As if the Real Housewives of Atlanta weren’t enough to make you blow your Christmas cookies into the next county, now we find that Atlantans are quite enamored with themselves.

Atlantans are particularly pleased with themselves, according to the poll, landing behind only Miami and Chicago residents in a ranking of the U.S.’s vainest cities.

LivingSocial conducted a poll back in November, when the rest of us were working for a living. The full findings are here. Interestingly enough, folks in Orlando are more well-groomed than those in the Big A.

So Atlanta, toast yourself in the mirror. This one’s for you…

Today would have been Lewis Grizzard’s 65th birthday. His humor and legacy lives on at his website. There’s even a tribute show. Sprayberry’s BBQ named a plate after him. And it’s good, too!

Being Southern, and Georgian in particular, is truly a gift that other Americans simply don’t understand. Lewis could articulate that sentiment better than anyone I’ve heard or read since. After all he said, “God talks like us.”

Fall always reminds me of Lewis since we share a beloved alma mater. His stories about UGA football strike such a chord, sometimes it seems his ghost is still on campus.

T. Kyle King of Dawgsports.com remembers Lewis tailgating before games near his dorm.

During my first two years as a student at the University of Georgia, I lived on campus in Myers Hall. In the fall, Dad would come into town on Saturdays and park next to my dorm, then we would walk down the hill to the stadium for the game.

There, tailgating between two parked cars across from the G.G.S. Building, would be Lewis Grizzard, identifiable by his familiar voice and lack of socks. Dad and I would nod and say hello without breaking stride, but we never bothered him because he wasn’t there as a famous writer; he was there as a fan—as one of us—and it didn’t seem right to disturb him.

Knowing what we now know about Lewis Grizzard’s life—about his inner demons, his excessive drinking, his failed marriages, his absent father, and his health problems—it may well have been the case that what we saw on Saturday mornings were the happiest moments of the syndicated author’s earthly existence. He may never have been more at peace than he was when standing within sight of Sanford Stadium, awaiting kickoff with a chicken leg in one hand and a Jack and Coke in the other.

Mr. King is right. Lewis would have loved Coach Mark Richt.

ToonDawg over at the Anti-Orange Page remembers Lewis firing up the Redcoats before the 1993 Citrus Bowl.

When UGA participated in the 1993 Citrus Bowl versus Ohio State, the Redcoats had to perform at a pep rally at Seaworld. Well, we had already marched in about three or four other parades and had been getting up at seven each morning. Needless to say, we were pooped, and I wasn’t exactly thrilled about doing another parade. As soon as we got up to the front of the crowd, who did we see on stage but ole Lewis himself. I immediately forgot all about my weariness as soon as he started speaking about UGA vs. Ohio State. I wish I could remember his entire speech, but I was laughing too hard. Basically it was about how any Southern team can beat up on a Yankee team, especially UGA.

Over the years, many have compared him to Mark Twain. But Lewis’ tales were more personal. He struck a chord with those of us who complained about the never-ending construction on Peachtree Street, but inwardly welcomed the growth and change because it meant prosperity for Georgia. We all had mamas and grandmothers that instructed with Juicy Fruit gum in one hand and switches in the other. We all celebrated victories and agonized over defeats. We all wept at the death of a beloved dog.

Sometimes I wonder how Lewis would react to today’s media, the hyper-sensitivity of modern society, expensive micro-brewed beer and dogs that fit in purses. He wrote 25 books – just think of the wealth of material he’d have today!

Share your favorite Lewis story/memory in the comments below. And remember, “Be Sweet.”

UPDATE:

Lewis at the Pearly Gates / Mike Luckovich AJC

Thanks Dave in the comments! I had originally planned to include the cartoon, then thought less was better. I should have known better because with Lewis, less was never better. And like Dave, I have a copy of it on my desk. Lewis died four months after Catfish. The story Dave refers to was included in Lewis’ obituary.

We all knew trouble was brewing when Peach Pundit contributor Buzz Brockway became a State Representative. His colleagues in the House GOP Caucus have also realized the potential Rep. Brockway has to become a trouble-maker.  In fact, the House Caucus believes Mr. Bockway is a king mixer.  Little did we know what sort of man lurked on our frontpage.

Hopefully the Senate Caucus hasn’t hired Columbo to solve the mystery yet. Congratulations (?) Buzz.

Michael Joseph McGowan, Cherokee County’s school spokesperson, was pulled over a few weeks ago after a 911 call was made alerting the police of an erratic driver on Reinhardt College Parkway. When McGowan was stopped, not only was he found to be intoxicated, but he claimed that he had just come from the Sheriff’s house and…wait for it…he was wearing the Sheriff’s pants.

Sheriff Roger Garrison confirmed that the two are friends and that McGowan had stayed the night, but that it had been two nights prior because of the snow storm. McGowan had borrowed the pants because he needed fresh clothing. However, Sheriff Garrison denies that McGowan left his home right before being pulled over.

“That is an absolute lie,” Garrison said. “He is a friend, but I am disappointed he would do that — throw my name in to try and get out of a pickle.”

According to the police reports, six Michelob Ultra bottle caps were found in the front pants pocket and two empty bottles of the beer on the truck’s floorboard.

McGowan is now claiming that there was a misunderstanding between him and the officer and that he was at a friend’s house before he was pulled over for drunk driving, not at the Sheriff’s house.

“I didn’t say I was at the sheriff’s, I said I was there the other evening,” he said.

As someone who has been pulled over for speeding at least once, my advice to McGowan would have been not only to pick and choose when to drop the names of friends in Law Enforcement, but also to know where to draw the line on information about those friendships.

McGowan has an afternoon meeting on Friday to determine his job status.

If you could have one wish, what would it be?

I’m not a lawyer, so a celebrity bear** is going to explain* former gubernatorial candidate Ray McBerry‘s lawsuit against Linda Pittman, Jeff Sexton and Thomas Knighton. Mrs. Pittman is the woman who accused McBerry of having an improper relationship with her 16-year-old daughter, Sexton and Knighton operate a blog called SWGA Politics. According to the AJC the suit charges that “Mrs. Pittman “stated falsely, with actual malice, that [McBerry] had committed the crime of child molestation” on a Facebook page.”

MH: Mr. McBeary, how can that be?

McBeary: I’m glad you asked! Libel is a legal term grown ups use when somebody calls somebody else a a really bad thing and that really bad thing isn’t true. But they can’t just say it, they have to write it  and publish it. If it’s not true, and it hurts somebody, and they write it in a book or a newspaper or on the Internet, then it’s called libel. There’s a special kind of libel called libel per se, which means that the thing that was said was SOOOO bad you know somebody got hurt, and that somebody can collect damages from the somebody who wrote it.

MH: Can the somebody who wrote the bad thing just write “sorry” and take it back?

McBeary:  No. The person who wrote the bad thing can say that they were telling truth, which is an “absolute defense” against libel, like a ‘get out of jail free’ card. Or they can say they were offering their opinion, or commenting on a “matter of public interest.” But truth is the best defense.

MH: So if the guy running for governor really was kissing and hugging and holding hands with Mrs. Pittman’s 16-year-old daughter, that would be child molestation and she and the blogger guys would be off the hook, right?

McBeary: No, dummy! In Georgia, the age of consent is 16. So all those things he did with that young woman were legal. McBerry can’t have committed child molestation with her, because she was

MH: What about if he was famous, like a public figure? Isn’t that a defense?

McBeary: Dude, he got 2.5% of the vote in a Republican primary! That ain’t famous.

MH: He carried Schley County.

McBeary: Do they have any Chuck E. Cheese’s there?

MH: I don’t think so. Look, are you telling me that McBerry might actually win a lawsuit against this woman and these bloggers?

McBeary: He might.

MH: What kind of sick, manipulative, vindictive, emotional bully would want to put an entire family through the whole mess again?

McBeary: Sounds like my kind of guy.

*There is no legal advice contained anywhere here. If you have legal questions, you should consult an attorney, not a blog.
**Not a real celebrity bear either.

The Board of Regents granted the request of the University of Georgia to create an engineering program. But while the Board barely approved the move (9 yeas/8 nays), some state legislators are less than pleased. Even Gov. Purdue-who is rumored to be next in line for the role of UGA President- urged the board to carefully consider the decision. But the best line came from State Rep. Earl Earhart:

“They obviously are flush with cash,” Earhart said. “If they do put something up for cuts, this better be the first thing. I better not hear anything about cutting 4-H or any other program.”

The expansion comes after a 24% budget cut-$20 million-to UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences for the last fiscal year, as well as this one, with the potential for even deeper cuts in 2012. So, budgets are being cut for programs that have been in place since shortly after the 1801 founding of the University-and now they want to compete with Georgia Tech-the number 5 Tech school in the U.S.. What’s wrong with this picture?

According to Bloomberg Business week, the expansion places UGA in a favorable light for federal research dollars that Georgia Tech  and the Medical College of Georgia receive every year. The University of Georgia refutes the idea that they are competing with programs already in place, arguing that the move will bring “jobs and economic development to the state.”

Pres. Adams, how would you feel if Georgia Tech set out to be the number one party school in the United States or if they tried to compete with the number of football players incarcerated in one football season? Leave the engineering to the professionals and they’ll leave the Cocktail Party Planning to you.

Full Disclosure- Author is a die-hard Georgia Tech fan with a little sister majoring in Mechanical Engineering and kicking some serious Yellow Jacket Tail…

Perhaps you’ve been in Macon and seen the car. Or perhaps you saw the “What’s the Deal?” segment on Newscentral by Reporter Chace Ambrose. Or maybe you have seen those zany guys and gals running around the state from charity event to charity event.

But this is all likely first impression – and that’s okay. Here we are on the Friday before Halloween, and no one on this website has talked about the things that go bump in the night. How do all these string tie together? The answer is the Honorable Robert Reichert, Mayor of Macon.

A few weeks ago, Mayor Reichert issued a proclamation. What did he proclaim? Perhaps the most exciting thing he could. He proclaimed October 31st, 2010 as Georgia Ghostbusters Day in Macon. And the citizens of Macon rejoiced. In other news, it has been discovered that proton packs do not work on alligators – so the Athens folk may be out of luck.

Consider this your weekend open thread. And an important reminder to everyone, be safe this weekend and drive carefully.

I am not fond of Politifact.  Their ratings seem arbitrary and editorial, like they set out in advance with the final rating in mind and write their story around that.  I think everyone from Nathan Deal to JB Powell has gotten screwed one way or another by them.

May I suggest an alternative run by some astute political observers here in this state?  It’s Politifart Georgia.  Here’s a recent gem:

Sorry for the delay; we are investigating whether @VoteDeal has ever gotten anything right the first time (party registration,real estate..)

Consider this an open thread.

Apparently folks in Buckhead have helped make August a really good month for Matt Drudge.

Sent in by a reader:

FLASH: AUGUST 2010 IS LARGEST AUGUST IN DRUDGEREPORT’S 16 YEAR HISTORY. PAGE VIEWED 772,638,752 TIMES [UP FROM 669,392,126 IN '09 AND 614,577,960 IN '08]. FROM NEW ZEALAND TO NORWAY, BUCKHEAD TO BERLIN, AND BACK AROUND, THANKS A BILLION!

My sister is in town and she wanted to go to the Jimmy Carter Museum and Presidential Library so we went. The video below was placed on my Facebook page by some prankster and I thought all of you would enjoy it as much as I did.

I’m sure there are a few good people in politics. Karen Handel, Stephen Allison, Buzz come to mind. Most are like this guy, but less honest.

Sock Puppets have at it.

UGA Grad and one time Peach Pundit blogger Jeff Emanuel is #3 on the list of The Hottest Conservative Men, according to libertypundits.net.

I know you’re all as shocked as I am that I was not on that list. I’m calling for a recount and an investigation.

It seems one candidate managed to sneak by the media and qualify for the Ninth District Special election to be held on May 11.

Received via email:

April 1, 2010 · ROCK SPRING,

On April1, 2010 Ninth District GOP Chairman, Doug Grammer, announced he would enter the race for the Ninth District seat vacated by Nathan Deal.

“I have lot’s of friends in this race, but I want the voters to have another choice.” Said Grammer in his announcement. “By my last count we are down to about 5 to 10 candidates. If I can get 10%, all things being equal, we could make the runoff.”

Grammer said he’s not running for himself, but to draw more attention the Ninth District GOP. “All of our candidates need to stay close to the platform unless their conscious tells them otherwise. I won’t be resigning as District Chairman. I think it gives me an advantage I need to keep. I plan to approach the state GOP Rules Committee to change the rules so I can run, win, and serve as Chairman. I think it’s would be neat to have the Congressman of the District to also be the Chairman. We will see if everyone agrees with that soon.”Grammer has asked all of the other candidates running for Congress to serve as his campaign committee.

“These guys know what it takes to campaign in North Georgia. I would be lucky to have their advice. I hope all of them will drop out and endorse me.” So far, no other candidates have replied.

The Ninth District, which includes the counties of Catoosa, Dade, Dawson, Fannin, Forsyth, Gilmer, Gordon, Hall, Lumpkin, Murray, Pickens, Union, Walker, Whitfield, and White, is the most conservative district in the state, and third most conservative in the nation.

Not paid for by any other candidate, candidate committee, federal pac, lobbyist, or mafia.

I approve of this message if everyone else approves.

H/T to Dustin @ GaLiberal.com

It’s a banner day here at the Tanalach Media, LLC World Headquarters, and especially the PeachPundit publishing division.

Today, we received our first letter to the editor via US Snail Mail. Well, actually it was addressed to “Jason Nye” – the pseudonym given to our own Jason Pye by Georgia Public Broadcasting.

The writer graciously sent a copy of their DADT-concerned correspondence recently sent to Senator Chambliss. Permission was not explicitly given to use their name, but I’ve included the correspondence as a counter-balance to Jason’s DADT post from last week.

Over the years I’ve seen literally thousands of letters to the editor at RedState and PeachPundit, but it’s just much more meaningful to receive them the old fashioned way.

WANTED: A Republican who hasn’t cheated on his wife and wont use his office to procure women. Several leadership positions opening soon in both Chambers. Apply now at the State Capitol.

Consider this a pre-apocalypse open thread.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I’ve been traveling non-stop for the past two weeks.

Here’s something fun:

I just heard from a State employee that the State computer system has ground to a halt. When my source called the IT department to ask for help he was told the system was down because if the Michael Jackson funeral.

Anybody else notice that Cynthia McKinney is now the Captain of the S.S. %*@! the Jews and America and sailed her vessel through — or at least tried to — an Israeli blockade?

They didn’t sink it though so we can continue to enjoy her comic hijinks for years to come.