Who Won?

This column, like all of this week’s Flagpole, was written, edited, printed and distributed before the election returns were in, so you won’t find a word about winners and losers. Such is the burden of a weekly paper. We can’t bring you the results of the campaigns we’ve covered since they began. Fortunately, Flagpole.com is right on top of the results. City Editor Blake Aued constantly updates the returns as they come in. If you’ve already formed the habit of keeping an eye on his blog, “In The Loop,” you know that’s where to turn, not only for up-to-the-minute election returns but for constant bulletins on local developments as they happen day-to-day.

Talk Radio—Not Right-Wing

Talk radio that’s not slanted to the right is hard to find in Athens, but it does exist, as fans of Athens News Matters know. That show, on WUGA FM 91.7 airs on Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. Sand repeats Sundays at 8:30 p.m. Made up of Athens journalists, sometimes including me, ANM is a knowledgeable (at least when I’m not on it) discussion of local events and issues in the news, and you sort of get the story behind the news from the journalists who are doing the reporting. It’s true that 3:30 p.m. isn’t much of a time for listening to the radio, but the Sunday evening backup is good, even if delayed.

Now there’s another opportunity for local talk radio with a decidedly progressive tone. It’s “Live With Gwen and Pete,” at noon Thursdays on local station WXAG, 1470 on your AM dial. That’s right: be forewarned. You get the double dose of former Mayor Gwen O’Looney and me for a whole hour, live, with call-in. But don’t worry: we’re not there just to blab about our liberal opinions. We always have newsmaker guests who are involved in the things that are going on. In this election cycle, we had every local candidate in contested elections for public office except Doug McKillip. We had local attorney Bertis Downs talking about Amendment 1. We had Supervisor of Elections and Voter Registration Gail Schrader, North Georgia Folk Festival Coordinator Tommy Jordan, Executive Director of the ACLU of Georgia Debbie Seagraves and, among others, Dr. Toni Miles, the new head of the UGA Gerontology Institute, a prolific scholar and an expert on issues of aging.

Tune in on Thursdays and listen to knowledgeable people talking about issues of interest to you. Call in and ask them questions. It’s “Live With Gwen and Pete,” and it goes well with lunch on Thursdays.

Worth the Drive

You may have read references from time to time in this column about my old Volvo wagon. It keeps on running, with occasional repairs, and it never fails to accommodate whatever sofas, plants or trash we stuff into it. It even can work like a tractor, if you need to uproot a bunch of tough elaeagnus bushes. Don Doster kept my Volvos running until he retired, and then I heard about Garry Cummings, who has a foreign-car repair shop way out on the far edge of Jackson County. Garry proved to be factory-trained, an excellent diagnostician and a competent and honest mechanic. He has kept me running ever since. You can imagine my dismay recently when Garry announced that he might be taking a job with the post office, repairing their trucks. It appeared that his services would be available only on a limited basis, if at all. After further consideration, though, Garry decided to keep the shop open and forego the post office job, which turned out to be a longer commute than at first anticipated. Garry’s customers breathed a sigh of relief. And to anybody looking to become a new customer, I recommend Garry without reservation. He’s not cheap, because he doesn’t cut corners, but he fixes it, and it stays fixed. Give him a call at 706-335-4197, if you need foreign car or truck repairs. He can tell you how to get there.