I Go Out to Eno Road

I don’t very often feel inadequate to any task I set myself to. But folks, today, I do.
I went out to Eno Road, to look around and get a feel for the scope of the problem, and I got shook. I got shook in a way I don’t quite know how to articulate. [...]

Eno Road Questions

I may come up with more, but these to me appear to be the salient questions that need answering.
1.  Is that stuff still in the landfill?  I didn’t see anything in the EPA reports I read indicating any major clean-up of the site.
2.  If it is in the landfill, is it still a threat to [...]

So, Why Does Nashville Have Such a High Incarceration Rate?

So, here we sit with the second largest population-in-jail per capita in the country and the question is why. Looking at the Justice Policy Institute study, it’s not hard to see how our local issues and these national trends intersect.
First, our community, like others, has been hard hit both by drug abuse and then [...]

We Are Going to Talk About This Later, Young City

So, I’m reading along over at Progressive Nashville about how Memphis sets unreasonably high bails for minor crimes and how then poor people end up sitting in jail for stuff that is only a fineable offense (and let us not forget that the Memphis jail is the jail famous for non-violent offenders mistakenly getting put [...]

Low-Income Households

So, I’m perusing Joe Powell’s discussion of AT&T’s entry into the cable market and I note this passage:
Twenty-five percent of households with access to AT&T’s TV service would have to be low-income, defined as households with income of $35,000 or less, within three-and-a-half years.
And it made me wonder–low income as compared to what?  So, I [...]

We Only Manage to Graduate 70% of High School Seniors–I’ve Got Nothing Funny To Say

Whereas the conventional wisdom had long placed the graduation rate around 85 percent, a growing consensus has emerged that only about seven in 10 students are actually successfully finishing high school.
The Education Research Center has just come out with the results of a study that show that our national graduation rate is about 70%. [...]

Home Sweet Home

I was reading Ginger’s post about how long the Titans have been here in Nashville (ten years–since 1999) and I realized that I, too, have been here since 1999.
That makes Nashville the place I’ve lived the longest in my whole life.
That kind of makes me happy.

Everybody Hollering “Goat”

I was perusing the photos from Church Secretary’s trip to Morocco and just dying at these pictures of goats in trees.  So, when I got to lunch and saw curried goat on the menu, I felt compelled to order it.
I must report that it was… meat.
It was kind of like a cross between pot roast [...]

Hobbs Opposes Newspapers’ Right to Post His Junk Mail List

I’ve now stayed up as late as I can to see what the reaction of the local gun-nut community would be to Bill Hobbs’s latest piece of nonsense, but my connect is strangely silent on the matter.
Here’s the deal.  We have a kind of fuckerly paper here in town and they pretty regularly post information [...]

I Might Have to Make Mr. Armoster King of Tiny Cat Pants

Is spanking a dude who calls you a “nigra” violent or non-violent resistance?  And would it be wrong to send flowers to Bradley Armoster?
Questions, questions.

Two Things, Er, Three Things. Wait, four.

1.  If I ever need to give someone a look of any sort, I’m totally hiring Katie’s baby to do it.  Take a look at these pictures.  We have “I will tear your head off,” “Um, maybe you shouldn’t wear that in public,” “Is that Lee Greenwood or Ray Stevens?” and “Let us never speak [...]

Looking at Old Things

Oh, I forgot to tell you why we were at the Presbyterian church.  So, see, as you know, there’s not really a “Battle of Nashville” historic battlefield of any sort, because we put houses on it.
But the city (or maybe the state, I forget) has been given this tract of land, with a house and [...]

Our River is Beautiful. What is Wrong with Us?

Nashville, I spend a lot of time, when I can, driving aimlessly around our city looking at things and then mulling them over.  It’s my way.
And yesterday, as I was attempting to ascertain how Timothy Demonbreun got into his little cave home and looking at just the gross-ass litter I had to drive through a [...]

Sunday Kind of Litter

Nashville, here are the things I found just laying around our city today:

God, I hope my rosemary looks that good someday.

Yep, let’s all go to the top of Tim’s cave and litter.  Nice.

Here I am at the corner of 12th and Wedgewood.  If you look straight ahead, you can just see the top of the [...]

My Own Private Nashville

The first time I saw this house, I about fell over. This, my friends, is the house I would live in, if I could. Well, after renovations. I’m sure the house has a good vibe, but I need central air, too.
The John Work House.
I love the bathrooms at the Ryman.
Ryman Auditorium.
When Zora [...]

Everybody Wins (Well, Except for the Mexicans, but What Can You Do?)

I want to say something bitingly clever about the 287(g) program, but I just don’t have it in me today.  Last night, on all the news channels, they were talking about what a great success this has been, so great, in fact, that there’s now talk of petitioning the Feds to give us an immigration [...]

Because I am Secretly Twelve, I Must Tell You

That our county clerk’s name is John Arriola.
Tee hee.

My Trip to the Eye Doctor

As a part of my new effort to not just sit around and wait to fall apart, I made my way to the eye doctor today.  I have thin retinas.  And I’m getting glasses to wear when I don’t have my contacts in.
I kind of love my eye doctor.  She’s the kind of eye doctor [...]

Where are My Veteran’s Benefits?

On a lighter note, I was almost run off the road today by a jackass with a Sons of Confederate Veterans license plate and a Confederate Veteran bumpersticker.
He appeared to be younger than me, so unless he’s a reincarnated Confederate Veteran, Veteran status works different here in the South.  Apparently, it’s inheritable.
Which, then, makes me [...]

See, Kids, It’s Wrong for You to Break the Law, but Not for Campfield

I know it’s confusing, but it makes perfect sense.  If you, just once in your life, did something wrong, like get brought into the country illegally by your parents or get brought here legally, but then your parents overstay their visas, you don’t get to go to college because you… I don’t know… didn’t do [...]

See, It Was Rape, But Not the Bad Kind of Rape, Not the Rapey Rape

I just watched a new clip (which I assume will come up here later) about the Rutherford County School Board president who at a school board meeting tonight, for some reason, felt compelled to announce that, after viewing the rape of a girl caught on a school bus camera, that he was disappointed in the [...]

Nashville is Drunkenly Rambling?

What the heck is going on with Nashville is Talking?  It’s flooding my RSS feed with stuff and I look over there and it looks good, but there are just words, words, words and I can’t make heads nor tails of them.  It’s like a handsome, drunken Frankenstein’s monster.

It’s Just a Different World

So, today I had to go to Vanderbilt’s Law School and wait on the elevator to come and there was a bulletin board full of “buy this bike,” “become a cheerleader,” and “rent this apartment.”
I want to talk about the “Rent this apartment” sign.  It said, “Perfect for students.”  A one bedroom apartment in the [...]

Stupidity at Qdoba

I have just witnessed what may be the stupidest thing to ever happen at my Qdoba.  So, I’m standing in line waiting to purchase my chicken burrito, which is not as exciting as my beloved flat iron steak burrito, but I don’t want to have to have my bypass surgery until after folks have perfected [...]

The Second Hand Comcast Story

So, we were missing random channels from our cable package.  At the same time, our hippie neighbors decided to get basic, basic cable.  Whatever fix the Comcast dude had to do resulted in our channels all coming back and also appearing on the neighbors’ tv as well.
The neighbors, being good-do-bees, explained to the Comcast dude [...]