is asked to comment on a devastating electoral defeat, as Olaf Scholz the German Chancellor was ask to do following his party’s humiliation in the European elections last Sunday, and his reaction is a truculent "