26 OCT 07: B.Y.O. H2O

Instant Message to Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue: If you're really serious about keeping that water in West Point Lake, you should show it. Make a bet about it with Florida's Governor, for Saturday's football game in Jacksonville.

White House aides announced Thursday that President Bush will meet with the Governors of Alabama, Florida and Georgia next week about the allocation of water in the Chattahoochee River area. After what we saw Thursday, the President might ask them to donate water to put out the California wildfires.

Governor Sonny Perdue doesn't seem thrilled about having a White House meeting about the big water fight. He told Atlanta reporters Thursday the "time for holding hands and singing Kum-ba-yah is over." [True/GPB] NOW we learn what really happened at those Columbus Trade Center meetings....

Governor Sonny Perdue called an Atlanta news conference to announce plans for the state of Georgia to develop its own reservoir system. If we're still in a drought, I'm not sure how he expects to do that. Is Coca-Cola agreeing to pour in leftover bottles of Dasani water?

Meanwhile, Alabama Governor Bob Riley staged his own media event near Dothan. He went to the Farley nuclear power plant, which relies on water from the Chattahoochee River. It's a wonder those endangered mussels in the Florida panhandle don't glow in the dark.

Governor Bob Riley went to a nuclear power plant to make a point. He says the Southern Company is receiving only a minimal amount of water now for the Farley nuclear plant -- and Sonny Perdue's demand to slow water releases could make the plant unusable. But at least it would be easier for alligators to head upstream toward Columbus.

Governor Bob Riley says his concern over water flow is NOT about mollusks and mussels, but.... well, saying "money" wouldn't really sound right. So he explained it's a matter of protecting Alabama's economy. After learning Thursday that Auburn University needed a bank loan in the 1950's to field a football team, that economy must be fragile.

The governor of Florida has come down on Alabama's side in this fight, but that's probably not surprising. More water means healthier mussels, happier mollusks - and far fewer visits from the Sierra Club.

For all the talk about a water shortage in north Georgia, it's hard to believe that large amounts of water are not far away. Macon Mayor Jack Ellis says his city has a 500-day supply, that could be sold to meet metro Atlanta's needs. But then again, this is the same mayor who thinks Venezuela's President is a nice guy.

BLOG UPDATE: Call it Night of Glory II! Your blog won the Thursday night poker tournament at Lil Kim's Cove, for the second time in three weeks!! I now have more wins this fall than the Atlanta Falcons!!!

I outlasted 20 other poker players, to win the Thursday night tournament - and this time, I decided NOT to split the prizes with the runner-up. So it's 50 dollars for me, while Rodney the slightly disabled man won a "bucket of beer" for second place. Let's face it: it's a lot easier for someone like me to tithe to a church on money, instead of beer bottles.

The biggest early clue that it might be my night came when someone to the right of me had a full house - but I beat him with four 7's. In poker lingo, losing with a great hand is known as a "bad beat." The phrase probably means something different to the staff at Rock 103....

My hands eliminated three players in a row, at the start of the evening. But the most satisfaction came when I won a smaller pot over an older gentleman named Len. He's known for unpredictable plays and bluffs, and he bet 50 big chips at a time against me. I kept calling him, and he finally confessed to a pair of 7's. I laughed out loud as I showed a pair of 9's - which may have put me on his enemies list.

The last two opponents of the evening proved hard to eliminate -- not only Rodney, but a grandmother who isn't even 40 years old. They seemed to hang on longer than Superman at the edge of a sea of kryptonite.

Because of a late poker night, we'll have to hold several e-mails for another day - and wrap up now with some other quick news from Thursday:

+ Columbus Police revealed surveillance pictures of a robbery at Comfort Suites on Armour Road. Two people apparently robbed the manager around midnight, using a hammer as a weapon. If I had a hammer, I would have hammered in the morning....

+ The new crime-fighting helicopter was flown on its first mission since law officers introduced it. But hold on - it was flown to Mount Olive Elementary School, to mark Red Ribbon Week? Do the pilots have a weekly "flight quota" in their job contract?

+ South Commons hosted the Georgia high school girls' softball tournament. Taylor County lost a class A game 7-3 to Georgia Military Academy -- which stunned me, because I never expected Georgia Military Academy to have ladies' sports. Well, at least beyond a marching drill team carrying batons....

SCHEDULED THIS WEEKEND: Reflections on a NASCAR work project.... and questions about a missing meteorologist....

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