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June 2007
I will miss Chris Benoit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I have been a professional wrestling fan since I was six years old and it drives some people nuts.
“How can an educated man enjoy watching that stuff?” Say what you want about wrestling being scripted. For me, it is amazing to watch these athletes work every day as hard as they do. Most of us could never have the strength or agility to do what they do.
If you’ve been following the news, you heard about the recent Chris Benoit tragedy. I used to tell people that if I was ever cornered in a dark alley by a group of thugs, I would want Jet Li and Chris Benoit guarding my back.
Chris, like Jet Li, was not the biggest, nor the strongest. He was 5 foot 10 inches, weighed 220 pounds but in my opinion he was the best at what he did. He didn’t quit and he didn’t lose. And like Jet Li, you knew that when you watched him fight he’d do things that seemed impossible for the human body to do.
Chris was tough as nails. He was often injured — broken ribs, torn knee ligaments, elbows, arms, head — but he entertained his audience and gave a maximum effort every night.
Friends and neighbors, I can certainly understand if you don’t know what I’m talking about. I hope you’ll forgive me if you feel like I have wasted your time this week with my remembrances of this great athlete.
Next week I’ll get back to writing about all things Duluth, but today I had to express what I’m feeling. Maybe some of you out there will want to share your feelings in this blog too.
I hope you’ll forgive me, but I think we should reserve judgment until we know what may have been going on in his head. He was obviously troubled and sick but we don’t know why.
What happened to Chris Benoit and his family was tragic. But I hope he will be also remembered for the dedication to his profession and that he was just tough as nails. I, for one, will miss him.
And I still would want him watching my back in a dark alley.
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What makes people like Lisa Ann Taylor (and Jennifer, Paris, Lindsay) so newsworthy?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cocaine and marijuana possession, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, prostitution and keeping a place of prostitution. Felony counts of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and of acquiring or maintaining property through the proceeds of a pattern of racketeering activity.
The Atlanta mafia? No, it’s just a list of charges for which Lisa Ann Taylor (a.k.a. the Mansion Madam), chairperson of the Sugarloaf Social Climbers, has been indicted. She and her accused partner in crime, Nicole Probert (a.k.a. Naughty Nikki), just got the bill for their reported socializing, courtesy of a Gwinnett County grand jury and Danny Porter, the Gwinnett County district attorney.
Lisa has been keeping busy. She hopes to raise the money to cover her expenses by lining up dates to work at strip clubs, cashing in on her new found fame as the Mansion Madam. Apparently, life as a real estate agent hasn’t been quite as promising as she once thought.
You can’t make this stuff up. I wish I could, but my imagination isn’t quite so vivid. Only in America can you allegedly commit some serious crimes and be rewarded by taking off your clothes in front of a bunch of rowdy men for a pretty good pay day.
Sure, Taylor’s house is subject to forfeiture under the racketeering laws. But hey, fame is fleeting. One must take advantage of these opportunities when they arise.
Mr. Porter knows what I’m talking about. “Every time I say something, I make her more famous,” he said.
I feel your pain, Mr. Porter. It isn’t your fault. As much as I would like to blame the media, I really can’t do that either. They wouldn’t report these kinds of stories if a hungry population didn’t eat them up.
I’ve asked this before, I’ll ask it again: What is it about our society that makes people like Lisa Ann Taylor, Jennifer Wilbanks, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, ad nauseum, so newsworthy?
Part of it, I think, is that we can’t help ourselves, we are drawn to watching these people implode. Part of it is that our society has far too short of an attention span, and we can easily keep up with these “mini dramas.” Mostly, I think that we are just too lazy. We want fast-food news, not gourmet dinners like terrorism, immigration and elections.
So, have a Double Lisa with cheese, a side of Naughty Nikki, a Paris shake and a Lindsay with whipped cream. I’ll bring the Alka Seltzer.
What do you want to see in the news?
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A haircut, a shave and a good feeling that I’m not just a customer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I got my hair cut the other day.
I go to the Duluth Haircutter Barber Shop. I rediscovered it when I got out of the hospital after my stroke last July. Back then, I was relegated to a wheel chair and I was a mess, including my hair - well, what little is left of it.
They cleaned me up well. Cut my hair nice and neat, trimmed my eyebrows (I had never even thought about that - typical bachelor), and they used a razor and shaving cream to clean up my neck. That was really cool.
I have been going back ever since. Partly because I can measure my healing progress over time and let people who don’t see me every day tell me how I’m doing, walking and talking. But mostly because they are just nice people who really care about their work.
They are equally fluent speaking Dawg, Jacket, Tiger (Clemson, Auburn and LSU). They can even speak a little Demon Deacon. They know about Atlanta professional sports, local and national politics, deer hunting and cook outs.
Barber shops have always been the place to go to find out what’s going on in town, and Duluth Haircutter is no different. I feel much more like a friend than I do like a customer when I go there, and that’s not an easy thing to find these days in the expansion of suburbia.
Dwight, the proprietor, was telling me that he volunteers his services at Joan Glancy hospital. He gives hair cuts to those who have been in the hospital and the rehabilitation facility. I think he does it because it’s the right thing to do. Whatever his reason, I respect and admire him for doing so.
As I was walking out the door, Dwight said, “So when are you going to write about us in the paper?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, feeling all nice and cleaned up. “I’d be afraid that you wouldn’t like what I said and you’d drop the clippers in mid cut and say, ‘gee, Bill, I’m sorry about that. I don’t know what happened’.”
“Well,” he said, “don’t write anything bad about us.” And he smiled.
I wouldn’t do it. They are good people, and they do good work. And no, this is not an advertisement. This is simply one observation I have about what makes Duluth unique.
Do you have a place in Duluth where you feel more like a friend than a customer? What makes your town unique?
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Gwinnett County: You can check out any time you like but you can never leave
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My girlfriend is buying a house in Monroe, east of Winder near Athens. It’s practical for her - she teaches high school there, and she will pursue her doctorate at UGA starting in January. It’s about 40 miles, as the crow flies, from Duluth to Monroe.
I’m kind of dreading it. Why? Because it’s difficult to get there from here because of traffic. Pleasant Hill to 85 to 316 to Highway 11. Sounds simple, yes? Gwinnett is like the song “Hotel California.” You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
I was talking about this the other day with a co-worker, Frank. Frank lives in Bethlehem, which is not far away at all from where my girlfriend will be moving. “It generally takes me about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes to get from my house to the office here in John’s Creek. It’s pretty smooth sailing until you start getting in Gwinnett. That’s when the backup starts.
“You start to learn the back roads pretty quick. I get off 316 right around Briscoe Field, Gwinnett County Airport. I take a couple of the back roads down to (State Road) 20. You can generally follow the traffic. From 20, I will cross over Peachtree Industrial and run along the eastern border of Forsyth County, taking James Burgess Road, then Old Atlanta Road. Do not take McGinnis Ferry under any circumstances. Do not take Pleasant Hill under any circumstances. Abbott’s Bridge is not going to be much better.”
“What do you think about Sugarloaf Parkway?” I asked.
“For me, traffic gets so backed up, I won’t even try to get to Sugarloaf Parkway,” Frank replied. “It’s not so much that Sugarloaf Parkway has too much traffic. It’s just that the traffic lights are so poorly timed. It’s the same problem with Pleasant Hill, I guess. Too many traffic lights, and if you hit one red, you hit them all red.
“Let’s face it: there’s just no easy way getting around Gwinnett County,” he said.
It’s good that Gwinnett County is growing. Traffic, I guess, is a necessary evil of growth. I just wish that our county commissioners did a better job of managing growth, instead of just adding buildings and then having stoplights as an afterthought.
Do you know any easy ways to get around Gwinnett County?
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