Sylvie wrote: "The ATOW is a WONDERFUL idea!!!"
Harry Dewey (Fri, 05 Sep 2003 04:07:41 PDT)

John Mitchell, Attorney General of the United States during the Nixon
presidency, said (about the Watergate scandal) "When things begin to
unravel, they unravel completely." The latest news to unravel is that
Bibbs Gamber, of Dothan, Alabama, was responsible for the original idea
from which our Alpine Topic Of the Week is descended.

Kelly Irvin (to whom Jim Waddick gave credit for the TOW idea in the
first ATOW announcement on Alpine-L almost a week ago) has sent me --
and copied to the PBS (Pacific Bulb Society) list -- tidbits that give
credit to Bibbs Gamber. Excerpts from his personal message follow my
signature, below.:

I'm happy to report that, as Kelly emphasizes, Alpine-Lves have
recognized the importance of continuing to intersperse questions and
answers about other topics among the ATOWs, resulting in a healthy and
interesting mix.

Thank you, Ann Kline, for your recollections of Mary Sue Ittner's
success with the Topic-of-the-Week idea on the IBS emailinglist some
five years ago.

Does anyone have an email address for "Alabama Grandma" (Bibbs Gamber)?
If so, please post it directly to Alpine-L. She deserves thanks from
any of us who appreciate her contribution. If you are reading this on
the PBS list (to which I'm copying this posting), please post her
address to Alpine-L-request@nic.surfnet.NL if you are not a subscriber
to Alpine-L, and therefore unable to post directly, to it.

I'm tempted to suggest a change of name for our ATOWs to AGTOWs (for
Alabama Grandma Topic of the Week -- er, excuse me, I mean Alpine
Gardening Topic of the Week). I suppose that's going too far, but I'll
be happy for anyone to use either abbreviation. Whichever, you use,
would you mind putting it at the END of the subject headers instead of
at the beginning? As in:

Subject: Smaller iris (ATOW)
instead of
Subject: ATOW - Smaller iris

I know our original ATOW announcement showed it at the beginning.
Please forgive me for the goof..
.And don't forget to read about Alabama Grandma's brilliant contribution
following my signature.

Greetings to all, from

Harry (Harry Dewey, moderator, Alpine-L)

Kelly wrote me:

<<<<<I must add a critical name to the formula. Her name is Bibbs
Gamber, and she offered the idea within a month of joining the IBS Forum
back in December of '98. Nothing ever happens if an idea is not first
conceived and expressed. Also, the discussion formula that was devised
and named GENERA52 for the year 1999, was nothing so nearly elaborate
and effective as what Mary Sue and her talented, enthusiastic team have
put together.

I must emphasize, if nobody minds, that its critical success is in being
"married" to the existing spontaneous behavior of existing e-mail lists;
a bringing together of opposite approaches. I do not believe a
scheduled-only topics based list's or a spontaneous-only topics based
list's, separate success, equals the combined success of both styles
within ONE list. The idea is based on a theory of cooperation where 1 +
1 no longer equals 2, but maybe 3 or 4. When I put GENERA52 together, it
took 2 or 3 months for people to realize spontaneous topics were still
an invited and, I believe, necessary part of list discussion.
Essentially, having both helped remove lulls in discussion that would
normally exist if only one of the styles was an acceptable part of list
protocol.

Again, thank you for your comments. They sure made my day (or even year)....

Information I found in my records on "Bibbs"...

Harry Dewey wrote:

--
Mr. Kelly M. Irvin
The Bulbmeister
4407 Town Vu Road
Bentonville, AR 72712
479-685-1339

USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 6b

E-mail: mailto:bulbmeister@bulbmeister.com
Website: http://www.bulbmeister.com/
Forum: http://www.bulbmeister.com/forum/