Congratulations and Hurrah!

We are delighted to welcome Iris, the brand new daughter of Flagpole City Editor Blake Aued and Merritt Melancon, Public Relations Coordinator in UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. These two journalists have collaborated on this thrilling story, and they even published ahead of schedule, rare in their field. Before heading for the hospital this weekend, Blake came by the office to make assignments and make sure all the bases are covered as he takes some time off to be a new parent. Iris was born Sunday, July 20 and weighed 5 pounds and 12 ounces.  We at Flagpole are delighted with their news, and we wish Blake, Merritt and Iris all the best as they begin this new chapter.

Congratulations and Good Luck

Well, here we are again in that blind spot that develops every election because Flagpole is printed Tuesday afternoon long before the polls close. You will, of course, have read the results as soon as they came in, so you already know who won. I do not yet have that knowledge as I sit here typing this at home on Sunday afternoon, already long past my deadline.

So, congratulations and best wishes to the winner in the District 3 Athens-Clarke County Commission race: Rachel Watkins or Melissa Link. You both ran good races and worked hard, and it is too bad that our Charter does not allow you both to represent the district. (Back in the old Athens City Council days, we had five wards, and each ward had two representatives on the Council.)

The winner will have a hard job, for you now represent a diverse district filled with constituents who will want to tell you about their drainage problems every time you run out for a loaf of bread and need to get back home in time to cut the grass before it rains again. And of course, you’ll have meetings, meetings, meetings and homework in connection with all of them. Unfortunately, you will be joining a commission that is smothered by a mayor who will not let it consider anything much that deals with the real problems that confront our community. Athens is strangling and falling backwards, and many on the commission are content with that situation. Having promised the voters that you want to help solve our pressing problems, you will find it very frustrating to be working among people who are accustomed to short meetings that don’t get much done. Here’s hoping you can make a difference and can help energize this government. Congratulations, and good luck.

California Author Here

First time novelist Edan Lepucki will pop by Avid Bookshop to celebrate her recently released tale of a post-apocalyptic near-future, California. Lepucki recently scored some great press on “The Colbert Report.” Stephen Colbert urged his viewers to pre-order copies of her novel through his website and Powell Books as a way to stick it to cyber-giant Amazon. Lepucki and Colbert are both authors with Hachette Books. While discussing California in an interview with another author, Colbert's response to hearing that Los Angeles is lost in the novel was, "So there's a happy ending."

California is the (love) story of a young couple coping with the aftermath of the end of society as we know it. After leaving the crumbling city of LA for life in a shack in the wilderness, an unplanned pregnancy causes the pair to seek the protection of a nearby settlement. This guarded and paranoid community with dark secrets poses other dangers to the couple, leaving the reader to question how far we will go to protect the ones we love.

Meet Edan Lepucki at Avid Bookshop this Sunday, July 27 from 7:30–8:30 p.m. Free. [Barbette Houser]