Carl sends in a barrage of emails giving us some great links to half-price dining at Decatur restaurants.

Over on Southern Voice, buy $30 Feast gift cards for $15 or $50 cards for $25.  Limit of 4 per purchase.  Oh and it excludes alcohol.

And over at HalfOffDepot.com, get $50 gift cards for James Joyce, and $25 gift cards for Mexico City Gourmet, Natalie’s Fish House and Calavino’s!  Of these, only Mexico City Gourmet excludes alcohol.

All thanks go to Carl!  I’m just the messenger.

From Andrea Berry at Decatur eLife…

Decatur eLIFE Magazine is producing a Souvenir DVD and Book to commemorate the opening of the new Sports Stadium at Decatur High School on September 19, 2008.

We’re looking for former DHS students who would like to add comments or be interviewed for this project. If you have photos or a statement that you would like to be included, please send them asap to contact@elifemagazine.net

A preview of the DVD will be shown at the “Lights On” Ceremony on September 19th at DHS. The complete DVD and book will be available shortly after the September 19th ceremony.

As promised, The Grange Public House will open to the public this coming Saturday, September 6th!

While you await the opening, check out this Atlanta Magazine article with Darren’s wife, Amanda, discussing additional food and drink plans for The Grange.

I should have another firsthand account later this week!  Can’t wait!

Let’s try something new…

This is an open thread for those that would like to share their DBF experiences from this weekend.  Review a talk or just give your overall impressions of the event in the comments section below.  Where are the best booksellers tents located or what’s the best kept secret of the weekend?  You get the idea.

Once I get my butt up there this afternoon I’ll also chime in…plus, I might even snap a few pictures.  Enjoy all!

P.S.  How was Billy Collins?

The AJC summarizes the story we broke a couple days ago that 315 W. Ponce developer, JLB Partners, have put their apartment plans on hold to allow more time to address residents’ concerns.

The one new item in the piece is a quote from JLB’s Hudson Hooks saying, “Yes, we deferred it, but we’re not going away.”

OK.  So what now?  Does this mean the developer is willing to be more flexible in terms of density? Because for better or worse that still seems to be the real thorn in the craw of the neighborhood.  Parking-shmarking.

Where did I go?

OK, so I was double-checking when the Atlantic’s fiction editor, C. Michael Curtis, would be talking at this year’s Decatur Book Festival and I now can’t find him anywhere!

Here’s the old page for the writer’s conference and here’s the one currently linked to off the homepage.

Notice a difference?  Steven Corey of the Georgia Editor’s Review has mysteriously replaced a now absent Curtis!

Perhaps Ty Pennington and C. Michael Curtis are BOTH on Oprah this weekend?

Beyond all this, remember that the DBF kicks off this afternoon at 3pm with the Writer’s Conference this afternoon at Agnes Scott.

Rus is good enough to send in this pic of our newest Chinese food restaurant, Jin Jin, at 614 Church Street.

Hope its good!  My wife won’t let me go back to the Chinese food restaurant in the Kaplin plaza on Clairmont since they’re health inspection rating fell into the low 80s last year.

So I’m sure you’ve all heard about Clayton County losing its accreditation yesterday?  Third time in the past 40 years, ring a bell?

Well, apparently the article written by the Associated Press originally had the story based in Decatur, GA.  See here.  Since then, many of the original postings have changed the lead of “Decatur, GA – ” to “Jonesboro, GA -”, but not before the popular blog “Hit & Run” used Decatur as an example for allowing parents to choose where their kids go to school.  (You know, since apparently we’re located in Clayton County!)

Now, we really can’t be that judgemental.  Even among Atlantans, it seems that everything from the city of Decatur to the southern DeKalb County line gets dumped into the “Decatur” bucket these days.  Soon alligator attacks in the Okefenokee Swamps will be attributed to “Decatur, GA”.

But I guess we just have to grin and bear it.

Finally!  A store sign in front of the old post office building indicates that it will be “Greene’s Fine Foods“.

The only other online info I can find on it is in the form of job postings like this one…

Looking for energetic and fun full and part time employees to work in a brand new retail Candy, Nut, and Gift store in Downtown Decatur. Please forward resume or send an email to tommy@greenefinefoods.com.

I hope Tommy meant to write “greenefinefood”, because he’s missing the ’s’ and the store’s website includes it.  If so, not my job apps are going to get thru.

Candy and gifts!  All the rumors seem to be true…though we had heard nothing about ‘fun’ previously.

Welcome to the ‘hood of neighbors, Greene’s!

…thanks mostly to Sonny and his threatened repeal of the Homestead Tax Relief Grant, which accounts for $700,000 of the missing funds.

So where’d the other money go?  Well, apparently the state made a calculation mistake, which coupled with a 2% cut from a QBE (Quality Basic Education) formula, accounts for another $212,000.

Anyone else see a common thread here?  The state can’t balance its budget (resulting in killing the HTRG – though Sonny would argue otherwise) + they have a tendency to make some big ol’ calculation errors? Sounds to me like the state could benefit from a little elementary school math lesson…or at least a middle school beat-down.

But enough of my rambling. Read the full explanation and implications from Superintendent Phyllis Edwards (supplied by InDecatur) after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »