I find the Flagpole to be a fine local publication filled with useful and entertaining material. However, a serious editorial error has come to my attention. My name is Effie Greathouse, and while I "am" a bit thin-skinned and apologetic, I have never heard the band 63 Crayons, have no idea what "psych-pop" is, have never read Bunny Mcintosh's column, can assure you that in my opinion the only local bands deserving praise play swing, blues or jazz, and I most definitely did not write the letter in the August 18 issue of the Flagpole printed as being written by Effie Greathouse.

A few weeks ago, I did make a submission to the "Talk Back To Us" section of flagpole.com: I inquired about the possibility to listing information about a local tutoring program for at-risk kids in the OutThere community calendar. I doubt that there is another Effie Greathouse on this planet, let alone in Athens, so I suspect that my name was accidentally added to the August 18 letter criticizing Ms. Mcintosh. If the tutoring program information had been published in Out There, I would have accepted, as part of the greater good, the mistaken identity, the angry letters about me in the August 25 issue, and being described on Ms. Mcintosh's blog as lacking charm, sucky and being a candidate for an explicit nickname (Ms. Effie *%&#). But alas, I have been checking Out There regularly and have yet to see our tutoring program listed. Maybe the editors will make up for the mistake by publishing this letter AND adding the tutoring program information to the Out There listing. For anyone interested in tutoring at-risk kids in one of our Athens-area elementary schools, we are recruiting volunteers for our Saturday morning program, which starts September 11. For more information, contact [email protected]. I have to admit that the mix-up could have been worse - at least my name wasn't accidentally put on someone else's letter to Jyl Inov!

Effie Greathouse
Athens

EDITOR REPLIES:
Okay, here's what happened. Nathan DeYonker posted a letter on the Flagpole web site taking issue with Flagpole writer Bunny Mcintosh's review of the band 63 Crayons. The next post to the web site on that same day was from Effie Greathouse, asking that we publicize Fowler Drive Elementary School's volunteer recruitment. Yes, you've got it. Ms. Greathouse's name was affixed to Mr. DeYonker's letter, and she became the target of counterattacks supporting Ms. Mcintosh. Meanwhile, the Fowler Drive recruitment announcement got lost. Fortunately, Ms. Greathouse is a sport about it. Mr. DeYonker is, too. Here's hoping that a lot of people respond to Ms. Greathouse's call for volunteers. Remember, that's [email protected]. Sounds like a good way to help.