Pulse of the 'Pulse

Comments on the passing scene in this week's Metropulse

• A Curious Man - County's new library director is 'a seeker'
  

  ""Life is a constant exploration." He adds, smiling, "That's why I'm in Knoxville."

  I think I'm going to like Larry Frank. He sounds like just what Knox County needs to shake things up a bit. That is, if isn't run out on a rail first.

  
  
  
  

• Seven Days
  
  

  "Saturday, August 23 - The Associated Press reveals that the future of Tennessee Meiji Gakuin, the only high school for Japanese students in the state, is threatened by declining student population since September 11. Naturally, Japanese parents are timid about sending their kids into the internationally acknowledged terrorist target of Sweetwater.

  I was sitting at the bar at OCI on the strip this afternoon having lunch, and happened to laugh out loud when I read this entry...
  
  GUY BEHIND THE BAR: (filling my tea) Something funny in the paper?
  
  ME: Yeah, I was reading this - supposedly they're closing the only Japanese high school in Tennessee, and apparently their population has gone down since 9/11, and the "Japanese parents are timid about sending their kids into the internationally acknowledged terrorist target of Sweetwater"...
  
  GUY BEHIND THE BAR: (a couple moments of silence, staring at me) Terrorists...
  
  ME: Yeah, well, as if out in Sweetwater...
  
  GUY BEHIND THE BAR: (wanders off)
  
  ME: *sigh*

  
  
  
  

• Air Wars
  

  "...the Rogero arsenal has what many consider a Weapon of Mass Destruction in the person of writer/producer/director Tom Jester.
  
  [...]
  
  He generally gets top dollar for his services, and says he had "a meeting" with Haslam and his campaign manager Bill Lyons, but felt committed to work for Rogero. "The Haslams couldn't afford me," he jokes."

  It's nice to know some people in this county can't be bought, and aren't awed by the might power of the Haslam gas pump. Maybe he can come up with a good, subtle, well-placed ad that will knock the other side's ads on their knees. However, I also hope it takes the high road and doesn't sling mud. I've seen Haslam's ads, and well...they're innocent enough - family man, pillar of the community, beneficiary of nepotism, that sort of thing. It's too innocent for me though - they might as well shown him kissing a baby or helping an old lady across the street.

  
  
  
  

• The Restrained Campaign - Political points made too polite
  

  "The point is, once upon a time in America, political campaigns were spectacles. They were epic battles for the honor of representing fellow citizens in a government for the beagles, by the steeple, and of the people.

  If we had a government for the beagles, then my dog would be the President and she'd bark incessantly, whine when she doesn't get her way, and poop all over the White House.
  
  [INSERT YOUR OWN "AND THIS WOULD BE DIFFERENT THAN THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION....HOW?" JOKE HERE]