Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope the luck of the Irish has been with you today, and may you find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The above photo is Sammie with her St. Pat's hat a few years ago. I think she and Cash are glad we didn't pull them out again this year.

Sadly, I didn't see any leprechauns today. However, I can remember a time when I was absolutely positive one had visited my kindergarten classroom. When we returned from recess, there was a piece of candy on the floor under each of our desk chairs. Our teacher, Mrs. Zedalis, told us a leprechaun put it there since she was in a meeting down the hall. And besides, if she had done it, the candy would be on our desks, and not on the floor, where the leprechaun would have left it because of his small size.

I can remember feeling so excited and wanting to see and meet a leprechaun so desperately, just like I always have wanted to meet Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Hmmm. I wonder if they have e-mail address and Facebook and Twitter accounts. A (little) girl can dream, can't she?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Take a listen to the 1982 World's Fair music

The 1982 Wold's Fair was in Knoxville, and after living here for four years, I can tell just how proud this city is to have hosted the event, and it should be. I remember my grandparents traveled from Florida to attend the fair, and they brought me a World's Fair teddy bear that I still have.

The fair went from May through October, and more than 11 million people came to Knoxville for the "Energy Turns the World" themed event.

A friend recently posted a link to the official songs of the fair. They are great to listen to since they were written and recorded in the early 1980s. You just have to listen: http://www.expomuseum.com/1982/audio/index.htm and make sure you click on the youtube video clip above for a World's Fair commercial. It's definitely a piece of nostalgia for those who grew up in Knoxville or attended the fair. Enjoy!

Sunny Spring Break...for now

It's been great weather in East Tennessee recently, with highs in the 60s and sunshine! Sammie and Cash are thrilled about the weather, and they love sunning themselves on our back porch.

The sunshine is short-lived since clouds have already formed again, and rain is expected tonight and into the weekend. At least I won't feel bad about staying indoors to work on my dissertation and grading. Spring Break doesn't exist for graduate students.

Gimme that Filet-O-Fish

Have you noticed that during Lent a lot of restaurants promote their fish entrees? McDonald's has the Filet-O-Fish on its menu year round, but the company advertises it extensively during Lent since the special is two fish sandwiches for $3 (and the special ends April 4, which is Easter). Last year's commercial with the singing fish on the wall was a hit, and it's back again this year in another form.



We had Filet-O-Fish sandwiches yesterday for lunch, and even though we could easily make them at home, there's something about getting one from McDonald's. The advertising works on us during Lent.

I've noticed that Arby's and Wendy's also have fish sandwiches right now for a limited time, but they are more expensive. Even if the fish is a better cut and larger, I think we'll stick with the Filet-O-Fish for tradition's sake.

Gunshots fired

It's been a week since a rather disturbing incident happened in our neighborhood, and it's one I won't soon forget.

I was sitting at our kitchen table working on my dissertation, where I could see the road down below that is the entrance to our subdivision. I heard a noise that sounded like a car backfiring, but I didn't think much about it. A few minutes later, and I'm not sure how many minutes exactly, I noticed two Knox County Sheriff's deputies pull into our neighborhood with their sirens blaring. They pulled over at the end of the first intersection and were clearly in a hurry to get out of their cars.

I called David into the kitchen and we watched as more deputies drove in, and we could tell something wasn't right. We used our binoculars to see better since we live a ways up the hill. We could see deputies running, and getting larger guns out of their trunks, but we still couldn't see what or who they were going after. Then we heard a series of gunshots...not just a few but at least 10 or more. I can remember asking David during the gunshots, what in the world could be happening? We could only see the deputies running, but we never saw who or what they were shooting at during this period.

By this point, more sheriff's deputies were driving into the neighborhood, and next came an ambulance and firetruck. We didn't know what was happening, but it was obvious someone had been shot. After a few minutes, knoxnews.com posted a very brief story online about deputies firing shots at a West Knoxville man who was threatening to commit suicide.

During the next few hours, more official cars arrived along with satellite trucks from the three local TV stations in Knoxville. There were around 15 deputy cars and other SUVs with flashing lights. It was surreal to see this happening, and the photo above doesn't quite capture all the traffic and uncertainty about the events. Initial reports said a man was trying to break into a house and then threatened suicide and a call to 911 was placed.

I was surprised that a couple of the local TV stations didn't add this information to their web sites as quickly as they should since they could easily confirm the information with the sheriff's office. It took one station more than two hours to post any story about the shooting. As a journalism educator, I'm constantly telling my students that the web is driving news. People go online to get their news first, and if it's not there, they go to another site, which is what I did.

You can read more about what happened at www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/feb/25/three-deputies-involved-in-fatal-shooting and a follow-up story at
www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/mar/01/3-knox-deputies-fatal-shooting-back-work/. To summarize, a woman called 911 to say her husband was suicidal, and she was afraid for her life. She stayed on the phone with 911 until deputies arrived. Deputies met the man outside, and he started firing, so they fired back. He later died at UT Medical Center.

While I didn't know this family personally, we see their company trucks coming in and out of the neighborhood on a daily basis. When we go on walks, we've seen them washing those trucks, so it's hard and sad to believe that a life was lost.

I realize this is a personal family matter, and I don't need to know why this man acted the way he did. His wife is a widow now, and his family is without him. It's just another example that shows how quickly life can change in a matter of seconds.