Lil' hobby

So, McGeezy thinks it's a good idea to give neighborhoods more control over their own priorities. And, sure, it sounds awesome in theory. But. Anyone who's worked in government, and I know many of you have in some form or another, whether for the university or elsewhere, knows how difficult it is to get anything accomplished in the first place, even when you're planning for years down the road. Having a portion of the budget set aside for such projects means they have to get accomplished during that fiscal year, presumably, and, of course, still according to regulations. Who's going to educate the citizenry about what they can and can't do? If the money doesn't get spent due to irresolvable bickering, does it just vanish? If it's subject to the same dictates as the rest of governmental money, it probably does. Basically, isn't this why we have a representative system of government to begin with? Why can't the neighborhood associations just talk to their commissioners and explain what their priorities are? This doesn't always work (cantankerousness can get in the way), but, you know, they're both elected and paid to represent us. What's not working about that system now?

Lil' hobby

Hang on a tic, Marvin. I believe you've just equated instituting background checks for doormen with "reasonable precautions to prevent drunken college students from flooding our streets every night after the bars close." That there is the problem. If you can explain to me how background checks are worth the time, effort, and cost because they do, in fact, help prevent public drunkenness (and let's remember that plenty of those drunkass idiots are of age), I will be very impressed. I can also point out that accusing the entire commission of hypocrisy by bringing up old legislation that some of them didn't help pass and probably wouldn't have isn't very fair. Hypocrisy is a wasteful charge in most cases anyway, but one at least has to level it at individuals. Groups of people are far more likely even to contradict themselves, depending on which way they're swayed at a given time. Finally, you're not doing Elton any favors, bub.

Read

I've been neglectful again of the New Yorker. But I've finally made it through the August 6 issue partially because (gulp) I sort of skipped the fiction. I mean, I skated over it, dipping in occasionally, and it wasn't very long, but boy was it boring. I hate to think I'll make a habit of this in the future though.

Anyway, this issue had John McPhee on golf, which he manages to make as interesting as chalk and fish and trains--that is to say, actually quite interesting. But you don't get to judge for yourself unless you have the paper copy, as they've just posted an abstract. Really, it's not about the U.S. Open. It's about the experience of being a reporter covering the U.S. Open. Where to sit or stand. Who to follow. How little one has to go out and do due to the news feeds and transcripts you're provided with. All of which is part of what makes it a good piece.

There's also an article on spam: how and why it proliferates, methods, technologies, the number of ways one can spell Viagra with a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols (600,426,974,379,824,381,952, supposedly, which seems like a tremendous lie).

And a piece by Jeffrey Toobin that's a bit politics and a bit true crime but contains this fascinating detail about the murdered party: "Tom would always eat the same thing, a peanut-butter-and-ketchup sandwich." Augh! I was discussing what's acceptable to eat with peanut butter as far as jelly goes with Jared just the other day. There's some ad right now that features peanut butter combined with strawberry jelly, and it just seems wrong. Of course, I don't like jelly anyway, but I suppose if you're going to allow strawberry, then ketchup is the next step in the sweet, weird spreadables category. On the other hand, perhaps that makes a good slippery slope argument for allowing no further than grape. And is this impression that grape is appropriate and other things are not merely brainwashing by corporations and years of seeing ads? But why would they do that. Presumably it hurts the sales of other jams and jellies, unless grape was languishing prior to its association with peanut butter.

Also, you get to read a sunnier view of the apocalypse by Elizabeth Kolbert, this one dealing not with climate change hardly at all, but with colony collapse disorder in bees.

Police Blotter (Gilstrap agreed edition)

Oh, Oconee. You don't show up to the party as often as you used to, but when you do, you really bring us some joy.

Arrest: On Aug. 18, deputy Laura Teet was dispatched to Pine Lake Campgrounds on High Shoals Road, for a man having a panic attack. When Teet arrived, medical personnel already were treating the man and a woman was walking nearby and occasionally making remarks. Teet asked her what was going on and she said "I was taking a nap and he woke me up." The woman, who was sipping gin, explained she was upset because she and the man were supposed to meet with a preacher and his wife. The woman then indicated it was a bad time of the month for her and she and man were fussing. She then claimed a devil was inside her trailer. Teet calmed her down and left, but a few minutes later she was dispatched back to the trailer, where the woman continued to shout and talk in a loud voice. When Teet said the woman could be arrested for her conduct, she replied "I'm not going to jail." She raised her hand in a threatening manner and took a step toward Teet, who grabbed the woman's arm and placed her in handcuffs. Angela Lin Barnett, 35, of Bishop was arrested for disorderly conduct.

Come on, Gilstrap! Give us the details, not just the hilarious overview.

Arrest: On Aug. 20, deputy David Gilstrap was running radar on Georgia Highway 316 when a Ford Explorer approached at 79 mph. Gilstrap went to stop the vehicle and it picked up speed. He pursed the Explorer to Jimmy Daniel Road, to Virgil Langford Road and then back to Ga. 316, where it stopped at the Oconee Connector. Gilstrap immediately arrested the driver, William Jack Kilpatrick, 26, who smelled of alcohol. Gilstrap asked Kilpatrick how much he had to drink and he replied one 22-ounce beer. Gilstrap asked Kilpatrick why he attempted to get away and he gave a lame answer. When Gilstrap said he didn't believe him, Kilpatrick admitted he was stupid. Gilstrap agreed. He then gave the driver a field test for alcohol, which read .11. The deputy then asked Kilpatrick again how much he'd drank, and he said three 22-ounce beers. Kilpatrick, of Mark Twain Circle, Athens was arrested for attempting to elude, speeding, DUI and a stop sign violation. At the jail, he also registered a .11 blood-alcohol count.

Unfortunately, "drunk in public" ain't the only thing they can getcha for:

Arrest: On Aug. 19, deputy Timothy Nix was dispatched to William Wilson Road, Hull, where a man was shouting at some people walking down the road in front of his home. He was cursing, calling them derogatory names and claiming he owned the road. When Nix told him he looked intoxicated, the man replied that he was drunk, but he was at his own home. Matthew Joseph Shock, 29, was arrested for disorderly conduct.

Oconee. Madison.

Lil' hobby

Talking about child care on campus may be frustrating, but it's better than not talking about it. Still, paragraphs like this 'un :

“We’re open to the idea of bringing in a consultant,” Jackson adds, as a matter of gauging the need on campus. Only later would questions about what type of child care model - and who on campus it could serve, or how many faculty, staff and student families - come into play. But administrators want to make one thing clear, which is that finding money for any model would be paramount. “The University’s not in a position to subsidize a service like that,” Jackson says.

do tend to make one grit one's teeth. Context, y'all. Realistically, considering the university's current relationship with the General Assembly and its tight budget, it's not currently in a position to subsidize child care, even if one can point to the money that's available for paying a consultant and so on and so forth. Still, if Adams wants a legacy, this would be a marvelous one to shoot for.

Note that Rutland is finally, finally getting a new building.

Also, McGinty's most likely right on this McMansion issue, and it's not conservative to point out that it's stupid to pass an ordinance against something that's not a problem. The article he links to in the ABH also points out that there are already some restrictions on the books in ACC that would essentially prohibit ridiculously sized homes (this monster aside for some reason).

Niche

Most of the Nigerian scammers are filtered straight to my junk folder. Sometimes they manage to sneak through, and this is usually because they've written a particularly great letter, one that's actually worth my time to read. Like the following:

Dearest in Christ,

I am Mrs Mary Mark from Kuwait. I am married to Mr. Jerry Mary who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2002.We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.Before his death we were both born again Christian.

Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive hedeposited the sum of US$4.5million dollars in a Bank here in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire.Presently, this money is still in bank.

Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next Eight months due to cancer problem. The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to a church that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein. I want a church that will use this fund for orphanages,widows, propagating the word of God and to endeavorthat the house of God is maintained.

The Bible made usto understand that "Blessed is the hand that giveth".I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not Christians and I don't want my husband's efforts to be used by unbelievers. I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly way. This is why I am taking this decision. I am not afraid of death hence

I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that "the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace". I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my husband's relatives around me always. I don't want them to know about this development.With God all things are possible.

As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Bank here in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire. I will also issue you an authority letter that will prove you the present beneficiary of this fund. I want you and the church to always pray for me because the lord is my shephard. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that Wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and Truth.

Please always be prayerful all through your life. any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another church for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I Stated herein.

Hoping to receive your reply.

Remain blessed in the Lord.
Yours in Christ,
Mrs.Mary Mark,

The religious guilt. It's awesome. "She" might have a slightly better chance of getting the cash, though, if she'd figured out how last names really work. So close!

Lil' hobby

Look, Roger Kahn, I appreciate your man tears over the bravery and selflessness of Little Leaguers, and it was an exciting game, but "played for nothing but the pure love of the game"? Dude, get some America in there. Or recognize that glory is not nothing. If it were not about winning, they wouldn't have bothered to play. Yes, it was nice that they didn't act like a-holes upon victory, but if your faith in all sports can be so easily shaken, don't watch 'em.

Also, abstinence-only education creates an appreciation of sexuality? Dude, if you want to help the poor, don't take away a source of free entertainment!

Plea

Look, I'm trying to help you here. Don't go to this restaurant. Even to spite me. Yes, you may enjoy the fried appetizers, but almost everything else is abominable. Not to mention the waiter's hovering while you sign the check. Have they already had a problem with people running out before John Hancocking their credit card slips? Or is that supposed to increase tip size? Perhaps you should not wait to clear the table until then, sir. My ability to write higher numbers goes down as my elbows are impeded by dirty dishes.

X meets Y

I should mentioned this when writing about School for Scoundrels, but I forgot. At any rate, if you take a look at the DVD box, you can read the quote Mr. Brown and I have been mocking for months: "Bad Santa meets Napoleon Dynamite," right between a picture of Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder. Well, yes, sort of. It's also Karl Childers meets that penguin from Surf's Up. On the other hand, it's a really easy formula for generating quotes for the fronts of boxes. Citizen Kane. It's Baron von Frankenstein meets that dude from the frozen foods ads...

Movie Diary

1) Xanadu: I know. Why did it take this long? Perhaps because I'd always heard it was dumb, but that isn't the most off-putting thing about a movie, which I should know by now. So, yes, it's a little dumb, but boy is it pretty. And man do I ever want to see the Broadway version now because the main fault of the movie is that there are parts when they're not singing and dancing. All the musical numbers are pretty marvelous, but the talking isn't so good. Anyway, I could happily listen to ELO for hours, and John Farrar's stuff doesn't sound terrible in comparison, either. And those musical numbers! Whooo. Sparkly, ridiculous, crammed with dancers in insane outfits, featuring more silly wipes than you can shake a stick at, and mostly set to Jeff Lynne's chorus of falsettos. Worth the time.

2) Black Christmas (2006): Okay, it sucks, especially in comparison with the original, from which it has borrowed only the most basic plot elements (Xmas, murder, Billy, sorority house, occasional use of phone), but it doesn't suck quite as bad as I was expecting it to. Or at least it sucks more in some areas and less in others. Not scary for one minute, but fairly amusing with the extent to which they take the gore, especially the eyeball eating. Man. There is a lot of eyeball eating. They've cut out the creepy voice from the original and added gobs of totally unnecessary backstory. Might I point out that the absence of real motivation or information helped drive the original and increased the scariness? Whereas this new version is close to a Billy Lenz bio-pic. It is decently well shot for the most part, or at least contains some interesting frames. Mostly, you can see what's going on. Faint praise? Perhaps, but not as faint as you might think in the current age. And there are occasional flashes of dialogue realism.

3) School for Scoundrels: Hey! Not shitty! Often, we rent movies we're pretty sure will be just because they have good people in them, hoping the happiness found therein will be enough to overcome the shittiness. Not that this is a fantastic movie by any means, but it's mostly above the lowest common denominator. The story is a bit incompetently told, but Jon Heder is quite easy to root for, and the underlying message (it's not always necessary to be a complete asshole to get what you want) is a nice one. The plot keywords that appear on the front page of its IMDB profile are "Hit In Crotch / Rivalry / Helicopter / Paintball / Tennis," and those things are all in the movie, but it's still better than that.

Lil' hobby

So the park and ride lot might, in fact, involve some more buses, which is one thing that's necessary for it to be successful. On the other hand, the money's not exactly there yet. Also, it's still not cutting out very much traffic. By the time you hit the interchange, especially in that area of town, in a car you're practically there. I'm not saying it's not a hike as a pedestrian, but in a car it's two minutes. Nor, as pointed out many a time, does traffic generally back up on Oconee Street in the mornings to the same extent as it does on College Station. What's the reason to pull over early, find a parking space, possibly pay money to ride the bus, wait on one of these "circulators," and then end up having to walk most likely from wherever it drops you off?

Zeier's also probably got some free time with that whole HomeBanc Mortgage thing, no?

Read

So this semester is devoted to Poe (and to finishing Tasso, which I'm getting closer on), meaning you may not get a lot of my literary readings posted, due to the fact that they're embedded in a narrative. But you are going to get some of his "Letter to Mr. _____," which lays out pretty much my own literary philosophy in excellent style:

Aristotle, with singular assurance, has declared poetry the most philosophical of all writing* — but it required a Wordsworth to pronounce it the most metaphysical. He seems to think that the end of poetry is, or should be, instruction — yet it is a truism that the end of our existence is happiness; if so, the end of every separate part of our existence — every thing connected with our existence should be still happiness. Therefore the end of instruction should be happiness; and happiness is another name for pleasure; — therefore the end of instruction should be pleasure: yet we see the above mentioned opinion implies precisely the reverse.

To proceed: ceteris paribus, he who pleases, is of more importance to his fellow men than he who instructs, since utility is happiness, and pleasure is the end already obtained which instruction is merely the means of obtaining.

. . .

As regards the greater truths, men oftener err by seeking them at the bottom than at the top; the depth lies in the huge abysses where wisdom is sought — not in the palpable palaces where she is found. The ancients were not always right in hiding the goddess in a well: witness the light which Bacon has thrown upon philosophy; witness the principles of our divine faith — that moral mechanism by which the simplicity of a child may overbalance the wisdom of a man.

Police Blotter (Steak Troopers edition)

Arrest: On Aug. 14, deputy Pat Holl met the manager of the Kroger on Epps Bridge Road who said he saw a woman, Allysia C. Henderson, 38, of Gainesville put two packages of steaks under her shirt and leave without paying. The manager then saw Henderson get into a car with a man, and that man came into the store a short time later with the same steaks and asked for a refund for them. An off-duty Athens-Clarke County police officer who was in the store at the time identified himself and ordered the man, J.L. Steve Wofford, 36, of Gainesville to stop, but the man began to run. The officer forced Wofford to the ground. Wofford and Henderson were both arrested and charged with theft by shoplifting.

If you're gonna go this route, might as well try for something that's worth the most per pound. Lobster?

Assault: On Aug. 9, deputy Donald Carr was dispatched to Ila after a grandmother complained she found her scantily clad 14-year-old granddaughter on a bed with a 22-year-old man from Hull. When Carr arrived about 12:55 p.m., the back door to the house was open and he could hear a TV. He knocked on the door and entered, where he saw the man with two boys in the living room. The man was wearing a tank top and boxer shorts. There was trash and dirty clothes were scattered around the room. Carr went into a bedroom and located the 14-year-old girl and an older woman. The girl said she didn't go to school that day, so Carr called her mother at work and explained why he was at her home. During this time, the Hull man left the house. The teenage girl denied any sexual involvement with the man. When the mother arrived, Carr warned her of possible charges for not ensuring that her daughter was in school.

Can't Larry Clark make a movie anymore?

Oconee. Madison.

Vidya

So you were too lazy to come out for the Kindercore throwdown, but you want to know what the Masters cover choir thingie sounded like? Oh, fine. Here you go.



More...



And then this, which isn't exactly the band proper, but still was worth filming:

Lil' hobby

A finely expressed bit about why crosswalks can often be more dangerous than not. Even on a two-lane street, if one car stops for you, you then, out of politeness as a pedestrian, feel that you should go. Of course, the other lane is paying no attention. One example of how this was decently handled was on Carlton Street, right next to the Coliseum, where there's a bus stop on each side of the road. There were some of those plastic doodads in the road, which formed a sort of safety oval in which the pedestrian could wait between crossing lanes. So... what happened to the doodads? Were they interfering with construction in some way? Because they've disappeared and all of a sudden even little bitty Carlton Street is darn difficult to cross, even when one hauls ass pretty well. There's still a painted widened, striped divider on the street, but we know cars don't pay attention to those and, indeed, it often serves as an area for them to zoom around a stopped bus. I say hooray for doodads.

Publications

Over at Artist Direct, we've got reviews of the new Architecture in Helsinki and the very last Mendoza Line.

Grub Notes goes to China Star Super Buffet (!) and swings by Kirk's Underground Cafe or whatever the frak it's called.

Answer

In answer to that fella (or possibly lady) who keeps asking this question everywhere: "what business do 18-20 year olds have in bars between midnight and 2:00 in the morning?" (and I believe I've answered that question before, but maybe the second time's the charm), let me provide just one example: Madeline Adams. I'm sure y'all can come up with a lot more. If you're going to characterize music venues as bars (and you clearly do), you need to realize that people both on stage and in the audience may well be under 21. And while we can talk all day about how shows need to start earlier, we can't really control that. It's not like 18-to-20 is massively different from 21 years old in terms of maturity level. There are plenty of 21-year-olds out vomiting on the streets of Athens at 2 a.m. Believe me. And there are plenty of folks much, much older than that who do so on Gameday. I happen to see the problem as more "drinking to excess and irresponsibly" than "underage drinking," but that wasn't your question.

Vidya

Late, but hopefully good enough to make up for it. Daniel Johnston doing "Hey Joe," possibly my favorite song of his, at Popfest this year.

And here's "Speeding Motorcycle."

Lil' hobby

Well. I suppose you can't really get out there, even in the bluest community in the state, and call for repeated demonstrations of how to put a condom on, using a banana. But isn't that fairly sad? Isn't it stupid that the paper has to couch its pro-sex-ed stance in words like this: "There is, however, some reason to question whether abstinence-based education is the best approach locally"? Because, you know, there's a lot of reason to question whether it's the best approach anywhere. I'm sure that, if you survey nurses and health educators, very few of them will say they favor abstinence-only education (and I guess, locally, at least we're abstinence-based rather than abstinence-only), but why is no one out there agitating for free birth control? Dear lord, even if you hate the poor, presumably you would prefer that they not be multiplying, and while providing birth control gratis does not solve the problem, it at least might reduce it for those women who don't want to have a baby out of loneliness and immaturity.

Also

There are no photographs from my attendance at the English Graduate Organization pic-a-nic at Lake Herrick. There is also a reason I do not usually go to those things, which was reinforced to me.

1. hot
2. poor, poor food (I missed out on the sack of Krystals, too)
3. generally socially stupid people
4. and lots of them are American lit students.

I like many American lit students, but man... there are a lot of them. Maybe it has something to do with us being in an America.

Anyway, there was free beer, which contributed to some sticking around. Next year, I suggest more beer, air conditioning, and perhaps some competitive Scrabble with people gathered around waving money for bets and yelling, a la The Deer Hunter.

The other thing I did on Sunday was work the penultimate GMOA Southern Summer event, in which Dr. McAlexander was amusing and whacked people with his cane both before and after the literature panel. Last one is this Sunday, should be just as entertaining (although containing some material on lynching, which is harder to work for comedy), and will leave me, please please Jesus, with nothing to do on a Sunday for a while. It's been a long month and it's not that close to being over.

Knowledge gained

Gordon Lamb told me that most candid shots of me end up looking like this. That is, the person I'm talking to in the photo, often Jared, but sometimes others, is looking at the camera, cognizant of the fact that it's there. Whereas I am intent on talking. It's not that I don't care that the camera's there. It's just that I honestly have no idea it is. Not until the flash goes off. I don't use my peripheral vision at all, due to really poor eyesight and many formative years wearing glasses as opposed to contacts. Also, I'm kind of not that observant unless I concentrate on it. So, if you would like my face to be in a photo, as opposed to my profile, sneak up on me from a different angle. Or throw something at me to get my attention. That might work.

It was a long night

Yeah. Jared's right. It was an awesome time Saturday night at the Kinderrebirth. Although hot. Really, really hot. Seriously, Caledonia people, if you start some sort of group where people can contribute to, at very least, buy you a large hunk of plywood to go over that skylight in the summer months, they would! I would! I don't get hot super easily, and I feel at death's door sometimes. Anyway... I know who could build a skylight cover...


Here's Fabulous Bird:


And USSR:


And King of Prussia:


There was a lot of going in and melting and occasionally getting the good spot that's under the fan and the vent and then going back outside and so on. During one of the trips outside, Ruby Isle started their set, and this girl ran up and said (not to us), "Ruby Isle is on. And they look kind of retarded, but they sound awesome." Only, they didn't even look retarded, unless you mean retardedly awesome. Several pictures might convey the marvelously sweaty energy of that set. I am dying to see them again.





Ah, and then the Masters tribute band, passing out lyrics sheets, dragging people up on stage.


See, people. If you had a Masters shirt, you pretty much had to go up.


Which is why Jared managed to take this shot of the by-this-point overflowing "crowd" of onlookers.


It was fun. I don't want to do it again for a while. Unless Ruby Isle is there. There's also some video I may get to uploading.

Viewing Diary

1. Inherit the Wind: We watched this some days ago, in hopes of writing about it for Kindercore, then promptly realized it wasn't technically on any of our lists. It's a perennial 3 1/2-star movie, not a 4-star. It was nominated for important Oscars, but didn't win Best Picture. It's a great Stanley Kramer film, but not the great Stanley Kramer film. All that is sort of sad, because it's really very good, much better than All the King's Men, despite dating from a similar era and being comparably political and containing lots of speeches. Perhaps it's that it seems once again relevant while not being ungentle. In fact, it's the stepping over boundaries that the film seems most concerned with. It's very important to be polite to others, and when you start dragging people up there on the stand and making them talk about supposedly confidential conversations, you're becoming less of a human being. Yes, freedom of speech and thought are important, but decency seems of greater import here; hence, the reporter character played by Gene Kelly. He's all snark and not much substance. His role is important in society, but he's kind of not a very good person when you come down to it. And all the main characters are flawed in some way or other. Fredric March may get to have the most fun, as Matthew Harrison Brady, noted evangelist, pontificator, and consumer of fried chicken. Anyway, it's a whole lot of talk and sweating and drama, but it's quite good and fun to watch.

2. Extras, season 2: Maybe not quite as funny as the first season, but maybe just as. There is one moment with a bottle of sparkling water that might be the best thing in the whole series. And there's a great feature on the DVD about poor taped-up Nigel, the editor, whose abuse I do manage to find very, very amusing. Bullying is not usually funny, but in this case it is, perhaps because Gervais is in complete hysterics about it the entire time or perhaps because it's just interesting to watch the situation being pushed farther and farther. Anyway, still pretty brill and horribly uncomfortable to watch.

3. Battlestar Galactica, season 2.0: Also suffers a little in comparison with season 1, but I'm not sure why. It's got some great heights, but it also has less comedy (less Gaius, really). Some plot developments are also less surprising and less quick. The end of this 2.0 half-season thing is very good, though, and it's a good thing we already have the first disc of 2.5, or we might be angry. As-is, it was hard to drag myself off to bed upon finishing 2.0, but it had to be done.

Really, a plug

No, really do come to the Caledonia on Saturday for the relaunch of Kindercore. The art stuff, at which you will be able to see Mr. Brown's creations in person, starts at 7 p.m. Early! Early even for old folks! Music kicks off at 9. I'm excited to see this comics anthology. And all of you, I hope.

Lil' bitty hobby

It's also possible that white dudes are more likely to have 1. a computer, 2. boiling rage, and 3. the free time to be political bloggers. Another thing I'm not sure is true here is that men raise their hands first in class, although perhaps that's colored by the overwhelmingly female English department. Most of the liberal arts end up that way. I presume the Ag School is balanced the other way, but the fact is that UGA has a lot more girls than dudes, and this is a trend nationwide with regard to college attendance. I'm sure some women are intimidated by online discourse, and that's something that shouldn't be the case, but it's not a huge loss to the world to have fewer people ranting about politics online.

Read

"Where would you go for a delicious, hot-off-the-grill panini? How about... your microwave?"

The only explanation I can come up with for why I find that ad funnier each time I see it is repetition.

Here's what our buddy Henri says on that:

This seems to me the solution of the little riddle propounded by Pascal in one passage of his Thoughts: "Two faces that are alike, although neither of them excites laughter by itself, make us laugh
when together, on account of their likeness." It might just as well be said: "The gestures of a public speaker, no one of which is
laughable by itself, excite laughter by their repetition." The truth is that a really living life should never repeat itself. Wherever there is repetition or complete similarity, we always suspect some mechanism at work behind the living. Analyse the impression you get from two faces that are too much alike, and you will find that you are thinking of two copies cast in the same mould, or two impressions of the same seal, or two reproductions of the same negative,--in a word, of some manufacturing process or other. This deflection of life towards the mechanical is here the real cause of laughter.

And later:

Our present problem no longer deals, like the preceding one, with a word or a sentence repeated by an individual, but rather with a situation, that is, a combination of circumstances, which recurs several times in its original form and thus contrasts with the changing stream of life. Everyday experience supplies us with this type of the comic, though only in a rudimentary state. Thus, you meet a friend in the street whom you have not seen for an age; there is nothing comic in the situation. If, however, you meet, him again the same day, and then a third and a fourth time, you may laugh at the "coincidence." Now, picture to yourself a series of imaginary events which affords a tolerably fair illusion of life, and within this ever-moving series imagine one and the same scene reproduced either by the same characters or by different ones: again you will have a coincidence, though a far more extraordinary one.

Lil' bitty hobby

The BRIDGE program does not seem like a terrible proposal. But if Glennypants thinks $20 million is a lot of money in terms of dealing with 30 percent of the school-going population in Georgia, he might need to hit the books his own self.

Publication

Here's that Linda Thompson review.

Police Blotter (unprocessed cow edition)

Burglary: On Aug. 1, a resident of Hull said she came home and found some straw on the floor of her kitchen and some other items that looked out of place. She became suspicious and found the windows of her home unlocked and someone had placed a recording device under her bed. Deputy David Kidd went to her home and found evidence that someone had climbed through a window. He took possession of the digital recorder that was found under the bed. The resident said she thinks her ex-husband might have done this. Although divorced for several years, he had returned to the area in July and she once found him sitting in her car. He would not give a reason for this. He later showed up at her work and explained that he was jealous. He apologized, but the woman is concerned about this pattern of behavior.

Incidental straw or part of a plan?

Burglary: On Aug. 2, deputy Jeff Strickland went to Singleton's Meat Processing on Georgia Highway 98, Comer where someone stole about 500 pounds of processed beef and two halves of unprocessed cow, all valued at $3,000.

In this weather?

Madison.

Publication

The annual wrap-up of what went down food and drink-wise in Athens this summer. Except it's wrong with regard to Five Star, which has already been boughten.

Read

In the process of doing research for something else, I came upon Henri Bergson's Laughter: An Essay on the Comic (1901). Not only did Bergson hang around with William James, but this work seems pretty important if you're interested in the theory of humor, and the only reason I can think of that I hadn't yet encountered it is my instinctual aversion to philosophy, which was sharpened by my schooling. Stupid Hillary. This thing is short, smart, and quite well written (at least on the part of the translators), in addition to being useful. Here, for example, is the first paragraph:

What does laughter mean? What is the basal element in the laughable? What common ground can we find between the grimace of a merry-andrew, a play upon words, an equivocal situation in a burlesque and a scene of high comedy? What method of distillation will yield us invariably the same essence from which so many different products borrow either their obtrusive odour or their delicate perfume? The greatest of thinkers, from Aristotle downwards, have tackled this little problem, which has a knack of baffling every effort, of slipping away and escaping only to bob up again, a pert challenge flung at philosophic speculation. Our excuse for attacking the problem in our turn must lie in the fact that we shall not aim at imprisoning the comic spirit within a definition. We regard it, above all, as a living thing. However trivial it may be, we shall treat it with the respect due to life. We shall confine ourselves to watching it grow and expand. Passing by imperceptible gradations from one form to another, it will be seen to achieve the strangest metamorphoses. We shall disdain nothing we have seen. Maybe we may gain from this prolonged contact, for the matter of that, something more flexible than an abstract definition,--a practical, intimate acquaintance, such as springs from a long companionship. And maybe we may also find that, unintentionally, we have made an acquaintance that is useful. For the comic spirit has a logic of its own, even in its wildest eccentricities. It has a method in its madness. It dreams, I admit, but it conjures up, in its dreams, visions that are at once accepted and understood by the whole of a social group. Can it then fail to throw light for us on the way that human imagination works, and more particularly social, collective, and popular imagination? Begotten of real life and akin to art, should it not also have something of its own to tell us about art and life?

Movie Diary

Children of Men: Hey, remember when I said Slither was my favorite movie to come out last year? That was pretty clearly because I hadn't seen this. And a lot of other stuff. I'll still stand by Slither as an awesomely entertaining little flick, but how this was not up there for best picture instead of, say, Little Miss Sunshine, I do not get. It seems to me the sort of thing we will look back on in ten or fifteen years with embarrassment (and there will be plenty of it when we remember Gladiator winning best picture). It's hard to say that this is the sort of work of genius that will stand the test of time yadda yadda yadda, but in the aftermath of having been absolutely wrecked by watching it, it certainly does feel that way. So, it's set in 2027, and yet it's the most contemporary film I can think of, and this rubbing up against everything that makes us feel pained and nauseated and heart-hurt in the present, but not in an obvious "making commentary" way, is what makes it so effective. It feels transported from a quite believable place in the future. One hesitates to side with the hyperbolic, but the film brings home that there has been a slide toward fascism, if not governmentally (we can argue about that, of course), then at least in the hearts and minds of the population. Because there's chaos. And there's only going to be more chaos. That horrible feeling of not knowing what's to come at any moment that we try to pretend isn't there when we get coffee every morning is bubbling up to the surface, and when we don't know what to do, we try to control the situation in piss-poor ways, which leads to more chaos. It's very impressive for a movie to capture any of that and yet not be preachy, not be bleak, not be boring or chaotic itself as a work of art.

Lil' hobby

Mr. Winders wants me to do a two-minute podcast. What do y'all want me to do it on?

Bar owners give a little to get a little, but Jack Lumpkin is still overzealous.

The training, fingerprinting and criminal background checks will help weed out those with alcohol or drug violations on their records, and allow police to begin arresting doormen who allow underage people into bars, accept fake IDs or accept real IDs that belong to someone else, Lumpkin said.

"I think we can cite them as a party to a crime, and we'll see what prosecutors do with that," he said.

Some fake IDs are good, you know? Perhaps we should have facial recognition scanning devices at doors. That would make sense. Also, are bars required not to hire those folks who have some criminal activity in their past? Because people who've been in jail still need jobs, and I would assume that working as a doorman is probably one you can get if you have been. Also, there is still concern about a disparity between restaurants and bars.

"I don't see kids trying to sneak into restaurants the way they sneak into bars," said Pat Daugherty, assistant vice president for student affairs at the University of Georgia.

Tell me if I'm out of line here, but I'm pretty sure that's because they don't have to.

Commas. Lack of commas. They're important.

Also also, on a national scale, while it does indicate some small bowing to public opinion, maybe, Karl Rove's resignation seems unlikely to affect matters in a big way. What? He and Bushie ain't gonna talk on the phone?

Movie Diary

1) The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: So, I've read the book a kazillion times, which is why I thought I was finding it boring. But then, Jared's never read any of the books, and he also found it so. So maybe it's just kind of boring. Also, you might need to have a little blood in your epic battle scenes to make it clear what's at stake. I don't mind the extended Christian allegory. I mean, I like Spenser. But I don't think Lewis would want an unrealistic picture of what battle and violence are like. All the kids are fine, and the effects are mostly good (there are a few weightless wolves and obvious greenscreens in the background), but mostly what I found myself wondering about was "Who's in charge of animating the lion butt?" And that's not such a good sign because it implies that you're focusing on silly details and not paying attention to the sweep of things because the sweep of things is failing to capture your imagination. Also, the overly magical score detracts a lot. Stop cuing me that I'm supposed to be awed and impressed by what's under that sheet. It's in the title of the movie. I might actually be able to figure it out without your help, Mr. Gregson-Williams.

Lite

We are too old apparently to do much Popfest, even limiting it to one night. Or we don't have access to the same energy drinks Gordon Lamb does. Anyway, on a disgustingly sweaty night, we did still manage to catch a couple of minutes of Cars Can Be Blue, then left for a friend's birthday shindig (and the air conditioning of Little Kings), then made it back for Elekibass ("Santa Claus, rock and roll!" Seeing Elekibass once is a joy; seeing them a second time makes one at first sad, as one sees the same routines in their set, but then, it's all redeemed with two Santa Clauses) and most of Daniel Johnston before consuming a JB dog and going home to bed.

Oh, right, and I had an entry for Overheard in Athens that I haven't posted yet.

Jared has more about stuff we saw and heard about.

Lil' hobby

New watering rules. These designed not to dye your load of clothes in the washer brown even temporarily.

Presumably the EDF has a little more money to spare? They're asking quite a lot for a $25K one-year-only (at least for now) position.

This is why we love Dan Magill. One of my favorite nostalgia-fests in a long time.

In some ways, this editorial on ACC's temporary new school super is par for the course: urging caution and thought and government efficiency--all things the paper seems to be in favor of. But then, why write it? To balance the love story in the previous day's issue? And also this:

Indeed, one of the problems with the Clarke County School District is that there hasn't seemed to be any particular urgency about improving important markers such as standardized test scores and graduation rates. If the district's stated commitment to the goals of the OneAthens anti-poverty initiative is to mean anything, that improvement must come soon - and part of reaching that goal will be finding a superintendent equal to that considerable challenge.

One might point out that if your goal is a) kind of bullshit and b) constantly moved, changing, and otherwise made more difficult to achieve, you might start to get less than enthused. The other thing to note here is that I'm not sure I've seen any evidence of laziness in moving toward these aims. Government is big, yo. And turtle-ish. What would the paper like to happen?

Read

I've been working on Edward Fairfax's translation of Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (yes, I know the semester is over, but I'm not done yet) for a little bit now. The first book is sort of dull and terrible, especially after all that sparkling Ariosto. Here's an analogy: it's cheese after champagne. Both marvelous things but each likes to murder the other. It takes a little space before they can get along again. So Tasso is a nice, heavy, complicated, stinky cheese, and once you get into the second book and farther, you begin to develop a lot more appreciation for it, partially because Fairfax is such a darn good translator, with a great grasp of rhythms. Anyway, that was the setup. This is the stanza that caught my eye yesterday as oddly familiar:

And so he trusts to wash away the stain,
And hide his shameful act with mine offence;
And saith he will restore the throne again,
To its late honour and due excellence;
And therefore would I should be algates slain,
For while I live his right is in suspense--
This is the cause my guiltless life is sought,
For on my ruin is his safety wrought. (book 4, stanza 60)

It's about the change of power and the methods by which it is achieved, and while this is much more of a coup than anything we've witnessed lately, some of the language, the stuff about restoring honor to the position, and how that's a load, a justification for the power grab, does seem, you know, to have an echo in the present.

You can't do a screencap of something flashing

Dudes. There is a fucking breaking story at Flagpole.com. Breaking!

Inquiring Minds

How about, "I was drunk"?

Hobbyhorse

It's interesting to paint interim school super James Simms as an outsider to education when he's worked as director of district services for four years and in education for seven. Yes, it's his second career, but it's not like he's coming from a completely different field (joke?).

Hmm, I didn't know this is what they were using the land for. I know the science library isn't right next to the main library, but a lot of the stuff that'll be housed in this special collections one is stuff that bears more of a relationship to items in the main library, so it may be aggravating to have to hoof it back and forth. But perhaps that's colored by the 100-degree heat of late. Also, was KA's acceptance contingent on the university also buying DPE? It sounds as though the university sort of shrugged and said "okay, we'll buy that other property despite not having planned to."

Please note the important part of this story: the Oconee County commissioners were high-fiving each other at one point.

Arcanity no doubt to follow in the Bobby Baker civil trial. Has Dozier been sneaking in the bushes, taking photos of Baker picking up his morning paper in Atlanta?

One don't really know what the solution is, either. Not elect them at all? Have them serve much longer terms?

Look, it's nice that the commission's considering having more of a web presence in order to make more contact with the public, but there's not a way to ensure people use their real names. That doesn't even exist off the internet. I could walk up to Doug Lowry and have a long discussion about serious policy issues, then tell him my name is bulldog20. Yes, it's aggravating when people feel the need to use pseudonyms, and it's even more so when they don't leave any name at all, but, you know, that's the internet. Freedom comes with drawbacks too.

FO

I've been sitting on this one for a while now, as it was a birthday gift for a friend. A friend who doesn't read this, but still, one must be careful with surprises. Also, it's knit to fit her, not me, or so I hope. This was my first try with circular knitting, and, while it led to a kabillion times starting over and being generally pissed that the yarn was twisted once again (540 stitches of it), it worked out well after I managed to get a non-twisty start. One thing that's nice about it is that you can use any worsted weight yarn. I think I just used Red Heart acrylic so it would be more washable. Here's the pattern, if you want to give it a go. Items of clothing other than scarves and hats are pretty exciting.

Lil' hobby

It's understandable that a commissioner would miss a meeting here and there. Or forget to read the paper. But blaming your own failings to do on some sort of pro-alcohol conspiracy isn't really the way to go. Also, sidewalks on Research Drive to follow the bike lanes that are currently being built there. It would be nice if they could do it at the same time, but I guess the road's just going to be a big pain to go down for a longer period. And 75 new bus stops? What's up? Shelters?

Police Blotter (GLAD to edition)

Arrest: On July 23, deputy Wesley Bryant was dispatched to a location on Sherwood Circle, Danielsville where a woman said she drove to the location to drop off a friend. As she was pulling out of the yard, another woman at a nearby home began shouting at her and used an obscene hand gesture. The victim said she almost used the obscene hand gesture, too. When she arrived home, the telephone rang and another woman told her that the woman shouting in the yard had said she would put "a bounty on her head." Bryant spoke with the offender and she admitted to the hand gesture and shouting for the woman to come into the street. Vickie Lynn Batchelor, 34, of Sherwood Circle was arrested for making a terroristic threat.

Flipping someone off ain't a crime. You can probably legally do it back to someone if they did it to you. Otherwise a lot of us would be in jail.

Arrest: On July 27, Lt. Steve Gary was traveling on Georgia Highway 98 about 11 p.m. when an oncoming car crossed the centerline causing Gary to steer off the highway onto the shoulder of the road. Gary stopped the car and asked the driver, Brandon Michael Sharp, 18, of Neese Commerce Road if he had been drinking. Although he smelled of alcohol and his speech was slurred, Sharp said, "No, I ain't drank nothing." However, Sharp said he would be glad to take a test. When he failed the test, he was arrested for DUI. The parents of two teenage girls in the car were called to pick them up.

Ah, telling the truth accidentally through a double negative, one of my favorite catches.

Madison.

Publications

Grub Notes heads to Brett's Casual American and Jimmy's BBQ, neither of which is half bad.

And here's a big ol' Popfest piece in machine-gun-spray questionnaire style. The Q&A stuff is mine. I'm presuming the rest is Gordon's (?).

Listy

Through August, so's you know, the album list is looking like this:

1. Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
2. R. Kelly, Double Up
3. Linda Thompson, Versatile Heart
4. Dr. Dog, We All Belong
5. Art Brut, It's a Bit Complicated
6. Rufus Wainwright, Release the Stars
7. The Broken Bits, Frangible Tangible
8. Bobby Valentino, Special Occasion
9. Je Suis France, Afrikan Majik
10. Elekibass, Welcome Wonderful World

Am I missing things that I have liked?

Hobbyhorse

The real question is what in the hell The Damn Show is still doing around. The explanation of the satire is at least as funny as the satire itself, though.

Look, students, the state ain't gon' tax people to pay for public higher education. It barely wants to tax people to pay for public primary education. Realistically, the tuition hikes still don't make the money you have to shell out unfathomable, and they do seem to be targeted toward people who might make some money post-graduation.

Smartish kids doing well at math in Clarke County. Retarded kids, less so. Thanks, NLCB. That's informative.

Please to note, folks who were citing Brian Kemp as an example of a Republican who still likes Athens (and perhaps he does, on a personal level), this article mentions that he gave to Jim Whitehead's campaign.

Julie plugs GMOA's event this summer. Come eat some free Goo Goo Clusters.

Today's editorial favors giving the people who'll actually administer drivers' education programs control over it.

Candace Langford has the first letter to the paper that says, "Dude, I'm sorry about your garden, but we are in a drought." Yes, it's not very nice to hear, and once I have a garden of my own (rather than a sprawling mess of ivy, a patchy lawn, and some holly bushes and lariope that grow no matter what one does to them) I'm sure I'll be complaining about water restrictions too. Also, as has been established through debate on the internets, they're inconsistent and this is frustrating. However, it's freaking hot and not raining and it's possible your petunias will die.

Hobbyhorse

One small area of state governance that mirrors the attitude of the whole is driver's education, which is both required and not provided. Now there's $140K to spread among 35 counties, a drop in the bucket. Better a drop than an empty bucket, I suppose, but one should not count it as true largesse.

Change out Lumpkin for Carlton, River Road, and College Station.

Watch the wastewater treatment plant story in Oconee County. Expansion of capacity always has unexpected side effects. Here's another question: will/can they share?

Editorial characterizes hiring of Schmidt as new principal of Barnett Shoals as a victory for parent involvement.

This is why we still have such ridiculous restrictions on liquor licenses: letter writers who think the possibility of serving alcohol near a church or a school means the latter are somehow secondary in esteem or priorities or who knows what. How about it can at least be possible when the restaurant is near a church that uses wine in its communion services?

I suppose that, in my honorary Johnathan McGinty capacity, I should comment on the Republican candidates for president debating on Sunday morning and the way in which they chose to bash Obama: namely, his response to a hypothetical question that was intended to show hypothetical willingness to be tough was taken as though it were a policy proposal. Look, we're not into the general election yet. We're not even really that close to primaries. Could y'all try to be not only civil to one another but also to your potential opponents? Also, if anyone could think of taxes as not evil, that would be nice.

Old Business

Readers, I apologize. Jared took this photograph weeks ago, and it has languished on the computer. Please know that if I were able to drive this monster truck, I would already have my license.

Movie Diary

1. The History Boys: It's too bad it's not more than it is, but at least it is as much as it is, which is a celebration of real and unpretentious knowledge and a small dart against mere argument. It's hard to do this without coming off like a jackass who hates modernity, mired in nostalgia and sentimental about books, but the film succeeds pretty well on that count. It's when it strays from talking about the joys of learning and tries to do plot that it stumbles a little. Not much, but there is clunkiness in the actual working out of characters' lives that is not in a scene discussing Thomas Hardy's poetry. Nice double feature with Thank You for Smoking, perhaps.

2. Deja Vu: It's good to know Tony Scott can still make a movie that doesn't annoy the pants off me. Is all this "window into the past" stuff kind of silly and adolescent and full of flaws? Well, duh. Of course it is. But you're not supposed to pay attention to where it goes wrong. You are, instead, supposed to think "cool!" and be generally delighted. This is where having someone like Denzel in your movie helps. There's one particular scene that features him driving a Hummer while wearing a headset that allows him to look into the past, but at the same time, he has to drive in the present, so he devotes one eye to each purpose, and he makes a marvelous face that says, "Hey! This is kind of fun," even though it's in the middle of a tense situation with hundreds of lives in the balance. That face kind of conveys the pleasure of the whole movie. It's nice to see Scott take a small step back from darkness, choosing not to cut fingers off rather than to cut fingers off. And while it's easy to figure out what's happening where and what will happen, the anticipation isn't too far ahead of it happening onscreen and therefore carries its own pleasantness. Also, nice job on that boat explosion.

I also watched Persona, but you'll have to look for that on the Kindercore blog soon.

Read

Ian Parker's "Swingers," an examination of the current state of bonobo studies and the controversy over whether they are indeed "hippie chimps" or whether the available research has been distorted by focusing on captive animals, has a meditation on Hobbes v. Rousseau running throughout it that is not inexplicit. I enjoy that facet a lot, not having made up my mind, thankfully, on whether we are basically monkeys and, further, what that means for the foundations of human nature (violent or not?). But Parker is also always great with the amusing detail, and there are many of those here. e.g.,

Poachers, whose smoked-bonobo carcasses can fetch five dollars each in Kinshasa’s markets, have often been seen in the forest, and their gunfire often heard. Their livelihood was disrupted last year when Jonas Eriksson, a Swedish researcher on a visit to Lui Kotal, burned down their forest encampment. I was later given a translation of the graffiti: “JONAS: VAGINA OF YOUR MOTHER.”

. . .

A fact not emphasized in wildlife films is that ape identification is frequently done by zoomed-in inspection of genitals. A lot of the conversation at Lui Kotal’s dinner table dealt with scrotal shading or the shape of a female bonobo’s pink sexual swelling. (“This one is like chewing gum spit out,” Caroline Deimel, the Austrian, once said of a female.)

Hobbyhorse

Fuller edition than usual, due to Mr. McGinty's current busyness.

You've been treated to some of this already chez McGeezy, thanks to Elton D's preview of Lynn's intentions, but, yes, there's a possibility our restrictions on serving alcohol in a few Athens restaurants due to their proximity to churches may become less stupid. Also, is it still the case that whatever would go into the Leathers Building's restaurant space wouldn't be able to serve alcohol under the current restrictions? Because, if so, and if they're not changed, that space will never fill.

The new security devices/procedures at Clarke Middle probably aren't harmful, but they're hardly un-bypassable. I'm sure Cho Seung-Hui had a driver's license. He also had a legitimate reason to be on campus. As always, I'd prefer that statistics be considered in these situations in a reasonable manner, but people do tend to get hyper about their kids.

More specifics on what's being delayed in road construction, due to DOT shortfalls. The most interesting one of these to me, because I pass it every weekday, is the replacement of the College Station bridge with a new one. This is certainly one area of the work commute that could stand to be improved. Due to the disappearance of bike lanes on the bridge, one cyclist can slow all traffic on the road. It also leads to people speeding up in order to pass said cyclist before they hit the bridge, which isn't super-safe either. Hands up, all who think Richardson and Cagle's state audit will affect the efficiency of road construction one iota.

Lord knows voting against expanding health care for impoverished children makes for great headlines. On the other hand, the funding doesn't seem to be worked out particularly well, based on taxes on cigarettes and, in the House, on reducing federal payments to Medicare HMOs. Yes, the money has to come from somewhere, but basing it on a consumption tax of a product that's somewhat elastic in demand and on taking something from the pocket of another necessary health care program doesn't seem like the best idea.

Why is this the last chance for the TDR program to succeed? Well because the newspaper says so. Duh! Who else would get to determine the deadline?

Jonah Goldberg's column takes us back to the days of literacy tests. Ah, nostalgia. Things were clearly better in this country when fewer people could vote...

Charles's letter to the paper expresses an inclusive sentiment, but the fact is there is a difference to most people between "fighting them here" and "fighting them there." Whether or not the climate of tense fear of terrorism striking locally is logical (and, of course, as with most fears, it is not), it exists. Yes, many Americans are tied to the soldiers (and contractors) overseas, but many more Americans are frightened by the possibility of local terrorism. As long as we continue to act like skittery idiots, this kind of argument will work.

Jim Scott might have wanted to take two seconds to look at the NAACP's website before sending in his letter. I don't see Michael Vick's name on the front page. Do you? That might indicate his case isn't a huge priority.

Movie Diary

Notes on a Scandal: Hmm, well. Right when it was over, Mr. Brown commented that you knew what was going to happen from the beginning, and that's true. Sometimes, that doesn't matter and a great work of art can result, but I found this a little thin. My impression is that the book it's based on consists of the diaries, which would make it a bit more difficult for the reader to perceive the craziness at work (or at least, you'd have to read harder to find the reality of each situation described), but that doesn't work in movies unless you pull a Tyler Durden. The camera doesn't lie to us at all here. In fact, it's actively revealing of Barbara's obsession through where it lingers (all of Sheba's lovelinesses). So, are a lot of cases in which women destroy other women based on attraction? That's not to say they're lesbianic exactly, but most friendships have an element of crush in them, and if you're the kind of person to lash out when you get your feelings hurt, that'll happen regardless of the relationship. Here's the other thing: who in the world really wants to have sex with a fifteen-year-old other than another fifteen-year-old? That's what's indicative that what's wrong with Sheba is about as bad as what's wrong with Barbara. It's smartly directed and acted, but ultimately disappointing.

Publications

Reviews of The Broken Bits' Frangible Tangible and the Bros. Marler.

What comes after Graduation?

I got Kanye's next album cover right here.

Inquiring Minds

Yes. If you want to win that beard competition in a few months, you better start chowing down on some Legos.

Lil' hobby

Dudes, you do sort of present some reasons as to why things need to change at Grady. What you do not do is tell us why a nonprofit corporate board will be better at obtaining the needed $74 million shortfall for the hospital than the current governing authority. Or where they're going to get it from, if not the state. Isn't it admirable that the state actually wants to get involved in this case, rather than letting an important institution of public health fail and shut its doors? What kind of influence do you think they'll wield? No more stem cell whatnot at Grady? Okay, I'll even grant that, but can't you argue for the state to give the money (hello, budget surplus) but not be involved other than that? The unknown does not equal evil or even worse than what exists.

Police Blotter (Too Hot to Be Funny edition)

Arrest: On July 22, deputy W.K. Elrod was dispatched to a home on Mason Mill Road, where a family reported that two vehicles had been entered and about $1,900 worth of property was stolen, including five tennis rackets, parkas, sunglasses and iPods. Later that day, Elrod was dispatched to Play It Again Sports in Athens, where the victim of another car break-in case was at the business with Athens-Clarke police officers. The victim of that case said he lived on Tybee Trace in Oconee County and that someone had stolen a set of Cleveland golf clubs from his vehicle. He said he went to work in Athens and his mother called Play It Again Sports and gave them ID information on the golf clubs and her son's telephone number. About 4:30 p.m., two men went into Play It Again and tried to sell those golf clubs. The business owner contacted Athens-Clarke police. The two men said they had found the clubs on Spartan Lane near the entrance to Athens Academy. Elrod asked them why they were trying to sell something they had found and didn't own. They said, "We don't play golf." Elrod took the suspects into custody and a search of their vehicle revealed an iPod adapter, which they said belong to a friend. The victim of the thefts on Mason Mill Road was asked to look at the item and she identified it as belonging to her. In addition, she said it was set for radio station 87.9. The adapter was plugged it and that station number appeared. The two men, Thomas H. Murin, 18, of Spartan Lane and Patrick H. Nunnally, 18, of Kings Mill Run, Athens were both charged with felony possession of stolen property, three counts of entering auto and one count of theft of lost property.

For once, a not-so-terrible excuse.

Complaint: On July 21, deputy Tommy Williams responded to a dispute on Sherwood Circle, Danielsville involving a woman and her sisters. There were allegations made that one sister swore at the others on the street in view of the public. Williams contacted this woman, who said she had words with her sisters over what they have been putting in a blog about her and the family. Williams advised her to keep copies of the blogs for any possible court action.

Someday, this could be me.

Oconee. Madison.