Shelbyville Times-Gazette: Columns: John I. Carney

Dial2Do offers convenience, questions (10/21/09)
I would call voice recognition and handwriting recognition the Holy Grails of computer ergonomics, except that it ruins the metaphor of the Holy Grail for there to be two of them. In movies like "2001: A Space Odyssey" and TV shows like "Star Trek," characters converse easily with computers using voice commands. ...

2, 4, 6, 8 - Columnist can't collaborate (10/14/09)
Thanks to a friend, I got an invite last week to the beta test of Google Wave. There had been a sort of online rumor a week or two ago -- the type of thing for which I don't normally fall -- that Google was giving away invites to those who Tweeted about the product. ...

'Monopoly City Streets' a fun way to buy Bedford County (09/16/09)
Did you see the skyscrapers I built on Madison Street last week? No? Maybe you just weren't looking closely enough. One of the most ambitious online game launches in recent memory took place last week -- not without some glitches. "Monopoly City Streets" is a sort of global melange of Monopoly and Sim City, with Google Maps as the playing board. ...

A good laugh on the web (08/26/09)
It seems almost redundant to do a column on Internet humor sites -- that seems to be something that people find on their own and share eagerly with friends. Even so, I thought I'd take the chance to pass along a few of my favorites and/or my recent finds. ...

Officials push rural broadband (08/19/09)
Local and federal officials are starting to get involved in the issue of making broadband Internet access more accessible to more people. "Broadband" refers to high-speed Internet access, as opposed to the dial-up access that introduced most people to the Internet. There are various forms of broadband, including DSL, cable Internet, wireless broadband and satellite broadband. Speeds and prices vary widely...

An offer I could refuse (07/01/09)
I have dropped out of the Mafia. It remains to be seen if, like Michael Corleone, they will keep trying to pull me back in. "Mafia Wars" is a game played as a Facebook application. You work your way up in an organized crime syndicate by doing various jobs ("Blackmail a Local Official") and investing the money in various business operations, from small neighborhood businesses to huge casinos. ...

Like a digital Lazarus, Fake Steve has returned (06/24/09)
Fake Steve Jobs has risen from the dead. For several years, technology writer Dan Lyons (Forbes, Newsweek) wrote a screamingly-funny blog, "The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs," at fakesteve.blogspot.com. The author of the blog was listed as "Fake Steve Jobs"; The blog was written in first person, using the persona of Apple founder Steve Jobs, but it was clearly presented as satire, much like someone on "Saturday Night Live" doing an impression of a well-known entertainer or politician. ...

If I ran Food Network .... (06/21/09)
The premiere of a new season of "The Next Food Network Star" only serves to remind me of some of my qualms, previously expressed here, about the direction the channel has taken the past few years. But what would I do if I were running things? Here are some things that would be on my "to do" list if I woke up tomorrow as the channel's CEO...

Approaching the digital deadline (again) (06/10/09)
WKRN (Channel 2) is the only Nashville television station listed by the Federal Communications Commission as having a strong digital signal in Shelbyville. Friday is the date on which many TV stations will turn off their analog broadcast signals, leaving only their digital signals. ...

Clicking for a cause (06/03/09)
I got an e-mail last week from a friend and T-G reader, Donna Brock, sugesting that I feature the web site Free Rice (freerice.com) in this column. "I loved the concept," wrote Donna, "and it is a good vocabulary builder, much like the old 'Word Power' section of Reader's Digest that I often enjoyed."...

AILOF: Acrobabble is lots of fun (05/27/09)
Acronyms have become part and parcel of the Internet world, much to the confusion of latecomers. LOL means "laughing out loud," IMHO means "in my humble opinion," and BRB means "be right back." Games are also part and parcel of the Internet world. So it's only natural that acronyms would become the focus of an Internet game...

Wolfram|Alpha is a new type of site (05/20/09)
The most difficult part of writing a column about Wolfram|Alpha is trying to explain what it is. Is it a search engine? Well, not exactly. It won't replace Google or Yahoo! for most applications. The site, which went live last week and has been the buzz of the computer world, calls itself a "computational knowledge engine." Instead of just linking you to other web sites, it tries to search for answers...

Charge Complete: More information about Skype features (05/13/09)
Last week, in a column about MagicJack, I mentioned a service called Skype, which lets users place calls over the Internet. Skype is actually the only form of VOIP I've ever used at home, but I don't use it that often, and I apparently wasn't as up-to-date as I needed to be about some of its capabilities. The day after the column ran, I heard from a PR spokesman for Skype, Aziza Johnson, with some information that I need to pass along by way of followup...

MagicJack: Too good to be true? (05/06/09)
It sounds too good to be true -- a small device which, when purchased and plugged into your computer, gives you unlimited long distance and local telephone service for less than $20 per year. You've probably seen the ads for "MagicJack," which is now carried by major electronics and discount chains and can be ordered from TV ads or online. But is it worth the hype?...

Irvine returns to 'Dinner: Impossible' (05/03/09)
Robert Irvine is back. Irvine was the original subject of the Food Network show "Dinner: Impossible," but was let go in 2008 after questions surfaced about whether he had padded his resume and claimed achievements that were not accurate. He was replaced by Michael Symon, one of Food Network's "Iron Chefs," but viewers just didn't like Symon as well as Irvine, and now Irvine and Food Network have put their differences behind them and Irvine is back on the show...

Free is good when it comes to software (04/29/09)
Free is good, most of the time. In an age when money is tight, open source, advertiser-supported or other types of free software can be a lifesaver. Many are surprisingly sophisticated and feature-rich, and (especially the open-source ones) have active user forums where you can ask questions and troubleshoot problems...

Hold the flash: 'America's Test Kitchen' sticks to the basics (04/26/09)
"America's Test Kitchen," which airs Saturdays on WNPT-TV, Channel 8, bills itself as "public television's most-watched cooking show," and justifiably so. It's not as slick or flashy as the cooking shows on Food Network or other cable channels, but it's both pleasant and informative, something that seems to be a low priority for Food Network at times...

Before you travel the world, travel the web (04/22/09)
It's amazing how quickly the Internet has become a part of so many aspects of our lives. I got to thinking the other day about how many different ways I use the net in preparing for my annual foreign mission trip. I thought I'd share some of those ways with you; perhaps some of the links or suggestions will be helpful to you, whether you're on a mission trip, a business trip or a vacation...

Former TV host finds a niche on the web (04/15/09)
If you're into computers, you may fondly remember a cable channel called TechTV. It was originally called ZDTV, started by Ziff-Davis, a leading publisher of computer magazines, but was later bought by Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder who is also the primary investor in Charter Communications cable TV...

Saving Face: Keeping your sanity on Facebook (04/08/09)
Is Facebook the greatest thing to come down the pike? Or is it a colossal time-waster and a potential security threat? It could be both. More people are setting up personal accounts and using features like groups or pages to promote their business, non-profit, or hobby...

Reserve an hour for Chef Bourdain (04/05/09)
I can think of only two TV chefs who've inspired sitcoms: Emeril Lagasse and Anthony Bourdain. Neither sitcom lasted very long. Emeril played himself in an eponymous situation comedy from "Designing Women" producers Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. The plots were silly, and they treated Lagasse as the one sane man working among eccentrics -- which seemed like a waste of the flashy, larger-than-life TV personality from "Emeril Live."...

Finding broadband in Bedford (04/01/09)
"I feel the need -- the need for speed!" In 1986, it was Tom Cruise who delivered that line in the movie "Top Gun." But today, it's dial-up Internet users who feel the need for speed -- and who are sometimes frustrated in their efforts to achieve it...

'Iron Chef' a heaping helping of cheesy fun (03/29/09)
"Allez cuisine!" If that phrase -- which I've been told is not actually proper French -- means anything to you, then you're obviously a fan of "Iron Chef" or its American spinoffs. "Iron Chef," for the uninitiated, is a cooking competition in which two chefs try to prepare the best dishes based on a surprise ingredient announced at the start of the show. ...

Food Network picks style over substance (03/22/09)
Food on television used to mean one of two things -- low-budget shows on public TV, usually on Saturday mornings or afternoons, or cooking segments on local morning or midday shows. I used to love watching the food shows on Saturdays. It was the late "Frugal Gourmet" Jeff Smith who inspired me to buy a garlic press and start using fresh garlic in recipes. ...

Mudslinging starts way too early (03/19/09)
How do you decide for whom to vote? There were web sites operating a year ago at this time at which you could take a quiz about your opinions on the top issues of the day, click a button, and find out which presidential primary candidate most closely matched your views...

TV, web work hand in hand (03/18/09)
By the time "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" debuted on NBC earlier this month, Fallon had already been talking to, and listening to, his viewers for weeks. Fallon produced daily videos for his web site as a preview for the new show, and each one was released to the web at 11:35 Central time -- the exact time slot Fallon was getting ready to take over from Conan O'Brien. (Locally, the show airs on WSMV-TV Channel 4.)...

'Good Eats' brings television food to life (03/15/09)
Food and television have turned out to be a tasty combination. Cooking shows have been around for decades, with the late, great Julia Child as the obvious forerunner. But with the start of Food Network, and then with the popularity of shows like "Top Chef" and "Hell's Kitchen," food and the people who cook it have become something of a cultural phenomenon. How long that will remain true is anyone's guess...

A DVR will change your viewing habits (03/11/09)
I'll admit, I had wanted a DVR for many, many months before I actually got one. I've heard friends and family rave about their TiVos, but I knew that I was planning on switching TV providers and I figured I'd just wait and get a DVR when I made the change...

Open primaries benefit Tennessee (02/22/09)
A bill now before the state legislature, which I learned about in a blog post by Nashville City Paper's Adam Kleinheider, would eliminate Tennessee's system of "open" primaries and require people to register as a member of a party in order to vote in that party's primary elections. Many other states require such party registration...

Do you Twitter? (02/16/09)
The first time I signed up for a Twitter account, I used it for a few days, didn't quite see the point, and abandoned it soon afterward. Some months after that, I was attending a technology conference in Nashville and got a better look at Twitter's usefulness as a communications platform. I signed up for a new account and I've been using it ever since...

Be seeing you, Number Six (01/15/09)
Last spring, in quick succession, I found two boxed DVD sets at deep-discount prices, and bought both of them (in one case, I used a gift certificate I had gotten as a birthday present). Both of them have become prize possessions. Both of the boxed sets were of British TV series from the late 1960s/early 1970s. But that's about the only thing they had in common...

Mission stories serve others, not myself (01/02/09)
I've had the opportunity and privilege to go on foreign mission trips each year since 2003. Before my first trip, in 2003, I made a bargain with our publisher at the time that if I wrote some stories about the trip, I could get back some of the vacation days I would otherwise have lost. (At the time, under our old system, that trip would have taken up just about all of my vacation days for the year.)...

Don't use faith as weapon of criticism (12/22/08)
I am, for better or worse, someone who wears his faith on his sleeve. Because I'm a preacher's kid, because I've sometimes written in the newspaper about my mission trip experiences, and because I'm a certified United Methodist lay speaker, people associate me with my faith...

Indictment supports county's move to financial management (11/23/08)
The indictment last week of a former county official on embezzlement charges seems like a vindication of the county's decision, two years ago this month, to place itself under Tennessee's Financial Management Act of 1981. Prior to 2006, the county's finances were a hodgepodge. ...

Layspeaker hopes he's up to the teaching challenge (09/25/08)
About six weeks ago, I got two requests to teach -- literally, within a day or two of each other. One of them didn't pan out; the other one did. The first request I got was from Steve Mallard at Tennessee Technology Center at Shelbyville, who wanted me to teach a two-night mini-course on blogging and social networking. That course would have been held earlier this month...

You don't have to like it, but understand the impact (08/14/08)
I am always astonished at the number of people who post in story and blog comments on our web site responding negatively to any mention of the Celebration's economic impact. We've had a little bit of the same type of reaction to a recent editorial which mentioned Tyson Foods' economic impact on the community...

Shelbyville can't have its retail cake and eat it, too (07/31/08)
Some of the story comments on the Times-Gazette web site related to growth and retail development show just how challenging it must be for public officials. We in the media are supposed to be watchdogs, not apologists, but in this case public officials are being blamed for things that they have no control over, or for situations in which, if they did what one group wanted, they would make an equally-large group mad on the other side...

Better names come to mind (05/24/08)
Although I normally cover Bedford County Board of Education, I wasn't at the specific meeting at which the name of Learning Way Elementary School was chosen. Last week, while driving past the construction site, I got to thinking about the issue. It's far too late to change the name of the school -- I'm sure plaques and signage have already been ordered -- and mine is just one opinion out of 40,000. But I have to say, I'm really disappointed in the name...

The "Briefs" column .... isn't (04/26/08)
A few years ago, back when the "Bedford Briefs" / "Around & About" / "Area Briefs" column ran on the front page, we had a rule of thumb that items only appeared in it once, not day after day. In recent years, after moving the column inside, we've loosened up on that rule, and -- for the most part -- have allowed items to stay in the column from the time they're submitted until the event takes place...

Melodies at the horse arena (04/23/08)
Well, it's that time of year again -- time for me to remind you about "Symphony at the Celebration," the Nashville Symphony's annual concert in Shelbyville, which will take place Tuesday at Calsonic Arena. Last year's concert featured the Community High School band, and was a great success. This year's concert will feature the band from my alma mater, Cascade High School, and will therefore be even better. (I could be biased, however.)...

Sorry, no poetry for Mom here (04/19/08)
I had run to the grocery store in the middle of the day and on my way out, a woman who knows me stopped her car in the parking lot, rolled down her window, and pleaded. "Can't you please put the poem about my mother in the newspaper?" she asked. No. No, we can't...

Cable competition may be a good thing (04/09/08)
Well, it now looks as if AT&T will be able to offer its "U-verse" cable television service in Tennessee after all. It's probably much too soon to tell when, or even if, the service will be offered in Bedford County. In case you haven't been following the issue, here's the situation. ...

Fool you three times, shame on me (04/02/08)
It was two years ago that we first started doing an "April Fool" story for the T-G. In 2006, I wrote a story about a Tennessee Walking Gerbil show, and then last year I wrote about celebrities protesting to change the name of Wartrace to "Peacetrace."...

Wear a sweater on March 20 (03/12/08)
I got three different books from family members for Christmas -- all of them about real people, all of them highly recommended, but about as different as three books can be. I'll tell you about all three, but the third one is the one I really want to share today...

Sickness provides a break, and perspective (02/27/08)
Last Wednesday, I'd been suffering through what I thought was just a stubborn cold. It had lasted almost two weeks, and I finally gave up and went to the doctor. The doctor said I had bronchitis; he wrote me prescriptions for an antibiotic and some weapons-grade cough syrup and sent me home from work for the rest of the week...

OPINION: Notes from the school attire conundrum (02/16/08)
Because I've been the primary reporter covering the debate over standardized school attire (SSA) over the past year or so, I've tried not to make any bold pronouncements one way or the other in this opinion forum. But, as we approach the school board's final decision on the matter, I have a few thoughts to offer...

My primary complaint (01/30/08)
Early voting ends tomorrow, and the party primary will take place Tuesday. So you have at least two more chances (maybe three, depending on what time you're reading this on Wednesday) to cast your vote. You may or may not have a favorite candidate. You may be excited, or you may have to cast your vote while holding your nose. But it's important to participate, regardless...

Man of vision? Not so much (01/23/08)
If you find any misspelled words in this column, bear with me; I'm having trouble seeing the screen, because my eyes are dilated. Everything around me is sparkly and brightly colored, but none of it is too clear. It had been a couple of years since my last eye appointment, and I knew I needed new glasses. My no-line bifocals are scratched up, and I was scared that my prescription had changed a little bit. I frequently take my bifocals off when reading or working on the computer...

Free-form late night (01/16/08)
Who knew Conan O'Brien could sing? Probably the highlight of the return of the late-night talk shows this month, after two months of the writers' strike, has been the rockabilly performances by Conan O'Brien the past two Fridays on his NBC show "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." On Jan. 4, he did a rousing rendition of "Blue Moon of Kentucky," and last Friday he did "40 Days," and did a credible, entertaining job on both of them...

My heart is in troubled Kenya (01/09/08)
Several people have asked me about the recent turmoil in Kenya, and it indeed is in some of the very areas where I worked on short-term mission trips in 2004, 2005 and 2006. There has been violence in the Kibera slums outside Nairobi, which is where I was in 2004, and in the western part of Kenya, which is where I was the other two years. ...

What we expect from schools (12/19/07)
You wouldn't believe the volume of material that comes in to a newsroom every day, both from local and out-of-town sources. A couple of weeks ago, a gentleman sent in a copy of some academic test that had been given to eighth graders in decades past. ...

Metro isn't a cure-all (12/12/07)
I read in the Elk Valley Times that Fayetteville and Lincoln County will have a referendum on consolidated city-county "metro" government Feb. 5. Metro is an issue that pops up from time to time here in Bedford County, and if our neighboring county passes it, no doubt it will be discussed again. Another of our neighbors, Moore County, is already metro...

Missing my fictional world (12/04/07)
I'm very glad it's over. But I also miss it terribly. Back in October, I wrote a column about "National Novel Writing Month," a writing exercise in which participants try to put out a 50,000-word novella entirely during the month of November. It's a crazy, breakneck kind of event, more about word count than quality. ...

Polls provoke discussion but aren't the last word (11/28/07)
The Times-Gazette web site has a poll feature; in our current layout, there is a poll on the bottom left hand corner of the front page of our web site. A smaller version of the poll, without the option of leaving a comment, appears on the news headline page...

The right to know why, not just what (11/24/07)
The public has a right to know, not only what its elected officials are doing, but why. That's the key point to the arguments betwen open government advocates (including many of us here in the media) and public officials about what should be covered by the Tennessee Open Meetings Act, also called the Sunshine Law...

You'll get a kick out of this holiday classic (11/17/07)
In 2002, as a result of a last-minute call from a Gaylord Entertainment press representative, I ended up going to the "Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring The Rockettes" at the Grand Ole Opry House. I don't know what I was expecting -- it was nothing I had any interest in buying tickets for -- but I accepted the comp tickets, thinking I could take my niece. ...

Late night comedy withdrawal (11/10/07)
I am clearly in withdrawal. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the late night talk and comedy shows -- especially "Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," but including Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien. (Jay Leno bores me to tears, and I've always resented him for the way his management railroaded Letterman in the "Tonight Show" succession debacle.)...

Don't pass along e-mails to me (11/03/07)
I have often repeated my disdain for pass-along e-mails. I'm not talking about situations where you see an individual news story or funny cartoon and decide to send it to a specific person who might appreciate it. I'm talking about the things that you send to everyone in your address book -- sappy stories, or chain letters, or self-righteous compliants about the state of society, or dire warnings of impending doom...

I jinxed the Champions (10/31/07)
Random notes on the way to here and there: --- I am proud to be an alumnus of Cascade High School, but I'm afraid I haven't been a very active alumnus over the years. It had been a few years since I'd been to a high school football game -- I can't remember exactly when...

Televangelism leads to insularity (10/24/07)
During the time that I was a student at Oral Roberts University, the Oral Roberts TV ministry offered a leather-bound Bible as a premium for people who donated a particular amount to the ministry. The Bible included a section with photos of various ministry activities. I guess it takes a peculiar kind of hubris to think that your own activities are worthy of being bound into, and distributed with, the words of holy scripture, but let’s put that aside for a second...

OPINION: Don't do more than is needed (10/13/07)
After traveling with local school board members to the Chattanooga area last spring and to Nashville this week, I feel sure that they will adopt Standardized School Attire (SSA), which is usually described as being more than a dress code but less than a uniform...

NaNoWriMo: A fun way to spend November (10/06/07)
Have you ever wanted to write a novel? Next month is your chance. In 2004, I first heard about -- and participated in -- National Novel Writing Month. This is a creative exercise in which participants try to write a 50,000-word novel (which is actually a novella, but who's counting?) during the month of November. ...

Based on sworn testimony! (09/26/07)
I had a blast Sunday afternoon watching a bad movie. Not just any bad movie, mind you; the worst movie ever made. "Plan 9 From Outer Space." A reporter and blogger from West Tennessee whose blog I follow regularly posted an online message that she was about to start watching the movie and planned to post her reactions to it in real time on her blog. I immediately turned on the TV and switched it to (irony of ironies!) Turner Classic Movies...

Movies, morals and marketing (09/08/07)
Following the success of "The Passion of the Christ," which was driven in large part by church group sales, Hollywood decided to market more aggressively to the Christian moviegoing public. But, according to a recent article on the Christianity Today web site, that effort hasn't been as successful as hoped and may have even backfired in some cases by scaring the secular public away from movies...

You can't argue with the figures (08/22/07)
Comedy Central's hilarious TV program "The Colbert Report" stars Stephen Colbert in a parody of some well-known political pundits. On his very first night on the air, Colbert coined a word that has since entered the lexicon: "truthiness." It's a word referring to the type of statement that seems true to the person saying it, regardless of the facts, and usually implies that the writer or speaker doesn't particularly want to be disturbed by the facts, just like the character Colbert portrays so brilliantly on his show.. ...

Mountain T.O.P. continues to meet needs (08/11/07)
Last Saturday, I attended the end-of-summer closing celebration for Mountain T.O.P. (Tennessee Outreach Project), a ministry with which I've been associated since 1993. The closing is really a tribute to the college-age men and women who run our camps during the summer season (and who leave for home the next day). It was a wonderful evening -- a terrific meal in the dining hall at Camp Cumberland Pines, followed by a slide show and worship service at a nearby church...

County still needs space planning help (08/08/07)
Last December, in this space, I wrote that our county officials needed to solicit professional help in connection with the county's space needs and surplus property. Here's what I wrote: I think that this problem has simply gotten too big to be handled the way it's currently being handled. ...

You can't break the laws of physics (07/21/07)
A newsroom is often a place of diverse opinions and lively discussion. We try to support our co-workers, but that hardly means we're always in agreement on things. Several months back, I got a call from two gentlemen who claimed to have invented a new type of automotive engine. ...

Traveling light to Bolivia (06/27/07)
Some years ago, when I attended a United Methodist singles retreat at Beersheba Springs, the Rev. Jim Hughes delivered a moving sermon with the theme "traveling light." Jesus urged his disciples to travel light when he sent them out to minister as recorded in Luke 10...

Looking toward Bolivia and the Internet (06/16/07)
A few brief notes on the road to nowhere .... Thanks to all of you who have offered good wishes for my upcoming mission trip to Bolivia. It's only about a week and a half away, and I don't know how I'm going to accomplish everything I need to get done between now and then...

City didn't cause Main Street congestion (06/13/07)
Make no mistake -- traffic on Main Street can be a problem. But I had to laugh at some of the comments I heard and read during the recent city election campaign. Apparently, some people think the city government has some sort of secret subterranean lair, deep underground, that tells businesses where they need to locate. Some people seem to think that the city is telling businesses to open on North Main Street rather than the other way around...

Empty three: player stolen from rec center (06/06/07)
I've lost several things at the rec center: (almost) 25 pounds, a padlock, and an MP3 player. When my rec center membership was set up last December, and I was looking forward to starting after the first of the year, I bought an MP3 player so that I could listen to music while working out. ...

'Fair-on-the-square' bears repeating (05/30/07)
The response to this month's "Bicentennial Fair on the Square" was overwhelmingly positive. The attendance wasn't overwhelming, but it was respectable, and the people who attended all had a great time. Johnny Reed and Dawn Holley, who are the activity co-chairs for Bedford County Bicentennial Organizing Committee, worked countless hours, as did many, many others in organizing the event...

Books, Bolivia and baggage (05/23/07)
The books are piling up for my Bolivia mission trip, which begins June 28: We will be in a rural area near Cochabamba, at an altitude of more than 8,000 feet. The air will be thin; we will get winded easily, and there's a little risk of altitude sickness (not nearly as much as in La Paz, which is at 11,000 feet). ...

The words you say can change a life (05/21/07)
It's amazing how a few little words can have an impact on your life decades later. In the fall of 1980, I was a freshman at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla. I was still wide-eyed, and naive, and I was still trying to process some worship styles and beliefs that were quite different from what I'd experienced in little country United Methodist churches back here in Bedford County...

I can cook! I really can! (05/05/07)
Some years ago, Mary Jane Miller had a potluck at her home. I seem to recall that this was just before she left for the mission field. I was invited, but Mary Jane said that if I wanted to, I could just bring some chips or a two-liter bottle of soft drink...

Getting to the bottom of an April Fool's joke (04/04/07)
It's probably good for those of us who work at the Times-Gazette to realize that not everyone reads all the way to the bottom of the story. Anyone on Sunday who read to the bottom of my story about celebrities picketing Wartrace would have realized it was an April Fool's joke. ...

Specialty tags have got to go (03/28/07)
The latest brouhaha over a specialty license plate, as reported by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, is about which organizations should receive the proceeds from a Native American-themed plate. There's a dispute between two different groups over the issue, so in the meantime neither of them will get any money, which will go instead to a senior citizens program...

Cochabamba or bust (03/24/07)
Because so many people have been kind enough to ask about my upcoming mission trip, I thought I'd take this chance to give you an update. I will be going to an area near Cochabamba, Bolivia, in late June and early July through LEAMIS International Ministries, the same Sewanee-based non-denominational group with which I've traveled for the past four years...

Pre-recorded candidate calls may end (03/07/07)
If, like me, you are signed up for the state's "Do Not Call" list, and if, like me, you are infuriated by those political calls which play recorded messages on behalf of a political candidate, you will be delighted that the State Senate voted on Monday to ban most automated calls, including political ones, to people who are on the "Do Not Call" list...

An unexpected gift from Hollywood (02/28/07)
A few notes from hither and yon: --- Chip Walters, director of public relations for The Celebration, told me on Monday that officials from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus were pleased with the turnout for their Gold Unit production over the weekend. Total attendance was more than 7,000, for the five performances, up several hundred from the circus's first visit here three years ago...

No Craig, no Kimmel (02/21/07)
As you may have noticed from the photo page earlier this week, I went to California to visit my brother and his family in Orange County. The only other time I'd been to visit Mike was six or seven years ago, and on that trip we attended a taping of the sitcom "Norm," starring Norm MacDonald. ...

Have pity on your news staff (02/17/07)
The Times-Gazette newsroom computers are iMacs which were installed in late 1999. They are not up-to-date. That's one of several factors to keep in mind when sending us information to be included in the newspaper. For example: Why not plain text? For some strange reason, people insist on sending press releases as Microsoft Word files. ...

California, cartoons, calories concern columnist (02/03/07)
A few notes from here and there: --- I'll be in sunny Southern California later this week visiting my brother and his family. I'm using up my frequent flyer miles from the last two years of mission trips to Kenya! I'm hoping to do a photo feature when I return...

Laydeeeeeees and gentlemen! Children of all ages! (01/20/07)
When Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey decided to start a single-ring "hometown edition" of its circus in 2004, Shelbyville was only the second stop on the tour. I attended with my family -- parents, two of my siblings, nieces and nephews -- and we had a terrific time. ...

Bolivia or bust ... I hope (12/30/06)
After four years of inflicting my mission trip stories on the readership of the Times-Gazette, I am now asked, pretty much wherever I go, if I have any trips coming up. The answer is yes ... I think. LEAMIS International Ministries, the Sewanee-based, interdenominational group with which I've traveled for several years, is not planning a trip to Kenya in 2007. ...

County needs help with surplus space (12/02/06)
County commissioners have an interesting problem. The county has, at its disposal, the vacant Harris Middle School on Elm Street. In a few years, when a new Bedford County Medical Center is built, the building which now houses BCMC will revert to county control. Once that happens, it's almost a given that tenants will move out of the nearby Medical Arts Building in favor of new digs closer to the new hospital...

Time lords, crazy sports and soup (11/30/06)
Some years back, I tried writing a TV column for the Times-Gazette. It started strongly, but then petered out. I mostly wanted to write about TV shows that I enjoyed, and in order to have done a good job with the column I'd have had to familiarize myself with a broader base of TV shows, including some that don't interest me in the least...

Maybe it's Maybelline (11/16/06)
Following each performance of "My Three Angels," I join my fellow cast members in the corridor to meet and greet the audience. We thank them for attending, and if we're lucky they have kind things to say about the performance. Well, Saturday night, a woman approached me, got a good look at my face, and immediately took on a disappointed look...

Negative campaigning cheapens politics (11/01/06)
In surveys, we claim we don't like negative campaign ads. And yet, they're effective, which is why candidates keep using them. And any attempt to regulate them runs the risk of violating candidates' right to free political speech, one of our most cherished political freedoms...

Springfield and Shelbyville (10/25/06)
A few months back, a city council member in Springfield made some sort of off-the-cuff proposal about denying access to that city's parks based on immigration status. An attorney with a large Nashville law firm who maintains a blog about Latino issues posted an item about this incident, but mistakenly referred to Shelbyville instead of Springfield. ...

The play's the thing for T-G staffer (10/11/06)
For the past week and a half, I've been in rehearsals in Tullahoma for the comedy "My Three Angels." I don't get to do community theatre too often, because my schedule for the newspaper involves some night meetings. But every few years, when there's a part I really want, my superiors indulge me and I find a way of making it all work...

Be considerate when sending e-mail (10/04/06)
E-mail can be a convenient and helpful way to disseminate information, but some people lack common sense in how they use it. Recently, a government agency sent out some grant announcements to media outlets in Middle Tennessee. To spare them any potential embarrassment, I will call them "Gennessee Department of Gransportation." They made no attempt to target the news releases to the counties where each one applied; they simply sent all the announcements to everyone on their mailing list. ...

One size doesn't fit all committees (09/27/06)
Some years ago, two different factions within the county commission were battling over solid waste issues. One of the points of contention was the makeup of the Bedford County Solid Waste Authority board. One side felt it was appropriate for that board to have several members from the southeastern portion of the county, since that area was most directly affected by the operations of the then-active Quail Hollow Landfill. ...

Breaking the Zire is a dire situation (09/13/06)
This is an incredibly busy week for me. I had two speaking engagements over the weekend, plus the opening of the new symphony hall, and I have meetings Monday through Thursday nights this week, the United Way kickoff, a luncheon in Murfreesboro and stories to write for an upcoming special section...

Sullivan's travels ... and mine (09/06/06)
A few random notes from here and there: Thanks to all of you for your kind words about my Kenya series last week. Every year, I worry that I'm being self-indulgent by blathering on about my trip in the newspaper, but every year I get a wonderful response...

Graduates, grumblers and greetings (07/31/06)
It used to be -- and still is, in some places -- that colleges and universities would send out news releases to newspapers announcing their graduates from each particular newspaper's coverage area. For example, Wossamatta U. (Bullwinkle's alma mater) might send us a news release saying that Sally Smith from Shelbyville had graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in education...

Another giant step for mankind (07/05/06)
I can't believe I missed the fact that Neil Armstrong talked to "60 Minutes" last November. I don't normally watch the show, but when I saw the promos for last Sunday's broadcast I became excited. After all, when it comes to shunning publicity, Armstrong has been in a league with J.D. Salinger and the late Greta Garbo. But if Harper Lee can write a letter about her love of books for Oprah Winfrey's magazine (which she did), then I suppose Armstrong can talk to Ed Bradley...

Hats off to civility (06/28/06)
You never know what kind of mail you're going to get in a newsroom. Recently, we received a clipping of a front page story which we'd published a few days before about a very informal seminar for candidates in an upcoming election. Several of the candidates in the photos, including both candidates for county mayor, were wearing hats indoors, which offended the person who sent us the clipping...

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John I. Carney