Alright, so DM isn’t technically a message board, but our comments section sure comes close!  (As any half-decent hyper-local blog should.)

So I thought you might all get a kick out of this recent list from Atlantic Cities detailing “The 20 Characters You’ll Meet on Every Neighborhood Message Board”.  Not every single one applies – e.g. we don’t have any #18s (Reply All Guys) or #20s (Accidental Reply All Ladies), since there’s no reply all function on DM.   But I’m sure you’ll notice as you go down the list, there will be more than one…or five…occasions when you’ll say to yourself…”That’s totally…so-and-so.”

So which are you?

I’ll post the 20 names for the characters below, but you’ll have to click over to Atlantic Cities to read the excellent and often hilarious descriptions.  (Sorry, I still like to show my fellow blogs some link love.)

• 1. The moderator.
• 2. The comic.
• 3. The loose cannon.
• 4. The longtime resident.
• 5. The doubter.
• 6. The local business owner who is tasteful with his advertising.
• 7. The local-ish business owner who is not.

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I received this letter via a guy on a horse from a group calling themselves “The Bell-Bottomed Windbags” this morning (OK, I actually made that up)

Esteemed Decatur residents, In an effort to remain the most progressive-thinking (and looking) city in all of Georgia, it has been determined that more must be done to take greater inspiration from the 1890s.   The attached Portlandia video barely scratches the surface of 1890s life and style.  We’re all going to need to go beyond the micro-brews, locally made sausage and the occasional curly mustache to really turn Decatur into the 1890s freak-show that will make it a world-class destination for bobos and discontented hipsters alike.

Please put on your thinking-caps and let us know what else Decatur can be doing to turn back the clock to the Grover Cleveland era.  All ideas will be compiled and then screamed at the front doors of Decatur City Hall at our convenience.  You’ll recognize us all by our awesome beards, knitted dresses, and suspenders.  Thank you for your time.

Cordially,

The Bell-Bottomed Windbags

My first suggestion: un-pave the streets.  I’ll do my part and turn Decatur Metro into an old-timey newspaper and hire some newsies.  “Extree extree!!”

Decatur has given us so much this year.   Growlers, sharrows, street trees, new and rebuilt restaurants, Sunday sales, the second-coming of Eddie Owen.

Now it’s time to give back.  What would you like to give Decatur this holiday season?

Personally, I’m thinking a giant box (sorta like this one) filled with bricks, mortar, a few stone masons and a jack-hammer that will be placed outside David Junger’s home.  One chilly morning he will be awoken to the muffled sounds of the stone masons, yelling to be released from their cardboard confines.

When he runs outside to open it, he’ll be thrilled to see that he can now immediately replace all the city’s crumbling faux-brick crosswalks with the real deal.

Photo courtesy of voxtheory via Flickr

I say we have a caption contest with this interesting pic!

I love bragging about my alma mater and fellow Scotties. And as a ukulele enthusiast, I love bragging about my fellow ukers. As it happens, these two worlds of mine collided in the September issue of Glamour, when Agnes Scott College student Tally Deushane was named one of the magazine’s “Top 10 College Women” for her YouTube-fueled fame. The adorably dorky Tally, a literature/creative writing major, has been writing original songs on her el cheapo ukulele from Amazon, videotaping them in her dorm room, and posting them on YouTube. She writes a lot of songs about television shows, and they are funny.

From the Glamour profile: “She didn’t think anyone would watch, but she started getting thousands of hits from viewers in the U.S., Australia, Germany, Italy, France and Brazil—among them the producers of CBS’s How I Met Your Mother, who included her tune about their show on their season-five DVD.”

Tally, who has her sights set on Tina Fey’s career trajectory, has more than 100 ukulele songs on her YouTube page. Here is the latest, which happens to be my very favorite:

(Note especially that black ring on her left hand!)

Read more here: http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2011/09/top-10-college-women-the-entertainer