What’s Good Here?: Reflecting on Stuff We Like about the State
May 14, 2012 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
The State Flag
The point of this web magazine is to document the good and bad of Tennessee. But national attention recently has focused on the negative. Tennessee has been the epicenter in the “culture war” as to issues like same sex marriage. The state was also covered extensively over the murder and kidnapping of the Bain family of Hardeman County where two were killed and two were rescued. So here are some of the good things which are not necessarily exclusive to Tennessee but still some positives. In no special order:
Mountains: The Gatlinburg area is the state’s playground with scenery, theater and – well where else can one get married on the Titanic? And deep in the mountains is outdoorsman heaven with scenery and adventure.
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Variety: Mountains are just one third of the state. There are hills in the middle and the west is a mix of plains, rolling topography and swampland. We have skyscrapers a few miles from the country. Elections we will have blue counties, red counties and few in between. Forests in the higher elevations are more similar to New England than to Dixieland.
Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital: The hospital in Memphis was founded by entertainer Danny Thomas’ promise to Saint Jude, patron saint of lost causes. It is the best of both worlds with patient care and research.
Johnny Knoxville: His TV show and four “Jackass” movies can be disgusting, but still a guilty pleasure for many more people than will admit to laughing.
Rocky Top: “Strangers came up on ole Rocky Top Lookin’ for a moonshine still / Strangers never came down from Rocky Top reckon they never will.”
Who else has a passage about bumping off government agents in their state song?
Mexican Restaurants: No, Tennessee will never have the reputation of San Antonio or Austin, Texas, but those places have ALWAYS had Mexican restaurants. It seems like within a decade every small town in Tennessee had a Mexican family creating a popular Mexican eatery and accepted into the Tennessee melting pot.
Cost of Living: Watching TV it seems one should aspire to live in a New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles. But look at the price of a house there. The cost of living in Nashville, according to Bestpalceces.net, is 4.6% BELOW than the national average. Chattanooga is 9.8% lower. Knoxville, 15.8% lower. Memphis, 17.7% lower.
Lily Afshar and Kallen Esperian: These two classical musicians manage to fit into the Memphis music scene where rock and blues make up the city’s soundtrack.
Caves: From serious spelunkers to fascinated tourists, the state is home to this otherworldly realm.
Swamps: Teaming with life and mystery these areas show up mostly in West Tennessee. Check out the upper Wolf River around Fayette County and the entire course of the Hatchie. Just watch out for snakes!
Civil War battlefields and reenactors: Here in the second most battle-scarred state ( Virginia was number one), some of the most peaceful places were once the most deadly. And thanks to the sometimes obsessive reenactors they have a way of keeping history alive.
Harry Browne/ Al Gore/ Fred Thompson: Since 2000 the state has had these three Presidential candidates, ( listed alphabetically by last name ) a Libertarian who won his party’s nomination twice, a liberal Democrat who won the popular vote and a conservative Republican who dropped out of the primary early in the 2008 race, but still has a dedicated following. All had a talent for resonating with the people, though they had little else in common.
The Tennessee State Theater, Knoxville
University of the South – Sewanee: This exclusive University is on 13,000 beautiful acres on the Cumberland Plateau. But rather than being an elite enclave, their trails are open for exploring and enjoying WITHOUT paying tuition!
B B King: The Mississippi native was a living legend twenty years ago. Now he is a national treasure, AND still performing!
College Sports: Blue Raiders, Commodores, Tigers and Volunteers are enough to fuel many a college rivalry – and there is also Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi and there universities just across the border.
Mountains
Dolly Parton: Aside from the jokes about how she must sleep on her back, Parton’s Dollywood is the largest employer in Sevier County (2,521, according to the county website) and she was a founder of Imagination Library, which sends a book a month to children from birth to kindergarten.
State Flag: Flags in the northern states tend to be the state seal with a blue background. Yawn. Flags in the South sometimes are controversial due to the resemblance to a Confederate battle flag. Adopted a century ago it seems no one has called for the state to change its flag, but it is still one that jumps out at you.
Reelfoot Lake: One of the nation’s most powerful earthquakes opened up a huge chasm in northwest Tennessee creating one of our few natural lakes and a late winter fishing spot the bald eagle.
Moore County: A dry county that is home to Jack Daniel’s distillery. Can’t help but love it!
Now let’s hear some of your ideas. Send a comment bellow!
Have you Seen This?: The Viral Videos of Tennessee
April 30, 2012 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
We get them in our in boxes, from Facebook Friends and Twitter- well not sure what you call people you follow on Twitter- but you have them to thank or blame. They are the flash mobs dancing to The Sound of Music, laughing babies, funny pets and almost all other subjects imaginable.
They are the viral videos and what the hulu hoop was to the 1950′s, disco to the 1970′s, these are the fad of this generation. It is hard to remember a time before You Tube and Vimeo.. you know, like ten years ago. But today they are home to some creativity often done solely for the desire to get one’s creativity out there. It is not without controversy as Edward Greenberg, a New York, New York intellectual property lawyer, called “possessing the fatal flaw many artists have which is the overriding desire to be liked.” Creativity becomes harder and harder to be a career as so many people do it for free. Steven Spielberg and James Cameron may not be nervous, but just ask that communications major who wants to create WITH OUT needing two other jobs.
Controversy or not, video sharing is not going away. So here are a few vistas of Tennessee through the eyes of YouTube and others.
BAPTIST HOSPITAL – MEMPHIS
In about ten seconds on November 6, 2005 Midtown Memphis was changed and changed dramatically when not just a building but a HUGE building came tumbling down to make way for a new biotech center.
BRENTWOOD SHOOTOUT
Officer Stephanie Bellis ( now Warner ) was on duty May 6, 2002 when a bank robber was shooting at Old Hickory Blvd and Franklin Road. Belis was hit in the arm and officer Tommy Walsh was injured more seriously. Both recovered but the bank robber was killed. Here Belis’ drive camera shows the suspect’s bullet hitting the windshield as she returns fire.
HOW TO ENTER BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
and avoid parking! This one speaks for itself.
THE CHATTANOOGA KIDS
So who wants to go to Disney World when we live in Tennessee? This video made national news after the family sent it to the Chattanooga Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. Perhaps “We wanna go to Chattanooga” would not be a bad city motto?
THE COVINGTON GHOST HUNTERS
Ghost Hunters of Southwest Tennessee made this video of a former funeral home now residence in Covington. Of course, there is controversy. Some skeptics see overactive imaginations. Some religious people see a dangerous step into the occult. But it is worth a look, just not by yourself in the dark.
DAY GLOW KNOXVILLE
Now this had to have been a show – good looking young women, acrobats, music and a whole lot of day glow paint!
EARNEST GOES TO CAMP
Like you have never seen it. Those creative movie trailer recuts met Tennessee in their version of the 1987 film Earnest Goes to Camp. The movie was filmed at Montgomery Bell State Park in Dickson.
FEDEX TRAFFIC
Across Tennessee, as a few of you may know, originates from the Cooper-Young area of Memphis. Get a good wind out of the South and us Midtowners have the fleet of FedEx planes descending over us at night. Admittedly the music, an acoustic version of Led Zepplin’s Goin’ to California, is an odd choice considering very few of these planes are going to California. This shows the scale of the Memphis Hub.
MEMPHIS MURAL
Rhodes College of Memphis tasked themselves to make a blank wall of the old Toof Building. Shortly after the project began a camera was set up in the Fogleman YMCA taking a picture every thirty seconds for about two months in the Spring of 2009. And some music and the creation of the mural also becomes a thing of beauty.
POLK COUNTY ROCK SLIDE
Imagine seeing something like this coming down the road. Tennessee Department of Transportation geologist Vanessa Bateman was at the scene of the unstable bank and heard a regular popping sound from the rocks and ordered fellow TDOT employees and the WDEF news crew fro Chattanooga to clear the area. Allen Fairbanks of WDEF had his camera rolling when the 14,000 cubic yards of rocks and soil did.
TEDx TALKS
Alison Lebovitz of Chattanooga discusses the concept of being part of a community.
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TORNADOES OF HAMILTON COUNTY
Several cameras give different looks at the October 26, 2010 tornadoes which injured five.
WE ARE NASHVILLE
Alison Lebovitz’s discussion on building community is put ino practic after the May, 2010 flood we are approaching the second anniversary of that terrible day, but the words “we are Nashville” probably still give goosebumps to those residents who saw the best in humanity.
WINSTON THE PIT BULL
Perhaps if the officer got out of the car, got down on one knee and petted him? Nah!
Dan Perez de la Garza’s short documentary “Chimping : Photojournalists Struggle to Survive in the Modern Media Environment” has nothing to do with Tennessee, but attorney Edward Greenberg gives his perspectives on artists and the media landscape.
Vine Meets the Wine: Can Kudzu Help the Recovering Alchoholic?
April 16, 2012 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
No, it is not a mastodon. Kudzu covers trees off Airport Road in Rockwood
Harold (not his real name ) was intoxicated and in the Shelby County jail – “the 201” locals call it – at 201 Poplar in Downtown Memphis on January 17, 2002. It was not his first time in lockup, nor was it his first time being intoxicated. He started drinking roughly five times a week in high school and now was in his mid-thirties. “I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I tried quitting a ton of times but I didn’t know how.” He knew that it was time for a change and this time was different. It was to be his last drink.
But could one of the area’s most annoying plants become a weapon in the arsenal of people like Harold, fighting that feeling of what he describes as “ you don’t want ever to take another drink but you don’t know how you are not going to?” According to traditional Chinesse medicine, the ubiquitous kudzu plant can be used to fight alcoholism.
Forget a home remedy folded away in great grandma’s cookbook. Saying the scientific community is interested in its potential is as much of an understatement as saying is saying kudzu can grow in the Tennessee. In the early 1990’s, Harvard- yes THAT Harvard- started studying the possibilities.
The Chinese had started studying it earlier “for more than 2,000 years,” according to Dr Yaoping (Violet) Song, professor at AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine in Austin, Texas. It is one of the few schools in the US that teach traditional Chinese medicine. The herb is called ge gen ( pronounced guh gun) and is used to treat other conditions as well.
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For those newcomers and outside of the South, here is a little background on kudzu. The plant is not native, though it is hard to picture the south eastern quarter of the US without the ubiquitous vine. The plant was brought over from Asia less than 100 years ago in an attempt to control erosion. Anyone who studies biology will tell you when one brings a new species into an echo system, no matter how noble the intentions, either the species disappears due to the unfriendly climate, soils and predators, or grows unchecked, taking over the habitat of other plants or animals. Ask a botanist for an example of invasive species and the first response will probably be “kudzu.”
Dr Yaoping "Violet" Song. Photo courtesy AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine
Not only is it invasive, it has an almost science fiction quality. Photographs of foreclosed homes in the south sometimes show new buyers are not interested in that mcmansion, but the kudzu is. The vine has the ability to blindly reach out looking for a tree or telephone pole to entangle. And a photo less than six months after the tsunami/earthquake/nuclear accident hit Japan, a home in Tomioka Fukashima was being overrun by the vine like something from a prophet’s post-apocalyptic vision.
The November 8, 1993 issue of Newsweek mentioned an article in the Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Harvard research team headed by Dr Bert Vallee whose team was doing reseach with golden hamster’s , a little mammal who preferred alcohol to water. Treatment with the kudzu cut their alcohol consumption in half. Research continued at Harvard and then beyond. Vallee died in 2010.
Kudzu look like an electricians nightmare in the winter and in spring the green returns
More recently Dr Ivan Diamond of the Uiversity of California-San Fransiscio and Dr Ting Kai Li of Duke had positive results as well. ALDH2 is an enzyme which breaks down alcohol in the human body. A deficiency makes that alcohol toxic and the drinker sick- usually characterized by nausea, headaches and a racing pulse. Daidzin is the compound found in the plant that seems to inhibit the action of the enzyme, making alcohol less desirable. Currently Dr Diamond is working with Gilead Pharmaceuticals who is studying the effects of kudzu for a possible drug for treating alcoholism. The only comment Gilead would make to Across Tennessee is to confirm the research is ongoing and in its early stages.
Discover Magazine in July, 2005 made a list of the most important scientific breakthroughs in the last quarter century and on the list was the understanding of the endogenous reward system which Dr Jeanette Norden of Vanderbilt defined as “an internal reward when we engage in pleasurable activity.”
That may sound intuitive, but these pleasurable feelings were only recently discovered to be originated from the nucleus accumbens septi in the center of the brain which regulates the brain chemicals called monoamines. No love songs or romance novels mention the nucleus accumbens septi, but perhaps they should. Imagine an ideal day with our significant other- walking together enjoying the outdoors, followed by listening to favorite music together, followed by a fun evening on the town, followed by a good dinner, followed sharing a glass of wine by the fire, followed by – okay, you get the idea. We have our nucleus accumbens septi to thank for those good feelings and even the anticipation of those good feelings. On the flip side due to a variety of factors including genetic traits, that endogenous reward system that just gave us our special day (and night ) with our loved one is also the same ERS that for the addict fuels addictions to drugs, gambling, pornography or most any other physical or psychological addiction. Fighting addictions involve working with the endogenous reward systems.
If the person does not feel like drinking, then the person’s endogenous reward system will make him or her interested in taking a drink. Anabuse, a common drug to treat alcoholics, provides a similar effect.
Harold, the ten year sober alcoholic, is giving back by helping those struggling with alcoholism and has met many in the recovery community. He is skeptical this will do much to help serious alcoholics. “With people who are alcoholics, I mean people who have been struggling a long time, the only thing that will get them stop is not a little more pain, but to realize you can’t go on. A little pain can’t keep them from drinking. They are used to it.”
” I know hundreds who have used an Anabuse and drink on it. The body gets used to it and they drink for years,” he says.“I guess it could help some who want to cut back on the quantity they drink, but not those who want , or need, to quit,” Harold adds, “I don’t see it as much help for the alcoholic, just for the guy who wants to drink less and still feel the same.”
Dr. Song, the herbal medicine specialist, says there is a carrot as well as stick to the treatment. “It protects the liver and helps clear their mind from getting drunk.” She has prescribed ge gen for people struggling with alcoholism. “Traditionally we have used the roots. For alcoholism we use the flower and the root, usually by boiling and we extract the major elements.” Song says it is a common treatment.
“It is interesting when people have addictions to alcohol it is not just the single body issue. It also psychological. He knows he needs to quit drinking he just doesn’t know how. We ask him to use the ge gen and flower of the kudzu to soak in the alcohol to make an elixir so he gradually quits drinking,” she says. “We usually don’t use one single herb. We form a prescription and use multiple herbs together.”
The jury is still out as to if the chemicals found in kudzu will be available at the pharmacist. It is available as a herbal remedy. This article is not to debunk nor to promote its pharmalogical benefits, however kudzu has one plus many natural resources do not. There are no signs of an immediate shortage.
So can the land of moonshine and Jack Daniel’s also be the land of treatment for those who have entered the world of addiction? No one is talking about a medicine that will “fix” the alcoholic. Nor is there a goal to create a pill one can take to drink all night with no consequences. The best case scenario is the research will make a difficult process a little easier. Harold said goodbye to alcohol through Alcoholics Anonymous not through medication or a recovery center. “They taught me ‘there is a God it ain’t you so get out if its way and let it work.’ For the first time I felt like I was at home,” he remembers. He had to give up places he used to enjoy and many of his friends but not all of his them. “The friends I have now if they saw me with a drink in my hands – the true friends- they would kick my ass!”
There is an old joke in the South. How do you plant kudzu? Cut of a one foot vine, throw it on the ground and run!
Sources:
Understanding the Brain, by Dr Jeanette Norden from The Great Courses, assisted greatly with background for this article.
Discover Magazine, July, 2005
The Fix, June, 2011 http://www.thefix.com/content/extract-kudzu-vine-may-curb-drinking
National Geographic, August, 2009 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090812-kudzu-alcoholic.html
NIAAA Spectrum http://www.spectrum.niaaa.nih.gov/newsfromthefield/Kudzu.aspx
Pure Game: Ten Minor League Teams Make their Homes in Tennessee
April 9, 2012 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
Hitting Coach Cory Snyder of the Jackson Generals greets members of Jackson's little leauge team, The Kings
Here in Tennessee if you want college sports, few states have better bragging rights. Looking for major league football and hockey? Go to Nashville. Want NBA pro basketball, there is Memphis. As for baseball, the state is conveniently located between the Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves and Saint Louis Cardinals. But there is more to the state and our national past time don’t write off Tennessee and the national past time TOO quickly. Ten minor league teams – some in places many Tennesseans, have never heard of – play ball in Tennessee and though Hunter-Wright Stadium ( home of the Kingsport Mets) 2,500 seats will never be confused with Turner Field ( home of the Atlanta Braves with just over 50,000 seats). The feel is still there – ice cream out of a plastic helmet, free fly balls to the lucky fans and John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” over the loudspeaker.
And of course, there is the game. First, a primer on the minors. The larger communities have “Double A” teams. This is the Nashville Sounds and Memphis Redbirds, which are affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers and Saint Louis Cardinals, respectively. They each have about stadiums of about 15,000 seats- roughly a third the size of the major league fields and represent large metros without a major league team. Though often the minor leagues are referred to as “farm teams,” cities such as Indianapolis, New Orleans and San Jose have AA teams- hardly small towns.
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What Major League is to Double A, Double A is to Triple A. Five thousand-seat Pringle Field is home to the Jackson Generals. The Chattanooga Lookouts and Tennessee Smokies ( who play in Kodak, TN – just East of Knoxville ) are also in this group.
Much smaller are the Rookie Teams which are phenomenal perhaps because of their numbers. In Tennessee five rookie teams – all in the Tri Cities area- play in a short season from late June to late August. The Johnson City Cardinals ended last season winning 66.2 percent of their games. The Elizabethton Twins were close with 61.8% of their games won.
Thursday, April 6 was the first day of the five month long season for the Double A and Triple A teams. Nashville and Memphis opened with away games- The Sounds were defeated by New Orleans and Memphis was the victor over Oklahoma City.
In Jackson the temperature was 60 degrees and breezy as the mayors of several West Tennessee towns threw out the first pitches. When the sun set on Pringle Park, the jackets and blankets came out making some of the fans look like they were there for a football game. It was 56 degrees when the Generals beat the Birmingham Barons 3- 2. In a couple months, the fans will be nostalgic for temperatures in the 50s. Jackson is a city small enough to where it seemed everyone in the park knew someone. For most of the crowd them game was as much about being a social get together as hard core Generals fans rooting to open the season with a win against the Barons.
And for baseball fans, this may be a way to see players on their way up. Today’s players in the minors could be at bat or on the mound in a few years at the World Series.
At Chattanooga’s AT&T field, the season opened with Tennessee against Tennessee- Lookouts versus the Smokies- for five days in a row.
Perhaps the scarcest thing at Pringles Field in Jackson was someone watching the game alone. The vast majority of the fans came as families or as couples. It is hard not to see why. Tickets to the minors- good seats at that- can be less than the price of most movies. Season tickets are going for twelve games at $99. That is $8.25 per game. A single reserved adult ticket for the game Monday night is listed at $10. Opening day for the Memphis Redbirds advanced ticket is $20 on level 2. However being in the middle of downtown one will probably need to pay for parking. But good seats without needing a loan from the 401k is an obvious plus of the minor leagues.
In the end if it is the game one loves it can be found in Tennessee, be you at New York’s Yankee Stadium or at Johnson City’s Howard Johnson Field. So you may not see Alex Rodriguez, but you will see the love of the game, the competition and a little bit of home town pride.
Hear the parking is better, too
Season opening at Jackson’s Pingle Park
Just for Fun: A Tennessee Trivia Quiz
April 2, 2012 by Devin Greaney · Leave a Comment
EVERYONE knows the tulip poplar is the state tree. Can you answer some tougher questions?
Do not get excited. No prizes will be awarded. Feel free to use Google ( how would anyone know? ) And when in doubt answering “C” will not help you as the answers are in alphabetical order. This, like the title says, is just for fun!
1. William Walker of Nashville invaded _______ in 1855 and declared himself president.
a. Bhutan
b. Ceylon
c. Nicaragua
d. Peru
;
2. Karst topography can be found in two of the state’s three divisions. It is not found in the ______ division.
A. East
B. Middle
C. West
D. It is in all three divisions
;
3. Tri-Cities airport in Blountville is ___ miles CLOSER to Chatham – Kent Airport in Ontario, Canada than it is to Memphis- International Airport.
A. 15 miles
B. 20 miles
C. 25 miles
D. It is the same distance
;
4. What is the seating capacity of Bristol Motor Speedway?
A. 150,000
B.155,000
C. 160,000
D. 165,000
;
5. When the clock strikes midnight on the morning of July 4th, this city has its fireworks display – the first in the US.
A. Chattanooga
B. Gatlinburg
C. Knoxville
D. Sevierville
;
6. Who is recognized as the Catholic Patron Saint of Tennessee?
A. Our Lady of Lourdes
B. Saint Francis
C. Saint Joseph
D. Saint Jude
;
7. Dr. Lily Afshar, professor at the University of Memphis, is world renowned in the field of
A. Anthropology
B. Guitar
C. Meteorology
D. Supply chain / distribution management
;
8. The largest Tennessee State Lottery jackpot was
A. $22.3 million
B. $23.8 million
C. $ 24.9 million
D. $25.5 million
;
9. The Governor asked for 2,800 troops for ________ and about 30,000 answered the call giving Tennessee the nickname “The Volunteer State.”
A. Naval action against the Barbary Pirates
B. The War of 1812
C. The Texas Revolution
D. The Mexican American War
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10. A historical marker in Pulaski has been turned around facing the wall where it cannot be read. What does it commemorate?
A. A lynching
B. First killing by serial killer Ted Bundy
C. Founding of the Ku Klux Klan
D. 1987 post office massacre
;
11. Screen giants John Caradine, Basil Rathbone and Lon Chaney Jr were in this 1967 movie where three country music performers on their way to Nashville stepped into a mystery. Was it
A. A Country Caper
B. Hillbillys in a Haunted House
C. Phantom of the Opry
D. Music City Madness
;
;
12. First a slave, then a businessman, Robert Church Sr invested in Memphis after the yellow fever outbreak and helped to bring the city back from bankruptcy. What was Church’s first type of business where he began building his fortune?
A. Banking
B. Insurance
C. Newspapers
D. Real Estate
;
13. Who is/was Charles Herron?
A. first president of the University of the South- Sewanee
B. fugitive on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list
C. real name of Memphis singer Muck Sticky
D. representative who defeated and replaced David Crocket
And you know the state animal is the raccoon..
;
14. Charlie Daniels held the first Volunteer Jam October 4, 1974. Where was it held?
A. Campus of Vanderbilt
B. Grand Ole Opry
C. Ryman Auditorium
D. War Memorial Auditorum
;
15. White nose disease has affected many state parks. What animal is susceptible to this disease?
A. Bats
B. Foxes
C. Racoons
D. Vultures
;
16. Sam Houston, who later became governor of Tennessee, then President of the Republic of Texas, lived as a boy lived with this tribe and later married one of them. Which tribe?
A. Cherokee
B. Chickasaw
C. Choctaw
D. Shawnee
;
17. Though now better known for founding Avenues: The World School, from 1988 to 1990 Chris Whittle of Knoxville published a Tennessee-oriented magazine. What was its name?
A. Tennessee Illustrated
B. Tennessee Life
C. Tennessee Monthly
D. Tennessee Today
;
Tomatoes, you are no doubt aware, are the state fruit
18. How old was Tina Turner when her hit album “Private Dancer” was released?
A. 41
B. 42
C. 43
D. 44
;
19. State Senator Stacy Campfield was refused service at Knoxville’s Bistro at the Bijou restaurant in January, 2012 because of
A. Controversial comments made about gays.
B. appearing intoxicated
C. his support for ending the embargo against Cuba.
D. wearing flip-flops
;
20. Sarah Cannon performed under the stage name
A. Dinah Shore
B. Patricia Neal
C. Memphis Minnie
D. Minnie Pearl
;
21. Authors Lew Wallace and Ambrose Bierce served in the Union Army at this Civil War Battle.
A. Lookout Mountain
B. Nashville
C. Shiloh
D. Stone’s River
;
22. Out of the ten minor league baseball teams in the state, which one had the highest percentage of wins in the 2011 season?
A. Elizabethton Twins
B. Johnson City Cardinals
C. Kingsport Mets
D. Tennessee Smokies
;
23. Of the state’s nine geographic areas, which one is the SMALLEST?
A. Central Basin
B. Cumberland Plateau
C. Highland Rim
D. Mississippi Alluvial Valley
24. The ramp plant has been called “the sweetest tasting, vilest smelling vegetable in mother nature’s bounty.” Where is its annual celebration held?
A. Canton
B. Cosby
C. Laurel Bloomery
D. Mountain City
Of course you know the rose is the state flower of - New York ( just seeing if you are paying attention!)
25. Harry Browne of Franklin ran for President twice as the nominee for which political party
A. American Independent
B. Constitution
C. Libertarian
D. Progressive aka “Bull Moose”
BONUS: Legendary UT-Knoxville women’s basketball coach Pat Summit played basketball for which college?
A. Appalachian State
B. Rhodes College
C. UT-Chattanooga
D. UT-Martin
BONUS II: The names in granite at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC were etched in what city?
A.Chattanooga
B.Knoxville
C. Memphis
D. Nashville
BONUS III: There are four varieties of venomous snakes in the US. Three are native to Tennessee. Which one is NOT?
A. Coral
B. Copperhead
C. Cottonmouth
D. Rattler
BONUS IV: In the 1960′s cartoon “Tennessee Tuxedo,” the title character was played by this distinctive voice
A. Don Adams
B. Jerry Reed
C. Jim Henson
D. Rodney Dangerfield
Bonus V: When did the University of Tennessee marching band first perform “Rocky Top?”
A.1969
B.1972
C.1979
D.1982
;
ANSWERS:
- C. Nicaragua
- c. West. Karst topography is limestone that has dissolved and created caves
- C. 25 miles, so it is true some places in Tennessee are closer to Canada than to Memphis
- B. 155,000. More than the population of Clarksville, less than Chattanooga
- B. Gatlinburg
- A. Our Lady of Lourdes
- B. Guitar. She has recorded four CD’s, and has sold out concerts around the world, convincing many the state flower of Tennessee must be the Lily.
- D. $25.5 million on March 30, 2005.
- D. The Mexican American War of 1845-1847
- C. The Ku Klux Klan was founded there and disbanded wthin a few years. In 1915 it was formed again in Stone Mountain, Georgia
- B. Hillbillies in a Haunted House. It is a must see among bad film aficionados.
- D. Real estate, though before that he owned a saloon. He is believed to be the South’s first African American millionaire
- B. On the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. On January 16, 1968 a car with Herron and four others was stopped at 15th Avenue and Herman Street by Nashville Police officers Thomas E. Johnson and Charles Thommason. Both were shot and killed. Herron was arrested in Jacksonville June 18, 1986. At the time it was the longest a fugitive spent on the Most Wanted list.
- D. War Memorial Auditorium and it has been a tradition ever sense
- A. Bats so caves at state parks are closed to visitors
- A. Cherokee. He married Cherokee Tiana Rogers
- A. Tennessee Illustrated. Its first issue was May/June, 1988 it later became a quarterly with its last issue Summer, 1990
- D. 44 years old. The album was released in 1984
- A. Controversial comments about how AIDS spread from Africa
- D. Minnie Pearl of Grinder’s Switch, Tennessee ( she was from Centerville )
- C. Shiloh. Bierce was a very prolific writer perhaps best known for the surreal short story “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Wallace for “Ben Hur”
- B. Johnson City Cardinals. They won 45 games, lost 23 – 66.2% of games won. Others of note. Elizabethton Twins (61.8%) Tennessee Smokies ( 59.3%) Kingsport Mets ( 57.4 %) Chattanooga Lookouts ( 55.4%) and the Memphis Redbirds ( 53.8%)
- D. Mississippi Alluvial Valley which is the flatlands near the Mississippi River. It covers 57 square miles, including all of Lake County
- B. Cosby, East of Gatlinburg
- C. Author and financial adviser Harry Browne ran as the Libertarian candidate in 1996 and 2000.
- Bonus I. D. UT Martin. She played high school basketball at Cheatham County High School in Ashland
- Bonus II. C. Memphis at Binswanger Glass Company. The memorial was dedicated November, 1982 and now has 58,272 names
- Bonus III. A. Coral which hails from South of here
- Bonus IV. A. Don Adams, who later became Agent Maxwell Smart in the TV show “Get Smart”
- Bonus V. B. 1972. The song was written in 1967 and became on of the official state songs in 1982.