I am saddened to post that long-time Criminal Court Clerk Martha Phillips has died. Ms. Martha worked in that office since 1948, serving as Clerk since 1984. 60 years in the courthouse is amazing. She was a fine lady.

The KNS story here:

Link...

Isn't this great! Yet another story about how wonderful and open-minded we are here in Tennessee.

This is too good to pass up. From Tennessee Guerilla Women,

"...news from the land of the freer than we are."

Canadian troops included in Toronto Pride Parade. Recruiting on-site as well.

Winston Rand, a Tennessee blogger at Nobody Asked, passed away unexpectedly Saturday.

He was a hell of a good writer whose "stream of consciousness" style of observation was sometimes amusing, sometimes enlightening, and always entertaining. After reading him for a while, you felt like you knew him even if you never met him.

Here's "Roomie's" announcement and tribute: Voice, Stilled

SEE ALSO: The styrofoam cup post.

Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee is having a "Teen Lock-In Live Action Camp."

According to PPMET:

The first day will be packed full of human sexuality education and overnight will be movies, games, baking and other educational fun activities.

The second day we will be organizing advocacy efforts with the teens. Students will participate in letter writing, voter registration, a comprehensive sex ed petition drive, and more.

The lock-in will be July 24th and 25th and the cost is free. High school juniors, seniors, and 2008 grads are invited. Under 18 requires parental notification and approval. Registration must be received by Friday, July 4th.

For more information or to register, contact PPMET Community Health Educator Ginny Winter at 865-385-3333 or ginnyw@ppmet.org

Starting this Saturday, July 5th, the City of Knoxville Parks and Recreation department is offering canoe tours of the Tennessee River. Tours will put in at the Holston River Park and navigate down the Holston River to the Tennessee River and Downtown Knoxville.

This is a great opportunity for family fun on the river. Parks and Rec Aquatic staff will conduct the tours, and Ijams Park will provide nature guides.

All ages and skill levels can participate. All equipment is provided, including transportation to the put-in location. There is also a safety demonstration. Just bring a lunch in a waterproof container.

The cost is $20 per person and group rates are available. Tours will be held at 8 a.m. on Saturdays during the month of July. There are 16 canoes available for the tours. Reservations must be made by the Wednesday before the desired Saturday tour date by calling 311. More info at the city's website.

Press release after the jump...

Denver Post/AP Headline 6/29/2008:

Microsoft to stop selling Windows XP on Monday

Just a tad bit misleading.

Apparently you can still get XP by purchasing Windows Vista and then "legally "downgrade" to XP". Or, you can go to "smaller mom-and-pop PC builder shops to buy XP for resale through the end of January".

Unfound exhibition

Blount Mansion Visitors Center-July 1-30. Unfound, a two man show featuring the works of Calvin Chappelle and Ryan Kelley. Visit the Blount Mansion page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...). There will be an opening reception for the artists with live music by Stonetree, check the Events page for time and details (Link...).

Blount Mansion known as the Birthplace of Tennessee is nestled in the center of Downtown Knoxville's government district.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

• The Bucket List (*** out of ****): Two great actors in the twilight of their careers show how it's done in this humorous and poignant take on the road trip/buddy movie for geezers. Somewhat predictable, but I liked it a lot better than I thought I would.

• Juno (***): We kept skipping over this one, but I'm glad we finally watched it (on Tivo/Amazon Unbox download). It's a thought-provoking, modern day take on a complicated teen/family problem, with some great acting as a bonus. I really liked some of the simple, fun, but strangely compelling songs from the soundtrack, too.

• Nanking (**1/2): A (sort of) docudrama about atrocities committed in the Chinese city of Nanking by the invading Japanese army during the early days of WWII before Pearl Harbor, and a group of missionaries who saved 200,000 residents of the city by setting up a "safe zone" in defiance. Original film, newsreels, photos, and current day eyewitness testimony from survivors and Japanese soldiers are historically significant, shocking, and heartbreaking accounts of a story I had never heard. Points off for having contemporary (and inappropriately cast in at least one case) actors reading the diaries and journals of the missionaries, which detracted from the story in my opinion. Professional voice overs would have been more effective, I think. I suppose the "star power" was intended to raise awareness, but the eyewitness accounts are far more compelling.

• Mad Money (**1/2): Some great performances by three outstanding female leads in this highly unlikely but entertaining and slickly produced crime caper. (Guys, this one counts as a "chick flick," just don't admit you enjoyed it even though you will.)

• The Grand (**1/2): If you like gambling, casinos, poker, etc. you'll like this. Better than expected, but I wasn't expecting much. Some highly entertaining performances by some great comedy actors who are better than this script, especially Cheryl Hines who rocks this one. The Spinal Tap of poker?

• The Darjeeling Limited (**): Three great young actors in a reconciliation road trip movie that doesn't quite click. Bonus points for exotic locations and beautiful cinematography, plus droll humor and a tragic but touching episode. Tip: skip the alternate opening hotel scene. It's a movie maker's indulgence that doesn't add much, and instead makes you wonder if you should bother with the rest. You should.

• Rambo (**): Go ahead. You know you want to see it. Warning: extreme violence, off-the-shelf characters, and stupefying plot devices. Be sure to check out the DVD extras on the situation in Burma. Also, the alternate outtakes of Rambo attempting sensitive dialogue illustrate why they were left out in favor of the strong, silent performance. (Ladies, this one counts as two "chick flick" credits.)

SEE ALSO: Domestic Psychology's weekend movie reviews. (Was Steve Carell born to play Max Smart, or what?)

From iRobot, the makers of Roomba and Scooba, it's the Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot. Be sure to check out the video.
(By way of Instapundit.)

(My nephew drove it over for our Father's Day brunch. He's a salesman at a local used car dealer and they let him use it for the weekend. Cost him $100 to fill it up, and he said he used about $85 worth of gas going over to Hartford TN on the NC border for a Pigeon River rafting trip. It has a luxurious leather interior, a killer Bose stereo, and a huge moon roof. He will make you a deal on it if you're interested.)

Silence: Realtor taking business blogging plunge

...Knoxville Realtor Suzy Trotta has taken the plunge and offers a professional, fun and informative blog that I've liked from the first day I saw it.

Suzy Trotta's blog is All Around K Town. There's lots of interesting info on the local real estate market and the business in general.

The latest roundup, at TennViews...

Not all of these jobs will be in Germany, where Siemens is based. The company has over 400,000 employees world-wide.

"We will try and make this as socially acceptable as possible," Loescher told the daily Die Welt.

Ouch. When large companie feel the pain, it reverberates around the globe.

I noticed yesterday Versus, the new gaming place on Gay St. is packed up an gone. I wonder why, they seemed to be doing OK. This seems to be a bad time for start-ups anywhere in town. I noticed a few small businesses by Ftn. City Park have recently closed. But the other night the Old City was actually packed, for no special reason, maybe a sign our economy is not a total disaster.

Dendrobate Tinctorus "Patricia"

It is too hot to be outside right now, so I thought this was a good time to post some of my new critters. These are dendrobates, also known as “poison dart frogs”, or just dart frogs because when bred and raised in captivity they are not poisonous. I got interested in these colorful amphibians when exploring options for a large aquarium that had become available to me. My
internet search led me to a Massachusetts company called Black Jungle whose website (Link...) has a photo gallery of tropical rain forest “vivariums” with waterfalls, live plants and natural wood. They are quite beautiful and that sold me because I have always loved frogs and these habitats were just wonderful. I now have 3 tanks with 7 frogs, mostly because I was hoping to have a breeding pair so I can experience the tadpole, metamorphosis and joy of raising a tiny new frog. Since their sex is not determined till they are older, you have to buy several in hopes of getting a breeding pair.

In addition to the special tank design and prep (temp and humidity monitored), I grow 3 different types of bugs, 2 specialized fruit flies and springtails. It will get even more complicated if there are ever any tadpoles.

Putting together my "backpack journalism" kit for Denver, I figured I ought to have some kind of video camera. I don't care much for video, but I expect there will be some "YouTube moments" at the convention so I thought I should be prepared. I ended up getting a Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG9 pocket digi-camcorder. My initial review after the jump...

The Young Husband: First Marketing
Painting
Lilly Martin Spencer

The exhibition of Lilly Martin Spencer Women’s Work closes Sunday at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga. Visit the Hunter page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...), also see their summer events on our Events page (Link...). This show examines the work of Lilly Martin Spencer. Spencer was one of the few women in 19th century America who earned her living as an artist. Today scholars of American art study her paintings to learn more about the dynamics of domestic life in the mid 19th century.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

Is the sky falling? The answer is undoubtedly "no". Will there be enough change in the status quo to make it feel to some like the sky may be falling? Perhaps. It's hard to predict the furture, and many who have attempted to do so have ended up looking more than a bit foolish.

That said, this article in today's WSJ Link... should at least give thoughtful people reason to pause and consider the potential for the described scenario. The full text of the study can be found at Link... . Whatever else can be said about all of this, I think the most salient point is that things are going to change, and it's only wise to try and understand what those changes might be, and to attempt to determine which might be the best courses of action to take in order to prepare for (or respond to) those anticipated changes.

Big brother is watching you and his name is AT&T. Sometimes he goes by the name of BellSouth and at other times he is known as AOL-Time-Warner. Big brother goes by a lot of names. He is listening to you while you talk and watching you while you type and everything you say could be recorded so he can look at it somewhere down the line. Now everyone knows that it is not polite to intrude on people in their private moments. The problem is that big brother doesn't seem to know that peeking into people's private communication is wrong and it should be illegal. Unfortunately President Bush wants to continue to grant immunity to telecommunications companies in the name of the so called 'war on terror' which in actuality is a war on the American people and the telecommunications infrastructure is the front line in the gradual diminishment of civil rights that Congress has permitted in recent years.

WBIR:

The Panasonic speaker plant at Forks of the River Industrial Park has started the layoff process for 35 workers.

WBIR: The Director of the Knox County Office of Neighborhoods, Alison Wagley has resigned.

(By way of Katie at KT)

From a Verizon press release:

Verizon Wireless finds Tennessee customers as the 'textiest' customers for sending and receiving the most text messages per month, according to results from the company's "Big City Wireless Use Study."

The study revealed that Verizon Wireless customers in Nashville earned the number one spot as the states 'textiest city' with customers sending and receiving 819 million text messages from January to April 2008. Knoxville landed the number two position with over 420 million text messages during that same time period, while neighboring Chattanooga earned third place with 408 million text messages.

The "Big City Wireless Use Study" was initially developed by Verizon Wireless to compare the growth in text messaging from April 2006 to April 2008 in the Southeastern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The study revealed an increase in text messaging among the company's Tennessee customers by 520% in 24 months (April 2006 to April 2008).

Must be all that twittering. Verizon should pay Jack Lail a commission.

This week in MetroPulse, Frank Cagle opines on Knoxville sloganeering, suggesting a rocking chair and "Welcome Home" will do.

Ummm, no.

Ktowndownlow has joined the fray, sponsoring a contest encouraging local hipsters to subtitle our fair city with a hip, insiders-only moniker. (hat tip to Knoxville Talks.)

I took a moment to reflect.

Who can forget such previous slogans as

• "Knoxville. It's all around us." (Just not in Knoxville)
• "Knoxville. Where Nature and Technology Meet." (images of a deer being splattered on the inside of a superconducting supercollider at the Spallation Neutron Source come to mind with that brilliant juxtaposition.)
• "Knoxville. Naturally." (Knoxville is now a name brand laxative?)

Going back another century, Parson Brownlow, pro-Union publisher of the Knoxville Whig, had two slogans for the masthead of his paper: "Cry Aloud and Spare Not," and "Independent in All Things, Neutral in Nothing." These two are just as apt today in Knoxville and Knox County's heated political climate.

Such thoughts reminded me of a conversation I had a few years ago with someone from the State Economic Development Office.

"Memphis is Eeyore," this official described to me. "Woe is Memphis, the sky is falling."

"Nashville, however, is Tigger. Nothing but blue sky in Nashville."

"What about Knoxville?" I asked.

"Knoxville is Pooh," the person continued. "This is my honey pot. You get your own damn honey pot."

"Perfect. Captures the essence, doesn't it?"

"Yep."

Knoxville. Get Your Own Damn Honey Pot.

or

Knoxville. Full of Poohs.

I have never figured out just what it is about the Internet that turns smart people dumb. There is a wonderful book from 1970 called Body Language by Julius Fast. This book discusses this behavior with regard to driving. Drivers feel a particular anonymity in their cars which allow them to act out (road rage) in ways that we just would not do face to face; the Internet provides that same assumed anonymity relaxing people enough to lash out in ways that would otherwise be sociably unacceptable.

I can appreciate your passion for a subject and the ire for someone else's opposing view. However, when you title or begin a message or comment with "you're an idiot", "stfu", "moron" or any of a number of other degrading, inflammatory, subjective remarks, you damage your argument no matter house sound, logical, or fact based. You damage your self image.

Personally, when I see a comment with such language, I immediately assume you are 12 years old and not worthy of an intellectual debate. I have to assume this because only a hormonal, irrational teen would use such an approach in an agrument. Certainly, you would not expect to stand in a crowd of people and sway their opinion to yours through name calling? That's the stuff of high schoolers and middle schoolers.

"Its better to let someone think your an idiot, rather than to open your mouth and prove them right." --when it doubt, attribute all quotes to Ben Franklin

My advice, if you can't say anything nice, don't...well, just stfu.

Waterfall at Stone Fort, TN
Rod Shean
digitally enhanced photograph

The Centennial Art Center show of three Nashville area photographers - Joe Fizer, Randy Muir and Rod Shean - ends June 27 at Metro Parks' Centennial Art Center gallery. Visit the Centennial Art Center page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...). They have just recently joined Art Museum Touring.com.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

Todays article on CNN titled "The truth about driving and talking on the cell"

Link...

motivated me to share a driving/cell incident I saw during lunch last week. I was stopped at the Blount Ave/Chapman Hwy red light heading north. There was a line of southbound vehicles turning onto Blount Ave. One was a Holston gases truck, probably 5 ton size. As the truck was turning a car turned in front of it and cut it off, from the left hand (non turn lane) southbound lane., into the one lane on Blount. The truck stopped, luckily, and the driver of the offending car, talking on his cell phone, never realized, and never will, what he had done.

In the article above, California believes it will save 300 lives this year with their new legislation.