Fresh Loaf

The fine folks at the Wren’s Nest museum are kicking off their summer literary escapade — the Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. — and they’re looking for some Atlanta-area high school students who want to learn about editing and the wordsmithin’ business.

From the site:

Each summer, high school students at the Wren’s Nest create a literary journal to be published and sold exclusively at the Decatur Book Festival.

All editorial decisions regarding the journal are made by the 6 – 8 brilliant editors who work with us throughout the summer. They learn about about writing, editing, publishing, and being awesome from professionals in the print industry.

All of the short stories, essays, and artwork in the journal are contributed by Atlanta-area students. The program is free and competitive.

Previous editorial programs included field trips to Paste, the AJC and the Decatur Book Festival. If you or someone you know might be interested in the program, check out the museum’s information page. The deadline to apply for the program is May 10. If you’re interested in submitting writing or artwork for publication in the museum’s literary review Vernacular, details are on the information page as well. Deadline for submissions is June 14.

(Courtesy Wren’s Nest Publishing Co.)

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Students and faculty at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School may have the luxury of being mere footsteps from all the downtown salad bars and panhandlers one could hope for, but they have the misfortune of being located in one of the Georgia Building Authority’s properties.

The state agency, forced to scale back expenses in light of Georgia’s $1.6 billion shortfall, recently started setting thermostats in the school’s building to Hades highs. Come winter they’ll be set to Siberian lows. (ba-da-zing!)

From an e-mail addressed to what seems like 98,324 people, according to the recipient list, sent out by an employee who’s got a good sense of humor about something totally out of their control :

Good warmer afternoon all,

I have had many complains/questions/concerns today regarding the warm offices/work areas and the only answer I had for each caller was, “We are going green”.

I know I, as many of you, have become accustom to having much cooler office temperatures. However, as of yesterday, September 2, 2008, the luxury of cooler office temperature may now be referred to as ‘the good old days’….

Copied below is GBA’s reminder of the new regulations and recommend practices….

And now, the rest is up to you!

If you have any questions/concerns regarding this matter, please
contact me.

Ah, yes. When the state goes broke, we gotta ‘go green.’ Perhaps if the governor and his bean counters weren’t so optimistic in their revenue projections, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with, eh? And just what temperature is the governor’s mansion these days, boss? How about retrofitting those windows down there with some insulated models? Fret not, students and faculty of GSU, for we feel your pain. Or at least I do. I sleep in my car, with the engine running, Japanese-engineered air conditioning blowing on my face. Gas bills are a pain but I wake up to the sunrise!

After the jump, the e-mail from the authority to its sweltering tenants.

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Gas prices and parking costs will inspire more city-bound vacationers to hop on a climate-controlled train rather than sit in gridlock and bake. The American Public Transportation Association estimates that public transportation use in the nation’s urban tourist destinations will increase seven percent over last year’s numbers.

Estimated increases among top-ten destination cities surveyed:

New York City (53 percent – up 5 percent)

Washington, DC (47 percent – up 1 percent)

Boston (48 percent – up 5 percent)

San Francisco (40 percent – remained constant)

Philadelphia (38 percent – up 4 percent)

Chicago (35 percent – up 4 percent)

Seattle (32 percent – up 2 percent)

Las Vegas (30 percent – up 4 percent)

Los Angeles (31 percent – up 5 percent)

Atlanta (25 percent – up 3 percent)

We’ll see if MARTA can handle the small uptick in demand. Thanks to the state not ponying up any cash to help move people around the state’s most vibrant area, the agency’s getting by on what it can.

From APTA, in a press release after the jump:
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