This week has me bursting with stuff to confuse, bore, educate or otherwise entertain you.

First, I want to update the status of my friend Sherry Bean. I am happy to report that Sherry has taken a major step and moved into her own house with her son, Travis.

It is well secured, and she enjoys the independence. So do her mom and dad. She is looking forward to making the school circuit again this year to tell kids her story about drug abuse. Sherry was beaten up and set on fire by perpetrators who left her for dead on March 22, 2003. She spent nearly a year in the Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill and lost her right arm and left hand. She survived 28 surgeries and is now an active young mom.

The Phoenix Society’s World Burn Congress for burn victims throughout the world is Aug. 24 through 27. Its seminars and programs help burn victims adjust to their new lives. Sherry has been awarded a full scholarship to attend in Baltimore this year with registration and hotel paid for by the Phoenix Society.

Because of her numerous expenses, especially moving into her own house, she needs about $400 to make the trip to Baltimore later this month. If you would like to help, please send a check to The Sherry Bean Fund, c/o RBC Centura Bank, Village Branch, P.O. Box 1809, Pinehurst, NC 28370.

My next plea is for the village and county to step up to bat and cover the expenses of the $700,000 dam repair of Pond 1 near Lake Pinehurst and Gingham Lane. Through various circumstances, Pond 1 abutters are legally responsible for footing the bill for any repair or maintenance costs associated with this environmental asset.

For about 25 Pinehurst residents who share property on the pond, a huge assessment for repairing this site seems very unreasonable to me. Someone said that if village taxpayers chipped in, it would result in about $5 per taxpayer. This is chump change and we should just do it. No arguments. No legal battles. No class-action suits. Just do what’s right!

Have you traveled down N.C. 5 lately, near the new stores such as ABC, Hess and Dollar General? The road will soon have a completely rubberized surface. Why? Because of all the skid marks from traffic dodging vehicles entering and exiting these new merchants. It’s crazy.

I have personally seen several fender-benders, as well as several near misses. The solution is a very simple one: make a third lane — a turning lane. That works on other roads around here. Realistically, I can’t imagine the N.C. Department of Transportation acting on this requirement in the near future, but let’s please just get the ball rolling.

I have no ax to grind regarding the Southern Pines issue of an “auto mile” along U.S. 1. But if the land the auto dealership folks want to build on is zoned for that use, along with other commercial establishments, shame on residents and interested parties for not getting a zoning change before the fact.

It does seem too bad to whack down those trees and replace them with bricks, mortar and thousands of new shiny cars occupying the landscape. Shades of Midland Green? Hmm.

The corridor along U.S. 1 is rather striking without any appreciable commerce there. I could see the “auto mile” along U.S. 15-501 because it’s just a matter of time before roadside businesses will occupy the territory between Pinecrest Plaza and Lowe’s on that byway.

U.S. 1 has many “auto miles” with a solid string of car dealers along the way. A good example is Norwood, Mass., with umpteen car lots dotting that highway, which leads to Gillette Stadium, home of the Patriots. Those former New Englanders will fondly remember Ernie Boch’s cry to “Come on down!” Get ready, Southern Pines.

We are in a sensitive economy in which marketers “find a need and fill it.” Business must progress to keep our economic engine going. So, if everything’s legal about the construction of the “auto mile,” then let it be. We need business to keep our portfolios humming.

I guess if you are an environmentalist, you didn’t like Congress passing the energy bill, which, as I understand it, will eventually allow oil drilling in Alaska. As such, perhaps liberals and the rest of us won’t have to pay $3 a gallon for gasoline.

My last major point to express to you is about the London bombers and disposition of same. I lived in London for almost two years and have been through every “tube” stop on the bombers’ itinerary. I can relate to “tube” passengers.

The Brits captured these scums with their widespread cameras focused on passengers. We Americans had better start putting up these same cameras to save ourselves another disaster.