Free-For-All Friday 9/4/15

Feel free to use this post to make comments and ask questions about local topics not yet discussed here over the past week.

66 thoughts on “Free-For-All Friday 9/4/15”


  2. Be sure to check out the Emerging Writers Tent at the book fest this weekend. My debut middle grade fiction novel “Dinosaurs of the Unwinnable West” will be on sale. It’s also on Amazon. More info at http://www.dinosaurterritory.com.

  4. Some new stores & gym will open this year at Suburban Plaza. Church Street has a lot of traffic; are there any plans for a pedestrian Island to cross near Sycamore?

    2. I looked at the site plans on the MANA website and didn’t see any additional ped. crossings of Church St.–it looks like you have to go to the intersection of Church and North Decatur to have a signalized crossing.

  6. Young Buck’s head is going to explode: Dragon Con and Book Fest in the same weekend? Taking a moment to be grateful we live in the Dec.

  8. The Family Dollar in Oakhurst is closing down at the end of month–many of the shelves are already empty. The times I’ve been in there, it seemed to be doing OK business, but really I don’t know. The shutdown is probably related to the recent purchase of Family Dollar by Dollar Tree and some corporate plan to consolidate stores; but again, I don’t know.

    It’s too bad–that space was empty for a long time, and I was happy to see it filled with something useful and unglamorous. On occasions when I had to pick up a couple of basic grocery items at a reasonable price and didn’t want to drive out to Krogers or Publix, it was nice to be able to hop on my bike and be there in few minutes.

    4. Does anybody know if the Dollar Tree will carry similar merchandise?

      I’ve only shopped at Dollar Tree for cheap toys to stuff stockings or birthday party goody bags – in my opinion we don’t need a store in Oakhurst that sells useless crap made in china – if that is what we are getting.

      2. Related question – will the Dollar Tree carry Half n Half? I can only assume that the ownership of the Family Dollar chain had a deep seated loathing or religious objection to the stuff, because they never had any. Luckily the Hop n’ Shop carries it, with about 1/10th the space.

      3. But Family Dollar also sells basic groceries: milk, cereal, bread, which is really handy in a pinch– especially if you don’t have a car and live nearby — and I don’t see how Dollar Tree can sell those items.

      4. Right, the current Dollar Tree shtick is that everything actually costs a dollar. If they stick with that shtick, it would make it a lot more difficult to continue carrying a range of basic grocery items at reasonable prices, which is what I mainly use Family Dollar for.

        1. The most recent statement I read from their CEO indicated a move from being strictly literal about the dollar to a mix of dollar-priced and “value-priced” items. Sounded like a kind of best-of-both-worlds approach, where they get the people snagged by the $1 hook, but also have the freedom to carry a more useful array of goods.

          1. Glad to hear it; I hope it’s true. I understand wanting to have a gimmick to draw people in, but I’d hope not at the expense of having a reasonable range of goods at reasonable prices.

  10. People who drive in traffic with your brights on, why do you do it and who are you? The same folks that use the toilet with the seat down, leave your garbage next to the can, who think the closer you get to my bumper the faster the cars in front of me will go, scream and curse into your cellphone as if my kids aren’t around, who are sure that red light wasn’t for you, who think using your turn signals gives away a crucial secret, who don’t mind standing/waiting in line as long as you join it about half way up, who…?

    2. +1 to all of the above. The bright lights thing seems to have gotten worse in recent years, though it could just be that my eyes are getting old (fortunately, I drive less and less every year, and with the advent Uber, almost not at all at night.)

    3. This seems like the perfect opportunity to recommend that everyone, and I mean everyone, listen to David Foster Wallace give the famous commencement address at Kenyon College from 2005, popularly known and transcribed as “This is Water”.

      “Think about it, there is no experience you have had that you are not at the absolute center of.”

    1. All unfamiliar authors for me this year, Parker Cross. The discussion that has my curiosity piqued is called “Charity Detox”. I believe it’s in the last time slot Sunday evening.

    2. Here’s my wish list. It has schedule conflicts and tends to get modified and trimmed as the festival goes along, depending on my energy levels, the weather, and the distance between venues. If it doesn’t rain, the weather may be delightful, not beastly hot like some years.

      -Bringing Civil Rights Cold Cases to Life
      -Black Man in a White Coat
      -Called for Life: … Ebola Epidemic
      -That Should Be a Word
      -Reconciling Racism from a Sixties Childhood
      -Vaccine Nation
      -1776: What You Don’t Know
      -Decaturish: Writing Local
      -Education is not a Crime
      -To Be Other
      -A Boy from Georgia
      -The Year of Fear
      -Eighties New York
      -Deep Dark Down
      -Island on Fire
      -Joy Luck Club Interactive Mah-Jongg Parlor
      -Prostitutes & Polygamists
      -My Chinese America
      -Charity Detox
      -All In: How our Work-First Culture Fails Dads
      -Cuba in Crisis, 1960
      -The Tender Bloodsport of Write Club Atlanta

      1. I actually wouldn’t a bit of rain instead of the blazing sun. Cloudy all day would be best though.

      2. I hope you, and everyone else, gets to hear the Brantlys. Kent and Amber are two genuine, caring, fantastic people and it was an honor to care for them. There are many neighbors here from the CDC or Emory who played a part in their story. So glad they lived to tell the tale!

    3. Just saw this on AJC website:

      MARTA to discuss Emory-area transit option at Decatur Book Fest

      If you’re heading to the Decatur Book Festival this weekend, take a few moments to learn more about how MARTA is laying the groundwork to expand transit in the area. MARTA staff will be available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Decatur Station to provide the public with information about the transit agency’s plans for the “Clifton Corridor Transit Initiative.”

  14. Are there printed schedules for the Book Festival distributed around town? If so, where can I find one? I haven’t bumped into one so far. (Was it in Sunday’s AJC and I missed it, aaargh! One of the few bennies of still getting hardcopy besides doing the puzzles.)

    1. The Festival Program like the one that was in Sunday’s AJC, will be available all over town. If you don’t find one at a business, they’ll be at the welcome tents at each entrance.

    1. There hasn’t been a request for the kid with the pressure washer in a few months. He’s quite a celebrity around here. His name is Jacob and can be reached/texted at 404-309-9863. I’m not sure if he is up for staining, though.

      1. Jacob did a great job pressure wading my driveway last week. He might still be home but I believe he was leaving for college this weekend.

        2. Yes, this is Jacob’s Dad — we’re up in Providence where Jacob is starting school at Rhode Is. School of Design. He says thanks for your business… until next summer.

      2. Jacob is a neighbor and is off to college, and we need staining, too. Probably looking for a contractor.

          1. My name is Christian and I am a high school senior with a pressure washer. If anyone needs driveways, walkways, decks, or other areas pressure washed I would love to help you out now that Jacob has left for college. Feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] or by phone at (404) 630-5956.

        2. I am using The Painting Company to pressure wash, repair and stain my deck. Got their name from Angie’s List and so far they have been very professional

  18. Happy Nerdygras all! This will be our first as former Decaturites, and we will be splitting time between DragonCon (our first time attending more than the parade!) and the Book Fest. Plus, we have to squeeze in time to watch the Alabama vs. Wisconsin game (my wife insists). We’ll be wearing out those Breeze cards and the Uber app! Anyone else trying to do both festivals?

    1. Yes. My band of Fury Road war boys is going straight from the Dragon*Con parade to the DBF. WE WILL RIDE MARTA INTO DECATUR, SHINY AND CHROME!

  24. Is there an app for the book festival?
    There’s an app called Guidebook that’s great for conferences and would work for this: it shows activities and locations, maps, and you can add events to your schedule and it alerts you so you can head to your event on time.

    1. There has been in the past, but it was IOS only so I didn’t use it. No word at all for one this year.

  26. Did you know that DeKalb Library Foundation will use donations to purchase titles of your choice? I was able to direct funds to round out their eBook collection by going to their Online Donation link, marking general donation, and noting that I was donating towards a specific author and titles. A few weeks later, bingo, shared Kindle titles and a richer collection. Read books!

  28. Gutter guy or gal recommendation? For realignment, not complete install. I think my all-too-level gutters are causing the West Nile outbreak.

  30. Certain Decatur neighbors, please stop parking your cars across the sidewalk. It’s illegal (Georgia Code 40-6-203), it puts our children in danger, it’s mean-spirited (especially toward people with physical disabilities), and it’s downright selfish. In all cases where I see it, and this includes those who regularly do it, there is readily available and perfectly legal parking available on the street immediately next to your driveway. Thank you!

      1. There is one household that has been visited repeatedly by DPD that’s still doing it pretty much daily, so I’ve wondered if a ticket is really written, or just a visit is paid.

    2. What’s that mean? Are they in their driveways but sticking out too far?

      I bet they’re all the same people who think it’s okay to try to run people down at Oakview and E. Lake.

      1. Yes, car sticks out of driveway and covers up the sidewalk. ,I think the particular culprits I have in mind might be more likely running down people in the vicinity of Clairemont and Wilton.

  32. I really need to start reading DM more regularly again. You miss a few days and you have some serious back reading to do.

  34. No app this year. I’ve found the app to be incredibly useful in the past. I wonder why there isn’t one this year.

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