Fresh Loaf

ATLANTANS LOVE THE CRACK: Of baseball bats in the spring

With all the buzz over Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler and Mickey Rourke’s bleak portrayal of an aging fighter grappling with a lot more than in-ring opponents, professional wrestling’s enjoying some newfound popularity. The World Wrestling Entertainment universe is still reeling from WrestleMania’s 25th anniversary last Sunday, where Rourke decked Chris Jericho after Jericho’s tasteless victory over some real-life aging wrestlers. The spotlight comes to Atlanta Mon., April 13 when Raw broadcasts live from Philips Arena.

This special three-hour edition of Raw will feature superstars from all three WWE shows (Raw, ECW and SmackDown) — everyone from champions to announcers is eligible for that night’s WWE Draft. The draft always creates new feuds and rivalries, keeping things fresh in the testosterone-fueled drama. But regardless of who ends up where, the real treat for fans is the potential to see pay-per-view quality matches between combatants who might not normally cross paths.

Mon., April 13, 7 p.m. $20-$70. Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive. 404-878-3000. www.wwe.com.

Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals After a successful spring training, the Braves won their season opener against the Philadelphia Phillies last Sunday. Atlanta takes on National League East rival Washington for its home opener this Friday to start a three-game series. Opening day festivities include post-game fireworks and free magnetic schedules for the first 45,000 fans.

Fri., April 10, 7:30 p.m. $6-$80. Turner Field, 755 Hank Aaron Drive. 404-577-9100. www.braves.com.

(more…)

Bookmark It

1) Atlanta Symphony Hall hosts a Soulful Christmas with Will Downing, Lalah Hathaway and Gerald Albright.

2) Ed Roland plays Eddie’s Attic.

3) Sam the Lovesick Snowman continues at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

4) The Hawks play Detroit at Philips Arena.

5) New Trinity Baroque plays at St. Batholomew’s Episcopal Church.

(Photo courtesy Gerald Albright)

Bookmark It

MICHAEL PHELPS: The U.S. swimmer becomes the winningest Olympian ever with his 11th career gold medal.

RUSSIAN INTO WAR: Georgia’s government continues to accuse Russia of attacking the city of Gori despite the cease-fire, and even of moving toward the capital of Tbilisi, although confirmation is difficult.

DRINKING PROBLEM: A judge will decide whether metro Atlantans ever had the right to use Lake Lanier for drinking water.

JOSH SMITH: Interviewed on the Sporting Blog by Bethlehem Shoals following his re-signing with the Hawks.

SILVER BULLET: Transportation officials are discussing the possibility of building a 310-mph, mag-lev bullet train connecting Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta.

LAVONIA: Police are accusing a man of keeping his wife and four children captive for three years in a single-wide trailer.

CLAYTON: School board member Rod Johnson becomes the latest to resign. He stepped down after school system attorneys declined to represent him because he had skipped meetings where they were discussing defense strategies for upcoming administrative hearings.

ACCREDIT CHECK: North Carolina Central University’s now-defunct Atlanta satellite campus has been retroactively stripped of its accreditation by SACS, essentially nullifying the degrees earned there by 25 students.

Bookmark It

According to Bethlehem Shoals at the Sporting News’ the Sporting Blog, Atlanta may be about to lose its second Josh in less than three weeks. Following Josh Childress’ evacuation to Greece last month, Hawks forward Josh Smith has signed a $58 million contract offer with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Sayeth Bethlehem:

As for the Hawks, yeah, they could match, and still might. But what an utterly defeated organization. Losing Josh Childress really punked them, and the lack of enthusiasm for re-signing Smith makes it seem like they’ve been totally demoralized. How a team could not want to build on that playoff performance is beyond me, especially when they’ve been wandering the wilderness for so long. Now I guess we all get why Childress was so content to make history rather than stick around.

Atlanta has seven days to match the offer, but this still makes us wonder if things would have been different this summer without Mike Woodson at the helm, since both Joshes reportedly have had beefs with the coach.

Bookmark It

You could see this one coming. The Olympiakos, the Greek professional basketball team, flew Josh Childress over to Greece. They wined and dined him, and then offered him a three-year, $20 million contract In Euros. They’re even going to pay his taxes. And he signed up.
And what were the Atlanta Hawks doing during all this, and in the months leading up to this? Obviously, twittling their thumbs. In the process, they’ve lost one of the top bench players in the NBA, a firebrand of energy who seemed to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

Gone untold on the sports page of the AJC is the story behind why Josh Smith doesn’t want to play for the Hawks, and why Childress doesn’t want to play here. I’ve seen reports elsewhere that both players have a beef with Coach Mike Woodson.

For the long-term ramifications, check out John Hollinger’s take on ESPN.com. Writes Hollinger: “The fact that Childress didn’t think twice about leaving — and that Josh Smith seemingly would gladly pack his bags too — speaks volumes about the management. So does the fact that Atlanta is among NBA players’ favorite cities to visit, and yet nobody wants to play here.”

And just when the city was finally starting to embrace the Hawks …

Bookmark It

THIS TIME IT’S PERSONNEL: City Council unanimously passes an ordinance requiring the mayor to get its approval before making additions or reductions to the city’s personnel, the latest in an ongoing melodrama between the council and mayor.

DEER IN HEADLINES: A six-legged deer found in Rome, Ga., is understandably popular.

BUSH: Went down to Georgia.

CHILDRESS: Hawks’ restricted free agent is considering an offer to play in Greece.

RIGHT TO AIR ARMS? U.S. House Homeland Security Committee chairman doesn’t think we should have guns at the airport.

ROCK DRUMMERS: Require at least as much physical endurance as soccer players, according to a recent British study that used Blondie drummer Clem Burke as its test subject.

LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER: Researchers and companies like Xerox are backing away from utopian visions of a paperless society that became popular in the late 20th century, using the phrase “paper-less” instead to focus on the more pragmatic, but less glamorous, goal of simply not wasting as much paper as we do now.

Bookmark It

A BRIDGE TOO FAR: Study shows that many Georgia bridges deemed “structurally deficient” by inspectors still go years before being repaired, often driving up the costs.

DYLAN: Popular sea turtle is released into the wild after nine years in captivity.

GINGREY DISCOVERS WATER: State Rep. Phil Gingrey took part in the Lake Allatoona Preservation Authority’s congressional cruise Monday, noting that the lake is “a real treasure” and has made him appreciate the importance of water: “After being in a level-four drought, you look at water the same way you look at gasoline.” True. The only difference is we couldn’t live without gasoline, silly.

TAKE YOUR GUNS TO TOWN: And on MARTA, to your business lunch and at the wildlife refuge, starting today. That’s still not enough for state Rep. Tim Bearden, though, who’s filing a federal lawsuit to prevent the city of Atlanta from banning guns at Hartsfield-Jackson, where he says he’ll be packing heat today when he goes to pick up his family.

NOT READY FOR MARTA: Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell injures his hand firing a gun at a strip club owner’s family outing.

JOSHES: Hawks want and need to keep them, but they won’t come cheap.

OBAMA AND THE SOUTH: In a NYT op-ed today, Thomas Schaller writes that Obama can’t win Mississippi, Georgia or North Carolina, but maybe can win Virginia and Florida.

Bookmark It

NBA FINALS: Doc Rivers’ Celtics beat the Lakers in Game 6 of the Finals, demolishing L.A. by five more points than they demolished Atlanta in that first-round Game 7.

DROPPING OUT LIKE IT’S HOT: In Georgia, where the graduation rate is 12 percentage points below the national average, class of 2008 dropouts will cost the state economy about $15.5 billion during their lifetimes.

GOLDEN RETRIEVEE: A Gainesville family’s golden retriever is returned to them after going missing five years ago, when they lived in Powder Springs.

A ROUNDABOUT SOLUTION: Roundabouts like the one at North Decatur and Lullwater keep traffic moving at busy intersections, resulting in less wasted gas from idling and saving drivers time.

ATLANTA TRAFFIC NO. 10: But we were just told we’re the worst.

TAKING SURCHARGE: Atlanta City Council passes a resolution, similar to one recently passed in Holly Springs, that would allow a $10-$15 gas surcharge to traffic ticket fines and could help offset the budget shortfall.

JIMMY WILLIAMS: Cut by the Falcons.

Bookmark It

HAWKS’ WOODSON TO RE-SIGN: Damn that hyphen!

HAPE SPRINGS ETERNAL: Ford sells its Hapeville assembly plant to Jacoby Development, which is going to build an “aerotropolis” there.

TOMATOES: Salmonella wave spreads to Georgia; Mexico’s tomato industry, which supplies 80 percent of U.S. imports, is in limbo.

WEEDY SEA DRAGONS: Reproduce at the Georgia Aquarium, only the third time that’s ever happened in a U.S. aquarium.

STREET SMARTS: Google Maps adds Atlanta to its Street View feature, so Atlantans can finally experience driving around town without being stuck in gridlock.

FIRE RISK HIGH: Conditions are once again ripe for wildfires in South Georgia.

Bookmark It

LEAVING ONLY FOOTPRINTS: Cityfolk have smaller carbon footprints than residents of more rural areas, according to a study released today by the Brookings Institution. But the lower carbon output is tied to density, meaning Atlanta is on the low end of the ecofriendliness.

UNCONVENTIONAL: Dems’ rules committee will meet Saturday to decide what to do with precocious Florida and Michigan and their convention-hungry delegates.

SUND RISES: The Hawks hire former SuperSonics GM Rick Sund, who faces an offseason with no draft picks, two players with expiring contracts and a head coach whose contract is up in a month. His hiring has flustered some fans, including this Bleacher Report writer who was driven to mix metaphors (”I don’t trust this guy with a ten foot pole”), not to mention write a headline I can’t bring myself to repeat here.

WALK IT OUT: Rookie cops begin foot patrols in two Atlanta police zones, per the recommendation of City Councilman Ceasar Mitchell.

UNION DON’TS: Not enough Delta flight attendants vote to unionize.

CHANGE WE CAN COMMUTE IN: DOT Director Gena Abraham promises innovation and change in metro Atlanta’s transportation quagmire while addressing the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.

DRUG MULE: Sentenced to 25 years in prison for driving with a kilo of cocaine and a gun, which she says she didn’t know were in the car. Her lawyer says the sentence, which is the mandatory minimum, is too high even if she had known.

MONKEY THINK, MONKEY DO: A new study advances the teaching-animals-to-control-robotic-arms-with-just-their-brains research, as two macaques have apparently adopted a robotic arm as their own, improvising and reacting to stimuli in real time.

Bookmark It

CRITICS AT BAY: Florida Sen. Bill Nelson tours the Apalachicola Bay to survey the effects of retaining more water in Lake Lanier, and says he’ll push for a National Academy of Sciences study of how low flows affect the river ecosystem.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE FUNNEL: 2008 could be a record year for U.S. tornadoes, and while meteorologists aren’t sure why this year has been so tornadically prolific — including the twister that caused $40 million in damage in north metro Atlanta last week — the good news is that tornado season usually starts sputtering out in June.

BORDERS SKIRMISH: City Council President Lisa Borders writes a letter to her councilmates asking them to be nicer to the mayor.

HAWKS GM SEARCH: As is becoming typical of front-office searches in Atlanta pro sports, Cleveland’s Chris Grant withdraws himself from consideration after being offered the general manager job.

UGA EXPANDING IN GWINNETT: With the Brain Train struggling to gain traction, UGA just starts filling the gaps between Athens and Atlanta with itself.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL: Piedmont Park may soon install wells for water independence, pending a decision by the state Environmental Protection Division.

CAUGHT LEAD-HANDED: Two studies link children’s lead exposure 25 years ago and increased impulsive and criminal behavior in adulthood.

Bookmark It

RAGING ELECTION: Both candidates win a state and both claim momentum, but Obama gets more delegates. Remaining primaries are: W.Va. (May 13), Ky. (May 20), Ore. (May 20), Mont. (June 3), S.D. (June 3) and P.R. (June 7).

KNIGHT OUT: Hawks GM Billy Knight steps down.

BEE MINUS: Survey released Tuesday shows that more than a third of the nation’s honeybees have been lost since last year. As Thomas reported Monday, air pollution is one likely factor; UGA entomologists studying colony collapse disorder also point to shrinking food supply, parasitic mites and the recently identified Israeli acute paralysis virus.

DEATH PENALTY: Back in action, as William Early Lynd was killed last night.

CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN: First-ever Georgia Climate Change Summit, hosted by Georgia Tech Tuesday, brings together scientists and policy experts in the hope of starting an action plan to address global warming in the state. Georgia’s currently one of 12 states that not only doesn’t have such a plan, but isn’t even working on one.

‘FLAT LINE’: Apalachicola Riverkeeper hosts a two-day tour of the Chattahoochee Basin’s terminus to draw attention to what Florida officials contend is an Atlanta- and Georgia-first policy of water use and watershed management.

GIVING UP THE GHOST: Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, the musical by Stephen King and John Mellencamp scheduled for an April 2009 opening at the Alliance, has been postponed.

Bookmark It

The year before the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in nearly a century, I got to see a game at Fenway Park. Afterward, punkish kids were hawking the coolest T-shirts: “Get yo ‘You can take your 26 rings and shove ‘em up your ass’ T-shirts, right hee. $10.”

I almost bought one — loved the way Red Sox fans were sticking it to the hated Yankees for winning the Series with sickening regularity while the lovable Sox always blew it.

Well, pardon me Celtics fans, but — at least this week — you get me sick in the same way. You can take your 16 NBA trophies and shove ‘em up yo’ ass.

If anybody prints that T-shirt, lemme know. You can sell your “take your 16 NBA trophies and shove ‘em up your ass” T-shirts, right here.

Bookmark It

THE DEPARTED: Just two days after upsetting the Celtics in Atlanta to force Game 7, the Hawks get eviscerated 99-65 to end their season.

SAPELO ISLAND: The once-isolated Georgia barrier islanders are being boxed out by wealthy land prospectors and vacationers.

CATCH AND RELEASE AND CATCH: An Alpharetta man who was accidentally released from prison in Tennessee is captured at his father’s house in Atlanta.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE: In a clever strategy to confuse the water gods by doing the last thing they would expect during an extreme drought, the Atlanta Regional Commission will consider the proposed water park in Buford.

PROTON THERAPY: Emory is studying the prospects of building a $150 million proton-therapy cancer-treatment facility, which is similar to radiation treatment but less destructive to cells.

OBAMA: Wins Guam caucuses by just seven votes; North Carolina and Indiana vote tomorrow.

Bookmark It

When Hawks point guard Mike Bibby called the large crowds in Boston “fair-weather fans” early in the first-round playoff series between the Hawks and Celtics, the comment elicited umbrage from Bostonians, as well as an obvious response: “What, as opposed to Hawks fans?”

Atlanta sports fans aren’t exactly renowned for passion or dedication. Braves fans are jaded by the years of restrained success, and Falcons fans are understandably bitter about their team’s fits and starts.

And Hawks fans? For much of the last 20 years, they’ve mostly just stayed home – more no-weather than fair-weather.

But that’s changed during the last seven days. The last three games at Philips Arena, culminating in Friday night’s largest crowd in venue history, have been a coming-out party for a city that’s been wanting to like its basketball team for years. The young Hawks needed a pumped-up crowd to win, and the wary crowd needed an exciting Hawks team to get pumped up about. The stars are currently in alignment.

(more…)

Bookmark It

Atlanta Hawks’ GM Billy Knight gets a lot of grief for the team’s eight-year absence from playoffs. On the eve of the sixth game in the Hawks-Celtics surprisingly competitive playoff series, however, the question really is: How’d such a talented group of players end up with just a 37-45 regular season record?

Head Coach Mike Woodson is accountable for that under-performance, as he showed again Wednesday with poor coaching decisions, a pre-game press conference that lay blame for a loss on his players before the game even happened, and an embarrassing “pep” talk (in which he depressingly quoted Phil Jackson instead of coming up with his own inspiration).

I’m thinking now that Knight’s gotten a bad rap. First, he had to dig the franchise out from Pete Babcock’s truly horrible roster moves. Then, this year he tried to do the right thing — fire Woodson — but ownership wouldn’t let him.

Just rate Knight’s major roster moves after the fact, and he looks pretty good. Here’s what I came up with when I rated his No. 1 picks, major trades and major free agent signs on a zero-to-10 scale (”5″ being an average, fair deal for the team):

Josh Childress, 7th pick: 5

Josh Smith, 17th pick: 8

Joe Johnson trade: 9

Marvin Williams, 2nd pick: 3

Zaza Pachulia signing: 6 (not saying he’s great, but all-in-all he’s turned out to be a savvy addition)

Speedy Claxton signing: 2 (he didn’t know Claxton would be injured but could’ve guessed)

Sheldon Williams, 5th pick: 1

Al Horford, 3rd pick: 7

Acie Law, 11th pick: 4?

Mike Bibby trade: 6

That’s a respectable 5.1 average. Yeah, yeah. He missed drafting a point guard for two straight years, but balance that out with Johnson, Smith and Horford — and with undoing Babcock’s incredible mess. Winning two (at least) against the Celtics ought to let Knight keep his job. Am I missing something?

Bookmark It

GAME 6 TONIGHT: I’ve seen Celtic Pride. We have to keep Daniel Stern and Dan Akroyd away from Joe Johnson today.

GANGBUSTERS: Gang experts say the NBA only drew attention to Paul Pierce’s apparent gang sign during the Celtics Game 4 loss in Atlanta by fining him for it.

TEAT-TOTALING: Three out of four moms now breast-feed their babies, according to the CDC, an “all-time high” since the mid-’80s.

BRIDGE JUMPERS STANDERS: I-985 closed down yesterday; I-20 closed down this morning. Neither jumper jumped.

LOW FLOW: The state wants to extend lower flows from Lake Lanier through May 31, but just about everyone south of Atlanta doesn’t.

CLAYTON SCHOOLS: Gov. Perdue signs two bills into law to safeguard Clayton students and hold the school board more accountable as de-accreditation looms closer.

AIR ABERRANT: If you’re waiting for Atlanta to get off the list of top 10 most polluted cities, don’t hold your breath. Actually, maybe you should.

Bookmark It

MAYDAY: Smog season starts today.

ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPETBAG: Niagara County, New York, assuming companies in the South are too lethargic from dehydration to move elsewhere, considers venturing down here to liberate them to the Great Wet North.

FLEXING ITS MUSSELS: Florida pulls the marine-life card again in response to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ recent water-sharing proposal.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Mission to sugarcoat and obfuscate Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner snafu accomplished.

BOSTON MASSACRE: Home teams keep winning as the Celtics handily take Game 5 from the Hawks. Game 6 is here tomorrow night.

DEMOCRATIC SENATE RACE: Getting melodramatic.

LIAISONS LEAVING: State liaisons assigned to help Clayton County save its accreditation ask Gov. Perdue to excuse them from what they call an impossible task, saying the school board has only gotten more dysfunctional since the SACS report was released in February.

OH REALLY? Unhelpful headlines today:

Bookmark It

DOUG COLLINS: State rep from Gainesville, who’s also an Air Force Reserve chaplain, to be deployed to Iraq in September.

ONE FOR THE ROAD: Hawks play one in Boston tonight before returning to Philips Friday.

SHAD STATE OF AFFAIRS: Because lock valves on a Savannah River dam have failed, leaving the gates stuck shut, biologists on Tuesday manually moved spawning shad in the Savannah River upstream to shoals near Augusta so they can lay their eggs.

CLAYTON SCHOOLS: New corrective superintendent’s contract pays him $1,187.50 per day and allows him to take 45 percent of his time off; the school system is set to lose its accreditation in 124 days. Also, the state attorney general’s office is demanding that the Clayton school board address allegations that it illegally closed public meetings.

GWINNETT SCHOOLS: Gets AAA, the highest possible rating, from two agencies that evaluate financial stewardship.

LONG, STRANGE TRIP: Father of LSD Albert Hofmann dies at 102.

WRIGHT BACK ATCHA: Obama denounces his former pastor.

THE BREAST THINGS IN LIFE: WSB reports on a website (NSFW) that allows women to post photos of themselves, nude if they choose, to solicit donations for breast implants. WSB gets fair and balanced by quoting Georgia Christian Alliance’s Sadie Fields to wax philosophical on the nature of porn. Guess what? She says it’s porn.

Bookmark It

HAWKS POPULI: Philips Arena pulsates as the suddenly unstoppable Joe Johnson leads the surging Hawks over the heavily favored Celtics to tie the series at 2-2. They’re in Boston Wednesday and back here Friday.

TAYLOR BENNETT: Ga. Tech QB transfers to La. Tech. He’ll be playing for Vince Dooley’s son and La. Tech’s mascot is also the Bulldogs, so page-view-hungry websites come up with misleading-but-not-untrue headlines like this:

JEREMIAH WRIGHT: Doing his best to keep Obama out of the White House. CNN has this bio of the ravin’ reverend. ATLMalcontent is justifiably worried that Obama is showing a Kerryesque lack of anger over this.

JIMMY CARTER: On “The Daily Show” last night.

NEED FOR SEED: UGA anthropologists’ Southern Seed Legacy protects heirloom varieties of old and disappearing Southern crops such as the plum granny and the turkey craw bean.

Bookmark It

FALCONS: Put a period at the end of Michael Vick’s sentence.

AL FRESCO: Rejuvenated Al Horford and the Hawks try to even the series with the Celtics tonight.

CLAYTON: Has another chaotic school board meeting, this time while trying to vote on a contract for its new corrective superintendent.

A LOAN IN THE DARK: Only one Georgia technical school participates in the federal student loan program, leaving the state with the highest percentage in the country of tech schools students without access to the federal loans.

SWAMPWISE: Late Okefenokee stalwart Oscar the alligator, who was at least in his mid-60s when he died last July, will be memorialized in a dinosaurlike skeleton display at the park.

VICIOUS CYCLE: Kanstantin Sivtsov of Belarus wins the Tour de Georgia.

GA. DEMS: Hoping Obamania and GOP infighting will grease their wheels in November, but also having to robo-call in a search for candidates for certain districts.

GRADY EXPECTATIONS: New York doctor demands severance from Grady after he quit his job in NY and moved to Georgia with his wife, only to have his job offer at Grady withdrawn after they got here.

Bookmark It

ZEBRA WATCH ‘08: Metro Atlanta’s zebra infestation continues as workers extract one that was sneaked into an Emory at Oxford building Wednesday.

MAKING THE BANDIT: Local media eager to apply catchy monikers to bank robbers after the success of the Barbie Bandits story have found a new popular pilferer: the Grandpa Bandit.

LIVE GRENADE: Discovered in a trash can outside a convenience store in Floyd County.

CLAYTON SCHOOL BOARD: Offers the corrective superintendent job to a candidate who already withdrew himself from consideration.

ILL WIND: British first-time playwright gets railed for her musical version of Gone With the Wind.

QB OR NOT QB? Not, according to SI’s Don Banks (thanks, Falcoholic), despite the unavailability of Jake Long.

HAWKS: This isn’t going well.

ON A LOITER NOTE: News sites and blogs worldwide are falling all over themselves to cover the bum bot story. Here’s an AP video of the viral vigilante in action. In other loitering news, American cities have begun installing Kids Be Gone teen-loitering repellents, which emit an unbearable noise audible only to teens and young adults.

Bookmark It

OBAMA: Getting snarkier, outspending Clinton 2-to-1 on TV ads in Pa. on Primary Eve.

GRACE UNDER FIRES: Okefenokee Swamp open, still recovering from last year’s forest fires; boat tours survey remaining damage.

A NICE METH YOU’VE GOTTEN ME INTO: CNN reporter arrested in Central Park with meth in his pocket while returning to his hotel room with friends.

THE TRIALS OF ABRAHAM: Smitten DOT commish to announce today whether she plans to stay in her post, will then be voted in or out by the board.

KATHRYN JOHNSTON SHOOTING: Jury selection for Arthur Tesler’s trial begins today.

THE NEGOTIATOR: Jimmy Carter gets Hamas to agree to hypothetical peace deal, gets snubbed by Israelis.

HAWKS: Lose Game 1 handily.

JUNK FEUD: NBA players LeBron James and DeShawn Stevenson hold proxy feud via rappers Jay-Z and Soulja Boy.

Bookmark It

LOVE IS IN THE AIR: Delta and Northwest finally shack up. The AP offers this timeline of the two airlines’ histories. And while local congressmen seem keen on the idea, the merger still has more skeptical politicians, as well as unions and antitrust regulators, to clear before becoming final.

HERSCHEL WALKER: Appeared on “Nightline” last night to discuss his dissociative identity disorder.

IDLE HAYNES: Norreese wants back on board, but the school system’s attorney suggests the board wait until the courts rule on his residency. Meanwhile, the actual accreditation crisis continues.

JIMMY CARTER: Meets with Hamas, pisses off Israel.

HAWKS: Make the playoffs for the first time this century, earning the right to lose to the Celtics in the first round. I think this is a good time to revisit the video below (there’s an 18-second delay at the beginning of the clip). Look out for current Celtics coach and then-Hawk Doc Rivers near the end:

Bookmark It

Richard: We’re a real transient town. I get disappointed when I see more Detroit or Laker fans than Hawks fans. We have the potential to be a tremendous basketball town; if the play is inconsistent, then there’s no continuity. People don’t expect the Hawks to win with regularity, so they’re not avid fans, much as I would like them to be. I’m from New York, so I’m more used to a partisan fan base.

.

.

Jackie: They should, if people would just turn their attention to what these Hawks have done here lately. We have a great team here. Atlanta has no excuses. In the playoffs, it will expose some things about the Hawks to people who have lost interest. Al Horford is a great weapon. They’re very young. They haven’t had Mike Bibby for very long. Once people see the chemistry and how well they play together, people will really be pleasantly surprised.

.

Landon: Atlanta is a hard city to please. It’s a ‘show and prove’ kind of city. We don’t get excited [at games] like other cities do. It’s for all sports, but more so for the Hawks. We need a superstar, somebody to support, before we come out. We’re laid-back fans. I don’t know why. I’ve been trying to figure that out for a long time. People are going to look at one season as just a fluke. But for the first time in a long time, I like every player on the team.

Bookmark It