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A tribute to ‘Senator Blutarsky.’ The Bulldog fan (and critic) behind ‘Get The Picture’ blog

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A tribute to ‘Senator Blutarsky.’ The Bulldog fan (and critic) behind ‘Get The Picture’ blog


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Writing about Georgia football serves a passionate fan base that wants to know about every nook and cranny going on with the program.

We have metrics that tell you which stories click with readers and which ones fizzle.

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There are writing awards that are a measure of quality work. A pay increase shows you are appreciated as well.

Really, though, there’s probably nothing as a beat writer that validated your work more than if Michael Brochstein, who posted under the handle “Senator Blutarsky,” thought it was worthy of offering his sharp insight into a story you wrote on his “Get The Picture,” Georgia-centric blog.

If he did, it often times felt like hitting a home run. If he didn’t, you thought, huh, maybe that wasn’t as good an angle as I thought.

We bring all this up because it’s a sad weekend for the countless Georgia fans who went to Brochstein’s blog for his perspective—not hot takes—on everything from Mike Bobo and Todd Monken’s playcalling, Kirby Smart’s “manball” philosophy to players emerging from an alley on scooters and getting ticketed by UGA police years ago.

More: Georgia football recruiting spending zooms past previous record figure in fiscal year 2023

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In the fall, his “Observations From the 35,” gave his sharp-eyed take on what he saw from his Sanford Stadium seat of the game that just passed.

It was an online community for fans to gather to see and chime in on Brochstein’s view on hot button issues in college football and everything and anything related to Georgia football.

The blog had some stops and starts more recently due to health issues—”getting old leaves something to be desired” he wrote in the first week of January after a slowdown on the blog. His final post came on Jan. 23 asking how much Georgia fans were contributing to the Bulldogs’ collective given Ohio State fans reportedly were shelling out big bucks.

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Brochstein passed away Thursday, according to a post on his blog Friday night.

Who was the man behind Senator Blutarsky? Here’s what he said in an email to me on Oct. 20, 2014 when I had him and other Georgia bloggers join us for our old podcast.

“As far as background goes, I’m a 1980 graduate of the UGA law school and a season ticket holder since 1981. I live in Atlanta. I started the blog immediately after the 2006 Georgia-Georgia Tech game and haven’t looked back since.”

The photo on top of the blog was Vince Dooley and James Brown together.

“Dooley’s Junkyard Dawgs” is the greatest college football song ever,” he wrote as a truth that is self evident on the blog.

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That fit perfectly for someone who did musical palate cleansers with videos of the likes of the Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, Beatles and most recently the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York.’

The tributes poured in starting Friday night on X (formerly Twitter):

“This hits hard. Georgia fans have lost one of their best voices. I enjoyed everything he wrote (envy and jealousy, indeed,) and I marveled at how he kept at it day after day. I hope he knew how essential he was to so many of us. RIP, Senator.—Brian Sugrue who posts at Dawgsonline.com.

“The Senator was the gold standard of CFB blogging, an inspiration. Legend. From his daily guidance of NCAA muddy waters, to fun sh** like the Montana Project,the @MummePoll,his viewpoint ‘tween the hedges…deeply sad. So RIP good Senator Blutarsky, will miss you daily—Chris Burnette of Bernie’s Dawg Blog.

“Damn this is really, really terrible news. He had by far the best Georgia specific blog that I’ve been reading for 15 years at least. I always looked forward to his recaps And good Lord did he hate Auburn Rest in Peace Senator Blutarsky. We’re really gonna miss you.”—Three Year Letterman, a light-hearted account that portrays himself as a “Youth Football Coaching Legend.”

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“The Senator was the best of Dawg Nation. There aren’t really any words, only he might would have the right ones. Prayers to his family and Heaven got another DGD tonight.”—CoachBG30.

Brochstein was born in Houston and lived in Athens since 1960, according to his LinkedIn page. He graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Economics in 1977.

“Three years of watching Virginia’s football program go down the toilet had soured me on the sport as a whole,” he wrote for a Bill Connelly SB Nation story in 2013 where he listed his 10 favorite college football games. “ [Georgia radio announcer] Larry Munson rekindled my love in one night with a radio call that Lewis Grizzard aptly described as ‘better than being there.’ Munson never did call the winning kick good. It didn’t matter.”

Brochstein practiced law in the areas of residential and commercial real estate after becoming a cum laude graduate of the UGA School of Law. He was a speaker on regulation and compliance topics to bank and mortgage companies.

Brochstein surely would have had something to say Friday about Chip Kelly bolting from the UCLA head coaching job to become Ohio State offensive coordinator.

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His voice will be sorely missed.

Marc Weiszer is the UGA beat writer for the Athens Banner-Herald. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @marcweiszer.





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11 fatal crashes, over 400 DUI arrests across Georgia during Thanksgiving travel period, officials say

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11 fatal crashes, over 400 DUI arrests across Georgia during Thanksgiving travel period, officials say


Georgia saw a double-digit number of deadly crashes during the busy Thanksgiving travel season, data from the Georgia Department of Public Safety reveals.

According to the department, 11 people died in crashes across the state between the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Sunday, including one double fatality in Newton County. Georgia State Patrol troopers responded to six of the deadly crashes, while local law enforcement agencies handled the remaining five. 

The agency says 498 crashes with 236 injuries were reported during the period. Of those crashes, 48 were associated with driving under the influence, officials said.

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The data shows that law enforcement arrested 422 drivers on DUI charges, issued 680 distracted driving citations, and 847 seatbelt citations.

The numbers are slightly lower than in 2024. Last year, DPH said troopers investigated more than 540 traffic crashes across Georgia, which resulted in nearly 265 injuries and 17 fatalities.

AAA predicted that 2.3 million travelers from Georgia would be traveling for Thanksgiving, with the majority of those driving to their holiday destinations. Atlanta was also one of the organization’s top 10 destinations for Thanksgiving for the second year in a row.



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Georgia 400 lane closures begin Monday night

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Georgia 400 lane closures begin Monday night


ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — A week of lane closures on Georgia 400 begins Monday night as crews work to build new express lanes.

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) said the closures will affect northbound and southbound lanes along a 16-mile stretch, from MARTA’s North Springs station in Fulton County to around 1 mile north of McFarland Parkway in Forsyth County, from Monday through Friday.

GDOT said the closures will last from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Monday, with some lane closures lasting from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. starting Tuesday.

The department urges drivers to expect delays, use caution and reduce their speed while traveling through work zones.

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Below are the details on the closures, according to GDOT:

Georgia 400 Northbound

  • SR 400 (Georgia 400) NB from Abernathy Road (MM 8) to Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) – Single outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 NB from Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) to Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 NB from Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) to SR 141 (MM 27) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 NB from Abernathy Road (MM 8) to Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 NB from Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) to Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 NB from Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) to SR 141 (MM 27) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 NB from McGinnis Ferry Road to Big Creek Trail – Outside shoulder closure – Tuesday, Dec. 2 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
  • SR 400 NB Northridge Road to Roberts Drive – Outside shoulder closure – Tuesday, Dec. 2 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Georgia 400 Southbound

  • SR 400 (Georgia 400) SB from SR 141 (MM 27) to Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 SB from Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) to Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 SB from Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) to Abernathy Road (MM 8) – Single, outside right-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 SB from SR 141 (MM 27) to Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 SB from Old Milton Parkway (MM 19) to Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • SR 400 SB from Holcomb Bridge Road (MM 15) to Abernathy Road (MM 8) – Double, inside left-lane and shoulder closure – Monday, Dec. 1, to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.

Other locations

  • Windward Parkway NB Exit – Single, left or right lane closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • Mansell Road NB Exit – Single, right lane closure – Monday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 p.m. – 5 a.m.
  • Roberts Drive – Lane closure – Tuesday, Dec. 2 to Friday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

The work schedule could change, so drivers should check the SR 400 Express Lanes website for the latest updates, GDOT said. Drivers can also check updates by calling “511,” visiting 511ga.org, or by downloading the “Georgia511” app.

RELATED COVERAGE:

Tolled express lanes on Ga. 400 become financial ‘reality’ after federal loan



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‘We have become so divided’: Georgia district prepares for life after Marjorie Taylor Greene

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‘We have become so divided’: Georgia district prepares for life after Marjorie Taylor Greene


Marjorie Taylor Greene for president. Randy Bone rolled the idea around in his hands for a second as he stood inside his wife’s antique shop in Ringgold, Georgia. He’s heard the talk. He’s even seen the prediction market action. He doesn’t have a problem with his boisterous, attention-seeking congresswoman. He just doesn’t think it will work.

“I don’t know. I don’t see her as one that is very attractive … You’ve got to focus on those that are kind of in the middle, and I don’t think that she’s unifying enough,” he said.

Greene has spent five years in Congress, drawing attention for wild conspiracies and outrageous statements about national politics. Last week, she announced that she would resign her seat in January.

Greene’s voters in north-west Georgia, contemplating her legacy with her impending exit from Congress, said they are less concerned about the culture war issues that have dominated her tenure than they are about the kitchen table concerns that drive their discontent.

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Bone, 55, a Ringgold resident and Trump supporter, said he is conservative but doesn’t describe himself as a Republican, though he is quick to distance himself from Democrats, except for former ones such as the director of national intelligence,, Tulsi Gabbard, and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

When asked what he wants out of Washington, he talks economic issues. “We want the economy to keep improving, you know what I mean? You want to be able to afford gas. You want to be able to afford vacations.”

Even in Ringgold, a suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee, housing costs have skyrocketed. Bone described how rapidly rising home values and high mortgage rates trap families like his: they have equity but cannot afford to move. He believes both parties have contributed to systemic economic problems.

“I’ve got a son that’s about to be 18. We have housing issues and it’s great for the boomers … Their houses have appreciated and appreciated, but that’s pushed out the younger kids to where they can’t afford houses.”

In the weeks before Greene’s break with Trump over the Epstein files, the congresswoman had been sounding alarms about the rising cost of health insurance and how it would affect voters. Trump and Greene have been trading increasingly vitriolic public comments ever since she signed the discharge petition to bring a vote before congress to release additional documents in the case.

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Joy Thorton, who owns an antique store and other buildings in downtown Ringgold, said she has never been a Greene supporter, and finds the spat hard to take seriously.

“If she was really pissed off, she would resign now, instead of waiting until January so she gets her pension,” Thorton said. “None of them should get it.”

Deep disagreement with Trump turned Thorton into a Democrat, she said. But her concerns remain fundamentally conservative: rising property values have come with rising property taxes. Homes under construction aren’t affordable for the people who have grown up in the area.

“I bet you there are a bunch of people in this county who will not be able to pay their property tax,” Thorton said. “And if it triples over a year, the super-wealthy will buy all that property out from under them.”

Greene has spoken out against Wall Street hedge fund managers buying up single-family residential properties, in the context of criticizing a Trump proposal for 50-year mortgages as a solution to the housing crisis. The public largely missed her comments, lost in the larger conflict between the two.

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There’s a vitriol in politics both in Washington and locally that seems pervasive, said Steven Henry, chair of the Catoosa county board of commissioners.

“We have become so divided – not just Democrat and Republican, but Republican left and Republican extremist,” Henry said. “I’ve been a Republican all my life, yet I’ve got Republicans who hate me because I’m not Republican enough. Even though I never raised taxes and held them every year I was in office … It boils down to I’m not loud, I’m not boisterous.”

Catoosa county is politically as red as a barn with a “See Rock City” sign on the way to Lookout Mountain. But internecine fighting on the county’s Republican party committee threatened to administer conservative “purity tests” to candidates before allowing them to run as Republicans – a gambit halted by state judges that remains the subject of a federal lawsuit.

Henry expects a scramble of office seekers for the open seat, with resignations from local office holders and a cascade of highly contested elections down the ballot. He did not say if he would seek the nomination himself. Instead, he lamented the unwillingness of competent leaders to step up and run for public office, its luster tarnished by withering, extreme abuse taken from a disillusioned public, he said.

Even Greene in parting has described an increase in death threats against her as motivation for her retreat.

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“Oh I haven’t suffered enough for you while you post all day behind a screen?” Greene said in response to a comment on X by conservative commentator Mike Cernovich. “Do I have to stay until I’m assassinated like our friend Charlie Kirk. Will that be good enough for you then?”

The internal squabbling over ideology will eventually give Democrats an opening, even in a place where Republican leadership thoroughly dominates local politics, Henry said. “Maybe it will take some strong opponent on the Democratic side to get us back, focused on just doing the job.”

For Charles Carroll, owner of the Broken Horseshoe Winery in Ringgold and a staunch conservative, elected leaders should be focused on eliminating corruption, keeping taxes low and keeping the currency strong. His store has a video display that – in between messages about his business – intermittently flashes Trump’s face and a message of support for the city.

For Carroll, Greene’s appeal has been rooted in challenging the status quo. “I want somebody in there that’s going to ask the questions nobody will ask and try to get the answers,” he said. “Our forefathers fought for this nation to make it free, and I don’t know of anything in this nation that’s free any more.”

His winery business has been down 30% this year, which he attributes to economic conditions that are squeezing his customers.

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“It’s not just the wine industry. Every local business that I’ve talked to is struggling right now,” Carroll said. “As a country, as individuals in America, you used to have some extra income after your bills and stuff and you could splurge a little bit on this or that, go out to eat or something. Now by the time you pay your bills and stuff, from what I’m seeing from the average people out here, there’s nothing left over.”

That’s the problem that needs solving, he said.



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