Remember January 8th?
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009
When Barack Obama is inaugurated later this month, millions will descend on our nation’s capital to witness a historic inauguration. In all the emphasis on his being the first black president, though, overlooked is another rarity in his background, the fact that his father was born and raised in a foreign country. It’s not the first time we’ve elected the son of an immigrant as our chief executive, but it’s been more than 170 years. Full story »
More Secret History by Jack Neely
Final Check-Out
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008
After roughly 10 months on the job I am giving up pursuit of the truth about Knoxville in its supermarket aisles. Though I believe the truth is still to be found in these stores—in produce perhaps, or inadvertently buried in a bin on the bargain aisle—the press of more urgent and lucrative business pulls me away. I admit that at times it has seemed to me that this column, like Seinfeld, was about nothing at all. Few places feel more empty of meaning than a grocery store at mid-afternoon with nothing going on. Full story »
More Grocery Check-Out by John Yates
Viva Le Parigo
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008
When Cedric Coant shut down his Bearden restaurant earlier this year, one of the leading lights of West Knoxville’s gastronomic scene was snuffed out in its prime. Yet a couple of weeks ago this much-mourned doyenne of Knoxvillian Francophiles rose again like a pan-seared Lazarus. Now this resurrected treasure, this happy truffle, can once more delight and inspire in its new upscale, downtown residence (416 W. Clinch Avenue). Full story »
More The Gourmet Nose
Change We Hope to Avoid
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008
Democrats have a weak environmental track record. They are long on lip service but short on action. Republicans tend to be even worse, favoring easier and accelerated exploitation of natural resources. Opposing such efforts is important, but a far cry from actually improving environmental law and policy. Virtually all significant environmental legislation was passed in the 1970s. Full story »
More That's Wild by Rikki Hall
Plan A
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008
So it’s New Year’s Day again, that big, bright intersection of starry-eyed intentions and real life, the vantage point from which last year looks tired and shopworn and this year, still unsullied, seems full of possibility. Full story »
More Midpoint by Stephanie Piper
Change in Parkridge
Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009
Back when I started writing this column, in the early ’90s, buying a historic home in Knoxville was a difficult undertaking. And the first challenge was finding one. The Internet had yet to become the omnipresent information source it is today and few realtors, particularly with the major firms, bothered with listings in the center city. And, if they did, the houses were mostly marketed to potential landlords (advertised under headlines like “Attention Investors” and “Cash Flow”). Full story »
More Urban Renewal by Matt Edens
Do Black-Eyed Peas Really Bring Good Luck in the New Year?
Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008
You chew and swallow these, see, and you do it just on the right day and presto, change-o, good luck! But Jack and the Beanstalk notwithstanding, how can you reasonably expect eating a couple of lousy legumes to bring good fortune? Full story »
More All Foods Considered by Rose Kennedy
On the Edge
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Other Lives by Lucy Sieger: From the book’s spine, an enigmatic dark-haired woman engages me with her smoky gaze. She has stenciled brows, kohl-lined eyes and a beauty mark; she is dangling a cigarette, of course. She is my alter ego, the writer I always wanted to be, my creative soul embodied in the daughter of sculptors from the Left Bank of Paris or poets from Prague Full story »
More Other Lives
Letter From Ft. Myers, Fla.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Letters Home from Buddy Lucas It has been said that Tennessee is an old man stretched out under the sun and the moon and the stars, who dips his toes in the Mississippi River and rests his head on the Smoky Mountains with a thousand tales to tell and all the time to tell them. Being a part-time existentialist, full-time daydreamer, and occasional magic-bean buyer, I adhere to that description. This Tennessee will always be home to me. Knoxville has a special place in my heart, because it was there I feel I came to be who I am. Full story »