Jackson won't be coming to court
We can't get some of the proper authorities to talk to us about it, but we stumbled upon a pretty funny story the other day.
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It seems there is an outstanding warrant for William Marion Jackson of Harlem. He's missing, and the probation office wants to track him down.
That might be a little hard to do: Jackson's been dead for nearly 20 years.
This tale starts with a hunter's discovery of a skull in the Appling area back in 1993. Then-Columbia County Coroner Tommy King and sheriff's deputies combed the area for several days and eventually found the rest of the bones.
After a few months, the remains were determined to belong to Jackson, who had been missing for a couple of years.
Fast-forward to a few days ago, when we get a call from Columbia County Sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris. He was looking for a story about Jackson's remains being identified. It seems the local probation office was holding a warrant for Jackson because he hadn't shown up in court, and they wanted to get the matter resolved.
Rob Pavey quickly tracked down the story from the archives, and we passed it along to Morris. They also were trying to get a death certificate or other "official" paperwork showing that Jackson is, indeed, dead.
Presumably the right people will void that warrant. I just hope Jackson didn't have any library books checked out; those fines would be a killer by now.
Artistic treatment
Speaking of our colleague Rob Pavey, he had a great story in The Chronicle the other day about Tommy Lyles' newest artwork.
It's called "Apparatus for Treating Art" - a play on the phrase "apparatus for treating air," the name of the first air conditioner. Lyles is set to ship the 1,500 pound sculpture this week from his Evans studio to Gadsden, Ala., where it will be mounted in the Mary G. Hardin Cultural Arts Center.
Lyles won a commission to commemorate the creation of the air conditioner, which radically transformed life in the hot South.
The piece has one of the best features of any artwork: The more and closer you look at it, the more you find. From a distance, it's dominated by metal and ductwork; a little closer, a video screen shows interviews with people talking about their experiences with air conditioning. Still closer, chilled air blows from a real air conditioner built inside the sculpture, and the intricate details of glass mosaics come into focus.
There's just one word to describe it: Cool.
Meanwhile, Lyles is helping me again in creating a new piece of artwork for an auction.
The Lydia Project is holding its fifth annual dessert auction at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Richmond on Greene, and Jeri Whitworth has prevailed upon me to provide a piece for it. With all proceeds benefiting the Lydia Project, I can't say no. More information is available at www.thelydiaproject.org.
The McBerry message
The field in the 2010 race for Georgia governor has gotten crowded. But unless former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes decides to run, only one of the candidates has experience in seeking the office:Ray McBerry.
McBerry lost in the Republican primary to Sonny Perdue in 2006. He recently touted a poll of one county caucus showing him second in popularity, but other independent statewide polls show him barely registering a response.
Realistically, against the massive money machines backing GOP insiders Karen Handel (supported by Sonny Perdue), John Oxendine and now Eric Johnson, McBerry is unlikely to even make it to a runoff.
Should he? That's a different story. For all his fringe faults, McBerry is far and away the most conservative candidate running. If red-state Georgians are looking for an opportunity to send a defiant message, McBerry is their man.
(Barry L. Paschal is publisher of The Columbia County News-Times. E-mail comments to barry.paschal@newstimesonline.com.)