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13 AUG 04: TRIPPING OVER A CRACK
"Name's Maureen. I'm 15," says the poetry-minded writer from Auburn, "and I'm not very intresting." This statement only proves in the summer of 2004, anyone can have a blog - whether they really want you to read it or not.
I stumbled across a new blog while online a few weeks ago - kept by a teenager who calls herself "Alabama's Crack Whore." If someone in Phenix City had a blog with this title, Fort Benning would have banned it immediately.
"Mo" is the official online name of this young Auburn blog-keeper. But why in the world would she call herself "Alabama's Crack Whore?" Shouldn't this title be reserved for someone living on the west side of Birmingham?
From what I've read of her blog, 15-year-old Mo does NOT seem to use crack, nor does she come across to me as a whore. Of course, she's been writing about "summer stuff" in recent weeks - and she never said exactly what that stuff
was....
"Alabama's Crack Whore" seems interested in all the things you'd expect a 15-year-old to like. There are vacation pictures, animal photos, entries about shopping trips - so where are the statements expressing unconditional love for Nick
Carter?
But Thursday's entry by Mo was a bit somber - because Thursday was the first day of a new school year in Auburn. She puts it quite well: "I love my summer. But my summer left me." Those of us keeping air conditioners off and saving on our
electric bills aren't missing summer much at all.
Mo admits she only slept three-and-a-half hours before the first day of her sophomore year at Auburn High. But she probably wasn't the only sleepless one in east Alabama. Take the superintendents knowing the "No Child Left Behind" reports were coming out Thursday....
(By the way, how about those education reports? Hundreds of Alabama schools did not meet their goals on aptitude tests. If the high school football teams were that unsuccessful, the coaching staffs would have been changed.)
The thing about an online blog is that you can be as open and opinionated as you dare. Mo did that Thursday, declaring two students in her English class "obnoxious...." well, I'd better stop there. The parents of those students might make it a class-action slander suit.
"I'm going to try and be a good kid this year," Mo vows on her blog. We sincerely hope she does that. She can bury and hide all those past sins for awhile - then reveal them all at a dramatic news conference, like New Jersey's Governor did.
I don't want to settle for three-and-a-half hours of sleep myself, so let's wrap up other things from Thursday:
+ More gas stations around South Commons dropped their price below $1.70 a gallon, as Citgo went down again to $1.68. Maybe at $1.50, I'll dare to fill my tank there - but only on a sunny day around noon.
+ A public hearing at Hannan Academy brought out people against the widening of Talbotton/Warm Springs Road. Some doctors fear they'll have to close or move offices on this road. And the repair shop of "Mac the Mechanic" probably will go
under, because fewer drivers will have wrecks right in front of him.
+ WRBL investigated leaking roofs at the Mission Square Shopping Center. A manager explained the special Spanish-style tiles for the roofs have been unavailable for almost a year. I didn't realize southern California wildfires had damaged that many homes.
+ Instant Message to WDAK Radio: It's just as well you lost your signal around 11:00 p.m. Thursday night. People still listening to the Atlanta Falcons' loss needed some extra prompting to give up and go to bed.
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