Wed 11/11/26 – 7-9:00 PM – NC Writers Network West & The Brandy Bar + Cocktails host Paul Bonesteel, an Emmy® Award–winning documentary filmmaker, as next in the series “In the Company of Writers.” In the Company of Writers’ program offers a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets followed by an open mic forum. These inspirational gatherings will elucidate and entertain those attending. The guest author speaks from 7-8 PM with an open mic from 8 -9 PM. Original music of John Longbottom welcomes you, continues during intermission, and closes the evening. Sign-ups for the open mic sheet are posted at the entry to the book reading. Paul Bonesteel has made documentaries since the early 1990s, including a 2003 film about photographer George Masa and a PBS American Masters film about writer Carl Sandburg. More recently, he told the story of Asheville’s Municipal Golf Course in “Muni.” His 2023 film, Shadow of a Wheel, won an Emmy for historical documentary. This 4-part PBS series involved 31 teenagers in 1982 bicycling across the US for Multiple Sclerosis and how this journey changed their lives. Over the past 6 years, Paul collaborated with writer and researcher Janet McCue on an in-depth biographical book, George Masa: A Life Reimagined, released in 2024.
His new film A Life Reimagined: The George Masa Story premiered on PBS NC in May. Through self-taught photography and conservation advocacy, Japanese-born Masa helped establish Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Appalachian Trail. Paul recently visited Japan, where he screened the film for audiences in three cities. Both film and book honor Masa’s lasting environmental legacy and highlights the profound, often overlooked contributions of Asian Americans to United States history.
Thurs 11/12/26 – 4-9 PM – Woolly Worm Cocktail Special – Woolly bear worm, known locally as the “woolly worm,” is legendary for predicting coming winter weather. If their rusty band is wide, then it will be a mild winter and the blacker there is, the more severe the winter. First, the “woolly worm” is not a worm but a caterpillar; specifically, the larva of the Isabella tiger moth (Pyrrharctia isabella). The caterpillar has 13 distinct segments of either rusty brown or black. Often, it is black on both ends with rust-colored segments in the middle, although it may sometimes be mostly black or mostly rust. Not all-black, all-white, or yellow caterpillars are woolly bears; they are different species and are not part of the woolly bears. So, if you spot an entirely black caterpillar, it isn’t forecasting an apocalyptic winter! But who is responsible for this legend?
The woolly worm was the subject of a research project in 1948 by Dr. C.H. Curran, curator of insects at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. He took his wife 40 miles north of the city to Bear Mtn. State Park to study woolly bear caterpillars. They collected as many as they could in a day, determined the average number of reddish-brown segments, and forecast the coming winter weather through a reporter friend at The New York Herald Tribune. Dr. Curran continued the experiment for 8 years and attempted to prove scientifically a weather rule of thumb that was as old as the hills around Bear Mn. The resulting publicity made the woolly worm one of the most recognizable caterpillars in North America (alongside the monarch caterpillar and tomato hornworm. The caterpillar is the larval form of Pyrrharctia Isabella, the Isabella tiger moth. This beautiful, winged creature is yellowish-orange and cream-colored wings spotted with black and common from Mexico throughout the US and the southern third of Canada. Typically, the bands at the ends of the caterpillar are black, and the one in the middle is brown or orange, giving the woolly bear its distinctive striped appearance.
Between 1948 and 1956, Dr. Curran’s average brown-segment counts ranged from 5.3 to 5.6 out of the 13-segment total, meaning that the brown band took up more than a good third of the woolly bear’s body. The corresponding winters were milder than average, and Dr. Curran concluded that the folklore has some merit and might be true. For over 40 years, Banner Elk, NC, has held an annual Woolly Worm Festival in October, highlighted by a caterpillar race. Retired mayor Charles Von Canon inspects the champion woolly bear and announces his winter forecast. Similarly, there is a Woolly Bear Festival that takes place in Vermilion, Ohio, each October. Most scientists discount the woolly worm’s ability to predict the severity of winter but what do they know?? Woolly worm Cocktails – Warm woolly worm – C & K brandy, Drambuie, milk heated; Pyrrharctia Isabella –Armenian brandy, Drambuie, lemon; Dr. Curran – Applejack, maple syrup, heavy cream, fresh grated nutmeg ; Woolly Bear – Coffee brandy, rye, heavy cream, choice fresh grated nutmeg/cinnamon. 1/2 price Worldly brandy flight
Please put on your calendars: Wed 11/18/26 – 7-9 PM – WNC Songwriter Sessions hosts Hunter Begley, Siobhan Quinn and Michael Bowers, and Todd Hoke.