News - Friday, July 24, 2015

Sometimes, a strange sound can be heard coming from a conference room at Gearhiser, Peters, Elliott & Cannon. It’s not an unpleasant sound, but one that’s rare within the walls of a dignified law firm, where attorneys handle matters of great importance and, by their nature, considerable stress. It’s a sound that breaks the silence that pervades Gearhiser, but not the tranquility.

Realtor Kay Ivey (white dress) of Bell Development Tuesday hosted the July Sip-n-Stroll for the Women’s Council of Realtors. Those who attended enjoyed drinks, snacks, and a preview of a Hixson, Tenn., development, including the model home at 1003 Little Sorrel Rd. Pictured braving the bright sunlight are the first arrivals. The council will resume its luncheon meetings in August.

The Mellow Mushroom pizza bakers in Chattanooga came up with a thoughtful way to recognize the four Marines and one Navy officer killed in the shooting last week: they have saved five bar stools, along with a plate, a name tag, and shot of whiskey, at their bar to honor each of those men, and are not allowing anyone to sit there. “In light of the recent tragedy, I thought this photo would bring tears of remembrance to many, just as it did myself and hundreds of thousands of others,” Tammy Lucich, senior manager of national promotions at Mellow Mushroom, said about the photos, which went viral on social networks.

The 144th Open Championship at St. Andrews was significant for three men who would be seeing the Old Course for the last times in their familiar roles. Two are players, Nick Faldo (OK, Sir Nick) and Tom Watson.

I always thought you had to be British to be knighted; then I read that foreign citizens occasionally receive honorary knighthoods, conferred by the Queen. It’s for those who have made an important contribution to relations between their country and Britain.

If you missed my previous columns on mail-order meals, I wrote about HelloFresh.com and BlueApron.com. The last mail-order meal “personal opinion” will be this one from Plated.com.

On these websites, a person can order the ingredients for meals (you have to do the cooking yourself) for two or more people, and you can choose from a selection of menus, provided you chose early enough. If not, you have to pay for what they are sending that week. I want to emphasize again that these are subscription based, and you will receive meals on a regular basis until you cancel them, which I have done. So, caveat emptor!

By David Laprad

“One of these days, I’d like to be a Realtor,” Teresa Groves, former executive director of the Homebuilders Association of Greater Chattanooga, said to herself in 1999. Earlier this year, after years of working on the fringes of the real estate industy, “one of these days” finally arrived.

Staging interior rooms and enhancing your curb appeal are just as important as making the most of your outdoor living space. Not just in Greater Chattanooga but across the country, we’re seeing more and more buyers include on their wish list features to extend their entertaining opportunities outside.

“Ant-Man” is a surprise, given that Marvel Studios has been on a do-or-die mission to go bigger and better with each film. It snaps neatly into place in the larger picture, but if the Marvel cinematic universe were a puzzle, and each movie within it a single piece, “Ant-Man” would be one of the small pieces you’d find while rummaging in the box for something else.

No matter the type of business you’re in, unless you’re a one man shop, collaboration is an important part of how you operate. Maybe it’s through your business partners, employees, or consultants that provide outside expertise. Nevertheless, collaboration happens in a business environment. Setting

It’s been said that the Web is a Mecca for writers who are not good to start with and don’t know how to rewrite, revise, and edit. An apt quote on this concept may be found in the current I Swear Cross-plug – uh, Crossword. It is the ultimate memory enhancer, though, the Net.

Saturday, July 24

Dr. August W. Eberle was honored with a farewell faculty banquet at the Read House. After eight years at the University of Chattanooga, Dr. Eberle will end his tenure at the end of this month.

Sunday, July 25

The new Broad Street Parking Garage is scheduled to open for business in mid-August, George Blackwell Smith, Jr., executive vice president of Miller Bros. Co. and treasurer of the Miller Investment Co., announced Saturday. The formal opening of the $1.5 million facility will be held probably during the first week in September.

Saturday, July 24

The direct cause of the extra cost for the Market Street bascule span for the new bridge over the Tennessee River was explained by F.F. Soule of the Schwizer Bascule Bridge Co. in Chicago, who said “it was 60 percent longer than any other bascule ever built, and the longest ever built in the world.”

The Homebuilders Association of Greater Chattanooga will host a joint luncheon with the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors at the Chattanoogan Hotel on Tuesday, Aug. 18 from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. The guest speaker will be Dr. David Crowe, chief economist and senior vice president at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Dr. Crowe is responsible for NAHB’s forecast of housing and economic trends, survey research and analysis of the home building industry and consumer preferences, as well as microeconomic analysis of governmental policies that affect housing. Registration begins at 11 a.m. The cost is $20 per person.

River City Dance Club is on a mission to bring vintage swing to Chattanooga.

They’re off to a good start with their weekly Monday night social dance, where people of all skill levels can learn different forms of swing from the 1920s and 1930s.