18 JUL 08: IN WITH THE INTOWN CROWD
If you're like me, you probably receive plenty of e-mail offers every day. Take Thursday, for instance. I received a "notification from the FBI" that it's OK to deal with "the Central Bank of Nigeria.... as regard to your overdue contract payment...." WHAT overdue contract payment? Is this why my new glasses needed two weeks of preparation?
But some offers seem more logical and inviting to me. This one reached me the other day:
Abe has invited you to join InTown Columbus
Not really a 'blog', but better (born on 6/4/08).
Please join us.
Wow - better than a blog? Does it have live poker tournaments going, too?
Well, no - it doesn't have that. But the InTown Columbus web site calls itself "one-part blog, one-part social networking." So it seems to be like a localized version of Facebook - except I couldn't figure out where you play online Scrabble.
InTown Columbus has nearly 60 members right now, and any member can post to the web site's blog. But the top item Thursday night wasn't really anything new - it was a link to a WRBL special report from last year on "Stocking Strangler" Carlton Gary. I might have expected this item to appear in late October, but not now....
People can post video clips to InTown Columbus as well. The current "five-star" leader features "the best reporter in the Valley" - Susanna Avery. Trouble is, she left Columbus TV six months ago. And I don't think she's even borrowed the Roszell Gadson idea, of working for a political campaign.
A forum at InTown Columbus allows people to comment on all sorts of topics. So far, the topic gaining the most interest involves the future of Cross Country Plaza. If the Muscogee County schools scheduled high school cross-country meets there in the fall, there might be more visitors.
A few familiar names appear on the membership list of InTown Columbus. I found former TV reporter Mara Kelly, as well as Richard Bishop of Uptown Columbus -- who has to be wondering how Teresa Tomlinson beat him to this idea, yet doesn't have her name on the site anywhere.
(There's also "Mirabeau B. Lamar," the mysterious 19th-century name who writes columns for Richard Hyatt's web site. It turns out he's been reading our blog -- so I won't make fun of the fact that his photo makes him look about 150 years younger.)
So thank you, Abe, for the invitation to check InTown Columbus. Perhaps this mention will inspire others to join. But before I become a member, I need to figure out the best photo for displaying myself - if any. I told friends that I intentionally left my picture off my CD cover, because I actually wanted it to sell.
>> How did our Thursday poker night go? Read the answer at our newest blog, "On the Flop!" <<
E-MAIL UPDATE: Another web site invitation has crossed our path as well....
Richard,
I thought that your readers might be interested to know that I have now posted my own website ( www.marklajoye.com) My team and I will be periodically posting updated information on our campaigin activities and interesting issues as they become available. Mark LaJoye.
To be honest, I'm a little surprised the write-in candidate for Muscogee County Sheriff wrote this blog again. After what happened here a few days ago, I almost expected his "team" to put my name through a criminal background check.
Mark LaJoye's web site promises a "Friday Weekly Summary of hot headlines" - items he says his "competitors and mainstream media don't want to touch." This could prove interesting come October, during the prime campaign season. When John Darr and Ralph Johnson try to discuss the Sheriff's budget, LaJoye might try to bring up Zimbabwe.
And speaking of the mainstream media....
I just heard that our Ledger Enquirer carrier put the police on alert at 5:00am to a prowler at a residence in our neighborhood earlier in the week. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! I do wish police would report where burglaries or car break ins are happening in the paper!! At least the neighborhoods or streets.!!! Also Mr. Carrier I had stopped my paper but I will personally make sure YOU get the commission for the sale and not the bill collector as most people don't realize really happens...!!!!!
Hmmmm - do you think that newspaper carrier was an off-duty police officer, working one of those second jobs?
So does this mean the thankful resident will renew his/her subscription to the Ledger-Enquirer, based on the carrier's good deed? Maybe this is what the newspaper needs, to reverse the decline in readership. Reporters not only go out to cover the news -- they also do heroic deeds that make news. We hope the writers of "Spiderman" movies don't sue for stealing their idea.
Since we're filled with e-mails today, let's take one more - this time involving Alabama:
Richard, Reference your mention that the head of Alabama's Junior College system wants new regulations to insure private colleges in the state are not "diploma mills" [16 Jul]. I can concur with that plan however one of the three stipulations printed on the news I found quite amusing. He wants the administrators to be "of good moral character". That made me think of all the administrators in Alabama's Junior College System that have been indicted, convicted, fired, and sent to prison for stealing state funds and placing their family members in high-paying state jobs in which they weren't expected to do any work. I hope he will continue to clean house within the state system while trying to clean up the private colleges.
That struck me as interesting, too. Who's going to decide if a college president has a "good reputation?" Auburn University faculty members have disqualified a lot of them in recent years.
We'll save one more e-mail for this weekend, and move on to some Thursday news headlines:
+ U.S. Senate candidate Vernon Jones made a runoff campaign appearance in Columbus. But from what I saw on TV, hardly anyone showed up at the Government Center to greet him. Incumbent Saxby Chambliss would have called loyal Republican Rob Doll in advance -- and at least the car dealer's repair department would have been there.
+ The Columbus office of the Salvation Army fired Michael Cooper of the Warm Springs Road center. Some questions apparently arose over how Cooper handled donations. From now on, only one person should have the key to the red kettles.
+ The Harris County Library announced a new campaign, to give pre-school children a free book every month. Sheriff Mike Jolley is involved in this project - but it's clear his book list will be very different from Oprah Winfrey's.
+ A new federal report ranked Alabama the second-most obese state in the country, behind only Mississippi. This is NOT completely bad news, you know. Consider how many linemen from Alabama and Auburn have been drafted by National Football League teams.
+ Instant Message to Muscogee County Coroner Bill Thrower: Was that you I saw on TV Thursday - sitting inside the muscular dystrophy "jail" at Outback Steakhouse? Should I assume Ricky Weeks put you in there?
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