The Vent in the AJC was like a message board before the internet existed. There people could complain anonymously about whatever was on their minds, and usually in in thinly-veiled racist language. You could call up the Vent’s number, record your piece, and then check the AJC Metro section the next day to see if they published it. Popular topics were traffic, bad drivers, parking, the Braves, local politics, and kids today.
My granddad would call in to the Vent daily with some pithy little commentary he came up with and needed to share with the world. Whenever one would show up in print, he’d leave us a cryptic message on the answering machine implying we should check out the Metro section. He wouldn’t tell us which vent was his, and we could never guess. They all sounded like something an old man would say. His were usually about traffic, though.
Little did I know, but the Vent is alive and well and not much has changed. Except now you can submit them online so the likelihood of spelling and punctuation errors is much higher.
- Regarding Shirley Franklin’s desire to have tax “rebates” go to the lecherous parasites that don’t pay any taxes in the first place, whose money are we going to give to them?
- Traffic in Atlanta is bad enough without people parking on Peachtree and on both sides of 5th Street. I’m sorry, but there should be another solution. There are many pay-to-park lots that are open on Sunday mornings. Park there.
- There really are some of us Georgia Peaches who have nothing against Yankees, only the ones that constantly criticize everything about the South.
- Who gives a rat’s whatever on how much you pay for coffee!!? Get off your lazy butt and make your own!
- Will someone tell the AJC to stop throwing all these “free” newspapers in front of houses that already have a dozen wet soggy newspapers in the driveway.
The model of citizen activism.
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