Nashville, I hear through the grapevine that very few, if any, of you came through for John Lamb, which means that now I feel compelled to nominate folks and what do I know about nominating folks for anything?
You see me handing out awards here?
No
Why not?
Because I have no imagination when it comes to this kind of stuff.
But, for John’s sake, here are two folks he should consider awarding something to for some reason.
1. Lorraine Lopez over at Vanderbilt. First, she’s a terrific person. She’s absolutely one of the kindest people you will ever meet. She’s got the kind of kindness that seems almost holy and it would be worth it to give her an award just to spend some time with her, because being around her is just that cool.
But, most importantly, Lopez is an accomplished writer and teacher. Her presense in Nashville and her identification as Latina author gives Nashville a presense in the Latino literary world we otherwise wouldn’t have. Because of her, it’s not a stretch to imagine Judith Ortiz Cofer or other important Hispanic authors coming to town and I know she’s done a great deal to make and keep the Vanderbilt community more aware of the issues that face Hispanics in our community.
I guess that makes her noteworthy in the literary community.
2. Come on! Obviously Mack, and not for his food (although I will forever be indebted to him for introducing me to the joys of homemade tamales). But clearly Mack is the foremost Hispanic voice in the Nashville blogosphere and folks turn to him when they expect a certain level of troublemaking and trouble-soothing. Who could forget, for instance, his attempt to bring home the realities of the plight of undocumented immigrant mothers and their U.S. children to the folks at WKRN when he attempted to make Tiny Pasture the adopted father of a needy baby? Or how he’s seemingly on the speed-dial of everyone who needs to bounce ideas off of someone? He’s noteworthy for his online work and his ability to run from and get more entangled in the greater Work he’s doing.
Now, if there’s some dinner at which these two get recognized, I’d like to request to be seated at the same table as them, because that should be a hoot of an evening.
Edited to add: I can’t believe I didn’t link to it! Anyway, here’s my post of the most awesome birthday prank ever.
Tiny Cat Pants 
I’m a low-information voter, here.
.
Man, I can’t wait to meet these two!
Do you think they’ll serve tamales? Will there be piñatas? Will there be plenty of party piñatas? Would you say we’ll have a plethora of piñatas?
What’s really awesome is that I just heard from someone close to John Lamb (and by close I mean in the same town) that it’s considered a great honor for people nominated as being a Noteworth Hispanic Nashville whatever to have an afghan that is beautiful on one side and covered in loose ends on the other. Something about symbolizing the importance of the duality of man.
I don’t know.
The crucial thing is that you have such an afghan now all done, just waiting for you to admire it and be admired wrapped in it.
I believe it will symbolize the laziness of the American workforce.