News Sentinel (subscription required) reports...

KPD arrested nine men for exposing themselves as a pickup method in the bathrooms at Tyson Park. The bathrooms are in the same area as the children's playground and tennis courts.

How do we keep our parks family friendly?

If a recipe calls for Kosher salt and you don't have any and are substituting table salt, use about 1/2 as much table salt as the recipe calls for. Trust me.

(Salt is salt for the most part, and one salt isn't any saltier than another. The difference is the volume v. weight. 1/2 tsp. of Kosher salt is less salt by weight than 1/2 tsp. of table salt because the Kosher salt is coarser. And as the Mrs. frequently reminds me, you can always add more, but you can't take it away.)

Yesterday was the 47th anniversary of my Company Service Date and yesterday saw K-311-1, the last unit to operate in the original K-25 gaseous diffusion process building, fall.

Today there is only a mud flat where the mile-long building stood.

The DOE-Oak Ridge Flickr stream documents the work in this 'Recent News' set.

And here is a view I made from a flyover on a Sunday afternoon in 1978.

A special holiday message to Knox County school teachers...

Recent posts on education and our local teachers' rebellion have sparked a lot of discussions about tactics, specifically the utility of local efforts with respect to state and national politics. I have some problems with this article, but I think that it points toward two points that I've been trying to make [poorly].

(link...)

In his State of the City address this year, Mayor Bloomberg said the plastic-foam containers were virtually impossible to recycle, and environmentalists have long complained that the foam cups, trays and containers, stained by beverages, grease and food, were needlessly clogging landfills.

Everybody does these things at this time of the year. Here is NPR's tastefully done tribute to musicians and entertainers we have lost in 2013.

From Forbes magazine ...

In fact, Tennessee took the biggest fall on our list, down 25% to $63 million, because its academic contributions were significantly curtailed last year. Firing former head coach Derek Dooley turned out to be an expensive affair, and his staff’s buyout costs forced the Tennessee athletic department to stabilize its other expenses. As a result, Volunteers athletics went from being one of the nation’s biggest academic supporters, regularly contributing over $6 million annually, to providing just $1.3 million last year.

College Football's Most Valuable Teams 2013: Texas Longhorns Can't Be Stopped

KnoxViews is pleased to host the digital debut of "Knox Beat," Mark Harmon's lighthearted tribute to old-time radio. This show concerns a News Sentinel reporter frozen for 60 years. Enjoy the show and see if you can figure out the local voices before the closing credits.

P.S. WUTK Radio will be airing the program as well, sometime before the end of the year. Updates on other airings as new details emerge.

Knox Beat Part One

Knox Beat Part Two

(Audio controls not displayed? Listen here...)

Forty one years ago as of tomorrow, "we got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout."

Forty one years later, the fire hasn't gone out, and nobody's gone to Jackson. Because "wise men say, only fools rush in, but I couldn't help falling in love with her."

She was "Michele, my belle," and I was a "hunka hunka burnin' love" for her. And I "love her today more than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow."

I was, and remain, a lucky boy.

Characteristics of Poor Uninsured Adults who Fall into the Coverage Gap
From the paper "Medicaid eligibility for adults in states not expanding their programs is quite limited—the median income limit for parents in 2014 will be 47% of poverty, or an annual income of about $9,200 a year for a family of three, and in nearly all states not expanding, childless adults will remain ineligible"
According to the report most of these folks reside in the southern United States.

Freshmen from South Doyle High School surveyed residents in surrounding areas to determine perceptions of the South Knoxville community and schools.

Some results were, IMO, as expected. People in West Knoxville often gave negative responses about SoKno. People living outside of SoKno "felt the education South Doyle students were receiving was below average."

Whereas, some results were a little surprising. "Residents in Seymour and Maryville thought of South Knoxville as a community that was "on the rise". On the other hand, this result may not be so surprising in that people in Seymour and Maryville, IMO, have a lot in common with people in SoKno. One thing in common, we're all south of the river, thus Seymour and Maryville are just extensions of SoKno. :)

Unless you've been to San Jose, CA, or Atlanta, GA, recently, you did not win the lottery. However, keep in mind, all those millions for the lottery are about scholarships for college students. Did you make your donation? Did you have the money to spare? Do you feel better knowing you are helping send someone to college?

It's been a sad week.

Tom Laughlin may have not had a long career in the movie business, but he was influential to those who watched his "Billy Jack" movies.

As mentioned in the New York Times, "All of the films treat issues of the day - ecology, war, pacifism, the generation gap, gun control, police corruption, drug abuse, the occult, the mistreatment of minorities ..."

I believe he had a little of Edward Abbey in him.

One Tin Soldier

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away

.

Last of the breed, indeed.

1926 - 2013

Betty Bean has a report from a local small business that is happy with their new "Obamacare" employee health insurance plan.

(See also her profile of the latest entry into the Knox Co. School Board races...)

Sandra Clark at the Shopper says "no more school board meetings" for her. She's assigning that beat to Betty Bean. Based on some recent comments, certain local powers that be might think that's a PR win for them. Maybe they should be careful what they wish for?

Also, Jake Mabe will be covering Knox Co. government. And, I did not know Betsy Pickle and Sherri Gardner Howell were reporting for the Shopper.

More from Sandra Clark...

With all these changes and expanded coverage, it would be nice if they could update their web publishing system to have all their articles and columns in proper web format, with permalinks.

Another great actress has died, Joan Fontaine.

The Oscar-winning actor Joan Fontaine, who found stardom playing naive wives in Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion and Rebecca and also was featured in films by Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang and Nicholas Ray, died on Sunday. She was 96.

Fontaine, the sister of fellow Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland, died in her sleep in her home in Carmel, California on Sunday morning, her longtime friend Noel Beutel said. Fontaine had been fading in recent days and died peacefully, Beutel said.

Lawrence of Arabia star Peter O'Toole dies.

Peter O’Toole, an Irish bookmaker’s son with a hell-raising streak whose magnetic performance in the 1962 epic film “Lawrence of Arabia” earned him overnight fame and put him on the road to becoming one of his generation’s most accomplished and charismatic actors, died on Saturday in London. He was 81.

The "Always a bride, never a bridesmaid, my foot!" quote was delivered by O'Toole when he accepted his one and only Oscar for lifetime Achievement.

Apparently, before acting, O'Toole was a journalist. (I hadn't known that -- the things you learn from obits)

Peter was an altar boy at the local Roman Catholic church and displayed a gift for creative writing, but he left school at 13 and became a warehouseman, a messenger, a copy boy, a photographer’s assistant and, eventually, a reporter for The Yorkshire Evening News. A poor journalist by his own admission, he was fired by the editor with the words, “Try something else, be an actor, do anything.”

So glad he listened to his then editor.