Lost chance to meet artist
If you've ever been fortunate enough to see the Southern Lens documentary All Rendered Truth on PBS, then you were able to spend a few minutes with Jake McCord.
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A self-taught artist who lived in a small house in Thomson, McCord painted large, vibrant, cheerful pictures with acrylic paint on plywood boards. He displayed the paintings in his "art gallery" - the front porch of his tin-roofed house - and said he enjoyed talking to people when they came to see his work.
Wearing a crushed-down cowboy hat and with a voice that sounded a little like Bubba from Forrest Gump, McCord once told the story that he started painting when he found a painted board in the trunk of an old car and thought he could do better.
Years later, McCord's "outsider art" - what most of us call folk art - was being displayed in galleries and landing him a spot in a breathtaking Public Broadcasting documentary of self-taught artists.
After seeing All Rendered Truth for the second time two weeks ago - on Aug. 27, actually - I was inspired to drive out to Thomson and meet McCord.
Sadly, I missed my chance. McCord died five days later at age 64. Maybe I'll console myself by one day owning one of his paintings, which are impossible to look at without smiling.
I expect heaven is a happier place with him there.
One election ahead
Columbia County, or at least part of it, will head to the polls this year.
Grovetown will hold city council elections in November, with two seats up for grabs. The posts currently are held by Bruce Stoddard and Rosa Lee Owens, and both are running for re-election.
Sonny McDowell, easily one of the sharpest political minds in the county, also is again seeking one of the posts. The top two vote-getters will win the seats.
As for those outside Grovetown, we won't have to worry about voting until next summer when the party primaries are held, and it's finally time to start winnowing down some of those gubernatorial candidates.
One of them, Ray McBerry, will be in town this week. He's scheduled to visit with me on Thursday, and later that day will be the speaker for the Greater Columbia County Republican Women meeting at the Jones Creek Clubhouse.
It's a long time between now and next July, so I'm sure we'll continue to see a lot more of these visits as candidates try to get the attention of Republican-vote-rich Columbia County.
Flu meeting
So, there I was the other day, being a smart-aleck about all the hysteria over the swine flu when before the ink was even dry on the paper Columbia County Nurse Manager Linda Graves was inviting me to participate in the Community Pandemic Influenza Planning Committee.
The meeting is set for next Wednesday, and the invitation list includes city, county and school system officials, as well as others with varying degrees of community influence.
They probably asked me to come because I'm good at taking notes.
In any event, the invitation says the committee will help increase awareness of the threat of a pandemic and educate the community on preparations for it; help provide ideas for continued operation of agencies during a pandemic; and "provide a template" for those agencies to support the community during an outbreak.
Perhaps the best thing such a group could do would be to use sheer force of local numbers of influential people to counter the ill-informed hysteria that seems to govern the actions of so many people in a time of uncertainty.
The combination of that hope, and the fact that they're offering attendees free lunch, means I'll be there for sure. Heck, I'll probably even take notes.
(Barry L. Paschal is publisher of The Columbia County News-Times. E-mail barry.paschal@newstimesonline.com, or call 706-863-6165, extension 106.)