The Office Cat
Martha Stewart is in for a treat!
It's official! Our National Cookoff Champion Chef Joe Barnett will be appearing on Martha Stewart's television show early in February. Joe enlisted the assistance of Bradley Barber, newcomer to town and owner of The Farmers Market, and together they made a DVD of Joe buying, preparing, and serving his winning recipe for "Shrimp and Grits." The DVD was submitted to Martha Stewart and her staff and was immediately accepted. Joe brought the DVD to The News- Reporter for us to see and it's a very professional DVD. Joe talks as he demonstrates his cooking procedures and believe me, he's really good. He said that Martha Stewart told him that they run the DVD often in their offices and when somebody gets "down and out" they put the DVD on to play and "get a lift." Joe and his entourage will be going to New York for the show and he is having aprons made promoting his recipe and the Georgia shrimp industry. We will have more of the details as time draws nigh for the show.

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Wasn't the color in last week's News-Reporter terrific? We hope to continue it.

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Guillaume Slama (owner of LaFayette Manor Inn on East Robert Toombs Avenue) brought me a copy of the December issue of Antiquing and Collecting Magazine which features on the cover Russian icons similar to the ones currently on exhibit at the Washington Historical Museum through January 31. Stephanie Macchia, curator of the museum, says that Russian icons are popping up in big museums all over the country and she feels fortunate to have obtained this display for the Washington museum from the

Daniel Bibb Russian icon collection in Atlanta. The collection will be here until January 31, so plan a visit to the museum right away. I am. . . . Guillaume says, "Kudos to the Washington Historical Museum for hosting an exhibit on one of today's hottest items in the art world."

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Can you believe this? Claude and Inez Vinson have been married 74 years. They celebrated their anniversary Sunday, January 14, with family and friends dropping by their home on Liberty Street with best wishes.

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A team from the television show "If Walls Could Talk" was in town Friday doing some research at the Fitzpatrick Hotel for a possible show.

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Belle Story's granddaughter, Maria Oliver (now Solomon), was one of the Christmas babies on the News-Reporter tree in 1978; and Maria's daughter and Belle's greatgranddaughter,

Belle Solomon, was on the 2006 tree.

.. Several readers have commented on my mention of more leaves than usual this year. Lois Flynt called to tell me that during the summer she told family and friends that there were more leaves on the trees than in recent years, but nobody would agree with her. She says she's glad to find somebody that does agree. I didn't particularly notice them in the summertime but have certainly noticed it since they have all fallen.

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Barry Rogers of Otter Creek Gardens called to say that the picture of the yellow flowers in The News-Reporter last week is not of forsythia as I told the photographer, but the flowers are winter jasmine. That may be true and it will surely please Charles Irvin, but I've always known them as forsythia and I probably will continue to call them that in my old age.

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The bell ringers for the Salvation Army Christmas Kettle (in Wilkes County) collected a total of $5,276.39 which is the second highest amount ever received. There were 104 people who rang the Christmas bell for a total of 100 hours of bell ringing. This was the most bell ringing and the most bell ringers ever in Wilkes County.

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An news article in the Athens Banner-Herald says: "A week before she was killed in 1990, Dorothy "Dolly" Hearn walked into her grandmother's house in Washington Wilkes and declared, 'I'm a senior in dental school. This time next year, you can call me Dr. Dolly.'" Seventeen years later that will finally happen. According to

Dean Connie Drisko, the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry will confer a posthumous degree to Dolly in a special ceremony this spring.

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There's nothing like grandchildren to tell it like it is. Nancy Barnett told me about an episode with daughter Abby Walden and granddaughter Ally who live in Twin City. Sometimes Nancy and Danny meet Abby halfway when the children are coming to visit and just transfer from one car to the other. They were attempting to do this a couple of weeks ago when they drove up and saw blue lights flashing and then saw that it was Abby who had been stopped. When they got three-yearold Ally in their car and were heading for Washington-Wilkes, Nancy asked Ally what the state patrolman did. Ally said, "He said 'No problem,' and he wrote my Mommie a check!" . . . Grandma and Grandpa are back from a trip to Cumberland Island where they had a fantastic tour.

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All you Southern Baptists - have you heard the news that former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have announced the creation of a Baptist organization that they promised would be "a new voice in the fight to change what they say is a negative image of their faith?" It's to be called the New Baptist Convention and has plans for a convocation in Atlanta in January 2008, with 20,000 people expected to attend. Clinton says he's just a "cheerleader" for the group.

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Jacqueline Nash Al-Azawi, who grew up in Washington-Wilkes and has many kinfolks here, is a big promoter of her hometown and frequently brings friends and co-workers in the Atlanta area here to tour and visit various attractions. In December she was accompanied by

Susan Rohrs, an artist and ESL teacher at DeKalb Technical College, and Susan's husband Stephen who is an automotive mechanic and World War II history buff and gun afficionato. Also on the visit were Jacqueline's husband, Dr. Abdulla Al-Azawi, their daughter, Nadia Al-Azawi, and friend, Ivan DeAguiar. There were so many things they wanted to see and so little time to see them that they visited only two of their choices.

Kerry McAvoy (a cousin) showed them his vintage car village; and Dolores McAvoy (another cousin) showed them Holice McAvoy's (still another cousin) World War II paintings and all the other things she has in her museum.

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