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Ike
Alabama 2
The campaign for Republican Caroleene Dobson in Alabama’s Congressional District 2 has tried to paint Democratic opponent Shomari Figures as too much of a Washington insider. Figures, however, isn’t trying to hide national connections.
Figures comes from a political family and has worked in the Obama and Biden administrations.
Look for democrats to pour into the state this week as the national party hopes to flip Alabama 2 for the first time in 14 years, reports AL.com’s John Sharp.
You have to go back to 2010 when Martha Roby beat Bobby Bright to flip the seat red. A Figures victory would give Alabama two Democrats out of its seven lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett of Texas was in Montgomery over the weekend for a roundtable at a church and to meet with students at Alabama State.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will follow that up today by campaigning with Figures in Mobile. Then later in the week House Minority Leader and New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries will be on the stump in Montgomery.
The prized Wurlitzer
After eight months offline, the big pipe organ is back to work to work at Birmingham’s Alabama Theatre, reports AL.com’s Mary Colurso.
The Mighty Wurlitzer organ was built in 1927. That’s the year Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs and also the year that The Alabama Theatre opened on Christmas Day. People in the theater that day and many others over nearly a hundred years have watched the big pipe organ rise up from below the stage to put on a show.
Along the way it’s picked up the nickname “Big Bertha.”
Actually, much of the instrument stays tucked away into parts of the building. But that console that you see rise up is what has spent a few months undergoing repairs and maintenance at A.E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Co. in Lithonia, Georgia. It’s the first major work done on the organ since 1998.
It made it back to The Alabama in time for this past weekend’s screening of the 1925 silent film “The Phantom of the Opera.”
Delayed gratification
NASCAR has officially recognized Hueytown’s Bobby Allison as the winner of the 1971 Myers Brothers Memorial.
Whether he finished the race first, in front of Richard Petty, was never in dispute. But there was an issue because both the Grand American and Grand National Series ran at the same time together on the track, an occasional practice at the time, and Allison was driving his Grand American car.
So when he won the race, he wasn’t credited with a win in Grand National — NASCAR’s top series at the time.
NASCAR has rectified that 53 years later, reports AL.com’s Mark Inabinett.
And it’s actually a bigger deal than it sounds. Allison had been tied with Darrell Waltrip for fourth place in career wins, so now he sits alone in fourth place.
The top 5 in all-time wins are Petty (200), David Pearson (105), Jeff Gordon (93), Allison (85) and Waltrip (84).
(Sorry, D.W.)
Picture that
The University of Alabama’s homecoming sorority lawn/canvas decorations feature Kalen DeBoer, Nick Saban, Big Al and more. The 2024 theme is “New Era, Same Standard.” (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)Ben Flanagan
Quoting
“What you’re going to see is that you don’t know as much as you think you know. You’ll learn that as smart as you think you are, you’ll be shocked at how much you don’t know.”
By the Numbers
2
That’s how many hours it took for Morgan Wallen’s “Sand in My Boots” music festival to sell out.
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