Two things I’ve learned this week (and it’s only Wednesday):
Sunday was Scottish poet Robert Burns’ 250th birthday, so WRFG’s Celtic Show was playing some Burns ditties in tribute to the man. Then, two men from the Burns Club Atlanta came on to discuss the grand semiquincentennial celebratory activities for their beloved poet and the Burns Cottage of Atlanta. I did not know that Atlanta (Ormewood, specifically) in fact has an exact replica of Robert Burns’ childhood home, one of the very few in the world. Don’t worry if you missed out on Sunday’s festivities because there are apparently a whole year’s worth planned for 2009 (if you are a member of the private club)! After all, as the DJ pointed out, “It’s not every year that your hero turns 250.”
Another nuance of the city that slipped past my radar until now is the rumor of “cultlike behavior” at Your DeKalb Farmers Market. My professor mentioned this in class, and added that they adhere to some sort of management strategy that some workers are thinkers and some are doers. Those in either camp are labeled by a black or white dot on their nametags so that the thinkers can always be paired with a doer to accomplish a task, ensuring the best of both worlds will be applied. I think I recall some dots on the YDFM nametags, but I am usually more preoccupied by the list of languages each employee can speak. Insisting on dividing your staff into thinkers or doers doesn’t really count as cultlike in my opinion, but I was able to find an article from 1989 about some New Age-y stuff going down over involving a set of practices called “the Forum” that does seem to tie some significance to thought and action in leadership.
Please feel free to leave other unsubstantiated gossip in the comments.
Tags: burns cottage of atlanta, robert burns, wrfg, your dekalb farmer's market
Regarding those mysterious dots: The AJC’s John Kessler addressed this in a 2003 article about the market. The white dots, he wrote, signify that an employee has “expanding energy.” The black dot is just the opposite, ie, “contracting energy.” Really.
The expanders are thinkers. The contracting types are the doers.
It was reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, so you know it is accurate.
I tried AJC.com but the searching in those online archives is terrible! Terrible, I tell you! I don’t want to know that “Birmingham farmers market has partylike vibe”!! I want to know about cults! Please do something about this, Mark Davis!
I am busy, you know, chronicling the fauna community in all its guises — feather, fur, fang.
I feel as though one is not supposed to say anything negative about YDFM. Friends of mine who recommended it to me when I moved back to Atlanta last year spoke of it as a sort of Holy Grail. And indeed, it has a fantastic selection and the produce is very fresh and very cheap.
But I think in exchange for cheap and fresh, you have to give up certain rights. There are no returns, for example. A friend realized at his car that he had forgotten eggs that he had PAID for already on the counter and when he went back literally two minutes later, they said we can’t help you (no refund, no new carton of eggs, no original carton of eggs — just go away).
And recently they refused to charge me a particular price even though it was written on a big sign, saying simply they had already changed the price in the computer and I was out of luck. No ‘sorry,’ no okay we’ll let this through but just so you know it’s the wrong price, not even a really really sorry but we can’t change it. Just STFU and accept it.
I suppose this is all a bit off-topic but I couldn’t resist.
I’ve given up shopping there because of the hassles and coming home to find my cheese tastes like the fishmonger. Gross. You should read Decatur Metro’s coverage of YDFM: http://decaturmetro.com/tag/your-dekalb-farmers-market/
i was at YDFM on saturday and as usual it was slammin’. i want to know the origin of their hiring policy.
i think the entirety of Atlanta’s Yemeni community works there.
i never knew about the Burn’s House!