Stone Mountain Park officials expect 200,000 people at the 43rd annual Yellow Daisy Festival, running today through Sunday. (Full details: stonemountainpark.com/yellowdaisy). Stats compiled from past festivals suggest 170,000 of those visitors will be women. What to do with 30,000 fellas on a fall football weekend? Park staffers Wendy Thomas and Jeanine Jones have an 82-inch, high-definition Plan B for fans who end up at the festival. Jones hatched the idea for a "Men's Den," with comfy sofas and chairs clustered around a wide-screen television, several years ago but this year's sports center will be bigger than ever. Organizers added the 82-inch beauty to accompany the 55-inch screen that has somehow sufficed until now, and they've added more seating. "The South does love its football," Jones said. She isn't much of a sports fan, and had no idea who was playing (UGA plays South Carolina at home at 4:30 p.m., and Tech plays at Middle Tennessee at 7 p.m. Saturday; the Falcons play the Bears in Chicago at 1 p.m. Sunday). Thomas, on the other hand, is the former ticket manager for the Gator Bowl Association and worked in the Bears' ticket office during college. Both women are upfront about where the Yellow Daisy Festival's loyalties lie. Sorry Jackets, but when it comes time to switch one television to the Tech game, the larger one will continue to service the Bulldog Nation. (One game will end about the time the other starts, though.) "People are pretty polite," Thomas said. The only friction she or Jones could recall in the Men's Den happened when they were slow to switch from Saturday morning cartoons to pregame festivities. "We did have 'Clifford the Big Red Dog' on one year. That's the closest we've ever come to a riot," Thomas mused. And "Men's Den" is just a cute name, not meant to exclude anyone. As evidence of its inclusive nature, Thomas recalled the steely-eyed fan who showed up last year, tricked out entirely in red and black, circling the television like a shark before it was switched to the UGA game. It was a woman.
Tweet of the day
"I love Politifact.com! People who actually want to know what is REALLY going on."
- Singer Aimee Mann, who is celebrating a birthday today, illustrating that she is both a talented artist and a discerning news consumer. We might humbly suggest she check out AJC PolitiFact Georgia, one of the state franchises of the Pulitzer Prize-winning national PolitiFact operation, in print or at www.politifact.com/georgia.
Celebrity birthdays
Actress Heather Thomas is 54. Singer Aimee Mann is 51. Pop musician David Steele (Fine Young Cannibals) is 51. Alternative country singer Neko Case is 41. Actor David Arquette is 40. Rock musician Richard Hughes (Keane) is 36. Actor Larenz Tate is 36. Actor Nathan Corddry is 34. Singer Pink is 32. Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas is 30.
Contributing: news services
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