ROSES to Chapel Hill's Elizabeth Spencer, who recently received the 2007 PEN/Malamud Award, one of the highest honors a writer of short stories can receive.

The award, named for the late Bernard Malamud, "recognizes a body of work which demonstrates excellence in the art of short fiction."

Spencer certainly has done that. The author of seven collections of stories, nine novels, a memoir and a play, she has long been recognized as a master of the short story, with an understated voice and an unerring eye for the telling detail.

She has been honored many times over for her work, and the PEN/Malamud puts her in lofty company indeed; among the previous winners are writers including John Updike, Saul Bellow, Eudora Welty, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Munro and Richard Ford.

It's an honor well earned and richly deserved.


ROSES to Trey Parnell, a UNC graduate and staff member with the UNC department of athletics, who dashed into the path of an oncoming pickup truck to save his 3-year-old nephew.

Parnell was visiting his family in Parkton the week before Christmas when his nephew, Gage Ratley, toddled into the street just as the truck came around a corner.

Parnell got to the boy just before the truck did. He scooped Gage up and turned so that his body took the impact. Somehow he held onto the youngster as they rolled about 10 feet across the pavement.

Gage was scraped up, but nothing more serious. Parnell suffered a shattered elbow, which may have lasting effects, and took some pretty serious cuts and scrapes.

From his hospital bed, Parnell told the local paper he had seen the truck closing in on Gage and acted instinctively. "I'd do it again," he said.


ROSES to Dual Supply, Jim Parker and David Hunt, winners of this year's Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce Awards.

The chamber named Dual Supply on West King Street the business of the year. The shop, owned and operated by the Woods family for more than 30 years, is one of the few remaining old-fashioned hardware stores you'll find anywhere. If the doodad or widget you need is in the place (and odds are it is), the proprieters -- Wesley and Alice Jean Woods, their sons Mike and Jeff and now their grandson Adam -- will know where to find it. They are a source of information about what's going on in town as well as supplies, and they support a host of local charities.

Parker, of Summit Consulting Engineers, was named the business person of the year. Immediately upon joining the Chamber, he volunteered to chair its Government Affairs Committee. He's also a member of the Hog Day Planning committee and volunteers on Hog Day and at the Holiday Candlelight Tour.

Hunt, who works in the Office of the Clerk to the Board of County Commissioners, was named the recipient of the 2007 Helping Hand Award. In addition to his official duties, he volunteers with Hog Day, holiday events and just about everything else there is to volunteer for.