Couple of things
- This whole demoting-Pluto thing is, apparently, the big story. Even the Athens Banner-Herald jumps in on the commentary with this editorial ... which, by the by, is one of the more entertaining pieces they've penned in a while.
- Steve Jones and Red Petrovs have a nice forum about Partners for a Prosperous Athens today, where they discuss the next couple of steps the community's anti-poverity initiative should take. Jones, as an aside, will be the keynote speaker for the IHN of Athens Tee-Off Celebration Dinner on Oct. 1 at First Baptist Church of Athens. Ray McNair's letter, however, makes a few good points but, on the whole, is a tad shortsighted. Lots of things contribute to poverty, and low wages are one of them ... but fixing this problem isn't as simple as merely bumping up the pay of our workers. That would help, sure, but it would fall by the wayside as the economy eventually comes around and adjusts to the shift. Education, job training, expanded opportunities, personal and community responsibility ... all of these things are essential to the equation. Raising wages is nice, but it's a band-aid on a much bigger problem.
- You know, after reading this article on the Classic Center's audit, I tend to side more with John Wolfe. For one thing, Paul Cramer tends to think the convention center itself - which, don't get me wrong, is one of the best in the state - is solely responsible for the bump in the number of events and conventions ... and not the opening of the Hilton Garden Inn. This seems to be a weird chicken-and-egg kinda scenario. For a long time the Classic Center said they had a hard time filling up their schedule because they lacked a convenient luxury hotel nearby. Now that they have one, all of a sudden their extraordinary marketing skills have done the trick, and not the very thing they've been begging for. And, secondly, when the audit reveals you made $80,000 net and you come back with 'well, actually it's $250,000 gross' ... you're still only making $80,000. It doesn't necessarily matter what you brought in, but rather what you take home.
- This story on work-study students and non-work-study students is kinda confusing to me. So, is it bad that we have an employment system designed to help pay for school? Is there a sudden lack of jobs in the service industry ... ones which the students dominate in this town, much the detriment of the poorer full-time citizens in this community? I can't think of one non-campus job which would deliberately make a schedule that would hurt a student's ability to attend class or study. I didn't have one. A buddy of mine who works at a PR firm here in town employs students, and he sculpts their schedules around their classes. If anything, the flexibility local employers lend to students is one of the main reasons people like, say, the guests we have at IHN of Athens are forced to work lousy hours.
- Let me give a shout-out to the good folks at 283 Bar, who were gracious enough to give me and some other folks from work a free round of drinks. Rachel's good people over there, and they've got a sweet jukebox. Where else can you get Joy and Pain by Rob Base followed up with Running With The Devil by Van Halen?
- The good folks at Athens Politics are back with some fresh copy, including good discussions involving the Athens-to-Atlanta commuter train and a breakdown of the State House race between the trio of Doug McKillip, Regina Quick and E.H. Culpepper.
- Another mailbag by Bill Simmons ... and this one has an Enrico Palazzo reference. Awesome.
- Steve Jones and Red Petrovs have a nice forum about Partners for a Prosperous Athens today, where they discuss the next couple of steps the community's anti-poverity initiative should take. Jones, as an aside, will be the keynote speaker for the IHN of Athens Tee-Off Celebration Dinner on Oct. 1 at First Baptist Church of Athens. Ray McNair's letter, however, makes a few good points but, on the whole, is a tad shortsighted. Lots of things contribute to poverty, and low wages are one of them ... but fixing this problem isn't as simple as merely bumping up the pay of our workers. That would help, sure, but it would fall by the wayside as the economy eventually comes around and adjusts to the shift. Education, job training, expanded opportunities, personal and community responsibility ... all of these things are essential to the equation. Raising wages is nice, but it's a band-aid on a much bigger problem.
- You know, after reading this article on the Classic Center's audit, I tend to side more with John Wolfe. For one thing, Paul Cramer tends to think the convention center itself - which, don't get me wrong, is one of the best in the state - is solely responsible for the bump in the number of events and conventions ... and not the opening of the Hilton Garden Inn. This seems to be a weird chicken-and-egg kinda scenario. For a long time the Classic Center said they had a hard time filling up their schedule because they lacked a convenient luxury hotel nearby. Now that they have one, all of a sudden their extraordinary marketing skills have done the trick, and not the very thing they've been begging for. And, secondly, when the audit reveals you made $80,000 net and you come back with 'well, actually it's $250,000 gross' ... you're still only making $80,000. It doesn't necessarily matter what you brought in, but rather what you take home.
- This story on work-study students and non-work-study students is kinda confusing to me. So, is it bad that we have an employment system designed to help pay for school? Is there a sudden lack of jobs in the service industry ... ones which the students dominate in this town, much the detriment of the poorer full-time citizens in this community? I can't think of one non-campus job which would deliberately make a schedule that would hurt a student's ability to attend class or study. I didn't have one. A buddy of mine who works at a PR firm here in town employs students, and he sculpts their schedules around their classes. If anything, the flexibility local employers lend to students is one of the main reasons people like, say, the guests we have at IHN of Athens are forced to work lousy hours.
- Let me give a shout-out to the good folks at 283 Bar, who were gracious enough to give me and some other folks from work a free round of drinks. Rachel's good people over there, and they've got a sweet jukebox. Where else can you get Joy and Pain by Rob Base followed up with Running With The Devil by Van Halen?
- The good folks at Athens Politics are back with some fresh copy, including good discussions involving the Athens-to-Atlanta commuter train and a breakdown of the State House race between the trio of Doug McKillip, Regina Quick and E.H. Culpepper.
- Another mailbag by Bill Simmons ... and this one has an Enrico Palazzo reference. Awesome.
posted by Jmac at 8:27 AM
2 Comments:
Go see Doug Gillet's Pluto post. Go now.
Darren
Pluto: yet another 100% Guaranteed Old School Certified.
Back in the day, we had NINE planets.
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