Daily Weather Observations for Sun., Aug. 25, 2013

Temp: 70.7 degrees F

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.20 inches

Humidity: 83 percent (High)

Conditions: Overcast skies and dark; security lights still on in the distance; birds and bees audible and visible.

Wind: 2.4 mph out of the East.

Barometric Pressure: 29.70 inHg

Week to Date Rainfall: 1.40 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 4.25 inches

Summer to Date Rainfall: 8.80 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 39.35 inches

NOTES: Today is the 237th day of 2013 and the 66th day of Summer. There are 128 days left in the year.

Readings taken at 0700 hrs Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily, just west of the Monroe-Conecuh County line, near Excel, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.42834°N Lon 87.30131°W. Elevation: 400 feet above sea level. CoCoRaHS Station No. AL-MN-4, Station Name: Excel 2.5 ESE.

'Cloud Atlas' movie is mind-blowing, will make you want to read the book

I watched Cloud Atlas for the first time the other day, and this is one sci-fi movie that blew my mind.

Directed by Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer, this movie is about how the actions of one’s ancestors influence the actions of someone in the present and in the distance future. This movie moves back and forth in time and is set in the South Pacific Ocean in 1849, the United Kingdom in 1936, San Francisco in 1973, the UK in 2012, Korea in 2144, a post-apocalyptic scene after that and then at an off-Earth colony several decades later. The movie’s rated R and was nearly three hours long.

Released in October 2012, this movie featured an all-star cast, including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving and Hugh Grant. Shot on a budge of $102 million, it was one of the most expensive independent films ever made. This movie was nominated for numerous awards, including the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film.

This movie was based on the 2004 novel by the same name written by David Mitchell, and this movie will definitely make you want to read the book. Published by Sceptre, this 544-page book won the British Book Awards Literary Fiction Award and was nominated for a Nebula Award and an Arthur C. Clarke Award. “Cloud Atlas” is one of five books written by Mitchell. The others include “Ghostwritten” (1999), “number9dream” (2001), Black Swan Green (2006) and “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet” (2010).

In the end, how many of you have watched “Cloud Atlas”? How many of you have read the novel? What did you think about them? Let us know in the comments section below.

Daily Weather Observations for Sat., Aug. 24, 2013

Temp: 70.7 degrees F

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.00 inches

Humidity: 82 percent (High)

Conditions: Partly Cloudy skies; moon visibile; birds and numerous bees audible and visible; dew on the ground.

Wind: 0.0 mph (No wind)

Barometric Pressure: 29.60 inHg

Week to Date Rainfall: 1.20 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 4.05 inches

Summer to Date Rainfall: 8.60 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 39.15 inches

NOTES: Today is the 236th day of 2013 and the 65th day of Summer. There are 129 days left in the year.

Readings taken at 0700 hrs Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily, just west of the Monroe-Conecuh County line, near Excel, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.42834°N Lon 87.30131°W. Elevation: 400 feet above sea level. CoCoRaHS Station No. AL-MN-4, Station Name: Excel 2.5 ESE.

'Off Magazine Street' character has strong ties to Southwest Alabama

I finished reading “Off Magazine Street” by Ronald Everett Capps the other day, and this book was everything that I expected it to be. Published in January 2005 by MacAdam/Cage, this 401-page book is about two well-educated alcoholics who take a teenage, high school dropout under their wing. Not only do they help her finish high school, but they also help her get into Tulane University.

Many of you will be familiar with this book because it was the basis for the 2004 motion picture, “A Love Song for Bobby Long.” Released in 2004, this movie was directed by Shainee Gable and starred John Travolta as Bobby Long and Scarlett Johansson in the roll of the teenage dropout. This movie and Capps’ novel are both set in New Orleans.

I saw the movie soon after it came out, and I’ve wanted to read Capps’ novel for a long time due to its strong connections to Southwest Alabama. Capps is a native of East Brewton and now lives in Fairhope. The Bobby Long character in the novel and movie is based on a now-deceased native of Brewton, who taught school all over Alabama, including at Evergreen High School, Monroe County High School in Monroeville and elsewhere. In fact, he was one of my dad’s high school English teachers.

The main characters in the novel and movie are both former teachers. Long has a PhD from Auburn University and his sidekick Byron Burns has a master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Alabama. With that said, “Off Magazine Street” is full of literary references, and I made a note of as many of them as I could spot when I went through the book. I’ve posted a list of them below in what I'm calling the “Off Magazine Street Reading List.” Enjoy.

- "Bernice Bobbed Her Hair" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Bible
- "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
- The Dahmmpada
- "The Diary of Anne Frank"
- "Fiddler Jones" by Earl Lee Masters (poem)
- "A Field of Blue Children" by Tennessee Williams (short story)
- "Girls in Their Summer Dresses" by Irwin Shaw
- "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
- "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain
- "Lilith" by J.R. Salamanca
- "Look Homeward, Angle" by Thomas Wolfe
- “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
- "A Member of the Wedding" by Carson McCullers
- "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville
- "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder
- "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce
- "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner (short story)

- "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams

- "Teddy" by J.D. Salinger

- "Their Lonely Betters" by W.H. Auden (poem)

- "Three Players of a Summer Game" by Tennessee Williams

- "Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain

- "A White Rose" by John Boyle O’Reilly (poem)
- "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- "With Rue My Heart is Laden" by A.E. Housman (poem)

Other authors that are specifically mentioned in the novel include Adam Smith, D.H. Lawrence, Flannery O’Connor, Lao Tse and Sherwood Anderson.

In the end, how many of you have read “Off Magazine Street”? How many of you have seen the movie, “A Love Song for Bobby Long”? What did you think about them? How many of you knew Bobby Long? Let us know in the comments section below.

Daily Weather Observations for Fri., Aug. 23, 2013

Temp: 70.9 degrees F

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.00 inches

Humidity: 83 percent (High)

Conditions: Overcast skies; Heavy fog, visibility about 1/4-mile; birds and bees audible and visible; dew on the ground; small patches of spider webs visible in the grass.

Wind: 0.0 mph (No wind)

Barometric Pressure: 29.54 inHg

Week to Date Rainfall: 1.20 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 4.05 inches

Summer to Date Rainfall: 8.60 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 39.15 inches

NOTES: Today is the 235th day of 2013 and the 64th day of Summer. There are 130 days left in the year.

Readings taken at 0700 hrs Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily, just west of the Monroe-Conecuh County line, near Excel, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.42834°N Lon 87.30131°W. Elevation: 400 feet above sea level. CoCoRaHS Station No. AL-MN-4, Station Name: Excel 2.5 ESE.

Historic walking tour would bring tourists to downtown Evergreen

In the course of my job I often hear people talk about things that would attract people to Evergreen and Conecuh County. This subject often comes up at public meetings, and our local elected officials and business leaders have a lot of good ideas when it comes to ways to attract visitors to our area.

For what it’s worth, I thought I’d throw in my two cents this week to talk about something that would be inexpensive and could bring a few tourists to Evergreen - a self-guided historic walking tour of downtown Evergreen.

Evergreen has a rich, unique and interesting history and a tour of this type would attract history-minded tourists to Evergreen’s downtown area. Other towns in our area, including Monroeville, Camden and Selma, have walking tours of this type. These tours are self-guided, that is, there’s no need for a tour guide. On those tours, you just follow a brochure-style map that describes the historic locations on the tour.

According to Evergreen historian Sherry Johnston, Evergreen has no historic walking tour of this type, but the idea has been discussed in the past. It never got beyond the discussion phase though, which I think is unfortunate.

I think that the establishment of a historic walking tour in Evergreen would be relatively inexpensive. As far as I can tell, the biggest expense would be the printing of a brochure that would map out and describe the sites on the tour. Printing costs could be kept low by offering the brochure for download on the local Chamber of Commerce’s web site, so that anyone interested in taking the tour could print it at home at no cost to any local public organization. These brochures could also be made available for pick up at the library, the Chamber of Commerce office and at city hall.

A walking tour of downtown Evergreen could include a number of historic locations within a short distance of “No Man’s Land.” Possible tour locations could include the Old L&N Depot, the Bank of Evergreen (Old Pix Theatre) building, the Old Evergreen High School arch, the Old Baptist Orphanage site, The Evergreen Courant, the Evergreen Caboose, the Evergreen City School building, the historic homes along Main Street, the Old Evergreen Cemetery, the county war memorial monument, Evergreen Baptist Church, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church and the other older churches downtown.

Visitors wouldn’t necessarily have to enter any of these locations, and the brochure would provide them with detailed information about each site. The tours in Camden, Monroeville and Selma are designed this way, allowing tour-takers to move along at their own pace. I’ve taken all three of those tours in the past year, and they’re each about an hour long, give or take. The tour in Camden was created by a local Boy Scout, and the tour in Monroeville was designed by the good folks at the Monroe County Heritage Museums. The Selma-Dallas County Tourism Department organized Selma’s walking tour.

In the end, I think a historic walking tour in Evergreen would be an inexpensive way to attract a few tourists to downtown Evergreen. It probably wouldn’t bring a flood of sightseers to the city, but it would attract folks who enjoy local history, old architecture and the chance to see “old-timey” places up close.

And while those people are here, I’m sure they’ll be spending their money in our local gas stations, restaurants and possibly in our hotels. I know that I’m not alone when I say that I’d be happy to help work on the creation of a historic walking tour of downtown Evergreen, so if anyone out there is interested in this project, let me know. I’m no local history expert, but I think it would be a worthwhile project for Evergreen.

Sign up today for our local ESPN College Football Pick 'Em Contest

One thing that I look forward to every year as we approach the start of the college football season is the beginning of ESPN.com’s College Football Pick ‘Em Contest.

Again this season, I’m inviting readers of The Courant to sign up for a local group in the contest, which will allow you to compete against college football fans in this area. A group of friends and I have participated in this free online contest for 11 years now, and there are always a few upsets, controversies and surprises. It will definitely make your college football season a lot more interesting and fun.

Here's how the contest works: Each week during the coming college football season, you'll pick the winners of 10 games for the upcoming college football weekend. Your correct picks will be added up after the weekend's games to give you your total for the week. Whoever gets the most right, wins. If you don’t do so hot one week, don’t worry, the contest runs for 15 weeks. This contest’s a marathon, not a sprint. To sign up for the game, go online and visit the contest website at http://games.espn.go.com/college-football-pickem/2013/en/. Once there, sign in with your ESPN.com member name. If you don't have an ESPN.com account, take about two minutes to sign up for one. It's absolutely free, as is the contest. It's easy, especially for those of you who are Internet savvy enough to find the contest site online.

Once you've got your account and have signed in, create your own contest entry. Click on "Create Entry," and follow the simple instructions. When you get to the “Name Your Entry” part, I ask that you use your real name, so that we can post the standings each week in the paper.

Once you've created an entry, you can join our local group of football fans, allowing you to compete against other contestants from Conecuh County and other areas. This is where the real fun comes in.

I've set up a group that all of you can join, so we'll all be able to compete against each other in the contest. Go ahead and click on "Create or Join a Group." That'll take you to another page, where you'll be able to join our local group. The name of our group this year is called "South Alabama FB Pickers." Enter that in the appropriate space (without the quotation marks and period).

Our group is a private group, so you'll have to have a password to join. Our password is "football." Just type it in without the quotation marks and the period. In the end, if you have any trouble signing up, getting started or if you have any other questions, just e-mail me at courantsports@earthlink.net. If you’re interested in signing up, don’t delay, the contest officially kicks off on the first full Saturday of the college football season, Aug. 31, which is just around the corner.

Our tenth-annual ESPN College Pick ‘Em contest ended in early December of last year, and many of you will remember that Johnny Davis claimed last year’s “Mr. Football” title by finishing in first place.

During the 14-week contest, Davis collected 564 total points by correctly picking the winners of 97 out of 140 football games. That’s almost 70 percent, which isn’t bad when it comes to picking the outcomes of college football games.

Hunter Norris finished in second place with 562 total points, and Jacob Ramer came in third with 557 total points. Sharon Peacock came in fourth with 554 points. Aaron Albritton and Jeremy Matheny were tied for fifth place with 553 points each.

I finished seventh with 548 points, and Justin Jensen was eighth with 537 points. Morgan Middleton was ninth with 535 points, and David Price came in tenth with 533 points.