Also, kitty

Why I put up with her crap.

Lil' hobby

Yeah, it seems like some discussion or a nod to public opinion, even an insincere one, would have been a good move.

I'd like to know what most of these other school districts think their reserve funds are for? Retirement? It's not like the budget picture can even get much more dire. This editorial supports the move but gets considerably more interesting after that, with a consideration of the Dome's attempt to move incrementally toward vouchers.

Oh, so your defense is dumbassery? I'm not sure that plays when you don't make amends immediately.

This needs work. And I can't help but think of it, in some ways, as a cynical move. It's easier to save money if you give people raises based on student improvement than if it's a more automatic thing based on their level of education. The change would also seem to denigrate the need for continuing education for teachers. Still, I'm not opposed in principle to the idea.

Yeah. McKillip's bill makes sense, and Bobby Franklin's is clearly the work of a Libertarian child.

James Hawhee's forum on the subject of SOAR makes good, concrete points against privatization and in favor of the current state of things. So good McGinty doesn't even call him out for trying to save his own ass.

Read

Let's do the January 25 issue. Shouts and Murmurs continues to be definitely not my favorite part of the magazine, except for when George Saunders writes it and it is. I feel like I've been on a Saunders kick lately, which is not to say that I've been reading or rereading his stuff--more just that I'm feeling the love in a big way, and this piece, short as it is, reinforced that affection. Even just these few sentences show exactly what he does well, which is mingle flat genre language with the colloquial, and I expect it's because it's my colloquial in particular that it hits my ear with such hard hilarity and joy:

Resolving to put their differences aside, the men proceeded a few metres up the hill. Walking uphill was a lot harder than walking on a flat dealie. Ugh. It was like being on a StairMaster. Or so they had heard.

 Anyway. David Owen's piece "The Dime Store Floor," about the smells of childhood and trying to track them down, is log-in only and it almost follows the exact advice of many a creative writing class, but it's really good nonetheless. It could easily seem excessively nostalgic and overwritten, but the sensory aspect is strongly felt and conveyed.


You also can't read Ken Auletta's article on Obama's relationship with the press without logging in, but it's no great loss. For example, there's this gem:

A Pew study showed that in Obama's first hundred days in office stories about him that were "clearly positive in tone" outnumbered those about Bush in his first hundred days by a ratio of nearly two to one.

Might that not have something to do with the fact that one clearly won the election and the other not so much, in addition to losing the popular vote? Reporters are people too.


I don't have anything to say about Dana Goodyear's profile of Neil Gaiman, but it is free and reasonably entertaining, so you might want to read it. Unless, of course, you already know who he is, in which you'll be annoyed by the references to his obscurity.


And then Daniel Mendelsohn writes about phony memoirs and why, exactly, they piss us off, which is not a bad piece (while never great) and includes the following paragraph, which is probably the best and most essential bit:

As for Freud’s charge that memoirs are flawed by mendacity, it may be that the culprit here is not really the memoir genre but simply memory itself. The most stimulating section of Yagoda’s book is one in which he considers, albeit superficially, the vast scientific literature about memory and how it works. The gist is that a seemingly inborn desire on the part of Homo sapiens for coherent narratives, for meaning, often warps the way we remember things. The psychologist F. C. Bartlett, whom Yagoda quotes without discussing his work, once conducted an experiment in which people were told fables into which illogical or non-sequitur elements had been introduced; when asked to repeat the tales, they omitted or smoothed over the anomalous bits. More recently, graduate students who were asked to recall what their anxiety level had been before an important examination consistently exaggerated that anxiety. As Yagoda puts it, “That little tale—‘I was really worried, but I passed’—would be memoir-worthy. The ‘truth’—‘I wasn’t that worried, and I passed’—would not.” In other words, we always manage to turn our memories into good stories—even if those stories aren’t quite true.

Lil' hobby

ABH has a good, relatively in-depth report on the overview commission. I'm sure we can all predict some of the things it's going to say, but it's still useful. Alan Reddish's points about the benefits of our particular system are good ones, too. Much as staff can squabble with elected officials, and much as they sometimes seem to be ignorant of what's important to the community, they certainly have their benefits, too, and it's equally likely that commissioners are focusing too much on the issues they hear about and not enough on the ones they don't.

Of course Kemp is in favor of this. I'm sure it won't win him any votes at all.

Here's why. SPLOST won't allow for expanded hours or hiring staff or anything like that. What it will allow for is new buildings and facilities with no one to staff them.

One of the best points made in this editorial is what I'll call the ADA one. It's true. Pedestrianship should be encouraged, and I certainly agree with that, but the roasting company isn't as accessible as it could be. That said, McGeezy has good points too. Their hands were kind of tied. That's what having laws in place means.

Unnecessary

I would start a Facebook group this morning called, "I bet I can find 1,000,000 fans of Pete Townshend's belly," but I'm sure that joke was obsolete as of about 8:30 p.m. Whatever. Pete can show us his nipples if he wants to. He's earned it.

Also, does Tim Tebow tackle people now? That commercial reinforced my existing political views. It may, indeed, have strengthened them.

Really should've gone with a couple of A's

On the way back from Atlanta, we were behind this truck. Size isn't really conveyed by the only photo I managed to get. Just think huge. Wouldn't Kang of Kangs kind of have been more awesome? I've also been trying to get a picture of the Waffle House --> We Buy Gold sign right around where 316 hits 85, but this one sucks. And then there's the "Touched by an Angel" billboard on 78 that's for a hair shop, clearly run by a woman named Angel. That one someday.

Also, if you want to see a super-blurry (no flash allowed) Residents slideshow, you can click here.

Lil' hobby

Okay then. That's no parking for Jittery Joe's. I can't say I really expected a different result, as it's no doubt bad precedent a) to grant a variance and b) to designate the lot for commercial parking, but you know it sucks to pay to park where you work, right? And UGA doesn't charge nearly what the Classic Center deck does.

Even Barrow County wants overpasses on 316.

You know what's not going to help your case with the current SOAR teachers? Saying your teachers do better because they care. I'm pretty sure that caring is a huge part of why people teach at a punitive alternative school to begin with.

Yeah yeah. I know he's between a rock and a hard place. Again. It looks terrible.

The governor's record on transportation planning and funding is fucking crystal: don't do anything about it for nigh on eight years.

Myra Blackmon is exactly the sort of person who should be doing tax assessing, someone who has a real grasp on how complex "fairness" is as a concept, as her column proves.

Movie Diary

The House of the Devil: Well, the thing about tributes is that, if you're, for example, faithfully covering Christopher Cross songs, your music is going to partake of at least some of the suckiness of your source. Which is not to say The House of the Devil is a bad movie at all; it just has some of the flaws of its genre. If you've ever bought one of those cheapo DVD box sets that promises 50 horror movies for $5, you probably understand the kind of slowness you're in for, plot-wise. There's simply not enough here for 90 minutes, even accounting for scene setting and tension building, and the final "twist" is silly and obvious. Of course, that may be the point. It's also rather stylish, and there are some scary moments. The nods to the era are mostly subtle, and, of course, both Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov are a total pleasure to watch, as they always are. But if you compare this to the work of Rob Zombie, another student of the classic horror film, there's just a lot less going on, apart from some undercurrents of disgust with bodily functions (our heroine doesn't seem to enjoy eating or sex or much apart from drinking water and listening to her Walkman, and it's possible this abstemious lifestyle is what gives her strength). I'll be curious to see Ti West's work in the future, though.

New favorite phrase

"Surprise masterpiece." Courtesy of an infomercial for Yudu, a home screen-printing set-up.

Lil' hobby

Dude. CHARM. Charm charm charm! Can we add the capacity to recycle plastics 3 through 9? It's a nice low price tag and a convenient location, too. Also, I agree with the folks mentioned in the article and McGeezy that $5.6 mill sounds a tad bit high for a pavilion for a permanent farmers' market. Where would it be?

Look, I agree that Classic City High School has been a great thing for the community, but I don't really like referring to schools as "successful" and, by implication, "unsuccessful." Could my WSLA take an interest in this issue? I know Ryan Griffin obviously has a personal interest, as an employee of SOAR, but he's right to point out the high number of special education students who attend it and to worry about their future. Are they really going to be expected to sign a contract saying they'll behave themselves?

More research is needed in this article. Is it really an unreasonable regulation to ask taxis to have good insurance? It looks like you have to register on the A.M. Best site to access ratings, but I may do that later.

Ugh. Again. Great timing. Would it be possible not to announce things like this the same week that you say no UGA employees will get raises?

Wait wait wait. A water conservation bill proposed by the governor that actually includes conservation measures? What state am I living in again? There's still time to fuck this up, y'all.

Police Blotter (Tater! edition)

Look, I usually redact the names in the police blotter, even though they're already a matter of public record, having been published in the paper, but I just can't do that this time:

Arrest: On Jan. 20, deputy Joe Williams was dispatched to Lane Creek Road, Bogart, for a 911 hangup call, which the dispatcher said sounded like a fight in progress. When Williams arrived, Darrell "Tater" Wright, 33, said he had been in an argument. A woman at the house said Wright was screaming at her and, while using a hammer to make a pallet, insinuated he would hit her in the head. Wright was charged with making a terroristic threat.

Complaint: On Jan. 24, deputy David Burchett was dispatched to a Vanessa Avenue, Watkinsville, home where a woman said she found a headless deer carcass in her driveway. She said her daughter was driving their car when she smelled something. Upon opening the trunk, she found the rotting carcass. The daughter said someone also wrote profanities in white paint on her car window. She thinks some other girls who have accused her of egging their homes on a previous day are responsible for the deer.

Man. They have some real mean girls in the OC.

• Assault: On Jan. 25, deputy Klint Segars was dispatched to a Jot 'em Down Road home for a dispute between two women. A 39-year-old Commerce woman said she went to her ex-husband's home to get their daughter's cell phone, but the ex's girlfriend refused to give it up, saying the woman first had to pay off a $75 debt. The complainant said the other woman then hit her in the left eye with a large spoon and pushed her off the porch. Segars spoke to the ex-husband's girlfriend, who said her boyfriend's ex tried to punch her so she retaliated with the spoon. The deputy told her she couldn't hold the cell phone for an old debt. The woman agreed to return the phone.

In which we finally discover the real purpose of those decorative large utensils.

Oconee. Madison.

Lil' hobby

I'm not saying I've been to any meetings, but, um, some of you (by which I mean me) may indeed be socialists.

My question is who takes the time to write the note and deliver the chicken but clearly cares more about the press attention than the animal involved.

Oy. The Jittery Joe's parking lot situation continues to be a total mess, but is very nicely reported on by Andre Gallant. One question I have is why downtown parking lots are required to be paved. Doesn't an unpaved lot create more porous surface for the absorption of stormwater? I presume it's an attractiveness issue, but I thought we were trying to minimize paved areas in zoning regulations.

Well. Here we go. Lanoue does want to privatize the punitive alternative school. Please note this:

The Ombudsman program would not impact the structure of Classic City High, which is another nontraditional alternative model school where students work at their own pace to recover credit and graduate. The closure of SOAR Academy however, would allow Classic City High to reopen by fall 2010 at a new location on the H.T. Edwards campus inside a building previously planned to house the SOAR Academy.

So, does SOAR have a new building? Is it still going to get one?

While students today are assigned to SOAR, they would have to sign a contract to attend the Ombudsman school, promising to have "100 percent on-time attendance," make "steady and reasonable progress" and "have consideration for others and program rules."

Yarg. I don't like this at all. And even the ABH thinks they might want to slow up a touch.

The Democratic debate for governor sounds to have been slightly more interesting than the Republican one, although without much fighting yet. e.g.,

Two lesser-known candidates, Poythress and Ray City Mayor Carl Camon, both made unusual promises to voters. If elected, Poythress said he would not accept a salary until the state's unemployment rate drops below 7 percent in a show of solidarity with struggling families, while Camon pledged to teach a class in all 159 counties in the state to get an on-the-ground view of education.

I mean, the latter promise is fairly easy to make, considering he has no chance, but it's still interesting.

Holy shit, jackasses. Please focus on bills that make people safer. I'm sure this one does in a roundabout way, but it's focusing on the wrong problem, which is the extreme impatience that leads to accidents. Of course, far more people are the fast kind of rude jerk rather than the slow kind, so I'm sure the bill will succeed wildly.

"If you've never had no mull, then come on out." (Props to Wayne Ford for a very Wayne Fordish article.)

I'd like to see even farther reaching measures, but McGinty's focus on revenue over tax cuts is, of course, something with which I agree.

Publication

Grub Notes covers the meatball place and Pirate Pies, both of which get a thumbs up.

Shifting

We've been moving furniture all over the place lately. Getting rid of this. Moving that from one floor to another. Martha Stewart had a whole show on cats recently, in which her animal dude pointed out that they like change and a shifting environment. Not only does my spoiled cat get tons of exciting boxes to play in on a regular basis, but now she gets a new arrangement of shelves to mess with every day. Cat brain = stimulated.

Read

I don't have anything specific to comment on in the New Yorker (1/18/10) article about Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the designers who produce Rodarte (which also isn't up for free), but it does sort of give one something to aspire to, as far as progeny are concerned. That is, if you do things right, you could end up with two pretty cool and arty kids.

Ditto for Margaret Talbot's article on Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which is free and will give you new, weird respect for Ted Olson. What's strange is that, in some ways, gay rights is emerging as an arena for bipartisanship, even as in others it makes clear the huge divide between liberals and conservatives (I'm certainly not going to say the parties, as the Democrats have almost thoroughly wussed on the gay marriage front). There are plenty of young Christians and even evangelicals who don't have a problem with gay marriage. That alone suggests it'll come to be before too long. Are the odds good at the Supreme Court, considering the percentage of the country that remains against it? Who the heck knows. The Court does not ride on the tide of public opinion, as many a case makes clear. I don't know from strategy, but I hope it goes well.

Lil' hobby

I'm not sure I realized Bear Hollow is a kind of Island of Misfit Toys of a zoo, even after having been there, but that kind of makes me like it even more. RIP Dill Pickle.

Please do hire another firm to do this. And consider expanding the ads you'll accept. An ad for Monsignor Donovan is, I promise, not offensive in principle, even to someone fairly obsessed with separation of church and state like myself. It's still $33K up from where the county would have been, yes? Plus, I like seeing Michael Keene's face on the bus.

You know, I may vote for DuBose Porter just because of where he's having this event.

Look, I support this bill, and the people coming out against it come off like crazies. I also think the argument that it's consistent with the laws on the books is a good one. But I also don't think child prostitution is a major problem in Atlanta and Georgia as a whole. My guess is that the city's not currently arresting a ton of 12-to-15-year-olds in the sex industry and that it's the kind of issue that attracts an unnecessarily high profile when, again, the legislature should be worrying about transit and budgeting.

Thanks for going after this ridiculous five-point test, ABH, although the concluding thought (that nuanced thought isn't exactly a priority in the Dome) isn't exactly a shocker.

Um, antagonizing the commission is really not the way to move toward more public art. I agree that the lampposts aren't my taste, and neither are the bulldogs, but there are other projects ACC has assisted with (the meter ashtrays, the bus stops) that I've quite liked. I also believe there's been a little turnover in our governing bodies since the 1970s/80s.

Tom Jackson makes some good points, um, including the one that Charles Knapp actually did live in the house the whole time he was president.

Definitions

When the fuck exactly did Hardee's forget what a "biscuit" was? Is this England? I believe it is not.

Lil' hobby

Urg. This is not a flattering story, right on the heels of announcing no one gets a raise next year and the university system may even be forced into layoffs. I mean, I'm not sure Adams should get a housing allowance if he doesn't live there, even at the same time as I understand why he chose not to reside in the historic property (it's easy to get harassed by students). And please do note that it is a historic property and, as such, needs appropriate preservation. That said, some of the commenters, pissed as they are, have a point.

Budgeting's going to be fun this year! And new higher education appropriations committee head Earl Erhart looks like he plans to focus on things like how much time professors spend in the classroom. I mean, I understand his concerns, but the impact is not large and he might want to remember that some of the institutions that are part of USG have research as a critical mission component.

I'm a little nervous about the elderly riding bikes at all. Please remember that there are pedestrians on the sidewalk too.

This is a very nice last sentence.

What spending increases during flush times?

Meanwhile, Chip Rogers is trying to find ways to take yet more money out of government coffers, especially those pesky local governments.

Movie Diary

Extract: Come on, Mike Judge. You can do better than this. I mean, it's fine. It's relatively amusing, with a lot of room for character parts and actors (Beth Grant, J. K. Simmons), and it portrays something about the real America, as his films are wont to do. But the plot is too simple, the insights not developed enough. Jared said it felt like a 30-minute TV episode, which would be fine if it were one, but it ain't. Sometimes Judge's films have been overlooked in the theaters, unjustly, only to find their audience on DVD and TV, until they're tremendous cult favorites, but this isn't going to be one of those. It's not an unpleasant way to spend 90 minutes, but my expectations are higher.