Yesterday's News from The Evergreen Courant for Aug. 20, 2012

FOUR YEARS AGO
AUG. 28, 2008

“When the dust settled after Tuesday’s municipal elections in Conecuh County, the unofficial results showed that six incumbents will return to office while three races will have to be settled in a runoff.
“In the race for Evergreen mayor, incumbent Larry Fluker and challenger Pete Wolff III will square off in a runoff election on Tues., Oct. 7. Fluker received 762 total votes during Tuesday’s election. Wolff followed with 691 votes, and Gerald Salter received 101 votes.”

“Conecuh County suffered its sixth traffic fatality of 2008 on Saturday when a local woman was killed after a collision with a moving train at a downtown Evergreen intersection.
“According to the accident report, Judy Rollins McCullough, 49, of Evergreen was killed in a collision with a train Saturday at 2:21 p.m. at the intersection of Belleville Street and West Front Street in Evergreen.”

“Conecuh County Commissioners Hugh Barrow and Leonard Millender were recently honored by the Association of County Commissions of Alabama for 20 years of service to county government and the State of Alabama.
“Barrow and Millender were honored with the Tenure in Office Award from ACCA last Thursday during the Association’s 80th Annual Convention.”

“The Conecuh County Commission held its first ever EMA-E911 board meeting Monday morning in Evergreen and named two men to serve as advisors to the board.”

19 YEARS AGO
AUG. 26, 1993

“Jerry Clower, star of the Grand Ole Opry and nine-time ‘Country Comic of the Year,’ will highlight the 1994 Conecuh Heritage Festival on Oct. 16 in Evergreen. The show is being sponsored by the Evergreen-Conecuh County Chamber of Commerce. Tickets go on sale soon.”

“District Judge Sue Bell Cobb has been named as a recipient of one of eight awards give in 1993 by the Juvenile Justice Awards Committee of the National Juvenile Detention Association. Judge Cobb will travel to Eastern Kentucky University in mid-September to receive the prestigious award.
“Letters of recommendation favoring Judge Cobb’s nomination for the award were also received by Alabama Chief Justice Sonny Hornsby; Paul Vincent, director of the Family and Children’s Services Division of the Alabama Department of Human Resources; John M. Houston, executive assistant to the associate commissioner for mental illness; George M. Phyfer, executive director of the State of Alabama Department of Youth Services; and Circuit Judge Richard H. Dorrough of the 15th judicial circuit in Montgomery County.”

“Edward Tullis has resigned as executive director of the Conecuh-Monroe Community Action Agency. Tullis tendered his resignation, effective immediately, Monday night during the board’s regular meeting in Monroeville.”

24 YEARS AGO
AUG. 24, 1978

“The Courant’s dauntless weathermen, Ole Earl Windham, wrote on his weekly weather report this week – ‘Dear Ole Bob: It’s hot weather now, but we have cold weather on the way for I heard some geese on the way south.’ You’ll notice he doesn’t say how soon that cooler temperatures may be expected.
“Windham reports .11 inches of rain on Aug. 16 and .54 on Aug. 19.”

“Conecuh County Schools will open Wed., Aug. 30, at 8 a.m. It is announced by Wayne Pope, Superintendent.”

“The City Drug Store was broken into and robbed sometime Thursday night for the second time in a little over two weeks, and the third time in a little over five months.”

“John W. (Bill) Daw, 63, died of a heart attack on Wed., Aug. 16, in a local hospital. Mr. Daw lived on Rt. 3, Evergreen, and was a well-known contractor. He has earned much respect as an honest and efficient builder. A quiet, friendly man, he enjoyed the respect and esteem of his family and all who knew him.”

“Dr. J. Barton Starr, Associate Professor of History at Troy State University in Dothan and Fort Rucker, has been named a Fulbright-Hays lecturer at Baptist College in Hong Kong. His wife, Rebekah, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Everage of Evergreen.”

“Mirian Elaine Mason Ptomey, daughter of Mrs. Ola W. Mason and the late Guy Mason of Evergreen, is now associated with the legal firm of Holsberry, Emanuel, Shepard and Condon of Pensacola.”

49 YEARS AGO
AUG. 22, 1963

“Will Evergreen get a junior college?
“According to Guy Mason and Ivey Booker, co-chairmen of the Chamber of Commerce Junior College Committee, the answer is yes if the advantages of Evergreen are given serious consideration.”

“Supplies for Evergreen’s second fallout shelter arrived recently for the Southern Bell Telephone building. Present to receive them were Ivey Booker, chairman of the board of directors, Miss Elsie Couey, manager of the local Southern Bell office, C.L. Kamplain, director-coordinator Conecuh County Civil Defense, and Mayor Zell Murphy. Supplies were stored in the post office building several months ago. Supplies at the telephone building include food, water containers and medical supplies for 160 people and a set of radiological instruments to measure fallout intensity. The food is a concentrated survival biscuit packed in sealed cans, enough to supply about 1,000 calories per day per person for 14 days. People requiring special diets would have to bring their own foods with them. The supplies are supplied by the Federal Government as they are for all buildings marked as fallout shelters.”

“County Agent Mabry Huggins announced today that the price support rate for 1963 crop middling grade, 1-1/32 inch staple length cotton is 33.63 cents per pound.”

64 YEARS AGO
AUG. 26, 1948

“Funeral services were held from Cope Funeral Home Wed., Aug. 18, at 5 p.m. for Pfc. Elly Cowart Jr., who was killed in action March 26, 1945 in Germany while crossing the Rhine River.”

“Mr. and Mrs. H.A. Deer will attend commencement exercises at the University of Alabama Friday evening, Aug. 27, at which their daughter, Mrs. Carolyn D. Owens will receive her B.S. degree from the School of Education.”

“Edward Lindsey Conner, age 63, died Thursday morning at four o’clock of a heart attack at the home of his son, Clyde M. Conner, in Evergreen. He was Past Master of Downing Lodge 580, A.F.&A.M. and was an untiring worker in the lodge, at one time he served on the town council.
“Interment was in Buffington Cemetery, Cope Funeral Director, in charge. Masonic services were conducted at the grave by S.H. Hendrix of Mobile, assisted by 51 members of Downing Lodge 580, A.F.&A.M.”

“The body of Pfc. Benjamin H. Oliver (son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Oliver, former residents of this community, but the past few years of Myrtle Grove, Fla.), who was killed in Germany, Feb. 26, 1945, arrived in Evergreen Friday at 2 p.m.”

“Miss Merle Jordan, 21-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. I.N. Jordan of Owassa, Ala., has won her wings as an American Airlines Stewardess and has been assigned to fly the nation-spanning routes of the airline in 300-mile-an-hour DC-6’s and Convairs.”

Daily Weather Observations for Mon., Aug. 20, 2012

Temp: 71.6 degrees F (21.99 degrees C)

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.1 inches.

Humidity: 83 percent (Humid)

Conditions: Overcast; foggy, visiblity about half a mile; some neighborhood security lights still on in the distance; birds and bees audible; dew on the ground, small mushrooms visible in the grass.

Winds: 0.1 mph out of the Southeast (Calm)

Barometric Pressure: 29.43 inHg.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.1 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 4.3 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 51.0 inches

Local Weather Alerts: None.

Alabama River Stage at Claiborne Lock and Dam (gage height in feet):
Today: 6.26 feet
Yesterday: 9.16 feet
Change: -2.9 feet
Flood Stage: 42.0 feet

NOTES: Today is the 233rd day of 2012 and the 62nd day of Summer. There are 133 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.

New R.A. Salvatore 'Neverwinter Saga' book cracks best-sellers list

It’s Sunday, so that means that it’s time for my weekly breakdown of this week’s Publishers Weekly Best-Seller List. According to the list, there are two new books at the top of the four major best-sellers lists this week.

"Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck" by Anthony K. Tjan, Richard J. Harrington, Tsun-Yan Hsieh replaced "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed as the top book on the hardcover nonfiction best-sellers list.

"Don't Blink" by James Patterson replaced "Happy Birthday" by Danielle Steel as the No. 1 book on the mass market paperback best-sellers list.

"Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn retained the No. 1 spot on the hardcover fiction best-sellers list for the second week in a row.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” by E.L. James retained its place atop the trade paperbacks best-sellers list for the nineteenth week in a row.

There are five books on this week’s hardcover fiction best-sellers list that weren’t on that list last week. They (along with their place on the list) include "Sweet Talk" by Julie Garwood (5), "The Spymasters" by W.E.B. Griffin (6), "Time Untime" by Sherrilyn Kenyon (9), "Charon's Claw: Neverwinter Saga, Book III" by R.A. Salvatore (11) and "You Don't Want to Know" by Lisa Jackson (13).

There are seven books on this week’s hardcover nonfiction best-sellers list that weren’t on the list last week. They include "Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck" by Anthony K. Tjan, Richard J. Harrington, Tsun-Yan Hsieh (1), "Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child" byBob Spitz (7), "The Corruption Chronicles" by Tom Fitton (8), "Leapfrogging: Harness the Power of Surprise for Business Breakthroughs" by Soren Kaplan (9), "Knitter's Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters" by Ann Budd (11), "Why Does the World Exist?" by Jim Holt (13) and "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg (15).

There are three books on this week’s mass market paperbacks best-sellers list that weren’t on the list last week. They include "Celebrity in Death" by J.D. Robb (4), "Stygian's Honor" by Lora Leigh (9) and "Wild Texas Rose" by Jodi Thomas (14).

There are four new books on this week’s trade paperbacks best-sellers list that weren’t on the list last week. They include "The Best of Me" by Nicholas Sparks (5), "Breakthrough Entrepreneurship" by Jon Burgstone (8), "Dream Lake" by Lisa Kleypas (12) and "Switch" by Megan Hart (15).

As a reminder, I’m posting these lists each Sunday because they, as a whole, represent a great, contemporary recommended reading list. These lists are initially released each week on Thursday, and if you’re interested in reading them then, visit Publishers Weekly’s Web site at www.publishersweekly.com. Below you’ll find all four of this week’s best-seller lists.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn
2. "Friends Forever" by Danielle Steel
3. "Odd Apocalypse" by Dean R. Koontz
4. "Where We Belong" by Emily Giffin
5. "Sweet Talk" by Julie Garwood
6. "The Spymasters" by W.E.B. Griffin
7. "Black List: A Thriller" by Brad Thor
8. "I, Michael Bennett" by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
9. "Time Untime" by Sherrilyn Kenyon
10. "The Fallen Angel" by Daniel Silva
11. "Charon's Claw: Neverwinter Saga, Book III" by S.A. Salvatore
12. "Shadow of Night" by Deborah E. Harkness
13. "You Don't Want to Know" by Lisa Jackson
14. "Backfire" by Catherine Coulter
15. "Broken Harbor" by Tana French

HARDCOVER NONFICTION
1. "Heart, Smarts, Guts and Luck" by Anthony K. Tjan, Richard J. Harrington and Tsun-Yan Hsieh
2. "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed
3. "The Amateur" by Edward Klein
4. "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
5. "Wheat Belly" by William Davis
6. "Double Cross" by Ben Macintyre
7. "Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child" byBob Spitz
8. "The Corruption Chronicles" by Tom Fitton
9. "Leapfrogging" by Soren Kaplan
10. "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson
11. "Knitter's Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters" by Ann Budd
12. "Cowards" by Glenn Beck
13. "Why Does the World Exist?" by Jim Holt
14. "The Skinny Rules" by Bob Harper with Greg Critser
15. "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg

MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS
1. "Don't Blink" by James Patterson
2. "Happy Birthday" by Danielle Steel
3. "Big Sky Mountain" by Linda Lael Miller
4. "Celebrity in Death" by J.D. Robb
5. "Happy Ever After" by Nora Roberts
6. "Love in a Nutshell" by Janet Evanovich
7. "The Litigators" by John Grisham
8. "Catching Fireflies" by Sherryl Woods
9. "Stygian's Honor" by Lora Leigh
10. "All Summer Long" by Susan Mallery
11. "Lethal" by Sandra Brown
12. "Safe Haven" by Nicholas Sparks
13. "The Wedding Party" by Robyn Carr
14. "Wild Texas Rose" by Jodi Thomas
15. "Flash and Bones" by Kathy Reichs

TRADE PAPERBACKS
1. "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James
2. "Fifty Shades Darker" by E.L. James

3. "Fifty Shades Freed" by E.L. James

4. "Bared to You" by Sylvia Day

5. "The Best of Me" by Nicholas Sparks

6. "To Heaven And Back" by Mary C. Neal

7. "11/22/63" by Stephen King

8. "Breakthrough Entrepreneurship" by Jon Burgstone

9. "Forks Over Knives" by Del Sroufe

10. "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Lawson

11. "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

12. "Dream Lake" by Lisa Kleypas

13. "Farenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

14. "The Litigators" by John Grisham

15. "Switch" by Megan Hart

In the end, let me know if you’ve had a chance to read any of these books. What did you think about them? Which would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.

Daily Weather Observations for Sun., Aug. 19, 2012

Temp: 71.2 degrees F (21.8 degrees C)

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.1 inches.

Humidity: 83 percent (Humid)

Conditions: Overcast and dark looking, some neighborhood security lights still on in the distance; birds and bees audible and visible; dew on the ground, small mushrooms visible in the grass.

Winds: 0.1 mph out of the West-Southwest (Calm)

Barometric Pressure: 29.44 inHg.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.6 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 4.2 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 50.9 inches

Local Weather Alerts: None.

Alabama River Stage at Claiborne Lock and Dam (gage height in feet):
Today: 9.16 feet
Yesterday: 8.82 feet
Change: +0.34 feet
Flood Stage: 42.0 feet

NOTES: Today is the 232nd day of 2012 and the 61st day of Summer. There are 134 days left in the year. Today is National Aviation Day in the U.S.

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.

'Detention' features grizzly bear time machine, voyage to 1992

I watched a weird, silly movie the other day that some of you might enjoy watching, the horror-comedy “Detention.”

Released in theatres in April, this movie (Rated R) was directed by Joseph Kahn and stars Dane Cook, Josh Hutcherson, Spencer Locke, Shanley Caswell and Parker Bagley. In a nutshell, this movie is about a group of Grizzly Lake High School students who’ve been given detention. Two things are going on while they’ve got detention. The school is holding its annual prom dance, and there’s a killer loose on campus trying to take everyone out. The detention kids have to band together in order to survive and take down the killer.

To say that there was a lot going on in this movie would be an understatement. There were a lot of special effects and the plot also involved heavy doses of “body-personality switching,” time travel and pop culture references. It seemed like a mash-up of the “Scream” movies, “Back to the Future,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Like Father Like Son.” If you liked those movies, you’ll probably get a kick out of “Detention.”

One element of this movie that I thoroughly enjoyed centered on the school’s principal, Principal Verge, who’s played by Dane Cook. Verge was a student at the school in 1992, and at that time he was a nerdy outcast who continually struck out when it came to the ladies. The kids from the present day actually travel back in time to prevent Verge from constructing a bomb. When the kids go back to the early 90s, the movie presents us with a delicious, nostalgic look at that time period, complete with the music, clothes, slang and gestures from that time period. It was awesomely done.

This movie also gave us an interesting twist on time machines. The centerpiece of Grizzly Lake High School is a huge, stuffed grizzly bear that’s standing on its hind legs inside the main entrance of the school. It becomes more than just the school’s mascot though when one of the more ingenious present-day students constructs a time machine inside the bear’s torso. Time travelers just climb inside the bear’s belly, manipulate the virtual controls and then pop out of the bear at the school’s main entrance at an earlier time.

In the end, I’d give this movie a B. It didn’t blow my socks off, and I found myself pleased that it was only a little over an hour and a half long. The death scenes were over-the-top, sometimes unbelievable and obviously faked. With that said, this movie was not without it’s merits, so if you like horror-comedies, check this one out. More than likely, it’ll be different that anything you’ve seen in the genre to date.

How many of you have seen “Detention”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? Why? Would you recommend it to others? What other movies did it remind you of? Let us know in the comments section below.

Daily Weather Observations for Sat., Aug. 18, 2012

Temp: 70.3 degrees F (21.3 degrees C)

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.1 inches.

Humidity: 83 percent (Humid)

Conditions: Partly cloudy; birds and bees audible; dew on the ground, small mushrooms visible in the grass.

Winds: 0.0 mph (No wind)

Barometric Pressure: 29.48 inHg.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.5 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 4.1 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 50.8 inches

Local Weather Alerts: None.

Alabama River Stage at Claiborne Lock and Dam (gage height in feet):
Today: 8.82 feet
Yesterday: 9.67 feet
Change: -0.85 feet
Flood Stage: 42.0 feet

NOTES: Today is the 231st day of 2012 and the 60th day of Summer. There are 135 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.

What do YOU think about J.R.R. Tolkien's book, 'The Silmarillion'?

I finally finished reading a book the other day that I’ve wanted to read for years, J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, “The Silmarillion.”

Published in 1977 after Tolkien’s death (in 1973), this book is a VERY detailed history of the fictional world that’s the setting for Tolkein’s more famous novels, “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” The book was edited by Tolkien’s youngest son, Christopher, who’s still alive and kicking today at the age of 87.

My urge to read “The Silmarillion” ramped up a year or so ago when my favorite web site, The Art of Manliness,” ranked “The Silmarillion” at No. 21 on a best-of books list called “The Essential Man’s Library: 50 Fictional Adventure Books.” “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” also made that list and were ranked No. 19 and No. 20, respectively. I love adventure books – fictional and otherwise – and I’d already read “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” I figured that if “The Silmarillion” was as good as those two, I needed to quit putting it off and read it.

I’d also seen that “The Silmarillion” had been listed on a couple of other recommended reading lists that ranked it among the best fantasy books of all time. In July 2011, NPR ranked “The Silmarillion” at No. 46 on its list of Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books. In 2003, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club ranked “The Silmarillion” at No. 41 on a list called “The Most Significant Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1935-2002.” The Silmarillion” also won the prestigious Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1978.

If you’ve never read “The Silmarillion” and feel like tackling it, be warned. This book might not be for everyone, even hardcore Tolkien fans. I finished this book only through great effort. This book is very different from “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” The language was extremely dense and the narrative was extremely complex. In addition to it being difficult to read, the book contains literally hundreds of hard to pronounce names. The paperback edition that I read actually contained a glossary of names in the back of the book to help the read keep all the characters straight. That edition also contained several pages of family trees and fictional genealogies to help you better understand the material.

This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the book. I consider myself a hardcore Tolkien fan, and I’m happy to say that I’ve read what’s arguably Tolkien’s third major work. The sheer scope of “The Silmarillion” is amazingly impressive, and it’s obviously the work of a genius with a powerful, overwhelming, superhuman imagination. To say that the book is notable adventure book would be an understatement.

In the end, how many of you have read “The Silmarillion”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? Would you recommend it and why? How old were you when you read it? Let us know in the comments section below.