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Monday musings
Dec. 8 — After beating Alabama 28-7 to win the SEC Championship, No. 3 Georgia has a first-round bye in the expanded College Football Playoff. The Dawgs will face Ole Miss or Tulane in the Quarterfinals on Jan. 1. Here’s the complete bracket.
☁️ Showers and 52° today.
🏈 No. 23 Georgia Tech will play No. 12 BYU in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando on Dec. 27.
😞 The Falcons were routed 37-9 by Seattle, locking in their eighth straight losing season.
📺 Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told “60 Minutes” that she is leaving Congress because politics has become dangerously toxic, saying threats against her family made the job untenable.
🚘 A new auxiliary travel lane will open on I-285 westbound between Roswell Road and Riverside Drive today, weather permitting.
💉 Georgia is installing overdose reversal kits at all public schools in the state using money from a pharmaceutical industry legal settlement.
⚾ Braves legend Dale Murphy came up short again as the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Era Committee chose Jeff Kent as the year’s lone inductee. 🎨 Gov. Brian Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp honored ten individuals and organizations during the 14th annual Governor’s Awards for the Arts & Humanities.
🐳 A team led by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources worked for two days from the sea, air, and land to rescue an endangered right whale caught in fishing gear.
ELSEWHERE
⚖️ The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the president’s firing of the FTC commissioner, a case that could upend decades of limits on presidential control over independent agencies.
➡ The National Park Service removed Juneteenth and MLK Day from its list of free admission days, but added President Donald Trump’s birthday, which falls on Flag Day.
🕖 Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:
• Lewis BBQ opens at Ansley Mall
• Lauderhill’s Fine Jewelry
• Global Headlines
AND
• Look & Listen
☃️ Playfully Perimeter is taking over the ice at High Street on Dec. 11! Between 12-5 p.m., enjoy free skating, hot cocoa, and Perimeter goodies. Don’t miss your free entry to a winter wonderland. Sign up today! SPONSOR MESSAGE
1. Charleston’s Lewis Barbecue makes its debut at Ansley Mall
🍖 Charleston-based Lewis Barbecue will open its first Georgia location at Ansley Mall in Piedmont Heights today, Dec. 8.
The barbecue restaurant flanks the Beltline, with a blue bridge spanning a gully that provides pedestrians and cyclists on the trail direct access to Ansley Mall.
A counter-service restaurant specializing in Texas-style barbecue (pit master and founder John Lewis spent his formative years in El Paso and Austin), Lewis Barbecue first opened in Charleston nearly a decade ago. The Charleston location was just added to the Michelin Guide to the American South as a Bib Gourmand.
🥩 Learn more about the opening here.
SHOCK CLOSURES
❌ Two Atlanta restaurant staples announced their closures to the dismay of longtime customers:
Agave in Cabbagetown will close Jan. 31 after more than 25 years.
Daddy D’z in Grant Park will close on Dec. 31 after 35 years.
Lecture Series with Brendan Murphy
SPONSORED BY BEARING WITNESS INSTITUTE AT MARIST SCHOOL
✨ Join us this January and February for a powerful, three-part adult education series examining the history of Jewish–Christian relations.
📜 From the roots of Christian antisemitism to the horrors of the Holocaust and the hopeful pathways of reconciliation today, participants will explore this complex story with clarity and compassion. The series includes an in-depth historical overview, a focused session on the Holocaust, and a moving testimony from survivor George Rishfeld.
✔️ All are welcome to deepen understanding and strengthen interfaith commitment.
2. Lauderhill’s Fine Jewelry has served Dunwoody for decades
💎 Lauderhill’s Fine Jewelry has served Dunwoody and the Perimeter area as a family-owned business for more than 43 years.
Geneva Barnhill (pictured) opened the store with her husband, Frank, in 1981 at Orchard Park shopping center.
Geneva said they opened the store “on a wing and a prayer” with the help of the family’s supporters. After just three months, Lauderhill’s was a success.
🛍️ Find out more about the shop here.
3. Zelensky in London; F1 Champion
🇷🇺🇺🇦 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet European leaders in London after President Donald Trump accused him of not reading the U.S. peace proposal to end the war with Russia, as talks showed little progress.
🇧🇯 Benin’s government said the country’s operations are running as normal after it said it thwarted an attempted military coup on Sunday.
🇸🇩 A Sudanese paramilitary drone strike hit a kindergarten, killing 50 people, including 33 children.
🇨🇦 A massive 7.0 earthquake shook a remote area bordering Alaska and the Canadian Yukon.
🇲🇽 Criminal gangs tied to drug trafficking are suspected of staging a truck explosion Sunday near a Mexican prison.
🇮🇳 More than two dozen people are confirmed dead in a nightclub fire in the popular tourist city of Goa on the eastern coast of India.
🇵🇬 A rare set of conjoined twins from Papua New Guinea was urgently airlifted to Australia after doctors said immediate separation was their only chance of survival.
🇸🇾 Visa will begin operating in Syria for the first time in more than a decade, partnering with the Syrian Central Bank to rebuild a modern payments system after years of war and sanctions.
🇪🇺 Europe opened an antitrust investigation into Meta over a WhatsApp policy that may restrict AI providers, raising concerns about stifled competition.
🏁 McLaren’s Lando Norris clinched his first Formula One championship in Abu Dhabi, finishing third to edge Max Verstappen by two points and become Britain’s first champion since 2020.
🗓️ Atlanta’s World Cup moment is here. Join the World Affairs Council of Atlanta for a dynamic fireside chat on Jan. 27 with Katie Kirkpatrick, President & CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, discussing this once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase the city on the global stage. Reserve your table today.
🎸 The Bloom Effect presents Holidaze! Smith’s Olde Bar is the place to be on this festive night of rock ‘n’ roll on Fri., Dec. 12, spotlighting artists Five Eight and The Ladies Of… featuring James Hall. Doors open at 7; show starts at 8 p.m. 18+ only. SPONSOR MESSAGE
4. Journalism dramas & milestones
Vanity Fair is parting ways with West Coast Editor Olivia Nuzzi amid an ongoing scandal over her relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while she was profiling him for New York Magazine, and engaged to fellow journalist Ryan Lizza.
🎙️ Puck’s “The Grill Room” revisits the seemingly endless loop of the Nuzzi-Lizza saga.
💻 In a sit-down interview with The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, Nuzzi talks about the ethical breaches that cost her her job.
🎙️ The “People vs. Algorithms” podcast talks about the Nuzzi spectacle and why legacy media needs main character energy again.
RELATED
📰 The Society for Professional Journalists has called out the White House for creating a website that targets journalists who publish unfavorable coverage of the Trump administration.
👓 And for a more positive palate cleanser, The New Yorker turned 100, and there’s a Netflix documentary marking the milestone. Editor David Remnick joined the “Mixed Signals” podcast to discuss.
☃️ Playfully Perimeter is taking over the ice at High Street on Dec. 11! Between 12-5 p.m., enjoy free skating, hot cocoa, and Perimeter goodies. Don’t miss your free entry to a winter wonderland. Sign up today! SPONSOR MESSAGE
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