News - Friday, January 6, 2012

In a perfect world, Mark Litchford would be able to teach and practice law. While that’s not practical now, it’s a dream he could someday achieve. A Crossville, Tenn., native, Litchford’s first love is teaching. It was also his first job following college. For three years, he taught geometry and algebra to 10th and 11th graders at Boyd-Bucanan, a private Christian school located in Chattanooga. He also taught a class on the life of Jesus to seventh graders.

The Parks Foundation on Dec. 29 announced the induction of two Chattanoogans into the Walnut Street Bridge Walk of Honor: Merv Pregulman, businessman, philanthropist and former NFL football player, and John “Jac” Chambliss, attorney. Their plaques will join former recipients Leslie Jordan, Emmy-award winning actor; Adolph Ochs, publisher of the New York Times and The Chattanooga Times; Bessie Smith, blues singer; and Harry Jackson, veteran advocate.

Realtor David Freeman has done the corporate thing, the new construction thing, and now the boutique thing. Although he seems to have found a niche that suits him, he says change could be a phone call away. It’s unlikely Freeman will return to the corporate world. He called it home for 25 years at Provident, now Unum, and he continued in that vein when he went to work for Keller Williams in East Brainerd. Although he has good things to say about the people with whom he worked, he found the corporate environment to be too impersonal for his tastes.

Chattanooga Red Cross volunteers and staffers have responded to calls for assistance 14 times since December 20. A total of 52 adults and children have received help including food, clothing, clean up kits and shelter. “This is an unusually high number of calls for us. On average, the Red Cross responds to around a dozen house fires in a month, but during December, we responded to that many in a week. Unfortunately, colder weather, cooking mishaps and other factors combine to turn the holiday season into home fire season. Having your home and possessions destroyed around this time of year is especially difficult. Our volunteers understand this and take time out of their family celebrations to help others,” said John Hitchens, director of emergency services for the Greater Chattanooga Area American Red Cross.

Have you ever eaten something so good, the thought of it brings its taste back to your mouth? I had that experience this week thanks to Famous Nater’s. I’d eaten the restaurant’s braised beef and Swiss cheese sandwich for lunch on Friday, and that night was showing a photograph of it to my wife. The sandwich was freshly made, with the meat still steaming and melted cheese covering every morsel. The edges of the hoagie were toasted slightly, and the sheen of butter was glistening on the inside of the roll. Looking at the sandwich reminded me of what it tasted like once I’d dipped it in a cup of hot au jus and took a juicy bite.

Chattanooga’s new “Local Food Trade Directory” connects farms and businesses to ensure more local food options are available in the community. A resource guide for farms and businesses, the directory helps local farmers like Jim Johnson of Cloudcrest Farm connect with partnering businesses.

Richard Carmack’s favorite photo shows an American soldier poking his head out of a tank. In one hand, the young man is holding a tomahawk; in the other, he’s holding a sign on which he’s written, “Thank you, RMJ Tactical!” The photo was taken in 2009 in Iraq. Carmack is the vice president of RMJ, which made the tomahawk for which the soldier was grateful.

What was happening in Chattanooga in 1962? Saturday, Jan. 6. New industries and expansions for existing plants calling for an investment of $23,473,808 were announced in Chattanooga during the past 12 months, reveal the estimates of business activities in 1961 released by Earl Platt, who served as chairman of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce Industrial Committee during the year.

I spent New Year’s eve in Brazil. Not the country, however. Although Brazil is a country in South America, that nation had nothing to do with my celebration, and has nothing to do with this column. "Brazil" is also the name of a Christmas movie/social commentary film about the current state of affairs in our country, created with disturbing prescience back in the early 1980’s by a one-time Monty Pythoner, Terry Gilliam. The film’s title comes from a song repeated in snyppets and fragments throughout its narrative, and the nation of Brazil is most definitely not the locale for the film. The film portrays a fictional world around Christmas time, which is defined by a breathtaking cinematic hue of grey and sludge, and it was this film in which I was embroiled as last year became this year. As the clouds behind the opening credits melted away, I soon realized that all lawyers, judges, and other legally impacted folk needed to know about Gilliam’s "Brazil."

Over the holiday, I subjected my oldest son, William, to the complete “Rocky” saga starring Sylvester Stallone. In the past, there have been several occasions where I brought up the movies. He never really understood the life lessons that I was trying to impart to him using them as an example, so I decided it was time to make him watch them all over the week between Christmas and New Year's.

From a newspaper article: “The question begs: Why go crazy celebrating a victory in late May like it was October?” Journalists, please! Don’t use, or draw from, “beg the question” unless you know what it means. Leave it alone! “Beg the question” is not synonymous with “raise the question.” And “the question begs” is way wrong, even if viewed idiomatically.

Driving north on I540, I still catch myself looking back to the southeast and seeing glimpses of old Highway 71 as it winds its now lonely way over Boston Mountain in the heart of the Ozarks. I don’t look for too long because I’m reminded of the old anonymous quote – “When I die, I want to go peacefully and quietly in my sleep like my grandfather did – not screaming and shouting like the passengers in his car.”

January: Hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets in Cairo, demanding that President Hosni Mubarek step down. On Feb. 11, he resigned. A deranged gunman named Jared Loughner shot U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords in the head at a Tucson mall parking lot. Giffords survived, but six others did not.

With so many young people trying to get tested and into schools this month, I thought I would test your knowledge on the entrance exams. See how well you score. 1. What was the highest possible total scoring on the SAT I college entrance exam before 2005? 800; 1600; 36; 100.

Well, the holidays are over, but that doesn’t mean the good treats and sweets have to stop! Not in my house, anyway. This week I have a delicious recipe for some yummy, homemade cinnamon rolls – great for a Saturday morning when it is cold outside. Add some hot chocolate to these and you can close your eyes and dream you are in some ski lodge somewhere!

I saw my first Steven Spielberg film when I was 14 – “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” I still remember the shot that made my friend and I turn and look at each with goofy grins. At that moment, “CE3K” was the coolest movie we’d ever seen, cooler than even “Star Wars.” As I grew into adulthood, my love of Spielberg’s movies deepened, and to this day, the release of a new Spielberg-directed pic stirs up youthful excitement in me.

Field Tested”  By Emily King c.2012, Amacom $29.95 187 pages. In a normal weeks’ time, you get many applications from many job-seekers. That’s no surprise in any economy, but what caught your eye this week was that the number has soared. Veterans are returning to the civilian workforce in waves, and they’re reaching out to you for employment.

I hope your New Year’s celebration was truly a sight to behold. At my house, it was sort of peaceful. No, Dick Clark’s crowd wasn’t there and it sure was not a Rockin' or Jamming New Year’s Eve celebration as you saw in New York City. But, there was some rockin' going on if you count that which was done in the rocking chairs located around the fireplace and TV waiting for the ball to fall up in the “Big Apple.” I did wake up in time to see that.

So far, we have experienced a fairly mild winter. However, that hasn’t stopped the flu from putting many people I know in bed for three or four days – even those who received a flu vaccine. There is no 100 percent guarantee when there are so many bugs floating around.