Ex-squeeze me?
So - been awhile.
I just had to pass on this hilarious quote from a head-scratcher the AJC is doing about the courthouse shootings:
Like Ashley Smith, who turned Nichols in, [AJC reporter Don] O'Briant [, who was carjacked by Nichols and clanged into a Dumpster running away from him,] was soon regarded as a hero. People wanted to touch him. He thinks it's because he's an ordinary person who survived something awful. "Maybe people hope there's some magic that wears off."
Quick show of hands: who in Atlanta regards Don O'Briant as any kind of hero?
(crickets)
That sentence should end:
...was soon regarded in his own fevered and grasping imagination as a hero.
If there's a more hilarious example of scribbling class narcissism this year, I'll be very surprised. Look, a treasured colleague of mine was also victimized by Nichols. I don't regard her as a hero (at least not for that) but I did want to see her as soon as possible and let her know how glad I was that she was ok. I hope she knows that I would provide her the valuable service of laughing in her face if she started talking about what a hero she was. I have a feeling the writer of this piece simply lacked the collegial courage to do the same for O'Briant.
Of course, the day after the incident O'Briant was already talking about a book deal. This adds special poignance to the following:
Lately, he has been writing a letter to his adult children.
Gawd. Think he'll send it to them before or after he ships it off to Scribners?