News - Friday, March 25, 2011

Sam Elliott, attorney with Gearhiser, Peters, Cavett, Elliott & Cannon, past Chattanooga Bar Association president and current Tennessee Bar Association president, was inducted into the third class of the Soddy Daisy High School Alumni Hall of Fame on March 4. This occasion was made even more significant by the fact that Elliott’s father, Gene Elliott, was part of the first class to be inducted, making them the first father and son inductees into the SDHS Alumni Hall of Fame.

Lyndall Huffman is living in a world that’s slowly fading. As a victim of Usher Syndrome, an incurable genetic disorder, she’s helpless against the gradual loss of hearing and vision that comes with the territory. But as a bright and ambitious young woman with a message to share about the dangers to hearing in today’s society, she’s anything but powerless.

Saturday, March 25

A tentative budget of $7,111,369 for the 1961-1962 term of the Hamilton County schools was approved Friday by the board of education. The sum is an actual increase of $655,315 over the present annual budget.

Sunday, March 26

Dr. Marten Hoor, retired

Workers install the Republic Parking pay boxes and machines at the former Unum employee lots downtown last week. The installation of these boxes means that the previous “free parking” at these lots after Unum hours and on weekends will no longer be available. Unum’s new parking deck for their employees is located on Cherry Street.

Sometimes lawyers fight to get what their clients want. Other times, we fight for what our clients need. On other occasions we are trying to prevent other lawyers’ clients from getting what they want or need. It can all get somewhat confusing.That is why the truly organized legal zealot keeps a secret list of legal gambits, that he can use when things get out of hand. 

I may be edging slowly into the early 60s of my age, but I’m not going to be left behind when it comes to learning something new. I know there are those who have the idea you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I just think they don’t have the patience to try. True, it does take us “old hounds” a little longer to find the trail than it use to for something new.

Have you ever watched a child cast one toy aside and reach for something else? A friend of mine once told me he had watched his grandchildren open gifts and cast each one aside looking for the next one while spending no time with the one they just opened.

Wise Construction, LLC, et al v. Thomas Boyd, et al.

Hamilton County – This appeal involves a home construction dispute between an LLC contractor and the homeowners. The contractor entered into a written contract with the homeowners for the construction of a 6,000 square foot home. Upon the relationship between the parties becoming strained, the homeowners claim the contractor told them to find another builder. The contractor contends it was fired from the project. The instant action was commenced by the contractor to enforce a lien.

The squirrels are back. They took up residence with us sometime last December I think, when the north winds caused all living things to seek shelter. They had taken a year off from their spot in my attic; perhaps it was to visit one of their other homes in the mountains, or to their beach house; whatever the reason, they’re back.

Brooklyn, N.Y. – My annual trek to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament began before daylight Thursday, March 17. It was St. Patrick’s Day, and I forgot to wear green Fortunately, I had my green pen in my pocket.

After nibbling some breakfast, I was off to the airport for a 7 a.m. flight to Atlanta. The layover being three hours, I found a decent triple-salad plate featuring fruit, mixed greens and three-bean salad. There’s good food to be found in Atlanta’s airport.

Getting your first tattoo can be a scary experience, and so can watching a horror film. Why not combine the two into a three-day festival? When you do, you have the First Annual Chattanooga Full Moon Tattoo and Horror festival, held March 11-13 at the Chattanooga Marriott.

I’ve been married for three years, nine months and about 40 weeks. But who’s counting? The thing I’ve learned during my marriage is that you never stop learning about your spouse. You think you’ve figured them out and then they do the exact opposite of what you planned on.

Life is good.

When you reflect on the years you have lived, you’re content. Sure, there have been times when everything seemed lower than a worm’s belly but, overall, you’ve been blessed by friends, family and happiness.

Life is good. So good, in fact, that you would kind of like to stick around for more of it. But is it too late to live long and prosper? In the new book “The Longevity Project” by Howard S. Friedman, PhD and Leslie R. Martin, PhD, you’ll see how your past influences the future you’ve got left.

1. During the 1990 season, this team rolled to a 29-5 regular season record before annihilating the competition in the NCAA Tournament. Led by head coach Jerry Tarkanian and his “amoeba defense”, which team walloped Duke 103-73 in the championship game? Georgia Tech; UNLV; Fresno State; Arkansas.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a moving image must be worth ten thousand. And Barry Cammon, owner of Advanced Video Solutions, has shot enough footage to fill the books of the Library of Congress.

Cammon provides a variety of video services to lawyers in Chattanooga and beyond, from taping depositions, wills and settlements to creating mini-documentaries about the lives of their clients. He’s shot footage where accidents have taken place to help juries visualize and understand the misfortune that befell a plaintiff, analyzed surveillance video to determine if someone bringing a claim against a defendant truly slipped and fell or was simply trying to earn easy money, and recorded some of the last words victims of mesothelioma ever said.

The weather is one of the choice topics of discussion among people of good Southern stock. A forecast for rain is a great conversation starter, and a decent snowfall can produce enough war stories to keep people chatting for days.

So far, 2011 has given the people of Chattanooga, the Tennessee Valley and Northwest Georgia plenty of grist for the conversation mill. From snow in January, to tornadoes in February, to 80-degree temperatures in March, Mother Nature has provided a Whitman’s Sampler of weather conditions, leading to rampant speculation about what this spring will bring. The consensus is that area residents are in for a bumpy ride.

Sometimes, when Elizabeth Moyer tells people she’s in real estate, they apologize and perhaps steer the conversation away from what they consider a current “downer” profession. Yet, Moyer says one of her big things is to keep positive and encourage others to be positive about the real estate profession.

When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, could he have imagined it would literally change the world? Social network sites have reinvented the way the world communicates, and are taking a more prominent role in the college admissions process.

Yancy Freeman, the assistant vice chancellor of enrollment services at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, says their college admissions process is now completely online. With the Banner student information system, students can apply, check their admission status, know what their admission portfolio is missing and communicate completely with the university admissions online.

Buyer’s market or seller’s market – the simple fact is that your home is worth only what a buyer will pay for it. The simple law of supply and demand usually determines the final sale price. If there are fewer homes for sale in your area, then buyers must compete for those listings, making it a seller’s market.

Mandarin oranges are Clementines, or “little oranges” with segments that have a flavor suitable for salads, vegetables, main dishes, and desserts. Although mostly used in canned form, you have probably eaten a fresh mandarin orange and not even known it.  Maybe you have noticed Clementines in the grocery the last few months. They are, surprisingly, a wonderful, juicy little fruit in the orange family.

“Battle: Los Angeles” is the kind of movie that would make me stop going to the movies, were it representative of the experience I’d have. It’s loud and chaotic. Instead of dialog, actors scream incoherently at each other for two hours. In place of continuity, it offers a rapid-fire jumble of nauseating images, none of which go together.