About The Eatonton messenger. (Eatonton, Ga.) 18??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 2025)
A4 | THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025 The Eatonton Aessenger www.msgrnews.com 00 Opinions All letters to the editor must be signed and include a phone number for verification purposes. Send letters to editor@msgrnews.com by noon Monday. Reading about illness can make you sick I feel anxious telling you this because I fear you will be depressed when you hear it, but you and I seem to be a bunch of hypochon driacs. I have received a study from MEDvidi. com, an online mental health treatment center in California that deals with conditions like, well, anxiety and depression. Their data shows Georgia has the 15th-highest level of hypochondria in the country. At least we aren’t Minnesota. MEDvidi. com says they are the worst hypochondriacs in the U.S. I will have to Dick Yarbrough Columnist delve into the data a bit more deeply, but you sort of figure that might be the case when you discover their state bird is the Common Loon. Makes sense. This may be the only ranking of states I can recall where being last is a good thing. That distinc tion belongs to Missis sippi, whose citizens are used to being last. Always being at the bottom of the barrel evidently doesn’t seem to raise their anxiety level. But what about us? I am talking about those of us who reside in the Great State of Georgia? Why the anxiety? Blame it on the internet. MEDvidi. com did an analysis of the number of times we search some 3,660 keywords related to hypochondria, self-di agnosis, and illness symptoms, such as “Virus symptoms,” “Health anxiety” and “Symptom checker” per 100,000 people. Thus, we rank 15th out of 50. I don’t know about you but the fact that some body can find out that kind of personal stuff about what we are doing on the internet strikes me as creepy. What else do they know? Remind me never to search for the term “Jeffery Epstein.” I could find myself being sued by You-Know-Who. Or, maybe even shipped off to Venezuela in a pair of baggy white shorts. That thought makes me very anxious. MEDvidi Medical Director Dr. Michael Chichak said the data indicates many people are attempting to self-diag- nose what may ail them, rather than bothering to see a doctor and finding out for sure. “While it’s great to have a certain level of awareness when it comes to medical symptoms, particularly for easily transmissible illnesses such as flu and COVID- 19, self-diagnosis can often cause more harm than good,” Dr. Chichak stated. “If you think your symptoms match a particular illness, then your first point of contact should be your doctor.” I had a doctor once tell me that she had patients show up in her office who had self-diagnosed their particular ailment and were there just to have her give them the prescrip tion they required. No examination necessary. Those are probably the same people who believe Hilary Clinton was part of a satanic child sex traf ficking ring run out of a Washington D.C. drug »Show up, speak up!« Public meeting schedule for Eatonton and Putnam County PUTNAM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY 1 p.m. - 2 nd Tuesday 706-485-1884 PUTNAM COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION 6 p.m. - 2 nd & 3 rd Monday 706-485-5381 EATONTON PUTNAM WATER SEWER AUTHORITY 4:30 p.m. - 3 rd Wednesday 706-485-5252 EATONTON CITY COUNCIL 7 p.m. - 1 st Tuesday & 3 rd Monday 706-485-3311 PUTNAM COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 6 p.m. - 3 rd Tuesday • 10 a.m. - 1st Friday 706-485-5826 PUTNAM PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION 6:30 p.m. - 1 st Thursday 706-485-2776 PUTNAM BD. OF ELECTIONS & REGISTRATION 4:30 p.m. - 1 st Tuesday 706-485-8683 * These dates and times are based on regular government meeting schedules. For any called or special meetings, please see our legal page. MORE SICK » A5 20250 CREATORS. COM WE ARE. ITHOUGHT WE WERE the ONLY ONES WHO COULD CURVNE at THIS DEPTH... @Ramireztoons [michaelpramirez.com] The Eatonton Messenger Summer’s heat A. Mark Smith Matt Smith Ian Tocher President/Publisher General Manager Editor amsmith@msgrnews.com matt@msgrnews.com ian@msgrnews.com Established 1861 Vice President Michael Smith Vice President JoAnn Smith Managing Editor Josh Lurie Reporter T. Michael Stone Reporter Bailey Ballard Sports Reporter Lance McCurley Advertising Manager Heather Harris Advertising Representative Dianne Phillips Advertising Representative Amy Manville Classified Representative Haley Fowler Graphic Artist Victoria Anadenko Legal Advertising/Circulation Becky Meyer Business Manager Cassandra Fowler Lakelife Editor Lynn Hobbs Dedication Battle B. Smith, Editor and Publisher, 1956-1988 Micky Smith, Editor and Publisher, 1989-2003 Mark Smith Jr., Executive Editor, 2004-2019 High temperatures, which have overwhelmed us lately, seem to be more intense and more enduring than I can remember. You notice, however, that those who work outside appear to be carrying on with a “busi ness as usual” demeanor. I watch roofers, construction workers, lawn maintenance workers, and farmers take the heat in stride and realize I have nothing to complain about as I stay inside with the comfort of air conditioning. In the mornings when I take a walk, I manage that routine around 6 a.m., which means I am not too much bothered by the heat since that is a relatively cool time of the day. When I leave my house, it takes only two minutes to get to my car, which has been parked, for the most part, in the shade. It takes another Loran Smith Columnist three minutes to power my windows down to let the heat escape, and in another minute or so, my car is pretty much cooled off. When I park at the office, it takes no more than a minute to walk to my air-conditioned building. So, like so many, I sleep in air-conditioned splendor, I work in the same environment, and then return home at the end of the day with no more than 10 minutes “outside,” if I so choose. I can remember the early part of my youth when the farmhouse I grew up in did not have a fan. We raised the windows, hoping for a breeze to improve the atmosphere and bring about brief contentment. There were ceiling fans in some homes and businesses in town, but I cannot remember the first time I was intro duced to an air-condi tioned building. I can remember summers when I would drive a tractor all day long, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. “Brown as a berry,” my grandmother would say about my condition. Fortunately, I never had any ill effects from all that exposure to “Old Man Sol.” Every job I ever had was outdoors. In addi tion to working in the fields, which included picking cotton, I worked with the state highway department. We took our shirts off when we were conducting the surveying — our main assignment. When I enrolled at the University of Georgia, the dormitories and the classrooms were not air-conditioned. In 1957, when the Georgia Center for Continuing Education opened its doors, it was the first building on the UGA campus with air conditioning. I often would drop by that remarkable building, buy a Coke at the old coffee shop, and sip casually in air-conditioned comfort. By that time, many students brought electric fans to their dorm rooms and the more affluent kids put air conditioning units in their windows. But nobody had air-conditioned cars to my recollection. When MORE HEAT>> A7 The Eatonton Messenger (USPS 166-520) is published every Thursday by Smith Communications Inc., 100 N. Jefferson Ave., Eatonton, GA 31024-4027. It is the official organ of the County of Putnam and the City of Eatonton and is a member of the Georgia Press Association and the National Newspaper Association. All rights reserved. Reprints by permission of The Eatonton Messenger and individual writers only. Eatonton City Council Members John Chip Mylle James A. Michael Janie B. Marie Teresa Reid Walker Mangum Gorley Smith Reid Rainey Doster Mayor Mayor Pro Tem Ward 1 Ward 2 Wards 2 & 3 Ward 3 Wards 1 & 4 Ward 4 706- 706- 706- 706- 706- 706- 478- 706- 485-3311 485-7804 485-7195 485-8984 485-0306 816-6800 288-3846 484-0693 Subscription Rates One Year Two Years Putnam, Morgan, Greene counties $37 $70 Other Georgia counties $50 $90 Out of Georgia $55 $99 Putnam County Commissioners POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Eatonton Messenger, P.O. Box 4027, Eatonton, GA 31024 Periodicals Postage Paid at Eatonton, GA 31024 Advertising, news and information: 706-485-3501 Fax: 706-485-4166 Advertising email: sales@msgrnews.com News email: editor@msgrnews.com Member, Georgia Press Association National Newspaper Association outhern Newspaper Publisher Association A prize-winning newspaper in Better Newspaper contests 1999-2016 ner of 23 top GPA awards in 2016 PLACE for GENERAL EXCELLENCE 2013, 2014 and 2015 B.W. “Bill” Sharp Chairman 706-752-8431 Tom McElhenney District 1 762-205-4731 Richard Garrett District 2 706-749-5573 Steve Hersey District 3 706-485-0935 Jeff Wooten District 4 706-752-8432 Putnam County Board of Education Members Doris Clemons District 1 706-485-1142 Simone Jones District 2, Vice Chairman 706-473-0738 Steve Weiner District 3, Chairman 706-485-5087 Charles Trumbo District 4 Carol Ann Guthrie District 5 706-766-6012 Georgia Legislators snpa MEMBER SOUTHERN NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Senate Dist. 25 Sen. Rick Williams (R) 327-B Coverdell LOB Atlanta, GA 30334 (404) 656-0082 rick.williams@senate.ga.gov House Dist. 124 Rep. Trey Rhodes (R) 228-A State Capitol Atlanta, GA 30334 404-656-5099 trey.rhodes@house.ga.gov House Dist. 144 Rep. Dale Washburn (R) 401-H Coverdell LOB Atlanta, GA 30334 Office: (404) 656-0152 dale.washburn@house.ga.gov
