Also, the AJC recently did a treatise on grits, which still exists under the radar in California, where I lived for many years. But Barnhart cast his vote for a Greensboro, GA, eatery, and the AJC did not rank the Waffle House among the top purveyors of the hominy-based delicacy.

So I ask, does an individually owned restaurant have any kind of real advantage over a chain?

California certainly has many great Mexican restaurants. My favorite is the Old Town Mexican Cafe in San Diego, which allows people to actually view the tortillas being made. But I’ve also had many a tasty bargain enchilada at Acapulco, a widely known chain in that area.

Seems sometimes people want to overly romanticize a mom-and-pop type operation. Yes, they do have individual personalities and heritages. However, I say that alone does not make them better.

I personally think the Sonny’s restaurant chain does as good a job at barbecue as anyone. So sound off: What is your favorite for barbecue, and why? (And you can get Mexican if you want, too.)

From now on, my media blogging will roost at the “human clipping service” blog. So I’ve been dubbed, after my daily habit of e-mailing news items all over the globe.

I’ll also return here to deal with non-media issues, such as grits vs. guacamole, Herschel Walker vs. Marcus Allen, and other items stemming from my bicoastal background. Living in two virtual worlds will be fun.

But the LA Times shed some light on an interesting fact and something that also is important to me. Seems Kevin Love of UCLA is part of a very interesting SoCal family.

Kevin’s uncle, Mike, is the famous lead singer of the Beach Boys, the group that exported Southern California culture to other parts of the globe, beginning in the 1960s. I became a fan of the group as an Alabama youngster in the 1960s and kept the faith until moving to California in 1985. Kevin’s father, Stan, was a college and pro basketball player and once cared for Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ guru, during Wilson’s bouts with drugs and emotional problems.

I even remember chatting with Love in the crowd in Atlanta before a Beach Boys gig there in the 1970s. I was so thrilled!

You can take the boy out of California, but I’ll still be a fan of the Bruins and other Golden State teams (unless it tests my Georgia connections). Go Bruins!

A recent story in the AJC told how the Atlanta police carefully controlled the tense atmosphere in Atlanta in 1968, so as not to let the King shooting be a catalyst for fires and riots in King’s hometown.

Contrast that with the inept performance of Los Angeles police in the events following the videotaped beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police, which led to the vicious, destructive riots in 1992.

I feel a bit of kinship with both areas. I was a high schooler in Atlanta when King was gunned down, and I remember how tense the area was. Also, I was a Southern California resident in the 1990s, and the King beating took place just a few miles away from where I was preparing to run the 1991 Los Angeles Marathon. And I can remember in my youth in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1950s the “white” and “colored” signs over drinking fountains in department stores.

The acquittal of the L.A. police officers in state Superior Court a year later touched off the ’92 riots, and L.A. police where all but invisible during the unbelievable melee that resulted in widespread injury and destruction.

So King’s legacy is not just the societal changes that we see every day. It’s how those around him handled other events. Atlanta can still be proud.

This will be the final season for Yankee Stadium, the House That Ruth Built and perhaps baseball’s best-known monument. It likely means I’ll never get to attend a game there, but what memories are associated with that storied edifice. As my tribute, I’m including a New York Times photo slideshow of the stadium.

However, the Los Angeles Dodgers, another tradition-rich team, did its part to keep the past alive on 3/29/08. The Dodgers played an exhibition game in the venerable Los Angeles Coliseum, their initial home in L.A., and the game drew 115,000 people. Cool!

Back to the mundane present: I think this will be the last season for a while that the Braves will have a chance to win any kind of title.

 John Smoltz and Tom Glavine likely are in their final seasons. Mike Hampton is injury prone, as is aging Chipper Jones, one of the last links to the glory days of the ’9os. And Bobby Cox  won’t manage much longer. Sure Braves fans got spoiled then, but it’ll be fun to see if those guys have one title left in them. Play ball!

Donosky, in my view the most informative and engaging member of the panel, feels that technology is a tool for journalists/bloggers, not an end in itself. She noted that some bloggers (but not all) were credentialed for the trial of “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff for VP Dick Cheney.

Many AJC reporters and columnists have their own blogs,  and Donosky said the paper’s philosophy is for bloggers to stick to their traditional roles. For example, reporters are not to opine in blogs, but for columnists, it’s OK. And seems that longtime AJC business columnist Maria Saporta, who is well connected in the ATL, is about to get her own blog.

David Rubinger, an Equifax communications exec, compared the blogosphere to the Wild West. He spends much time and resources to protect his brand identity from predatory and unprincipled bloggers. Interesting turnabout, eh, since Equifax is famous for recording and disseminating financial information on others.

I also enjoyed the question/comment from Atlanta-area educator Leonard Witt when he said one strength of the blogosphere/social media scene is to counteract growing consolidation among traditional media companies.

Good point. In Atlanta, Cox is dominant. It owns the AJC and WSB, leader in TV and radio. And everyone knows how strong FOX is getting nationally. I agree with Witt that such is not healthy for the U.S. democracy.

Remember how bloggers unearthed the info that poked holes in Dan Rather’s National Guard story on President Bush? Also, anyone who was around Atlanta during the recent tornadoes knows that citizen journalists offered as much coverage as traditional media did.

And audience member Art Harris, a former CNN and Washington Post reporter, offers another example of how someone with a traditional media background can excel in the new world.

Others on the APC panel were educator Gregory Lisby and executive Jeremy Garlington. Fellow media bloggers were out in force, so check out Griftdrift, Shelbinator and MostlyMedia for other accounts of the event.

 The Los Angeles Times, arguably the nation’s third most influential newspaper, apologized in editions of 3/27/08 for an article earlier this month about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur. Apparently, purported FBI documents cited by the Times now are thought to be forged.

And the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in my view, dropped the ball about widespread flight cancellations late on March 26 at Hartsfield International Airport, the nation’s busiest.

The AJC, which normally covers Hartsfield and hometown Delta like a blanket, looked foolish when morning TV shows on March 27 had footage of stranded travelers, and AJC readers had to go below the fold on the METRO COVER to find any mention of the schedule disruption, which was ordered for safety reasons.

The AJC has been known to hold or remake A1 for a football game or even a late Braves baseball affair, so it’s hard to understand why they didn’t rip up the cover for something they had to know would have an international ripple effect. Yes, it’s on their Web site, but news is news.

The Times and others already should have been excessively wary of potentially forged documents. Remember the George W. Bush National Guard hoax that was uncovered by bloggers and eventually forced Dan Rather’s banishment?

 The Times, which reports heavily on the entertainment industry, perhaps should have checked closer with the FBI about the documents, although law enforcement can be very uncooperative.

Still, with all the noted pressure from the Internet, the Times and AJC should be helping themselves out better than this.

Signs that this is taking root: Microsoft is at work on a political aggregator called “blews.” (What focus group begat that name?) Apparently, it attempts to sort out what’s important, and color-codes it.

I find aggregators convenient for certain things, like job  hunting. Rather than go to a jillion sites, an aggregator can bring you several opportunities in a field that’s suitable for you.

But politics is one of those areas (like entertainment, religion, sports) where individual preferences, thought and emotion are very important. And one of the pluses of the Internet is that everyone’s equal. So kinda scary that Microsoft is trying to become the authority here. (On technology or software, I’d understand it.)

Word is that MSFT will be presenting “blews” the week of 3/31/08 in Seattle. Stay tuned.

On the other hand, maybe it will create a backlash and induce MORE individual reaction. We shall see.

Of course, I miss that weather, and Pacific time is great for football viewing. Hey, you can watch an Eastern game and still get beach time in.

But one of the most underrated attractions about California is the floral landscape. This time of year is particularly beautiful, as this LA Times story/photo package points out. (Unless I missed it, they didn’t mention the flower fields near I-5 in Carlsbad, near San Diego.) And Orange County has nice viewing, too.

(OK, Georgia ain’t bad, either. Especially as Masters week nears. Azalea fans, rejoice.)

Enjoy!

There’s a report that the Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers and TV stations, is thinking of selling Newsday, the large Long Island, NY, daily. Interested parties include Mortimer B. Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News, and Cablevision Systems.

Folks, those are successful companies who know how to make money. So they obviously see something desirable in Newsday. And let’s remember that Tribune itself is still new under the leadership of Sam Zell, who bought the company last year and took it private. And Rupert Murdoch, who loves big profits, sure coveted The Wall Street Journal.

A few years  ago, The Orange County (CA) Register, dominant daily publication in an affluent area of 3 million people, was floated for sale by the controlling Hoiles family, famous for internal strife that handcuffs its management. Gannett was among the suitors, before the Hoiles cut a deal with private equity investors that allowed the family to retain controlling interest.

So if blogging is all the rage, why are so many execs blowing it off? Methinks its much more popular for personal reasons, though smaller businesses are really getting into it. And hey, Facebook may be wildly popular, but it’s losing money. That’s why they raided Google recently for a VP.

And there’s word from Britain of a huge printing press. (Newspapers are still very popular in Europe, where lifestyle and commuting habits are different from the U.S.)

My take: Executive types still realize that daily newspapers are respected institutions with unique First Amendment protection. They also still generate a lot of ad revenue, and they have the credibility and resources that few other information providers anywhere can match. This translates to online, too, where one always has to be careful about sources.