Beth writes in…

Due to all the rain at Greenfest, the Rain Barrel Auction was postponed (ironic, isn’t it?). It will be held this Saturday night, May 16, preceeding the concert on the Square Event.

All 7 of the beautiful rain barrels designed and painted by Clairemont Elementary school kids (one was done solely by their art teacher) are on display in the Decatur Library this week, leading up to the auction.

Rain Barrel Man and Mayor Floyd will be on the bandstand to auction the barrels at 6:30 pm.

This project was created by Clairemont Elementary’s Green Initiative, “Little Sprouts” to educate the students on water conservation.

Lots going on in ol’ Emory Village lately, as evidenced by the obstacle course of car-eating street ditches.  And now that the under-grads are gone, the village can once again be reclaimed by year-round residents!

So in preparation…three items of note for ya…

1.  From Clairmont Heights Civic Association’s website…

Water main work continues — DeKalb County continues to replace an antiquated water main that runs through Emory Village and should complete their work this month. At the close of this project, Georgia Power will begin work to bury power lines in the Village, which will remove unsightly utility wires and wooden poles in the commercial district. After the power lines are buried, DeKalb County will begin work on the Village roadwork and roundabout. Thank you to all for your patience during this project, and please continue to patronize Village merchants during this time.

2.  Daily Candy features Sprouts Green Cafe, that opens tomorrow in the old One Hot Cookie/Cold Stone Creamery location (h/t: the misses)…

Honor your temple with organic, local, tasty fare — no nitrates, phosphates, MSG, antibiotics, or fryin’ done here. A seasonal menu rotates rice bowls, wraps, and specialty features like house-made guac. Hydrate with refreshers like green tea; lemonade; and H2O infused with mint, fruit slices, and herbs grown in the greenhouse.

Auto bathroom lights, lime-colored chairs, and a maple bar (carved from a single Georgia tree) round out the eco touches.

3.  Apparently I never posted this when I first originally saw it, and though its kinda old news now, its still pretty interesting.

Emory’s Goizueta Business School recently did a survey to gauge local interest in opening a movie theater in the new and much larger Emory Village rebuild (artist’s rendering).  The survey is now closed, but with all the recent interest in local, artsy movie theaters, I thought folks would be interested that it was even being considered.

OK, I’m a little late with this, but perhaps I can still save one or two of you from making the worst decision of your day.

Unless you’re inexplicably compelled to spend countless stationary minutes/hours behind the wheel in beautiful Druid Hills, stay the heck away from Emory today.

And in case you shyed away because of traffic or rain, you’ll be able to watch the whole ceremony HERE after 2pm.

A recent article in NY Times Magazine’s “Green Issue” explored the question “Why Isn’t the Brain Green?”,  searching out answers to why humans have such trouble focusing on long-term problems – in this instance climate change.

However, probably the most interesting element of the article has little to do with the environment at all.  It’s all about how we make decisions.

In the article, psychologists assert that we analyze a problem in two ways: analytically and emotionally.  Not too surprising, right?

But what’s really interesting is that they also discovered that they could affect the way people thought about an issue depending on how and when the issue was presented.  Asked to make a decision individually before joining a group, participants used phrases like “I feel…” much more frequently, showing an initial emotional response to the issue.  However, when the same question was presented in a group format first, respondents were much more likely to be analytical about these problems and used words like “we” and “us” demonstrating group identity.

So what?  Well, this obviously could have implications across all spectrums.  Not just regarding climate change, but any and all decision-making.  So when cities, towns,  corporations across the country, sit down to solve a potential problem, much of the possibility for solution is apparently determined by when the information is disseminated and how you promote teamwork (apparently giving teams identities – i.e. “you are the blue star team!” – works pretty well).

This gets me wondering not just about how this study and its results apply to our city’s own decision-making process, but also about any potential impact that a community blog might have vs. a newspaper.  While I can see how it can be argued that learning about an issue in either a blog or a newspaper is learning and deciding on an issue individually, I think there’s an argument to be made that a blog with an active and productive feedback/discussion mechanism could provide an element of community cooperation that could never be promoted by a hard copy (or unmoderated) newspaper.  (And no wonder AJC comments are all unbridled emotion.) I doubt its a strong enough incentive as sitting across the table from a bunch of fellow citizens, but hey, its better than nothing.

Interesting stuff.  Sounds a bit like Otis White, doesn’t it?

h/t:  Otis White

…North Carolina BBQ to be specific.

Barb Rowland sends in the specifics.

PARIS BAR AND RESTAURANT – NEW -LUNCH SERVED MONDAY – FRIDAY 11:00 – 3:00

Located two blocks west of Decatur Marta station and Court House

308H Ponce de Leon Place – Decatur, GA 30030 (404) 932-0737

North Carolina BBQ with pulled pork/ribs/chicken/ mac n cheese/sweet potato fries..the works..starting at $5.25 Take out also!

InDecatur has posted a copy of the new spot’s menu, taken off its Facebook page.