We’re sitting here trying to figure out what happened to global warming. For the last few weeks we’ve been dipped into an icy, frozen tundra more suited for some Canadian wasteland than southern Alabama. Dear Lord, we have freezer burn. Please send these cold temperatures back from whence they came.
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We’ve been on a Kindle-reading journey the last few weeks. While on a two-day trip to Charlotte, we wrapped up Dennis Lehane’s thrilling Shutter Island (we watched the film after: we prefer the author deliver us their vision first, before seeing Hollywood’s revisionist version). We then turned our attention to Stiegg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played with Fire. Then, we jumped on a Stephen King kick, From a Buick 8 and The Tommyknockers. Currently, we are reading Dangerous Visions, a collection of groundbreaking science fiction tales edited by Harlan Ellison (well, groundbreaking in 1967, its original publication date).
We’ve read a few “physical” books also. King, again. Cujo and his newest collection of four novellas, Full Dark, No Stars. One last tale to go on that one.
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A few personal achievements have passed across our desk: From Fort Dale, sixth grader Jennifer Grace Arnold and sophomore Tyler Davis were winners of the Daughters of American Revolution Essay Contest, sophomore Dylan Jones placed third in the AISA Creative Writing Competition, junior Morgan Gibson was selected to perform in the All-State Choral Festival at Samford University.
Additionally, Megan E. Scofield received her Masters degree in Education from the University of Montevallo during fall commencement Dec. 17. She was one of 200 students to receive degrees.
Nicely done.
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Circuit Judge Ed McFerrin retired having served as the judge of the 2nd Judicial Circuit since 1992. Judge Terri Bozeman-Lovell now occupies those robes and we welcome her. She is the first female judge to take up this mantle. But it is also interesting to note that those who have occupied this judgeship have all been initially appointed by Governors. And they’ve all won re-election.
– Judge Arthur Gamble was appointed in 1910 to serve the term of Judge Julius Caesar Richardson, who died in a traffic accident. He served consecutively for 42 years. Judge Gamble was cited by one judge as having the “greatest legal mind” ever encountered.
– Judge T. Werth Thagard followed, appointed after Gamble’s death in 1952 and served to 1969 when he was appointed to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals by Gov. Albert Brewer.
– Judge Arthur Gamble Jr. was appointed to fulfill Thagard’s term. He died in 2008 at the age of 88, having survived a car bomb attempt on his life in the 1970s. He served prior to McFerrin.