A.M. ATL: Hip hop and hashbrowns

Morning, y’all! Driving between the coast and Atlanta last week, I hit heavy traffic in only one place. You guessed it, McDonough. No wrecks. No construction. Not during rush hour. Are they ever going to build that ATL-SAV train?

Let’s get to it.

SCATTERED, SMOTHERED, BIG BOI-ED

Waffle House is one of those places where when you gotta have it, you’ll wait in line (and stare daggers at the couple eating at the four-top). But seven hours? That’s Black Friday doorbusters/new iPhone launch territory. Yet Atlantans lined up before dawn Friday at the Centennial Olympic Park location to snag limited-edition Waffle House/Outkast merch.

What’s the connective tissue between the diner and the legendary hip-hop duo? Atlanta, of course.

• Waffle House was founded in Avondale Estates in 1955. Atlantans André 3000 and Big Boi put out their first CD in 1994.
• Outkast’s song “So Fresh, So Clean” references a Waffle House fave, the patty melt. T-shirts bearing those lyrics were a hot seller.
• The restaurant offered meals named for André 3000 (hashbrowns and grits) and Big Boi (well-done scrambled eggs and raisin toast with apple butter), along with souvenir Outkast-Waffle House menus.

Here’s hoping they take the merch trailer on the road. Might I suggest President Street in Savannah?

🍳 READ MORE: Outkast and Waffle House, bringing Atlanta together

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CARDIAC BRAVES RIDE AGAIN?

Baseball managers don’t do much, right? Why do they wear uniforms again?

The Braves’ Walt Weiss got his stirrups dirty Sunday night by resting pitching ace Chris Sale and still getting a crucial 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Six Atlanta relief pitchers combined to even the best-of-five playoff series, which opened Saturday with a loss to the two-time defending champions. With Braves’ fans clamoring for Sale to take the bump on short rest — he pitched in two games last week — Weiss made the decision to hold him back instead.

Los Angeles pushed Atlanta’s pitching staff to the end. The Dodgers’ Max Muncy homered with two outs in the ninth before Atlanta’s sixth pitcher, Raisel Iglesias, secured the last out.

If a baseball team is only as good as the pitcher on the mound, the Braves must feel confident about Tuesday’s Game 3. Sale will have a week between starts and the chance to push the Dodgers to the brink of elimination.

⚾ READ MORE: Braves even playoff series with Dodgers

NAME THAT MEDIA GIANT

Longtime Atlanta employees of the late Ted Turner’s media empire (CNN, TNT, TBS, etc.) have seen the company name atop their paystubs change often over the decades. With Tuesday’s closure of the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, they’ll be working for … wait for it … Skydance.

Here’s what to know.

• Paramount CEO David Ellison announced the name Friday on social media. Evidently, he’s not into acronyms.
• If Skydance sounds familiar, it should — Ellison got into the biz in 2006 by launching a startup of the same name. It’s a nod to one of his hobbies, flying aerobatics.
• Skydance 2.0 includes two broadcast news behemoths, CNN and CBS. How those operations are co-mingled could have serious consequences on CNN’s Atlanta workforce.

🎥 READ MORE: We have a winner in the Paramount-Warner Bros. name game

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🩺 No more window shopping for healthcare insurance. Experts project major Affordable Care Act premium hikes for 2027, and Georgians will have to wait until open enrollment begins on Nov. 1 to learn their plan and price options. Insurance Commissioner John King’s office won’t offer a window-shopping period on the Georgia Access website ahead of time because of unspecified “changes.”

💵 Cash bail in crosshairs. Keisha Lance Bottoms’ mayoral record is being treated as the soft underbelly of her gubernatorial campaign by her opponent, Republican Rick Jackson. The latest focus is her abolishing cash bail for low-level offenders and how that act may have contributed to a spike in violent crime late in her term.

📥 Need more politics? It’s a great time to sign up for Politics PM. We’ll be highlighting voter voices in an extra newsletter every Monday ahead of the election. Opinion Editor David Plazas will moderate discussion on the most pressing topics on the ballot, and spotlight candidate and columnist opinions that will help inform your vote. Sign up here.

HIGH ON ART FOR 100 YEARS

The High Museum of Art started in a house. A nice house — a Tudor-style mansion in fact. But still, the now-300,000-square-foot cultural showplace launched a century ago this month with a traveling exhibit and the Atlanta Art Association’s 30-piece collection — in a house.

The High’s history started with Harriet “Hattie” High donating her home on Peachtree Street to the Atlanta Art Association. The Woodruffs, of Coca-Cola fame, would get involved later and fund expansions. The current museum building, which opened in 1983, is a piece of art unto itself.

Among the signature exhibits over the years:

• “Rings: Five Passions in World Art,” with 125 objects on display from museums around the world during the 1996 Olympics.
• Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrors” from 2019. The exhibit involved six kaleidoscopic mirrored rooms that showcased 50 years of the Japanese artist’s work.
• My first High experience was to see “The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army” in 2008. Fifteen of the life-size stone sculptures found in Emperor Qin’s burial chamber were part of the exhibit.

🎨 READ MORE: Cheers to 100 years at the High Museum

NEWS BITES

Rough Draft news expands to Athens, including a print edition

Expansion not retraction? In local news? Sign me up. And I don’t even live there.

President Donald Trump to attend Georgia football game against Alabama

The first fan recently took in the Texas-Tennessee game. The visitors (Longhorns) won. Does that bode well for the Bulldogs?

GOP super PAC exits NC Senate race

Retiring incumbent (also a Republican) says money shouldn’t be spent on “sure losers.” Is Mike Collins’ Georgia campaign next to lose backing?