When we at Flagpole decided this year that we didn’t want to do another cartoon cover for our annual Flagpole Guide to Athens, we cast around for some other design that would draw attention to all the information about Athens that the Guide contains. We knew we wanted a photograph, rather than a drawing, but how do you depict Athens in one shot that also has some fun in it? Larry Tenner hit on the idea of using mannequins. But, you know, a good mannequin is hard to find. We’ve had one hanging around the office for a while, but he has only one arm—rather stiff—and nothing below the belt, as it were, a mannequin manqué.

Fred Moorman had three mannequins on his front porch, so of course we asked him if Flagpole could borrow a couple of them to illustrate the Guide, and he graciously acquiesced. They came to stay with us, got their new Flagpole names, “Eileen and Chip,” and went to work posing not only for the cover but for every section of the Guide, as well.

Alicia Nickles took them over, making sure they were dressed right for each Zoomworks photo shoot and lugging them to each location, which meant taking them apart and putting them back together each time. You will see Eileen and Chip throughout the Guide and on the cover of this Flagpole, as they were a couple of weeks ago for the issue that featured the Flagpole Athens Music Awards. In fact, Eileen and Chip made an appearance at the awards show and even danced a little. I think Alicia is a little in love with one or both of them.

We’re glad we had Eileen and Chip to illustrate the Guide, because it is an Athens institution by now. It is truly a guide to Athens and the surrounding area, filled with useful information for those who want to know their way around.

There used to be a saying in the office, “I love Flagpole, but I fear the Guide.” That came about because the same people who put out the paper every week also have to put out the Guide, so that all the work of the Guide (and there is a lot of work) has to be done on top of putting out the weekly paper—and this goes on for weeks and weeks during the summer. We started work in April on the Guide that hit the streets in August and keeps on hitting the streets all year long. That’s one of the cool things about the Guide: It is an annual publication, so that it’s out there all year, ready when you need it, all over town, campus and Oconee at more than 300 locations—as well as online. And you do need it, whether you live here or are just visiting, because it is chock full of essential information about what you need to know, prepared by experts.

The Guide is made possible by our advertisers, but it is more than advertising because of all the information in it. And of course that information-rich environment assures that the ads get a lot of looks, as Guide readers use it repeatedly during the year.

So, grab a Guide and keep on grabbing all year when you need to know where to go, where to eat, where to hear music and browse books, recreate, see art, entertain kids, navigate our streets or get married. And, of course, pick up your Flagpole for a weekly compendium of happenings, and watch this site for all of the above, plus instant updates.

Here’s Looking at Y’all

Grady Thrasher and Kathy Prescott hosted Casablanca last Thursday evening at Ciné and threw a lavish party afterward that continued the theme of Rick’s bistro, with Moroccan treats from The National, fine champagne and, I’m shocked to say, “gambling.” In their period haberdashery, Kathy and Grady made every bit as handsome a couple as Ilsa and Rick.

We all thrilled to the closing film of Ciné’s Summer Classic film series, a love story and parable that never gets old and is always worth seeing writ large on a theater screen.

Is our country still the shining hope of the world’s oppressed, or is our perpetual war machine beginning to glare more like the sinister forces so well depicted in Casablanca?