Tuscumbia Makes Daily Mail/Dumb & Dumber

"Well, it is Alabama."

The above was one comment concerning an article in the internationally popular Daily Mail. What was the article? If you guessed an item detailing the mock alien invasion turned bomb threat, you would be correct.

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Tony (Dumber) Olivis

Let's see...someone, quite possibly a bored teenager, decided to tell his/her friends on Facebook that a radio promotion had implied a bomb threat for local schools. Yes, and Paul is dead. Not to mention we're all getting microchipped next week. Who believes these things?

If someone were going to bomb anything, would they announce it on the radio? Wouldn't the hacked radio station just possibly call police with this little bit of news? But Dumb and Dumber, otherwise known as Tony Logan and Tony Olivis, blame the radio station for this...ummm, fiasco?

Let's talk (Tony) Turkey. It's men like Logan and Olivis, particularly the latter who should at least claim some measure of education, who hold Alabama back. We can't logically expect every citizen of Alabama to be MENSA material, but we can expect our elected school officials to demonstrate at least a modicum of common sense.

Olivis called the Star 94.9 ads in "bad taste" and added that school safety was no laughing matter. We're guessing he didn't even listen to the ads...either that or he intentionally lied. Just remember that at election time.

And Chief Tony Logan? He says he had to add extra patrols to placate parents. How about placating all Tuscumbia citizenry by repaying the salary you've taken while wasting time in court fighting a DUI charge?



Shoalanda

Special Report: This Is the Saddest Post We've Ever Written

If any have not heard, Jerry Wayne Edgil and his wife Carol Ann Cunningham Edgil were in an auto crash last night in Franklin County. Carol Ann, 72, later passed away at the hospital. Jerry, 71, is in critical condition in Huntsville.

We're asking for prayers for the entire Edgil family. Unless you know them, you cannot know what they have done for others in the northwest Alabama area.

We ask this question of all: "What have they seen in thine house?"


Everyone at Shoalanda Speaks

Unionize Helen Keller Hospital?

That elephant looks familiar. Does his owner know something we don't? How would Huntsville Hospital feel about such a plan? It might just be an interesting autumn in local hospital circles.

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On September 12, 2013, at 7:30 AM in the Guillot University Center on the UNA Main Campus, a Celebration of Diversity Breakfast will be held to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Desegregation of the University of North Alabama. Advanced tickets are $15.00 for individuals (or $100 for a table of 8 – with special recognition for the sponsoring organization) with proceeds going to support minority scholarship programs at UNA. Mr. Wendell Gunn, UNA’s first African-American student, will be the featured speaker with musical performances by the UNA Student Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Terrance G. Brown. Tickets are available from the UNA Office of Student Engagement or by contacting the UNA Department of History and Political Science at 256-765–4306 or history@una.edu.

We hope that everyone will be able to be part of this special event to commemorate an important milestone in the history of the Shoals and UNA.



Shoalanda

It Was An Alien Invasion?

No bomb threats, just an alien invasion, and a mock one at that. From WMSR 94.9:

Everyone, we have received numerous inquiries about the article in the Times Daily this morning. Of course, we were not reached for comment for the piece. They have agreed to run our take on the events of this week tomorrow. Additionally, WAAF and WAAY will be running stories tonight which include our thoughts on the matter and the actual audio featured on the air (which many of you have already heard).

We're still not sure how an advertising ploy was turned into a bomb threat or threat of something even possibly worse, but that is the Shoals. In fact, that's almost any community. We're also not sure why extra police, etc., were needed after it became apparent that the nine o'clock event was harmless. Rationales, anyone?

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We understand the new Star 94 format may even be playing some real music:





Shoalanda

Just What Was That Promotion? Da Bomb?

We know that rumors of bombs coming to Florence city schools Thursday have made their way to police who have stated there have been no credible threats. Who makes those kinds of threats? Usually teenage boys who think it's...umm, cute? Smart? We're not sure what they think or if they think at all, but such threats are 99.99% of the time based on nothing.

Besides a drain cleaner type "bomb," how many of us would have any idea how to make an explosive device? How many of us would be stupid enough to even try? How many of us would be blown up if we did try?

However, it seems Tuscumbia has some sort of similar problem. We say it seems, since we're not sure what rumor is making the rounds, just that it's based on a promotion related to Star 94, a radio station in the Shoals. We went to their website and clicked on a promotion link and were met with Asian characters.

We're going to guess that Star 94 subscribes to some national franchise advertising, for after all, isn't that the way in the 21st Century? It's not what you say, but how loud you say it, how many special effects highlight the speech, and sadly even how many times you can insert words your grandmother wouldn't have approved of. It's even sadder that we can't send our children to school completely sure of the fact the most violent thing they will face all day might be a schoolyard bully.

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We appreciate any reader input on local threats. We don't want to encourage them, but to shine light on them. Similarly, we recently asked about the need for two ambulances at a medical emergency. Two of our readers replied concerning the frequent need of two teams for heavy lifting. One of these readers also mentioned that female patients may request a female paramedic. Again, we thank all our readers and friends for comments and answers to our/reader questions.

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It's extremely rare that we comment on national issues, obviously knowing how little our ideas can influence things at that level. We have to say that while we're aghast at the chemical bombing in Syria last week, we don't want to be singing Over There for another group of "our boys." Prayers for this situation. How many presidents in our lifetime could campaign for re-election on the slogan "He kept us out of war?"



Shoalanda

Meet Chris Seibert

You may remember the name Chris Seibert from some weeks ago when he saved a child from drowning in the gulf, or you may know him as an Athens city councilman. Be prepared to hear a lot more about Chris in days to come--he announced this afternoon that he will be running as a Republican, seeking to become the state senator for District One. From his bio:

Chris served our country for 7 ½ years as an Air Force officer, and his MOS, or job description, was logistics. Having lived in a combat zone, and observing first hand just what a daunting task it is to get everything from soap to Stinger missiles in country, I have great respect for his experience. His area of expertise was transportation, and prior to his commissioning as an officer, he played football for Alabama, majoring in history and minoring in business. He attended ‘bama on a ROTC scholarship, and got his MBA from USA in Mobile.

He was in the Azores during 9/11, dealt with the stresses of watching the threat level on his base skyrocket overnight, and after getting out in ’05 with the rank of Captain, parlayed all of his experience in college and overseas into becoming a successful regional medical device rep. He is responsible for sales as well as mentoring the 8 guys who are members of his team, and he teaches docs how to successfully use robotic cardiac ablation catheters.

His wife’s name is Tiffany, they met as kids, dated in high school and have two boys, Brock, age 8, and Ben, age 5. Tiffany has been active as a wife, mom, and in the community as part of the Library Foundation, the Athena League, Spirit of Athens and the Athens-Limestone Hospital Foundation. Chris has recommended to both of his sons that they serve their country in the branch of their choice, something that used to be considered a reasonable way to show appreciation for all of our blessings as Americans.

Chris spends his spare time coaching soccer and youth baseball while he mentors his sons as well as what he hopes are the future leaders of Athens through athletics. He is on the church council at First United Methodist, and is a member of Rotary. The Seibert family lives in the Historical District of Athens, a place where being an active community member just goes with the territory.



Shoalanda

Don't Blame Spellcheck for These Errors

It's certainly easy to blame spellcheck for a number of errors in the news today. If we can't attribute errata to spellcheck, the slightly more evolved auto-correct often looks like a good patsy. Examples?

We read of a woman who wasn't going on a diet just yet because she was getting pregnant that night. In reality, she was getting Pringles, as in potato chips. A friend regaled us with an account of trying to type the name Nipper into an article while the auto-correct kept changing the man's name to Nipple.

Yet some errors can't be chalked up to anything but...hmmm...what? Again we see the TimesDaily telling us the Alabama Music Hall of Fame needs more notoriety. Really? We think the word Russ Corey was looking for in both articles was publicity. We also think he doesn't read the comments to his articles or he would have been aware of his error the first time he misused the word.

Then we recently ventured over to the Flor-Ala online to see how the can carry/can't carry battle is shaping up. Weren't we surprised to learn the Tennessee River runs through Florence. Whether this error was caused by too little geography being taught these days or too many smoking materials being readily available, we weren't sure.

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Very cool video:





Shoalanda