Pink papers, preparing for the worst and prancing puppies

It's been at least a week since I have blogged, but that definitely doesn't mean that nothing has been going on. Welcome to my bulleted list.

• Newspapers preparing for the worst

Last week, former President Jimmy Carter was hospitalized for a viral infection in his stomach. That day at my newspaper's budget meeting, we held a short "what if" session mainly focusing on if the former president were to die. What would we do in the paper? How would we treat it? Would we go poster-size on his photo? In case you didn't know, Carter is also a former governor of Georgia, and he announced his bid for presidency at a local restaurant in Savannah. Since that conversation, we have started to compile photos the paper has taken as well as AP photos for the inevitable day when he passes. I actually might create a multimedia project to go along with it ... That could be exciting!

• Wiener dog races

The starting gates for the wiener dog races.

The Savannah Morning News helps to sponsor the wiener dog races for Oktoberfest, which I volunteered for this year. I know what you're thinking: If you're not absolutely disgusted, you are absolutely confused. Yes. Wiener dogs. Racing. Adorableness. We raced about 150 dogs Oct. 2, and the fastest dog of the day, "Frankie" of Savannah, made the 50-foot trek in 2.3 seconds. Not all the dogs came running when the gates were lifted though. Some were too scared to leave, some just wanted to play with the other dogs. It was super entertaining.

I was in charge of getting the dogs ready at the starting line. I handed each owner a bandanna, and I made sure that all the correct dogs were racing in their correct heat. I tried to at least. People were crowding and confused, and I tried to make everyone happy. After all, this event is about Dachshunds! How could it not be happy?

• Breast cancer awareness in Savannah

Courtesy of Savannah Morning News

I never knew how incredibly HUGE Breast Cancer Awareness month was in this town! SMN and St. Joseph's/Candler hospital team up every October to "Paint the town Pink." The SMN building was "flocked" for the event (see the photo), there's a large ribbon in our main window and a bright pink golf cart in our foyer (Apparently it's a prize for a raffle of some sort at the end of the month), and the paper sports a pink ribbon on its masthead the entire month of October.

One of the more interesting things the paper does, though, is it publishes a pink newspaper. On Oct. 3, the newspaper that people bought at the grocery store or had delivered to their home was entirely pink. So, this is my pink 1A. Thankfully I didn't have to design on a pink computer screen that night.

I think what the community does for breast cancer awareness is really cool -- especially when several big organizations in the community come together for a common cause.