GRABBINGSAND

Jenny Lewis at The Variety Playhouse, originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

This is where we are.

(Re-posted from a comment left at O. Willis.)

Atlantans prefer driving over mass transit by a substantial margin.  It could be argued that more of us would hop on MARTA if only the system were more expansive, rail especially.  But take away our ability to hop in the car on a whim and go from the suburbs to downtown or vice versa, and people get mad in a hurry.  And that is exactly what the gas shortage has done.

Here is how the week has gone:  I pass about five gas stations during my eight mile morning commute from home to work.  Of these five, only one has been likely to have gasoline.  That one station will have lines of cars stretching out for a quarter-mile or more.  Co-workers of mine have waited in such lines for almost an hour.  And yes, people have run their tanks dry this way.

Our gasoline is brought up from the Gulf by companies like Colonial Pipeline.  The pipeline pulls the fuel up to distribution centers.  Tankers take the product those final miles to the stations.  Gas stations get shipments of around 3,000 gallons at a time, from what I’ve read.  Normally, this is enough to get them through most of a week.  But with everyone and their cousin lining up at the sight of an arriving tanker — people have been stalking tanker trucks, by the way — 3,000 gallons is gone before lunchtime.

So why do they all line up?  Because we have no reliable information.  We cannot plan.  News from earlier this week hinted that supplies should be back to normal by this Wednesday (it wasn’t) or next Wednesday.  Our governor told us yesterday that the situation will settle down in “a few days.”  He said also that this is a panic we’ve made ourselves, unhelpfully.

So yeah, people here are panicking a bit.  But not without reason.  Empty my cupboard, then don’t tell me when I’m going to eat again and I’m probably going to seize the next opportunity to grab a bite.  If only Colonial Pipeline would keep us in the loop.  Or maybe if our Governor would institute a plan of action, like maybe closing stations for a day or two, long enough for all of them to get back to normal inventory.  Or they could do as stations are doing up in Chattanooga, holding people to only $30 or $40 worth of gas at a time. Limiting purchases at the pump would be annoying, but we’d get over it.

This is imminently manageable, but we are at a loss for management.

Now we’ve seen how Sonny Perdue handles a couple of major crises.  Last year, it was a lack of water, and he arrived late with a solution.  This year, we’ve a lack of gasoline, and he’s arriving late with a suggestion.  We should all just stay home this weekend, he says, because this panic is “self-induced” (and there might not be any shortage at all).  Point taken, but repeating the same advice as the local news-jockeys is the same as telling us all that we’re all a bunch of idiots who have created our own problem.  If we had the resources to do some planning, then maybe we wouldn’t be panicking.

You’re a governor, so maybe you might want to … I don’t know … govern.  And thanks for allowing us to have “dirty” gas, but why follow it up with the same “oh, it’ll be better in a few days” kind of elusivity* of information?  Dates.  Facts.  That’s what we don’t have and that’s what we need.

So … the only good thing that might come of this?  If people remember how Sonny has handled the water and gas shortages, then maybe he’ll have to go back to being a full-time vet in 2010.

* – Did I just make up a word?  Firefox thinks so.

It’s coming. For all of us. Really.

North Fulton Drama Club’s production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet opens tonight, September 19, at historic Barrington Hall in Roswell, Georgia and runs for the next three weeks, every Friday and Saturday night. There will be one matinee on Sunday, September 28.

And I’m in this one, vainly struggling to keep the peace of fair Verona as Prince Escalus.

For more information, please visit the NFDC website.

Set Work Works, originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

One balcony, made to order.

Four years ago this week, the Atlanta Journal Constitution saw fit to include a profile of Atlanta’s northerly suburban bloggers in their newly introduced Northside supplement. I was one of them (though in retrospect, their selection process was sketchy at best). The Northside supplement is no longer with us (neither is the online version of the article*), but it might be a good time for a Northside Blogger “Where Are They Now?”

I’m still here, obviously. I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the assessment that my bloggin’ voice is “quiet, bemused and kind.” Also, I’ve never gotten around to reading any Walker Percy for comparison’s sake. But all the same, it was and is an honor to have been listed.

Steve Huff remains a busy fellow. His blog at Planet Huff is defunct, as he has delegated his bloggery according to various interests. His tenacious true crime reporting can be found at (the very literally titled) True Crime Report. He shares the submitted spookiness of our everyday world at Anomaly Report. He’s the blogger-behind-the-curtain for comedian (and “The State” alum) Michael Ian Black. And his personal blog is at Random Lunatic News.

Jeremy Simpson’s Str8jacket blog celebrated its own fourth anniversary back in March and is still going strong. Recent topics have included the FairTax, Chipmunk theme songs and the forgotten merits of Chris Elliot’s foray into television sitcoms.

Kelley Martin-Gadberry’s SuburbanBlight blog appears to have gone by the wayside. Chances are good that she’s still out there somewhere, perhaps with a re-titled BlogSpot or Typepad blog, but the crumbs left behind at her old URL lead only to search engine oblivion — which is why I’m not linking it here. Kelley, if you’re out there, best of luck …

Tony Simon of tonysimon.org abides. The frequency of his bloggerations has diminished somewhat, but no matter. Tony’s mystic powers of observation remain as keen as ever. Nobody is better at making business travel and lawn care spit-your-morning-coffee hilarious. His last entry was in June, but those who need their meantime fix can give a listen to the Sub-Optimal Beercast.

Michael Earls of Cerkit.com is still geeking out on Linux and the like, though in the last week he left his domain behind for the ease of a hosted Wordpress solution. No word yet if he’ll be importing his five years of archived posts to the new location, but he really should.

So there we are.

What this tells me, of course, is that time marches on with us or without us. It reminds me also that I’ve been a “better” blogger before than I am now, one that was far more prolific, more likely to throw together a post of epic term-paper-length proportions. But before I get too maudlin about it, I take comfort in knowing just why my blogging has shifted. Life is different now. Better. Blogging is no longer my only creative outlet — Romeo & Juliet opens next week, by the way. I’ve a job that satisfies me more than any previous occupation has. And all the while, Nikki and I (and the cats) stay busy with our wonderful life together.

So today, on this particular and peculiar anniversary, upon these thoughts my mind rests.

And how are you?

* – If you missed it, here’s a PDF of the article, complete with photos.

The mighty El Gray just brought this commercial to my attention. I suppose it was bound to happen, that some huge conglomerate would hire an ad agency to put a better spin on their product, but I have to admit to being a little taken aback by their approach:

Get it? You’re just so gullible, dearest American consumer. You are fed talking-point after talking-point, and sometimes those talking-points are about the food you eat. But my little bundle of want, you are merely a parrot. You don’t think. When you’re asked to support your espousals, well, you have nothing to say. So we’re going to make it easy for you. We’re just going to tell you we love you, that we’d never do anything to hurt you, and do it in such a patronizing, “how-could-you-ever-think-such” way that you’ll just take what you’re given and ask for more.

Look, here’s the deal. High Fructose Corn Syrup might not be the most deadly thing on the planet, but it’s not the safest either. Yes, it is made with corn, but just because something has a vegetable base, that doesn’t mean that it is bountifully nutritious by association. A massive oak tree might shade you kindly from the blazing sun, but what if I break off a limb and whack you across the head with it?

The killer phrase in this insidious little commercial is where the very nice girlfriend says that HFCS is okay “in moderation.” Almost under her breath. Like a secret. That’s because it is almost impossible to consume HFCS in moderation.

Since 1985, an American’s annual consumption of HFCS has gone from forty-five pounds to sixty-six pounds … Read the food labels in your kitchen and you’ll find that HFCS has insinuated itself into every corner of the pantry: not just into our soft drinks and snack foods, where you would expect to find it, but into the ketchup and mustard, the breads and cereals, the relishes and crackers, the hot dogs and hams.*

So educate yourself. Don’t be the dumb-ass that the Corn Refiners Association wants you to be.

• High Fructose Corn Syrup: Too Sweet To Eat? (Andrew Weil, MD)
• Unhappy Meals (Michael Pollan)
• High Fructose Corn Syrup: Why Is It Bad For Me? (Mayo Clinic)

(By the way, if you start doing your own research and come across a site entitled HFCSFacts.com, full of all kinds of reassuring facts about how HFCS is no worse than sugar or honey, don’t be fooled. That’s operated by the Corn Refiners Association as well.)

And another thing …

The print ad (from sweetsurprise.com) is perhaps even more patronizing.

Nutrition is for elitist food snobs with shiny hair, obviously.

Once again, Jay Smooth shows up with the socio-political Cliff Notes you need.

“Hateration in the GOP dancerie,” indeed.