14 FEB 08: THE E-ASY WAY OUT
Longtime blog readers know I do NOT keep Valentine's Day, for religious reasons. And no, that probably would not change if I was a married man - because I'd make sure my bride-to-be understood that before the ceremony.
So instead of presenting some syrupy, mushy topic on romance and love today, we turn things over to e-mails from our readers. We've had several in the last couple of days, beginning with one which we apologize for not posting sooner:
Hi Richard,
Good morning , as usual I enjoy reading your blog Every morning. After all since they canned Talkline you are the only source of good news in this town. My wife and I both serve on the State PTA Board of Georgia. Her as the District 4 Director, and Myself as the Dad's Initiative Chair. We will be escorting 86 Children from the Muscogee County School District to The State Capital on Wednesday the 13 to actually sit in on some sessions with our State Representatives. They will also be having Lunch with our local Representatives.
Wednesday is PTA Day at the Capital. Kid's from all over the state will be there. This is a Great opportunity for some of our Children that would never get a chance to experience something like this to do so. You woul also be amazed at the number of Kid's that have never been to Atlanta!. What makes this event so awsome is that the local School PTA units paid the $30.00 Fee for their particular students to attend. WOW!!!!. That is just another way that PTA is able to Give back to the Schools. I just wanted to share this information with you. Again I enjoy your site, and appreciate everything you do us. God Bless.
--
Charles Lawhon
Dad's Initiative Chair
Georgia PTA
Thanks for the nice words, Charles - but really now. Has this blog become Columbus's "only source of good news"?! The Ledger-Enquirer was so thrilled with Carver High School winning the state football title that the newspaper made a book about it.
A day at the state legislature sounds like an interesting field trip. In fact, musicians from Georgia schools seem to perform at the Capitol during every day of a session. It's as if the children serve as lobbyists, to remind legislators not to cut the education budget.
This e-mail does NOT explain how the 86 children were selected from across Muscogee County. But is it safe to guess their parents had PTA dues paid in full for the school year?
Of course, I can imagine some people are critical of PTA Day field trips. They're the ones wondering if state lawmakers served the children pork in a barrel for lunch....
Some schools take PTA more seriously than others. The national PTA association provided an award to Reese Road Elementary School, for a special program marking this as "Take Your Family to School Week." I thought many parents already took their children to school - in part to escape those unsafe bus drivers.
Our next e-mail relates to the last one -- right down to the 30 dollars:
Kids in a Middle School gifted program are selling candy..They have a choice,sell the candy or parents pay $30 to fund a required project..The project includes making a poster.If the poster wins above the local level the money goes to pay the way for the winner to go to state competition. I find a big question in this requirement..The kid has to do the project,if the project wins then they have to pay their own way to required state level competition..If the district can't fund academic state level competition,then it should not fund state level athletic competition..Are athletics more important in MCSD then academics?
I'm not sure if athletics or academics ranks higher here - but if the students are selling candy, health and nutrition are much farther down the priority list.
C'mon now - how can you imply athletics matter more in Muscogee County schools than academics? Didn't they pave over the Carver High School baseball field, to build the new Rigdon Road School? And haven't you driven down Victory Drive lately, to see McClung Memorial Stadium obscured by a 30-foot-tall pile of dirt?
(Yes, it's really that tall -- and it's due to ongoing sewer work in South Commons. The project now has closed part of Sixth Avenue through late March. And if the workers lobbied Columbus Council hard enough, they might be able to start a new development project at the Booker T. Washington Apartments right now.)
But I digress: there are plenty of youth programs where students and parents have to pay their own way. Champion baseball teams have sold candy or baked goods outside supermarkets, to raise money for trips to national tournaments. It's a wonder around here that more of those players don't sell their autographs.
Let's bring this full circle. If a family needs financial help advancing in a poster contest, has it considered asking for aid from the school PTA? The association might be looking for a good deed to support, with money from its treasury. I hesitate to call it a slush fund....
Did we mention Carver High baseball? Oh yeah, we did - and we have e-mail about that as well....
Many years ago the rumor was a Carver coach got the baseball supplement even though Carver didn't have a team. I wish Golden Park would be included more in high school baseball and play some week end night games there.
Carver High School apparently hopes to prove this spring that it DOES have a team. One win over Shaw or Columbus High will awaken the entire city to that fact.
Golden Park has been used for local high school baseball games on occasion, especially in March. But things change in April. Not so much because the Columbus Catfish season starts -- but because local companies simply have to hold their team-building meetings and picnics there.
Our last e-mail today moves a long way from local schools, to one of our "good or bad" questions from Tuesday:
Richard,
You haven't lived here long enough to know that in the early 1970's Val McGuiness did his morning radio show in the nude! Well, that's what they told us anyway. Not only did they tell us he was nude, they had 8x10 color photos of Val in the booth, in the buff. If my memory serves me right, he appeared at a music shop in Cross Country Plaza to promote his nude radio show (all you could see was his naked upper body). He even had a theme song for this show with the words, "Naked, naked, naked....naked, naked naked, naked" (I think you get the idea what the rest of the words of his theme song were). Put out an alert and see if anyone has one of these old photos stashed away somewhere.
Oh, but I DO know that story about Val McGuinness in the nude. A web site filled with Columbus nostalgia doesn't mention him, so I guess I heard him mention it on WDAK one morning. Nowadays, you'd think Howard Stern would do that at least once a week - and have streaming web-cam video to boot.
My web searching for that old radio story led me to another nice surprise - a "Hitline" survey of the Top 40 songs on WDAK in 1971. Back then the station was known as "Big Johnny Reb," but it played plenty of soul tunes from Freda Payne and Marvin Gaye. Hmmmm -- how many African-American voices can you hear on WDAK now?
If your e-mail wasn't here today, it's because we have to check some details before we post it. So thanks to all of you who write us - and now let's hurry through some Wednesday headlines:
+ Hurtsboro City Council member Charlie Tolbert told the late-night TV news the council decided to keep Marvin Christian as interim police chief at Tuesday's meeting. The real news here is NOT the decision to keep the interim police chief. It's the fact that a Hurtsboro city official dared to talk on the record with a reporter.
(Charlie Tolbert added an important note - that while Marvin Christian keeps his job for now, the city of Hurtsboro will widen its search for a full-time police chief. Why, it might even look for candidates beyond Union Springs....)
+ Three female employees of the Muscogee County Prison received promotions. Warden Bill Adamson told WRBL the women provide balance for inmates, "in their evolution away from criminality...." Does this mean they're actually turning from animals into humans?
+ Reggie Richards revealed her next job after leaving Columbus South Inc. will be managing a new Victory Drive motel. The former radio announcer had talked about finding some kind of full-time work. But the trend in Columbus seems to be moving toward no on-air announcers at all.
+ Muscogee County and Marion County schools were included in a recall of possibly contaminated beef. The beef may have come from "downed cows" in California. This old college tradition of cow-tipping late at night simply has to stop....
(So the next time you see a beef dish on the lunch menu in Muscogee County, teach your children to walk to the lunch line and ask: "How no downed cow?")
+ Instant Message to WRBL sportscaster Shawn Skillman: Welcome to Columbus - but who told you the setting of the high school regional basketball playoffs is called "Northside Arena?" We don't have arenas in a city this size. In fact, that may be the real reason why the "Arena Football 2" league team disappeared.
This blog had more than 43,000 visitors in 2007 -- up 53% from 2006! To advertise to them, offer a story tip or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.
BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 1152 (+ 21, 1.9%)
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