News - Friday, January 13, 2012

Put attorney Mary Sullivan Moore in a courtroom, and she’ll kick butt and take names. During her years as a prosecutor for the district attorney’s office in Hamilton County, she developed a reputation for being tenacious in her pursuit of justice, especially in cases involving child abuse. And as a criminal defense attorney and juvenile lawyer, she’s still a tough opponent.

The American Lung Association has named Patsy Hazelwood the 2012 Tennessee Woman of Distinction in Tennessee. The organization will honor Hazelwood at the 27th Annual Women of Distinction Awards Luncheon on April 27. A retired Regional Manager with AT&T, Hazelwood was the first woman elected president of the downtown Chattanooga Rotary. Governor Bill Haslam has named her regional director of the “jobs base camp” under the Tennessee Economic and Development Community, a position that involves helping to coordinate state government services for new and existing business in Southeast Tennessee.

The Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer debuted the most recent addition to its growing collection of donated fundraising cars, informally known as “Hatch’s Garage,” at last week’s World of Wheels at the Chattanooga Convention Center. The new car, a 1951 Dodge Pilothouse Wrecker, was on display each day of the event.

Caroline Outlaw was in a do-or-die situation. She’d saved up six months worth of pay, quit her desk job, and jumped feet first into real estate. As she made the leap, she told her husband, Alan, she’d quit and get a paying job if she didn’t sell three homes in those six months.

The New York Times has named Chattanooga one of the top 45 places to visit in 2012. The newspaper mentioned only three other U.S. This compares the Scenic City to such destinations as Tibet, Florence, Vienna, Morocco, Malaysia, Switzerland, Uganda and more. A clip from the article: “In 1969, Walter Cronkite famously called Chattanooga the dirtiest city in America. In recent years, though, it has undergone a dramatic overhaul with a radical gentrification plan and an aggressive citywide push to lure artists. On the heels of this artistic transformation has come the inevitable, yet not unwelcome, boutique boom in places like the recently restored Warehouse Row, a Civil War-era factory turned shopping center filled with local, upscale ... goods.” (Photo provided)

50 YEARS AGO. What was happening in Chattanooga in 1962?. Saturday, January 13. Applications are now being received for the second session of the McCallie Academic Enrichment Camp, Headmaster R.L. McCallie announced this week. The six-week camp opens June 18 and closes July 28. Some 70 boys between the ages of 10 and 14 attended the 1961 camp; the 1962 camp will be limited to 80.

Now open - Chickamauga Battlefield’s Alexander Bridge. Chickamauga and Chattanooga Military Park have annouced that Alexander Bridge has reopened to motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic. The bridge has been closed for structural renovation since last June. Renovation work will continue for a few months, but the bridge will remain open.

The holidays are over, and it’s back to voicemails, docket settings and depositions. As if that isn’t depressing enough, the end of the holidays also signals the end of TV show marathons on cable. During my time off, I enjoyed watching 20 straight episodes of “Matlock.” (My husband probably did not enjoy it as much as I did, as my personal hygiene may have suffered a bit during those times. Who has time for a shower when Matlock is honing in on the killer? And no one can pull off wearing a seersucker suit quite like he can.)

Last July I wrote of Robert Harris’s “Imperium” and “Conspirata,” novels about the life of Cicero. The third of Harris’s trilogy on the Roman lawyer and consul is slated for release this year. Meanwhile, from the courts of old Rome to the courts of New Jersey, I’ve come upon the novels of David Rosenfelt. At last count, he’d published 11. I’ve read four since Thanksgiving.

If you’re even slightly familiar with the dining options in Chattanooga, you might be surprised to see pictures of Bluewater Grille on this page, as it’s not a new establishment. Bear with me; I’ll explain. Opened in 2006, Bluewater Grille is known for offering the freshest seafood available in the city. The restaurant also offers a variety of steaks, chicken, pastas and sandwiches. I’ve read that Bluewater also has the best happy hour in town, although that’s not something I’m in a position to judge. Finally, as you can see from these photos, the restaurant features a unique decor and atmosphere that strikes a good balance between casual and sophisticated.

At the movies recently, I told the clerk what we wanted to see and how many of us there were (that would be two – for better or worse, as they say). He looked down as he passed the tickets through the small opening at the bottom of the glass. I wondered if it were bulletproof. I wondered that not because I wanted to do a stick-up, but because of what Fred told me had happened to him at a movie in Fayetteville recently.

The State Review Board will meet on January 17 to examine Tennessee’s proposed nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. The Board will vote on nine nominations from across the state. The nominations the Board believes meets the criteria will be sent for final approval to the National Register of Historic Places at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

As of press, time there was still no good news concerning the math teacher from Billings, Mont., who went out for a jog but never returned home. Fourty-three-year-old Sherry Arnold was last seen at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, January 7. A large group of over 200 people initially turned out to look for Arnold, and discovered only a running shoe thought to be hers. On Sunday, nearly 1,000 searchers came out to help.

This month, our Army family member is traveling to Poland to train with the Polish army. This set my mind to thinking about military terms and what they mean. Try your luck and see if you are battle-ready. 1. What is the military origin of the word “grenade”? It is taken from the name of the Frenchman who invented it, Louis Grenardier (1678-1729); It derives from its similarity to a fruit, called the “pomegranate”; It was originally called “Greenade,” from sulphur gas bombs that gave off a toxic green gas; The “Grenades” were a wild Balkan troop of brigands who made and used the first primitive hand-thrown explosives.

I don’t guess I can write this column today without first giving the Razorbacks their due “high-fives” for a job well done! They played an exciting game against the Kansas State Wildcats in the Cotton Bowl this past weekend. And it wasn’t such an easy win. The Wildcats fought to the bitter end, even though some of their best players were injured and carted off the field on a stretcher. Good job to both teams, and I hope no one was seriously injured.

If you’ve seen the Swedish-language version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” watching the English version, directed by David Fincher and starring Daniel “James Bond” Craig, will be an academic exercise. It will hold no surprises, other than the decision of Fincher and screenwriter Steven Zaillian to modify the ending. Up until that point, it feels like an almost rote implementation of the story. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth seeing; I enjoyed being able to follow the plot without reading subtitles.

"Working Out Sucks” - By Chuck Runyon, Brian Zehetner - (MS, RD, CSCS) and

Rebecca Derossett (MSW) - c.2012, Da Capo Lifelong - $14.99 / $17.50 Canada - 224 pages. The year has barely gotten started, and you’ve already ruined a resolution.

If you watch the television series “Monk”, you might be familiar with the scene where he is locked in a “safe-room” of a very wealthy songwriter. His fear of not having adequate ventilation and dying before his rescue overcomes him and eventually becomes uncontrollable; he actually thinks he is unable to breath and is dying. Although the police captain is right outside the door and Mr. Monk is out within five minutes, the mere fact that he was locked-in triggered a panic attack.

This is the time of year that everyone gets into the task of getting in shape and trying to lose those unwanted pounds. This is a time of high aspirations and very sore muscles. A time of broken promises and agonizing realizations. The promises broken are ones you made usually to yourself in the week leading up to the first of the year. The agonizing realizations often center on your awakening to the fact that you are much older than you were the last time that you started trying to get “in shape.”