News - Friday, February 17, 2012

A person’s life can change on the turn of a single phrase, and like ripples in a pond from a tossed pebble, the impact of those words can extend to touch the lives of countless others. To understand how this principle applies to Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Christie Mahn Sell, one must go back in time to before anything had disturbed the calm waters of her life.

Volkswagen Chattanooga achieved its first significant production milestone of 2012 this month – completion of its 50,000th Passat. The vehicle was a white 2.5 liter, 170 horsepower Passat SE. The 50,000 vehicles include pre-series cars, technical training cars, dealer experience cars, export cars to Mexico and Canada and customer cars for the U.S. The Volkswagen Chattanooga team celebrated completion of the first customer car on April 18, 2011 and the plant officially opened on May 24, 2011. Volkswagen announced last week that an additional 200 jobs would be created in Chattanooga in addition to the 2,500-person workforce it employs now.  Pictured: Volkswagen Chattanooga team members gather around the 50,000th Passat. (Photo provided)

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony held February 8, local officials joined Chattanooga State Community College and Wacker Polysilicon to inaugurate the Wacker Institute. “The concept of the Wacker Institute is a pioneering and innovative learning experience that both Chattanooga State and Wacker jointly feel is consistent and symbolic of the principle of investing in a sustainable future,” said Dr. Ingomar Kovar, president and CEO of Wacker Chemical Corp.  “While we might be hard-pressed to understand what the future might hold, it is always the present world in which we live where the future is created.”

The Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors has joined with Hamilton County, the City

of Chattanooga, the Greater Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce, local foundations, and a host of other public and private organizations in advancing the 40-year growth planning

The list of housing markets showing measurable improvement expanded by 29 metros in February to include 98 entries on the National Association of Home Builders’ First American Improving Markets Index, released Feb. 6. Thirty-six states are now represented by at least one market on the list.

James Pratt of Pratt Homebuilders, along with representatives of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (the fund-raising art of St. Jude), WUSY-US 101 and Epsilon Sigma Alpha broke ground for the sixth annual St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway in the Georgetown Bay community of Ooltewah, Tenn., on February 7.

February 18

Bicycling Traffic Skills 101

Outdoor Chattanooga will offer the League of American Bicyclists’ Traffic Skills 101 course from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at its facility in Coolidge Park. The course covers bicycle safety checks, fixing a tire, on-bike skills and crash avoidance techniques, and includes a student manual. Classroom instruction in the morning is combined with parking lot drills and on-road training in the afternoon. Adults and children age 16 and older may attend. Cost is ten dollars. Pre-registration is required. Limit: 10 students. Email or call Ruth Thompson at 423-643-6889 to register or learn more.

What was happening in Chattanooga in 1962?

Saturday, February 17

The Volunteer State Life Insurance Co. building is undergoing major improvements and modernizations, President Cecil Woods announced Saturday. The cost of the total program will exceed $500,000.

After taking the summer bar exam, I started packing. I had previously told my wife that I wanted to spend six months or so traveling in Central and South America after law school. We had a house that came with a mortgage payment, which presented a problem. There was also the little issue of a job. I assured her I could find reliable people to rent the house while we were gone, and that I would find a job that didn’t start until January. She laughed. That, however, was a time in life when absolutely everything seemed possible. I believed things would work out and they generally did. I found two law students to move into the house, and convinced a law firm to let me start in January rather than the typical August or September time frame.

Let me start by saying that I have not been trained as a school administrator or ever acted in that capacity.  I can say that I have been to school and suffered the excitement of anticipating the next day off because of snow.  That being said, why can’t we call school closed the night before if we know and are practically certain that the storm is coming? Especially when we have not had a snow day all year and it is the middle of February.  The night before is so much better if you know there is no school the next day. Plus, parents can make plans for child care and such.

A county government cannot sue its citizens to get a court ruling that its own law is constitutional and force the individuals to pay the county’s litigation costs, Public Citizen told a federal court last week on behalf of Occupy Chattanooga and a group of individual defendants.

AVIDSON, N.C. – This community of 11,000 residents, site of my alma mater, is also home to my favorite place to spend the night on the road: the Davidson Village Inn, half a block down Depot Street from the campus. The inn is owned and operated by Rebecca and Gordon Clark, whom Susan and I came to know during many stays here when our kids were living up the street between 1997 and 2006.

See how I leave with every piece of you. Don’t underestimate the things that I will do.” – Rolling in the Deep. We watched the Grammys on Sunday night, the family and I. It wasn’t my plan to sit in front of the TV for how ever long the show ran on, not really being that interested in long acceptance speeches and rap music, which I mistakenly believed was still the main musical genre of the day. So I turned on the DVR, in case they brought back an oldie I could relate to, one that might transport me back to the long ago Seventies.

Ulysses Simpson Grant, Paul Simon, Mike Singletary and me. The portrait of U.S. Grant, our 18th U.S. President, adorns the $50 bill. Paul Simon’s 1975 hit from the album “Still Crazy After All These Years” was “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” (You’re probably humming ‘Just slip out the back, Jack; make a new plan, Stan; hop on the bus, Gus,’ right about now.) Mike Singletary, the great linebacker of the Super Bowl XX champion Chicago Bears, wore No. 50.

Chattanooga has more than its share of first-rate donut shops. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more, especially when they’re as good as Donut Palace in Red Bank, which opened in January. For me, the litmus test of whether or not a donut shop is worth revisiting is the quality of its apple fritters. When I was living in Smithville, Tenn., a man named Sullivan owned a donut shop that had the best apple fritters I have tasted. On the outside, they were crunchy, sugary and even buttery, and the inside was nothing but sweet, doughy goodness and apple chunks. When he shut down, I shed a tear.

Twenty-first Century demonstrations: At some sites across the land, protestors in the Occupy movements are becoming impatient. For instance in Oakland, Calif., last week, people stormed City Hall, where they broke windows, smashed furniture and even burned an American flag.

The final notes of Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” had ascended to the high ceiling of the Hunter Museum of American Art and then faded away. Pianist Gloria Chien’s fingers were resting, and the three musicians who had performed with her had lowered their instruments. But none of the 200 or so audience members who had come to hear Messiaen’s work, composed in a concentration camp during World War II, were applauding.

1. What is the difference between Ordinance and Ordnance?

2. Of the five, which is least like the other four? Wichita; Dallas: Canton: Bangor; Fresno.

3. What were the first products marketed in aerosol containers? Hairspray; Insecticides; Spray Paints; Air Freshners.

Other than being the “sweetest” month of the year, February holds many other surprises. Here are some sweet facts and some really sweet recipes! February is: Berry Fresh in the Sunshine State Month; National Snack Food Month; Canned Food Month; North Carolina Sweet Potato Month; Great American Pies Month; National Grapefruit Month; National Cherry Month; National Potato Month; Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month. (I’m not sure what this one is about, but if you have one, I’d say return it!)

I will never forget the day in the summer of 1977 when I saw “Star Wars” for the first time.  I was watching TV in the living room, and wondering what else I could do that day, when my mother poked her head around the corner and asked me if I would like to see a movie. I had read a glowing review of “Star Wars,” so I said yes, even though my 13-year-old mind had no grasp of the magnitude of what was about to happen. Three hours later, I had fallen in love with movies and experienced the joy of becoming a fan.

On a cold January day, my dog, which I had rescued from the local shelter and instantly became a member of the family for over 13 years, became severely ill and in a great deal of pain. After a quick trip to the vet, we found out her kidneys had shut down and there was no hope for her recovery. I could see the pain in her eyes as I held the dying dog’s head in my lap and waited with her in the vet’s office. The doctors had done the best they could do to help our dog, but the time had come for us to say good-bye.

The Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga recently presented Tom Edd Wilson, Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, with its Distinguished Service Award 2011 in recognition of his outstanding leadership and service to the community.  Wilson is pictured with Sandy Chambers, president of the club. Kiwanis meets Tuesdays at noon at Sheraton Read House.  (Becca Rocha Photography)