31 DEC 06: BETCHA DIDN'T KNOW
Our topic today is inspired by something we saw linked at a message board a couple of weeks ago. Every week the British Broadcasting Corporation posts a list of "things we didn't know last week." There's a year-end list of 100 things the BBC didn't know a year ago -- which is amazing, since the BBC comes across for being SO filled with know-it-alls.
Some items on the BBC's list were certainly new to me, and probably are to you. But that led me to thinking - what sorts of things do I know now, that I did NOT know when 2006 began? So I started making a list, in no particular order....
1. Columbus has a "Big Eddy Club." And amazingly, it is NOT located near Eddy Middle School.
This discovery came only this weekend, because of this e-mail:
Scroll down and read the synopsis. Now it appears that the members of the Big Eddy club conspired to have Carlton Gary arrested, tried and convicted as the "Columbus Strangler"
We'll get to the synopsis in a moment, but we should mention the title of this e-mail. The writer of this message says Richard Hyatt's column in Friday's Ledger-Enquirer is based on a summary at Amazon.com of an upcoming book on the "Stocking Strangler" killings. Given this book and Cilla McCain's, maybe it's time to shop around my book of blog humor again.
The book coming in May is called "The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice." Author David Rose apparently claims all the women purportedly killed by Carlton Gary were connected to the club in Green Island Hills - a club so exclusive, I don't recall it ever giving away toys to children in December.
The original book synopsis posted at Amazon.com claimed the Big Eddy Club is a "tiny clique" which is all-white, bigoted and has run Columbus for more than a century. David Rose says the summary was NOT written by him. It sounds like the author could have been Bill Madison or Edward DuBose.
David Rose wants the book summary removed from Amazon.com, saying it's full of errors. And it was gone at our post time, when we checked the Amazon page for the book. So I will NOT post it here -- unless someone from the Big Eddy Club will come forward to admit he or she actually is a white bigot. And in Columbus, someone might actually do that....
David Rose told the newspaper Columbus is much less racist than it used to be. But the Amazon book summary called the city "fascinating and rotten." Now I'm thinking the synopsis was written by someone who moved away of town, to a wealthy Atlanta suburb.
(But then, the summary said Columbus one of the country's lowest crime rates - so Mayor Bob Poydasheff must have been interviewed at some point.)
The book summary claimed the Big Eddy Club works out "almost everything that happens in Columbus." At last - an explanation for that Albert Paley sculpture which nearly wound up in front of the main library.
The book summary also claimed the same individuals and families "crop up at almost every twist and turn of Columbus' history." So?! Does that mean the prosecution of Carlton Gary was funded by the Bradley Turner Foundation?
The summary said David Rose's book will connect Carlton Gary to a lynching and killing in Columbus in 1900, because both cases involve families in the Big Eddy Club. If this is true, how did club members sneak their way onto Gary's jury?
The synopsis declared Carlton Gary "a victim of lynching by due process," because "many people believe" he did NOT commit the Stocking Strangler killings. If so many people believe that, then Gary must be friends with every defense lawyer in Columbus -- because they're the only people who say so publicly.
The Ledger-Enquirer reports author David Rose interviewed Carlton Gary on Georgia's death row - and got out with a DNA sample. This could make for the most interesting show Maury Povich has ever had....
David Rose believes evidence was withheld from Carlton Gary's trial which could set him free. Perhaps so -- but during my years in Columbus, I can't recall any local civil rights leader speaking up in Gary's defense. But then again, maybe the mysterious Big Eddy Club paid them off as well.
2. Hurtsboro may have a cadre of people running that town as well. We're still trying to confirm whether it's called the "Little Eddy Club."
We learn about this through another weekend e-mail, from a very surprising source....
Dear Sir:
This is my first attempt at "Blogging" so forgive any and all errors!
I've found my name mentioned on your Blog; and I must say that I'm gratified. For those who are not familiar with me - I've dedicated myself to helping Hurtsboro regain some semblance of civility. Believe me! It been no small task! But it seems with Publicity; County and even State Agencies are more willing to help.
The local media granted me coverage for a while - then tired of the same tune by a one man band! When I became too much of a thorn in the Hurtsboro officials side, They imported an outside Judge to try and throttle me! It's yet to be determined how well their little plan worked!
If anyone is the least bit curious about what's happening in "Hurt"sboro; contact me for THE FACTS!
Constable R.J Schweiger
We brought up Constable Schweiger early in the year [20 Feb/12 Mar], after he made some complaints on TV. But he said back then the Russell County Sheriff's office was patrolling Hurtsboro - so how has county help increased? Is the county extension agent teaching the town's "armed gangs" how to cook food?
I don't know whom R.J. Schweiger means by the "outside judge" who's trying to "throttle" him. As long as the constable doesn't have an old felony conviction in Columbus like Ronnie Reed did, you'd think he'd be fine.
But the question must be asked -- do the two recent attacks on a Hurtsboro grocer prove the Constable was right with his warning? Or is this simply one rebellious teenager, instead of the "armed gang" he mentioned in March? The way this year has gone in Russell County, I'm more likely to find an armed gang in a teachers' lounge.
3. "Goo Goo" was a restaurant, before it was a car wash. We noted this Friday, and yet another e-mail this weekend appears to confirm it:
Lamar Beck bought the site of the old Goo Goo Restaurant.. When he built his car wash there he named it for the restaurant. Which was a good idea since most people in Columbus knew where the old historical Goo Goo Restaurant had been...
That must have been a tough transition, though - with old-timers driving to the car wash, and asking for scotch with their water.
No more e-mails now - just a quick look at other things I didn't know a year ago:
4. Local businesses can stage parades. Rivertown Ford had one Saturday, attempting to set a world record for car sales. If they had shot their dancing turkey and given it away in a drawing, the record might have been broken.
5. Riverfest can be replaced, and most of Columbus probably wouldn't miss it. Did you notice the RiverCenter scheduled Garrison Keillor's appearance with "A Prairie Home Companion" for April 28 - which would have been Riverfest weekend? And most of the city can listen to it on radio for free.
6. The state of Ohio has no grits or collard greens. Muscogee County School Board member Joseph Roberson taught me this - not in a classroom, but preaching a sermon on radio.
7. Wanda the "Bang Bang Lady" at Fireworks Outlet has a sister. "Boom Boom Mary" looks a good bit like her.
8. The Columbus city election had moved from summertime to November. It didn't move as far as Mayor Bob Poydasheff said, but it moved.
9. Police tear gas can start fires, which burn down apartments. That woman on Cusseta Road seemed to be an expert at this subject.
10. Sixty-month car loans are wrong. My Pastor at church said so. So the next time I buy a car, I may just put it all on my credit card.
11. Country singer Freddie Hart is from Phenix City. If he had sung about truckers, that controversial truck stop on U.S. 431 might be named after him as well.
12. Jim Wetherington doesn't smile very much.
13. It's possible to have five arrests in one school district in a week - all of them faculty members.
14. Columbus Park Crossing seems to have room for every "big box" store ever invented -- but Victory Drive does not.
15. Former President Carter makes homemade wine in Sumter County. So far, there has been no move by conservative Baptists to have him expelled from church for this.
16. Brain surgery in your youth can make you wear baseball caps a bit off-center - and might just make your team a world champion.
17. If a teenage girl invites you to visit her home in rural Harris County, turn her down immediately.
18. A road in need of repair will be fixed much more quickly if the President of the United States mentions it. That happened in Tuskegee.
19. You never know when you're going to need a talking gorilla. I thank "Marshal Markdown" in the current Rivertown Ford infomercial for making this statement.
20. The dating web site eHarmony.com is not used by God. My Pastor said that, too. Thankfully, he hasn't given a sermon about blogs yet.
21. If you're going to have an event at the Columbus Civic Center, it helps to pay the rent up front.
22. It's OK to put up a sign for your new business, then bulldoze the old one on the property. I think that's what "Java Joe'z" is doing near Cross Country Plaza.
23. Just because you're starting a sports league doesn't mean people involved in that sport actually want one. I learned this the hard way.
24. U.S. passports are about to change, to include microchips. A woman stood up during a church service last weekend and warned my congregation about this. I assume her ATM card password doesn't have a 6-6-6 combination, either.
25. Hips don't lie. Thank you, Shakira.
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