by Whitney Crouch

wcrouch@timescourier.com

The Gilmer High SchoolTheatre Department’s pro-duction of the comedy“Once Upon a Mattress”was marked by rollickinggood humor and highlight-ed the theatrical and musi-

cal talents of over 20 localstudents. Performances of this

adaptation Hans ChristianAndersen’s classic fairy tale“The Princess and the Pea”were held in the high schoolauditorium Thursday, Oct.20 and Friday, Oct. 21 at 7p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 23 at

3 p.m. “My students are very

driven and they want to bethe best, and that drive hasmade the show what it is,”stated Sarah Harbin, who isin her second year as thedrama and chorus teacherat GHS. “Once Upon a Mattress”

is set in a small kingdomruled by “a talkative queenand a mute king.” In an effort to maintain

control over her son, PrinceDauntless, the queen worksdiligently to prevent himfrom getting married andputs would-be bridesthrough a variety ofunbeatable tests, including

feats of strength and a chal-lenging quiz that concludeswith the question “Whatwas the middle name of thedaughter-in-law of the bestfriend of the blacksmithwho forged the sword thatkilled the Beast?”To further complicate

Ihave been in computerlimbo the past week. Mylaptop at home crashed. I

do a lot of mywriting forthe Times-Courier athome andalso use it forinformationstorage fortwo organiza-tions I’minvolvedwith, plusphotos.But it began shutting down

on me unexpectedly and giv-ing me a warning that theoperating system was notfound.Fortunately, I was able to

save most of the informationI wanted but was not able tosave my e-mail contact filefrom Outlook before I took itto North Georgia Computersnear the square.After more than a day of

trying to recover the harddrive, they said I would needa new hard drive. That wouldget my laptop back runningbut I would lose all of myfiles and programs. No problem. I have the

installation discs and haveloaded them before. I satdown last Friday and begantackling the problem. Firstoff, I needed to connect to theInternet via our wirelessrouter. After figuring outearly on that I didn’t knowhow to do that, I called ETC.After about 20 minutes, theyhad me connected.Great. How about e-mail? I

spent a good hour trying tofigure that out before con-tacting GoDaddy, which runsour e-mail, for help. The help-ful technician hit a snag andsaid I should contactMicrosoft for assistance. I didmention that I was runningVista as my operating sys-tem. “Oh no, that’s evil,” hesaid. “It (Vista) has lots ofproblems.”Well, Vista came with the

laptop, so I was stuck with itunless I wanted to fork overanother $119 for Windows 7.I contacted Microsoft on-

line and was directed to aninstant help line. After a fewcursory questions andanswers, they called medirectly.Rouson, in India, was not

only hard to understand withhis broken English, but hardto get through to with myproblem. After about 45 min-utes, he couldn’t figure out asolution. He said because Iwas not a paid Microsoft sup-port customer, he could fixmy problem and give me life-time maintenance for $159. Ijust wanted a simple solu-tion, not a sales pitch.So, back to ETC. By the

way, their tech people aresuperb. It took about 20 min-utes to figure out my pass-words were not coordinated.Problem solved.Next, I figured I’d better

install my system to blockunwanted viruses or spam. Icalled Bit Defender, whichwe’ve used with great successfor several years. The compa-ny is located in Germany butI was talking with a tech per-son in Romania. She wasvery patient and helped leadme through uninstalling theother antivirus programsbefore installing BitDefender. Finally, I could get onto the

Internet, send e-mails andenable my other tasks.

www.timescourier.com

Ryan

R Rees

rrees@

timescourier.com

Around Town DThursday, October 27, 2011Your Official Source For Hometown and Area Happenings

Being in computerlimbo is no fun

Saturday Cherry Log Music Fest to benefit foodpantries in Gilmer, Fannin

by Michael Andrews

andrews@timescourier.com

Cherry Log Christian Church will befilled with singing, picking and goodwill Saturday, Oct. 29, as the fifthannual Cherry Log Music Fest getsunder way at the community churchbeginning at 11 a.m. Proceeds from the concert and plate

lunch will benefit both the GilmerCounty Community Food Pantry andthe Americorps Food Pantry of FanninCounty. Admission prices are $10 foradults and $5 for kids age 6 and under,which includes a hamburger or hot doglunch with baked beans, slaw, chips,cookie and a drink.“Burgers, ‘dogs and bluegrass is the

theme of this year’s festival,” saidMusic Fest organizer Byron Windham.The down-home festival has become

a yearly tradition for many fans ofbluegrass music in the north Georgiamountains. This year’s event is sched-

uled to feature performances by BobbyDon Bloodworth and the GopherBrokeBand, Borrowed Time and the RiverPark Band featuring Cleve Oliver.Each group has strong ties to theCherry Log community and the bandmembers are no strangers to localmusic fans of that area.Together since 1984, the

GopherBroke Band is synonymouswith the songwriting and singing tal-ents of Morganton resident Bobby DonBloodworth, a songwriter whose tuneshave been used in advertisements byGeorgia businesses Pike FamilyNurseries and Pied Piper Pest Control.It was Bloodworth who first encour-aged green-thumbed Georgians “playin the dirt again,” with his song thathas been used for many years as theofficial slogan of the Atlanta-basednursery chain.With the GopherBroke Band, which

Photo by Michael Andrews

Borrowed Time, featuring mandolinist Beth  Perry, left, and

guitarist/singer Harriett Frye, right, will be one of three acts pitching in

for the fifth annual Cherry Log Music Fest, a fundraising concert for the

Gilmer and Fannin County food pantries Saturday, Oct. 29.

New Appalachian circuit CASAs sworn in

Contributed photo

Five newly trained Appalachian Judicial  Circuit CASAs (Court

Appointed Special Advocates) were recently sworn in by Chief

Juvenile Court Judge John Worcester. Pictured above are new

CASAs Sue Hughes, Sheila Traub, Bernadette MacArthur, Tracey

Davis and Neal Turner, along with CASA and judicial circuit staff

members Joy Brasch, Dianne Scoggins, Susan Barnhill, Latisha

Flesher and Judge Worcester. The local circuit recruits and trains

volunteer CASAs to speak for the best interests of abused or neg-

lected children during juvenile court proceedings. To find out more

on how to become a trained volunteer, call the Appalachian CASA

office at 706-276-2272.

Georgia Dept. of Labor

Georgia’s seasonally adjustedunemployment rate rose to 10.3percent in September, its highestlevel since January. TheSeptember rate was up one-tenthof a percentage point from 10.2percent in August. The state’s job-less rate was also 10.2 percent inSeptember a year ago. The rate increased due to

Georgia losing jobs in Septemberand many new job seekers contin-uously being unable to find work.The number of jobs in Georgia

decreased 15,100, or four-tenths ofa percentage point, from August to3,793,200. Most of the loss wasamong seasonal workers in leisureand hospitality.Although the rate increased,

Labor Commissioner Mark Butlerexpressed that there are some pos-itive economic signs in thismonth’s report. “One positive isfewer layoffs, which results in asmaller quantity of initial unem-ployment claims,” he said. While there were 3,200 new jobs

Humor and musicality highlight GHStheatre production of ‘Once Upon a Mattress’

Georgia’s jobless rate on the rise

Photos by Whitney Crouch

Above, the cast of Gilmer High School’s production of “Once Upon a Mattress” sing

of the relationship woes of Prince Dauntless, portrayed by Adam Crook, center, during

the musical number “An Opening for a Princess.” At right, after boisterously arriving

at the castle from her home in the swamps, Princess Winnifred, played by Jessica

Adams, explains that she is “actually terribly timid” in the song “Shy.”

See Cherry page 3D

See Jobless page 3D See Computer page 3D

See Mattress page 3D