Thursday, May 31, 2007

hyperactive hyperlinks

One of East Tennessee's top blogs, KnoxViews, added me to the blogroll this week. As you can imagine, I am very complimented.

The Knoxville Tennessee Blog namechecked me in a recent entry. The author is willing to pay $10 if I will ride downhill in a Zorb with News Sentinel blogger Michael Silence. I don't know why I was chosen for this honor but I do know that I owe KTB an email after being invited to be a hyperlocal contributor. I've delayed responding because I've been writing so much about Virginia, Burbank and television lately.

Of all the pages that link here, my favorite won't turn up on Technorati's list of them. Today my daughter built a webpage for a school assignment. It has some family pictures, a short bio and a link to her dad's silly little blog.

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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

it's greaaat

Rusty Ford was one of the people I could not find when I put together a WAVA tribute page five years ago. He was arguably the most creative of all the production directors during the station's top 40 days. I remember that he and I both came out of a screening of "True Stories" raving about how great the movie was. Not everyone at the station agreed with us.

Imagine my surprise when I got an email from Rusty. He recently found my WAVA page after doing a Google search for some of our former co-workers. His email address gave me a clue that he is somehow affiliated with Pine Magazine. According to their website, Rusty is a co-founder and publisher as well as marketing and advertising manager. A little more digging led me to his myspace page and to an online portrait.

I had never heard of Pine Magazine before today. In the time I spent looking at it, I found some great reading. I especially enjoyed an article about the Body Farm and one about the synchronous fireflies in the Smokies. In the archives I found an article called "Things I Learned on My Smoky Mountain Vacation." Those three articles alone should keep you busy for half an hour or so.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

hardly knew ye

Knoxville520, a local entertainment website is shutting down this week. Every once in a while, I would be reminded of the site when somebody would click through to my blog from their post about Abby Ham.

The demise of Knoxville520 made me wonder about all the other great local websites that get overlooked. For example, somebody named Chris posted a comment about BBQ tonight on my post from yesterday. He directed me to a post on his own site about an upcoming BBQ competition in Blount County. What local sites do you recommend?

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Monday, May 28, 2007

belongs to the ages

Something is seriously wrong with my digital camera. It's been acting up for the past few weeks. Prior to this weekend, I had been able to get it to work by taking the compact flash chip out and then putting it back in. Today I tried to snap a few photos in scenic Staunton, Virginia. All I got was a digital mess. Anybody know anything about troubleshooting a Canon PowerShot A70?



I saw a sign that said "Jumbo Museum" and made my wife double back. I hoped it might be dedicated to the famous 19th century circus elephant. Instead it was an antique fire equipment museum. It looked like it was closed for the holiday. Since the good camera was broken, I used my cell phone camera to photograph it anyway.



While we were driving in circles through Staunton, a local pulled up alongside and asked if he could help us. It was obvious that we were from out of town. I asked him to recommend someplace for lunch. He sent us to Cranberry's, a combination health food store and restaurant which served wraps and salads. We bought a small bag of very tasty sweet potato chips made in Virginia by Route 11 Potato Chips. They need to start selling these chips in Tennessee. After all, the actual Route 11 (a/k/a Kingston Pike) runs right through Knoxville.

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Sunday, May 27, 2007

the same but different

Each student brought a different dessert to a recent event at school. I couldn't go but my wife did and made me wish I had. She said I would have loved the S'mores Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches. The cookies are similar to regular chocolate chips but with half the flour replaced with graham cracker crumbs. A slightly melted marshmallow gets squished between two cookies. Maybe I can get her to make them for my birthday this year.

Earlier today I tasted a new twist on a well-known marshmallow recipe. We are in Virginia for a family gathering this holiday weekend. One of my brothers-in-law made something similar to the classic Rice Krispies Treats. He started with a recipe from "Good Eats" on Food Network. Although the TV recipe calls for puffed brown rice, he used organic Kamut Puffs because that's what he had in the pantry. Instead of flax seed oil, he coated the pan with olive oil, again because it was handy. Like the recipe, he added chopped almonds and assorted dried fruits to the mixture. It was fantastic. I may never want regular Rice Krispies Treats again. Sorry Snap, Crackle and Pop.



The main course at today's feast was BBQ from a place called The Barn Door Restaurant & Catering Company. The pulled pork was excellent but the item that had everybody talking was their "Hawg Wings." They seem to be small rib bones with a lot of meat on them. Either that or they found a way to make the proverbial pigs fly.

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Saturday, May 26, 2007

nothing beats a nice paracletes

Being out of town for the weekend means visiting a different Catholic church on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Sometimes we see things worth mentioning to the people who run our parish back home. Tonight my family and I went to Mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Vienna, Virginia. My mother-in-law is a parishioner there. I had heard that Robert Hanssen, the notorious spy whose story is portrayed in the movie "Breach," was also a parishioner but that he often went to Mass at St. Catherine of Sienna.

At All Saints in Knoxville, the Prayers of the Faithful are read in several different languages on Pentecost weekend. They did that for two of the prayers at OLGC too but it was the way they handled the first reading that made me take note. Three lectors approached the altar and bowed. One went to the ambo, the other two to the cantor's podium. The lector at the ambo began the reading in English. After a sentence or two, the other lectors began reading simultaneously in Vietnamese and ancient Greek. The cacophonous noise might have resembled what the crowd heard that first Pentecost.

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Friday, May 25, 2007

uniform resource locator

While on a long car ride today, some web addresses caught my eye. One was on a billboard at the Gallaher View exit off I-40. I know what it was supposed to say, but the URL could have been misinterpreted as Gored For Women. In the car, I read a press release for a traffic safety site that looked like Drivings Kills For Life. My macabre favorite was magazine article mentioning a link in honor of Memorial Day. On an unofficial Arlington Cemetery website you can read all about the Tomb o Fun. Their unfortunate abbreviation makes it sound like an amusement park attraction. The real site is here.

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Thursday, May 24, 2007

two of a kind

The Mets lost two out of three games to the Braves in Atlanta this week. They're still on top of the division though. Atlanta is only three hours from here. One of these days, when the schedule permits, I would like to go see the Mets at Turner Field. Last year I saw them at RFK Stadium.

One of the other deejays in our building, T the R.O.P., is also a Mets fan. He went to the game on Tuesday night and drove back Wednesday morning in time for his 10:00 a.m. shift. While he was there, he got Endy Chavez to autograph a photo of the amazin' catch he made in the NLCS last October. As soon as he got to work Wednesday, T showed me a video of the encounter, which he posted online today. As you can see, he looks nothing like football star Jared Lorenzen, despite what I wrote in January. Well, maybe there's a slight resemblance. Who am I kidding? They could be brothers.

PS: Happy birthday to the man who raised me to be a Mets fan.

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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

short cuts

Stacey from Garde Bien Spa Salon cut my hair again today. I've been going there once a month since my makeover. Stacey is going to use my before and after photos in her ad in next month's Skirt! Magazine. She's thinking that some of the magazine's readers will bring in their husbands for Father's Day haircuts.

I watched the season finale of "Lost" in real time and skimmed through "American Idol" on the TiVo. From what I saw, it sounded like Carrie and Ruben have the best singing voices of the past winners. Kelly is still the most entertaining to watch. Taylor's facial expressions and haircut make him look like Lurch. He should definitely try out for the Broadway musical version of "The Addams Family."

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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

not live, not from New York

Tonight's Einstein Simplified improv show was videotaped by a crew from Blue Diamond Media. It must have come up quickly. The email notifying the group arrived during my nap. Fortunately for me, I turned on the computer to send an email to some co-workers before leaving the house tonight. If not for that, I would have arrived at Patrick Sullivan's and been surprised to see the lights and camera. The last time we posed for a group photo, the email notifying us also came during my nap and I showed up at the bar wearing a shirt that I didn't really like. I usually don't wear my good shirts to a smoke-filled bar unless there's a camera involved. Yeah, I'm vain.

The highlights of our performance tonight will be seen on a show called "What's Really Good." It is supposed to air Monday night at 11:30 on WVLT-2. It shows up in my TiVo listings as "Paid Programming."

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Monday, May 21, 2007

attention deficit

Tonight's television is all a mishmash in my brain. I've been flipping between "24," "Dancing With the Stars" and "Heroes." Doyle, don't open that box! Great. Now you're blind. Laila Ali's dance costume looks like something she should wear in the ring, not in the ballroom. Uh oh. Molly says there's somebody out there worse than Sylar. What is that disgusting muck on the front of Manny Ramirez' helmet? Oops, wrong channel. I gave the phone to my wife so she could vote for Apollo and Julianne but she couldn't get through. "24" petered out around 23 and a half. What happened to the big surprise ending we were expecting? At least "Heroes" was really good. I hope they bring back Peter from outer space or wherever Nathan took him to blow up.

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Sunday, May 20, 2007

out of my element

The East Tennessee Corvette Club asked me to be the "celebrity" judge at their car show, which was held this afternoon at Reeder Chevrolet. The annual event is a benefit for The Angel Tree. I know nothing about Corvettes. Fortunately, all I had to do was pick out the one I liked best while the real judges ran through a complicated checklist on their clipboards. The older cars impressed me more than the newer ones because it must be harder to restore and maintain the antiques.



Some of the newer Corvettes had unusual additions. One had star spangled engine parts. Another had a picture of the Sorcerer's Apprentice under the hood but with the car owner's face replacing Mickey Mouse's. Perhaps the most appropriate accessory was the vanity plate that read "ADUL TOY."


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Saturday, May 19, 2007

anyone for NaCl?

The packages of chicken at Sam's Club look great. That is until you flip them over. The front of each package has the name of the American Heart Association prominently displayed on it along with a message to visit heartcheckmark.org for information about heart-healthy grocery shopping.



When my wife and I joined LA Weight Loss, one of the first things we learned was to radically cut the amount of sodium we eat each day. It helps keep off water weight. A friend of ours has had to cut sodium after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure. The so-called heart healthy chicken at Sam's has 220 mg of sodium per serving. Salt is even listed as an ingredient. I don't know if salt and chicken broth are injected as preservatives or to add weight and volume to each piece of meat.



As much as we would like to save money by purchasing Sam's chicken, my wife and I now only buy Sanderson Farms chicken, which we get at Food City. It has only 75 mg of sodium per serving. There are no ingredients listed because the only thing in the package is chicken.

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Friday, May 18, 2007

buenas noches

"Back To You" is the new Fox show that I mentioned yesterday. The graphics during the upfront presentation made it look like the title might actually be "Back 2 You." The funniest clips showed the two anchors at the desk, bickering while waiting to go on the air.

A friend from Burbank emailed recently to tell me about this year's St. Finbar Fiesta. He also suggested I take a look at an Internet sitcom called "Goodnight Burbank." It's a spoof of a nightly newscast which focuses on the anchors bickering while waiting to go on the air. I especially enjoyed the names of two of the characters. Like some real reporters in L.A., forecaster Trisha Sakamoto dug into her background to find an ethnic last name to use on the air. It's even funnier when anchor Kelly Jones insists that her last name is pronounced "ho-ness."

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Thursday, May 17, 2007

something for everyone

The marketing director of the local Fox affiliate invited me to come over and watch the satellite feed of the network's upfront presentation this afternoon. The employees who were gathered all seemed pleased that the presentation lasted less than an hour.

Of all the new Fox shows, the preview of "Back To You" got the most laughs and best overall response. It stars Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer as local news anchors. I always liked Heaton on "Everybody Loves Raymond." It will be great to see her back on TV. The reaction to "The Rules for Starting Over," the show that got Rashida Jones to leave "The Office," was only lukewarm.

All the network websites have video clips of their new shows. I've only watched one or two so far but I'll probably look at more highlights over the weekend. I'll post the links here for my own convenience: NBC, ABC, CBS, The CW, FOX

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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

like a pushmi-pullyu

Two things on tonight's "American Idol" foreshadowed the shocking elimination at the end of the show. Blake and Jordin had big crowds at their hometown rallies. As Seacrest announced that the video package of Melinda's trip to Nashville was coming up, he said "and Melinda goes home next." There seemed to be fewer fans welcoming Melinda than there were for the other two.

Viewers of "The View" were reminded today that Elisabeth Hasselbeck picked Blake and Jordin to be the final two over a month ago. On "Access Hollywood" tonight, Katharine McPhee predicted a Jordin victory in the finals. In her blog, News Sentinel movie critic Betsy Pickle makes a strong case as to why Jordin would be the best fit for the Idol machinery. It makes sense. Except for Kelly Clarkson, most Idol winners have not fared as well on the pop charts as their runners-up. Losing could let Melinda and Blake have more control over their careers.

Maroon 5 performed on "American Idol" tonight. They'll be on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend. Last night Blake did a very good cover version of their song "This Love." As we watched the band, my family was reminded of the time we saw them live here in Knoxville. In 2003, I worked for a radio station that booked Maroon 5 to be the opening act for Jason Mraz at the Saturday Night on the Town free street festival (or SNOTT as it was called in the internal memos). We were surprised that the band chose to end their set with an unedited cover version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Closer" (NSFW). A funnier cover version of that song is by lounge singer Richard Cheese.

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

business travel

Jeff Probst and Julie Berry were photographed together on the red carpet at the "Survivor: Fiji" finale. They've been dating since 2004. The pictures made me wonder if Julie goes with Jeff when he's filming a "Survivor" season. Or does he go alone to spend 39 days with each new cast of contestants, which is how he met Julie in the first place?

Another celebrity couple in the news today is Shooter Jennings and Drea de Matteo. She's pregnant. Shooter was in Knoxville just over a year ago to play at Sundown in the City. I wonder if Drea made the trip. We know she's been to Tennessee with him. I found a picture of her at last year's Bonnaroo.

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Monday, May 14, 2007

most wonderful time of the year

The Rubik's Cube that is next fall's TV schedule began to take shape today with the announcement of NBC's plans. The week each year that the networks make their upfront presentations to their advertisers is a favorite of mine. Just like last year, I will soak up all the TV scheduling news I can find so I can start thinking about which shows to watch, which shows to record and which shows to skip.

This year I'm getting my upfronts news from a variety of sources. The major newspapers have blog-style coverage. The LA Times Show Tracker is a good place to start. Last year I liked The New York Times blog entries by Virginia Heffernan. I wouldn't have found them if I hadn't gone online to read Bill Carter's articles for the print edition. I'll also take a look at TV Squad, TV Barn, The Hollywood Reporter and our own local Tele-Buddy.

My friend Jimmy Kimmel traveled to New York to host ABC's upfront presentation, which will be held tomorrow. In past years, he had to run a repeat of his nightly show while he went to the upfronts. He'll air a new episode tomorrow night, which is important during the May ratings sweeps. The whole show takes place on a Santa Monica city bus. The show website makes it pretty clear that the bus show was taped in advance. Jimmy makes no secret about being inspired by David Letterman. He and his staff must have been thinking about Letterman's airplane show when they came up with the bus idea.

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Sunday, May 13, 2007

departures

Chuck Riley was the imaging voice of two of the radio stations on my résumé. His big deep voice once resonated over the airwaves of WAVA and Power 106. Chuck passed away on Thursday. I got the news today in an email from Big Lee Chambers, webmaster of a great WPGC tribute site.

The guy I was rooting for didn't win "Survivor: Fiji." Not only that, he was denied his chance to go before the jury when another contestant broke a promise. I'm being vague for the benefit of any West Coast readers who haven't seen tonight's show yet.

Knoxville's loss is Chattanooga's gain. Bishop Kurtz has decided to transfer Fr. Tony Dickerson from All Saints Church to Notre Dame High School, effective July 1. Fr. Tony might care to know that the guy who played Principal Belding is an alumnus of NDHS.

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Saturday, May 12, 2007

sweet mystery of life

The menu items at Restaurant Linderhof in Farragut have mostly German names. My wife and I shared a fürstenteller platter and still had plenty of leftovers to bring home to our son. The fürstenteller included an oven roasted pork shank, which reminded me of a funny line from "Young Frankenstein." I could imagine Teri Garr saying instead, "He would have an enormous schweinshaxe!"


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Friday, May 11, 2007

yau-za, yau-za

"Survivor" used to be king of the unscripted television shows. It still gets decent ratings but it no longer has the morning-after buzz that it once did. Last night I chose to watch "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" in real time on the HDTV. We recorded "Survivor" with the intention of watching it after "The Office" ended. As it turned out, my wife and I were too tired and decided to save "Survivor" for today.

A few years ago, I wouldn't have made it through this morning without hearing who had gotten voted off the island in last night's episode. Nowadays it's that way with "American Idol" and "Dancing With the Stars." Many entertainment websites, like TV Squad, make it easier for the TiVo generation to avoid spoilers by requiring you to click on a link to read past the introductory paragraph of an episode recap.

My wife watched last night's "Survivor: Fiji" early this morning while I was at work. She said that the episode was good but failed to mention that it may have been the best episode of "Survivor" ever. My son and I watched it this afternoon and were impressed by how great it was. The reward challenge, Exile Island and the hidden immunity idol all came into play. The current season got off to a slow start. At first I didn't think that Yau-Man was a serious contender. Before long, he became my favorite member of the current cast. I'll be watching Sunday night to see if Yau can avoid elimination again and maybe even win this thing.

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Thursday, May 10, 2007

doodle doo

Every so often the name Donald Poteat turns up in the list of search terms that brought people to my blog. I usually don't recognize the name and have to look it up again myself. Poteat turns out to be a "nationally recognized cockfighting enthusiast." I thought of his name on my own today when I pulled up behind a van with a bumper sticker that read: "I Survived the Cocke County Rooster Raid." With his new found free time, the driver could take up a new hobby. Perhaps he would enjoy fishing and reading Crappie World magazine.


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Wednesday, May 09, 2007

the long haul

Consumer Reports has eight weight loss tips on its website. It's been a year since I reached my weight loss goal. To keep the weight off, I continue to watch what I eat daily. If I ever go back to my old eating habits, I think the lost weight would be found again. I still weigh and measure my food, eat every three hours and drink lots and lots of water. While I can eat unlimited vegetables, I constantly need to resist the urge to eat unlimited desserts. Sweets will always be my weakness.

While looking for the Consumer Reports article, I landed on Newsweek's website. It has an excerpt from a book called "Rethinking Thin" that I hope to find soon at McKay's.

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

apply directly to the tastebud

Several restaurants brought samples of their food to Lenoir City Park on Sunday for the third annual Taste of Loudon County. I had a window of time between church and work that was just large enough for my family to get there, try some food and get back.

While everything was good, I thought the three best tasting items were the chicken and dumplings from the Dinner Bell Restaurant, the kettle chips from the Carmichael Inn and the salad with honey vinaigrette dressing topped with strawberries and bleu cheese crumbles from Aubrey's.



The table from Aubrey's was right along Fort Loudon Lake. The folks from Cracker Barrel offered some good looking berry cobbler. Loudon Mercantile set up a mini store. They had free samples of Amish-made cashew crunch sitting next to bags of it that were for sale.



One restaurant (or should I say resturant) could have benefited from using spell check on their menu. As we got ready to leave, we heard strolling violinist Al Colombo play some songs from "Fiddler on the Roof." If I had time to stay longer, I would have asked him to play a certain Bernard Hermann selection. That would make him my favorite violinist too.

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Monday, May 07, 2007

you had to have watched season 4

The email from my friend Russ had some intriguing "24" intel. I've been timeshifting "24" and watching the HD broadcast of "Heroes" in real time. After reading the message from Russ, I want to make sure I get caught up on "24" before the season 6 finale. There are two episodes waiting on my TiVo, last Monday's and tonight's.

According to Russ' source, the current season ends as Jack Bauer climbs into the passenger seat of a car. The script lists the driver only as "Person TBD." Jack is "struggling to get past the shock of who he's seeing" after Person TBD says, "Get in Jack. There's a lot I have to tell you." Who could the mystery person be? My immediate reaction was that it must be Behrooz!

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Sunday, May 06, 2007

listen bud, he's got radioactive blood

"Spider-Man 3" got two thumbs down from "Roeper & Guest." They said it was partly because the new sequel was more campy than the last film. My daughter went to a midnight screening on Thursday night. She knew I would like the movie even though she thought it was a bit "cheesy." She was right. I saw it last night and enjoyed the comical scenes that bothered some critics. In one such scene, Peter Parker swaggers down the street on his way to get some new clothes. In another, he interacts with the maître d' of a fancy French restaurant.

I had feared that the filmmakers or the marketers had radically changed the tone for the third installment when I saw store shelves stocked with Itsy-Bitsy Spider-Man dolls. Thankfully it wasn't a total kiddie movie. In a classic case of product placement, the Itsy-Bitsy dolls were shown during a crowd scene at a pro-Spider-Man rally.

Speaking of cheesy, my friend Richard Cheese has recorded a great lounge version of the Spider-Man theme. You can hear it at both his website and his MySpace page.

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Saturday, May 05, 2007

long live the queen

Queen Elizabeth is on vacation in the States. On Thursday and Friday she visited the former sovereign colony of Virginia. She landed in Richmond where she spoke to the General Assembly and then rode to Colonial Williamsburg. Yesterday she traveled to Jamestown to mark the quadcentennial of the first English settlement there before heading off to the Kentucky Derby today.

I wonder where the Queen slept during her trip. I doubt she stays on a friend's Futon. If she had spent a night in Richmond, she might have chosen to spend the night at the Jefferson Hotel, which has played host to many famous people over the years. Charles Kuralt thought the hotel was so nice, he went there twice. When I was in Richmond last weekend, we went to the Jefferson for Sunday brunch. I found a display case that boasted about the celebrities who have stayed at the Jefferson over the years.



One name stood out among the list of actors, singers, athletes and newsmakers. In the far right hand column, directly under Richard Simmons, it says "Sulu (Star Trek)." Could they not go to the trouble to look up the name George Takei? Or did they think we wouldn't know who that was? A close look at the list reveals some misspelled celebrity names like "Daryl Hanna," "George Thoroughgood" and "Katie Courek"


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Friday, May 04, 2007

who is President Rushmore?

George Mason University made it to the big time last year when the men's basketball team reached the Final Four. Further glory was bestowed upon my alma mater tonight when the following answer appeared on "Jeopardy!" during their College Championship: "A 7-foot statue of this colonial statesman overlooks the campus of GMU, the university named for him." Appropriately, the answer was in the category "Big Men on Campus."


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Thursday, May 03, 2007

teach your children well

East Tennesseans love their forensics like nobody else. Tonight I went to a function sponsored by the American Chemical Society. While I was there, I saw a flyer titled "UTK Forensic Chemistry Camp for Middle Schoolers." Dr. Bill Bass, founder of the Body Farm will address the 6th through 8th graders and will sign copies of his books. The summer camp is part of Kids U 2007. The course description says that students will "examine physical, synthetic blood and trace evidence."

Speaking of Dr. Bass, I just saw some 25 year old footage of him. I watched Tuesday's WBIR special about the 1982 World's Fair. They showed Dr. Bass talking to an audience about the ancient Peruvian mummy that was unwrapped at the fair.

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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

we all scream

There was a line out the door at Baskin-Robbins tonight. Obviously the word had gotten around that it was 31 Cent Scoop Night to honor the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. They have a picture of my cousin Terry on their site.

Baskin-Robbins has always been a favorite of mine. During high school, I worked at store #1207 in Bronxville, New York. Almost every day that I worked I would try a different combination of flavors in a shake or sundae. I especially liked to make shakes with Jamoca Almond Fudge and chocolate syrup. It's also where I learned to cut a banana without touching the fruit. One time I used that skill to make a banana split for WNBC-TV anchorman Chuck Scarborough when he stopped by the store.

Around this time last year, I wrote about the disappearance of Free Scoop Night. When I moved to Knoxville five years ago, I lived alone until my family got here three months later. One of the first things I did after my car arrived on the auto transporter was to find my way to the Baskin-Robbins at West Town Mall for Free Scoop Night.

Some other companies still give away free samples. Again this year I missed Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's by a couple of weeks. I also missed Free Slice of Pizza Day at Pizza Hut by 24 hours. Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday. Are there any other freebie days coming up?


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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

scruffy little city

While most people were watching "American Idol" tonight, WBIR preempted "Dateline NBC" to air a 10 News special called "25 Years After the Fair." President Reagan opened the 1982 World's Fair here in Knoxville 25 years ago today.

KnoxViews.com has links to several articles about the fair including a MetroPulse retrospective and a 1982 Time Magazine preview. The News Sentinel has extensive multimedia coverage.

Unfortunately, the World's Fair wasn't on my personal radar back in 1982. It's too bad that I never saw a TV commercial for it or I might have realized that I "got to be there." Instead, I've been reading blogs about it. Over the summer I'll have to visit the East Tennessee History Center exhibit and then go see the giant Rubik's Cube when it returns to World's Fair Park.

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