News - Friday, May 16, 2014

As a young African American man living in deeply segregated Montgomery, Ala., in the ‘40s, Fred Gray had two career options: teacher, or preacher, to people who looked like him.

But on May 9, 2014, as the guest speaker at the Chattanooga Bar Association’s annual Law Day observance, held at the Marriot at the Chattanooga Convention Center, Dr. Fred Gray received a standing ovation and nearly thunderous applause from hundreds of people who didn’t look like him.

Tennessee Supreme Court Justices Cornelia A. Clark, Gary R. Wade, and Sharon G. Lee on Wednesday, May 7 met with local attorneys and business people at the Mountain City Club as part of their campaign to be retained in the yes/no election this August.

It might have been 88 degrees at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 8, but that didn’t stop about 120 Keller Williams associates from descending on Chambliss Center for Children, paint brushes, landscaping tools, and cleaning supplies in hand.

The volunteer work day was part of Keller Williams’ national RED Day, the company’s annual day of community service. 

The differences between the Georgia and Tennessee contracts are many, said  attorney Karen W. Ingle of Battlefield Title during the quarterly meeting of local Realtors with the CRS (Certified Residential Specialist) designation Thursday, May 8.

Vincent Vaughn, who began his real estate appraisal career in 1977 and is the owner of Vaughn Appraisal Service in Chattanooga, has been awarded the AI-RRS (Appraisal Institute-Residential Review Specialist) designation from the Appraisal Institute.

Crye-Leike, Realtors has promoted Gurtej Sodhi to chief information strategy officer.

Sodhi has served in several roles with Crye-Leike for over 20 years, most recently as chief information officer and executive vice president. “The main goal of my new role is to ensure Crye-Leike has sustained success by embarking on initiatives and goals that have a clear focus on our consumers having successful experiences in the changing business environment the real estate industry is facing,” said Sodhi.

Building a new home is a tremendous undertaking and likely the largest personal investment to be made by most individuals or couples.

Everyone has a different approach to selecting the layout and style of home to serve their needs.

During “Neighbors,” there’s a scene in which a mother who’s waited too long to breast-feed her baby needs relief, and viewers are treated to a graphic depiction of the dad stepping up to the plate:

“Your breasts look like my grandmother’s legs!” the husband, played by Seth Rogen (“Superbad,” “Knocked Up,” “Pineapple Express”), shouts in horror.

The Southeast Tennessee- and Northwest Georgia-area Better Business Bureau during its annual meeting last week in Chattanooga recognized local businesses with its Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics.

The BBB recognized the law office of Eric Buchanan & Associates as a Category II winner.

With the upcoming Greater Chattanooga Open House Weekend (May 17-18), more than 100 listed homes will be open for previewing in southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia.

That means numerous potential buyers will be taking advantage of this opportunity see as many homes as possible.

Another school year is drawing to a close.

If you have young children, you might be planning for their summer activities. But you also might want to look even farther into the future — to the day when your kids say “goodbye” to their local schools and “hello” to their college dormitories.

^“I will not be venomous!” This is what I imagined to be the mantra of the reptile written about in Frankie Frisco’s “Second thoughts” sports column in the May 10 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “A Spurs official said the snake was determined to be non-poisonous ….” 

Some of you probably only know figs as something gooey in the middle of a cookie. On the other hand, maybe you only know them by the famous little Christmas song:  “Oh, bring me some Figgy pudding / Oh, bring me some Figgy pudding ...”

I was in the doctor’s office the other day waiting an hour for my five minute appointment and was trying to make time pass by reading the health magazines, of course. 

I could not help but notice how in almost every single one of these magazines was a “ Milk does your body good” picture with a famous persons mustache on it. It made me think about how much I think milk is truly disgusting and wondered if all these people actually drink milk, much less is it actually that good for you. 

We’ve been helping a family member car shop lately, trying to get the best vehicle for the need and the money. It can be an intense experience, especially when it comes down to the money! Anyway, during all of the browsing of different cars, I got to wondering about some of them. I remembered my first car – a 1969 VW Beetle my dad bought for me. I loved it. My second car was a lime green, four-door Ford Mustang. I loved it, too!

I’ve always enjoyed planning vacations. But who hasn’t? Like the old ketchup commercial used to say – “anticipation” (sing it, and with six syllables). So in trying to decide where to go next, KM, who claims she always leaves the planning to me, said we should check out parts of the Natural State we haven’t made it to yet. I agreed, even though the beach never really stops pulling at me.

I left the Levison Towers in a bit of a funk today. I had suited up to go to court at 8:30 this morning, and traffic, along with my poor planning, doomed me to be late. To make matters worse, I was going to court for a discovery dispute.

I hate discovery disputes. Judges hate discovery disputes. There are legitimate items worth fighting over, where privacy or privilege should prevail, but most of discovery is: a) a waste of time; and 2) not worth fighting over anyway. I learned long ago that working out a dispute is typically preferable to a court appearance. One judge used to let lawyers with discovery disputes wait in the courtroom until the end of the docket call. Miracle of miracles, many of the disputes were worked out, especially on long docket days.

We all have a vision of what our life could be. Who doesn’t like to imagine the life they could be living if the world was not working against them? We see the perfect rendition of the way things are supposed to be, and we dream. The irony is that the dream of a perfect life is all in our head, and is sitting right beside the solution to moving your life in the direction of your dream existence.

When a person retires, I’m told many people find themselves looking for things to do and wish that they had continued at the old workplace. They say those individuals have depression and seem to be lost in their new life of not working everyday or having to meet deadlines. To me, that sounds pretty sad, and I must say that hasn’t become a part of my retirement routine since I turned out my office light December 31, 2013. Nope, just the opposite.