Some of the eleven million paperclips in Whitwell's box car

Right now there is a good chance you have a paperclip in a pocket and probably don’t know it. Three hundred paperclips can fit in a box about the size of a big bar of soap. Take three thousand and you still have not filled a shoebox. That would take roughly five thousand to do that. But reach eleven million paperclips and that fills a nine foot by twenty five foot boxcar roughly twelve inches deep, with about a six foot area in the middle open for walking space.

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Larry Brown plays The Bluebird

Nashville’s Bluebird Café is small, but on Monday nights between 6 and 9 PM there is enough musical passion to fill the Tennessee Titan’s LP Field. On weekly open mike night, singer-song writers gather to perform and hear each other and visitors gather to hear original music. Just a few rules apply – no vulgarity, original songs only and performers provide their own musician accompaniment. It is one after the other and all are asked to keep performances tight enough to give everyone a chance. Long-time Bluebird personality Barbara Cloyd was the emcee for the night and called tonight “a laboratory of talent.”

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Almost everyone remembers at least some of the story of the Trail of Tears from history class. It has been said the US shines a bright light yet can leave a dark shadow and this episode in history is listed with slavery and the internment of Japanese-Americans as one of those periods that make Americans uncomfortable. In 1838-39 About 14,000 Cherokee were forcibly removed from their land and sent to Eastern Oklahoma. And what many Tennesseans may not know is the trails ( there were several ) went through Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville.

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Antoine Swift, Coleman Garrett II and Charles Ross show why Wild Bill's draws blues fans from around the world.

You can just imagine a young Elvis Presley walking through the door in the early 1950’s sitting in the corner of Wild Bill’s at 1530 Vollintine in Memphis. You could see him sitting at the long rows of tables in the dark smoky club as blues flowed out melodically or were pounded out with a frenzy by the musicians in front. The white high school student would have looked out of place in here in the segregated South, but he had been there enough that the regulars were used to seeing him.

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In the spirit of full disclosure, the writer of this article was an AT&T employee until a little over four years ago and left on good terms. The interview was done on an AT&T Mobility phone with no dropped calls/ This writer has also known Kevin Slimp for about two years. He was featured in Across Tennessee in a May, 2010 article here.

The first time you meet Kevin Slimp he acts like he has known you for years. The Knoxville newspaper consultant, who also gives seminars on technology and taking care of the customer, seems to have never met a stranger. Due to his cheerful persona when he goes after a company he does it with a disarming smile. Despite the smile, or maybe because of it,  his words burn like uncut sulphuric acid. Could Slimp’s approach to business become the future of customer service?

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Tennessee could have something in common with Japan besides cameras and Elvis fans. These high speed trails may become part of our future. Photo courtesy Japan-guide.com

Last week’s post featured intracity and intrametro commuter rail in Tennessee. It can be read here.

On the eastern seaboard between Washington, DC and Boston, fifteen trains are scheduled headed north on weekdays, fourteen are headed south. In Tennessee passenger rail is much less utilized.  Amtrak makes twice-daily stops in Memphis and Dyersburg on their way to Chicago and New Orleans. But generations ago rails tied cities together.

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The Music City Star at Mount Juliet.

At Nashville’s Riverfront Station, I board the Music City Star commuter train for the 16.7mile-route from Nashville to Mount Juliet. This train departed at 4:20 PM – right on schedule. The cost is $5 one way, $9.00 for round trip. The car is about half full of people who seem to be enjoying themselves, talking about friends and TV shows. Some are in their own universe listening to music. But no one is stressed out about traffic. In June, according to the Regional Transit Authority, there were just fewer than 27,000 passenger trips or 1, 228 per day ( the train does not run on weekends) .

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Cumberland Caverns, McMinville

“Without hesitation, Professor Littlebrook chose the eastern tunnel and the journey continued through a succession of arches appearing before them as if they were the aisles of a gothic cathedral.” – Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth.
In Tennessee, most of us are not big fans of the cold. Where to go? A movie theater is always the easy answer and a lot of fun, but more than likely you will be seeing what every other movie goer will be seeing this week. A mall? Most of us have seen enough of the mall last month. But what about adventure? What about the places that make Tennessee different from the rest of the country and world?

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In 2009 the film Avatar used 3D to take viewers to an amazing otherworldly planet of glowing flora, exotic fauna and floating mountains. It used technology and storytelling for an adventure that captured the fascination of the world.

In 2010 Tennessee native Johnny Knoxville and his crew used the technology in the film Jackass 3D to capture a man being doused with the contents of a well- used Porta Potty, people being urinated on from the perspective of the part of the body doing the urinating and the drinking of human sweat. The vomit scenes were especially realistic because of 3D and the fact they came simultaneously from the movie and from the audience.

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By Jan Jorgenson

Chilling temperatures and changing leaves are signs of fall.  This year one of the number one country songs on the radio is a sign of fall as well.  Kenny Chesney’s “Boys of Fall” is a nostalgic song about the royalty of fall, aka football players.  A subtly patriotic piece which connects with a wide audience with its ability to almost allow you to put the names of your high school football stars names in the appropriate places while inspiring current players and anyone interested in sports.

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One of Tennessee’s more diverse ecological treasures is about an hour and fifteen minutes from downtown Memphis and Jackson, yet a vast majority of residents of those cities have probably never visited.

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William Walker- Courtesy Library of Congress

Ask most Tennesseans about the name William Walker and you may get a blank stare. But some argue in the 1850’s he was the most famous – or infamous- man in the United States.

There are no parks with his name. No towns named in his honor. You won’t find a statue in his home town of Nashville. He is responsible for a national holiday, but not in the way he would have wanted.

Walker was born in Nashville May 8, 1824. He grew up in a religious home with a family that did not believe in slavery which was an established institution in Tennessee at the time.

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John Anderson is shown in this April, 1979 photo wearing the prototype diabetes insulin pump. Photo Courtesy University of Memphis Libraries, Special Collections. Memphis Press-Scimitar archives. Photo by Saul Brown

Spring Hill native General Nathan Bedford Forrest was the real life version of the movie character “Machete.”

He had thirty horses shot out from under him. He killed thirty one men in hand to hand combat. He survived a point-blank shot from one of his men who he then stabbed to death saying “No damn man kills me and lives!” Union General William Sherman said he should be captured or killed “even if it takes ten thousand men and bankrupts the treasury.” He  made it through the 1873 Memphis yellow fever epidemic which at the time was the worst the city had seen.

But his death finally came not from a Yankee bullet, sword or cannonball, but from something many Tennesseans of today can relate – diabetes.

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Jennifer Daugherty makes a friend at Outer Limits.

Photos and story by

By T. J. Fowler

When you walk into Outer Limits Comics in Murfreesboro, Tennessee it might look like any other comic store you may have entered. The walls are lined with comics dating back to the 1970’s and 1980’s, some further back than that, all manner of collectible statues and toys decorate curio cabinets and various collectible card and table top games are available for purchase for those who enjoy some friendly competition with some friends around the kitchen table. Also, when you first step into Outer Limits Comics or any other comic shop for that matter what might come to mind are the typical stereotypes that come associated with comics and the people who read them. As I sat down with owner Chuck Cagle to talk to him about comics, why he was drawn to them and his views on the industry today, I got an interview that not only disposes of those antiquated views of comics and the people who read them but I also got a very informative and insightful look into the world of superheroes and villains.

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Molly Mednikow in her element with her parent's dog Annie in 2007

“When was the last time you stood up and applauded a movie?”

That was the tag line for 1973’s “Walking Tall,” but it just may work out better for the new film, “Fixing Fido” where the work of a Memphis animal lover, big-hearted veterinarians and volunteers make for a compelling story on a yet-to-be-released documentary.

Molly Mednikow’s family has been known in Memphis since 1891 when her great uncle opened a jewelry business in the city. The store is still thriving and still in the family. Molly, a 1986 graduate of St. Mary’s High School, left Tennessee after graduation to study in Atlanta. After getting her MBA, she opened a Mednikow store there.

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