TATTLE TALES.

• Position: Brief Article

* Like a rock: John Forlines Jr., 83-year-old chief executive of Granite Fallsbased Bank of Granite Corp.. knows how to break a fall: "I have the hardest head in the world." The rest of him didn't fare as well. Forlines broke four ribs and his collarbone tumbling down an embankment while playing golf in Puerto Rico at the annual North Carolina Bankers Association scholarship foundation meeting.

* Be not afraid -- much: Summing up a U.S. Geological Survey that finds a third of wells in Ashe, Alleghany and Watauga counties contain high levels of the radioactive gas radon, a government official explains, "It does cause a little concern when things like that pop up." Next to cigarettes, the National Academy of Sciences says, radon is the leading cause of lung cancer.

* No deposit, no return: Complaining that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency wasn't going to grant High Point-based Founders National Bank Corp. a charter anyway, President Patrick Meisky pulled the plug on a year-long organizing effort after raising $1 million. "They took too long, and they just don't like me." State and federal officials cite loose loan documentation and other problems with Meisky's former bank, Central State Bank Inc. of High Point, which was sold in 1994.

* Don't go alone: Citing a dearth of culture, vain pursuit of all things Atlanta and lack of the Triangle's universities and research labs, Forbes rates Charlotte 32nd among the nation's 40 largest metro areas as a place for singles. The Triangle comes in 19th. Avoid, the magazine says, "the sprawling, strip-mall landscape" of the Triad, 38th on...