WEDNESDAY'S LIST ... of beans 'n greens 'n other things: DON'T WAKE me up, I must be dreaming ...

That was my first thought a week back when I picked up this newspaper and read the opening paragraph of a front page story:

"The Anniston City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to hire Richard Finn as its next city manager."

That's a 5-0 vote, it apparently came with no death threats, it came with not one single council member storming from the meeting and threatening to sue ... or asking the governor to call out the National Guard.

Yeah, when it comes to Anniston's City Council, I'm a cynic. And one of the better looks at the local "midway" came from commentary editor Phillip Tutor a couple of days after Finn's selection.

Entitled "A primer for Anniston's new city manager," it pretty much put on the table the ill winds and affliction of plain old nastiness that has been the hallmark of the current council. Tutor, among other things, pointed out that Anniston has had no less than four "city managers" — George Monk, Allen Fletcher, Police Chief John Dryden and Fire Chief Bill Fincher — since December.

That's seven months and (I really can't help this), if this were Vegas, what do you think would be Mr. Finn's "over-and-under" on his time here.

Like I said, when it comes to this bunch, I really am a cynic ...

*** THAT WAS a very good class that the Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame inducted recently ... Carlton Rankin, Robert Motley, Harold Warren, Jenni Chandler, Council Rudolph, and the late Jimmy Pettus.

I was fortunate, as a sports writer, to watch and report on Rankin, Warren and Pettus and I'm sorry I missed the induction.

Truth is, as of 10 a.m. that morning, I had ticket in hand and tie all picked out when the phone rang with the message that "your grandsons are in town and we're coming to your house tonight for Father's Day."

*** BUT I DID visit with Rankin Saturday night at his father-in-law's birthday party, number 90 for Dr. Don J. Salls, former head football coach at Jacksonville State and a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

Salls, who was at JSU in my early years in sports, had a grand time. So did a number of his former players, including Little All-America Ray Vinson (Oxford) and Terry "Shaky" Hodges, a member of Salls' first team at JSU.

I hope I'm around to be invited to Salls' 100th 'cause he sure looks like a good bet to get there ...

*** BIRTHDAYS:
George Smith can be reached at 239-5286 or e-mail: gsmith731@gmail.com.