From the Decatur Book Festival…

Best-selling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Joshilyn Jackson and Clyde Edgerton are among a half- dozen writers being “auctioned” off for charity next month in Decatur, Ga.

The authors – all of whom are appearing at the Decatur Book Festival Sept. 2-4 – agreed to spend 1 hour with the highest bidder, enjoying drinks and conversation at Decatur’s famous Brick Store Pub. Fans can place their bids on eBay until Aug. 24 (search term: “Book the Brick”).

Sponsored by the festival and the Decatur Education Foundation, the “Book the Brick” auction was designed to raise money for youth literacy programs in the community. Winning bidders also receive a signed copy of the author’s latest book.

Other authors participating include Hollywood stuntman Hal Needham, director of “Smokey and the Bandit” and now author of “Stuntman!”; teen / tween author Lauren Myracle, whose latest book is “Shine”; Susan Rebecca White, author of “A Soft Place to Land” and “Bound South”; and Atlanta writer and satirist Andisheh Nouraee, co-author of “Americapedia.”

Winning bidders may bring a guest. For details, visit www.DecaturEducationFoundation.org.

Looking at the Ebay list at this very moment, all auctions are starting at $100.

Now, Andisheh didn’t ask me to post this.

But hell, if I only did what he told me to do, I’d still be sitting at the W.Howard crosswalk @ Adair yelling explitives at speeders, while trying to engage unsuspecting pedestrians in conversations about why they thought the faux-brick crosswalk was cracking.

And I’m told that’s no way to live.

So instead, I suggest we exclaim some uncomfortably loud “Congratulations” to Mr. Nouraee, who’s new book – which was co-written with writers, Jodi Lynn Anderson and Daniel Ehrenhaft – is now on sale!  You think this is some kind of DM prank or a July 19th fools day thing?  Well, then check out this New York Times blurb baby!

This graphics-rich collaboration by three Gen X writers is like Jon Stewart’s “America” for the Y.A. set. But unlike Stewart’s readers — at least theoretically — the intended audience for “Americapedia” still needs to learn the basics of the American Revolution (“America Unfriends Great Britain”). So while the book holds no shortage of attitude and satire, it also imparts an impressive array of historical substance and even a degree of earnestness and patriotism, complete with an appendix on civic action for teenagers.

Sure you could wait for Andisheh’s talk at the Decatur Book Festival to purchase the book, but how then will you be able to publicly call him out for all the places where you felt he/they sacrificed historical accuracy for acute hilarity?

Buy it today!

So says Andisheh.  And he provides this photo to back up the observation.

Andisheh alerted us earlier today that famed inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg, had been spotted amongst the crowd at the Decatur Book Festival.  Upon hearing, DM immediately sent out our entire “dead inventors” staff in the Dead Inventor Staff Van to gather eyewitness accounts.

“After getting over my initial shock that a man dead for hundreds of years was standing before me with a plastic beer cup in his hand, I asked him if he would sign my Kindle.”, said a gentleman with an impressive shiner forming below his left eye.  “Obviously he didn’t see the irony in the request.”

No one we came across could explain how the dead inventor happened upon the event, having been deceased over 550 years and long buried in Germany. By all accounts, Gutenberg seemed a man strangely comfortable in his environment, speaking English and eating festival food.  Yet he also was visibly irritated according to many accounts.

“He asked me where the King of Pops cart was and whether I knew if there were any Raspberry Lime bars left.  I pointed him in the direction of the MARTA plaza and asked my friend if I had really just given directions to the man who first proved that the earth revolved around the sun.  I felt sort of silly when she corrected me.  I’m always getting my 16th century Germans mixed up!”

Read the rest of this entry »

Watch out Public Works.  Andisheh’s brainstorming…

I love the concept and the result of Decatur’s pay-as-you-throw residential garbage system. I have some problems with the practice, however.

Of the three available garbage bag sizes, none fits the trash can in my kitchen. As a result, our household garbage typically gets disposed of in two bags – we take the plastic bag from the kitchen and dump it in one of the bigger Decatur bags.

It’s wasteful to double-bag garbage. I’m wondering if there isn’t a solution.

a) Maybe Decatur could expand its range of garbage bags to include the most popular sizes.

b) Better yet, Decatur could get out of the trash bag business and get into the trash bag stamp business. Let us use our own trash bags, but pay for their pickup by affixing stamps to them. We have an eight gallon can in our kitchen. How hard could it be to develop a system that lets residents purchase eight, 10, 13 or 35 gallon stamps to affix to bags or cans. Just sell the stamps in 10, five, two and one gallon denominations.

And if people want to stick with the current system, why not keep it, too.

I’m sure there’s a downside, but I thought I’d throw it out there.

While many Atlanta residents and transit-ites celebrated the recent $5 million donation to build the Beltline’s northeast segment bike trail, Andisheh remained unimpressed.  For him, the donation was just another reminder of how far the project hasn’t come in 11 years. 

From Fresh Loaf…

Viewed within the bigger picture of Beltline history though, the [donation] announcement was a big let down. It’s dispiriting that the city has made so little progress with the Beltline project that a short bike trail is considered huge breakthrough.

A thumbnail history — the Beltline was conceived in 1999 as a comprehensive urban re-development project, including parks, mass transit and new private construction. Embraced by city residents as soon as they began hearing about it, it was promoted first by the City Council President, then by a powerful and popular mayor. She helped give it an organizational structure and (controversial) funding mechanism in 2005 and 2006.

That’s a lot of time. A lot of money. A lot of public discussion. A lot of political capital.

And for what? So far, just a couple of short trails.

 And then, just this morning, the news fates decided to throw the CL cynic an “I told you so” bone.  From the AJC’s Ariel Hart… Read the rest of this entry »

From the Atlanta Magazine website…

*Department of Corrections

Readers have enjoyed our Real Estate issue—that is, except for citizens in the city of Decatur, who expressed their displeasure when they noticed that the depressed sales prices we listed for their area were representative of all Decatur addresses, not just the city as we had mistakenly indicated. We’re sorry for that error, and with the help of a Decatur real estate agent, Sean Dammann, and the City of Alpharetta (whose sales prices we’d also listed as representing solely the city), we have some new numbers to share.

In fact, the city of Decatur’s citizens have reason to be proud. Median sales prices have held relatively steady over the past three years, dropping by only 0.6 percent since 2007 to around $350,000 (although the number of homes sold in the city was down 29.6 percent in 2009 to 178). Dammann culled his numbers from the Sandy Springs–based First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS).

Need a recap of the original issue?  CLICK HERE.

Hat-tip to the city’s Linda Harris over on the Decatur Minute who also notes that the magazine will post a correction in its June issue.

P.S.  While you’re over on the Atlanta Magazine website, you may also want to check out why Andisheh is in dire need of a marine biologist.