Is it coincidence that while we mourn Rosa Parks and reflect on the societal changes that have taken place over the last fifty years that I’m inundated with information about protests in Atlanta?

If you’re feeling it, if you’re fired up and want to make a difference, here are two things on the horizon for you to participate in:

~ J Cruel

This coming Friday afternoon, a safe distance from a store near you. Read for yourself, I won’t be reprinting any of the ugly details here.

~ World Can’t Wait

The first anniversary of Bush’s “re-election”, we will take the first major step in this by organizing a truly massive day of resistance all over this country. People everywhere will walk out of school, they will take off work, they will come to the downtowns and town squares and set out from there, going through the streets and calling on many more to JOIN US. They will repudiate this criminal regime, making a powerful statement: “NO! THIS REGIME DOES NOT REPRESENT US! AND WE WILL DRIVE IT OUT!”

Okay, mabye not really, but, during a rush hour visit this evening, I found the overly eager friendliness of every single employee in the Atlantic Station Publix extremely unsettling. I’m not faulting them for making me feel uncomfortable, I’m just articulating that workdays are grounded in two fundamental frames of thought–routine and defensiveness–and extremely gracious grocery employees don’t reinforce either one of them. I needed to pick up some Halloween candy with which to defend my homestead from marauding children. (Yes, I was prepared to pay full retail.)

As I entered through the automatic doors, the vendor restocking the soda machines whirled around and cheerfully demanded, “How are you doing this evening?”
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From the Creepy Blogger Couple

The other day we were trying to get on 85 North when we spotted the seemingly-brand-spankiní-new Atlanta Gas Light building ñ all shiny and fancy. I thought, ìWow, theyíre obviously spending some of our money on making themselves comfortable.î

Anyway, today I read that the new building is by no means the end of their frivolous expenditures. It turns out that four years ago, a surcharge was added to the cost of heating homes under the guise of coal-tar cleanup. Evidently that surcharge funded incredibly expensive barbecues and a canal cruise, as well as holiday cards and a bunch of other items that are totally unrelated to cleaning up toxic coal and tar.

The Georgia Public Service Commission is investigating the situation and so far it looks like there have been double billings and other shady actions taken in order to generate more revenue ñ and what could be a more honest way to make money than lying to and cheating your customers. Well, I must be careful since the verdict isnít officially in yet. But Iíll be interested to see what comes out of the audit thatís being conducted.

This link has the full story.

So I got one of those “It’s your birthday, come celebrate with us” mailers the other day from Centelas on Collier. I didn’t realize the Melting Pot had been replaced by a different fondue restaurant. Either way, my birthday was over two weeks ago and the coupon expires tonight. No fondue for me.

Additionally, I just noticed (boy am I a zombie) that my favorite hole-in-the-wall/greasy food joint, Lil Dino’s, is becoming a Firehouse Subs “station” [insert ironic laughter]. Not that Lil Dino’s was fabulous, but it did have that slackard college charm and faint smell of desperation, flop sweat and old french fry oil. Firehouse can’t compete.

My larger question and my point, if I have one, is why have these two eateries changed but not changed? Why switch from one fondue joint to another? Why refresh your sign, but still offer subs?

Why do I even care? Maybe I’m still pissed about my birthday.

This is a truly disgusting story, taking the old “man bites dog” headline to it’s cruelty-laden extreme:

The hunt is on tonight to find whoever cut the leg off a pit bull. The abused dog was found wandering the streets of Atlanta this week.

The bone exposed on its hind leg — likely chopping it off with an axe. Veteranarians say the wound was no accident — that it was a clean cut with something very sharp. They suspect someone wanted the pit bull to fight, but the dog was too gentle.

And I thought black cats were the object of the most cruelty during Halloween.

I seriously hope the punishment for whomever committed this crime involves pain at the hands (paws) of dogs. Sicko.

CBS 46 via Oliver Willis

This started as a comment to Daniel’s last entry, but then I said to myself, I said, “Hey, dingleberry, you can post entries to this here Metroblog. What’s the holdup?”
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I’m a fan of free wi-fi. Any longtime readers of the Metblog should know that. And, I actually agree with the article I linked to below. Atlanta is very wi-fi friendly. Just look at the number of hotspots that 3rd Wave provides. Countless other places provide free wi-fi through other means – Taco Mac, Panera, Mellow Mushroom Brookhaven, and tons of others.

Now, an argument might be made that Atlanta isn’t wi-fi friendly because it doesn’t provide city-wide, public access wi-fi like Athens, San Fran, or other places apparently do (I could be misreading the articles, though, and could be wrong). And to the people who think that this is something that ought to be a public venture (performed by the city government), I can only ask a few questions: Is this really what you think the city of Atlanta should spend its money on? Aren’t there more important civic tasks that need attending to? Especially considering that the private sector is doing such a good job of blanketing the city without government help. Isn’t introducing city-wide wi-fi a move that helps mainly the wealthy – you know, those that can afford laptops?

Just some questions. Me, I’m all in favor of having Atlanta underneath a wi-fi blanket. But I’d much rather it be done by market demands (or, maybe even by neighborhood Civic Associations). If you’re in favor of it, explain to local bars/hangouts that you are more likely to go and stay there if they had wi-fi. Go to places that have free wireless more than those that don’t. To me, this is the best, most reasonable way to get it done. There are too many potholes, sewage problems, and other issues that the city government needs to handle to have it spend money on free wireless.

Apparently, Atlanta is one of the five most wi-fi friendly cities (according to Microsoft Small Business Center):

Atlanta. How ahead of the curve is Atlanta? The answer may surprise you. It announced its citywide Atlanta FastPass Wi-Fi network back in 2003, long before the idea of covering an entire city with a wireless Internet signal hit the mainstream. Another public-private venture, Atlanta FastPass is an extremely high-speed (T1) wireless network that is available in key locations throughout the city, including City Hall, Georgia State University, and numerous neighborhoods. (Note: these are not free hotspots, but a look at the gratis access points suggests that besides the super fast public network, many other residents don’t have to pay for their wireless Internet.) Then there’s Atlanta’s airport, long criticized for its lack of affordable Wi-Fi signal. In September 2005, it flipped the switch on a massive airport-wide network with more than 100 access points covering all 5.8 million square feet of the facility. Best of all, it promised to keep access affordable to the masses of travelers who use the airport.

All right, you smarties, since you seem to do so well with the urban stuff, let’s see what you do with this. You got the North Avenue picture right (some of you got it “more right” than others), but how well do you know the old stuff?