The 100 Guy

I walked into a neighborhood bar a few weeks ago in baseball-crazed Cleveland, Ohio, and someone immediately asked me if I was James Taylor, a lifetime doppelganger issue.

Our families and friends from numerous cultures and continents gathered this past weekend to celebrate the marriage of Catherine Butsch (former editor of The Atlanta 100) and Jorge Villarreal.

Three years ago Monday, we sent out the first issue of The Atlanta 100. We hoped to inform and entertain our residents and business leaders with a short, sharp series of intriguing topics.

Our PR firm has a new client this month: my daughter Sally’s new business EfficiList.

The first bluegrass musicians I saw live were Doc and Merle Watson at Great Southeastern Music Hall. I was hooked.

Five years ago today, a recent Auburn graduate began her career with our firm as account coordinator. Today, she’s director of public relations, partner and part owner.

I often tour graveyards when I travel. I admire the artwork, sculptures and historical storytelling. In college, I’d retreat to an historic graveyard next to our dorm to meditate or study.

I used to say I met Mike Egan the first day of first grade. His mother Donna recently corrected me: we met in playgroup. I’ve been honored to call him my best buddy since.

I love to fly. Last month I flew out of Washington’s DCA airport, recalling my best flight ever in 1989.

I pooled my high school graduation gifts and bought a Canon camera. I thought I’d be content being a newspaper writer, but I soon discovered I also loved photography.

I was born 100 years after my great-grandfather, Jack Spalding.

Delta’s computer mishap last week stranded thousands overnight in airports. I was sympathetic: in 1978, we slept four days on the floor of London’s Gatwick.

My late dear friend Ann Morris organized the 2002 Olympic torch run for the Salt Lake City Olympics. She called one morning in January 2002, saying there were two slots open a week later in the middle of the night in Klamath Falls, Oregon, if we could get there.

Working last Saturday on the Capitol View Manor home I mentioned recently, I found a gentleman outside, admiring the 1930 home’s majestic setting. The magic in this neighborhood, adjacent to where we learned to lay bricks 40 years ago, continued.

This week, as The Atlanta 100 team heads out of the office for a bit of summer vacation, we wanted to share a special issue on Summer Travel, featuring columns on Cars and Travel.

Four days after cruising Capitol View Manor and violating the cardinal rule of real estate – falling in love with two properties – I sat down for a previously scheduled coffee with Ryan Gravel, the BeltLine’s visionary.

Three years after taking the BeltLine Bus Tour, I woke up one Saturday last summer and had a notion to explore a Southside neighborhood the guide said was developed by the same man who developed Virginia-Highland and Morningside in the 1930s.

As an itinerant newspaperman working for six Southeastern dailies, I had many publishers. All paled in comparison to Rolfe Neill of The Charlotte Observer.

While Lincoln, Grant and Theodore Roosevelt are often credited with preserving our nation’s wonders and launching the National Park Service, Thomas Jefferson deserves some thanks as well.

Forty years ago I spent the summer stalking Jimmy Carter, a then relatively unknown Georgian running for president.

We enjoyed a rare tour of one of Georgia’s most historic residences that for six generations has been in the family of Westminster classmate Sally Hansell. Soon it will belong to another.

After I launched Atlanta neighborhood newspapers, we sold advertising faster than we could write stories. I approached Bob Steed, a King & Spalding bond attorney who wrote hilarious AJC columns.

Weekday afternoon destination TV for kids growing up in Atlanta in the 1960s meant one show on WSB-TV: Officer Don and The Popeye Show.

A few years ago, I joined a group of dedicated Atlantans on their annual service trip to Honduras’ impoverished rural…

With all the wackiness in the presidential election, it’s been amusing to follow a somewhat less significant controversy.

I just returned from a public relations conference at which I spoke last year. My PowerPoint presentation went awry, speeding up uncontrollably and amusingly captivating the audience.

I had dreams of an investigative prize in my first police reporting job when a lawyer whispered the police repair shop was fixing cars for private citizens for free.

My first lesson in profit-making came from my father, a master of the deal.

Not too many Aprils ago, Atlanta was ablaze with white blossoms of dogwood trees, but they seem to be disappearing. A major culprit is the spread of anthracnose disease.

If you have friends, family or business relations in North Carolina, please gift them today with a free subscription to The North Carolina 100, our newest member of the national PR network for which The Atlanta 100 serves as flagship.