17 AUG 08: ICE ICE, BABY

When Lt. Joe McCrea of the Muscogee County Sheriff's Department talks about ice, he's an expert. It's not merely the drugs which were found in Columbus over the last few days. McCrea also was in the middle of that youth hockey scheduling fiasco with the Civic Center last April.

But with the Civic Center closed for floor repairs, Lt. Joe McCrea is focused on that other "ice" - and he announced several arrests Friday of Columbus residents for possessing it. Amazingly, none of the ice suspects has the last name Buck.

WRBL noted in a newscast that ice is "not commonly found in our area." That's very true - and in fact, we do well to have a dusting of snow once a year.

Oh, I'm sorry -- that other "ice" is considered the purest form of methamphetamine. From what little I know about meth, I guess that means top-dollar cold medicine is used. The generic brand at Rite-Aid simply isn't good enough.

The first two ice arrests were made by sheriff's deputies in the Benning Hills neighborhood. Authorities say 32 grams of ice were found there - and according to a cool calculator web site I found, that's barely more than one ounce. You realize there are Krystal hamburgers which weigh more than this....

(I'm admittedly assuming a gram of ice is figured using the standard conversion of grams to ounces. Authorities could be figuring it a different way - employing some kind of new meth.)

Columbus Police say they found a larger stash of meth Wednesday night at a storage unit on Tenth Avenue. Four people were arrested for possessing 203 grams of ice, which is a bit more than seven ounces. Under the old slang definition of "ice," women would have to wear this much to gain admission to the River Club.

Authorities say they also uncovered four grams of powder meth, 11 bags of marijuana and various prescription drugs. The estimated street value of the drugs is $20,000. Even with the current housing market, I still think Synovus stock is a better investment.

You certainly don't hear as much on the news these days about methamphetamine busts. Tougher state laws on the sales of cold medicine may have something to do with that. But then again, drug addicts may have moved on to something that's easier to spell.

Perhaps we need to start a drug education campaign, to steer people away from ice. Of course, you'd need the right slogan....

+ Make ice, and you'll spend time in the cooler.

+ Vanilla Ice is gone and forgotten -- and you will be, too.

+ Ice from Circle K - bigger bags, lower prices, and a lot more legal.

E-MAIL UPDATE: Now from ice to water. People are still responding to the long-running sprinklers on Whittlesey Road, which a blog reader showed us with pictures....

Richard, I was amused by the comment about the Hilton Garden Inn being Glenn Davis' hotel. I've seen Mr. Davis described in various newspaper articles as being the owner of that hotel. However, a source who I consider to be very reliable told me long ago that Glenn Davis is only a 25% owner of the Hilton Garden Inn. The majority owners are three local Indian (not American Indian) doctors. It makes me wonder why he is always described as "the owner". Many of the other new high rise hotels in town are also owned by Indian doctors. Not that I think there is anything wrong with that.

Several years ago my spouse and I were vacationing in Florida and we got into a conversation with the manager of the hotel we were staying in. He gave us the statistics reference the foreign ownership of hotels in this country. We were shocked. But that was before we realized that so many of our toll roads in the U.S.A. were being bought up by foreign governments.

Another incident worth mentioning - I've purchased several items recently that say "Made in Canada, USA".

I know that Canada is in North America but I sure didn't know it 's located within the United States of America!

When the Hilton Garden Inn opened, the owner was listed in the Ledger-Enquirer as Cascade Partnership LLC. Do a Google search for that name, and the top entry will be our blog [31 Mar 06] -- which could mean the partnership is so small-time that it can't afford to start a web site.

The official name was changed to"Cascade Hospitality Group" in 2006. A check of Georgia state records this weekend shows Glenn Davis's investment partner Dhan Parekh as the "registered agent" for the business. Of course, the conspiracy theorists will call this a cover-up to protect a Columbus Councilor's reputation.

The Ginger Lake web site has been the main voice calling Glenn Davis the owner of the hotel near Bradley Park Drive. Yet for all its grumbling about millions of dollars in tax exemptions, Davis is unopposed for another term on Columbus Council. Unless Mark LaJoye is trying to recruit someone to join him on a "write-in party" ticket....

As for those items made in Canada - I think many Canadians would tell you they feel like U.S. culture invaded a long time ago. Consider the last couple of years, when Columbus sent both Frank Thomas and Sam Mitchell to Toronto.

TODAY'S BLOG OLYMPIC MOMENT: Vincent Hancock of Fort Benning's U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit won the Olympic gold medal Saturday in skeet shooting. Hopefully they made special arrangements to show this event at the Trade Center's semiannual gun show.

Let's check other news from a nice mid-August weekend....

+ The Muscogee County School Board posted a one-page online survey, to get your suggestions on the next superintendent. It lets people rank seven "personal attributes." If a parent ranks honesty at the bottom, maybe their children should get special attention at test time.

+ Russell County Schools held a "back-to-school bash" at the football stadium. I'm not sure which item concerns me more about this - the fact that it offered "free water," or that they celebrated going back to school more than a week after the new year started.

+ Goodwill Industries announced a new recycling agreement with Columbus State University. Goodwill is collecting the cardboard boxes students use to move into their housing for the fall semester. I presume they're then shipped to the front yards of foreclosed houses....

+ The Associated Press pre-season college football poll ranked Georgia at the top. Those Southeastern Conference writers who picked Florida to win the Eastern Division simply are out of touch. Hey guys -- Steve Spurrier isn't coaching there anymore.

+ Instant Message to the explorers who claim they found Bigfoot: You have to explain something to me. How did it get from the woods of northern California to north Georgia, without anybody noticing it? Someone in Kansas or Nebraska would have reported it to police as a vagrant.

SCHEDULED MONDAY: A man asks for "the jala".... and a woman asks for Columbus Councilors to show up at the library....

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