CLASSIC CITY NEWS

In Flagpole’s September 16 issue (page 6, Mike Collins’ Greatest Hits) City Editor Blake Aued lists - with solid evidence - some “misdeeds” of our elusive 10th District Representative Mike Collins. I suggest adding another egregious example of his manifest incompetence that should make his Greatest Hits. In April of 2025 Rep. Collins claimed during a strange phoned-in town hall that “federal employees are lazy and stupid.” The repugnant Mr. Collins also said something disgus

By T. W. Burger Old age is a strange country, stranger than I ever expected before I entered it. Not sure when that was. I’m 77 now. I crossed the border sometime in the last six or seven years: More and harder-to-pronounce medications. More and harder-to- pronounce doctors. The fields on which I have lived my life are now smaller, flatter and less interesting. The challenges have devolved from exploring them to just trying to stay present. Too many of those with whom I rompe

By Albert DeSimone Let’s cut straight to semantics. One of the most basic human flaws is greed. Greed is a primordial force of nature, manifesting itself in our social and cultural environment as excessive self-interest. It affects us in many ways, including the two major socio-economic systems—simplified as collectivism (socialism) and individualism (capitalism). Of course, not everyone is going to see greed the same way, but I discovered a study by the National Institutes

By Erik Hogan Change comes suddenly with late September rain. Clouds and cool weather. The brutish heat of summer spilling carelessly into autumn is finally, thankfully, driven into remission. The seasons have found a pivot, but the atmosphere is attended by vague heaviness. A somber recognition of the brevity of autumn already slipping past as life continues to careen wildly down its tracks. In the early morning an owl calls from a tree at the edge of the yard, in the darkne

By T. W. Burger It was the rainstorm that started it. Almost 40 years peeled away in a peal of thunder. We were driving west, my friend and I, just to the east of the mountain named Tuscarora. The sky behind the granite bulk rose forbiddingly black. "It looks like we might get some weather, " I said. We plowed through the tunnel at 60; framed in the exit was air that looked like a wall of steel. The brake lights lit up on every car and truck that hit that wall; most of them,

By T. W. Burger A delicious irony orbits constantly around the popular nickname of the generation I was born into. Starting in 1951 at our naming by a journalist, those of us born roughly between 1946 and 1964 were pegged as Baby Boomers. Though some quibble over the exact dates, Baby Boomers, or simply Boomers, we have remained. Et Voila! Me, my brother and almost all of my friends, enemies, paramours, wives, and co-workers, whatever our similarities and differences, have be

By Eddie Whitlock ​In my twenties, I discovered a category of stories called “urban folklore.” You’ve probably heard of it, but it wasn’t as well-known back then. ​These were typically stories that were outrageous, but the teller swore they were true. I collected the stories myself before I stumbled on author Jan Harold Brunvand. ​Dr. Brunvand collected these stories and published them in a series of books. His background was in folklore and mythology. He was a genuine academ

By Eddie Whitlock ​In my twenties, I discovered a category of stories called “urban folklore.” You’ve probably heard of it, but it wasn’t as well-known back then. ​These were typically stories that were outrageous, but the teller swore they were true. I collected the stories myself before I stumbled on author Jan Harold Brunvand. ​Dr. Brunvand collected these stories and published them in a series of books. His background was in folklore and mythology. He was a genuine academ

By Albert DeSimone Many people used to think of AI as the Internet on steroids. Not any more. Agentic AI has changed that. AI agents are software applications similar to the apps you have on your phone that interface with other apps on your device. Assume you have a “Schedule” app that you have given access to other apps on your device. You instruct Schedule to arrange a business trip for you on October 13-17 in New York. Schedule connects to your airline app that then conn

September 10, 2026 Dear Commissioners, I am writing to you because two formal ethics/conflict-of-interest (COl) complaints I filed with the City Attorney in June and July 2026 remain publicly unaddressed over 60 days later. In that regard, I am requesting a formal public response from you to the specific questions on page three of this letter. Overview These complaints allege COl's involving the mayor and two nonprofit organizations. The City Attorney acknowledged receipt of

By Albert DeSimone I happily toiled as a mid-level administrator for the better part of my career at The University of Georgi, where I was a communications director in the IT department with an identity problem. "You don't need to know corn to sell corn flakes.” This old business maxim might resonate with some, but not me. If I was going to “sell” IT services, I felt it necessary to learn about those services. So I did. I acquired a bit of a reputation for my ability to “tal

By Erik Hogan Science may explain the night to us. It describes an aspect of the spherical Earth rotating away from the illumination and warmth of the sun’s light. In those hours of facing the emptiness of space, darkness covers that part of our planet, diminishing ambient light and cooling off the atmosphere. But the Earth continues to rotate and, invariably, the hours of visibility and warmth return. This does not even begin to portray the human experience of the night. Beg

By T.W. Burger It was built somewhere around 1917, the same year my father was born and while the U.S. threw itself into World War One, also known as The Last War. As if. It was a gift from a schoolteacher aunt when I was 15. I like to think she gave it to me because she recognized in me a writer taking root. More likely, she had decided nobody would ever be able to decipher my handwriting. It was the beginning of a very productive relationship. School papers, journals, poetr

I’m writing because last week they killed 10 dogs at the shelter and the new director is not allowing transports to the north rescues-and you can’t even apply for dogs anymore. You have to go in and adopt them and they’re only open from 11 to 4 and they don’t answer the phone. I tried to get a dog and at that time there was an app process last week. They never contacted me and then they sent the dog to rescue. So at least they didn’t kill him. But everybody’s upset, especial

By Dennis Rice It would disturb me greatly if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalist and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it. That's what evangelist Billy Graham had to say in 1981. Today he would be appalled that so many so called mainline churches and so many mainline ministers, some highly trained at their seminaries, who know better, are afraid to speak out. They have allowed Christian Zionism to enter

By T.W. Burger Kay Scoggins was tall, blonde, blue-eyed, beautiful, kind, affable, tough as nails, really country, and sort of a force of nature. She served as a patrol officer and state trooper for decades and even ran for president at least once. She got 13 votes. In an interview a few years later she said she had not made a lot of promises during her campaign except to ensure freedom of speech and maybe put a doublewide mobile home on the front lawn of the White House. Eve

By Albert DeSimone The continuum from capitalism to communism describes economic systems, though these systems also heavily influence political and social structures. At their core, they represent fundamentally different answers to the basic economic question: Who should own and control the resources used to produce goods and services while distributing the fruits of economic progress? Capitalism: Capitalism is a basic economic system that, at its core, is driven by a combina

By Paige Brimer It was a warm autumn morning when two friends and I took a stroll along the Greenway off MLK, Jr Pkwy. We decided to stop and sit on some rocks by the riverside to enjoy a little company, coffee and creation. It wasn't long, however, until a pesky side of creation had us unnerved and searching our bags for bug spray. Mosquitoes were swarming, and that's no exaggeration. They were everywhere! After we got ourselves sprayed down, we began to speculate about why

By Paige Brimer My son Levi Brimer is gifted but learning disabled. He is bipolar and I swear something only half diagnosed: a narcoleptic (diagnosed) insomniac (medicated in youth). In his life he's been a poet, comedian, dad extraordinaire, a provider/Award Winning Executive Chef, a gamer, music junkie, occasional dance king, and an overall caring and loving heart and soul. When he was fifteen years old we moved away from an area where he had developed close friendships. I

By T. W. Burger I found it, naturally, while looking for something entirely different. In a box on a bottom shelf in my office, jammed in with some other mementos, was my old Mr. Trash hat. It was filthy. Of course, it was filthy when I put it away, sometime back in the early 1980s. The grime is easy to explain. Mr. Trash, while it existed, was a “refuse removal business,” which most of us would still call “garbage company.” I was the field manager, though I’m not sure I had