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Cellphone Celia
Dear Knoxonomist:
Are smartphones smart?
— Celia
Powell, TN
Dear Cellphone Celia:
Much as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the smartness of smartphones is in the mind of the user. “Smart” implies some decision-making…
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The Post-Election Walking Dead
The crowd is gathered as The Walking Politically Dead conducts his funeral march across the room. When TWPD mounts the scaffold - or rather, stage - there are a few calls from the crowd, but the mood is mostly somber. At times, there is…
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Concerts on the Square
The City of Knoxville’s Concerts on the Square runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays from May 8 through June 28, and Tuesdays from July 3 thought August 28 in Market Square. The series was designed to provide a lower-key replacement for the…
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The Joy of Cooking Together
One November in the early 90s, on a generally miserable day when I was hosting a dinner party, I made something fairly intricate for my skills at the time: a Middle Eastern stew full of ingredients unfamiliar to me. The whole meal was…
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Taking Offense
Just before I entered second grade, my family moved to a new neighborhood. It seemed ideal: a double corner lot with a big yard, with streets safe enough to ride my bike on at any time. Freedom! Soon, however, my innocence and naiveté would…
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Downtown
Nearly 29 years ago, when I arrived in Knoxville in pursuit of a graduate degree, there was a certain celebrated, gritty quality about downtown.
A wig shop sometimes seemed the only thing open on a boarded-up Gay Street, and the Old City…
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Madness!
Photography in gallery below by Hobe Brunson.
Bubbles can be slippery.
The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team found out just how treacherous the footing can be last season. An NCAA Tournament “bubble” team by midseason, the…
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Life Transitions
"Do you believe there are angels, people who are put into our path at the very moment we need them?”
Neysa Peterson looks up at me with sparkling eyes, smiles, and nods. She replies, “Oh, yes. I felt that, too, when I met you.” It was the…
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Security in an Insecure World
I felt sick when I saw my mom’s helpless look. She was in my living room, on the phone with my sister. My sister was back in New Hampshire checking on my parents’ house while they were here in Knoxville visiting me. I was having a beer with…
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Mission Docs
It’s a snowy January morning at McGhee Tyson Airport. Passengers scramble through the terminal in search of their gates, ignoring the snow resting softly on the tarmac. That is, everyone except Dr. Abigail Blackmon. Gliding back in forth in…
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