Lew sends along this announcement…

• DHS Band Yard Sale
• Saturday, October 13, 9-3pm
• at Intown Ace Hardware
• 1404 Scott Blvd.

You can drop off donations between 4-7 pm, Wednesday-Friday Oct. 10-12 at the back entrance of Ace Hardware. We’ll take furniture, décor, cookware, electronics, tools, toys, books, cars, DVDs, gently used dress clothes, etc.

Then come by and shop all the bargains on Saturday the 13th! All proceeds go directly to buy new instruments, fund travel scholarships, etc. More info at http://www.decaturband.org/

The DHS Band Yard Sale is possible because of the generous sponsorship of Intown Ace Hardware. Thanks to Tony Powers for his support. Questions? Contact Rachelle Spell rachelle.spell@emory.edu.

Bryan sends along this video from New Jersey in honor of International Walk and Roll to School day, which is TODAY!

As you may have already read in the comments from yesterday’s annexation post, the City Schools of Decatur have just launched an informative annexation blog, which thus far has provided enrollment projections with and without a potential Decatur annexation and the CSD annexation work-group’s detailed report on the effects of a Decatur annexation on the school system.

The stated findings of the report are as follows…

1. Annexation accelerates the eventual need for construction (e.g., additional buildings, renovations).
2. Annexation causes CSD to need additional revenue.
3. False: just removing paying tuition students will alleviate this challenge.
4. Annexation causes a cash flow challenge at the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year.

After a very detailed analysis, the work-group is projecting that an annexation of all the potential parcels would increase 2014 enrollments by 274 students.  By 2018 that number could get as high as 450 new students.  To come up with revenue to teach the new students, CSD would either need to cut programs and/or staff or raise the millage rate by 1 point, after the loss in revenue from paying tuition students is accounted for.  Additionally, CSD would need time to create a reserve fund in advance to pay all the new teachers at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year, even before taxes are collected from all the new residents.  That’s the “cash flow challenge” referenced in item #4.

However, it should be noted that this is an overall estimate of what a complete and total annexation of all the suggested parcels by the city would do to CSD’s enrollment levels.   The way the potential annexation areas have been chosen by the city thus far sounds like an “anything and everything” approach.  This is fine in the initial phases, but the city will eventually need to open up about what the final areas under consideration for annexation include.  All that said, CSD’s base for this analysis may ultimately be too big or too small to lend itself to any fiscal analysis of an annexation’s impact.  Let’s hope that we can see both the final CSD and city revenue/expense projections by area in enough time before the city commission is slated to make a decision on this in mid-December.

The quadrennial presidential political season kicks into a different gear at 9pm this evening with the first of three debates between President Barack Obama (author of Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (448 pages) and The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (384 pages)) and Republican nominee Mitt Romney (co-author of Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games (416 pages) and author of No Apology: Believe in America (336 pages)). Regardless of the outcome of this year’s election, there is a very good chance that each of these guys will write another book.

In general I find books by, for, and/or about politicians to be boring — too long and too numerous.  I was yet again reminded of this fact yesterday with the release of Rick Santorum’s second book, American Patriots: Answering the Call to Freedom (at least it is only 176 pages) and Bill O’Reilly’s umpteenth book, Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot (336 co-written pages).

I have read great things about Robert Caro’s biographies of Lyndon Johnson. Unfortunately the first four volumes — the fifth and final book won’t be out for at least a couple of years — total some 3,400 pages. (If you agree that this is an awful lot of reading, please realize that it took over 4,000 pages for J.K. Rowling to cover Harry Potter’s adolescence.) A search for “Barack Obama” and “biography” on Amazon.com yields 551 results. George W. Bush wrote Decision Points (512 pages), a pared-down memoir limited to major decisions made during his life. Bill Clinton famously signed over 1,000 copies of My Life (992 pages) at the Second Story Bookshop (R.I.P. 2009) in Chappaqua, New York upon the book’s release in 2004. Jimmy Carter has authored or co-authored some 23 books.

I’ve read the picture book President Carter authored with his daughter, Amy, as well as some of his poetry. I’m just not a political junkie.

There are two political books that I have enjoyed. The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (544 pages) was completed just days before his death from throat cancer in 1885 and published by his friend, Mark Twain. I haven’t read it cover to cover, but instead skipped around. The bulk of the book concerns the Civil War and is forthright and fascinating.

Far more contemporary is Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s All the President’s Men (349 pages), which I read when it was published in 1974. Even though I had read newspaper accounts of Watergate daily, the book was still gripping. And relatively short.

Have any good political books to recommend?

This Week

Adam Gidwitz, author of In a Glass Grimmly, Wednesday, October 3rd, 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Hillary Jordan, author of When She Woke, Wednesday, October 3rd, 7:15pm, Decatur Library, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.

Jumpstart’s Read for the Record, Thursday, October 4th, 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Jasper Fforde, author of The Woman Who Died a Lot: A Thursday Next Novel, Friday, October 5th, 7pm, First Baptist Church – Decatur, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.

Star Wars Reads Day, Saturday, October 6th, 10am, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Chris Cleave, author of Gold, Saturday, October 6th, 2pm, Toco Hill – Avis G. Williams Library, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.

Stacy London (co-host of TLC’s What Not to Wear), author of The Truth About Style, Tuesday, October 9th, 6pm cocktails, 7pm talk, Atlanta History Center, $45 for members, $55 for non-members.

Stephan Pastis, author of Pearls Freaks the #*%# Out, Tuesday, October 9th, 7pm, Manuel’s Tavern, hosted by A Cappella Books, free

Tad Hills, author of Rocket Writes a Story, Wednesday, October 10th, 4pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Carlos Andrés Gómez, author of Man Up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood, Wednesday, October 10th, 7:15pm, Decatur Library, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.