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What’s in a Name, the Guide Is Out, and Flagpole Needs You

The cover of this year's Flagpole Guide to Athens. Credit: Elinor Saragoussi

Sometimes you can’t be bipartisan even when you want to. I’m writing this on the day before the Republican convention, so I can’t include any cute observations about that spectacle such as my revelation during the Democratic virtual ge- together. I noticed then, as speaker after speaker spoke enthusiastically of the next president, that every one of them pronounced his name stressing two syllables: “Bi-den.” I realized that I pronounce his name “Bid’n,” as if it has a syllable and a half. I remembered that I had the same revelation during the Clinton era, when all the speakers and news analysts pronounced Bill Clinton’s name as “Clin-ton,” whereas I always said “Clint’n.”

Of course this line of thought allows me the pleasure of once again using the linguistic example of Congressman Robert G. Stephens, Jr., an Athenian of fine mind and fine accent. Bob entered Congress the year Kennedy became president and served eight terms before retiring.

At one point in his career, Bob was on a House committee chaired by New York Congressman Silvio Conte, and Bob was questioning his colleague, Pennsylvania Congressman William Moorhead. Bob repeatedly addressed Moorhead as “Mr. MOhead.” Finally, Chairman Conte lost patience with Bob’s pronunciation and blurted out, “Mr. Stephens, are you not aware that the gentleman’s name has an r in it?”

“CO’se I am, Mr. Chairman,” Bob responded. “If it didn’t, it’d be MOOhead.”

The Guide is Out!

The new Flagpole Guide to Athens has been distributed all over town, and as usual it is full of information “for those who want to know their way around.” Sure, the info is online, too, but that’s no substitute for holding this slick-paper, full-color Guide in your own hands and thumbing through it to find a restaurant or a playground or Larry Tenner’s handy, custom-made maps.

This year, because so many venues such as restaurants, bars and clubs are still closed and many of the others limited to take-out, we decided to publish the Guide in two editions. This one is the fall Guide, and then we’ll put out the updated spring Guide in March to keep up with the constantly changing landscape of Athens events and establishments.

So grab a Guide, and keep it with you. You’ll be surprised, as usual, at how many times you reach for it to check something. And if you should find yourself out and about with no Guide, you can grab another one because we’ll keep them stocked for your convenience. And don’t forget: Our advertisers make the Guide possible, so read their beautiful ads, and act accordingly.

Contributions

Thanks again to all our Flagpole contributors. You helped get us through the summer with your support. Heading into fall, we’re still counting on you and urge you to make a recurring contribution of whatever amount you can afford. We’ll do our part by continuing to cover our community with the kind of in-depth reporting you expect.

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