The “messenger god” meets the mortals (a lot of ‘em!) at Moxley Carmichael’s 2010 client party

We were a little nervous when former Sheriff Tim Hutchison and state Sen. Tim Burchett arrived at the Moxley Carmichael party at about the same time last Friday. The two men are locked in a not-all-that-friendly race to be the next Knox County mayor. But all was well. Soon the room filled with many other [...]

What makes WBIR special? Perhaps this.

A year and a half ago, the Coq Chante orphanage in Haiti got its first light bulb. To celebrate, the some 18 children there stayed up until midnight playing board games.
The bulb was powered by solar panels on the roof. The children also had filtered water to drink. And someone made sure their education continued.
Who [...]

Life lessons from Nancy Drew

“Convertibles are swell but they sure do call attention to your comings and goings.” — Nancy Drew in “The Haunted Showboat”
“Don’t force your date to go to a ballet or another activity that may not be to his liking if he was knocked unconscious earlier in the day.” — Nancy Drew in “The Double Jinx [...]

Downtown hotel transformed into “Rosy’s Diner” for 80th birthday of beloved cartoonist Charlie Daniel

More than150 folks donned “Rosy’s Diner” baseball caps and filed into the ballroom of the Crowne Plaza hotel Friday night for a laugh-filled celebration of News Sentinel editorial cartoonist Charlie Daniel’s 80th birthday.
Rosy’s Diner is a staple location for much of the action that takes place in Daniel’s cartoons. Good sport Donna Colburn of the News Sentinel put [...]

Expect News Sentinel’s new publisher to be active in community - once he gets his feet on the ground

“Good communities don’t just happen,” Patrick Birmingham told area leaders last week. “This is a great community because the people in this room have worked hard to make it great.”
 
Birmingham is the new publisher of the Knoxville News Sentinel. Bruce Hartmann, the former publisher who recently was promoted to a larger role in the News [...]

Opera Goes to Church show: “a dream come true”

Maestro Brian Salesky, executive director of the Knoxville Opera Company, grew up in New York City in a household that played two kinds of music: gospel and opera.
Therefore, he said Sunday it was a “dream come true” when he was able to team up with Jeanie Turner Melton, the choir director of East Knoxville’s Mount [...]

Pilot Pumpers: three days of hijinks for a good cause

When is pumping gasoline fun? When it’s for charity and you have a bunch of high-spirited local celebrities doing it!
That was the case the first three days of this week during Pilot Pumpers, the annual United Way fundraiser when more than 70 media folks and politicians pumped gas for customers at Knoxville area Pilots. Pilot [...]

Clear new focus of Scripps newspapers: “Create great content and sell the crap out of it!”

The other day, Rusty Coats, the new vice president for content and marketing for the E.W. Scripps Company, shed some light on the recent reorganization of the firm’s newspaper division, which includes the Knoxville News Sentinel.
And, he revealed that it centers around a recognition by the company that there have been “tectonic shifts” in the [...]

Scripps Networks prez says Knox oddly good for biz

It’s a conundrum, John Lansing told members of the Knoxville Area Urban League Young Professionals Monday night. It’s hard as heck to recruit creative, talented employees to Knoxville to work for Scripps Networks. But once they get here, they never want to leave.
Lansing is the president of Scripps Networks. Sounds like the same thing the [...]

Market Square: “A place of serendipitous meetings”

How can a place have a personality? How can a place be organic?
He doesn’t know the answers to that. But Jack Neely knows that Market Square has those qualities.
Neely, Knoxville’s unofficial historian, made those observations Wednesday night at a book-launching party for his new paperback, “Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on [...]