From Nashville’s Hyperlocal blogger dude:

If you are using urban issues as a measuring stick for separating the candidates, good luck. You might as well close your eyes in the voting booth in November, point, and wherever your finger lands vote for a candidate, because the difference is negligible.

Whoa. What’s he talking about?

Go here.

From today’s Tennessean:

Tennessee law apparently allows public funding of a religious endeavor such as the proposed Bible Park USA, but the real question is whether it violates the U.S. Constitution, the state attorney general says.

In an opinion released Tuesday, Attorney General Robert Cooper said the use of public funds for such a project “would depend on all the facts and circumstances” of the development and the deal with the local government.

h/t Don Fenley

Well, the hotspot in Middle Tennessee seems to be here these days.

La Vergne has become the place to have a ho-down and a rumble during this fine month of May.

Cool.

Image Credit

HIPPA rules have made it difficult to find out where my grandfather may be in St. Louis.  Compounding the difficult situation is the fact that I am in Tennessee and my mother is in Florida.

My grandfather, Ervin Tucker, is an alleged victim of elderly/domestic abuse and neglect.  He has reported to my mother that he had been kicked, his cane taken away, his hearing aid not fixed and his personal pictures removed from the walls of his home.

From the Middle Tennessee Bloggers and Podcast Blog. 

All it took was a Google Search.

That Amnon Bar-Tur shot Penthouse pictures back in the 70s doesn’t bother me much but when you are doing a bible-based theme park, well, you know, that’s going to wig some folks out if they don’t know ahead of time. People get touchy about their soft-core mixing with their bibles.

It tends to offend.

This is the part about the Bible Theme Park situation that broke this morning at Nashville is Talking. It’s this one sentence that makes sense to me:

How much due diligence have county commissioners and supporters done when a simple Google search would have revealed this and more?

Read the whole thing over there and, yes, the story has been Farked.

The Rich half of country duo Big & Rich is building a home called Villa Rich on top of a hill in Nashville.  It could easily be called Villa Big if the photo at That’s Messed Up is accurate.  It reminds me a little of a water slide.

But even better is this link brought to us by our beloved CeeElCee.  He directs us to the architecture company’s design of the home and it’s well worth a peek.

I know my title isn’t as fun as John’s:  Blazing Lieutenant Governor might have to saddle up..(if New York spits out Spitzer) and Fish, not fishy, but this post from  Historic Germantown is worth reading even if the title is BugsBunny’ish.

Excerpts:

• Don’t rely on clamshell window locks. They’re uneven, don’t fit, and easily jimmied with a knife.
• Don’t leave packing materials from valuable purchases out on the curb or in the alley. Break down containers and dispose of discretely.
• Do consider a dog*– the larger the better. Use “Beware of Dog” signs. (Keep vacuum cleaner in obscure location, as thieves can run a dog into a bedroom if the dog fears the vacuum cleaner.)

There are many more really informative ideas on how to keep your home from being burglarized.  Read it all right here.

Michael at Chez Bez is heaping some lovin’ on Google’s Street View.  Here he takes a peek at a house he used to live in.

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Michael also made a trip to a neighborhood record store (but in person, not online though I’ll bet you can find it online): Grimey’s New & Preloved Music.

I walked past the fellow music lovers, found Caitlin’s CD, and paid my five bucks (worth every penny). Before leaving to finish my errands, I stuck around to hear Matthew Ryan sing a few songs. Every part of me was happy in the moment.

I want to go now… it reminds me a lot of the old Cut Corner Records in Lexington, Ky.

How do you define a good neighbor?  Someone who lends you a chainsaw when your bradford pear inevitably falls down.  A good neighbor keeps their lawn mowed and trash out of the yard.  They don’t rev their scooters motorcycles all hours of the day and night.  And most importantly, good neighbors have got your back.  Especially when you lose a pet.  Like this neighbor…

Read the rest of this entry »

Forget storm chasing.  Forget sky diving.  Not interested in bungee jumping.  I want one of those jobs where I can be a ghost hunter.  I do believe in ghosts and have unfortunately experienced one or two in my time.  The creepiest was in college when I saw my bedroom door open, heard footsteps walk to my bed, the chain on the light began swinging, the footsteps retreated, and the door closed.  I learned two weeks later that a woman had died a violent death in that house and her body was found where my bed was positioned.  I rearranged my room and was never bothered again.

As I watched it years ago, I thought the movie “The Blair Witch Project” was really lame.  Until the end.  You know the end…. the boy in the corner. It gave me the willies to the same degree that the story of the Bell Witch makes my hair stand on end.  So I was fascinated when I read this by Just Another Pilgrimage about a trip to Adams, Tennessee.

It began with a sighting of a strange animal in the cornfield. The family began to hear strange noises, thumbs and scratches on the walls coming from unseen forces. The noises seemed to escalate, then turning into more tangible happenings. Bedsheets were pulled off the bed while the family slept. Pillows were tossed around, and finally, physical assaults on John and his daughter, Betsy.

One of the commenters, an ancestor of the John Bell, said his family still experiences hauntings. 

I pass the Adams exit off of I-24 every time I head to my parents’ place in Kentucky. One of these days, I’m going to stop. 

A little refined culture for the warehouse capitol of the world!

I am so excited to announce that Wine & Spirits Unlimited will be hosting La Vergne’s very first wine tasting!

The event will take place on Tuesday, March 25th from 6pm-8pm at WillStans Grille (behind Burger King in the same building as Kum Sung Studios).

The cost of the event will be $12 and will cover ten different wines and three special appetizer recipes provided by WillStans Grille. Also, if you would like to stay for dinner, WillStans Grille is offering a discount on your meal.

Some of the wines that will be featured are:

Matua Sauvignon Blanc
Cycles Gladiator Merlot
Luccio Pinot Grigio
Jean Bousquet Malbec

…and 6 others. I don’t want to spoil the anticipation by revealing all of the wines, so you’ve gotta show up to find out!

Jeremy, aka “The Big Guy” at Wine & Spirits Unlimited says, “We welcome everyone to come to this wine education seminar and bring as many people as you like.”

Please try to RSVP by March 22nd so they can get an idea of how many people to expect. Prepayment is available at Wine & Spirits Unlimited. However, last minute guests are always welcome.

**The phone number for Wine & Spirits Unlimited is 287-1300 or you can e-mail them at: w-sunlimited@comcast.net**

I’m trying to imagine it…wine that doesn’t come out of a box!

Lesley recently had to surrender a tea rose bush to an eager young lad which prompted this little trip down memory lane:

One day, I was working in the yard and saw in the corner of my eye the little boy next door (also four at the time) walk across my driveway toward my front yard. A minute later, I saw him walking back with a bunch of pink tulips in his hand. As I went after him, I noted the lack of pink where my tulips used to be.

“Jan Bailey, where’d you get those flowers?”
“I picked these for my mommy!”
“Oh, okay. Well, you picked those from my yard, so those are my flowers. You’re not supposed to pick flowers from other people’s yards.”
“These are for my mommy!”
“Oh, okay.”

Altogether now, “Awww!”

Foreclosures are just bad for everyone involved.  Not only do decent hard-working people lose the roof over their heads, but to rub salt in the wound, the value of your home dips because of their hard luck.  My friend and colleague Butch gives us a scenario about about how foreclosures hurt the neighborhood.

The lender just wants enough money to pay off most of the loan regardless of what it’s worth.  The house could go for $150,000, but the bank sold it for $125,00 just to get rid of it. 

Butch links to an MSNBC news article that I’ve seen floating around at Comcast, The Tennessean, etc.  And while you’re digesting that troubling information, here’s more from CNN.  My cheerful outlook is dimming.

Instead of reading the 800+ posts I’ve fallen behind on in my feed reader, I’m spending Sunday evening surfing for community blogs to share with MCB’ers.

Paul Brian has started News About Jackson, TN which I hope will take off. He’s got some scary tornado pictures from early February that make me realize how lucky most of us were.

This is Smyrna updated its look this weekend. I like it a lot, but can’t help but think that Gunner and his gang of writers (disclosure! I’m one.) will be able to do really shine if he ever changes over to WordPress.

I recently updated This is LaVergne to a three-column format and discovered VodPods. After finding It Comes in Pints which features a Friday F* Off Thread, I decided an open thread could work for LaVergne readers. After two Fridays, this theme seems to be quite popular. We’ve learned about the best types of grass (fescue v. bermuda) for our rocky county and how the mayor’s office helped a resident. We’ve also heard complaints about loud car stereos, the high prices of playing soccer, code violations, and much more.

The common thread I see in all these hyper-local sites is that we make every effort to provide not just information and news for our neighborhoods and communities, but these sites provide a forum for our residents to talk to each other. Isn’t that what hyper-local is about? I love hearing about what new retail space is coming or about a gentle dentist.

What these commenters and subsequent blog posts have also accomplished is we’re now a strong source for newspapers and other media. I firmly believe we will eventually see a lot of investigative news stories in the mainstream media originating from tips reporters gain from blogs and social media sites like Twitter. I say this because I’ve already seen the blip on that radar. I’ve been contacted a handful of times by area newspapers about “tips” they’ve seen on our community site.

What other accomplishments can be made through community blogs? My friend Gunner has chastised his town officials for allowing a dangerous intersection to go without a light for almost a year after a light was approved. I expect the light to finally go live this week, but maybe through Gunner’s words the city will next time be responsive in a more timely manner. In LaVergne, our town is looking into setting up a police substation in the state’s biggest subdivision - an idea that came from a commenter on our site. The fact that someone in the city paid attention was a true marvel for our little blog because we’d heard many times from an anonymous commenter that if we had any suggestions to make to city officials, we should call them. Instead of listening to the naysayer, this modern-day grassroots medium has blossomed.

I think the next few years will be really interesting for community blogs and I’d love to be around for another 30 or 40 to see what happens. But in the here and now, if you come across any community or neighborhood blogs in Middle Tennessee, I’d love it if you’d leave the link in the comments.

Mike B. has some interesting scoop out of Salemtown.

On the same day that the K & M Market at the corner of 7th and Garfield (where the store owner was shot 8 days ago by a suspect still on the lam) reopened to peddle its primary product of single serve beers, Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association voted unanimously to support Council Member Erica Gilmore’s bill to prohibit the sale of single-serve 40 ounce bottles of malt liquor. That bill was deferred by CM Gilmore indefinitely in November, although she spoke of plans to bring a revised version back up for consideration.

He writes about a bit of what its like to have K & M in the neighborhood and he delves into some of the recent history and the landscape of why the market is more than a nuisance.

But it’s the owners that Byrd reports which gives this story an interesting dynamic.

 Another interesting detail is that all three properties are owned by Kenny Norman, who was once the Juvenile Court Clerk described by the Nashville Scene as having “a reputation—deserved, by most accounts—for being an inaccessible, politically driven and incompetent administrator.” But Mr. Norman–whose mailing address is in Goodlettsville–looks locked into a slew of very influential power brokers. His sister is Circuit Trial Judge Barbara Haynes, whose husband is State Senator Joe Haynes from Goodlettsville. Their son, Scott Haynes, is an attorney with Boult, Cummings, served as co-chair of Kenny Norman’s campaign, and he has connections with former mayoral candidate and Congressman Bob Clement.

Read the whole thing about the curious case of the K&M Market and how it is affecting Salemtown.

Slarti has a pesky new neighbor. 

So I stopped using my eyes, and started using my nose.  And sure enough, it was unmistakable: Pepe Le Pew had left a calling card in our front yard.  …

So, now we have not only coyotes and a fox to worry about (along with a groundhog we don’t worry about - he’s too fat to hurt anything), we have a skunk setting up residence in our neighborhood.  Great.

A friend of mine who lives in Mt. Juliet once had a pair of skunks that somehow wiggled into her crawl space and got into her vents. Every time the heat kicked on, the skunks sprayed.  The smell was so terrible that she and her two children had to move into a hotel for a full month while her insurance company had people come out to eradicate both the skunks and the smell. 

The worst was even after she moved out of the house and came into the office, she STILL smelled like skunk.  I felt terrible for her because no one wanted to go into her office to get  a whiff of eau d’skunk.  Le Pew indeed.

Lesson learned:  It would have never occurred to me to check with my insurance agent to see if I’m covered against skunks.  Call your insurer when you get a chance.

Picture from here.

La Vergne’s blog has a new vibe and a new look.

And it is of the good.

“Come out, come out wherever you are!” could be the title of a lawsuit filed in Davidson County on Monday wherein a couple living in Old Hickory Village are suing an anonymous blogger(s) for libel and invasion of privacy.  According to The Tennessean,

The lawsuit would be difficult to win because of free speech protection under the First Amendment, according to Robert Cox, president of the New Rochelle, N.Y-based Media Bloggers Association.

The Swartzes would have to prove that the postings are malicious because the couple is in the *public eye, said Cox, who is not involved in the case. Don Swartz is a town engineer in Nolensville, and both Swartzes have been part of the Old Hickory Village Neighborhood Association.

I’ve often been concerned yet grateful for the anonymity of the Internet… very much a mixed reaction for sure.  I believe that Big Brother is watching our sites (scary enough), but there are also about a kazillion “little brothers” also watching who are ready to plunge a knife in your back.   To those trolls I can only say, “Bite me, you anonymous coward.” 

However there are times when anonymity is important.  Perhaps in a case where someone fears for his or her job if they were to become a whistleblower, and yet information has to get out in order to right a wrong.  For example, and this happened to a friend of mine, you work at a nursing home and know the head nutritionist/dietary technician is being forced to buy substandard food by the administrator.  If you go public, you get fired.   If you don’t, patients with no families to watch over them continue to eat food on the verge of rotting.  Anonymous can work in this situation

Going back to the * in the newspaper pull-quote, the next issue that begs to be addressed is whether we are “public figures.”  If someone started writing anonymous nasty posts about us, we may not have recourse because we’ve crossed over from private citizen to being in the public eye (therefore public figure) by virtue of writing here, commenting there, and writing on other sites that are easily accessible with one Google click.  For example, I’ve written about my hometown in Kentucky where extensive members of my family still live.  Bear with me on this… a good friend of mine called the other night to tell me a parent in another Girl Scout troop called her leader asking who I am because she’d done a Google search looking for a troop in this small town (my hometown) they are moving to.  Their search looped back to me - it was ironic we both live in middle Tennessee - and in an instant I became a spokesperson for the small town and that Girl Scout community.  If it’s something more nefarious than a Girl Scout parent - a troll for instance - we could be stuck.

Thre big issues, no easy answers:  Anonymity good?  Anonymity bad?  And are we bloggers public figures.  What do you think? And do we even have a choice?

RockyCat probably doesn’t mean to be cracking me up with stories of the neighbor trying to kill her.  Her neighbor is not-so-affectionately dubbed Jabba and Jabba is not her friend.

While I could smell smoke, there was no visible smoke in my apartment, and while I could hear a smoke alarm, it was not my smoke alarm.At first I figured that one of the guys in the building had stayed up late, gotten drunk, put a TV dinner in the oven, and then passed out, until the TV dinner incinerated itself to a smoky, smelly crisp. When you live in a building full of guys, that scenario is a familiar one.

I left the funniest stuff out of her pull-quote because I aim for a G-rating.

She needs to report him to the rotten neighbor site, which I refuse to link to because it just nauseates me.  Yes some a lot of the posts are hilarious, but given that home addresses are given along with maps… well that’s just scary.  Here’s an example of someone dissed by their neighbor:

lets he kids cuss and at every one runs in the middle of the road and dooges cars the mom is a bad inflence and drinks maybe even does drugs half the day (sic)

“Maybe even does drugs half the day” yikes!

I know this isn’t entertainment related, but, this is the county I call home.  If you are interested in helping with clean up this weekend in Castalian Springs…read on, friends and neighbors.

TORNADO CLEAN-UP THIS WEEKENDVOLUNTEERS & DONATIONS NEEDED

Gallatin City Hall Parking Lot

Saturday & Sunday

Arrive between 8am & 10am

Email info@gallatintn.org to sign up

At the request of the Sumner County Emergency Management Agency, the Gallatin Area Chamber of Commerce is organizing tornado clean-up this weekend. 

To participate, contact the Gallatin Area Chamber of Commerce via email at info@gallatintn.org or call (615) 452-4000.

Volunteers are asked to arrive at the Gallatin City Hall parking lot between 8am and 10am on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  From there, teams will be dispatched to assigned clean-up areas. 

Volunteers should wear sturdy shoes and protective clothing.  If available, they should bring gloves, rakes, shovels, etc.  These items will also be available on-site, but any extras are appreciated.  PLEASE BRING BOTTLED WATER.  Lunch will be provided at Cragfont Baptist Church. 

Please call the Chamber by 4pm on Friday to put your name on the list to participate.  Groups are welcome and will be able to work together. 

Volunteers should be prepared to work a minimum of four hours.  

Teenagers may work with supervising adults.

Please call the chamber at (615) 452-4000 if you have any questions. 

Gallatin Area Chamber of Commerce

118 West Main Street

Gallatin, Tennessee 37066

(615) 452-4000

www.gallatintn.org

info@gallatintn.org

Paige Brown Strong, Director

paige@gallatintn.org

It’s only been a short time since I discovered LeBlanc over at a natural deficiency of moral fiber and since then I have fallen madly in like with his posts, like I did with Newscoma two years ago.  So here I am flailing around as Miss Real Estate and Neighborhood person who needs to find some more real estate and neighborhood bloggers.  You can sense the desperation when I can tie-in spackling with real estate - even this kind of spackling.

There’s some of THAT spackling that needs done at my house.  Meanwhile, shoot me your URL at that linkie-email-hoo-haw on the right (aka tips @ musiccitybloggers . com) if you write about neighborhoods or real estate and I’ll add you to my feed reader or reader feed.

Oh, and thanks LeBlanc for Le dessin animé.

I had to laugh at Jerry’s post at Aimlessly Unbalanced featuring pictures of ads and classifieds found in Franklin’s some newspaper today someday.

Stop the presses!  I want to prescribe subscribe!  There’s more hilarity and goodness over here.   Mrs. Wigglebottom won’t much like the pitbull ad. 

One of the joys of old age is that if the draft ever comes back, I’d be ineligible.  My phone rang some time ago and it was none other than the best of the bad - BadBadIvy - seeking to draft me for something completely different than military service or kicking hockey pucks.   Instead, she asked if I’d consider becoming an editor at MCB to cover Real Estate and Neighborhoods.  When I’m not listing and selling homes in Middle Tennessee,  I write for Shak & Jill, This is LaVergne, This is Smyrna, and my own personal blog. 

Writing is in my blood.  I have a B.S. in Journalism and spent years in corporate communications before my family and I relocated to the Nashville area about 4 1/2 years ago.  However, when we moved here I was incredibly disappointed in the agent we had chosen to guide us through our real estate transaction.  Always the pretentious one, I thought I could do a better job than she did and enrolled in the required classes to get my license.  In all honesty, my first year was very difficult because in real estate, it’s all about who you know in order to gain referrals.  This new transplant didn’t know anyone… the nicest person I sort of knew was my daughter’s bus driver because he always smiled and waved at me in the morning.  But never a quitter, I stuck with it and have found that it’s one of the best jobs in the world.  As an agent, I get to have fun (set my own hours), help people, and make money.  A pretty good gig, all around.

With today’s real estate market, we hear over and over and over and over and over a lot about how the housing bubble has burst.  Ironically, real estate agents in Middle Tennessee don’t necessarily agree with that national assessment.  The national media like to ignore the fact that all real estate is local.  Just because home sales in California, Nevada and Florida have tanked, it doesn’t mean that all markets have fallen apart.  I heard earlier on some network morning show that the housing market won’t recover until 2009.  I say BULL-DOOKIE!  In middle Tennessee we had our fourth best year EVER in 2007 and right here at the end of January, my phone is already busy.

So don’t be discouraged when it comes to real estate.  Like Malia, Ned, Jim did before me, I’ll throw you a quote:

Well, real estate is always good, as far as I’m concerned.
Donald Trump

You go, The Donald.

Bad Bad Ivy posted this on This is La Vergne and these are the words of Kathy:

Imagine my surprise when my broker John Mayfield called my name for the “Whale Done” Award!  It’s given by vote from other agents to someone from the office who is always willing to lend a hand, help another person, and maintain a positive attitude.  What an honor it is to be recognized by my colleagues!  I won the same award two years ago, so now I have two whales.  I told my broker he could hold on to the second copy of the book WHALE DONE by Ken Blanchard.

Congratulations. That is awesome.

State Senator Tim Burchett has been trying in vain to get a state law passed to confine mentally ill people to protect both themselves and the general public. This is often referred to as Kendra’s Law.

Burchett’s bill is Senate Bill SB1269. After the tragic shooting of Michigan native Stacey Sherman on Saturday morning in Knoxville Burchett’s bill is getting more attention. It should.

The man who shot and killed Stacey Sherman and wounded Kris Key, the assistant manager of the Knoxville Hooters restaurant was David Rudd. Rudd had been living on the streets for the past five years.

Rudd was shot to death by Knoxville Police Department deputies Sunday night after he refused to lower his Glock .40 caliber handgun.

David Rudd’s father told the press the system failed his son. A commenter on the Knoxville News Sentinel website said the system failed Stacey Sherman. They are both correct.

This is the rap sheet of 25 year old David Rudd:

Charge: Offense Guilty Plea
Theft 3/22/00 5/26/00
Forgery 10/20/00 12/1/00
Poss. of Marijuana 2/10/01 2/28/01
Poss. of Marijuana 2/28/01 2/28/01
Viol. of Probation 4/9/01 5/25/01
Theft 4/14/01 5/25/01
Theft 6/13/01 10/19/01
DUI 10/14/01 12/11/01
Viol. of Probation 11/5/01 12/11/01
Poss. of Controlled Sub. 11/7/01 12/11/01
Domestic Assault 11/7/01 12/11/01
Violation of Probation 11/26/03 3/8/05
Theft of Property 11/29/03 —
Leaving the Scene 11/29/03 —
Evading Arrest 11/29/03 —
Burglary of a MV 12/6/04 —

Why does Tennessee not have a version of Kendra’s Law?