Brick Store lovers have pined for the release of Mary Jane Mahan’s “Love at the Pub” even longer than they have been anxiously drooling over the fine craft beers aging patiently in the Brick Store’s cold celler.

I first reported Mahan’s book of BSP stories way back in October 2007 – only about a month after the birth of this blog – when Mahan offered her card to a soused DM and his wife at the Decatur Beer Festival.  And though the road to publication proved a bit bumpy, Mahan has finally completed her tribute to the Pub where she once worked.

Released TODAY, “Love at the Pub” includes many a Brick Store memory along with…

• How the Brick Store became rated the #2 beer bar on planet Earth
• What local building used to sit on the site of 125 E Court Square
• How the Georgia beer law fight was won (and who to thank)
• Why the second floor bar makes you swear you’re in Europe

Buy your book on Amazon today and enter your confirmation # on the Love at the Pub website and Mahan promises many extras; the most delectable being a free pint at the Brick Store.

Pick up your copy today and see why tears filled Mayor Floyd’s eyes “with Brick Store pride” when he read it.

Thanks in large part to a renewed energy brought to the office of Veteran’s Affairs by Secretary Eric Shinseki, ill and homeless veterans have more reasons today to hold out hope for a revived and resourceful department than any time in recent memory.

Among Shinseki’s most ambitious goals is the announcement to get all 131,000 homeless vets off the street in just six years.  If nothing else this tangible benchmark signals accepting recognition of the problem – which was strangely lacking in previous administrations – and shows that Shinseki takes the crisis seriously enough to be held publicly accountable for it.

And though things finally seem to be moving in the appropriate direction, the “sprawling” department must still make many great strides in reorganizing and rebranding before any verdict can be made on Shinseki’s tenure as Secretary.  Therefore, I’m reposting my call from Veterans Day 2008, hopeful that our country may finally be on its way to providing the needed care and support our nation’s veterans have long deserved.

Read the rest of this entry »

I think the average speed along this stretch of North Decatur is around 50 mph.

From the AJC…

The eastbound car hit the woman, then turned around and drove west back down North Decatur, Gagnon said. The incident occurred near Landover Drive, in unincorporated DeKalb near Decatur.

The woman was pronounced dead on the scene, police said, and has not been identified, pending notification of her next of kin.

…There are no cross walks in the area, and Gagnon said the area was dark.

After recently relocated to downtown Decatur, Amy writes in with news that her husband, Van Jensen, has just released his first graphic novel, “Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer”!

Looks like Publishers Weekly is already a big fan…

…although he’s no Buffy Summers, as a vampire fighter Pinocchio has the advantage of a built-in wooden stake—as long as he remembers to tell lies at the right time. Jensen’s script is clever, full of irreverent irony. But the highlight of the book is Higgins’s b&w art that offers page after page of amazement. Swirling, whirling, jittery, skittery, the story dances gracefully from grin to grimace and back again.

How does one get a copy of this bloody work of art?  Stop by Little Shop of Stories this Friday for a book-signing at 4pm.  And if you can’t make it, I’m sure the Little Shop folks can get a copy in your hands some how.

According to his blog, Jensen is already working on a sequel.  Virginia may be for lovers, but with our recent penchant for zombies and other dark monsters, Decatur could easily adopt “Decatur is for the Undead”.