A.M. ATL: Lunchtime reading

Morning, y’all! Happy Friday. What a week it’s been! As a treat, we’re focusing on some lighter stories today. Now, “light” doesn’t mean “unimportant,” so we’ll still get our daily recommended amount of learning.

Let’s get to it.

GEORGIA: GRAYER AND MORE DIVERSE THAN EVER

What will Georgians look like in a few decades? The latest long-term population projections released by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget offer some clues.

• In 2025, Georgia became a majority-minority state for the first time in its modern history, with 48% of its 11.3 million residents being white, 32% Black and 12% Hispanic.
• In 2065, Georgia is expected to be home to 14 million people. About 40% will be white, 33% Black and 15% Hispanic, the state data predicts.
• Today, about one in four Georgians is in their teens or younger.
• In 40 years, slightly less than one in five will be in that youthful age range.

Why do all of this? Demographic estimates help state officials plan for future infrastructure and public service needs, from transportation to hospitals and schools.

🔎 READ MORE: Other numbers that will produce a ‘massive culture change’

Not signed up yet? What’re you waiting for? Get A.M. ATL in your inbox each weekday morning. And keep scrolling for more news.

HOW CHICKEN SALAD CHICK WENT MAINSTREAM

Did you know Chicken Salad Chick is based in Vinings? The picnic-perfect chain with a roster of snazzily named chicken salad options hasn’t stayed local, though.

In fact, the franchise recently surpassed 350 restaurants in 27 states.

• The secret to their growth? For one, there’s the food itself. “Ours is really a Southern-style chicken salad: shredded chicken and not too ‘mayonnaisey,’ just the right amount,” president and CEO Scott Deviney said.
• Then, there’s the deliberate growth strategy, which has been to develop outward in concentric circles, building one market on the strength of the one before it. “I think part of our success has been growing very, very disciplined,” Deviney said.

Fun fact: Chicken Salad Chick was started by a woman named Stacy Brown in Auburn, Alabama, as a way to provide for her three young children after a divorce.

🐣 READ MORE: That’s just the start of the Chicken Salad Chick lore

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

Some of the latest postelection developments in Georgia:

📬 The voting controversy that nearly derailed Georgia Rep.-elect David Dillie’s campaign may have helped him win. The 24-year-old Democrat says the attacks boosted his profile in an uphill race.

🏛️ Penny Brown Reynolds won her bid for Georgia secretary of state in a Democratic wave. Her next challenge: reassuring voters skeptical of the state’s elections.

🗳️ Strong turnout among Black voters helped propel several Black candidates to surprise victories in the midterm elections and led to razor-thin losses in other races.

A HOUSE THAT BUILT LGBTQ HISTORY

A home at the center of Atlanta gay rights history is in danger of being demolished, but a group of locals is trying to save it by getting it designated a historical landmark.

A case that spurred gay rights movements

• In 1982, police entered the 1920s-era Virginia-Highland house and accosted two men being intimate with each other.
• They were arrested on felony sodomy charges, kicking off a yearslong legal battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• The High Court ruled 5-4 in 1986 that state sodomy laws were constitutional. The entire ordeal galvanized queer activists, who led marches and parades demanding equal protections. (Remember when I said the other day history wasn’t that long ago?)
• Charlie Paine, the co-founder of Historic Atlanta, is among those leading the effort to preserve the house. He points out the history worth remembering isn’t always pleasant.

“It’s one of those places where you don’t want to repeat the history of what happened here,” he said. “Of all the LGBTQ historic places and spaces in the city, this is one that had national implications.”

🔎 READ MORE: How the historic case challenged Georgians’ right to privacy

THE NEW DAWN OF THE MIDNIGHT WATCH PARTY

Midnight release parties are making a comeback, with fans gathering for elaborate celebrations centered on some of their favorite books.

In Atlanta, readers turned out in droves last week for a special event at the Fox Theatre honoring the highly anticipated sixth installment of Sarah J. Maas’ popular “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series.

The growing popularity of romance and fantasy romance, or romantasy, novels has helped fuel renewed interest in these events, bringing readers together in ways that go beyond the books themselves.

🎥 WATCH: More than 1,500 midnight celebrations across the U.S. and Canada marked the release of “A Court of Splintered Harmony.”

It’s not the only series inspiring fans to gather late into the night. Years after the “Harry Potter” books popularized midnight release parties, readers are once again building communities around the literature they love.

🧚 READ MORE: How the romance genre is fueling a wave of independent bookstores.

NEWS BITES

Weekend predictions: Falcons are underdogs in Madrid

They lost last week to a team that didn’t complete a single pass, but maybe a little European getaway will set the Falcons to rights.

Seeds, preserved hair point to oldest signs of cannabis high 2,800 years ago

Very charming to think of our ancient ancestors getting the munchies.

How to set boundaries when family gatherings get uncomfortable

If you’re not so good at boundaries yet, dissociating also works. Picture it: Your body might be trapped in a tense tableau of family drama, but your spirit is on a beautiful beach without a care in the world.

ON THIS DATE

Nov. 6, 1913

Triplets are born to Chattanooga woman; trio weighs 20 pounds. Triplets, two boys and one girl, were born to Mrs. Ed Herron, wife of a prominent local manufacturer, here today. The combined weight of the trio was twenty pounds. The newborns are all healthy and vigorous.

If you give birth to triplets, you definitely deserve to be in the newspaper. Especially in 1913.