It’s September and, in Knoxville, that means one important thing: the season starts. And I don’t mean the football season. I mean the almost equally competitive charity fundraiser season.
This time of year, it seems that not a day goes by that we don’t open our mailboxes to find elegant invitations or “Save the Date” cards notifying us of some fabulous upcoming event. The price tags for attending these soirees generally range from $75 to $300 per person (for the really swanky ones). And in many cases, the events really are swell. But with so many crowding our calendars, they also can get a little monotonous. Many of us are developing what I call “event fatigue.”
So, please have mercy and consider these suggestions as you plan your next charity extravaganza: (read more)
That’s what the t-shirts said at Sweet P’s Barbecue and Soul House in South Knoxville on Saturday. And that’s exactly what we did! The temperatures were smokin’; the music was smokin’, and, most importantly, two big pigs were smokin’ on the grill being carefully tended by proprietor Chris Ford.
Sweet P's owner Chris Ford picks the pigs Saturday.
Other highlights of the afternoon and evening were the music, the Corn Holin’ beanbag tossing contest and the much ballyhooed banana pudding eating contest. This is an event where you could truly do good while feeling good. We highly recommend you check it out next year. Admission this year was $20 in advance and $25 on the day of the Fest. The music alone was worth that.
Sonja Kulseng-Hansen, the bartender at Sapphire, offers customers a very unique Bloody Mary.
Saturday in Knoxville dawned overcast and drizzly, but our spirits were not dampened.We knew we were about to embark on the “Bloody Mary March,” our own name for the monthly Market Square Mixer, which is a contest among downtown restaurants to see who can make the best cocktail.
The type of drink for the contest changes monthly — as do the participating restaurants. Last month, the S&W Grand on Gay Street won when the key ingredient was cucumbers. The idea for the contest is to feature products from the Market Square Farmers’ Market. The Market provides each restaurant with a quantity of the featured ingredient but the rest is up to them.
This event is an incredible deal. Customers pay $15 and usually five restaurants participate. This week, however, eight restaurants took part! They are supposed to serve smallish drinks, but some just go ahead and give you a big one! My advice: pace yourself. You don’t have to finish every drink!
Jeannie Dulaney, left, has been on The Blue Streak nine times, Bill Lyons 21 times, and Susan Brown 23 times!
OK. Here was the thought. The Blue Streak is only successful because of the great folks who let us take their pictures and attend their events.
We decided to throw a cocktail party to thank them. We invited to the party the people who have been on The Blue Streak the most, according to the little search box at the top of the blog. Wow. What interesting information that process turned up: (read more)
Snowcones were popular at sunny Shoes for School event Saturday.
In the morning last Saturday, I witnessed scores of volunteers of all races come together in a huge event to help the less fortunate — also of all races.
In the afternoon, I stood on Market Square and watched hate mongers shout “White Power!” while surrounded by police and counter-protesters.
The contrast could not have been more stark. I’m grateful I had the morning experience to help me keep the afternoon one in perspective.
The morning event was “Shoes for School,” an annual activity sponsored by the Knoxville Area Urban League and Enterprise Rent-A-Car to provide new athletic shoes to underprivileged children in time for the start of school. It involved 38 companies and organizations, 28 community service groups and 240 volunteers. More than 1,100 children got shoes and school supplies.
The afternoon event was, of course, the march of a hate group, the National Socialist Movement, from Market Square to the courthouse. The organizers of that event were not from Knoxville. But the counter-protesters were. (I was on Market Square because I had unwittingly scheduled a nail appointment at Salon Visage at the same time as the march.) (read more)
Shaun Fulco, our CFO, packs up our liquor for the move. (She has all the important jobs around here.)
Today is the last day for us in the glass tower that has been our home for the past 15 years. It’s moving day and we are taking our toys and moving from First Tennessee Plaza, the tallest building in downtown, to the Miller’s Building, about four blocks north on Gay Street.
I will explain the reasons for our move in a later post. But right now, we are consumed with the actual ACT of moving. You know how it is! We are using this move as an incentive to “shed and shred,” as my friend Phyllis Nichols likes to say. We are looking into nooks and crannies that haven’t been looked in for years in an attempt not to move things we won’t be needing. I thought you’d like to see some of the things we have run across! (read more)
Joan Cronan was 12 years old and growing up in the town of Opelousas in southern Louisiana. “I was a tomboy before it was cool for women to be in sports,” the UT women’s athletic director told a lunch gathering this week.
Joan Cronan on Tuesday
She was really looking forward to signing up to play Little League baseball so, when tryouts were scheduled, she hurried over to the ball field. “I knew I was better than the boys because I’d already been beating them in the backyard,” she said.
But guess what. The coach told her girls weren’t allowed to try out. She was shocked. And motivated. “I knew right then that I would be in the business of teaching women to compete,” she said.
Today, Cronan is in her 27th year as UT women’s athletic director. She told the Powell Business and Professional Association how she views her job. “Athletics is the front porch of the university,” she said. “It’s not the most important part of the house, but it’s the first thing you see. Our job is to get people to come into the house. My job is to keep the front porch strong and appealing and clean.”
Cronan said her position actually requires her to be in three distinct lines of business. “The first is the business of education,” she said. “We have 240 female athletes who need to get their degrees and also learn from participating in sports.” (read more)
Geico had a display in the vendor area of the National Urban League convention. Of course they brought their famous gecko!
Poor Alan. Because I learned in journalism school that photos with people in them are generally more interesting than photos of things alone, I always try to put someone in the pictures I take of interesting things I run across.
Of course, who am I most often with when I run across interesting things? My sweet husband, Alan Carmichael. He has been the ultimate good sport in this regard.
But I think I may have pushed him to his limit — or beyond — a couple of weeks ago when we went to Washington, D.C., for the Urban League’s national convention. So, after this post, I’m going to give Alan a break and make some other people pose with various sights I happen upon. This is fair warning to my friends! (read more)
Bill Haslam delivers an animated acceptance speech.
I don’t know why I was worried, but I was. I guess it’s because I’ve seen the electorate do so many wrong-headed things (as they did in at least one case in Knox County last night — but that’s not my story here).
A group of us braved literally blinding rain storms and — after stops at several Pilots on I-40 – made it from Knoxville to downtown Nashville in time for a great dinner and an even greater evening celebrating Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam’s victory in the Republican primary for Tennessee governor.
It was fun. But the battle is not over. Even as I write this on Friday morning, Haslam and his campaign team are meeting to discuss strategy for winning the general election in November.
But I don’t want to think about that now. Here are scenes from last night. (read more)
Some of us (including me!) shook President Obama’s hand.
We cried when national treasure, poet Maya Angelou, recited a poem about slavery and black history with rapper Common.
We were astounded to see the media crush around Congressman Charles Rangel, who sat at a table next to us at lunch the day before a House ethics committee announced 13 charges against him.
We heard numerous cabinet members talk about changes we can expect.
And we marveled about how lucky we were to be having this experience.
Here are just a few highlights of last week’s National Urban League convention in Washington D.C. It marked the 100-year anniversary of the civil rights organization.
But first, you gotta see this brief video clip taken by Jim Nichols of his wife, Knoxville Area Urban League President and CEO Phyllis Nichols, meeting President Obama. (Phyllis is the one with Beyonce-colored hair. I’m the blond in the black jacket to her right.)
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It’s September and, in Knoxville, that means one important thing: the season starts. And I don’t mean the football season. I mean the almost equally competitive charity fundraiser season.
