'Sistah Mayah' MIA

Bloglanta raises a good question: Where is Shirley?

Key quote:

Sistah Mayah used to be everywhere! Openings, closings, luncheons, announcements, Beltlines, projects, schools, houses… heck if you asked nicely she’d meet you at a donut shop. Now she’s gone. She’s ‘Underground Shirley’, and like Underground she’s giving the impression that she is not doing very well.

(Link here.)

Atlanta slips in reader ranks

Atlanta is still in the top 10 most well-read cities in the US, though it's slipped from 3rd to 8th, according to a new study. (Link here.) But boding well for online ventures such as this one, the city ranks No. 1 when it comes to internet readers.

As I usually do with these kinds of generalized Top 10 lists, I quickly found a flaw. Though it's commonly accepted that the more educated you are, the more you read, I disagree with that premise. In fact, I find that the more educated people are, the less they read, because they think they already know it all.

Those with "only" a high school education -- growing numbers of whom dislodged Atlanta from its previous ranking -- tend to be avid readers, at least in my book. What they're reading may not be so high-falutin', but the quest for knowledge (unless you're New Yorker mag fan) isn't about the length of the words in the book. People read out of curiosity, and that's one of many virtues you don't learn in college.

(Pix: High school grad Ernie Hemingway catches a big one off Key West.)

Atlanta real estate: After the gold rush

After swelling for a decade, the number of real estate agents in Atlanta -- and other urban areas -- is dropping quickly. Those who remain are making less money than they did in 2004. (Story here.)

The prospect of easy money mostly gone, agents are heading back to school or to former careers. As with any industry facing worker attrition, the human dimension is deep and impossible to get your head around unless you're one of those affected.

But I bet a lot of real estate agents aren't complaining too much. The real estate gold rush brought a lot of inexperienced bit players into the fray, who, if they weren't taking business away from more established agents, weren't doing much for the general reputation of the profession, either.

A nice gift, by the way, for the frazzled real estate professional in your life is Richard Ford's "Independence Day": A literary tour de force clamped to the fortunes of the Jersey Shore's real estate empires.