Everywhere I've ever lived, I was within reach of a good daily newspaper. In fact, for the nearly 20 years I lived in the Washington, D.C., area, and the 20 I lived in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to see a great newspaper every day.

[caption id="attachment_1596" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Downtown Griffin"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20110209_6.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1596" title="20110209_6" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20110209_6-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

I thought it would be the same thing living south of Atlanta, but it turns out we live one county too far to the south to get home delivery of the <em>Journal-Constitution</em>. Our local paper -- the <a title="Griffin Daily News" href="http://www.http://griffindailynews.com/"><em>Griffin Daily News</em></a> -- isn't anything special. It's only a third of the size of the smallest paper I ever worked for, and most of the news in it is two days old because of early deadlines. Just about all I read consistently are the weather forecasts and  the (mostly right wing) syndicated columnists.

There is one interesting thing about the paper. It's a once-a-week feature called <a title="My Two Cents" href="http://griffindailynews.com/view/full_story/17731585/article-My-Two-Cents-March-3--2012?instance=mytwocents_leadstory">My Two Cents</a>, in which subscribers can write in and have a paragraph or so of their thoughts published anonymously. My favorite -- one that comes up again and again -- is someone writing in to complain about the intelligence of people who write in. I wonder if they understand irony.

Today, though, there was one that sort of stayed with me.

<em>"It's a crying shame that because of gangs, a person can't even drive over to the side of town they spent their youth growing up. Any area north of the Hill Street railroad tracks is off limits to each of us who grew up on the north side of town because of intimidation from this group of people."</em>

Griffin isn't a big city. There are about 20,000 people, a population relatively equally divided between white and black, and I'm pretty sure the writer is referring to the fact that the north side of town is what Johnny Rivers would have called "The Poor Side of Town."

[caption id="attachment_1597" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Home"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20101202_13.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1597" title="20101202_13" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20101202_13-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

I don't know the city that well yet. We've lived her for nearly 16 months, but we lived in a gated community north of Griffin in what are probably the most expensive houses in the city.

In fact, very few people who have retired to our Del Webb community, <a title="Sun City Peachtree" href="http://www.delwebb.com/communities/ga/griffin/sun-city-peachtree/index.aspx">Sun City Peachtree</a>, lived in Griffin before moving here. I'm pretty sure more than half of the folks who live here now came from places other than Georgia.

Nicole and I like it here. We like it a lot.

If only the Journal-Constitution would deliver one county farther to the south.
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em><strong>Diet update: I've made it through three days now, walking every day and eating fewer than 1,000 calories each day, so it's a good start.</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em><strong>I only weigh myself in the mornings, so the progress report is for two days. Down 7 pounds. Of course it's mostly water weight at the beginning, but it's a nice way to start.</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em><strong>A long, long way to go.</strong></em></p>
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