You read that right: Carolina is ranked. In football.

UNC this week cracked the top 25 for the first time since 2001.

Coaches don't care about rankings -- at least they say they don't -- but for the rest of us, it's pretty sweet to see the Tar Heels in the party.

Carolina is 4-1 after clobbering then-24th-ranked Connecticut last weekend, with yet another big game -- when you only play 12 games, they're all big -- coming up this weekend against Notre Dame.

The Tar Heels could have packed it in after blowing a big lead and losing both the game and their starting quarterback, T.J. Yates, against Virginia Tech a few weeks ago.

Then they fell behind at Miami in their next game, and many a Carolina fan no doubt thought, "Oh, boy, here we go again."

But behind a poised performance by backup QB Cam Sexton, the Tar Heels did to Miami what Virginia Tech had done to them the week before. They rallied to win, and then they rumbled over UConn last weekend.

Not only have they been winning, but they're also fun to watch. They've made big plays on offense, defense and special teams.

They look like a team that believes in itself. It's been a while since we've seen that from the guys in light blue.

Roses to the UNC Medical School, which recently staged an exercise that gave students a little taste of what it feels like to be on the other side -- specifically, what it feels like to be an elderly patient.

Too often, older patients in hospitals and nursing homes are subjected to condescending and undignified treatment.

In an effort to reduce the incidence of such treatment, UNC recently had students do a role-playing exercise in which some played the parts of older patients and others played the roles of callous medical staff.

Students in the roles of patients quickly learned how frustrating and dehumanizing it is to be treated carelessly. "They made assumptions about me, and they didn't listen to what I said," said second-year student Kira Peoples.

It's just a game, of course, and there's little way of knowing what lasting impact it might have. But you can learn a lot by looking at interactions from the other side, and UNC has made the training mandatory for all incoming internal medicine interns and offers it to many other hospital staffers.

Roses to the organizers of Festifall, which has managed to avoid the problems that have tarnished some other recent downtown gatherings.

Festifall drew thousands to Franklin Street on a glorious Sunday afternoon, and by all accounts everybody had a good time. Which is, after all, the point.

Musicians played for appreciative crowds. Families and kids wandered up and down the street, ate a lot of food and enjoyed the wares of dozens of artists and craftspeople.

Festifall's spring counterpart, the Apple Chill street fair, died in 2006 after post-festival crowds, violence and gridlocked traffic caused problems. The town now is trying to figure out how to shrink the size of the horde that descends on downtown every Halloween.

Festifall, knock on wood, continues to be pretty much what it always was -- a fun, early-autumn street fair.

If you have suggestions for Roses & Raspberries, please call Dave Hart, associate editor, at 932-8744 or e-mail dhart@nando.com.