30 DEC 07: GOING DOUGH-NUTS
Here's something to debate over Sunday brunch: If cigarette packs and wine bottles have warning labels on them, why not fattening foods? I wouldn't be surprised to hear people start suggesting it before long - but wouldn't people pay the same small amount of attention to them?
I raise this question because of some signs that are posted at a favorite snack stop for many people in Columbus. Yellow signs went up outside Golden Donuts the other day - but thankfully, they are NOT diamond shaped and warning of hazardous materials inside.
The yellow signs warn Golden Donuts will increase its prices Tuesday for "wholesale orders." This is defined as any order of ten dozen or more - something Homer Simpson could get, if he didn't blow the other half of his salary on beer.
As of Tuesday, the wholesale prices for Golden Donuts will go up. I don't know what they cost now, but they will cost $2.50 per dozen for 10-49 dozen regular glazed donuts, and two dollars a dozen for "50 dozen or more." Fifty dozen donuts?! Which high school wrestling team eats this many, before a meet?
Golden Donuts blames the increase in wholesale prices on "unprecedented increases in production costs." I assume this refers to the cost of flour, because I haven't heard of any countries forming a glaze cartel -- such as OGLE: the Organization of Glaze and Lard Exporters.
NBC News noted this past week how much U.S. wheat prices have jumped this year. The closing price for March wheat in my home area Friday was $9.14 a bushel. I can remember when Oklahoma wheat farmers struggled with wheat at three dollars - but then, I'm also old enough to remember 25-cent a gallon gasoline....
Higher wheat prices have affected the price of bread this year as well. You can't find whole wheat bread for less than a dollar at bakery discount stores anymore. I haven't bought "white bread" in decades - because I remember what a church pastor once said about Wonder Bread. With so little wheat in it, "the wonder is that it's bread."
In fact, 2007 may go down as the year inflation officially made a comeback in the U.S. It's not only wheat and bread prices which have jumped this year. Gasoline prices jumped about 15 cents across Columbus Friday, and will end the year up nearly 50 percent from January. Yet Mayor Wetherington has yet to appoint a task force to bring THAT surge under control.
Any grocery shopper can tell you how much other items have jumped. Eggs are now near two dollars a dozen. Milk drops below four dollars a gallon only when there's a sale. And I pity those of you who have become addicted to fancy six-dollar cups of coffee....
But back to that warning sign, if you and your family or office staff simply cannot eat ten dozen Golden Donuts at a time, a different discount will apply. At least the two-dozen rule is continuing - with the second dozen at half-price. That still almost matches the price for one dozen at Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme, where I think you partly pay for corporate stock.
(It's tempting to stop here and declare something is wrong with your family or office staff, if it cannot devour ten dozen Golden Donuts at a time. But I realize there can be mitigating circumstances. You might have eaten a bowl of oatmeal first, and felt full.)
Golden Donuts still cares about its customers in other ways, too. It follows the "baker's dozen" tradition, of giving you a 13th donut on the side. And on the day I took the picture of the warning sign, the staff threw an extra doughnut in my bag because it somehow didn't look right. As if we care if chocolate glazed doughnuts look round, square -- or even shaped like stop signs.
E-MAIL UPDATE: Now a follow-up to a Phenix City house we were double-dog dared urged to visit several days ago....
City Manager Bubba Roberts must read this blog or maybe someone told him about your entries from 12/17 & 12/20. He visited his property at 2014 2nd Avenue on Sunday 12/23/07 for about 5 whole minutes. Guess thats what he means about living there "Some of the time". He spent the 5 minutes there turning off those excess outdoor & indoor lights he had left on (and was mentioned in the blog). Thats all he did. There is still one outdoor and one indoor light on ... and you can see well inside at night no furniture at all completely empty ... as you would expect ANY rental property to be.
Just thought I would pass along the update. If he wasnt tipped off by a blog reader perhaps Alabama power sent him a thank you note.
Sincerely,
Charles
Truly Robert Frost put it well: "Good fences make good neighbors." For one thing, they can prevent neighbors from spying on each other.
Now let's see what else people are watching, besides the rain on a wet weekend....
+ Which mother told a local "children's church" group about young people receiving gifts of "an MP3 player - whatever that is"?! How much of the young audience immediately concluded they knew more than the teacher did?
+ A Saturday afternoon stroll in the Historic District found the Chattahoochee River looking strange. The Phenix City half of the river was brown, while the Columbus side seemed normal. Was there some kind of sewage leak north of downtown? Or did a mudslide shove some of the Riverview Apartments into the river?
+ Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue announced West Point Lake will get a "mega-ramp" for boats, as part of a new bass fishing trail. I hope we keep getting rain to end the drought - because otherwise that ramp might only be good for fashion shows.
+ Columbus Police told WRBL 1t least four Muscogee County schools have been vandalized over winter break. When young people say they want year-round schooling, they mean year-round schooling.
+ A Kwanzaa celebration at the Liberty Theater included an announcement by Project Rebound that it's creating a 1,000-member "Peacemaker Coalition." This sounds like a good idea - but I wonder how many gun owners are going to misunderstand this and apply to join.
+ The South beat the North 28-6 in a Georgia high school football All-Star game at McClung Memorial Stadium. Carver's Jarvon Fortson caught a touchdown pass for the South - and now he may be the only football player in the country who can match the New England Patriots at 16-0.
(Jarvon Fortson played for the South football team during the afternoon, then played high school basketball for Carver hours later at the Shaw Tournament finals. I know he can't endorse energy drinks as an amateur athlete, but some of us want to know....)
+ Instant Message to Wane Hailes of The Courier: I will quote from your latest column - "The next time you need to make a purchase.... take a look at the 'man in the mirror' and seek out someone who looks like you first." What would you be saying if a white person had written that?
2007 IN REVIEW, CONTINUED: Concern about water continued around our area during November. Three state governors held urgent talks in Washington. People in Columbus prayed outside the Government Center for rain. And it's a wonder people didn't race down to Oxbow Meadows with buckets, and empty that controversial pond.
November began with two big-name TV ministers appearing in Columbus, to benefit the Rod Hood Foundation. Eddie Long and Paula White should send the tape of those meetings to Washington, and prove to the U.S. Senate that every penny they earned for the Rod Hood Foundation was worth it.
Local law officers made news in November. Muscogee County Sheriff Ralph Johnson appeared on TV, asking for help in finding sex offenders. It's too bad an Opelika police dog thought one of them was playing football, when Auburn beat Alabama....
Mayor Jim Wetherington received an award in November from the Georgia Department of Corrections. Then came the Zachary Allen "Revelation" in the newspaper - and one or two correction commissioners probably wanted to come back to Columbus, and take it back.
Columbus voters rejected a proposal for tax allocation districts in November. Some people blamed the city for including the word "tax" in the proposal - as if hiding the word actually would have improved trust in city government.
Several people were able to claim major victories in November. Columbus High School's volleyball team won a state title. Phenix City Councilor Ray Bush was cleared in a trial. And Fort Benning supporters probably celebrated, when SOA Watch didn't have enough arrests to bother with a Monday march to federal court.
The Ma Rainey house-turned-museum held a "grand opening" in November -- which turned out to be its second in 15 months. Just wait until the museum store begins offering Chester's Bar-B-Q platters....
Several celebrities appeared in Columbus during November. Dr. Laura Schlessinger spoke at God Bless Fort Benning, only days after R. Kelly performed at the Civic Center. If these had been scheduled at the same time, Schlessinger might have helped all the acts on R. Kelly's tour get along.
A media story we first broke in August became reality in November, as WLTZ began daily newscasts. Is it only a coincidence that people no longer say it "just feels great to be on NBC-38"?!
Football season in our area began to wind down in November. Georgia Tech fired head coach Chan Gailey - and looking back now, it's a wonder Bobby Petrino didn't quit the Atlanta Falcons then and there.
Then we reached December - the month of spectacular football comebacks by Carver High School. The Columbus Fire Chief can only hope to duplicate that with his career, once the Zachary Allen investigation is over....
The crime blotter so far in December has been highlighted by Columbus police officer Larry Lightning pleading guilty to crack cocaine charges, Michael Vick being sentenced to prison -- and a confidential police informant changing his story so many times, I won't be surprised to discover he's actually Michael Vick.
The Muscogee County School District administration building gained attention in December, when State Senator Seth Harp suggested it was excessive. Did he know at the time about the preliminary blueprint, with a private restroom for the superintendent? Or is he really hoping next year's Georgia Legislature approves money to renovate state office buildings?
The demolition of tornado-damaged Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus began in December. This didn't really have to happen - but then again, that was about the only hospital that no one Columbus wanted to buy out.
The RiverCenter may have had a record sellout in December, when thousands of tickets were sold for a Jerry Seinfeld show. I never realize Columbus had so many New York transplants....
(So did Sugarland sell out the Columbus Civic Center for its December concert? The show went on, after all - which is more than the legendary Bertie Higgins could say a year or two ago.)
BURKARD'S BEST BETS: Gas for $2.93 a gallon at Marathon on Second Avenue.... 69-cent Sunday hamburger special at Checkers on Victory Drive.... and "Watch Night" services Monday night to award absolutely no watches at all....
COMING MONDAY: Not necessarily my favorite things, but a list of things....
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