By Brendan Loy
Google Street View has come to Knoxville.
For instance, here's the place I just came back from -- the Knoxville Visitor Center on Gay Street, where the WDVX Blue Plate Special takes place every weekday:
And here's a look at the Gay Street Bridge, seen from across the river in South Knoxville, with several downtown buildings, the Sunsphere, and the Henley Street Bridge in the distance:
(Hat tip: Michael Silence.) More after the jump.
By Brendan Loy
As I mentioned earlier, a severe thunderstorm pounded North Knoxville this afternoon. I had a bird's eye view of the storm from the parking garage downtown where I park for work, and I was able to capture several still frames of cloud-to-ground lightning from the videos I took with my digital camera. Here's the best one:
Here's what the storm looked like on radar at that very moment:
A wider, animated radar view can be found here. There are more lightning pics -- and other storm photos -- in my Flickr gallery, and several of those photos are highlighted on my photoblog.
UPDATE: One of my lightning videos is now on Flickr as well. You can see several lightning strikes, including the one pictured above.
P.S. The thunderstorm gave way to a beautiful sunset several hours later. Here are a couple photos of that:
Again, visit my Flickr gallery and my photoblog for more.
By Brendan Loy
Don't you love it when Glenn Reynolds gets a little pervy with his photography? I sure do! But what does Dr. Helen think? ;)
(I kid, Glenn, I kid!)
By Brendan Loy
New York Times travel writer Allison Glock spends 36 hours in Knoxville, which she calls "a place too unassuming to shout about but too comfortable to leave":
Knoxville, cheerfully ensconced in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and banked against the Tennessee River, has an intrinsically lazy, soulful feel. The geography is soft, green and rolling. The climate is gentle, breezy and bright. Locals tend to be not just friendly — a given in most Southern towns — but chilled out, too. This is not the Old South of magnolias and seersucker so much as a modern Appalachia of roots music, locavore food, folk art and hillbilly pride. Or, as yet another city moniker aptly states, “Austin without the hype.”
WDVX's Blue Plate Special is prominently featured, as well it should be. Photo gallery here. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)
By Brendan Loy
As I mentioned earlier, my parents are in town this weekend, and tonight my dad and I went to a Tennessee Smokies game. I had totally forgotten that Notre Dame's Jeff Samardzija is a Smokie (er, a Smoky?), but he is, and there he was, standing in the dugout right in front of us:
I couldn't resist saying something, so I walked up to the edge of the dugout and yelled "Hey, Jeff!" a couple of times until he heard me and looked over. I then said, "Go Irish!" He responded with a sort of half-smile and quasi-acknowledgment that suggested he gets that all the time from Notre Dame fans who feel so passionately about the Irish that they figure it's perfectly reasonable to treat famous ND alums like long-lost buddies and thus randomly say "Go Irish" at them. Heh.
Alas, Samardzija wasn't pitching tonight, but it was cool to see him anyway. He's got a blog, by the way.
Anyway, the Smokies won the game, 8-3, and we had a good time. Here are a few more pictures:
By Brendan Loy
Becky, Loyette and I spent Memorial Day communing with nature, as we hiked the Porters Creek Trail, a roughly 7-mile walk through the woods in the Smoky Mountain National Park.
It was very fun, if somewhat exhausting. (The hike to the campsite at the end of the trail was relentlessly uphill; the walk back was, naturally, downhill, and therefore mercifully less tiring.) We carried Loyette in her Kangaroo Korner slings, Becky using the fleece one and me using the mesh one, as we always do. We passed her back and forth throughout the roughly six-hour hike, and whoever wasn't wearing the baby would wear the backpack. So that worked out pretty well.
Loyette was amazingly tolerant of the long day. She got cranky exactly three times -- twice just before taking a long nap in her sling (i.e., she was tired), and once just before lunch (i.e., she was hungry). She's a great baby that way. :) Throughout the vast majority of the hike, she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and seemed very interested in all the new sights, sounds and smells. Of course, that meant not just the natural wonders of the forest, but also the more mundane "wonders" like the feel of cold condensation on the outside of our water bottle, and the way a plastic bag full of peanuts (a handy trail snack) changes shape when you grab the outside of the bag. To a baby, everything new is exciting and wondrous.
Anyway, the trail we hiked is renowned for its beautiful wildflowers in early spring. Since it's late May, there aren't as many wildflowers now, but there are some, and they're pretty. Here are a few that I photographed:
See also this one and this one.
Oh, and the trail also has a somewhat scary bridge, quite reminiscent of the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm (although with a railing, admittedly):
It's hard to tell from the photos, but there's really quite a steep drop-off; the water is maybe 15 feet below you in the middle. And given the narrowness of the bridge, it's legitimately somewhat nerve-wracking to walk across.
I really wanted to find a large stick, hold it up, and proclaim, "You cannot pass! I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. Dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udûn! Go back to the shadow! You shall not pass!!!"
But alas, there was another pair of hikers sitting on a rock nearby, well within earshot, so I had to contain my weirdness. :)
I did, however, do what my dad and I call the Indiana Jones pose -- notwithstanding the fact that, to my knowledge, Indiana Jones never did any such pose.
Anyway, I'll upload some more pictures of the hike to Flickr shortly, and link to them here when they're online.
P.S. I think this photo is cool:
UPDATE: As promised, here's the Flickr gallery. It's two pages long. Enjoy!
By Brendan Loy
As I mentioned previously, Becky and I went to the Knox County Democrats' Truman Day Dinner last night at the Knoxville Convention Center, where we were treated to a keynote address by none other than than the Ragin' Cajun himself, James Carville, described in the event's program as "the most famous political consultant in America" (something I think Karl Rove might take issue with).
Carville was as advertised: bombastic, outrageous, and hilarious. He was also, despite his well-known LSU fandom, dressed in a Tennessee football jersey throughout his remarks:
It was a Peyton Manning jersey, presented to him by the Knox County Democratic Party chairman, and he wore it proudly because, as Carville pointed out, Manning was born and raised in Louisiana. "He was our gift to your state," the native Louisianan said. "Don't expect any more."
A press release in advance of Carville's speech said he "will be giving his analysis of the primary campaign of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama," but in fact, he mostly steered clear of that topic, except to mock the hand-wringers who believe the battle is killing the party. "Don't worry," he said. "We'll be united." He added, "I'd much rather be in the party that's got two good candidates than in the party with one bad one."
The Republicans, Carville said, are the ones who are imploding (a theme echoed today by Peggy Noonan, who I'm guessing doesn't agree with Carville all that often). He then summoned his political strategy expertise and offered some free advice to the Republicans: "PANIC!!!"
But his most memorable jabs were reserved for a former Republican candidate for president, Tennessee's own Fred Thompson. Carville quipped that Thompson was "the only presidential candidate in history to test positive for ambien." (The audience roared.) Carville also said, to uproarious laughter, that Thompson is a big supporter of President Bush's education policy: "He wanted to make sure no child was left behind, so he married her." Heh.
I think my favorite line, though, was his reference to the topic that made this blog famous. Carville mentioned that he'll be giving the commencement address at Tulane this weekend. "I left Louisiana in 1986, and it took me 22 years to get back," he said. "That means I'm getting to Louisiana faster than FEMA got there."
You can read local news coverage of Carville's visit from the Knoxville News-Sentinel and Volunteer TV, and a bloggy interview at KnoxViews. Also, via Knoxville Talks, here is the local NBC affiliate's interview with Carville before the dinner:
As always with these sorts of events, you have to sit through all kinds of warm-up acts before the main event, and those included speeches by U.S. Senate candidates Bob Tuke and Mike Padgett, both of whom are vying to take on Lamar Alexander in November. (The primary is August 7; there are six Democrats on the ballot, but Tuke and Padgett are considered the front-runners.)
Both men spoke a little too long, I'd say, mostly repeating similar talking points: the Republicans are to blame for everything that's wrong with the country, Lamar Alexander has been in Washington for too long and is out of touch with ordinary Tennesseans, etc. Becky thought Tuke was the better speaker by far; personally, I thought Padgett was just about as good, but suffered from the fact that he spoke second, and by that point the audience was getting bored, having already heard all the good anti-GOP lines, and was ready for Carville to speak. Even so, it's odd that Tuke seemed to connect better with the audience, given that he's from Nashville whereas Padgett is a local boy.
Regardless, in all likelihood, Tuke and Padgett are fighting for the right to be a sacrificial lamb in November. According to a Rasmussen poll last month, Alexander leads 59% to 30% over Tuke and 58% to 31% over Padgett. But don't tell that to anyone at last night's event. It was basically a big pep rally for the Democratic Party, and although one speaker acknowledged that it can be "tough to be a Democrat in East Tennessee," folks at this shindig were incredibly upbeat about their chances in November. Of course, political self-delusion is a well-practiced art (just ask Carville's favored presidential candidate!), but I can see why there'd be some optimism: between the general national mood (Tuesday's special election in Mississippi was mentioned numerous times) and the recent scandals in the Republican-dominated Knox County government, it seems like, if there's ever a year when Democrats have a chance in East Tennessee, this would be the year.
By Jay Johnson
I know that I have personally been guilty of being overly critical of some college athletes about their performance on the field of play. Someone's not giving full effort, a step too slow, or otherwise just not putting it all out there on the floor for their team and their fans.
Here's a story that should make everyone check that attitude for a minute.
Tennessee's preseason All-America guard, Chris Lofton, started off the 2007-08 season in an absolute funk. He wasn't scoring, his play seemed a bit lackluster, and couldn't hit a three to save his life.
Well, the facts were really that he was battling to actually save his life.
Diagnosed with testicular cancer following a random NCAA drug screen after the 2006-07 season, he fought a private battle with the cancer, with only the closest of the close among his family and friends knowing what he was going through.
Meanwhile, local sports fans and commentators were critical to varying degrees about Lofton's performance. There were calls for him to be benched along with wild speculation about what his problems on the floor were.
I just think that this is a good opportunity to remind everyone that college athletes are young kids, from divergent backgrounds, with any number of personal problems that can impact their play. So, before you take time to bash someone on a message board, call in to a talk show, or otherwise express an opinion without all the facts, slow down and take Chris Lofton's situation to heart.
By Brendan Loy
William M. Barker, the Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court*, is retiring.
*or is the proper title "Chief Justice of the State of Tennessee"? I'm not sure.
By Brendan Loy
Loyette, Becky, Casey (visiting for the weekend from Rochester) and I went on the March for Babies this morning on UT's campus. It was fun!
That's Becky pushing Loyette's stroller above, and Casey next to her. Here's a photo of Loyette and me, relaxing after the walk:
My t-shirt, if you're wondering, says, "Fatherhood: the toughest job you'll ever love."
Anyway, thanks again to everybody who sponsored us! We ended up exceeding our goal, with $620 in donations!
If you didn't sponsor us, but would still like to donate to the March of Dimes, why not sponsor the Neudorffs? They'll be marching next weekend in Rochester.
After the jump, some more photos of today's march here in Knoxville.
UPDATE: Welcome, No Silence Here readers! If you didn't know, "Loyette" is our baby's blog nickname, not her actual name. :)
By Brendan Loy
I'm traveling to Denver from May 4-6, and will be landing at the Nashville Airport (Southwest doesn't fly into Knoxville) at 8:25 PM on Tuesday the 6th. By that time, of course, results from the Indiana and North Carolina primaries will be coming in; indeed, winners may well have been declared before I land. Alas, I didn't think about this when I scheduled the trip.
Anyway, during my drive back to Knoxville, I'd like to listen to live coverage of election-related news on the radio. Hence, my question for Tennessee radio listeners: Are there any radio stations (presumably AM) in the Nashville area that would have this? What about in the no man's land between Nashville and Knoxville? And for that matter, what about in the Knoxville area? I almost never listen to the radio for this kind of thing, so I don't know.
By Brendan Loy
A 5.2-magnitude earthquake centered near the southern Illinois-Indiana border rattled several states this morning, including Tennessee. Becky and I didn't feel anything; the quake happened at 5:37 AM EST, when we were still asleep, and it didn't rouse us. But some East Tennesseeans were awakened by the distant tremor.
Here's a map showing the epicenter, and another map showing where people have reported feeling the quake, and how strongly (close-up here):
If you're a Californian wondering how on earth something a puny as a 5.2 quake (or "temblor," as you guys say out there) could be felt so strongly, and in places as far afield as Chicago and Knoxville, it's because, as explained here, "seismic waves in the East travel farther and pack more destructive punches." The exact reason for this phenomenon is a topic of much debate among scientists, but "one explanation is that eastern geology is older and simpler, with fewer faults in the ground to slow the travel of quake waves." See also here:
Earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S., although less frequent than in the western U.S., are typically felt over a much broader region. East of the Rockies, an earthquake can be felt over an area as much as ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast.
That point is graphically illustrated here.
Of course, this morning's mini-quake is nothing compared to the Big One that will someday destroy Memphis and cause massive devastation all across the region.
P.S. Brian Neudorff has more, and some history.
P.P.S. Ann Althouse felt it. (Hat tip: InstaPundit, who didn't.)
By Brendan Loy
Hey, I thought of something non-political that I can blog about: pretty pictures! Those always work. :)
As a follow-up, sort of, to my shiny old cars post, here is my promised photo gallery of "Springtime in Knoxville." A few highlights:
That's Neyland Stadium in the distance in that bottom picture, and the Tennessee River on the left... in case you were wondering. The middle picture is of Knoxville's Krutch Park. And the top one was taken from a downtown parking garage. Those white trees are gorgeous (though they aren't white anymore; they turned green a couple of weeks ago).
Anyway, again, the full album is here. It starts on March 6 and continues through April 9 (and I'll add to it if I take more pictures that belong in it). Nothing photographically spectacular, IMHO, but some nice pictures anyway. It's truly a beautiful time of year here.
By Brendan Loy
Last weekend, Becky, Loyette and I went to "Harriman' Cruisin 2008," a street festival in the kinda sorta nearby town of Harriman. Basically, Harriman Cruisin' involves a bunch of car buffs parking their classic cars all up and down Main Street and letting people ooh and aah at them. Here's my photo gallery.
As the title and the above photo suggest, it's mostly pictures of shiny old cars, but there are a few miscellaneous shots of what is otherwise, frankly, kind of a depressed, Rust Belt-ish looking downtown area. (See, e.g., here and here.) In fact, if you look closely, you might see some small-town folk who look a little bitter and might well be clinging to religion and, er, antipathy to people who aren't like them. ;)
Anyway, we had fun. Old cars are neat. We even saw a Ford Model A! Here, again, is the link to the gallery.
UPDATE: As noted in comments, the above-pictured car is (I think!) a 1959 Chevy Impala. Here's an old "subliminal" TV ad for it, featuring Pat Boone and Dinah Shore:
Ain't YouTube great?
By Brendan Loy
Joe Lunardi has published his initial, ridiculously early, meaningless yet fun, pre-pre-season 2009 Bracketology projections. (Hat tip: BK.) His #1 seeds are North Carolina, Duke, Texas and Pittsburgh. 2007 finalists Kansas and Memphis drop to #2 and #3, respectively, and UCLA plummets to a #7. w00t! :)
More importantly, Notre Dame is a #2 seed (without Gene Cross? Hmm...), Gonzaga is a #5, and USC is a #9. Frankly, those all seem high to me, but maybe I'm just a pessimist about my own teams. (Although, if so, it didn't prevent my irrational Zag-xuberance last year.)
Tennessee falls all the way to #9... where they're matched up in a brutal first-round game against #8 Davidson. (Stephen Curry FTW!) This year's mid-major superpower that almost beat UT, Butler, is on the bubble but out, as are the Washington Huskies. The UConn Huskies, though, are sitting pretty as a #2 seed. Oh, and the University of Hartford Hawks, after falling one game short in 2008, make their NCAA Tournament debut in 2009 as a #16 seed. Hurrah!
Yeah, so, we have a college football season to start -- and finish -- before I'll get really excited about any of this, but it's fun to look ahead. :)
By Brendan Loy
In the last half hour, a spooky sort of here-come-the-storms feeling has definitely settled over Knoxville. Tornado warnings off to the west. I'm heading home, and should beat the storms.
UPDATE: I'm home, in case anyone was worried. :) No major storms yet here, though I think Jay's hometown of Loudon got pounded. [UPDATE: Apparently not.]
Looks like we may get some action in 30-45 minutes, but overall, the line of storms appears to be weakening. Indeed, thankfully, there are no more tornado warnings at the moment.
LATER UPDATE: The line of storms kind of fell apart as it neared Knoxville proper, so we were largely spared. But one isolated storm cell did move over a while later, bringing some heavy rain for a few minutes and briefly turning the sky a weird shade of yellow -- I'm not sure what that was all about. Here are the "before & after" shots, at 8:02 PM and 8:07 PM:
Hmm... upon further review, sunset was at 8:07, so maybe the sunlight at 8:02 was somehow shining through the clouds and rain at some weird angle, producing the yellowness.
It was a bit spooky, though, regardless.
By Brendan Loy
Becky e-mails that The Weather Channel "is telling people in western Nashville suburbs to take cover." That would be because of the tornado warning for central Cheatham County. And that line of storms is headed our way. "Methinks it'll be one helluva night," Becky writes. Indeed.
UPDATE: The big Dogwood Arts Parade in downtown Knoxville, scheduled for 7pm tonight, has been postponed to next Friday April 25 due to the approaching line of storms.
By Brendan Loy
...does this mean there's going to be a parade?? I love parades!!
UPDATE: Local news says there will be a celebration at Thompson-Boling Arena at 5:30 PM tomorrow, free and open to the general public, with doors opening at 5:00. No word yet on any parade plans.
P.S. My Facebook profile asks the question:
By Brendan Loy
It's Candace vs. Candice (and Smoky vs. The Tree) in the women's national championship game, and Jeff vs. Jeff in the Living Room Times women's pool, as March Madness officially ends tonight.
If the Tennessee Lady Vols, led by Candace Parker, beat the Stanford Drunken Trees Cardinal, led by Candice Wiggins, in tonight's title showdown, then Jeff Freeze, a 1992 Indiana alum, will win the 11th annual Times women's pool. If Stanford prevails, then Jeff Vaca, a 1982 Cal alum, will be the pool champion.
The game starts at 8:30 PM EST on ESPN. Gamecast here.
P.S. If Tennessee wins, there will be three contestants in my pools who correctly predicted both the men's and women's champions: Chris Aemisegger, Dan Port, and... Loyette! Heh. (If Stanford wins, there will be no such contestants.)
UPDATE: It's 37-29 Tennessee at halftime.
UPDATE 2: The Lady Vols win!
The final score was 64-48. I guess they used up all the drama in their Final Four win over LSU:
By Brendan Loy
Ever since I saw (and photographed) the above-pictured robin en route home from work on March 6, I've been meaning to put together a "springtime in Knoxville" photo gallery for the blog. There are a ton of beautiful flowers, trees and other lovely signs of spring in this part of the world. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to make the album yet, but I hope to do so soon.
I'll definitely have a lot more material to work with after today, as Becky, Loyette and I ventured out to the Crescent Bend Tulip Time festival this afternoon, then walked three miles along the riverfront, snapping photos all the way. Here's one pic from the tulip gardens:
Very pretty. It was an absolutely gorgeous day here, and it looks like a very nice week ahead. It all puts me in mind of the song "Rambles of Spring," one of my favorite Makem & Clancy numbers -- of which, conveniently enough, I found a YouTube clip recently. Enjoy!
UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds has some nice pictures from yesterday as well.
By Brendan Loy
If you think the men's tournament is Chalk City, check out the women's bracket: the Elite Eight consists of four #1 seeds and four #2s. (Admittedly, chalkiness is more common on the women's side, where parity is less pronounced than among the men. But still.) #1-seed Tennessee sealed the deal last night with a 74-64 win over #5 Notre Dame, which is now 0-16 all-time against UT.
The Irish gave the Lady Vols a much better game than they did in an 87-63 loss back in January at the Joyce Center. In this one, ND led at halftime, 33-31. But between about the 18-minute mark and the 13-minute mark of the second half, Tennessee went on a 17-1 run, and Candace Parker wound up with a career-high-tying 34 points. That was just too much for the Irish to overcome.
In my 11th annual women's pool, six contestants correctly predicted the "all chalk" Elite Eight: Ken Stern, Kevin Pilz, Tom Caputi, Carol LaPlante, Joseph Hiegel and Lisa Velte.
Stern currently leads the pool with 316 out of a possible 352 points. He took first place from Chuck Wessell when #3 Texas A&M beat #2 Duke last night. Wessell, who had picked the Blue Devils, is now second with 313. Pilz is third with 311. Those three contestants are the only ones ahead of the "all favorites bracket," which would have 309 points. Complete standings here and after the jump. Information on who's still alive to win the pool -- 21 contestants in all -- here.
Incidentally, I forgot to mention this before, but in the men's pool (presented by the UCLA Bruins, blah blah blah), 28 contestants got the "all-chalk" Final Four right. Their names are listed after the jump.
By Brendan Loy
Notre Dame and Tennessee are about to get underway in a Sweet Sixteen showdown. The #5-seed Fighting Irish are the last chance to prevent an "all chalk" Elite Eight in the women's NCAA Tournament; so far, all the #1 and #2 seeds have won.
Incidentally, the women's pool standings and scenarios are updated through seven Elite Eight games. Ken Stern currently has the lead. The standings are after the jump as well.
By Brendan Loy
The Bruce Pearl to Indiana rumors are officially on.
By Brendan Loy
In the battle to determine my rooting interest for the remainder of the tournament, Tennessee leads Butler, 53-49 with 7:53 left.
In the other games still ongoing, it looks like Texas, Western Kentucky and Georgetown have the edge (though I'm still hoping for a Davidson comeback in the latter game). And earlier, Villanova beat Siena. I'll post a pool update after the conclusion of all four of the games currently underway.
UPDATE: What a great bunch of games those turned out to be!! Texas survives a furious Miami comeback, Western Kentucky does the same against San Diego, Tennessee wins a thriller in overtime over a game Butler squad, and Davidson rallies to stun Georgetown! WOO!!!
I realize it's easy to second-guess the committee after the games have been played, but man, Butler is way better than a #7 seed, eh? They should have been able to reach the Sweet Sixteen without playing a team as good as Tennessee (which arguably should have been a #1 seed). But alas. Great win for the Vols. They certainly had to earn it. I'll be rooting for them from here on out -- unless they meet Davidson in the Final Four (not totally implausible) or Western Kentucky in the title game (umm, kind of implausible), in which case I'll probably revert to my usual mid-major lovefest.
Anyway, pool update coming shortly.
By Brendan Loy
The first wave of Friday games is underway. ESPN.com's writers are hoping for some excitement: "Day 1's 16 NCAA tournament games were decided by an average of 16 points. Will Day 2's slate bring a return to the Madness?"
You know, if South Alabama beats Butler later this afternoon, Tennessee might have to beat American and USA to reach the Sweet 16? Unpatriotic bastards! :) Right now, though, they're struggling with American, which is outrebounding them 12-4. Huh?
Also underway: Gonzaga-Davidson. GO ZAGS!!!
Also, Drake-Western Kentucky and Miami-St. Mary's. It's mid-major hour! Only two BCS-conference teams are in action at the moment.
P.S. The latest NIT Pool standings are up, after last night's wins by Syracuse (over Maryland) and Arizona State (over Southern Illinois). Mark Gardner is still perfect, with an 18-for-18 record and 132 points. Ginny Zak is now alone for second place at 17-for-18 and 125 points. Eight contestants are tied for third with 118 points.
By Brendan Loy
The trouble with living in a state that has five NCAA Tournament teams is that you're locked into watching a lot of first-round games involving those teams, whether or not they're the most exciting game in progress. I mentioned this before with relation to Duke-Belmont pre-empting USC-Kansas State tomorrow night, but it's an even bigger issue on Friday, when all four time slots will occupied by games involving Tennessee teams, only one of which (Vanderbilt-Siena at 7:20, a 4-13 game) figures to be potentially competitive. The other games are: #2 Tennessee vs. #15 American at 12:15, #2 Texas vs. #15 Austin Peay at 2:50, and #1 Memphis vs. #16 Texas-Arlington at 9:40.
According to the local CBS affiliate, "At the network's discretion, all
games BUT the Kentucky vs Marquette game [Thursday at 2:30] and the Tennessee vs American
Game can be switched from/to during play to a better game of the
network's choosing." (The Kentucky game gets higher "regional" priority than any of the non-UT teams from Tennessee? Weird.) So, once Texas and Memphis open up big leads, they'll take us out to other games at some point (like maybe Butler-South Alabama in the 2:50 slot). That's a relief. But I'm doomed -- unless I go to a sports bar, which is a chancy proposition when you've got a baby -- to have virtually zero chance of watching any of Gonzaga-Davidson, Miami-St. Mary's or Drake-Western Kentucky, all of which I really want to see, but all of which are scheduled opposite Tennessee-American. Arrrgh.
(I tried MMOD at home the other day. It works okay -- better than it did with our ridiculously slow connection in South Bend -- but I still don't think it'll be acceptably smooth for live, fast-moving basketball action. It's a wee bit jerky, to an extent that might not be bothersome in some contexts, but will, I think, be problematic for watching live sports.)
By Brendan Loy
That's a healthy-looking line of thunderstorms that's headed our way.
By Brendan Loy
While watching a SportsCenter commercial last night featuring the Tennessee Lady Vols' head basketball coach, I came to a horrifying realization:
I think I'm starting to like Pat Summitt.
This is simply not acceptable. Pat Summitt is the enemy! She is UConn's nemesis! She is the anti-Geno! She is the devil-woman! It is the solemn duty of every good Connecticutian to resist the Evil Pat and all Her Works! I'm allowed to grudgingly respect her, but under no circumstances am I supposed to like her! Must... resist...
"We are the Big Orange Army... you will be assimilated... resistance is futile..."
Nooooooooo!!!!
By Brendan Loy
The good news is, the Notre Dame-George Mason game will be the primary ~9:30 game on the Knoxville CBS affiliate Thursday night. Sweet!
The bad news is, contrary to what I guessed last night, USC-Kansas State won't be the primary ~7:00 game. I guess they think Belmont, a Nashville university with 4,700 students, has a large enough following in East Tennessee that it makes sense to prioritize #2 Duke vs. #15 Belmont over the super-frosh showdown of Mayo vs. Beasley. Ugh.
I just hope our Comcast connection can handle MMOD. (Speaking of which, if you want a "VIP pass," you'd better sign up now -- they're 86% full!)
By Brendan Loy
Knoxville's Krutch Park in bloom. ... Meanwhile, I just got a text message from Kristin in South Bend -- where I'm guessing it's decidedly less springlike -- reporting that Notre Dame Law School has been evacuated due to a fire alarm. Hmm.
UPDATE: Our intrepid NDLS correspondent reports: "All ok, incident involved a microwave, a sandwich wrapped in tin foil, & a styrofoam plate." Heh.
By Brendan Loy
In the latest escalation of the Pat Summitt-Geno Auriemma War, Tennessee recently reported UConn for an alleged recruiting violation -- arranging a tour of ESPN's studios in Bristol for star freshman Maya Moore back when she was a recruit who was heavily prized by both schools.
ESPN, obviously keen to avoid "becoming the story" again in the future, says that "to avoid future incidents, our tour policy will now prohibit high school athletes from receiving tours at the request of a college or university athletic official."
But the bigger story here, in my mind, is the Summitt-Auriemma angle. It has become increasingly clear that these two really don't like each other. In fact, here is some exclusive footage of Pat and Geno going at it before a recent ballgame:
Correction: I'm told those are the Oral Roberts and IUPUI mascots. My bad. But if Connecticut and Tennessee meet in the Final Four, that's pretty much what it'll be like.
By Brendan Loy
With the state of Tennessee having such a great basketball year, I've been wondering how we stack up against other states in terms of our number of NCAA Tournament teams. Now, thanks to this nifty Wikipedia map, I have the answer.
If Middle Tennessee State knocks off Western Kentucky tonight in the Sun Belt title game, Tennessee will have six teams in the NCAA Tournament -- meaning exactly half of its 12 Division I schools would be dancing. (MTSU would join at-large locks Memphis, UT and Vanderbilt, and automatic bid winners Belmont and Austin Peay.) If that happens, Tennessee would probably finish tied with California for the largest number of teams in the Big Dance, and would either tie Indiana or finish first all by itself for the percentage of its Division I teams going dancing (among states with at least five Division I teams).
Continue reading "Tennessee: center of the basketball world" »
By Brendan Loy
The Tennessee Lady Vols managed to win the SEC Tournament over the weekend despite Coach Pat Summitt's lingering injury from a raccoon attack. (Hat tip: Michael Silence.)
Personally, if I were a raccoon, I wouldn't tangle with Pat Summitt. (And if I were Erin Andrews, I'd stay the hell away from Bruce Pearl. But that's another story entirely.)
By Brendan Loy
USC leads Stanford, 45-35, with 16:51 left at the Galen Center. If the Trojans win and Washington State loses to UW tonight, USC will be the #3 seed in the Pac-10 tournament, and any possible Loy-Tran bet-deciding USC-UCLA game wouldn't happen until the conference final. If USC loses or Wazzu wins, the Trojans will be the #4 seed, setting up a possible semifinal matchup with the top-seeded Bruins.
In other news, last year's Notre Dame-conquering Big South champion, Winthrop, earned another auto bid to the NCAAs, joining Cornell on that short list and sending regular-season champ UNC-Asheville to the NIT as that tournament's first automatic qualifier.
Later today, three Tennessee teams will try to earn automatic NCAA bids of their own, as Cinderella story #6 seed Tennessee State, 15-16 and #215 in the RPI, faces #1 seed Austin Peay, also from Tennessee, in the Ohio Valley title game (ESPN2, 5pm), and Belmont, yet another Tennessee school, faces Jacksonville in the Atlantic Sun final (ESPN2, 7pm)
By Brendan Loy
One night after Stanford was blatantly robbed of a possible Pac-10 title share by a foul call so bad that even the UCLA players admit they got lucky, highly questionable refereeing struck again in the lower-profile, yet in some sense higher-stakes, setting of the Atlantic Sun quarterfinals.
Unlike NCAA-bound UCLA and Stanford, A-Sun semifinalists Belmont and East Tennessee State were fighting to extend their respective seasons -- win or go home -- when, with 19.4 seconds left and ETSU holding a 1-point lead and the ball, an official took it upon himself to completely change the course of the game by calling a technical foul on ETSU player Kenyona Swader, who appeared to lose his temper slightly after being fouled by a Belmont player. Belmont hit both technical free throws to take the lead, and ultimately won the game.
The TV announcers on Comcast Sports Southeast mostly defended the call, with the analyst repeating several times that Swader "swung an elbow." But his elbow made no contact with anyone, and it didn't even look like he's intentionally doing anything aggressive with it. I don't know what he said, of course, but unless it was about the ugliest, most egregious thing anyone's ever said in the history of college basketball, I'm not convinced that it justifies calling a game-deciding "T." All in all, to me, it looked like a very weak call, and one that's pretty ridiculous to make in that situation. But judge for yourself:
Good grief. Let the players, not the refs, determine who wins and loses. Is that so much to ask?
By Brendan Loy
Shannon's visiting us this weekend, and today we drove out to the Smokies. Here we are in Cades Cove with a sleepy Loyette:
Shannon, incidentally, sat next to Lady Vols star Nicky Anosike's 6-foot-10 brother, Ifesinachi (a.k.a. "E"), on her flight into Knoxville on Thursday. (He had requested to change seats because he couldn't fit well in his original seat near the back of the plane, and being next to 5-foot-3 Shannon worked well.) She said he was a really nice, friendly guy, and they had a nice time chatting on the flight. Their flight ended up making the news, in the lede of the AP article about Tennessee's senior-night win over Florida on Thursday:
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Nicky Anosike's family arrived just after halftime to see her play in her final home game at Tennessee on Thursday night.By then she and the third-ranked Lady Vols had already taken care of business.
"They are always late. I expected that, and I was prepared for it," she joked after her family's flight from New York was delayed.
Heh.
Anyway, back to today's trip to the Smokies... I also got a couple of nice photos of deer:
By Brendan Loy
*See note below about the changed title of this post.There are no adequate words of condemnation for this.
I'll try a few, though. Indefensible. Inexcusable. Disgusting. And, yes, racist.
The Tennessee Republican Party apparently thinks it's appropriate to smear Barack Obama -- or as they put it, Barack Hussein Obama -- with an official press release accompanied by an all-too-familiar irrelevant, inflammatory photo of Obama in Somali garb, described pointedly as "Muslim attire."
And they aren't backing down. Far from it, in fact. They say this deliberately divisive nonsense is necessary to "inform the Republican base." Oh yes, how "informative"! Good grief!
[UPDATE: The press release has been altered, with some of the offending material removed. You can see the original here. I've published a new post here addressing the state GOP's grossly inadequate "clarification."]
The people propagating this piece of trash may not themselves be racist or bigoted -- I strongly suspect they aren't, in fact -- but there's no question they are deliberately playing the race/religion card in a way specifically designed to appeal to those who would reject Obama because of some combination of: 1) the fact that he has black skin and Muslim ancestry, and 2) the utterly discredited, Internet-fueled rumors that he's some sort of radical-Islamist Manchurian Candidate.
And I'm just talking about the photo and the middle name (the use of which John McCain has specifically rejected as inappropriate). That's not even getting into how misleading and mendacious that "discussion" is, engaging in the sort of guilt-by-association via six-degrees-of-separation tripe that could land any politician in hot water. (Obama would be an anti-Israel president because... wait for it, wait for it... the board of a nonprofit organization on which he once served, once gave money to a "controversial Arab group," that once said it's opposed to Israel's existence? Really? ... I daresay I don't think it's terribly wise for Southern Republicans, of all people, to suggest that one's racial attitudes can be established through such tenuous links.)
But even those who might want to debate the validity of those points will surely agree that, in any event, the inclusion of the photo is utterly indefensible, to a such an extreme degree that whatever legitimacy the press release might otherwise have had is utterly destroyed. In other words, even admitting arguendo that these "anti-Semitic" Obama connections ought to be discussed, this is not the way to do it -- not by even the remotest stretch of the imagination. As such, I'm sure everyone will also agree that the Tennessee Republican Party's disgusting, vile, racist tactics should be roundly and universally condemned, period.
(More here and here.)
All I can say to the Tennessee Republican Party is that, as an independent, centrist resident of your state who leans conservative on a number of issues, this is something that I will most certainly keep in mind as I ponder whether to support the candidates whom you nominate for state office in future elections.
Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, whose name appears at the bottom of the press release, can be reached at billhobbs@tngop.org, or by phone at (615) 269-4260.
P.S. By the way, on the somewhat related issue of Obama's supposedly "anti-Semitic" foreign-policy advisor, Samantha Power -- not raised in the TN GOP release, but oft-discussed elsewhere, including here -- check out what the archliberal Max Boot, writing in the noted lefty publication Commentary, had to say. (If you don't know, both of those descriptions are entirely sarcastic.) More here.
NOTE: As several commenters pointed out, the issue isn't really whether Tennessee's Republican leaders are themselves racists -- which I'm sure they aren't -- but rather whether they are using deliberatively divisive, racist tactics against Barack Obama in order to appeal to the baser instincts of some of their constituents (which they clearly are).
As such, I've changed the title of this post (which was originally "The Tennessee GOP is run by racists"), along with some of the rhetoric in the first few paragraphs, in order to more accurately reflect my point -- and avoid distracting from the main issue with overheated rhetoric.
I apologize for going a little over-the-top in the initial version of this post. I was in a hurry and, frankly, quite angry. But the issue here is not whether Bill Hobbs, Robin Smith or anyone else in the party are personally racist. I never really meant to seriously suggest that they are. The issue is whether they are using racially (or religiously or ethnically) divisive tactics. That's what we (and I) should be focusing on.
By Brendan Loy
A pair of dual-propeller military helicopters just flew loudly over downtown Knoxville. Has the Georgian invasion begun? ;)
By Brendan Loy
The orange blazer had no magic last night, as #1 Tennessee lost to Vanderbilt.
So, who'll be #1 in the polls next week? Does Memphis take it back? Or perhaps North Carolina? More importantly, is Tennessee still a #1 seed? I'd think that, if they win out (including the SEC Tournament), they'd have to be.
Now, enough of this Go Big Orange business. :) It's time to start getting excited about tomorrow night's Notre Dame-Louisville game. GO IRISH!
By Brendan Loy
Barack Obama isn't the only frontrunner who will be on national TV tonight trying to defend his recently acquired top-dog status against a rival's onslaught. At 9:00 PM EST -- the same time as the Democratic debate on MSNBC -- the #1-ranked Tennessee men's basketball team will face #18 Vanderbilt on the Commodores' home floor. The game will be on ESPN, and Bruce Pearl will be in his orange blazer.
Go Vols & Go Barack!
P.S. I'm looking ahead a bit now, but take a gander at the Big East standings, and then ponder for a moment Thursday night's big game: Notre Dame at Louisville, 7:00 PM on ESPN. Holy cow. Mike Brey's boys playing, maybe, for a Big East regular-season championship? I love it! Oh, and did I mention it's part of an Irish Trojan doubleheader? USC visits Arizona at 9:00 PM Thursday, also on ESPN. Sweet.
By Brendan Loy
Heh:
A resolution drafted for filing in the state Legislature today rejects what the resolution calls "an assault on the sanctity of the borders of our great state of Tennessee."
Says part of the resolution: "The state of Tennessee elects to take the high road relative to this mythical dispute, instead of becoming embroiled in an election-year ploy initiated by the Georgia General Assembly through legislation which, while purporting to settle a boundary dispute in a friendly manner, is actually nothing but a veiled attempt to commandeer the resources of the Tennessee River for the benefit of water-starved Atlanta, which is either unable or unwilling to control its reckless urban sprawl."
Oh, snap! Georgia, you just got served!
(Previous post here.)
By Brendan Loy
I'm expecting a busy afternoon and evening, and thus probably won't be able to watch as much basketball as I'd like. But there's plenty to talk about, with the day's biggest games being Drake @ Butler at 5:00 PM on ESPN2 (the BracketBusters marquee game) and, of course, Tennessee @ Memphis at 9:00 PM on ESPN2. Although, don't sleep on Kent State @ St. Mary's at midnight on the Deuce, which Kyle Whelliston says is potentially the most consequential 'Busters game of them all, bubble-wise.
Anyway, here's the scoreboard. If you're watching the games and you feel like commenting, fire away.
P.S. Nice wins for USC and Notre Dame on Thursday night, eh?
P.P.S. Check out 4th through 9th place in the Pac-10 standings. Wow. Is that conference balanced or what?
UPDATE: Tennessee wins, 66-62! Come Monday morning, the Vols will be #1 in the nation for the first time in school history. (Er, on the men's side, that is.)
And so ends Memphis's bid for an undefeated season. The Tigers were 8-for-17 from the free-throw line, and they didn't hit a single three-pointer after their white-hot start in the game's first 12 minutes.
Oh, and Drake beat Butler in another very exciting game.
By Brendan Loy
On the eve of perhaps the most important college-basketball game in the history of the state of Tennessee, tomorrow night's #1 vs. #2 showdown between Memphis and UT, the sports world here in Knoxville is, as you'd expect, abuzz with talk about... football.
Wait. What?
Well, it seems Knoxville News-Sentinel sports editor John Adams has created a mighty kerfuffle with his commentary on the Tennessee football team's recent discipline problems. On Tuesday, Adams wrote that Phil Fulmer should be fired for allowing his team to become "the college equivalent of the Cincinnati Bengals." He harshly criticized Fulmer for responding to punter Britton Colquitt's arrest by suspending him for five games, rather than dismissing him from the team. "Keep in mind this wasn’t Colquitt’s first brush with the law. Or second. Or third," Adams wrote. "How could Fulmer not dismiss Colquitt from the team after what could be fifth alcohol-related offense? Answer: Colquitt is a starter."
Oh, snap!
But Fulmer didn't take this lying down. Oh, hell no. He's a man! He's 57! So, in today's paper, at the very top of the sports section, there is a column by, ahem, guest columnist Phillip Fulmer. Explaining that the importance of the issues raised in Adams's column "compels me to do something I have never done in my career - respond directly in writing to a negative column in the newspaper," Fulmer writes:
Mr. Adams has never sat next to me in a prospect's living room, looking his mother or grandmother in the eyes and promising to treat the young man like he was my own child - giving him tough love when necessary and an opportunity to straighten up when that's in order. It is a promise I take seriously and will never abandon to please any columnist.
Ouch! He goes on:
By Brendan Loy
Three items of news today (or in one case, yesterday) concerning the Volunteer State. First, as you may already have heard, Georgia has declared war on Tennessee -- er, legislatively speaking -- in a border dispute over water. To arms! Fear, fire, foes, awake!! The Georgians are coming, the Georgians are coming!!!
Second, the epidemic of Tennessee coaches getting divorced continues, as Titans coach Jeff Fisher is divorcing his wife of 21 years. Vicky Fulmer, you may want to get a lawyer, just in case. ;) No, but seriously, that's sad. Divorce sucks.
Last but not least, Lady Vols superstar Candace Parker is skipping her senior season to go pro.
By Brendan Loy
Move over, Kentucky. Out of the way, North Carolina. The center of the college-basketball world is the state of Tennessee.
Thanks to losses last week by #2 Duke and #3 Kansas, the Tennessee Volunteers have climbed to #2 in the polls this week, just in time for their Saturday showdown with in-state foe Memphis, the nation's #1-ranked and only undefeated team. The Jay Johnson Invitational is now also the Game. Of. The. Year.
The Tigers and Vols each have one tune-up remaining before the big game: on Wednesday night, Memphis visits 15-9 Tulane and Tennessee hosts 13-10 Auburn. Both with be heavily favored, of course, but even if they lose, it'll still technically be a #1 vs. #2 game on Saturday, since the new polls don't come out until Monday.
Memphis-Tennessee actually almost happened in last year's Elite Eight. If the Vols hadn't blown an 8,000-point lead (okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but they were way ahead) against Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen, the South Regional Final would have been an all-Tennessee affair, with a trip to the Final Four on the line. Alas, that wasn't to be. But hey, a regular-season #1 vs. #2 showdown is a pretty good consolation prize.
Anyway, it should be a hell of a game, and I'm looking forward to watching it. Jay will be rooting for the Tigers, his undergrad alma mater, over the Vols, his law-school alma mater. I definitely know what that's like. :) Personally, though, given that I have no allegiance to Memphis, I think I'll stick with the local boys, and root for the East Tennessee team over the West Tennessee team. Go Vols!
By Brendan Loy
You'll be hearing about it in the articles, seeing it on SportsCenter, etc., but ... wow.
I'm sorry, but there's nothing legitimate about that Tennessee win. I don't understand why the announcers are being so equivocal and opaque about it. The timekeeper stopped the clock with 0.2 seconds left for no apparent reason, a Tennessee player was fouled with "0.2 seconds left" -- after the game should have ended -- and that's the only reason the Lady Vols "won" that game.
Home job.
UPDATE: Looks like it may be overshadowed by the similarly bulls*** ending of the Georgetown-Villanova men's game.
UPDATE 2: A commenter writes, "The Thompson-Boling Arena clock, like the timing systems at most college arenas, is started and stopped by the officials on the floor. A whistle by any of the three officials stops the clock, and one of the officials pushes a button on his/her belt to start the clock. So your assertion that someone at the scorer's table caused the problem is a utterly unfounded."
I don't know who controls the clock, but I do know that what happened at the end of that game was very, very shady.
UPDATE 3: From the Knoxville News-Sentinel:
The game clock can only be stopped by an official's whistle, according to Tim Reese, the arena manager.
"Officials are using a precision-timing device, which is used by the SEC and most of the major conferences," he said. "It's tied into the control panel, and controls the game clock."
In addition to the whistle and an attached microphone, the officials also are armed with a belt pack, which sends a wireless signal to the clock.
That's interesting, but it doesn't explain how or why the clock stopped at 0.2 seconds, then started up again and ran down to 0.0. There is no possible explanation for what occurred that doesn't involve a screw-up by somebody. If it was the referee who screwed up rather than the timekeeper, then fine. But it was still a screw-up, and Rutgers still won that game, 58-57.
P.S. Here's some of what Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer had to say about it:
It was a great game with two ranked teams in a great atmosphere for a great cause for all the right reasons. It's just unfortunate that those kinds of things happen. I'll probably write a book on all that. I'm getting used to it by now, but we'll learn from it. It doesn't take away from a great Tennessee team and a great coach and a great everything. ...
(On whether she asked the officials about the clock) "Yes. They said everything was fine. The foul was called before and they had looked at the clock on the monitor and the foul was called before time went off the clock. So now we've got bad eyes too." ...
(On the final outcome of the game) "The two teams are too good for that. It's not Pat's (Summitt) fault and it's not Tennessee's fault, unfortunately. Probably what I would have to say about that situation is that I just want to be able to coach my team in the next couple days. It has nothing to do with Tennessee and it has nothing to do with those players and those coaches. Unfortunately, that is human error. I just happen to be on the end of human error too many times with too many erasers at the end of my name and I'm so sorry, because these young women deserve better. The clock froze."
"The game did not deserve this. Tennessee didn't deserve this. Pat didn't deserve this. Those great players didn't deserve this and neither did my great team deserve this. It is what it is."
Indeed.
By Brendan Loy
Dr. Jeff Masters: "The death toll from the 2008 Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak makes it the deadliest tornado outbreak in the past 23 years."
And it's the deadliest tornado outbreak this early on the calendar since 1949.
The death toll is at least 54.
As Dr. Masters's map demonstrates, East Tennessee was spared. By the time the thunderstorms got here around 8:00 AM this morning, they were producing only torrential rains, gusty winds and lightning -- nothing too terrible. Later in the day, after the cold front that produced the storms had moved through, we got (and are still getting) some pretty strong winds on the back side of the system, causing the Tennessee River to look rather choppy from the parking garage where I park for work:
But yeah, no tornadoes or anything similarly devastating, thank goodness.
In West Tennessee (see also here) and Middle Tennessee, of course, it's an entirely different story.
By Brendan Loy
Here's my Super Tuesday photo gallery. And here are couple of pictures from it:
I also like this shot of a very lonely-looking Romney sign on the Kingston Pike. I think Mitt feels a bit like that sign after tonight's results.
These kids, by the way, are the Cedar Bluff Middle School Student Council members who were giving away free coffee and donuts to voters. I promised I'd put their picture on my website, so... there you, guys. Here's a larger version of the photo, and here's the full-size version.
Again, here's a link to the full gallery. It's two pages long, by the way, so don't miss page 2.
By Brendan Loy
There's an article in today's New York Times about the recent shenanigans in Knox County government, which have caused a wholesale public uprising against the county commission. "A longing for reform, for fresh faces and new ideas, has overtaken Knox County," the Times writes, "so much so that many people here cannot wait to vote in the Super Tuesday primary. And it has nothing to do with who might be the next president."
I wonder, though, if it might affect the presidential race. Knox County is heavily Republican -- Bush got 62% of the vote in 2004 -- but there has been talk that Democrats might have a chance of getting elected to local offices that they normally don't have a prayer of winning, because of all the recent corruption and the resultant "kick the bums out" mentality. Tomorrow's election, of course, does not pit Republicans against Democrats, but it does give voters a choice of which party's ballot they want when they walk into their polling place. (Tennessee does not have party registration. Everyone is unaffiliated, and then you pick your party-for-a-day whenever there's a primary.)
With competitive Democratic primaries in four of the eight open County Commission seats -- itself an anomaly -- and the countywide Democratic primary for County Clerk (between an old-guard insider and a former deputy clerk who claims she was fired for announcing her candidacy) to boot, and with voters ticked off against the mostly-Republican ruling clique, I wonder if an unusual number of normally Republican-leaning voters will ask for Democratic ballots, motivated by the local races rather than the national ones, and then will find themselves confronted with the prospect of choosing between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. If so, I imagine it will help Obama; rock-ribbed East Tennessee Republicans are not going to vote for Hillary. And racial politics isn't that big of a deal in East Tennessee (we're more Appalachia than Deep South), so I don't foresee a big anti-Obama racist vote here.
Bottom line, I think the turmoil in Knox County politics might net Obama a handful of votes that he wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It probably won't make a difference in the delegate count -- the 2nd Congressional District has an even number of delegates, four, so it doesn't matter -- but a Knox-for-Obama surge could decrease Hillary's statewide popular-vote margin ever so slightly. That could sway an at-large delegate this way or that, and anyway, every little bit counts in the perceptions game, right?
By Brendan Loy
We went to an Obama rally, and a Lady Vols game broke out!
Becky and I decided to check out the Obama rally outside Thompson-Boling this afternoon. We figured it would be a good excuse to get out of the house with Loyette, and I wanted to take some pictures of the festivities. So we drove over to UT, tucked Loyette snugly inside her kangaroo pouch (which I was wearing), and ventured out toward the arena. We ended up getting free Obama signs of our own...
...and struck up a few pleasant conversations with Obama supporters heading into the arena. Several people were curious to see the baby inside the pouch -- the "youth vote," we said. :) Then one of those conversations took an unexpected turn: a middle-aged couple was looking for someone to give their tickets to, and asked if we'd like them. We figured, what the heck? If Loyette didn't do well with the crowd, we could always leave. So we accepted the tickets, and thus ended up unexpectedly taking our baby to her first basketball game.
And she did great! She was sound asleep inside her pouch for pretty much the entire affair. The crowd noise didn't seem to bother her at all, and after flinching the first few times the P.A. announcer yelled, she got used to that, too. At one point, with my hand on the bottom of the pouch, I could actually feel her snoring -- out like a light in the midst of a crowd of 19,259. Heh. She's a sound sleeper! We ended up staying till the final buzzer, much to our surprise.
Tennessee won the game, by the way, routing overmatched Kentucky, 79-51. And Candace Parker dunked!
Oh, and lest my Connecticut readers be concerned, I sang the UConn Huskies fight song to Loyette during the car ride home. Wouldn't want her to get too indoctrinated with this Lady Vols stuff. :)
By Brendan Loy
There will be an Obama rally outside Thompson-Boling Arena prior to tomorrow's Lady Vols game. Is nothing sacred? ;)
Speaking of Obama, TNR's Noam Scheiber makes an excellent point, one I hadn't thought of but wish I had, about how the post-Super Tuesday calendar favors Obama:
There's not a day on the primary calendar between Tuesday and the convention that has more than four contests scheduled. ... Obama tends to do better the more time he can focus on a specific state, [so] I see this slightly benefiting him.
I see it significantly benefiting him. The question, as Scheiber says, is whether Obama can "survive" Tuesday's mega-primary, the very nature of which doesn't suit his strengths. "Obama isn't playing for a win on Tuesday," he says, but rather "something that approximates a stalemate." Scheiber elaborates -- answering my question from yesterday -- that "I'd say that means carrying 8-10 states and 45 percent of the delegates up for grabs." Sounds about right to me, though I think 6 or 7 states might be enough, depending on which states they are. In any event, the perceptions game is very important in this regard. Obama doesn't need to "win" Super Tuesday, but he needs to do well enough to convince the media, and through them voters in later states -- and, especially, superdelegates -- that he's a viable candidate going forward, not just a one-hit wonder on the verge of flaming out.
By Brendan Loy
Some more new polls today, and the news is mixed on the Democratic side. In Georgia, which is supposed to be solid Obama country, InsiderAdvantage shows the Illinois senator with a big lead, 52-36. Obama gets 73% of blacks, 54% of Hispanics, and 33% of whites.
But here in neighboring Tennessee, which is supposed to be a hotly contested tossup/lean-Hillary state, the same firm's polling shows Clinton with a huge lead, 59-26. The poll was taken yesterday, and thus may reflect a shift of Edwards voters into the Clinton camp (though 7% still prefer "other"). But what's really surprising is that Clinton isn't just winning the white vote, 64-19; she's also winning the black vote, 46-43!
Moreover, Clinton has almost identical margins among men and women; she wins big in all age groups (with her biggest margin of all, 81-14, among 18-to-29-year-olds!!); and she is favored by self-identified Democrats, Republicans and Independents. So either this is a screwy poll, or Obama-mania really just hasn't caught on at all here in the Volunteer State. If Obama's internal numbers are showing a similar trend, maybe that explains his conspicuous absence -- this supposed battleground state may be, for whatever reason, a lost cause for him.
InsiderAdvantage also released a poll on the Republican race here in Tennessee, and it's much tighter, with McCain leading Huckabee and Romney 33 to 25 to 18. Thirteen percent are undecided.
UPDATE: On the bright side for Obama, he's setting fundraising records, and is already buying ads in post-Super Tuesday states. Barring an enormous Hillary sweep on Tuesday that re-establishes her "inevitability" and thus causes a paradigm shift in the media storyline, this race will go on for a while. As this chart shows (context here), there are a ton of delegates at stake on Tuesday, but a ton more after Tuesday, too.
Meanwhile, the very early returns from Rasmussen Reports suggest that Edwards's departure is helping Obama nationally:
In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, it’s now Hillary Clinton 42% and Barack Obama 35% [in the three-day average]. Last night was the first night of interviews without John Edwards in the race. For last night’s data alone, Clinton and Obama were essentially even. Samples for individual nights are very small and results should be interpreted with caution.
The daily history shows that it was 41%-32% Clinton (a 9-point lead) from January 28-30; now it's 42%-35% (a 7-point lead) from January 29-31. The big question is what happens tomorrow and the next day, when we'll see a three-day average that is entirely after Edwards's withdrawal. Gallup's tracking poll will also be worth watching closely; they had the race slightly closer (6 points) even before Edwards bowed out.
UPDATE: Gallup's new data is out. It shows the Clinton-Obama race narrowing further, from 42-36 in yesterday's three-day average to 43-39 in today's three-day average -- just a 4-point lead for Hillary!! However, Gallup's write-up says that "Wednesday night's numbers (the first with Edwards excluded from the ballot) show no clear indication that either candidate is benefiting disproportionately." I guess that means Obama's 2-point gain between Jan. 27-29 and Jan. 28-30 is an indication that Jan. 27 was a good day for Hillary, rather than an indication that Obama cleaned up among former Edwards voters on Jan. 30.
By Brendan Loy
One day after the Obama campaign opened a Knoxville headquarters, the Clinton campaign is doing the same this evening.
If you missed them, here are my photos from yesterday's Obama grand opening.
By Brendan Loy
Barack Obama is opening a Knoxville headquarters at 5:00 PM today. It may open with a bang; severe thunderstorms are expected this afternoon.
Up until now, Obama's only Tennessee HQs were in Nashville and Memphis. Hillary Clinton's only TN headquarters at the moment is in Nashville. The only candidate to visit East Tennessee so far is John Edwards, who was in Chattanooga yesterday.
Meanwhile, one of Obama's main organizers in the Knoxville area is named Rebecca Loy. Not my Rebecca Loy (though she likes Obama too), but someone else by the same name. Weird!
By Brendan Loy
...every time somebody comes to visit you, you take them to a country/bluegrass concert.
When Adrienne came to visit us in August, we went to the Bluegrass in the Smokies festival in Sevierville. Aside from meeting the WDVX chicken, the big revelation of that concert was the wonderful Bradley Walker, a singer with a voice so rich that it seems like only a matter of time before Nashville picks him up (if he wants to go "mainstream," that is). We bought his album Highway of Dreams, which you can get on iTunes here; my favorite tracks are Should Have Took That Train and Price of Admission.
Then, when Andrew and Bea came to visit us in October, we went to the Foothills Fall Festival in Maryville (which, if you didn't know, is pronounced "MUHR-vul"). No new musical revelations there, as the acts were big-name commercial artists (Trent Tomlinson, Big & Rich, etc.), but the concert was memorable -- and not just for Andrew's and my shock and awe as we constantly hit "refresh" on our cell phones to get the latest football scores on the evening that #1 LSU and #2 Cal both lost to unranked opponents. :) The most memorable moments of the concert were the thunderous ovation that the crowd gave to a group of soldiers in Iraq during a live satellite-phone conversation with their commander (nobody does patriotism like the South), and the moment when Tomlinson introduced his cover of Ring of Fire with the utterly unprovoked statement, "If you don't like Johnny Cash, you can kiss my ass!!"
Well, the country/bluegrass trend continued this past weekend with my parents' visit. I took them to Sunday afternoon's special weekend edition of the WDVX Blue Plate Special, the wonderful daily event in downtown Knoxville that I often attend on my lunch breaks. This particular show featured Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time, and man -- they were good! Here's a clip, though it doesn't do them justice:
I knew in advance that they were at least decent, based on their current hit, '67 Chevy Malibu, which I'd heard several times on the radio. But I was definitely impressed by the consistent quality of their songs at the concert. Great performers, too! And if you've heard the song Murder on Music Row by George Strait and Alan Jackson, well, Cordle wrote it, and he and his band performed it Sunday. Great stuff. Anyway, I once again came away with a new album, Took Down And Put Up (again, iTunes link here). I haven't had a chance to listen to it all the way through yet, but I think my favorite song from that album that they played at the concert was Hole In the Ground. Then again, I have a soft spot for mining songs, for whatever reason. (I blame the Barra MacNeils.)
In any event, tomorrow I'll again take visitors to a bluegrass concert (well, half bluegrass, anyway), as I'm meeting up with Becky's parents for the Blue Plate Special featuring a "twin bill" of the bluegrass band Balsam Range and the jazz band Silver Lining. I don't know much about them, but I'm sure it'll be worthwhile; the Blue Plate Specials are almost always good, and quite often great.
The biggest musical revelation of recent weeks for me, though, came not from a concert I attended, but from a song I heard on the radio -- on WDVX, the same station that puts on these Blue Plate Specials (not to mention that chicken). The song is Wicked Twisted Road by the Texas alt-country band Reckless Kelly. It's an absolutely haunting tune; when WDVX played it during my afternoon commute, I actually made a point of pulling out my cell phone at a stoplight and texting to their studio e-mail address, "GREAT song!" A few days later, I found it on iTunes, and I've had it stuck in my head ever since. You get it from iTunes here; it's Track 1, the title track. I haven't bought the whole album, but I may have to, if that song is any indication of its quality.
By Brendan Loy
A pretty decent snow squall is moving through downtown Knoxville right now. (See also here.) I ran outside a few minutes ago and took some pictures, including several of snow falling in front of the Sunsphere. You don't see that too often. :) I'll post 'em later. Anyway, a light dusting is accumulating on some grassy surfaces, but the roads look fine.
UPDATE: Here's an article about the afternoon snow. And here are my photos.By Brendan Loy
So much for #1 Memphis and #3 Tennessee winning out until their meeting in the Jay Johnson Invitational next month. The Vols, newly dubbed by the AP as the nation's third-best team, promptly lost to sub-.500 Kentucky last night, 72-66. Not even Bruce Pearl's orange blazer could save UT from losing to the team that lost to Gardner-Webb (which, incidentally, is now 8-11 overall, 2-3 in the Atlantic Sun).
At this rate of poll attrition, Dickie V's triumphant return could be at a #1 vs. #2 game between Duke and UNC (currently #4 and #5, soon to be #3 and #4). Though I'm not sure who Memphis is going to lose to between now and then, unless maybe... Gonzaga this Saturday? Hey, it could happen. Go Zags!!
Meanwhile, Andy Katz says Tuesday's most significant result was not UK over UT, but Drake over Creighton, at Creighton, in overtime. Up the Bulldogs!
By Brendan Loy
A surprise freezing-rain storm caught East Tennessee off guard yesterday, causing hundreds of fender-benders and some serious accidents, two of them deadly. It was so bad in the early morning hours that police cars and firetrucks were themselves getting into accidents while trying to drive to the scene of other accidents. (Clearly, these Southerners don't know how to handle winter weather. :) At one point, I heard a report on the radio that an ambulance had flipped over on its roof with a passenger inside -- but not to worry, more ambulances were on their way!
Before long, TV and radio anchors were busily putting out the first responders' urgent pleas to "stay off the roads if you can." As for those who had to drive, police asked them to please refrain from calling 9-1-1 about any accidents that didn't involve injuries. If they got into a fender-bender that caused damage to property only, motorists were told to just take down each other's insurance information and go on their way. Even so, the Knoxville Police and Knox County Sheriff's office responded to a combined 362 car crashes yesterday, most of them between 6:00 and 9:00 AM or thereabouts. Here's some video of the chaos:
Many schools and businesses announced delays and closures at the last minute; in some cases, school buses had already started their rounds when school was cancelled. This led to a classic case of "fighting the last war" this morning, as nearly every school district in the area had already announced a two-hour delay by the 6:00 PM news last night -- delays which proved utterly unnecessary in most of the Knoxville area, as the roads this morning were perfectly safe.
Myself, I ventured out into yesterday's icy mess with no concept of how bad it was, as it wasn't very icy at all in my apartment complex. I didn't even slip once while walking the dog! I noticed a wee bit of ice on the Camry, and I overheard somebody talking on his cell phone about "UT being closed," but I didn't think much of it. I made it to the dentist's office for my 8:30 AM appointment withuot incident -- only to discover that the office was closed because of the weather. (If I'd called ahead, I would have known that from their voicemail. D'oh!)
I then got a call from a co-worker relating our boss's directive that we should feel free to stay home until the roads improve. My dentist's office is about halfway between home and work, so I sat indecisively in the parking lot for a while -- but then I gathered from the radio that things were still quite bad downtown (where I work), so I decided to turn tail and head home. Long story short, the icy weather meant I got to spend a good chunk of the morning with my baby instead of at work. So I have no complaints. :)
UPDATE: Here's a photo of some icy branches with the Sunsphere in the background:
By Brendan Loy
When Tennessee plays Memphis on February 23, will it be a #1 vs. #2 matchup between in-state rivals (and Jay's alma maters)? Could be, if both teams keep winning, and if Kansas loses between now and then. The Tigers and Vols are #1 and #3 in the new AP poll.
Speaking of #1 and #3, the top-ranked UConn women beat #3 UNC yesterday. w00t! Go Huskies! (#2, of course, is Tennessee.)
By Brendan Loy
My parents are coming to town this weekend to meet their grandbaby. They're on their way right now, actually -- should be arriving any minute. It'll be their first time in Knoxville since the summer of 1982, when, on their first-ever road trip with me, en route to visit my Grandpa and Grandma Loomer in Arkansas, they (and I) stopped in Knoxville during the World's Fair. I was about eight or nine months old, give or take. Here's a photo of my mom and me in front of the various national flags:
Hey, I know where that bridge is! The flags are gone, though. :)
Alas, my parents apparently didn't take any pictures of brand-new Brendan in front of the brand-new Sunsphere. Now that would have been awesome. But after the jump, you can see a picture they took of a very shiny Sunsphere and a bunch of other fair-goers.
Anyway, who'd have thunk that, 25 1/2 years later, I -- born and raised a Connecticut Yankee -- would be living in Knoxville, with a gal from Buffalo who I met in Southern California and married in Arizona, and a brand-new baby who we conceived while living in Indiana? Heh.
Continue reading "The Loomer-Loys in Knoxville, then and now" »
By Brendan Loy
Early voting got underway Wednesday here in Tennessee, and the Reynoldses -- InstaPundit and the Insta-Wife -- voted yesterday. Glenn reports that anecdotal evidence suggests lots of early voters for Obama and native son Thompson.
Personally, I'll wait until February 5 to vote. For one thing, who knows what will happen between now and then? (Those Thompson voters may find that their candidate is out of the race before their votes for him get counted. Same with any early Edwards voters.) Moreover, I like voting on the actual day of the election. There's something sort of romantic about it.
I wonder if any of the candidates will make it out to East Tennessee to campaign? I realize there are much bigger states voting on Pooper Scooper Tuesday, and there are also much bigger cities in Tennessee than Knoxville (namely, Nashville and Memphis), so I suppose the odds are against it... but hey, I can hope, right? I want a campaign event to blog about, like the forum in Phoenix that I went to in '04!
UPDATE: Aha! The Washington Post has a list of campaign events by state for Tennessee. That's helpful!
By Brendan Loy
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Knoxville's own Einstein the parrot:
That segment aired in 2004 on Animal Planet's Pet Star (though I hadn't seen it until this morning, when my mom e-mailed it to me). Einstein was eventually voted AnimalPlanet.com's most popular Pet Star ever, and she appeared on Leno. And she's way more interesting than Fred Thompson. :) Einstein for President!
By Brendan Loy
After a promising non-conference start featuring two close losses to Top 5 teams, followed by a disappointing 0-2 road trip to open the Pac-10 season, USC (9-5) hosts #4-ranked Washington State (13-0) tonight at 11:00 PM EST at the Galen Center. Wazzu is one of Division I's five remaining unbeatens, along with #1 North Carolina, #2 Memphis, #3 Kansas and #13 Vanderbilt. (USC's aforementioned "close losses" were against Memphis and Kansas.)
An undefeated team went down yesterday on the road when Tennessee beat Ole Miss in both teams' SEC openers. Can USC channel the Vols and knock off the Cougars tonight? It would certainly be nice to avoid an 0-3 start in the brutal Pac-10. Fight on!
UPDATE: Wazzu won easily, 73-58. Up next for the Cougars, a huge showdown at Pauley Pavilion against #5 UCLA. USC, meanwhile, hosts Washington on Saturday, in what is pretty close to being a "must-win" game, despite how early in the season it is. You don't want to fall to 0-4 in conference -- with losses to two of the weaker Pac-10 teams, Cal and UW -- if you fancy yourself an NCAA contender.
By Brendan Loy
Although I suddenly find college football considerably less interesting than staring dumbfoundedly into my daughter's eyes, nevertheless a bunch of bowl games are happening today. And things are going well so far for the hometown team, as Tennessee leads Wisconsin 21-7 near the end of the first half.
Later, of course, it'll be USC vs. Illinois in the Rose Bowl and Georgia vs. Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. Loyette says, "Fight on Trojans, and Go Warriors!" Okay, actually, Loyette just sort of let out a sleepy squeak, but that's how I interpret her sentiments. :)
Also about to begin: the Sabres-Penguins outdoor hockey game, with 73,000 crazed Buffalonians packing the Bills' iced-over football stadium. Kevin at Bfloblog calls it "the biggest sporting event to occur in the City of Buffalo in my lifetime."
Now if you'll excuse me, Becky and Loyette are both napping at the moment, and I'm going to try and do the same. I haven't gotten much sleep in the last 36 hours (something I know will be quite common for the next several weeks/months/decades), and I gotta rest up before the Rose Bowl!
By Brendan Loy
Tennessee 82, Gonzaga 72, final. D'oh!
By Brendan Loy
Tomorrow at 4:00 PM, Tennessee plays Gonzaga in Seattle. The Vols are ranked #11 in the AP poll; the Zags are second in the "others receiving votes" category (so, effectively ranked #27). The game will televised on ESPN2. Go Zags, Beat the Vols!!
P.S. La Rev is scared of Bruce Pearl. Heh. Well, having met Coach Pearl, I don't find him terribly intimidating. Seemed like a nice guy. I hope he loses tomorrow, though. :)
By Brendan Loy
All I want for Christmas is... guns and knives!!!
By Jay Johnson
Looks like the Dookies have stolen themselves a coach from Tennessee. According to local reports, Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe has been offered and is expected to accept the head coaching job in Durham.
Best wishes to Coach Cut. I hate to see him go, but I certainly understand the desire to make about 3 times what he's making as OC here. He's going to have a long tough road to get any football success at Duke, but I certainly think he'll do a fine job.
By Brendan Loy
They're underway at the Coliseum.
They're also underway in the SEC title game, and Tennessee leads LSU 7-6 late in the first quarter.
In the ACC, Virginia Tech beat BC, which virtually guarantees that Illinois will be eligible for a BCS at-large berth, and also helps Hawaii significantly. The only threat to the Warriors reaching the Top 12 now, assuming they beat Washington, is if Arizona State and Tennessee both leapfrog them in the BCS standings. (And even that might be okay, because if Tennessee wins, LSU might fall behind Hawaii.)
UPDATE: Trojans lead 17-7 at halftime. USC dominated the first half, but UCLA drove down the field in the final seconds to make it a ballgame. Dammit.
UPDATE 2: And at the start of the fourth quarter, Tennessee leads LSU, 14-13. If the Vols win, the Tigers won't go to the BCS at all, as UT and Georgia will take the SEC's two spots. Likewise, if Missouri loses to Oklahoma tonight, those Tigers will likely fall out of the BCS altogether as well, as Lex icon explains. So the last two teams ranked #1 in the regular season could both be left out of the big-money bowls! How crazy is that?
As crazy as everything else that's happened this season, I suppose.
UPDATE 3: Trojans looking like crap. This is, like, the opposite of Pete Carroll Second-Half MagicTM. Still 17-7.
UPDATE 4: HAHAHAHA!!! Karl Dorrell sucks!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! USC 24, UCLA 7, with 12 minutes to go.
For those who missed it: the Bruins had the Trojans stopped near the goal line (I have to think even Pete Carroll would have gone for the field goal), but when faced with a choice of whether to decline a holding penalty and take their chances with 4th and goal from the 2, or accept the penalty and give the Trojans another shot at 3rd and goal from the 12, Dorrell inexplicably chose the latter, USC predictably marched right in for a touchdown, and I'll be mighty surprised if Dan Guerrero isn't calling a press conference to fire Dorrell at this very moment.
UPDATE 5: Meanwhile, Erik Ainge probably just threw away Tennessee's shot at the SEC title. An interception inside the LSU 5 yard line, and LSU has the ball, up by 7, with 2 minutes left. This after an earlier pick-6 gave LSU the lead.
UPDATE 6: LSU wins. The Tigers are going to the Sugar Bowl (barring a trip to the title game if chaos strikes later tonight), where they will almost certainly play Hawaii, if the Warriors beat Washington. With Tennessee losing, there is no way an undefeated Hawaii gets excluded from the BCS.
Virginia Tech is effectively eliminated from any national-title hopes, and Georgia's chances are severely hurt. If Missouri and West Virginia both lose tonight, you have to believe LSU gets the nod over Virginia Tech (which it crushed earlier this season) and over Georgia (a fellow two-loss team from the same conference that didn't even win its own division, whereas LSU won the conference). But it would be a debate among LSU, Georgia, Oklahoma and Kansas. Virginia Tech wouldn't even be in the discussion, IMHO, because of that loss to LSU. Nor would USC, not with the worst loss of the bunch.
By Brendan Loy
The women's soccer NCAA Tournament has reached the Elite Eight, and an astounding number of schools that I care about are still competing for the championship. Both of my alma maters, USC and Notre Dame, are still alive, as is my original home-state team, UConn. And my two least-favorite universities, UCLA and Duke, are still alive as well. The only thing that could have made the bracket any more Loy-o-riffic would be if my current hometown team, Tennessee, had beaten Portland in the Sweet Sixteen to set up a date with the hated Bruins.
As things stand, it's Portland that must visit UCLA, while USC travels to West Virginia, Notre Dame hosts Duke, and UConn visits Florida State, all on Friday evening. Potentially, we could have a USC-UCLA semifinal on one side of the bracket and a UConn-Notre Dame semifinal on the other. Will the Women of Troy need to beat both of their school's archrivals to win the championship? Heh!
For what it's worth, in the final regular-season coaches' poll, UCLA was #1, Portland #3, USC #9, Notre Dame #11, West Virginia #12, Florida State #14, UConn #24, and Duke unranked. So I guess that means both the Irish and the Trojans will be favored on Friday. Go ND and 'SC, beat Duke and WVU!
By Brendan Loy
Gonzaga lost to Texas Tech in the Great Alaska Shootout semifinals Friday night, derailing a potential rematch of last year's Preseason NIT final against Butler. Instead, it will be Bobby Knight's Red Raiders who take on Butler tonight (i.e., Saturday), while the Zags will play Virginia Tech in the consolation game.
Meanwhile, USC edged Miami of Ohio in the Anaheim Classic semis to set up an intriguing championship game against #19-ranked Southern Illinois. That'll be a real test for the Trojans, Sunday at 9:00 PM Eastern on ESPN2.
Oh, and in the Legends Classic semifinals, Tennessee nipped West Virginia to set up the men's version of the game Becky and I saw last week on the women's side: UT vs. UT, Burnt Orange vs. Tennessee Orange. That's right, it's #7 Tennessee against #15 Texas, at 4:00 PM today on Versus.
By Brendan Loy
Two nearby Knoxville suburbs, Loudon (home of Jay and Ashley) and Maryville, are reeling from a car accident Monday night that killed 25-year-old Shawn Bowers, an assistant football coach at Division III Maryville College, and left 25-year-old Trey Lefler and 24-year-old Matt Lambert in critical condition. This is all too reminiscent of the numerous tragedies that have struck Newington in recent years, striking down young people in the prime of life. Here's hoping and praying for a full recovery for Lefler and Lambert.
By Brendan Loy
Back in September, the football team at nearby Bearden High School here in West Knoxville lost to archrival Farragut High School for the eighth straight time, 35-28 in 2 OTs. Although I didn't go, it was an epic Friday-night football clash by all accounts -- and now it's going to have a sequel, in the state playoffs this Friday night.
Meanwhile, back home in Connecticut, the Newington Indians are on the playoff bubble. They need to hope Newtown beats Masuk tomorrow night, and then the Indians must take care of business on Thanksgiving Day against their archrival, Wethersfield.
More on both Bearden and Newington after the jump.
Continue reading "Down the street, an epic Friday-night clash looms" »
By Brendan Loy
USC and Cal are tied 17-17 with 13:41 left.
Hopefully the end result will be better than the basketball team's opener earlier today. (Again with the Atlantic Sun conference knocking off ranked teams at home!)
Anyway... here are some photos from my afternoon at the Tennessee-Arkansas game:
Bloggers unite! Me with Mark from Loser with Socks and Jonathan from 82 Sluggo Win.
The Vols come in through the "Power T."
Austin Rogers scores Tennessee's first touchdown of the day, and the crowd goes wild.
Arkansas's quarterback passes the ball. Why on earth the Razorbacks did so much of this, I have no idea. They have the country's best running back, Darren McFadden -- and he only ran the ball five meaningful times in the first half. Most of his 22 carries came after the game was already out of hand. Not only that, but on a whole bunch of occasions, he wasn't even on the field on crucial plays. Houston Nutt is a terrible, terrible coach.
Jonathan, Jay and me. (I put on the long-sleeve shirt, and the USC shirt over it, after the Tennessee game ended. It was getting chilly... and it was time to root for the Trojans agaist Cal!)
By Brendan Loy
I mentioned yesterday that I'm going to Saturday's 12:30 PM Tennessee-Arkansas game with Jonathan (who will be driving in from Morgantown on Friday after attending the West Virginia-Louisville game Thursday night) and Jay. What I didn't mention is that we have a fourth ticket that needs a home. I've asked a couple of people, but as the ticket is presently still unclaimed, I thought I'd open it up for any Irish Trojan readers who might be in the greater Knoxville area and would be interested in a face value ($44) ticket to see the Vols take on the Razorbacks at 108,000-strong "Fort Neyland." Granted, this could result in my sitting next to some weirdo from the Internet, but so could selling it on Craigslist or StubHub, so why not? :) Anyway, if you're interested, shoot me an e-mail this afternoon or evening at irishtrojan [at] gmail.com. Otherwise, I think I may have a Craigslist buyer. So let me know.
By Brendan Loy
With Jay and Jonathan Tu! (He of the whirlwind, season-long, cross-country college-football odyssey.) For face value! w00t!
Two years ago, I was at the L.A. Coliseum for the game in which Reggie Bush turned out a mind-bogglingly amazing performance that basically clinched the Heisman. At Neyland Stadium on Saturday, will I see the Razorbacks' resurgent Darren McFadden do the same thing? Let's hope not, for Tennessee's sake. Still, I think it's always worthwhile to see great players in person, whichever team they're playing for.
Oh yeah, and Tennessee controls its own destiny for the SEC championship. So that's good too. :) Go Big Orange!
By Brendan Loy
I just learned that there is a Cheatham County in Tennessee. Naturally, this caused me to go Googling around for some other county names, and I soon discovered that there is a "Dewey County" in Oklahoma and another in South Dakota. Alas, there is apparently no "Howe County" anywhere in the United States. There are, however, cities and townships named "Howe" in Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Pennsylvania. One of those municipalities needs to get together with Cheatham County and one of the Dewey Counties to form some sort of sister city/county arrangement of Dewey, Cheatham & Howe.
By Brendan Loy
Two weeks ago, it looked like this week's Tennessee-South Carolina game (underway now) would potentially decide the SEC East. The Volunteers and Gamecocks were the only teams in the division that controlled their own destinies. Then last week, Tennessee got crushed by Alabama and South Carolina was upset by Vanderbilt, taking all the air out of tonight's matchup.
Or so it seemed. Incredibly, by kickoff time tonight, UT-USC had regained its former significance. Thanks to the latest round of SEC madness -- specifically, Georgia's upset of Florida and Kentucky's loss to Mississippi State -- Tennessee and South Carolina are again the only SEC East teams that control their own destinies. Florida, Kentucky and Vanderbilt have three losses apiece; Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina have just two. And since Georgia's two conferences losses are to the Vols and Cocks, the Bulldogs will have to hope that tonight's winner loses another game at some point.
Whoever comes out on top at Neyland Stadium this evening won't need any (more) help. They'll just need to win their remaining games, and if they do that, they'll be playing in Atlanta for the conference championship on December 1.
Remarkable.
I've had limited blogging time today, which is why I haven't said much about the day's other football developments. But I wanted to get this online while the game is still ongoing. As for the rest, including UConn's win over South Florida (!), I'll blog later. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Speaking of "remarkable"... Tennessee blew a 21-0 halftime lead, fell behind 24-21 with 1:24 left, then sent the game to overtime on a 48-yard field goal (after missing a 43-yarder but getting a second chance because the whistle had already blown on a false start penalty) and won in OT. Tennessee 27, South Carolina 24, final.
I'm exhausted, and about to go to bed. I'll try to do some more football blogging tomorrow, but it may not happen until I'm at the Nashville Airport in the late afternoon, if then. Lots of stuff to do. G'nite all.
By Brendan Loy
Popular Mechanics looks at five American disaster scenarios, caused or worsened by our aging infrastructure, that could threaten many, many lives and/or dollars. I knew about the levee problems in Sacramento, and of course the NYC hurricane scenario, but I didn't realize there's a potential infrastructural disaster-waiting-to-happen right here in Tennessee:
Seepage through the numerous holes that have been discovered in the foundation of Kentucky’s 55-year-old Wolf Creek Dam put it in danger of failing. In a worst-case scenario, the mile-long structure, which holds back the largest manmade reservoir east of the Mississippi, would release a wall of water, inundating towns and cities downstream along the Cumberland River, including Nashville. The warning was sounded last January, after engineers were forced to drop the dam’s water level to avoid a potential disaster.
Yikes. (Hat tip: InstaPundit, who points out that our crumbling infrastructure remains a low political priority, despite obvious wake-up calls like Hurricane Katrina and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, because "the political rewards for fixing old stuff are far inferior to the political rewards for building new stuff -- even if the old stuff is stuff we need, and the new stuff is showy pork.")
P.S. More here:
By Brendan Loy
41-17? Really?
By Brendan Loy
Tennessee and Alabama are underway in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide are short-handed because five players have been suspended for "impermissible receipt of textbooks." In Alabama, you see, they don't believe in textbooks.
Anyway, 'Bama leads 3-0 after opening the game with an onside kick, and recovering it -- then failing to capitalize fully, managing only a long field goal.
This game is, of course, a huge rivalry and grudge match down in these parts, as Jay made clear. But not everyone feels quite the same way. In the last few days, I've noticed a couple of interesting cars on Knoxville-area roads, to wit:
Ugh. How could anyone possibly root for both Tennessee and Alabama? Clearly, if you support both teams in a huge rivalry like that, you aren't a real fan. ... What? Oh. Right. ;)
Anyway, Go Vols, Beat Bama!
UPDATE: Tennessee trails 24-17 at halftime. Meanwhile, also at halftime, Vanderbilt is winning 17-6 at #6 South Carolina. Again with the chaos!! #2 South Florida losing at Rutgers on Thursday wasn't really an upset; this, however, would be an upset. And of course, a win by either 'Bama or Vandy (nevermind both) would rob next week's South Carolina-Tennessee game here in Knoxville of an awful lot of its cachet. (As things stand now, the Vols and Cocks are the only teams that control their destiny in the SEC East. But maybe not for long.)
By Brendan Loy
The Tennessee state trooper who got a roadside blowjob from a porn star he'd pulled over, allegedly in exchange for turning a blind eye to her drug possession, has been indicted by a grand jury. A previous incident of similar behavior (albeit not involving someone in the, ahem, adult entertainment industry) came to light in the wake of the Justis Richert/Barbie Cummings incident, and he is charged in connection with both.
UPDATE: Apparently Richert/Cummings is now a former porn star. The News-Sentinel reports, "She says she’s quit the porn industry, settled down with a boyfriend and has become pregnant." (Hat tip: Cup of Joe Powell.)
By Brendan Loy
Plans are still somewhat up in the air, but it's looking increasingly likely that I'll be visiting Denver again from October 28-30. It will be essentially a business trip, and it'll suck to be away from Becky on my birthday, but on the bright side, I'll be in Denver on the evenings when Game 4 and, if necessary, Game 5 of the World Series are being played there. Of course, I hope I'll be rooting against the Rockies, but if the Indians do manage to close out the ALCS against the Red Sox, then I'll be root, root, rooting for the home team. Either way, although I don't expect to go to any games, it'll be fun to be in town while they're going on. Kristy and V live right downtown, less than a mile from Coors Field and in the midst of a central strip with tons of bars and such.
Then, next month, Becky and I will be going to a pair of Tennessee basketball games: the men's home opener against Temple on November 9, and the Lady Vols' showdown with Texas on November 18. There will be bigger games during the SEC season, of course, but we wanted to make it out to Thompson-Boling Arena before the baby comes. Anyway, the tickets came in the mail yesterday and today, and I've added the games to my countdown sidebar at left (along with my birthday -- dunno why I wasn't counting down to that before!).
Speaking of games, Jay and I may be going to a UT football game before the season is out -- probably either South Carolina on October 27 or Arkansas on November 10. But that's still up in the air as well.
More immediately, next Thursday, Becky and I are going to the WDVX Birthday Party at the Bijou Theater. So that should be fun. And on Tuesday, we start taking a birthing/baby class, where we get to learn all about, uh, birthing and babies and stuff.
So yeah. Lots of stuff to look forward to!
P.S. Breaking news: Shannon got a puppy! AWW!
UPDATE: Speaking of the Rockies, and of the SHA girls, Kristy was at Coors Field when Colorado won the pennant Monday night. She sent me a cell-phone photo earlier today:
Cool.
By Brendan Loy
Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, of InstaPundit fame, has been named one of the 10 most influential legal scholars in America, according to the Social Science Research Network. (Hat tip: Ken Wagner.)
He's also a nice guy.
Anyway, congrats to Glenn on the honor! He should beware, though: rankings are fickle. One minute you're firmly ensconced in the Top 10, and the next minute you lose to Stanford. Don't rest on your laurels, professor! Keep on influencin'! You don't want some lesbian ceramics professor to steal your glory.
By Brendan Loy
Bea and Andrew pose with the Colombian delegation at the Knoxville Hispanic Heritage Festival:
More pictures of the festival to come later. (Er, along with all the other sets of photos I keep promising to post, like from our Denver trip, our visit with Adrienne, the baby shower, my second Denver trip, etc.)
By Brendan Loy
Three men were charged Monday in the murder last week of a University of Memphis football player.
By Jay Johnson
As you regular readers (and Tennesseans) would know, Tennessee has a newly implemented smoking ban that went into effect on October 1.
All public health issues aside, the new law has already made an immediate impact on a group of Tennesseans: the under-21 workers who've now lost their jobs.
I've been opposed to the smoking ban since it was first discussed in the General Assembly. In the interests of full disclosure, I have previously been a regular smoker, and now consider myself only an infrequent smoker (maybe the total of a pack of cigs in the last 6 months).
The smoking ban is another example of government butting its nose into a situation over which they really have no stake. While I'll certainly admit from a federalism standpoint that the State has more business dealing with this issue than the Feds, I still don't think it's a situation that requires government involvement.
This is simply another example of government action being taken to make a personal choice more difficult to exercise. Why? To effectively ban some conduct/activity it thinks is bad. It's nanny state action where it's not justified.
Smoking is a personal choice. Choosing to frequent a business that permits smoking on site is a personal choice. Choosing to work in a place that allows smoking is a personal choice.
Except for now, when it's not.
Smoking is a legal activity. There's no prohibition against using tobacco, if you're at least 18 years old. Yet, an employer who restricts admission to those that are at least 21 years old, you can't have an employee that's not 21? An 18 year old bartender, who can buy smokes of his/her own can't work in a nightclub where smoking is allowed?
Ridiculous, stupid, and arbitrary. Which, interestingly enough, is what you usually get when the government starts meddling in things it has absolutely no business meddling in.
By Brendan Loy
A day after learning that a teammate had been murdered on campus, the Memphis Tigers have decided to play football tonight rather than canceling their long-scheduled Tuesday-night ESPN2 date with -- of all teams -- Marshall. (Now there's a football program that knows a thing or two about tragedy.) The Memphis players voted on whether to play; the decision was a unanimous yes.
Notwithstanding Memphis coach Tommy West's words -- "There's going to be a 3 1/2-hour block where we have to have our minds on business, as hard as it is" -- I daresay tonight's game will mean a lot more to the participants than an ordinary football game would. (If you're Marshall's coach, what does your pep talk sound like? Sheesh.) Nevertheless, for what it's worth, here's the football significance: this is an important game for two Conference USA East teams trying to salvage something from what has been a miserable season so far. Marshall is 0-4 and ranked #6 in ESPN's Bottom 10; Memphis is 1-3 and tied for last place in the division at 0-1.
The game is at Memphis. It starts at 8:00 PM EDT, preceded on ESPN2 by College Football Live at 7:30. I imagine the ratings will be substantially higher than would normally be expected for a weeknight game between two C-USA teams with a combined record of 1-7.
UPDATE: Memphis won, 24-21. Good for them.
By Brendan Loy
Classes have been canceled at the University of Memphis after a defensive linesman for the school's football team was murdered last night:
A University of Memphis football player was fatally shot in his car at Carpenter Complex about 10 Sunday night, in what police said was not a random attack.
Taylor Bradford, a junior defensive lineman from Nashville, was pronounced dead at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis. After he was shot, he drove his light-colored Lincoln across central and hit a tree near Zach Curlin, police said. No witnesses have forward at this time, according to police.
With the killer at large, officials ordered the campus to be put on lock-down on Sunday night and canceled Monday's classes at 4 a.m.
When police say this "was not a random attack," are they suggesting that somebody targeted him because he's a football player? Were they upset about the Tigers' 1-3 start, and most recently their loss to Arkansas State on Saturday? If so, needless to say, that's f***ed up.
P.S. According to ESPN, "Bradford was a member of the Tigers' defensive scout team last season, but had not played this season." Well, that would seem to reduce the likelihood of the "irate football fan" theory. Though not the awfulness of the tragedy, obviously.
By Brendan Loy
This story, out of Hendersonville, Tennessee, is the sort of thing that's liable to make Becky cry these days. Hell, it might make me cry, if I think too hard about it. It's really, really sad. Excerpt:
On Friday, Mrs. Reeves delivered her seven-pound, 14-ounce boy into this world without complications. Soon afterward she phoned Iraq to deliver the happy news. There, Spc. Joshua H. Reeves, her soldier-husband of two years, was stationed with troops from Fort Riley, Kan. ...
One day's joy turned to sorrow on Saturday as a bomb detonated as Joshua Reeves' Humvee drove down a Baghdad street. Leslie Reeves...was still in the hospital with her new baby when she learned she was a widow.
By Brendan Loy
Back in June, Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt announced she was cancelling the annual UConn-Tennessee rivalry series. Turns out, UConn coach Geno Auriemma is pissed at her:
"I think she should just come out and say she's not playing us because she hates my guts," Auriemma told The Courant. "And I think people would buy that. Then everyone [who seeks a reason] would be happy. She should just say that [Geno is] a dope, a smart-ass, and then everyone could say that they agree with her."
Geno added that he would never have cancelled the series: "You know what? I would never want to. This game is bigger than any individual."
"Besides," he added, "Brendan Loy just moved to Knoxville, so it's really poor timing to end the series now."
Okay, maybe he didn't say that last part. But it's true! (Hat tip: my dad.)
By Brendan Loy
Blue Plate Special hosting Grammy winners Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there's a huge crowd to see such a big act perform for free. I should have gotten here sooner!
By Brendan Loy
Following on the heels of Pat Summitt's divorce from her husband of 27 years, now Bruce Pearl is getting a divorce from his wife of 25 years.
I know I shouldn't make fun, as these are doubtless sad and trying times for the coaches and their spouses, but I can't resist: Bruce and Pat, sittin' in a tree?? Maybe he liked her singing, and she liked him shirtless, more than we realized!
At least one Vols coach is safe. Michael Silence writes: "If success in UT athletics means marital problems, Phil Fulmer has nothing to worry about." Heh. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)
By Brendan Loy
I like singing "Rocky Top" at The Backer in South Bend. I like yelling "whooo!" with my fellow Domers at the appropriate moment in the chorus. It's fun. It's silly. It's inexplicable. (Why do ND fans have such a soft spot for the UT fight song? I have no idea.)
I also like listening to "Rocky Top" on my iPod or in my iTunes. It's cute, it's catchy, I can tap my feet to it. Almost can't help doing so, actually.
But I daresay this is what "Rocky Top" is supposed to sound like:
More videos to come. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: The clips are below, but first, check out this panoramic picture of Neyland at night that I stitched together from five different shots taken with my wide-angle lens:
You really have to view the larger version of the photo to get the full effect. Er, and pay no attention to the "ghost" Tennessee players. They're artifacts of the photo-stitching process.
Anyway, here's a video of the team running out onto the field:
As usual with crowd videos, it doesn't do justice to the absolute explosion of sound that occurred when the players started coming out of the tunnel. But wow. 106,311 people can make a lot of noise when they want to. :)
Here's a clip of Tennessee's go-ahead touchdown and extra point in the second quarter, as seen from our seats in Section X15 of Neyland Stadium:
Man, that is one orange stadium. That's one thing I'll give UT over ND for sure: the fans know what damn color to wear. None of this trying to decide if our color is blue, or green, or gold, or what. No. It's orange. Everybody knows it's orange. So everybody wears orange. Everybody.
Er, except me:
Heh.
Someday, we'll show that picture to our kid, and tell her this was her first college football game. In a manner of speaking, at least. :)
Anyway, yeah. We had a great time. If you've never been to a football game in a stadium that seats 100,000+, I highly recommend it. It's very cool. Rocky Top, Tennessee!
P.S. Here are some photos by another blogger who appears to have been sitting in the same section as us, a handful of rows down.
P.P.S. Did I mention the stadium is really orange? Here's another one of my pictures, proving the point:
By Brendan Loy
Tennessee 39, Southern Miss 19, final. When they scored toward the end of the first half to go up 17-16, I had a feeling they might be taking the lead for good, and I was right. I got that TD on video, too. I'll post that, and a couple of other clips, shortly.
In other news, alas, Texas pulled away late and beat TCU 34-13. Between the Horned Frogs' loss and Washington beating Boise State, the chances of a mid-major qualifying for a BCS bowl took a serious hit today. If Hawaii loses in overtime to Louisiana Tech, that'll be even more true.
P.S. What kind of odds could somebody have gotten on a preseason bet that, at the end of Week 2, Michigan and Notre Dame would both be 0-2, while Washington would be 2-0?
UPDATE: Hawaii wins!
By Brendan Loy
My first official job perk here in Knoxville: I totally just scored free tickets to tomorrow's Tennessee-Southern Miss game from one of the judges! Nice!! (And yes, I have permission from my judge to blog this. :)
By Brendan Loy
There is an inordinate number of people in downtown Knoxville this afternoon wearing orange. You think maybe there's a home football game tomorrow or something? :)
By Jay Johnson
and now I get to be on TV with Oprah!
By Brendan Loy
Apparently some guy named Fred Thompson is running for president. Who knew?
By Brendan Loy
My clerkship starts tomorrow. Wish me luck!
P.S. Of course, this is just about the last you'll be hearing of the clerkship here on the blog. :)
P.P.S. And yes, I've been waiting to post that headline for weeks. What can I say, I'm a man of simple pleasures. Though admittedly, perhaps I shouldn't be paraphrasing Mark Twain, considering what he thought of lawyers. Heh.
By Brendan Loy
The greater Knoxville area is abuzz with anxiety this evening after the revelation of what Tennessee fans doubtless regard as the most consequential finger injury since Gollum bit the Ring off Frodo's hand: Vols quarterback Erik Ainge has broken his pinky finger on the eve (well, not quite the eve, but close enough) of UT's big showdown with Cal. The official word is that he'll start, but the football-obsessed denizens of Big Orange Country are nevertheless worried. Could Tennessee's hoped-for dream season be thwarted before it begins by a broken pinky?
I, of course, hope Ainge is able to play with full effectiveness -- but I must say, I'm extremely torn about how I want the Cal-UT game to come out. On the one hand, now that I'm living in Knoxville, I'm supposed to root for Tennessee when doing so doesn't conflict with my other loyalties (i.e., USC and ND), and anyway a Vols win over the Bears would really make the start of football season exciting here, the sort of excitement that can only come when the crazed populace of a football-mad region begins to see some validation of their championship delusions. :) On the other hand, this is a very big conference showdown between the Pac-10 and SEC, and although I'm trying to warm to the latter now that I'm living in SEC country, my primary loyalty as a Trojan fan obviously lies with the former. A second consecutive Cal loss to UT, in Berkeley this time, would be humiliating for the Pac-10, and would make it much harder to argue with the "SEC = NFL" crowd as the season goes on. And that could become very consequential for USC, if they end up in a BCS debate at season's end against the likes of LSU or Auburn or Florida (or, well, Tennessee!). So I feel like I sort of have to root for Cal in this one, even though I'd sort of like to root for Tennessee.
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