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4A ®J)£ Iferalti <©a?£tt£ Tuesday, October 5,2021
Opinions
Geiger's Counter: A near perfect football weekend
This past weekend
was near perfect in my
football perspective. For
the record, 1 don’t watch
the NFL and am not
aware of even a single
NFL score though I did
hear Matt Stafford out
played the ageless Tom
Brady and that is a good
thing.
My weekend began
with a trip to Henderson
Stadium in Macon Friday
night where the Lamar
County Trojans blew out
the Southwest Patriots
62-0 at their homecom
ing. It was LC’s highest
point total since 2011
and a joy to watch.
Lamar’s CJ Allen hit
the Patriots’ showboat
ing quarterback so hard,
he was knocked out of
the game and five min
utes late to the home
coming festivities from
which he staggered off
with a king’s crown on
his head never to be seen
again.
Saturday’s menu was
an early soccer victory
and then a day of foot
ball on TV. The Dawgs
silenced a lot of doubters
with a 37-0 rout
of the #8 Arkan
sas Razorbacks.
Coach Kirby
Smart had
challenged the
student body
to be there for
the noon kickoff
and be loud and
they showed
up in force,
deafening the
Razorbacks on
their first two
possessions.
Several veteran fans
have commented that it
was the loudest they had
ever heard the
crowd noise in
Sanford Sta
dium.
The pun
dits who were
doubters are
now saying this
may be the best
Bulldog defense
since 1980 and
that is saying
a lot. Over five
games, UGA has
outscored op
ponents 205-23
and that has taken place
with the offense seri
ously shorthanded by
injuries.
The rest of the af
ternoon and evening
were left to channel surf
watching other contests.
Sweet victories included
Cincinnati topping Notre
Dame 24-13. Mea culpa,
my Catholic friends.
Kentucky took down
the Florida Gators 20-13,
quieting all the talk about
Dan Mullen being the
‘quarterback whisperer’
and greatest coach in the
long history of coaching
across all sports.
And finally, Pittsburgh
knocked the bloom off
the Georgia Tech rose
with a 52-21 rout at
historic Grant Field. To
quote the late, great
Lewis Grizzard, “We don’t
root for Georgia Tech
with two engines out on
the team plane”.
Here’s hoping next
week brings more of the
same.
Walter Geiger is editor and publisher
of The Herald-Gazette and Pike
County Journal Reporter. He can
be reached at 770-358-NEWS or
news@barnesville.com.
r
Sts*-
J
GEIGER’S
COUNTER
Walter Geiger
Editor & Publisher
Words: some
vanishing, some
replaced with new
V
KAY S. PEDR0TTI
kayspedrotti@gmail.com
Only someone who
has spent a lifetime
writing can understand
all the meanings
of this quote in
Oscar Wilde’s The
Picture of Dorian
Gray: “Words!
Mere words!
How terrible
they were! How &
clear, and vivid,
and cruel! One could
not escape from them.
They seemed to be able
to give a plastic form
to formless things, and
to have a music of their
own as sweet as viol or
of lute. Mere words! Was
there anything so real as
words?”
Choose the wrong
word, and your narra
tive fails to accomplish
its purpose. There is a
special agony in diction
(choice of words), as
well as syntax (how the
words are arranged).
Authors who ignore the
nuances are doomed to
have disappointed read
ers. Qualifying that, the
readers may not have
enough understanding
themselves to know the
writer chose a word not
apropos to its common
usage, or used one word
when another word was
meant. English is so full
of nuanced words that
“almost” mean the same
thing, but not quite!
In the newspaper busi
ness, it’s even tougher.
You have to say your
piece in as few words as
possible, and make every
one count. Because small
papers need all they can
print as news or enlight
enment, folks like me
have to learn to develop
a style that is everything
the reader needs to know
but given in acceptable
lengths.
1 play with words at
home; 1 have a gigantic
old Webster’s dictionary
sitting in my living room.
Yes, 1 look up words on
the internet, but only the
old “unabridged” remem
bers the older words one
may encounter when
reading the clas
sics. I constantly
marvel that so
many words bor
rowed from other
languages are
now in common
English usage. If
one stops to think
about it, our spoken
language is probably the
most changeable and
fluid of all - which is a
mixed blessing. Those
new to English do have a
hard time learning it.
Sometimes older
words, now no longer
in general use, can be
more specifically ex
pressive than some
of our newly invented
techno-language words.
My dad once used the
word “scantling” in one
of his columns - one of
its meanings is a board
that’s not quite a plank -
as in “take a scantling to
him for that behavior.”
No one in the newsroom
knew the meaning, so
somebody looked it up
and changed it to “stick”
instead of scantling. The
offender almost felt the
threat of a scantling from
my outraged father!
If 1 had my way, 1
would use at least one
word in every column
that somebody would
have to “look up.” But I
can’t engineer that chal
lenge myself sometimes
-1 don’t have my Pop’s
my Pop’s million-word
(his own aggrandized
contention) vocabulary.”
Wish 1 did - words can
be really fun!
Kay S. Pedrotti has spent some
50 years writing for newspapers.
She is active in the Lamar County
community and currently serves as
the president of Lamar Arts. She
lives in Milner with her husband Bob
Pedrotti.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
What is Lamar Gives 365?
LamarGives 365 is a
program of the Bames-
ville-Lamar Community
Foundation designed to
bring people together to
improve their commu
nity. Each person gives
$365 per year - just $1 a
day- to make the commu
nity a better place to live.
Your money is pooled
together with others.
Half of the money is used
to give grants for the cur
rent physical year. The
other half of the money
is placed in an endow
ment for the future. The
Membership Campaign
runs from mid- August
to mid- October. Then
people from non-profit
organizations in our com
munity are encouraged
to submit applications
for grants between mid-
October and mid-Novem
ber. Then in February,
YOU and the other mem
bers come together to
hear two minute presen
tations from those who
have submitted Grant
applications. Immedi
ately following, members
get to recommend which
organizations receive the
grants by voting for the
ones they feel are most
important.
Over the past seven
years, Lamar Gives has
awarded 87 grants total
ing more than $200,000.
Can you imagine being
able to help your com
munity do all this by
just giving $1 a day?
The deadline for joining
LamarGives365 this year
is October 15, 2021. Don’t
delay - join today. Go to
lamargives.org or contact
William Tuttle at 770-358-
7211 or Kelley Hughes at
770-358-3270.
SUSAN ALLEN
Still bringing communities together!
@ WWW.I
.davegranlund.com
Community
Forum
NATIONAL
NEWSPAPER WEEK
OCTOBER 3-9, 2021
The Relevance Project - and what it means for newspapers
MICHELLE K. REA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
New York Press Association/ New
York Press Service
When it comes to sav
ing local newspapers, the
solutions won’t be found
in web metrics, ad rates
or shrink
ing news
holes. The
solution,
seemingly
simple yet
terrifying
complicat
ed, is for
newspapers to reconnect
with the people they’re
supposed to be serving.
That’s the purpose of
The Relevance Project, a
national effort intended
to make local journalism
so relevant to people’s
lives that papers will
once again become an
essential purchase. The
Newspaper Associa
tion Managers, a coali
tion of trade associa
tions serving daily and
weekly newspapers and
new websites in North
America, is coordinating
the project, which was
launched during National
Newspaper Week last
year.
The focus on lo
cal newspapers was
prompted in part by
frustration that indus
try leaders were too
focused on the major
players - the papers run
by corporations and big
chains. That approach
overlooks the more than
8,600 local newspapers
covering the parades, the
school board meetings
and the soccer games of
small-town America and
Canada.
The problems those
papers face mirror those
of the bigger players: De
clining revenues and ris
ing costs that sometimes
force closings. But for
independent local papers
with shoestring budgets,
the financial burdens fall
proportionately harder:
Cutting a position from a
four-person newsroom,
for example, is a lot more
difficult than cutting one
from a newsroom of 40.
Newspaper associa
tion managers across the
United States and Canada
think the public is paying
so much attention to me
dia companies such as
The New York Times, The
Washington Post and Sin
clair [Broadcasting] that
they’re forgetting that
there are vital, commit
ted newspapers in their
local communities. As a
result, small papers with
few resources have been
left to fend for them
selves as the ground
shifts under them.
The Relevance Project
grew out of that frustra
tion, with the Newspaper
Association Managers
collectively retaining
rebranding expert Andy
Cunningham of the Cun
ningham Collective to
help diagnose problems
and develop solutions.
Working with papers
from around the country,
Cunningham’s research
took stock of all the
industry’s warts, from
public mistrust to falling
page counts, rising sub
scription costs and poor
ly functioning websites.
From the newspaper
association managers’
perspective, the results
were a much-needed slap
in the face - newspapers
weren’t doing the right
things by their readers.
The Relevance Project
is working to reassert
newspapers’ relevance
to their communities by
building on the credibil
ity they already have. It
aims to remind people
that newspapers serve
as a trusted community
forum and as a resource.
A newspaper’s strength
and future rely on its
local community; fortify
ing that relationship will
fortify the paper.
To do that, the project
is coordinating efforts
and supplying resources
for newspapers across
the continent working to
find new ways of building
reader trust and commu
nity engagement.
SEE NEWSPAPERS 5A
October 3-9
10 years ago
Lamar Arts was pre
paring for its silent auc
tion and cocktail party
fundraiser at the home of
Jean and Charles Dukes
on Thomaston Street.
Highlighting the menu
were Lebanese rolled
grape leaves prepared
by Mable Deraney. Roger
McLeod, Brad Weaver
and Steve Mulder were
providing the entertain
ment.
25 years ago
The Lamar County
Trojans were shut out
24-0 by the Mary Persons
Bulldogs in Forsyth.
Toreico O’Neal led Lamar
with 90 yards rushing
on 13 carries. The loss
dropped the Trojans’
record to 04.
50 years ago
Barnesville Academy
was making plans to ex
pand its course offerings
to a full college prepara
tory curriculum. Otis
Roberts was chairman
of the BA board while
Robert Tenney served as
principal.
100 years ago
The Lamar County
Fair was to run Tues
day through Saturday
at the fairgrounds with
hundreds of interesting
exhibits. This is what
was reported about
poultry on display: Visi
tors should not miss the
poultry exhibit, which
is likewise an excellent
one. It consists of several
breeds of fine chickens,
turkeys, ducks and rab
bits. There are some very
fine specimens and you
will enjoy the exhibit.
Letter printing
guidelines
Limit letters to 250
words or less. Shorter
letters are appreciated.
All letters are subject to
editing. Send letters to
P.O. Box 220, Barnesville,
30204, email it to news@
barnesville.com or drop
it by 509 Greenwood
Street, Barnesville.
Zi)t Umltr #a^tte
barnesville.com
770.358.NEWS
P.0. Box 220
Publishers
Staff
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Walter Geiger
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The deadline for public notices
Barnesville, Ga. 30204
Laura Geiger
Rachel McDaniel
rounding counties; $40 outside
is noon Thursdays; news and
770-358-NEWS
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the local area.
advertising before noon Fridays.
barnesville.com
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E-mail: news@barnesville.com
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barnesville.com