TODAY'S ISSUE: Local Resident Remembering Meeting Bob Hope
ELLIOTT BRACK: Grayson Citizens Working Hard to Get Own Library
McLEMORE'S WORLD: Not Just Everything Qualifies for a Tax Rebate
FEEDBACK: Scott Secures Funds for Sidewalks on Jimmy Carrter Boulevard
NEWS ITEM: Georgia Perimeter College To Host SE Literary Conference
TODAY'S QUOTE: The Guy Was Always Quick with a Quip

"I was on the way to my hotel and I passed a hotel going in the opposite direction."

-- Bob Hope, (1903-2003), when entertaining troops in Viet Nam, as he told an audience on the day that Vietcong agents blew up an American officers' billet.

"Funding project for Gwinnett County: $400,000 for sidewalk safety upgrades to a high pedestrian section of Jimmy Carter Boulevard."

-- David Scott, Congressman, 13th District of Georgia

TODAY'S ISSUE
Unexpected meeting brings new appreciation of Hope
By Vally M. Sharpe
Duluth
Special to GwinnettForum.com

AUG. 1, 2003 -- I loved Gregory Peck from the day I first saw "To Kill A Mockingbird." I adored Katharine Hepburn because she made it okay for a little girl to be feminine, athletic, and smart, all at the same time. And I grieved in my own private way when we lost them both recently.

But Bob Hope? That's another thing. I bumped into him once.

No, it wasn't on an army base overseas, although I certainly watched every special he did during Vietnam. No, it wasn't at a golf tournament or a performance in Hollywood.

It was Homecoming at Georgia Southern College, and I was one of the lead singers in a group called "A New Mind," that was asked to perform as his "opening act." Everyone within driving distance of Statesboro, Ga. had purchased tickets. The place was packed.

We had done our couple of songs and were quickly knocking down mike stands and grabbing our bar stools when I turned to go down the stairs on the side of the temporary stage and ran headlong into Mr. Hope.

He looked at me with a bit of a sneer. I might have thought the reaction unnecessarily gruff...it was an accident, after all...except that as I reached to steady myself and him, I put my hand on his side.

He was wearing a back brace! It wasn't a sneer. It was a grimace. I felt awful.

The emcee of the evening announced his arrival and the crowd went wild. He smiled, and stepped around me, and the remaining few of us scurried down the stairs to our privileged seats on the floor. For the next hour and a half, he was the Bob Hope we all knew....mischievous, self-effacing, and infinitely caring in his comedic way.

In later years, when I had occasion to see him on television, I remembered my "contact" with him. At that point, he was already over 70 years old. He had already traveled countless miles around the world, suffered more jet lag than any one of us ever will, and given enough that he could have parked himself at home and never done another show. No one would have said a word.

But there he was at Georgia Southern for Homecoming. In pain, in a back brace, making us laugh. And we didn't even have a football team. Not then, anyway.

When I heard that he had died, I pulled my college yearbook from the shelf. There is a photograph of him holding a homemade sign with "A New Mind" written in large block letters. At the bottom in smaller script, it reads, "Opening Act, Bob Hope. Comedian." He is turned toward the camera, one eyebrow raised, rolling his eyes.

In retrospect, it should have said "Prince."

Goodnight, sweet Bob. And thanks. For the memories? Yes...but mostly for being you.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Dog days are here; ever wonder where name came from?
By Elliott Brack
editor and publisher
GwinnettForum.com

AUG. 1, 2003 -- How many comic strips do you read?

I read four: Peanuts, Doonesbury, Hagar and B.C. Reading your favorite comic might keep you alert to the world, and sometimes it can give you good insight.

Hagar, for today, was about "smelling, not eating" the roses. All too often we in our busy worlds simply just do not notice the roses.

And we should.

We should be less frantic. But today fewer people are. How else do you account for road rage?

Another thing: Just how alert are you to what is going on around you?

Take the early morning: light is coming in later and later each day, as we move toward the winter equinox. Where it was light in Georgia before 6 a.m. just a few weeks ago, now it is well past 6:30, and increasing steadily.

That's one way of recognizing the seasons, and we are definitely in one: Dog Days. Yes, we are today moaning and complaining about the effects of Dog Days, as that season is upon us.

While we routinely refer to Dog Days, just when is it? We looked it up, and here is what we found:

"Dog Days" is the name for the most sultry period of summer, from about July 3 to August. 11 heavy with disease and discomfort. This ends too early for us in the South.

Another source puts "Dog Days" as between " early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere. It also refers to them as a "period of stagnation or inactivity." That is more in keeping with what we in Georgia feel about Dog Days.

The ancient Romans noticed that the hottest days of the year, i.e. in late July and early August, coincided with the Dog Star being visible. They thought the star contributed to the heat of the day. Hence the name.

For sure, as we enter August we ready ourselves for the hottest and most sultry (and humid) days of the year in Gwinnett. It's a time when many people want to escape to cooler climes.

And now comes a new complication, all because of academics: public school starts in Gwinnett in 10 days, on August 11! Now parents of children must be at home for the beginning of school during these hot times. The traditional start of school after Labor Day cuts dramatically into the summer's vacation times!

And why did we get into this pickle? It akk has to do with the adoption of the semester system by the state colleges and universities, I maintain.

While the state was on the quarter system, there was a natural quarter ending at Christmas, and the rest of the year was planned around it.

Now with semesters also ending at Christmas, the colleges push back the opening well into August. (The University of Georgia begins classes on August 18.) And with many public school teachers wanting additional education, the public schools each year kept pushing back their schedule, so that they today virtually coincide with the universities.

So that's why students go to public school during the Dog Days of Summer. This makes it another reason in Georgia why more than ever, all the schools need air conditioning.

Now you know. Somehow, I feel that old reprobate and throw-back, Hagar, would not approve.

About today's offering, to paraphrase, you might be reminded: "If Dog Days come, can fall be far behind?"

McLEMORE'S WORLD
The cats' meows

Here's cartoonist Bill McLemore's latest look at the world:

MORE: Contact Gwinnett Forum at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com

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