25 NOV 10: Thanksgiving Buffet

Instant Message to all the activists who make a big fuss about saying "Merry Christmas": Where have you been this week? Where is your outrage toward the people who call this day "Turkey Day?" After all, the national independence day of Turkey was in late October....

Here's hoping you have a happy Thanksgiving Day - and realize it's supposed to be about a lot more than eating turkey. Or football games. Or parades. No, this is NOT a sneaky advertisement for Carmike Cinemas.

We've decided to borrow from some area restaurants on this Thanksgiving, and offer you a buffet of various topics to chew on. It's admittedly a non-traditional menu. And if you feel guilty about dining on all this for free, I think the base price at Callaway Gardens is $29.95....

1. CAMPAIGN CASSEROLE. What do candidates do when Thanksgiving falls less than a week before the Columbus city runoff? Do they dare take a day off from vote-hunting? Do they find a way to deliver turkey dinners to low-income neighborhoods - using campaign leaflets to line the bottom of the boxes?

Zeph Baker joined the line for advance voting Wednesday at the Columbus Public Library. Teresa Tomlinson cast her vote Tuesday - once again reinforcing the mayoral runoff stereotypes: she over-achieves to show up everybody, while he shows up late to avoid bullies.

Zeph Baker's campaign box truck was parked Wednesday night at the Gentian Boulevard Burger King. That made his name visible to advance voters at the Cunningham Center, and potentially visible to Friday morning shoppers at Peachtree Mall. I assume Baker made a deal to buy Whoppers for his staff - or does the "more with less" candidate only buy Buck Doubles?

Both runoff candidates received live one-on-one interviews this week on WTVM. Teresa Tomlinson said her success in carrying precincts in north and south Columbus on Election Day "will forever change this city...." Well, unless she loses those same precincts next Tuesday....

Zeph Baker declared during his interview he has "more support than ever," then went on to say: "I've done all that I was asked to do." Uhhhh - I'm still waiting for him to return a couple of messages from last week.

2. LEFTOVER HASH. Dozens of Fort Benning trainees have been digging into that for several days in Opelika. WTVM reported Wednesday some expensive military equipment apparently was hauled away by a trash truck, and now is at a Lee County landfill. The Navy normally has to do the diving, not the Army.

Fort Benning officials won't reveal exactly what was hauled away to Opelika. But the search ended Wednesday, apparently without the equipment being found. It's now up to the professionals at finding lost military valuables - the staff of Wikileaks.

3. RUSSIAN DRESSING (DOWN). Columbus Police officers are receiving national attention, in the wake of SOA Watch weekend. The "Committee to Protect Journalists" is calling for an internal investigation into the arrest of a Russia Today news crew. This group doesn't know Columbus very well. The only time police do that anymore is when an officer helps with a bank robbery.

Assistant Police Chief Charles Rowe told the Committee to Protect Journalists the Russia Today crew was arrested after not heeding a police order to disperse. The news crew may argue in court it misunderstood the order - and no one was carrying a purse.

At least the Committee to Protect Journalists talked to a Columbus Police officer about what happened last Saturday. The Russia Today website's reports on the arrests don't have the police side of the story. And as any viewer of Fox News Channel will tell you, merely telling one side of a story is simply wrong.

4. HOT BREAD. If you want to spend some, several familiar Columbus stores are open today. For the first time, Sears is open on Thanksgiving -- in case the man of the house needs a big Craftsman tool chest to get the turkey fryer to work.

If you forgot some key dinner ingredients, the new Save-A-Lot store on Hamilton Road tells me it will be open today from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. This reminds me of the Thanksgiving Day in metro Atlanta when a guest preparing the meal had me drive to the grocery store at least three times. We didn't know back then about the plague of attention deficit disorder.

And I believe we noted here several years ago that Thanksgiving is the best day of the year to shop at Wal-Mart. The grocery aisles are practically empty in the early afternoon. But then again, the year I discovered that was the last time the Atlanta Falcons played a Thanksgiving Day game.

5. POUND CAKE. We go to the icebox InBox for this - a response to our Tuesday check of incoming Muscogee County School Board member Beth Harris....

Richard:

Since you could not seem to find Norma Harris' NOTICE OF CANDIDACY AND AFFIDAVIT, I thought that I would send it to you - it is posted on-line.

You also might be interested in the Georgia Code related to fraudulent statements on a sworn document:

Georgia Code - Crimes and Offenses - Title 16, Section 16-10-71

(a) A person to whom a lawful oath or affirmation has been administered or who executes a document knowing that it purports to be an acknowledgment of a lawful oath or affirmation commits the offense of false swearing when, in any matter or thing other than a judicial proceeding, he knowingly and willfully makes a false statement.

(b) A person convicted of the offense of false swearing shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.00 or by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years, or both.

It is interesting that Ms. Harris verified to you that she did indeed commit a criminal offense.

Sincerely,

Jim Pound

PS - I'll save you the question. Yes, Brinkley is my much better half.

Hold on -- not so fast here. The notice filed with the Muscogee County Election Board says Beth Harris has been "a legal resident of the State of Georgia for 22 consecutive years." Her family might have owned property in Georgia while she lived in Nebraska. And you thought the only "snowbirds" to visit Columbus were college students building houses....

Any investigation of Beth Harris's sworn statement may come down to one key word - "knowingly." Did Harris forget the eight years she was a registered voter in Phenix City? Did she think the years when that city dominated area Little League baseball was simply a bad dream?

6. YOUNG CHEESES. They were scheduled to appear Wednesday night at the Columbus Civic.... oh wait. That's a rapper named Young Jeezy. And his show was postponed, anyway. Never mind.

7. CHOCOLATE BITES. We thank a "sweet" sweets shop in Daytona Beach for providing a funny fact sheet about chocolates during our recent vacation. For instance, did you know....

+ If you eat a chocolate bar before each meal, you'll take the edge off your appetite - and you'll wind up eating less.

+ Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit. So you can eat all you want.

+ If melted chocolate is all over your hands, you're probably eating it too slowly.

+ If you're not sure how to get several pounds of chocolate home from the store on a hot day, don't take any chances. Eat it all in the parking lot.

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