Courtesy: Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center
20/20 Hindsight: The History Center’s #wouldagrammed
If smartphones existed back in the day, would W.T. Sherman have posted a shot of the ATL in flames? Would patrons of Jacobs’s Pharmacy have snapped their fountain glasses frothing with a new beverage called Coca-Cola? You bet. The next best thing is the retroscripting by the Atlanta History Center’s savvy social media team, which posts images from the center’s archive on Instagram with ideal zeitgeisty timing: a shot of 1892 trolley construction on Edgewood Avenue just as 2013 streetcar track installation on the same street marks a milestone, for instance. But most captivating are everyday glimpses of the city’s past, like dapper 1881 shoppers at a Whitehall Street hat emporium or 1940s passengers dismayed by a wailing infant in the airport terminal.
How the other half Tweets
Want to avoid a social media echo chamber? Lefties: Follow WSB and Fox News personality Erick Erickson. The RedState.com editor in chief leavens right-wing talking points with tweets on suburban fatherhood, making any vitriol go down easy. For those on the right, we endorse James Earl Carter IV, grandson of Jimmy, wrangler of that “47 percent” video, and Atlanta-based political researcher with lightning-fast wit.
Worth the paywall
We’re still gobsmacked by the AJC’s decision to launch a second website rather than beef up its first. But here are three reasons to pay for myAJC.com: Katie Leslie, Greg Bluestein, and Aaron Gould Sheinin. This trio put in the shoe-leather reporting that click-bait aggregation will never replace.
Siri, phone home
So your iPhone “assistant” Siri is voiced by Susan Bennett, an actress who lives in Sandy Springs? “Yes, I worry about how many times I get cursed every day,” she told CNN. Bennett herself never cusses Siri: “Bad karma.”
This article originally appeared in our December 2013 issue.
