16 SEP 07: SAFARI, SO GOOD?

All sorts of animals are in the spotlight across our area this weekend. The Shrine Circus has elephants and tigers. The Harris County rodeo has bulls and horses. And "Bikes on Broadway" had plenty of Hawgs.

The September tradition called the Shrine Circus concludes today at the Columbus Civic Center. The thing is, there aren't any Shriners' hospitals nearby so you can see the benefits of the show. I've never even seen a Shrine member riding around Columbus in one of those little cars -- unless they've been swapped for motorized wheelchairs.

This year the Shrine Circus is doing something different - by giving away $1,000 at every performance. I guess the hospitals are doing without new stethoscopes until next spring....

And in case the circus gets boring, there's also a "beach ball party" during the show. This smells suspicious to me. Do the clowns come along with needles, and release confetti in those balls?

It's also become traditional that if there's a circus in town, there's a protest outside it. The Saturday night newscasts didn't show one - so maybe People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals decided to start in Harris County, by freeing all the roped steers.

The two-day Harris County rodeo ended Saturday night - the event that's become the biggest rodeo in the Columbus area. Well, unless the Pro Bull Riding animals get out of their pen in South Commons again....

A traditional rodeo includes a variety of events. One that's always baffled me is women's "barrel racing" - since the barrels never move, so you're not racing them.

But over the last few years, Pro Bull Riding has been pushing traditional rodeos out of the spotlight. In fact, Fox will show a P.B.R. event today after the Falcons football game - and the bulls could wind up with more knockdowns than the Atlanta defensive line.

So perhaps animal rights groups made it a doubleheader weekend - picketing the rodeo first, and the circus today. We don't want the protesters to miss out on anything, so we'd point out some sights along the way. Veterans Parkway has two KFC's, one Church's and one Hartz Chicken.

But if the picketers are really serious about stopping the Shrine Circus, shouldn't they go after some of its sponsors? It has some big local names this year, including Country's Barbecue and Piggly Wiggly - but come to think of it, I can't recall the last time Piggly Wiggly sponsored a "kiss a pig" contest.

The biggest crowd of the weekend may have gathered downtown, for Bikes on Broadway. It certainly was the noisiest crowd. If it had lasted too late on Sunday morning, First Baptist Church Pastor Jimmy Elder might have been forced to try some Pentecostal shouting.

Bikes on Broadway brought an estimated 2,500 motorcyclists to downtown Columbus. But thanks to the Streetscape work, I'm not sure the bikers are able to park two-to-a-spot anymore.

Various blocks of Broadway were closed for the motorcycle weekend. But I suppose the Uptown Columbus farmers' market went ahead Saturday as usual - and there's nothing like storing a fresh head of lettuce inside your helmet, for the ride home.

Not everything was noisy during Bikes on Broadway. I went for a Saturday night jog, and noticed a tram moving down Broadway in the Historic District. I'm glad they respected the residents, who had college football games turned up on TV.

(But I also saw two people riding up Front Avenue on segways. Talk about wanna-bes....)

Enough of the animals - let's see what real people are doing this weekend:

+ WRBL showed highlights of a bi-city conference on air quality. So what can we do to reduce the smog level in Columbus? How about having every member of the "Fan Club" take them outside, and blow the clouds toward Atlanta?

+ WRBL also showed a House of Mercy parade on Third Avenue. It didn't seem to attract many spectators - perhaps because they feared the marchers would ask them to throw jewelry, instead of the other way around.

+ Alabama edged Arkansas in a heart-stopping football game 41-38. So much for the skeptics, who have been calling the Tide quarterback Sarah Jessica Parker Wilson....

(Alabama radio voice Eli Gold noted the referee was a Mr. Wagers. If he threw his penalty flag, I guess he would be the Wagers of sin.)

+ Auburn's football team lost at home for the second week in a row, 19-14 to Mississippi State. Maybe next time, they should bring in Brad Cotter to sing at halftime instead of Taylor Hicks.

(Auburn committed five turnovers in the loss - and at one point, senior quarterback Brandon Cox was pulled from the game. Come this time next year, Cox's only work in pro football could be as Jason Campbell's personal assistant.)

+ The Columbus State University "women's soccer showcase" featured a game involving Florida's Eckerd College. Maybe I'm missing something, but I figured this college would have changed its name to Rite-Aid by now.

+ Instant Message to New Bethel A.M.E. Church on Victory Drive: So today is "Lay Day," huh? I'll bet you can't have just one....

COMING THIS WEEK: Think your electric bill is high? Wait until you see this Blog Exclusive....

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