Behold the Blinkies: A Very North Carolina Set of Christmas Lights

Inventions

Dec 24, 2025

Behold the Blinkies: A Very North Carolina Set of Christmas Lights

What started as a way to honor a woman in Kernersville has become a regional phenomenon. Here's the story of an overnight success that took decades, and a man who never stopped inventing.

Jeremy Markovich

The Politician who Refused to Eat Barbecue and Lost (also, it's the Rabbit Hole's Fifth Birthday)

Birthdays

Nov 19, 2025

The Politician who Refused to Eat Barbecue and Lost (also, it's the Rabbit Hole's Fifth Birthday)

An update on the state of the Hole, but first, the most ridiculous North Carolina political food story ever told.

Jeremy Markovich

Phoning It In

Dec 31, 2025

The Last Rabbit Hole EVER (of 2025)

A quick update on things, and a look back at some of the most (and least) popular things I wrote this year.

Jeremy Markovich

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National Guard

Nov 13, 2025

GOP congressmen want the National Guard in Charlotte. Here's where violent crime is a bigger problem.

Sure, the data can't always tell the entire story. But one representative who's asking for a deployment isn't suggesting the same solution for a more violent place in his own district.

Jeremy Markovich

Media

Nov 9, 2025

Pour one out for Charlotte magazine

The publication that gave me a shot to be a writer is shutting down.

Jeremy Markovich

Latest Video

Podcast Episodes

A Starter Kit of Rabbit Holes

Raleigh

Jan 9, 2025

The Short Story of Raleigh's Greatest Snow Picture

Is there a winter storm coming? Then it's time to re-live a really rough day in 2014.

Jeremy Markovich

You can't get a DWI on a horse in North Carolina. But why?

Christmas

Dec 10, 2024

You can't get a DWI on a horse in North Carolina. But why?

There's a viral video where a man (correctly) states you can't be charged with drunk driving on horseback. It wasn't always this way. Blame, maybe, a chaotic Christmas parade and a wily lawmaker.

Jeremy Markovich

Tony Hawk

Nov 4, 2024

Tony Hawk wanted to track down a mysterious skateboarder from 1979. We found her.

A photographer snapped a shot of Shaunda Shane skating down her street in Fayetteville when she was 10. How did the world's most famous skateboarder see that picture 45 years later?

Jeremy Markovich

The complete story of the time a monster truck drove across the Currituck Sound

Independence Day

Jul 4, 2024

The complete story of the time a monster truck drove across the Currituck Sound

In 1994, someone asked if Dennis Anderson could bring Grave Digger to a July 4th celebration on the Outer Banks. Dennis said he could drive it there. Over the water. The rest is history.

Jeremy Markovich

North Carolina's unkillable 41-year-old license plate

Raleigh

Sep 28, 2023

North Carolina's unkillable 41-year-old license plate

"First in Flight" has been this state's standard license plate since 1982. It replaced a controversial slogan and came from a different era, when it was okay to clown on the Wright Brothers.

Jeremy Markovich

Apr 27, 2023

Panthers Aren't Real

I looked into a thing that I'd heard a long time ago: That the screaming cat noise that's played at Carolina Panthers games doesn't actually come from a panther. But this—THIS—goes much deeper.

Jeremy Markovich

Jul 19, 2022

The Man In The Yellow Hat

Steven Spielberg wore a North Carolina Highway Patrol hat while directing an Indiana Jones movie 34 years ago. You asked me to find out more. I found the man who gave it to him.

Jeremy Markovich

Sep 30, 2021

Mick Jagger went to a dive bar in Charlotte and literally everybody missed him

One of the world's most recognizable men walked into a beer joint and nobody recognized him. Here is how that happened, according to the people who were there and the owner who's mad that he wasn't.

Jeremy Markovich

The Last Rabbit Hole EVER (of 2025)

A quick update on things, and a look back at some of the most (and least) popular things I wrote this year.

Jeremy Markovich

Inventions

Dec 24, 2025

Behold the Blinkies: A Very North Carolina Set of Christmas Lights

What started as a way to honor a woman in Kernersville has become a regional phenomenon. Here's the story of an overnight success that took decades, and a man who never stopped inventing.

Jeremy Markovich

Birthdays

Nov 19, 2025

The Politician who Refused to Eat Barbecue and Lost (also, it's the Rabbit Hole's Fifth Birthday)

An update on the state of the Hole, but first, the most ridiculous North Carolina political food story ever told.

Jeremy Markovich

National Guard

Nov 13, 2025

GOP congressmen want the National Guard in Charlotte. Here's where violent crime is a bigger problem.

Sure, the data can't always tell the entire story. But one representative who's asking for a deployment isn't suggesting the same solution for a more violent place in his own district.

Jeremy Markovich

Media

Nov 9, 2025

Pour one out for Charlotte magazine

The publication that gave me a shot to be a writer is shutting down.

Jeremy Markovich

North Carolina's shortest airline flight was 16 miles long

Greensboro

Oct 26, 2025

North Carolina's shortest airline flight was 16 miles long

You used to be able to take a flight between two easy-to-get-to cities that were literally a county apart. Why? Piedmont Airlines, that's why.

Jeremy Markovich

Why Can't North Carolina's Governor Veto A Redistricting Bill?

Politics

Oct 14, 2025

Why Can't North Carolina's Governor Veto A Redistricting Bill?

GOP state lawmakers are coming back to Raleigh next week to try and make North Carolina's congressional delegation even MORE Republican. The governor can veto lots of bills. Why not this one?

Jeremy Markovich

Why Are SO MANY Outer Banks houses collapsing into the ocean?

Storms

Oct 9, 2025

Why Are SO MANY Outer Banks houses collapsing into the ocean?

Nine homes have been taken out by the Atlantic Ocean in just the last few weeks? Why so many? Why now? We asked a longtime Outer Banks journalist for some answers.

Jeremy Markovich

Behold the Blinkies: A Very North Carolina Set of Christmas Lights

The Politician who Refused to Eat Barbecue and Lost (also, it's the Rabbit Hole's Fifth Birthday)

The Last Rabbit Hole EVER (of 2025)

Get a deeply reported story of trifling importance delivered to you weekly.

GOP congressmen want the National Guard in Charlotte. Here's where violent crime is a bigger problem.

Pour one out for Charlotte magazine

Latest Video

Podcast Episodes

A Starter Kit of Rabbit Holes

The Short Story of Raleigh's Greatest Snow Picture

You can't get a DWI on a horse in North Carolina. But why?

Tony Hawk wanted to track down a mysterious skateboarder from 1979. We found her.

The complete story of the time a monster truck drove across the Currituck Sound

North Carolina's unkillable 41-year-old license plate

Panthers Aren't Real

The Man In The Yellow Hat

Mick Jagger went to a dive bar in Charlotte and literally everybody missed him

Archive

The Last Rabbit Hole EVER (of 2025)

Behold the Blinkies: A Very North Carolina Set of Christmas Lights

The Politician who Refused to Eat Barbecue and Lost (also, it's the Rabbit Hole's Fifth Birthday)

GOP congressmen want the National Guard in Charlotte. Here's where violent crime is a bigger problem.

Pour one out for Charlotte magazine

North Carolina's shortest airline flight was 16 miles long

Why Can't North Carolina's Governor Veto A Redistricting Bill?

Why Are SO MANY Outer Banks houses collapsing into the ocean?

North Carolina Rabbit Hole