Has anyone thought of my ol'

friend the asterisk. That's right, it's on the computer key pad, by the

number "zero my hero." I was visiting the PTC website and I

saw this listing about a Recreation Commission. Hey, if we got a recreation

commission then I got me an idea. Now I can't take all the credit for

this idea because some of the credit for it must go to that football great

Hershel Walker. Do y'all remember when he broke a football record for

rushing over 2000 yards in a single season? Well after he did that because

he wasn't in the NFL they gave him an asterisk. After that when people

looked up in the record books they saw that Hershel rushed for over 2000

yards in a single season, but down at the bottom of the page by that asterisk

we saw that Hershel was in the USFL at the time he did it.

I bet that would work here

too. We could give both the DAPC and the Recreation Commission an asterisk.

All we'd have to do is swipe their letterhead. Once we got that letterhead,

we just add the asterisk. By the time the people look down at the bottom

of the page, we would see the asterisk, and the note saying that the DAPC

shall hereinafter be referred to as the Sports and Entertainment Authority

of PTC. Same thing for the Recreation Commission.

That asterisk would refer folks

down to the bottom of the page with the note saying the Recreation Commission

really recruits industry here in our PTC town!

Did anybody ever think of that?

No mess, no fuss, no local legislative delegation (with their establishment

ideas) to deal with. Yeah, I think that would work well, PTC Council.

Act II. I always heard so much

about that David Letterman guy on the TV tube and his top 10. I says to

myself, "Hey, bet I could come up with one of them there top 10s."

Yeah, let's see, I'll call it the PTC Cowboy Engineer top 10. Well, I

gave it a little thought and here's my final offering to be submitted

to David Letterman himself. I call it the top ten reasons why you may

be a member of the PTC establishment crowd.

Number 10: you may be a member

of the PTC establishment crowd if you sit on the DAPC and you've been

referred to as "lifer" and not "new blood."

Number 9: you believe that

the DAPC's main game is recreation venues.

Number 8: you believe that

it might be a good idea for the Recreation Commission to recruit new industry.

Number 7: you're a PTC employee

and you see other establishment employees droppin' like flies (guess what,

you're next).

Number 6: you live in PTC and

you think you got a great deal on the last sewer rate increase.

Number 5: you live in PTC and

you think the price taxpayers paid for the sewer is just terrific.

Number 4: you think that the

PTC sewer purchase is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Number 3: your establishment

has over 400 employees and grosses over $50 million in annual sales and

you constantly harp on it.

Number 2: you believe in the

saying, "If you don't vote, you don't count here in PTC."

And the Number 1 reason why

you may be a member of the PTC establishment is: you actually believe

you know more about PTC (on any issue) than anybody else.

Ha, Ha, well, what did y'all

think? Maybe Letterman should see this after all. This essay has been

especially dedicated to our favorite number cruncher on City Council,

Captain Crunch, and that ever-lovin' PTC mayor known as "Golden-Boy,"

'cause every thing is always comin' up golden. I hope that this makes

y'all laugh. Please know that it's gonna get better, many are behind ya

100 percent. To the PTC establishment crowd: "Get over it."

James Melvin Ewing

Peachtree City

[Ewing served on the city's

Water and Sewer Authority during the 1990s.]