• Chris Johnson

    This AIn’t your grandpappy’s new technology

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    This AIn’t your grandpappy’s new technology

    Many of us grew up seeing artificial intelligence and robots featured on fictional TV shows and movies. There was Robot on “Lost in Space” waving his arms around and yelling, “Danger, Will Robinson!” and “Why are you wearing pajamas all the time, Will Robinson?” Then came Rosie on “The Jetsons,” who was basically a tall Roomba who cleaned the house and talked like Wilma Flintstone (for good reason). And my generation fell in love with C-3PO and R2-D2 from “Star Wars” in the ’70s before falling in love with Princess Leia in the gold bikini in the ’80s. Those characters […]

    Hear the “Rooted in Macon County” podcast featuring me … and Bo Hunter

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    Hear the “Rooted in Macon County” podcast featuring me … and Bo Hunter

    Had a great time on the “Rooted in Macon County” podcast with host Lynn Erwin and WMNZ’s “Brother Lance” last week. You can now hear the full episode below as we chat about growing up in Macon County, my journalism and nonprofit careers, and, of course, the novel “The Holler” by my alter ego of rougher edges and fewer filters, Bo Hunter. Save the date: If you’re in the Macon County area, I’ll be at the Oglethorpe Public Library on Thursday, September 17 at 11 a.m. for an author chat and book-signing. Limited quantities of “The Holler” will be available […]

    I think I just stole a pizza … and I’m OK with it

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    I think I just stole a pizza … and I’m OK with it

    AMERICUS, Georgia — Some of my favorite places to eat are in Americus, Georgia. Per capita, it’s no Macon County, Georgia with its Troy’s Snack Shack, Yoder’s Deitsch Haus, and Oglethorpe Barbecue, but it’s got places like The Station, Monroe’s, the new IceHouse Beer Garden, and Pat’s Place, which has the best pizza on the planet. (I hear Wazbuti’s Pizza Pies in Kathmandu ain’t bad, but it’s against my religion to eat in towns that spell cat with a K—they probably offer cats as a topping anyway.) However, my experiences at chain restaurants in Americus are not so good. I […]

    Y’all leave the moon alone!

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    Y’all leave the moon alone!

    In the past week, Elon Musk shot part of a SpaceX rocket into the moon, and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un fired another missile into the ocean. Maybe Elon is trying to mess with our ocean tides. Maybe Kim hates whales. Whatever the case, I figured I’d better check in on my buddy Jim Bob Jenkins. While Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon, Jim Bob was the last. And still is. He is the proverbial man in the moon, left behind by Apollo 17 in 1972. So, I figured this would be a good time to […]

    Pearl-clutching reaches new heights

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    Pearl-clutching reaches new heights

    Batman and Catwoman have finally been nabbed — and unmasked. The world is safe again. In case you have a life and missed it (I don’t and didn’t), Ivan Beerkus and Angela Nikolau, stars of Netflix’s 2024 “Skywalkers” documentary, were arrested Wednesday after ascending and then dangling from the 1,500-foot Empire State Building’s spire while unfurling a flag that read: “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.” It apparently doesn’t know you need a comma after the second use of the word “power,” but Ivan and Angela are Russian, so they may be […]

    Sneak previews from my spy novel

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    Sneak previews from my spy novel

    You may have heard that I’ve published my first novel — “The Holler” under my pen name Bo Hunter. But did you know that I wrote a spy thriller under another pen name, Ho Bunter? No? Well, that’s because it has been banned as “fake news” even though it’s fiction. It was seized from boxes in my bathroom by the FBI’s Kash Patel himself, who gave me the side eye as he said some of the fake information in the novel was classified. I’m not legally allowed to reprint direct passages from the novel, but here are some sneak previews […]

    Why do some people still TALK on the phone??

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    Why do some people still TALK on the phone??

    I recently had an older gentleman leave me a voice message wanting to talk about a certain technological issue he was having. Rather than bother with a phone conversation, I tried to save us both some time by sending him a link to everything I knew about the issue (and then some), but he still wanted to talk. Ugh! I loathe most, er, well all phone conversations, but I bit the bullet, curled my toes, and made the call. Yep — waste of time. I was able to confirm vocally that I’d already provided everything he could possibly need and […]

    Movie nights were a bigger deal in my youth

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    Movie nights were a bigger deal in my youth

    There was a time—eons ago—when watching a movie at home on television was a big deal to me. In the 1970s, it meant that one of our four channels had a “movie night” that came around about once a week or the occasional Sunday afternoon Burt Reynolds flick on one of those Columbus TV stations. By the early 1980s, it meant that we got one of those free weekends of HBO that my dad hated. He didn’t like that a lot of these movies had dirty words—sometimes right in the middle of the afternoon—but they were no worse than what […]