All over the ATL, I’ve encountered this strange phenomena: cars, trucks and taxis sitting still in the face of a shining green arrow. Motionless. When that mysterious arrow finally vanishes, the driver pulls into the intersection to wait for his turn. Thus, only two or three cars manage to turn left through any cycle of lights, and thus Atlanta is the most automotively congested city in the galaxy. Folks, even if we get the protected left turn at Briarcliff and Ponce, it ain’t gonna matter.

So’s we’re clear, let’s review this item from our Driver’s Test:

#33. A protected left turn is any left turn made at an intersection with a dedicated left-turn arrow illuminated. When a left-turn arrow is illuminated, you should…

a) turn left
b) turn left
c) turn left

The 1st Annual Cumming Greek Festival is this weekend.

The weather, that is. It will be a bit chilly next week.

via weather.com

Fall has arrived!

It seems that Midtown’s Tech Square has taken the next step in making Atlanta a real city: the lunch cart.

I don’t work downtown, so maybe there are lunch carts on the corners down there. Please let me know if there are, but on the few times I have been downtown on a weekday, I haven’t noticed any. But there, on the corner of West Peachtree and 5th, was Brother Love’s Magic Dogs, an actual real-life lunch cart, ready to satisfy all your hot dog needs.

It was 8 am when I passed, so I can’t say for sure if they are open today, but the menu was out, and it looked like they planned on slinging some chili dogs. I was disappointed in the lack of a Neil Diamond theme, but $1.85 seemed a reasonable price for an all-beef dog.

If you’re in to that sort of thing, that is.

If you’re into the whole yard sale scene then you should drop by Atlanta Bicycle Campaign‘s Annual Yard Sale to see if you can buy a used bike, or perhaps parts for that old bike of yours. Actually, the yard sale is not just bicycle equipment, it’s whatever has been donated to the cause.

The yard sale will be held from 8am to ~4pm at 523 Seminole Avenue in Little Five Points. Here’s a Google Map link to help you out.

In ranking how much cities swell during working hours, our fair city ranks 2nd in swellage by percent, just behind DC.

No big city grows ó and shrinks ó at a higher rate each workday than the nation’s capital, but Atlanta comes close, the Census Bureau said.
Washington, D.C., sees its daytime population swell by 72 percent each day as commuters stream in. Atlanta is second among large cities at 62 percent.

Well, that’s something to be proud of. I think that this is just another reason we should change the Atlanta brand to Andy’s suggestion:

“Delta Reveals Cost Cutting Measures. Good Goes Around 124 miles per hour”

I, too, will think of a prize. later.

As Greg noted in the comments of Daniel’s post, Leo Mazzone has signed a three year deal with the Orioles.

Nice work, Schuerholz. Why don’t you get out there and snag us a couple more Reitsmas and Kolbs?

Still, it warms the cockles of my Yankee-hating heart that Mazzone won’t be covered in putrid pinstripes next summer.

So that’s how the new Atlanta logo came to be….

Not the Yanks (thank goodness!):

Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone will not be joining Joe Torre’s staff next season, Newsday reported Wednesday on its Web site.

But the Orioles are still on the table.
I just don’t think he’s going anywhere. He has a great job here in Atlanta where he can do his own thing with a system that he built. Unless Baltimore lobs an insane amount of money at him, it just doesn’t seem worth it.