8 FEB 03: CHEERS AND CHANGES
Tonight's walk at The Mall was a slow one - two laps in about 26:38. That's the problem with being a one-mall town. All the fast walkers like me get mixed in with the slowpokes who actually are shopping.
The Christian store at The Mall is in the final days of its "going out of business" sale. I stopped and looked at the small number of items left on the shelves -- but I resisted the urge to ask which employees failed to pray for customers.
No, I did NOT buy anything at the Christian store -- even though everything was marked down at least 35 percent. This is a theological dilemma for me. Either I buy something I don't need, and help my neighbor survive - or I DON'T buy something, thinking God will appreciate my lack of possessions.
The Georgia state high school cheerleading convention has been in town the last couple of days -- and I'm told The Mall was filled with cheerleaders Friday. My work schedule has been simply TOO oppressive lately....
(But then again, I'm getting to the age where The Mall's security guards might have seen me around those cheerleaders, and pulled me into an office for questioning.)
It's a bit strange for me to believe high school cheerleaders have championship tournaments now. Some of us can remember when their biggest competition was getting to date the starting quarterback.
Not far from The Mall, US Airways made its last flight from Columbus Metro Airport today - and it had only TWO passengers on it! It almost makes me wonder why they're stopping service....
US Airways's pullaway leaves Columbus as a one-airline town - and that airline only flies to Atlanta, 100 miles away. You could drive from Hartsfield Airport to Columbus in the time it takes to change planes and face all the security checks.
Getting caught up on some loose change from the last few days:
+ My TV station called a news conference Thursday to announce its fancy new Doppler radar system - and people who were there tell me the only "news media" to show up was ONE newspaper columnist. Well, at least our station had EXCLUSIVE video of the event at 11:00 p.m.
Local car dealer Bill Heard reportedly was there, too - since Chevrolet is sponsoring the radar. Heard already has a concert hall and a major road in town named after him. If this becomes the "Bill Heard Radar" instead of Doppler Radar, this will be the last straw.
Our radar system is called "Triple Doppler Nine." I was hoping Baskin-Robbins would sponsor it - so we'd have "Triple Dip Doppler" instead.
+ The new management of the leading news/talk radio station in town dropped the hammer Thursday. The local news-and-chat show in the early morning was replaced by "Imus in the Morning" from New York. Is it just me, or does Imus mumble about as badly as Ozzy Osbourne?
When I moved to Columbus six years ago, Don Imus was on a different radio station -- and his ratings were low, while the news-talk station did well. Now remarkably, the roles are reversed! Imus's old station is news-talk in the morning, Imus is on that other station -- and to everyone's delight, Howard Stern still can't be heard at all.