Chamblee54

This content was published October 12, 2009. … I had different interests when I was a kid. I would get into something for a while, then move on to something else. In 1965, it was baseball and football. The Atlanta Journal had a column every day by Furman Bisher. I thought he was a very good, very funny writer. … Yesterday, the fishwrapper printed the last column by Furman Bisher. Many, many things had changed in those 44 years. The well crafted prose of Furman Bisher remained the same.
In 1965, Mr. Bisher produced six columns a week for the afternoon paper. Typically, five of them would be on a single subject. The sixth one would be a collection of one or two liners, separated by three dots. These mix and match columns were always signed “selah”, an untranslatable Hebrew word from Psalms. When asked why he did that, Mr. Bisher said “your guess is as good as mine”. … In one of the columns signed selah, Mr. Bisher talked about sports cliches. His least favorite one was about a ballplayer “who can do it all”. ” Lets see one of them have a baby”
The morning Constitution and the afternoon Journal were separate papers. The Journal had a saturday TV section printed on green paper, making the world look red when you put it down. The saturday paper also had a weekly ad from Lester Maddox, a restaurant owner who dabbled in politics. The next year, Lester would be elected Governor of Georgia. Lester called the Atlanta Constitution “the fishwrapper”. … In 1965, the Braves played a lame duck season in Milwaukee. The Crackers played one last season in the brand new Atlanta Stadium. It did not have -Fulton County in the name yet. The people of Atlanta were so proud of that facility. The next year, the Braves set up shop in Dixie, and were horrible. The Falcons played their first season, and were even worse.
Before long, I found other things to be interested in. Furman Bisher continued to plug away. A young man named Lewis Grizzard came to work at the fishwrapper, and Mr. Bisher was his boss. Eventually, Lewis Grizzard took a job in Chicago, a frosty exile from warm Georgia. A few years later, Mr. Grizzard came home, and became an institution. The only problem was his heart. Lewis Grizzard left us on March 20, 1994. … Mr. Bisher is 90 today, and in good health. The fishwrapper continues to shrink, and may not outlive one of it’s best writers. … Furman Bisher went to the press box in the sky March 18, 2012. The fishwrapper will print the last hard copy newspaper December 31, 2025.
This content was published October 12, 2009. … The GM plant in Doraville shut down. The vultures are circling the acreage. Some want to build a new stadium for the Falcons. Others want a residential/commercial “mixed use project”. This area needs either one like a submarine needs a screen door. … I have an idea for the GM property. The government should build a water reservoir on that land. Perhaps we could divert Nancy Creek and Peachtree Creek to get the water. Maybe we could pump out groundwater. This may not be the right answer. I am neither an engineer or a scientist.
The environmental impact of having an auto plant on the land for fifty years may be too great to overcome. The land may be too small to make much difference. No doubt the expense would be great, and it might not be cost effective. … Something needs to be done about the water crisis in Atlanta. We have a metropolis of five million people getting water from an overgrown trout stream. Our governments have failed us. They have allowed rampant development, without any thought given to where the water is going to come from.
It is time to quit whining about Alabama and Florida, and find another source of water. There are not going to be any cheap solutions. If the Tennessee River is accessed … a very big if … we will need a pipeline through the mountains to get the water to Atlanta. We might need to use every bit of unused land in the area to build reservoirs, and it still might not be enough. If the Doraville reservoir was in place now, we could be saving all of this rain we are getting. Put it away for a dry day when we need it. … The next drought could start tomorrow. We are going to need bold, expensive measures to solve this problem. The water shortage could do to Atlanta what the levee breaking did to New Orleans. The time to prepare is now. … In 2025, little has been done to prepare for the next drought.
This content was published October 26, 2008. … The trip to lower Tennessee went smoothly. Yes, there was an SUV shining his bright lights and encouraging more speed, but that is expected for Cobb County. I had driven for a living in this area, and found the house with little problem. … It had been fifteen years since I last saw the hostess. I was warmly greeted, and given a plate for the store bought grapes. Food was the focus of this evening, not costumes, athletic drinking, or hooking up. There was even a cake called “Better than Sex”. Getting older can be boring, but you are not going to go hungry.
The hostess had a prosthetic backside, draped by a hospital gown. There was a witch, a young terrorist, and a blogger wearing a ralph lauren tie. The prize for best costume went to the father of the hostess. His costume had been put aside by the time I arrived. … On the surface it sounds boring, but I had a good time. You could eat until you found someone to talk to, and soon there were people to listen to. Before long it was time to go, and get lost in the subdivision on the way out. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in November 1939. “Some of the Wilkins clan at dinner on corn-shucking day at home of Mrs. Fred Wilkins. Tallyho, near Stem, Granville County, North Carolina.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah