ROSES to Lynn Turner, an assistant librarian at UNC who, for no other reason than a generous spirit and remarkable amount of determination, reunited one of the injured victims of the Highland Hills fire with the cat that she feared she'd lost forever.

Kristin Pietrowicz was in her Highland Hills apartment on Sept. 30 when the fire broke out. Flames blocked her path to the door, so she scooped up her gray Persian, Phoebe, and jumped from the balcony.

As she fell she lost her grip on Phoebe. She landed hard, shattering both heels. The cat was gone.

One day shortly after the fire, Turner went to Highland Hills to look for a friend's cats, who had also disappeared during the blaze. She happened to meet Pietrowicz's parents, who told her about their daughter and her missing companion.

Turner took it upon herself to search for Phoebe, along with a number of other missing pets. Night after night she set traps and combed the nearby woods with a flashlight.

You might think that after a fruitless night or two, and certainly after a fruitless week or two, she'd admit defeat. Think again. She kept at it for three weeks, until one night at about midnight she spotted a gray longhaired cat dashing through the bushes.

She set traps nearby, and Phoebe -- lured by peanut butter, of all things -- finally fell for one.

Turner immediately called Pietrowicz, who was recovering at her parents' home in Ohio.

"She squealed and cried all at the same time," said Turner, who turned Phoebe over to Pietrowicz's father. "It was one of the best feelings I've had in my life."


ROSES to all of you -- and, if turnout projections proved accurate, you could probably all fit into the office here -- who took the time and effort to vote.

Without high-profile national races at stake, turnout for local elections is usually dismal. Which means the few who actually cast ballots hold a disproportionately large share of the decision-making power. That's not exactly ideal, but it's the situation we have.

In any event, good on all of you who cast votes. At the very least, you've earned the right to complain.


ROSES to Chapel Hill's Leen Elnaccash, who paints eggs better than anybody else in North Carolina.

That was the determination of the judges at the North Carolina State Egg contest, sponsored by -- who else? -- the American Egg Board. Elnaccash won first place, which earned her prize egg a display space not only at the North Carolina State Fair, but at the Smithsonian, along with the top eggs from the other 49 states. All 50 will be on display at the White House in the spring.

Not bad for a humble chicken egg. Of course, when Elnaccash gets through with them, eggs are humble no more. She decorates them using a specialized method called pysanky, a Ukrainian folk art, which employs a wax resist. If you've ever done batik, you get the general idea.

Eggs, for some reason, lend themselves to puns and bad jokes. But in Elnaccash's hands, they are nothing to laugh about; with a remarkable eye and precise hand, she transforms them into delicate and exquisite -- we will refrain from making the obvious pun -- works of art.