A recent BBC News report presented the following interchange from a classroom...

The ongoing suffering of Sudan’s Darfur region...

What if we would have gone to war with Hitler...

I’ve got your benchmarks
By Stephanie Ramage

On July 18, at the height of the Senate debate over beginning a troop withdrawal from Iraq within 120 days, National Public Radio interviewed former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

More money per minute
Minimum wage hike takes effect
By Colby Dunn

Time is money—it’s an adage that’s been thrown around by ambitious business people for years. But now, time is going to mean considerably more money for low-wage workers around the country.

Riding the storm out
Congressional committee investigates mutiny at the National Hurricane Center
By Mark Woolsey

With the pending reassignment of the director of the National Hurricane Center after an unprecedented mutiny, some may have thought the resulting personnel hurricane had blown itself out. But testimony on Capitol Hill paints the opposite picture. Now the tempest may accelerate to a Category 5, swirling around officials of the National Weather Service and parent agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Bully!
Georgia schools try new ways to fight an old problem
By Diane Loupe

With most metro area schools starting classes again within the next month, a lot of parents and kids are worried about a problem as
old as school itself: bullying. It’s especially common in middle school and may be far more dangerous than many would think.

D’oh! The Humanity!
‘Simpsons’ movie can’t live up to its own hype
BY KEVIN FOREST MOREAU

Unless you’ve been living under a rock—and, really, even then—it’s been impossible to escape the incessant buildup to “The Simpsons Movie.” No bomb squads were called out to investigate strange-looking advertisements, as was the case earlier this year when a marketing plan for the “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” movie went horribly awry. Still, between a ubiquitous TV commercial, various 7-Eleven convenience stores transforming into Kwik-E-Marts and Homer Simpson delivering the opening monologue on “The Tonight Show” last week, the 20th Century Fox PR machine has been working overtime to place the movie front and center in the public consciousness.

Festivals and Happenings

Back to School with the Braves
Celebrate the upcoming end of summer—for the kids, anyway—with an evening of baseball. The Braves will host Back to School Night on Thurs., Aug. 2, as they take on the Houston Astros at Turner Field. Tickets for outfield seats and upper box seats only $3 for kids 14 and under. Kids can participate in a pre-game parade around the ballfield and visit the Braves museum for free. Children that attend will get a Braves tomahawk. The game starts at 7:35 p.m. 404-522-7630. www.Braves.com/Summer.

Heat Wave
Temperatures are rising in the kitchen and cooling off with fresh and fabulous cocktails
By Kirsten Ott

Pull up a stool, blokes and birds (that’s British for beer lovers of all sexes). TAP, Midtown’s new gastropub, from the gents who brought you Trois, Piebar, One Midtown Kitchen and Two Urban Licks, has concocted a beer club and they’re recruiting new members. Not since we sported Members Only jackets have we felt this cool. Sign up at TAP to gain coveted access to more than 40 globe-trotting beers, become a member of the TAP Taster’s Society and be notified of secret handshakes, news and the like. For more information, call 404-347-2220 or visit www.tapat1180.com.

Fly the Coop
All roads lead to Anderson
By Caren West

I cannot remember the last time I went on a real vacation. You know, when you go some place solely for enjoyment with no other purpose than taking a break from your daily existence in order to have fun and perhaps get a little R&R. Any sort of work, even checking in with the office, is not permitted. Sadly, the concept of vacationing has become completely foreign to me. All of my trips center around business or family, so even if I am gallivanting around Vegas or watching my little sis tie the knot in Mexico, I am somehow required to be there—so it’s not really the same.

SP's picks of the week

COOL SUMMER

Everything’s Bigger in Texas
The Sunday Paper pays a visit to Western wine country
By Suzanne Wright

Around these parts, wine aficionados sport faded jeans, dusty boots and big belt buckles. I’ve traveled 988 miles to attend the 27th annual San Antonio Express-News Wine Festival, a monumental three-day affair featuring an abundance of regional vintners and 450 wines from Australia, Italy, Bulgaria, Chile and California. However worldly the offerings are, I’ve set my sights on uncorking the local flavors and roping in some of the region’s best sights.

Party like a rock star
Atlanta’s 10 sexiest nightspots
By Kirsten Ott

Atlanta’s nightlife is growing up. After the demise of Buckhead’s status as the dance capital of the South, our club scene has swelled to new levels of posh sophistication, though we still know how to get down and dirty on the dance floor. The days of drinking to oblivion haven’t left us just yet—and probably never will, as pretty young college-age things continue to flock to the remaining Buckhead bars—but money-maker shakers have matured from dancing on the bar to simply dancing near the bar.

Beaming With Pride

Every time Micah burps, Jimmy and I just about fall all over ourselves blubbering with pride. I haven’t felt this level of euphoria since the time I accepted a joint from at a Pink Floyd concert in the 1990s. Yes, this instinctual release of tiny air bubbles makes our collective hearts swell as big as the bangs of a 1980 Texas beauty pageant finalist. And that’s just when he burps once; with two burps, we behave as if we have been entrusted with a child prodigy.

Cry Me a River

“When did guys start acting so girly, and why are we dating them?” my West Coast friend S. wailed during one of our recent catch-up gab-fests.

Calming Concerns: Hair Loss in Women

Q I’m a woman in my mid-40s, and I’m concerned about rapid hair loss. I see hair in the shower drain almost every morning. I went through some periods of this after each of my children was born, but this time it’s not stopping. I’ve heard of female pattern baldness. Could this be what’s happening to me?

Delivering an action-packed story
Director Paul Greengrass talks about ‘Bourne Ultimatum’
BY BERT OSBORNE

Jason Bourne, the amnesiac CIA operative played by Matt Damon in “The Bourne Identity” (2002) and “The Bourne Supremacy” (2004), finally sees in the light in “The Bourne Ultimatum,” the third (and presumably final) installment in a series of movies based on the Robert Ludlum novels. Shot on location in New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Tangier–and featuring all the thrilling action sequences we’ve come to expect from the franchise–the film reunites Damon with previous “Bourne” co-stars Julia Stiles and Joan Allen, in addition to introducing a few new shady characters (played by David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Albert Finney and others).

Wicked ways
Life’s a blast for ‘Oz’ witch
BY RACHAEL MASON

To the people of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West is a menace. But Jane Blass believes she’s just misunderstood. “She’s lonely and she thinks people don’t like her,” she says.

Soundcheck

Delta Moon
“Clear Blue Flame”
(Jumping Jack)
4 stars

Cold as Ice
Modern Gentlemen take on Pinky and Reyka Vodka and Sterling Caviar
By Jason Tesauro and Phineas Mollod

“Vodka … caviar … more rock ’n’ roll!” So shouts the Soviet trade representatives from the fictional “Soft Drink Secretariat” in the classic 1961 Billy Wilder Cold War farce, “One, Two, Three” during a meeting with Coca-Cola rep C.R. MacNamara (James Cagney) at an East Berlin nightclub. Soon, in a famous scene, MacNamara’s sexy blonde secretary (Liselotte Pulver) seductively dances on the tabletop in a slinky polka-dot dress, while one of the reps bangs his shoe against the table (á la Khrushchev) to the beat of the music. Can quality vodka and caviar really be so jubilant? Absolutely.

Fresh Catch
A major seafood supplier gives SP the lowdown on shrimp
By Suzanne Wright

Bill Demmond, chief operating officer and seafood enthusiast, just celebrated his 25th anniversary with Inland Seafood. Inland is the Southeast’s largest fresh seafood processor and among the top five in the United States. Shrimp is their No. 1 selling product.

Learning a new trade
Former soccer star settles in as Silverbacks women’s coach
BY JASON CHATRAW

On an unseasonably cool July evening, Keith Jones stalks the sidelines of an Atlanta Silverbacks women’s game, studying the field, ready to give direction when needed. It’s a sight that takes some getting used to: Most of the fans in the stands may not be aware of it, but it wasn’t that long ago that Jones was a star in what is arguably soccer’s best professional association, the English Premier League.

Five more years
Franco returns to the ATL, with an eye on the long term
BY JASON CHATRAW

Julio Franco sits at the kitchen bar, polishing off the last few bites of a Saturday morning breakfast. It's hard not to notice the sculpted biceps protruding from his skin-tight shirt. It's also hard not to notice the green tea he sips from an espresso shot cup. “This stuff has the best antioxidants,” he explains.

Shooting Blanks
Vick not the only one making wrong decisions
BY ADAM KROHN

Arthur Blank really thought the NFL was like Home Depot. He thought he could just walk in and build an organization from scratch. There’s one problem with that theory: The Falcons weren’t at square one. In fact, under the leadership of Dan Reeves, they were at the cusp of a championship. But Reeves wasn’t the owner; he was just a “football guy.” Had he succeeded at his goal of bringing a championship to Atlanta, it wouldn’t have been under Blank’s leadership. So he had to go.

Don’t abandon Iraq
By Stephanie Ramage

I recently met a Korean War veteran who explained to me that the Korean War was never won because no peace agreement was secured. What we achieved was an armistice, which is why we still have troops on the North Korean border.

Beyond crepes and victims
By Bob Zaslavsky

In its latest draft of course criteria, which will go into effect July 1, 2008, the Georgia Department of Education’s foreign language recommendation is not, strictly speaking, a requirement and it is both inadequate and demeaning. Continuing our discussion from last week, anything less than three years (a two-year basic course followed by one year of literature study) is less than what a student needs to achieve genuine mastery of another language. The goal of studying another language—just as with English—is the understanding of another culture, and no understanding of a culture can develop without a feel for that culture’s literature.

I get much of my news from friends who spend more time than I do checking political and religious blogs...

Execution delayed
Board agrees to consider new evidence
By Stephanie Ramage

On July 16, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a 90-day stay of execution to Troy Anthony Davis who was scheduled to die by lethal injection on July 17.

Landing NBAF
Georgia makes final cut for center aimed at animal-to-human diseases
By Colby D. Dunn

Mississippi, Kansas, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia. These are the five contenders left fighting for the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility, or NBAF, and as the field continues to narrow, the competition is getting tight.

Out of bounds
Reeling from a federal indictment, Atlanta reconsiders its love affair with NFL superstar Michael Vick
By Kevin Moreau and Stephanie Ramage

Following the July 17 news of Michael Vick’s indictment on a federal conspiracy charge for his alleged role in a multi-state dogfighting ring run from his Virginia home, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback’s name is on everyone’s lips. It’s nearly impossible to turn on the TV or the radio without hearing it, or to sit down in a bar or restaurant without the guy behind you outlining Vick’s litany of lapses of judgment. You can’t go anywhere in Atlanta without being bombarded by the constant chatter about jail time and possible trade scenarios or the gruesome details of the dogfighting charges.

The honeymoon’s over
Indicted and underperforming, Vick’s lost his appeal
BY JASON CHATRAW

I don’t know if I ever really fell in love with Michael Vick as the Falcons’ quarterback, but I certainly was in like with him. He razzled and dazzled us all: leaping over defenders, vanishing in the grasp of a linebacker, racing for the end zone. He turned my weekly Maalox moment with the Falcons into an ice cream Sunday treat. But when the feds indicted Vick on three counts related to dogfighting, I was reaching for the Maalox bottle again.

Getting Back To Normal—Whatever That Is
By Lisa Baron

Marching To the Beat of My Own Theme
By Caren West

I often work with my headphones on to drown out all the distractions around me. With as many as five dogs running around the office and phones ringing off the hook all the time, far too often 8 a.m. turns into 8 p.m. Instead of sitting on my couch watching HBO’s “John from Cincinnati” (my new obsession) courtesy of my TiVo, I find myself still at the office looking at number four on my to-do list of 400.

A baseball card aficionado collects his thoughts

Strong hold
‘Hairspray’ remake charms viewers with song and dance
By Rachael Mason

Coasting By
A Nantucket escape evokes quiet repose in any season
By Suzanne Wright

Euphemistically, you could call the plane “petite.” Counting the one next to the pilot, Cape Air’s flight from Boston to Nantucket has nine seats. At check-in, I am asked to weigh my purse (7 lbs) and provide my own weight. (I hope the agents know everyone fudges and add 20 percent to the aggregate total.) It’s an absolutely gorgeous fall day when we take off, heading straight for the skyline and then rising over the red brick buildings that shape the skyline. The plane is mostly windows, so the view of the coastline is superb. When we land, 35 minutes later, the small airport reminds me of the one on the TV show “Wings.”

Water Works
Lessons in water-skiing produce more than just balance
By Hope S. Philbrick

The first time I attempted to water ski I was 13 years old. I plunged into Grand Traverse Bay after watching my father’s friend’s 17-year-old son—upon whom I had a huge crush—skip gracefully across the waves. “It’s easy,” Dad said,, tossing me the towrope while he sat dry in the speedboat. “Just stand up as the boat gets going.” It looked fun, and, as a strong swimmer, I wasn’t afraid of the water. I most hoped to impress Scott, whose job it would be to watch me while our fathers drove and alert them if I fell; I imagined that if I was able to hold his gaze long enough, I could make him fall in love with me.

The quiet man
Braves veteran Edgar Renteria leads by example
By Michael Mahan

Get real!
Hollywood welcomes Beckham to America, but soccer's status won't change
BY ADAM KROHN

European football in America? ROFL, like, whatever! The sport is so irrelevant in this country that we invented our own football, as if to correct such a ridiculous game! In America, football means war (on the field, of course, but I’ll get to that later). It means fighting in the trenches and knocking your opponent out cold to gain that precious inch for a first down—not a bunch of Vlade Divac-like crybabies laying on the ground faking injuries while everyone else runs around in circles trying to kick a ball through a net. In fact, on the priority list of American sports fans, “soccer,” as it’s called here, ranks comfortably below professional bowling.

RADAR

Putting the “art” in “party”
It’s not every day you see crowds packing an art gallery to overflowing, with folks spilling into the street. But that was exactly the sight at the Bill Lowe Gallery’s 18th anniversary bash on July 13. Patrons were treated to complimentary cocktails, special dance performances and the debut of two eye-catching exhibits: “Painters,” featuring works by Brett Osborn, Richard Currier, Rose Freyuth-Fraizer and Aleksander Balos; and “Shadowdance,” an “exploration of form in photography” by regional photographer Keiko Guest. That’s dancers Rikki McKinney and Liz LeGrande, above, bending over backwards to entertain the crowd. Get it? Oh, we slay ourselves …

Wall of Voodoo
“Call of the West”
(I.R.S. Records)

Strange bedfellows
‘Chuck & Larry’ depicts fake couple, but offers real laughs
By Steve Warren

Deception swings both ways in movies about gays and straights pretending to be the opposite of what they are. Consider films like “The Gay Deceivers” (1969), “Victor/Victoria” (1982), “La Cage aux Folles” (1978) and its American remake “The Birdcage” (1996). The aim seems to be to figure out what a mass, mainstream audience is ready for, and give it to them, with comedy being the spoonful of sugar that helps a message of tolerance go down. After the success of “Brokeback Mountain” you’d think Hollywood would throw caution to the winds, but so far, that isn’t the case.

Smart Legs: Microprocessors aid in mobility and stability

Q: I have a prosthetic leg, but have heard that Mayo Clinic is testing a computerized “smart” leg. Please tell me more about it.

Swiss Army Bar
Smash, Stick & Crush with Tools of the Booze Trade
By Jason Tesauro and Phineas Mollod

Too often, bright young city-dwellers live in cool pads replete with an imported coffee maker that can brew caffeinated nectar, LCD-everything and Wi-Fi availability at every square inch. While a broadband connection can offer the fruits of knowledge (liberal arts or carnal), it can’t fix a drink. Alas, given the call to cocktails, many peer past the hanging phalanx of copper pans, open the utility cabinet and find barely a serviceable cocktail shaker. Mon dieu. What happens when a recipe calls for muddled fruit, sexy garnishes or crushed ice? For those who are still straining mixed drinks through the spaghetti colander and stirring gin martinis with a spatula handle, below is a primer on three of the most absent bar tools.

Milking it
Flat Creek Lodge opens Georgia’s second artisan dairy
By Hope S. Philbrick

Small family dairy farms dot the landscape in Europe and New England, while for many years Georgia could claim only one such enterprise: Sweet Grass Dairy in Thomasville. But Flat Creek Lodge, a hunting and fishing resort and spa in Southeast Georgia, celebrated the official opening of its micro-dairy June 9, making it the state’s second licensed artisanal cheese producer.

Local college student dishes on popular diet delivery plan

Age of Love: It Ain’t What It Used 2 B
By Blane Bachelor

“¿Que pasa?” the message would read over my sea-green cell phone, usually around 3 a.m. Translation: “Can I come over?”

Notes from the past
Musical revues spotlight retro tunes
BY BERT OSBORNE

Click Image for Larger Version


Grumbles Archives

Georgia’s school requirements: Some improvement, but more is needed
By Bob Zaslavsky

The Georgia Department of Education has posted a draft of a plan (Rule 160-4-2-.48) to toughen the requirements—effective July 1, 2008—for high school graduation. The purpose of the plan is to prepare all students equally for college or the workplace in recognition that the workplace—today more than ever before—needs individuals who are prepared for college-level work, even if they have no immediate, post-high school intent to attend college.

Praise For Those Who Saved Us!
by Silas Von Haessler

It is bittersweet for me to write this. On one hand, it is a privilege for me, in the year 2107, to sing the praises of those who sang for us so long ago. On the other, I am forced to confront the fact that my own great-great-grandfather Eric Von Haessler was one of those wretched writers who foolishly denied the impending holocaust of global warming in article after article for this very publication a hundred years ago.

A different kind of faith
By Stephanie Ramage

We are creating a warrior caste in this country. And this division can be chalked up in part to a growing number of American civilians who might be said to lack a belief in ideals, according to Robert D. Kaplan, who says such “moral hardiness” is pro forma for a majority of the soldiers charged with protecting that populace.

Hard-Learned Lessons
By Mark Douglas

Common sense says that if you want someone to learn a lesson, they need to be allowed to face the consequences of their actions. Unfortunately, this makes some lessons difficult to learn, especially in democracies. And nowhere is this more evident than in civilian control of the military, where the consequences of military actions are often shouldered by persons who did not initiate those actions—partly because the initiators are out of office and partly because they didn’t have to shoulder weapons while they were in office.

Antidepressant contamination
Our happiness is killing our fish and frogs
By Colby Dunn

Prozac. Paxil. Zoloft. Lexapro. Wellbutrin. Cymbalta. We hear about them constantly. And all of us probably know at least 10 people that are on one of them—and maybe even more according to a recently released CDC study that names antidepressants the No. 1, prescribed drug class in the country. More than 118 million people are throwing back these so-called happy pills, and often to life-changing effect. But not everyone is jumping for joy at the antidepressant revolution. In fact, some fish and frogs are finding it difficult to jump at all, due to antidepressant exposure.

Paying for pavement
By Mark Woolsey

It might be the best case of “voodoo economics” since the 1980 presidential campaign—and it comes with a liberal helping of asphalt. Cash for new roads—and no new taxes?