26 JUL 05: HOW HOT IS IT?

Why, I'm glad you asked that question. To borrow from the late Johnny Carson, the last few days have been SO HOT....

+ Columbus pools reportedly were EMPTY Monday! Youngsters were indoors playing video games like never before.

+ People are walking into convenience stores, and asking why water doesn't come in 20-ounce chilled cans the way beer does.

+ The staff at "Sunny 100" FM is lobbying the weather service, to make sure the temperature isn't really that high.

+ Home construction crews in Columbus are taking so many breaks, people driving by think everyone smokes.

+ People are calling the Valley Rescue Mission and saying, "Fan Club?! I want an air conditioner!"

+ The Warm Springs City Council may change the town name to "Mild Springs," so tourists keep coming.

+ Buck Ice is making 30 tons of ice a day - yet employees are more tempted than ever to touch it with their human hands.

+ Record numbers of people called TV meteorologists to ask which book comes with a "heat index."

+ People at the Gallops Senior Center are simply moseying.

+ Some customers at the Fourth Avenue Car Wash asked to walk through the wash, behind their cars.

+ Atlanta still felt it had to live up to the "Hot-lanta" image. Did you see that massive late-night fire at Atlantic Station?

+ Drunks downtown aren't simply "drying out" outdoors - they're starting to shrivel a bit.

+ Brewster's Ice Cream may stage a "scientific experiment," to see which flavor melts fastest.

+ WCGT's Jerry Laquire considered doing his "Final Edition" show topless - but then realized he might lose the few viewers he has.

+ Someone in Phenix City government started doodling a new city logo - with a "phenix" coming out of a microwave oven.

+ A cement truck in Columbus overheated Monday - and the wrecker driver was asked to bring a chisel.

+ Columbus Water Works is thinking about coming out with a challenger to "Callaway Blue" bottled water. If only it can improve on the name "Chattahoochee Brown...."

+ Some people bought bread at bread stores - only to drive home and find it was toast.

+ Phenix City State Senator Lesley Vance proposed a resolution encouraging all Alabamians to avoid steam rooms, as well as Aruba.

+ Willy's Wings may change its "hot" flavor to read "25 degrees above regular."

+ A few people backed out of Monday night's "Critical Mass" bicycle ride downtown, because their bikes aren't air-conditioned.

+ WRBL's Jessica Clark went out to prove "Everybody Has a Story" - and wished in addition to a phone book, dart, dartboard and camera, she'd brought a water jug as well.

+ The AFL-CIO had a meltdown Monday -- and it met in Chicago.

BLOG CORRECTION: Sometimes we get our letters confused - and a reader of Monday's entry noticed:

Mr. Burkard,

I know how you news media types are sticklers for making every effort to verify the facts of your stories before you report them. And I am sure you exercised that effort in putting together the facts for your recent blog concerning the new law regarding obscuring automobile license plates. However it is highly probably that your reference papers got 'shooshed' around on your desk during your haste to put together this blog. Perhaps when you were glancing down for reference to the profession of Ellen Cameron's husband you looked into the wrong pile.

Dr. Cameron is an 'Orthodontist', not a chiropractor.

I know this because they are both close friends of mine.....

Bubba

We thank Bubba for setting the record straight -- and we wonder why he didn't mention Ellen Cameron's new law about plastic covers on car tags on his blog before we did.

I saw "P.C." in the phone book for Ellen Cameron's husband, and mistakenly thought it meant a chiropractic practitioner. I didn't consider the "D.M.D." before the P.C. Hopefully that isn't shorthand for the doctor being demanding.

And how did Bubba know I was "shooshing" at my desk? If anything, that verb refers to my eyes rolling around as I finish a blog entry half-awake after midnight.

E-MAIL UPDATE: While we're at the InBox, we received a reply to Monday's Instant Message - but not from our original target:

Hi Richard,

I was wondering the same about the change of calls on channel 66. Someone else contacted them about it, and here is their response:

Thanks for your interest in WLGA! Actually the call letters, WLGA, don't "stand" for anything in particular. From time to time we may use slogans that coincide with the letters, but there is nothing official that they stand for.

I think this represents the first step toward remaking the station, with the new Columbus office and a new transmission tower under construction. After all the changes, WLGA will have a signal stronger than either WXTX or WLTZ.

Thomas

Thanks for the update, Thomas. I suppose the old call letters WSWS stood for something - but why brag in Opelika that you're Swiss?

(The old call letters actually were a problem, especially online - because the initials WSWS stand for a society of Socialists. That might work in New York or San Francisco, but not in East Alabama.)

Your blog called WLGA Monday, and was told its new tower with a stronger signal should be ready in October. The staff believes the tower near Cusseta came crashing down earlier this year due to strong winds, NOT vandalism. So for once, Chattahoochee County dropouts are off the hook.

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