WBIR.com: The mysterious body from the sky

On September 11, 1985, Fred Myers called authorities to his house in the Island Home neighborhood. The 85-year-old had found the body of a man, tangled in a parachute.

Three months after Thornton plunged to his death, a black bear was found in the north Georgia wilderness, apparently overdosed on cocaine dropped by Thornton.

This WBIR Our Stories episode brought back some memories.

Nashville is Talking:

One of the backers of the proposed Bible Theme Park USA in Murfreesboro is a very successful businessman but was once more known for his photographs of cover girls and "Pets of the Month" for Penthouse Magazine.

You can't make this stuff up.

Infomaniac looks back 40 years at April 1968.

KNS: New master distiller gets his shot

The tradition-rich task of overseeing production of the famed Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey brand is passing from one native Tennessean to another.

Ironically, the AP story's dateline is Louisville, KY, where the company that now owns Jack Daniel's is located.

Ironic, because Kentucky bourbon is superior in almost every way to Tennessee whiskey, sad to say. Maybe this new guy can make some improvements. If you must have Tennessee whiskey, George Dickel, the only other whiskey made in Tennessee, is better.

D.B. Cooper's parachute possibly found

Eying the nice boats motoring up and down the intercoastal waterway always leads a man's thoughts to selling everything, buying one, and living on the water. I went looking on the internets to see how much boat a fellow could buy for about what he could get out of his house. The first hit at this website was a little out of my price range.

According to the Tennessee Department of Health, here are the top ten Tennessee baby names for 2007:

There is a bit of a dilemma. I don't know whether to have Margaritas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, or Mint Juleps in honor of the Kentucky Derby.

So, which horse do you like? I haven't been following it at all, but what I'd probably do is a $1 trifecta wheel on Hard Spun with all others. (How much would that cost me?)

When I don't know anything about any of the entries, wheel/box bets on entries with middling odds that can result in a big perfecta or trifecta payoff seem like the way to go, especially if you are there and see the parimutuel odds moving in such a way that might suggest new inside info or expert opinion favoring one entry or another.

Of course, I've only ever been to the horse races once (in Miami). I won about $600 on one race using the above technique, and promptly retired from horse race betting. I also bet on the dogs in Orlando and Daytona from time to time using this strategy, but not as successfully.

The Roomba by iRobot is a way cool vacuuming robot that actually works. See a full review after the jump.

Gene Patterson has some great World's Fair stories and seeks yours for an upcoming retrospective on the 25th Anniversary of the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair and Energy Expo.

I've only seen a little bit of the American Idol (when Friday Night Lights was taking a break or when there was nothing else on but reruns), but this Sanjaya guy creeps me out, and he can't sing either. I can't figure out why he still on the show.

But there's lots of blog buzz this morning about his appearance last night, in which he apparently wore a white John Travolta suit and mumbled his way through a standard for Tony Bennet.

Apparently he's Big News. Google has over 3300 news articles on the guy this morning. Technorati lists nearly 32,000 blog posts about him.

Last week, CNN was interviewing two political analysts about Congressional funding for the war and the pending veto. The conversation got quite heated, and the wobbly talking bobble-head hostess interrupted to say "We'll have to leave it right there" and then told viewers to stay tuned for their upcoming report on Sanjaya and his outrageous hairdo. I kid you not.

So what's up with this guy and the people who keep voting for him? Well, it turns out that it may be a vast internet conspiracy to sabotage American Idol. Here's an example from "votefortheworst.com":

Yes, Sanjaya rocked it in a white suit with slicked back hair. Call 1-866-IDOLS-07 or text VOTE to 5707. Simon couldn't even talk and just called it, "Incredible" to try a new tactic and get rid of Sanjaya. Don't let his new tactic work, Sanjaya's gonna need a LOT of help this week so vote as much as possible for the entire 2 hours. Let's help him get to Latin music week next week for a rousing performance of "Shake Your Bon Bon." You know you want to.

Howard Stern is involved, too. The show's executive producer denies that internet campaigns and such can have any influence on the outcome. Tell that to Dan Rather and Trent Lott.

On the other hand, the whole conspiracy thing might be a manufactured controversy cooked up and coordinated by the producers as a PR stunt. In which case it appears to be working, and I salute them.

At any rate, I hope Sanjaya wins. It would pretty much sum up what the show is really about, and it's not singing.

From the Morally Bankrupt Society Which Degrades and Objectifies Women for Fun and Profit department, Miss Tennessee wins the Miss USA competition. She is pretty hot, though. And talented.

Which of the following singers would have made it to the American Idol finals?

John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Grace Slick, Neil Young, Janis Joplin, Tom Petty, Wilson Pickett, Chrissie Hynde, Lucinda Williams, Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Michael Bolton...

OK, maybe Michael Bolton.

Mark it down: I predict Lakisha Jones will win it, because I still believe in talent and stuff. Which means she probably won't make the final cut.

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have named the all-time 200 Definitive Albums. The top 10 are:

1. BEATLES – SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
2. PINK FLOYD – DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
3. MICHAEL JACKSON – THRILLER
4. LED ZEPPELIN – LED ZEPPELIN IV
5. U2 – JOSHUA TREE
6. ROLLING STONES – EXILE ON MAIN STREET
7. CAROLE KING – TAPESTRY
8. BOB DYLAN – HIGHWAY ‘61 REVISITED
9. BEACH BOYS – PET SOUNDS
10. NIRVANA – NEVERMIND

The Hall of Fame list is here. Here's the interactive Definitive 200 website.

Girl Scout Cookies are here!

We were out running some errands and came upon a local Girl Scout troop offering up everyone's favorites at $3.50 per box.

We got: Thin Mints (of course), Samoas, Do-Si-Dos, and, what I think are a new addition to the lineup, All-Abouts.

All-Abouts are a shortbread cookie with fudge chocolate on the bottom. Mmmm. Each cookie has a saying about what being a Girl Scout is all about, thus the All-About name. Recommended.

(The irony is that one of our later stops was to get me a new blood glucose monitor to replace the old one I've had for about ten years.)

Former moonshiner and local pop culture icon Eddie of Eddie's Auto Parts is selling out. But it still ain't nothin' for him to whup a man's ass. Read all about the call that made him famous.

I wanted to like Studio 60, and a couple of episodes I saw were pretty good. But lately I've been wondering why it is again that I'm supposed to care about these characters?

Friday Night Lights, on the other hand, is great TV. It's just like American Dreams, except it's present day instead of the sixties, small-town Texas instead of Philadelphia, and centers around football instead of American Bandstand. (But it's not really about football, and don't let the cheesy website fool you.) The writing, characters, and acting are all top-notch.

If you haven't seen it, check it out if you're interested in that sort of thing. It's on NBC Wednesdays, at 8PM. (At least for now. They keep moving it around.)

There's got to be a country music song somewhere in all this.

(More details here.)

Newseek asked several prominent baby boomers what three things they want to do in their remaining years.

Author Stephen King says "I'd like to outlast George W. Bush's second term of office." Number one on his to-do list is "To live to see George W. Bush tried for crimes against humanity." Number three is "To see American Idol canceled."

Also quoted are Bill Frist, Paula Deen, Cal Ripkin, Joan Jett, Bill O'Reilly, and others. Some are more interesting than others.

For some reason it has always bugged me to have to give my name to get a $3 cup of coffee. So I frequently give a fake name. But I'm not clever enough or quick enough on my feet to always come up with a good one on the spot.

(My favorite fake name is Randall P. McMurphy, but it's a little too obvious for some people, and Randall is too close to my real name to be much fun. And yeah, I've used Bubba but that's not very original, especially without the South Knox part.)

Anyway, a few days ago "Spanky" popped into my head for some reason. So I went with that. The Mrs. wondered who she should be, so naturally I suggested "Darla".

So those are our new Starbucks names - "Darla" and "Spanky".

(I thought about changing to "Alfalfa" to complement "Darla", but "Alfalfa" is not as believable and it's harder to write on the side of a coffee cup. Besides, there's that whole playing-hard-to-get/unrequited love thing and we are way beyond that.)

So, do you have a Starbucks name? If not, why not? Is it because you like hearing the sound of your name announced over the Starbucks PA? Or is it because using a fake name is silly and juvenile? (Or is it because you are enlightened enough to know that only a crazy person pays $3 for a cup of coffee?)

At any rate, feel free to use Spanky and Darla. In fact, it might be fun if everybody used Spanky and Darla. We could get Starbucks people all over town wondering where all these Spanky and Darla people came from. Not to mention the hilarity and mass confusion that would ensue if lots of Spanky and Darlas ordered at the same time.

OK, then.

Take a look at Tennessee's new PG, Shannon Bobbitt -- the tiniest player Pat Summitt has ever signed -- and maybe the most electrifying (and please, guys, spare me the Lorena Bobbitt jokes -- they're already extremely old).

Link...

Shannon, who is 5-2 with her shoes on, is quicker than a hiccup and tough as a nickel steak. This little kid doesn't back down from anybody, and is making a real difference to this team from the get-go.

And, yeah, they've got this Candace Parker kid that some people say is pretty good, too.

Every year the KNS has the "East Tennessee's Best" survey, and every year it's the same old big yawn. It's not even East Tennessee's best. It's Knoxville's best. Well, it's not even that. It's West Knoxville's "best".

Olive Garden is the best Italian restaurant. Red Lobster is the best seafood restaurant. Litton's has the best hamburger. Best ice cream is at Marble Slab. The best bakery is Panera Bread. Border's is the best book store. OK, then.

As usual, this isn't a "best of" survey. It's a "most popular franchise in Farragut" survey (with the exception of the loyal Litton's fans out in Fountain City). But what it really is is a huge ad sale for the paper. Everybody who gets mentioned buys an ad thanking the readers. Some who weren't even mentioned bought ads.

(The front page has a big thank you from Regal Cinema, but there is no "best cinema" category in the print version. Same with WATE's thank you ad, but they aren't mentioned in any category in the print version. Apparently it was for Jim Wogan as best sportscaster, which is listed in the online version.)

Oh, and Big Ed's is the best pizza. Pizza Hut and Papa John's are the runners up. I finally made it up to Big Ed's a while back. It was OK, but there are at least three or four better pizzas closer to home. (Pizza Hut and Papa John's are not one of those three or four.)

The Colbert Report goes to Colbert County Alabama. Hilarity ensues.

(By way of Red State Diaries.)

Instead of hearing arguments by lawyers, the courts should order Jan & Dean and Brian Wilson to settle the dispute.

This makes gas look like a bargain.

Rev. J. Bazzell Mull dead at 91

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that attendance was not up to expectations at the expanded Worlds Fair Park Boomsday events on Friday and Saturday.

There was also an embarrassing snafu with a giant video display on which people were supposed to be able to watch the big game. Sounds like amateur hour at the Tourism and Sports Corp. No wonder the Convention Center sits empty most of the time.

But, this was the first year for the expanded event, so hopefully they will work out the kinks for next year. (Maybe they can get some tips from these guys.) We wonder if there will be some kind of financial report on the net for the paid events?

(Judging from this photo, the selection of Montgomery Gentry was right on the demographic mark. Check out the guy on the right and his t-shirt.)

Note the misspelling of his name on the marker,
further proof that he faked his own death.
More here.

I stumbled across a few minutes of the Blues Bros. movie on TV, featuring the James Brown church scene with Jake and Elwood where Jake "sees the light."

This is one of the great, probably top-five, American movie musicals of all time. (Other contenders that come immediately to mind are Sound of Music, Moulin Rouge, Woodstock, and Little Whorehouse in Texas.)

Anyway, it reminded me of a couple of retro-pop culture items I had been meaning to get off my desktop for a while.

First is this pretty cool Rolling Stone profile of James Brown. I don't think it fully does him justice in some ways, but it's a fresh take from the younger generation and a good attempt at explaining the James Brown mystique in a backhanded sort of way that even an old geezer like me can appreciate.

Second is this Rolling Stone look back at Led Zeppelin and their enormous influence on the American rock music scene. It's a little superficial, but overall I think it captures the essence of the times and the band.

Finally, for dessert I will direct you to this post at Cup of Joe Powell re. Frank Zappa that features a rather amazing video find of one of Zappa's live performances.

We recently started getting the Sunday New York Times. It's a lot different than reading it online. It's also a bit of a culture shock.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a gigantic full page ad featuring something about The Who. "What's this?" I thought. A new DVD box set? A laser-light show at the planetarium? No. It was an ad for The Who. Live in concert. At Madison Square Garden. Announcing a second show because the first one sold out.

Also in the Arts and Leisure section there was a half page of "theater listings." Hmm. Only a half page? It's tiny print, but you'd think there would be a lot more movie theaters than that in New York City. Oh, wait. These are stage productions.

Today's front page of the Style section features a story about private jet time-shares. Apparently they are now affordable for the "merely" rich (as opposed to the obscenely rich), starting at around $250,000. One guy spent $40,000 of his time-share for a seven hour trip to a ballgame.

I'm not sure that regular exposure to this sort of thing is healthy.