Larry Throws Money Around, Bessemer Throws It Away

Here is one of those roses making a last ditch effort at blooming. More pics below.

Anyone going to read "Rhett Butler's People" by Donald McCaig. McCaig spent 12 years writing this book, and has written other Civil War era novels. In an interivew in today's Birmingham News he is asked a few questions, and in one of his answers he asks the interviewer, "Can you imagine any other (than Gone With The Wind) love stories set in the middle of the Civil War?" Well, I am sure there were many.

"Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier comes to mind. Most of you probably saw the movie...if not..put it on your Netflix queue. But the book that the movie was based on was good too, so much so that I bought "Thirteen Moons" also by Frazier. Still waiting to be read, though.

Personally I enjoyed "The Wind Done Gone" by Alice Randall, billed as The Unauthorized Parody that tells the story of Cinnamon, or Cynara, daughter of a white plantation owner and his black slave, who narrates the love story. "Georgia is dirty laundry what needs washing," she tells "R". I have the book, it's only a couple hundred pages long if anyone wants to borrow it.

Jesse Matthew's Bessemer City Council is pressing the mayor for financial reports and may bring in auditors to assess the financial situation of the city. The mayor said the council could have had a report last week but "a change in the numbers is delaying the report." (Quote is from the Birmingham News, not the mayor.) Council member Jimmie Stephens said, "He (the mayor) has not been forthcoming with financial figures. If nothing is wrong, then this gives the appearance that something is wrong. The longer this goes on, the more dubious it becomes."

Dubious indeed. A half million taken from the TIF fund for payroll. Rumors of vendors not getting paid and demanding payment when services are provided. City funds being used to bail out homeowners? Just a rumor, but where there is smoke...

Larry Langford will be sworn in today, and says he has reached an agreement with the One Laptop Per Child Foundation to provide 15,000 laptops to Birmingham students. Larry must have read my blog yesterday about education...just kidding. And it's not really Birmingham's money he's throwing around, it's the foundation's.

The foundation provides laptops to children in developing countries. Birmingham schools are on par with developing counties, I guess. Bessemer better get busy, or our children will be left (even further) behind. Providing laptops for Bessemer students has been kicked around since at least last summer, but no one really seems to understand the importance. City wide wi-fi has been discussed too, but again, who cares? Not the mayor or council, apparently.

This is the Green Rose at its best.

And here is a little dish garden with pansies blooming.