Be the life of your Tuesday night dinner party or bar hop by giving the official state toast, plus telling everyone about all of today’s news below.

Bottoms Up- To North Carolina!

So you want to toast to the state of North Carolina! Congratulations, there’s an official state toast for you to recite. In fact, here it is right here for you to memorize anytime you want to toast to something, but there’s nobody at the table but yourself. Ok, I’ll lay off the snark, but only because we do have a decent state and you probably do have friends or at the very least business associates that you may want to impress. Established as the official toast in 1957 to complement our state song, the toast is technically also a song and the lyrics were written by Leonora Martin and Mary Burke Kerr.  The toast was first given at a gathering of the North Carolina Society in Richmond, VA in May of 1904. It’s in its entirety below.

Here’s to the land of the long leaf pine,
The summer land where the sun doth shine,
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
Here’s to “Down Home,” the Old North State!

Here’s to the land of the cotton bloom white,
Where the scuppernong perfumes the breeze at night,
Where the soft southern moss and jessamine mate,
‘Neath the murmuring pines of the Old North State!

Here’s to the land where the galax grows,
Where the rhododendron’s rosette glows,
Where soars Mount Mitchell’s summit great,
In the “Land of the Sky,” in the Old North State!

Here’s to the land where maidens* are fair,
Where friends are true and cold hearts rare,
The near land, the dear land, whatever fate,
The blest land, the best land, the Old North State!

So how many folks remember one or maybe all of these 25 things that are no longer part of Raleigh?

The last Moral Monday of the year resulted in 18 arrests, including two notable Greensboro pastors.

Part of Greensboro’s Center City Park is closing, for re-sodding of the grass, for about a week.

The governor is currently planning for a budget impasse, meaning that things go on as they have state money wise until changes are finally agreed upon.

Durham County, however, has adopted a budget.

Overall, people inside and outside Pinehurst believe they did a great job hosting both golf U.S. Opens.

For those of you wondering when the Asheville City Hall scaffolding would come down, hold on, it’s coming (down) soon.

That big concert that folks in Asheville were either going to or worried about, turned out ok, as long as your car wasn’t towed.

The federal DOT will give $6.5 million dollars to the Asheville Regional Airport to build a new runway.

The Asheville Citizen-Times also has a great civic Q&A column, and this time they are addressing the future of some land along the French Broad River and what seems to be a race to build medical office buildings in South Asheville.

Even though entire interstate highways cannot be tolled, special lanes can be built and tolled. Hence, the debate and the consideration of toll lanes of I-77 through the Charlotte area.

Mecklenburg County has added it’s 20th food pantry, specifically for immigrants and refugees.

A mom is replacing her son on the Troutman Board of Alderman.

The LGBT Community Center in Charlotte laid off it’s sole employee, as the nonprofit works on dealing with financial issues and restructuring.

Owners of a cemetery in Wilmington are in trouble with the city again for failing to keep its grounds clean.

Oak Island town leaders are proposing dredging sand from the Eastern Channel to the beachfront to deal with erosion.

And finally, George Washington University and American University in DC will be purchasing solar power from a new solar power plant being built in Elizabeth City.