IN THIS ISSUE

Diggin’ the donuts

The new Dunkin’ Donuts at 2800 Chapman Highway, next door to Shoney’s, is getting plenty of traffi c at all hours.

Even on New Year’s Day – with The Weather Channel’s “Fat Guys in the Woods” on the big screen instead of a bowl game – the dining area had a good crowd. (Read into the programming what you will, but the patrons ranged mostly from lean to slightly padded.)

➤ Read Betsy Pickle on page 3

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NEWS

news@ShopperNewsNow.comSandra Clark | Betsy Pickle

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VOL. 2 NO. 1 July 29, 2013www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNowVOL. 3 NO. 2 January 14, 2015www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow

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By Betsy PickleOld friends and young students

helped Dogwood Elementary School celebrate its 20th anniver-sary last week.

The Jan. 6 party really got rolling at the end of the school day, when current and former faculty and staff, dignitaries and well-wishers gathered in the library. Even before the offi cial program started, the energy level was through the roof as retirees and return-ees excitedly greeted those who still work at the school.

It was easy to pick out the current staff and faculty. All were sporting anniversary T-shirts de-signed by fi fth-grade teacher Dennis Menefee and purchased by the teachers themselves.

Karen Kooyman, who taught at Giffi n School until it closed,

Second-grade teacher Mary McCabe Wolf and retired colleague Karen Kooyman are two

of the original Dogwood Elementary faculty members. Photos by Betsy Pickle

The Dogwood

Dolphins are

proud to cel-

ebrate 20 years.

Successful mergerDogwood celebrates 20 years

Principal Lana Shelton-Lowe agreed that the faculty and staff were more enthusiastic – at fi rst.

“The teachers were more ex-cited until the kids got cake for lunch, and then they exceeded the teachers,” said Shelton-Lowe, who has been principal for seven years and served as assistant principal for the four previous years.

(The KCS Food and Nutrition Department provided the anni-versary cake.)

The program in the library was emceed by Kim McDaniel, who has been at Dogwood for 15 years and is a two-time Dogwood Teach-er of the Year and was 2011-12 Knox County Schools Teacher of the Year for grades K-4. Assistant principal Christopher Deal was in charge of the celebration.

In addition to a video message from Gov. Bill Haslam and live remarks from KCS Superinten-dent Jim McIntyre, the program included a 1995 music quiz and a 1995 pop-culture trivia game. Pho-tos from old yearbooks and a look at a 1995 Dogwood time capsule fanned the fl ames of nostalgia.

Festivities continued into the evening with a bingo for books and a chili supper attended by about 90 people from the school and community. Each child went home with at least two books pur-chased by Title I through Family Engagement Funds.

More pictures on page 8

recalled the move to Dogwood

fondly.“We loved it, especially

being in a brand-new school,” said Kooyman, who retired after teach-ing for fi ve years at Dogwood (and

Jim Smith sells his homemade hot sauce to customers at Nourish Knox-

ville’s Winter Market, held in the fellowship hall of Central United Meth-

odist Church at 201 E. Third Ave. Smith is the owner of Rushy Springs

Farm in Talbott, Tenn. The Winter Market is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

every other Saturday at the church through March 21. Photo by Bill Dockery

Winter warmth

teaching 35 years in total).Giffi n, Anderson and

Flenniken schools were merged into Dogwood in January 1995. Mary Ruth Kidd, who teaches fi rst

grade at Dogwood, and Mary Mc-Cabe Wolf, now a second-grade teacher at Dogwood, are the only ones left from the original faculty.

Kidd, who started her career at Fair Garden then taught for four and a half years at Flenniken, said moving day 20 years ago was a big deal.

“It was so exciting,” she said. “The kids were in awe of the new building. It was so clean; it was awesome. They loved it.”

Wolf was at Flenniken for seven years in a classroom in “the new wing – built in the 1950s.” Moving into a new school “was very excit-ing.”

“It was a terrifi c opportunity for the children,” said Wolf. Be-ing in such a large facility took “a little getting used to.” It was also a challenge because the teachers and students moved in the middle of the school year.

“You had to make friends quick-ly because we had three schools merging into one. … I think it took extra effort and TLC for the chil-dren to come to a new school right after Christmas.”

The 20th anniversary seemed to be more signifi cant to the adults than the kids, Wolf said.

“My second-graders didn’t re-ally get it,” she said.

Visiting MPC“I used to think that sitting

through a multi-hour gov-ernment meeting would be approximately as enjoyable as having my toenails trimmed with a jackhammer.

“But as I’ve become a grownup, the things that inter-est me have changed. Thank goodness. Otherwise, I’d still be watching soaps with my girlfriends, as I did when I was 14.”

➤ Read Wendy Smith on page 5

Berry Strong“Eric Berry is already a

model for younger players, an example of how to do it. Before that, he was just a model citi-zen. I remember a high school story of him volunteering as a helper in a dentist’s offi ce. I always suspected the reception-ist was pretty.

“I recall, at UT, him show-ing up in the equipment room the night before a game to help team managers clean and pol-ish helmets. Think about that, star with a scrub brush.”

➤ Read Marvin West on page 4

‘American Sniper’Director Clint Eastwood

knows war movies. His “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima” are two of the best in recent years.

“American Sniper” had the potential to make it a trifecta, but Eastwood can’t fi gure out what kind of war movie he’s trying to make.

➤ Movie review on page 6

Shabby ChicAn unusually impressive

boutique arrived Nov. 1 in South Knoxville with the open-ing of new business Not Too Shabby Consigning. The owner is Jama Williams, who credits her grandchildren with the idea. One day while shopping, 10-year-old Jaeden suggested she open her own store.

➤ Read Nancy Whittaker on page 9

By Sandra ClarkKnox County Schools will be giv-

ing a state-mandated “writing as-sessment” to children in grades 3-11 in February. The mom of a third-grader contacted Shopper-News.

A great day to stay home

AnalysisThe tests will be given on com-

puter, and third-graders will be required to type their answers, she said. The teacher wrote: “This is an online assessment, which means they will read two articles online and then TYPE their 5 paragraph response.”

The kids will have an hour and a half to complete the test with a 30-minute break “in between,” ac-cording to the teacher.

Dr. Elizabeth Alves, chief aca-demic offi cer for Knox County Schools, said this is the fi rst year the test will be administered in grades 3-11. “In the past, it was only given in grades 5, 8 and 11. The test was piloted across the state last year. Our teachers opted not to participate in the pilot.”

Alves said the writing test for grades 5, 8 and 11 was adminis-tered by computer last year and grades 8 and 11 have been tested

on computer for two years.She said student performance

will be reported, but it will not count for teacher evaluation or system accountability purposes.

My fi nal question: In what grade are children taught to type and expected to be profi cient in the skill?”

Alves said: “Instruction in the use of technology and typing varies from school to school. Currently, there is no curriculum from the state for teaching typing at the el-ementary levels; however, there are state standards at each grade level that identify performance expecta-

tions. Elementary students are not graded on profi ciency in typing.”

The parent who contacted Shop-per-News is concerned that her 8-year-old will be typing a fi ve-paragraph response in a timed for-mat. She said her kid visits the tech lab every six days, hardly enough to become profi cient at keyboarding.

The teacher who contacted her said typing practice at home would be helpful because, “Capi-talization, punctuation and inden-tions will be taken into consider-ation on their assessment grade.”

This might be a good day to keep your 8-year-old at home.

2 • JANUARY 14, 2015 • Shopper news

health & lifestyles

It’s a place for those whose lives were changed forever in the blink of an eye. It’s where the sickest of the sick come to be treated, and where

each year, hundreds of people come to have their lives rebuilt and abilities restored.

It’s Patricia Neal Rehabili-tation Center, the 73-bed acute care re-hab hospital that serves not just Fort

Sanders Regional within which it is located, but all Covenant Health fa-cilities, East Tennessee and beyond.

Way beyond.“We had a patient from Australia

who was in an accident while visit-ing this country and had a spinal cord injury,” says Dr. Mary Dillon, medical director of PNRC since 2003. “We were able to rehab the

patient well enough that they could make the 24-hour fl ight home with this new disability. Then, coordinat-ing with international, socialized medicine was also quite a learning experience.”

Navigating the many twists and tangles of red tape, however, is hardly new to the scores of health professionals involved in caring for PNRC patients. Since 2010, the gov-ernment-mandated guidelines for admission to rehabilitation centers have become increasingly stringent, making it more challenging for pa-tients to get the care they need.

“When a patient is admitted for inpatient rehabilitation at Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center, they have to meet admission require-ments established by the govern-ment for ‘medical necessity’ as well as rehab needs,” said Dr. Dillon, a physiatrist. “You have to be sick enough to require a hospital level of care but well enough to participate in an intensive, multiple-disciplin-ary, inter-disciplinary therapy pro-gram.”

Helping smooth that process is the relationships Dr. Dillon and her team have built with physicians throughout the Covenant network, a network that continues to grow and now serves 23 counties in East Ten-nessee. As new facilities are added, such as Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville and Claiborne Medical Center in Tazewell, Dillon and her team work to develop relationships with the new facilities to better un-derstand their capabilities as well as offer PNRC’s services when needed.

Another important role in ma-neuvering government guidelines is that of the admissions liaison, specially trained registered nurses and social workers assigned to each Covenant hospital to evaluate and process referrals from those facili-ties to PNRC.

“That’s a vital role,” said Dillon. “We have licensed persons in that role to collate the referral data. The ultimate decision for admission or not admitting, however, has to be made by a physician with training in rehabilitation. A lot of it is seman-

tics. It’s knowing how to capture the medical intensity of the care needed. The goal is to get the patient to the level of care in the post-acute con-tinuum that will best meet their needs and best utilize their resourc-es.”

Each year about 750 to 800 pa-tients with a variety of illnesses or injuries are admitted to PNRC. About 80 percent of those come from Parkwest Medical Center, Uni-versity of Tennessee Medical Center and Fort Sanders Regional with the balance mostly coming from other Covenant facilities although refer-rals often come from Nashville, Chattanooga, the Tri-Cities in Ten-nessee and many other states as well.

Countless others, whose condi-tion does not qualify for inpatient care, receive help as a PNRC out-patient or may be referred back to a Covenant therapy center closer to home. Still others may be referred to a skilled care nursing facility or home health care.

But for those who do qualify for

admission to PNRC, quality care is ahallmark. The nationally acclaimedfacility has won numerous nation-al awards, including four CrystalAwards, the top award given forpatient satisfaction by ProfessionalResearch Consultants, a nationallyknown health care research com-pany. What’s more, PNRC’s rate ofreadmission within 30 days of dis-charge is lower than the regionaland national averages.

“Our goal is to provide excellentcare to everyone,” said Dr. Dillon.“We strive to restore abilities andrebuild lives. We maximize theirfunctional independence. Patientsadmitted to PNRC tend to come insicker, get home sooner and stayhome longer with fewer readmis-sions. While changes in health careare making it more challenging toget into PNRC, once you are admit-ted, we’ll provide you with excellentcare, among the best rehabilitationin the nation.”

For more information and a

virtual tour video, visit PatNeal.org

or call 865-541-1446.

RESTORING ABILITIES. REBUILDING LIVES.

00

94

-00

80

Mary Dillon, MD, PNRC

“It was not just a hospital where you are treated as an individual but you made friends, made friends for life,” said Phyllis Kirksey of her experience at Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center in Knoxville.

After a series of surgeries, Kirksey is now on her feet and walking thanks to the excellent rehabilitation experienced at the facility.

The road backFriendsville woman fi nds friends, mobility at Patricia Neal

Progressive myelopathy. Cauda equina syn-drome. Thoracic disk herniation. Peripheral polyneuropathy.

You name it – Phyllis Kirksey seemed to have everything – except the ability to move her legs.

“It really wasn’t pain – it was inability to do anything,” she recalls. “Your mind tells you to lift your leg and go up the stairs, but it won’t do it. It was just like I weighed 400 pounds. I just couldn’t move.”

Nobody knows what caused this latest in a long history of back problems, but it set the re-tired pharmacist on a path to her sixth surgery followed by two weeks of rehabilitation as a spinal cord injury patient at Patricia Neal Re-habilitation Center.

It happened soon after returning from her son’s wedding that Kirksey, wife of Dr. Jim Kirksey, an ER physician at Fort Sanders Re-gional Medical Center, suddenly found her-self unable to climb any of the stairs in their Friendsville tri-level home.

Soon, Dr. Merrill White, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Parkwest Medical Center, was laying out her options: Undergo an extensive 12-hour multi-level spinal decompression and recon-struction or spend the rest of her life in a wheel-chair.

“Dr. White shoots straight from the hip,” said Mrs. Kirksey. “He said, ‘You’ve got a 50 percent chance of getting better, a 10 percent chance of getting worse and a 40 percent chance of being just like you are. But being like you are is better than what you will be if you don’t have surgery because you will continue to get worse.’ It wasn’t a pretty picture to paint. So, I gambled on 50 percent and I won.”

Of course, it wasn’t an easy victory.After the July 3 surgery by Dr. White and

cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Brent Grishkin, Mrs. Kirksey recovered at Parkwest for a week. “I was the Pillow Lady,” she said with a laugh. “I had a pillow here, a pillow in front, a pillow in back, pillow between my knees. I was pil-lowed up – and don’t move me!”

But White had other plans. The next day, he had Mrs. Kirksey to stand on her own two feet. Walking, however, would take awhile longer.

Discharged from Parkwest a week after surgery, she was sent to Patricia Neal Reha-

Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center serves Covenant and beyond

bilitation Center where she was immediately impressed by the staff.

“When I was fi rst admitted, everyone came in and introduced themselves and explained their job position and if there was anything I needed related to their expertise, just let them know,” she said. “Everybody had a smile on their face. It was a very uplifting, encouraging atmosphere.

“Of course, Day One they are going to get

you to your feet. They let you know from the very beginning that, ‘You’re not here to be wait-ed on!’ ” she said with a laugh. “That was the whole atmosphere. They present you with chal-lenges, then you go in and you do it, and you don’t think you will be able to accomplish, but by golly, after a few days, I was doing exactly what they said. Everybody was very encourag-ing.”

By the end of the fi rst of two weeks at PNRC, she was walking the full length of an exercise bar and climbing steps, well on her way to meeting her personal goal of caring for herself and getting in and out of her multi-level home.

She was also learning to maneuver her wheelchair, taking part in an obstacle course

throughout different fl oors of Fort Sanders Re-gional. “I look at people in wheelchairs in themall or wherever now in a whole different per-spective,” she says. “I know what they are goingthrough because I’ve been there even if was fora short period.”

Perhaps just as important were the lessons learned in group sessions with new-foundfriends in similar situations. “There was cama-raderie there,” she said. “I learned everyone’sname. It was interesting to see the change eachother went through. In the beginning, somewere real withdrawn and focused on their ownpain, but by the end of two weeks, they weremore concerned about how others were feel-ing. You really got to know one another.

“It was not just a hospital where you are treated as an individual but you made friends,made friends for life,” she added. “And youtake your own problems in a new perspective.OK, I’ve got this condition and I’m having trou-ble walking, but you know what? I didn’t reallyhave a choice in the surgery because, if I hadn’thad the surgery, I would have been in a wheel-chair for life. That was my option, and I didn’twant that. So you deal … thank God there wasan alternative!”

Today, Mrs. Kirksey moves about her homewith the aid of a cane and can climb any fl ightof stairs in her home. If she is going a long-dis-tance, she uses a walker.

But the wheelchair she took home from Pa-tricia Neal Rehabilitation Center sits at a din-ing table, unused except by a son-in-law whosays it’s comfortable to his own bad back.

The surgeons, rehabilitation physicians or physiatrists, therapists and nurses have donetheir part. The rest, she says, is up to her.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ But if you really, really search your heartand take in these experiences and use them fora better good, then so be it. It is what it is. I amjust thankful that I can do what I can do.”

“I would not wish anybody to go through what any of us at Pat Neal had to go through,”she added. “But if life deals you an unfortunatecircumstance where you are in that position,then you couldn’t go to a better place for rehab.They have the ability to reach any type person.They were wonderful. They were great in everyway.”

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New Beverly Baptist ChurchNew Beverly Baptist Church

Sunday, January 18 • 6:00pm

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546-0001 or www.newbeverly.orgRev. Eddie Sawyer, Pastor

I-640 to exit 8. Go north on Washington Pike to red light @ Greenway Rd. (facing new Target), turn left, church is ¼ mile on the right.

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TheThe Perry’s Perry’sTheThe Perry’s Perry’sfeaturing Troy Peach

FIRST SINGING OF 2015New Beverly presents the

award-winning gospel group

Members of the Chap-man Highway Garden Club were transported far above the earth at their December meeting.

Noting that it was “the most wonderful time of the year,” guest Anne Jackson, a widely celebrated harp-ist, entertained the group with heavenly music for the holidays. Jackson gave background on each tune, adding to the richness of the program.

“The thing I love about

Betsy Pickle

Harpist Anne Jackson entertains at the Chapman Highway Gar-

den Club meeting.

Chad Watson and Dave Kyser check out the new Dunkin’ Do-

nuts on Chapman Highway.

Garden club ungrounded

the harp so much is it’s so simple,” Jackson said mod-estly before beginning a mash-up of the Pachelbel Canon in D and “The First Noel.”

Jackson painted a pic-ture of the birth of Jesus with both words and music. The harpist at Church Street United Methodist Church, Jackson shared some of her Christian testimony as she talked about her repertoire.

She showed a family cov-erlet from the 1800s and de-scribed baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and how “his love wraps you in a coverlet” before playing “What Child Is This?” She used an antique dough bowl given to her by her mother

as an illustration for her message about Jesus being the bread of life and Beth-lehem being the “city of bread” as an introduction to “What Wondrous Love Is This.”

Jackson displayed a pewter candlestick to illus-trate the light that connects people to the Son of God. She fi nished with “Christ Child Lullaby,” a Scottish tune with elements from the Middle East that Mary sup-posedly sang to Jesus.

Jackson skillfully mixes technique and emotion, and the gardeners seemed thrilled to hear her play and speak.

The meeting, held at Woodlawn Christian Church, also included guests from Keep Knoxville Beautiful and a delicious holiday brunch. Obviously, gardening isn’t the only thing at which the members are experts.

Although the garden club usually meets on the third Thursday of each month, it skips January. The next meeting will be at 10 a.m. Feb. 19 at Woodlawn Chris-tian Church.

■ Diggin’ the donuts The new Dunkin’ Donuts

at 2800 Chapman Highway, next door to Shoney’s, is getting plenty of traffi c at all hours.

Even on New Year’s Day – with The Weather Channel’s “Fat Guys in the Woods” on the big screen instead of a bowl game – the dining area had a good crowd. (Read into the programming what you will, but the patrons ranged mostly from lean to slightly padded.)

Former South Knox Countian Chad Watson, now of Houston, Texas, and longtime South Knoxville resident Dave Kyser used the new eatery for a meeting

with colleague David Dykes of Blount County. They were there to discuss plans for summer enrichment camp at the Appalachian Institute for Creative Learning, held at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.

Although Dunkin’ has another location at 7618 Chapman Highway, it’s vir-tually impossible for south-bound drivers to access.

Said Kyser, “It’s about time South Knoxville had its own Dunkin’ Donuts.”

Dunkin’ prides itself on its coffee, but Kyser said he would be visiting the res-taurant for its food.

“I make my own coffee,” he said.

■ Get fi t for 2015 To complement your

visits to Dunkin’ Donuts, you might want to consider taking the Get Fit Seymour challenge. The program is open to South Knox/Sey-mour residents and is de-signed to help people en-gage in exercise and healthy nutrition for better physical and emotional health.

Online registration is now open at www.GetFit-Seymour.com (click on Reg-istration). Space is limited. The challenge begins Feb. 28 and runs through May 2.

The program is free, but a $20 donation is requested to pay for the offi cial T-shirt (to be worn at weigh-ins) and a wristband that pro-vides entry to the exercise classes.

There will be 14 different types of exercise genres of-fered.

Get Fit Seymour will raffl e two $100 gas cards at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at Brewed Awakenings, 11212 Chapman Highway, Sey-mour. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5. For more info, vis-it www.GetFitSeymour.com.

Artists’ works on displayThree artists will be

featured during January at the Parkside Gift Shop, formerly known as the Parkside Open Door Gal-lery in Fountain City.

Fountain City residents Denae Oglesby will feature handcrafted silver jewelry and Kate McCullough will feature watercolors. Mary Secrist of Halls will also feature watercolors.

The gift shop is at 213 Hotel Ave. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday and Friday; and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday. Artists throughout the area are juried into Parkside Gift Shop. Info: 357-7624 or 357-2787.

ETTAC needs computers, medical equipment

If you recently upgraded your computer system, iPad or tablet during the holidays and want to donate your old equipment, the East Tennessee Technology Access Center (ETTAC) will accept XP Windows computers or newer, as well as all iPads, iPods, other mobile devices and tablets. All computers and iPads must be in good working condition.

ETTAC is a regional nonprofi t agency that helps people with disabilities. The staff adapts computers with specialized software and hardware that are then given or loaned to clients to enable them to pursue their educational or employment goals. Hard drives will be wiped clean before distribution. All donations are tax deductible.

ETTAC also has a reuse program for durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, lifts and shower seats, which are given to people who cannot afford them.

Computers and medical equipment can be dropped off at ETTAC’s Knoxville offi ce, 116 Childress St., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Info: 219-0130 or www.ettac.org.

Start the New Year with a new license plate

Drivers in Tennessee and North Carolina can kick off the New Year by joining the 32,000 others who own vehicles with Friends of the Smokies license plates.

Sales of specialty license plates in North Carolina and Tennessee support priority projects in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Projects include Student Conservation Association internship positions, Parks as Classrooms and Appalachian Trail Ridgerunner programs in both states.

Seasonal environmental student interns gain a deeper understanding of park ecology while conducting scientifi c research, assisting with resource management projects and eradicating non-native plants and pests.

Through the Parks as Classrooms program, approximately 18,000 students visit the Smokies each year for ranger-led, curriculum-based environmental education. By utilizing the national park as a science classroom, students develop an appreciation for the natural and cultural resources in subject areas including math and science.

The Appalachian Trail Ridgerunner program works to protect resources

and enhance the hiking experience along the AT within the national park. Ridgerunners educate backpackers and day hikers, clear trail debris, report emergencies and pack out litter along more than 70 miles of the AT in the park.

Friends of the Smokies specialty license plates can be purchased for $35 in Tennessee and $30 in North Carolina, independent of plate expiration date. Plates may be purchased at DMV license plate tag offi ces and online at www.FriendsOfTheSmokies.org.

Call your sales rep to place your ad here.Ask about frequency discounts.

www.ShopperNewsNow.com

922-4136

4 • JANUARY 14, 2015 • SOUTH KNOX Shopper news

A more fi tting name for the Harvard Crimson might be the fortuitously allitera-tive “Harvard Hypocrites.”

‘H’ is for hypocrite

LarryVan

Guilder

As the New York Times recently reported, it isn’t love for the Crimson that’s

behind the red faces of Harvard faculty members. Turns out they’re indignant about being introduced to the reality of health-care reforms many of them sup-ported.

Ivy League, meet The Rest of Us.

Confronted with increas-es in out-of-pocket costs for health care, resulting in part from provisions in the Affordable Care Act, the agitated academics are questioning the university’s

data. Some have gone so far as to devise spreadsheets to crunch the numbers – no mean feat for professors more at home with Aphro-dite than annuities.

One Harvard veteran called the changes “deplor-able, deeply regressive,” while another said the out-of-pocket costs were “equiv-alent to taxing the sick.”

As a member of the un-washed masses who has forked over my “sick tax” for years, it’s hard to over-look their hypocrisy, much less generate sympathy for them.

The new Harvard health

NFL generates a bunch of ugly headlines. None belong to Eric. He is considered a rock-solid pillar among the Chiefs, a natural leader who plays the game the right way and didn’t fl aunt his wealth or honors.

Eric is already a model for younger players, an example of how to do it. Before that, he was just a model citizen. I remember a high school story of him volunteering as a helper in a dentist’s offi ce. I always suspected the receptionist was pretty.

I recall, at UT, him show-ing up in the equipment room the night before a game to help team manag-ers clean and polish hel-mets. Think about that, star with a scrub brush.

I never saw Eric turn cartwheels or otherwise celebrate an interception or touchdown. He just handed the ball to the nearest of-fi cial. He has always been substance over style.

BerryStrong is the get-well theme, but Kansas City defensive end Mike DeVito tweeted a verse from Psalms that I’m going to keep handy, just in case: “O Lord, my God, I cried to You for help, and You have healed me.”Marvin West invites reader reaction. His

address is westwest6@netzero.com.

Marvin West

I do believe it is prayer meeting time.

The sports forums I fol-low, starting with Scout’s VolChat and Rocky Top Board, tell me Tennessee people are praying for one of our favorite sons, Eric Berry.

So are Georgia people and Kentucky people and some from Florida and even Alabama. Out in Kansas, concern for Berry is big.

Eric is 26, a two-time All-American Volunteer, recipient of the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s best collegiate defensive back. The Chiefs selected him fi fth in the 2010 draft. He has been that good or better in the NFL.

That was then.The now part is a fi ght

for his life against Hodgkin lymphoma. He is favored to win – a high percentage do – but he is too special and this is too serious to take for granted.

Peyton Manning has checked in. He sees this as a tough fi ght, understands the treatment is challeng-ing, but says Eric is a fi ghter.

“I reached out to him and told him he’s in a lot of peo-

Prayer meeting time

ple’s prayers and thoughts.”Phillip Fulmer is opti-

mistic.“He was always up to the

challenge. I believe he will be in this case.”

Ex-Vol Inky Johnson, inspiration for many, close friend to Berry, says Eric is doing well.

“He’s doing great. He comes from a great fam-ily. Most importantly, Eric knows who’s in control of his situation, and that’s God. When you know who’s in control, you’re at peace with it. So Eric will be fi ne.”

Maybe you know that Berry chose Kansas City number 29 in recognition of Inky. He was 29 at Tennes-see.

We don’t know when the cancer started, but we know when it was found. Quirky story. Late November, Ber-ry put a big hit on Oakland running back Marcel Reece.

The other safety, Husain Abdullah, came fl ying in to get a piece. He also got some of Eric.

Berry got up clutching his chest.

“You all right?” Abdullah asked.

“I’m good,” Berry replied.Later, his shoulder wasn’t

so good. An X-ray didn’t show anything, but when orthopedic physician Cris Barnthouse examined him, things didn’t add up. Berry hurt when he moved his arm but was not sensitive to touch, nor was his strength affected. If his chest was bruised, he would have felt pain in all three tests. Barn-thouse recommended an MRI.

There it was, the intrud-er, a mass that didn’t belong.

Eric chose Atlanta as the battleground, Emory’s can-cer institute. Dr. Christo-pher R. Flowers, a Stanford man, is calling the plays. He says the affl iction is poten-tially curable with standard chemotherapy. Radiation is a secondary approach. Stem cell implants are out there somewhere, if needed.

Flowers did not discuss future football. Or hair loss.

I lack the wisdom to ex-plain why really bad things sometimes happen to really good people. I do know the

Vice Mayor Nick Pavlis is looking for co-sponsors for an ordinance to raise the mayor’s pay, a measure he says is long overdue. The mayor and four of his City Council colleagues will be up for re-election this year.

Pavlis: Time to give mayor more money

“The mayor makes $130,000 a year, and I am going to propose raising it by $12,500, to $142,000. It would take effect at the end of 2015, the day after the next swearing-in. This is the appropriate time to do it,” he said.

“The last increase was voted on in 2003 and didn’t take effect until ’06 – and here it is, 2015. Sure, $12,500 is a big one-time catch up, but if you am-ortize it over a nine-year period, it’s not that big a catch up. I just think our city should be in line with other cities and with county offi cials.”

Most mayors in other cit-ies and County Mayor Tim Burchett make more than Rogero, said Pavlis, whose great-uncle Jack Dance was mayor of Knoxville when he died in 1959.

He said he doesn’t want to see this offi ce become the preserve of the very rich, and said that since city employees are required to be on the job for 10 years before vesting in pension benefi ts and mayors are limited to two four-year terms, mayors will gener-ally be ineligible for pen-sions (Rogero, if re-elected, would be an exception since she served for four years as city development director

under Mayor Bill Haslam before resigning in 2010 to run for mayor). County em-ployees vest in eight years.

“I worry that we’re mak-ing it an exclusive club and knocking out the vast ma-jority of citizens of Knox-ville from consideration,” he said. “If you’re a reason-ably intelligent person with a reasonable job with a pen-sion and benefi ts, the salary has to be up there because you’re giving up your ben-efi ts. We’ve been surveying salaries and benefi ts, and I think this is a good path for us to go down and I think we should look at this more frequently than we have.

“Madeline had no idea this was coming. She wouldn’t be a party to that, anyway – that’s political suicide.”

Chattanooga Mayor Andy Burke makes $151,000. Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton makes $162,925, and Knox Count y Mayor Tim Burchett gets $167,687 annually.

Metro Nashville Mayor Karl Dean’s $136,500 makes him a bit of an outlier (in November, the Metro Council turned down a proposal to raise his sal-ary to $180,000).

State law requires the county mayor’s salary to be the highest in the county, but at least six city employ-ees, including Janet Wright (director of information systems) at $168,230, Bill Lyons (deputy to the mayor) at $160,130, Christi Branscom (deputy to the mayor) at $153,120, Charles Swanson (law director) at $152,980, David Rausch (chief of police) at $139,080 and Stephen King (deputy director of engineering) at $133,150 make more money than Rogero.

Betty Bean

plan carries an annual de-ductible of $250 for an indi-vidual and $750 for a family. Those are small fractions of what’s paid by most people who purchased insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

The yearly out-of-pocket limit is $1,500 for individu-als and $4,500 for families.

In sum, Harvard says the plan will pay 91 percent of health-care costs for enroll-ees. Don’t bother looking for a plan through the federal or state exchanges that pays as well.

To next page

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Wendy Smith

The death of Edward W. Brooke, fi rst African-American elected to the U.S. Senate (Massachu-setts), makes astronaut John Glenn the oldest living former U.S. senator at 93.

He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has an offi ce at Ohio State University.

I used to think that sit-ting through a multi-hour government meeting would be approximately as enjoy-able as having my toenails trimmed with a jackham-mer. But as I’ve become a grownup, the things that interest me have changed. Thank goodness. Other-wise, I’d still be watching soaps with my girlfriends, as I did when I was 14. MPC chair Rebecca Longmire and commissioner Bart Cary rec-

ognize retiring MPC executive director Mark Donaldson, cen-

ter, at last week’s meeting. Photo by Wendy Smith

Remembering Edward Brooke

The next oldest liv-ing former senators are, in order of age: Ernest Hollings, 93, from South Carolina; Jocelyn Burdick of North Dakota, 92; Paul Laxalt from Nevada, 92; James Buckley from New York, 91; and Bob Dole from Kansas, 91.

Tennessee’s Bill Brock is now the 37th oldest living U.S. senator at age 84. He lives in Annapolis, Md.

I had the privilege of knowing Edward Brooke when I worked for Sen. Howard Baker in 1967 and both were freshman sena-tors and Republicans at that time. Both staffs were friendly, and Lamar Alex-ander was Baker’s legisla-tive aide that year.

Brooke had been attor-ney general of Massachu-setts prior to being elected to the Senate in 1966, the same year Howard Baker Jr. was elected to the Sen-ate from Tennessee. The two staffs played softball against each other in the summer.

I met up with Sen.Brooke in 1973 when I was on a private trip to Athens, Greece, and he was meet-ing with Greek leaders.

We were both staying at the Grande Bretagne Hotel on Athens’ famed Constitu-tion Square and ended up having breakfast together.

■ Mike Lowe, former Knox County trustee, is

asking that his trial be moved out of Knox County through his attorney, Greg Isaacs. Without comment-ing on the merits of the case, I know Lowe has an expert attorney when it comes to advocating delays in trials.

Isaacs is also the at-torney for Troy Whiteside, who was indicted over fi ve years ago for homicide, and his case has not yet gone to trial due to a variety of delays. It is currently set to start next month, but no one is holding their breath it will happen.

If this motion for Lowe is successful, that trial is delayed several more months.

If the city of Boston can fi nd a jury to de-cide the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the sus-pects in the Boston Mara-thon bombings, with all the international publicity it has generated, surely Knoxville can provide an objective jury and a fair trial for both Mike Lowe and Troy Whiteside for their respective charges.

The truth is, probably more than two-thirds of the people of Knox County have never heard of Lowe, which means they do not have an opinion of him.

Fewer than half could identify Lowe or Whiteside if shown a photo.

■ Georgia Varlan Man, daughter of Danni and U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan, is the associate general coun-sel for the new Republican governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner, effective this week.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Tennessee and a 2012 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.

She has been an attor-ney at Kirkland and Ellis in Chicago and will work at the governor’s Chicago legal offi ce.

MPC − better than a soap opera

most local developers and citizens. The developers generally had a similar look − jeans, a sport coat and longish hair. Hip.

The citizens wore their stress like a garment. They sat in groups and whispered together. I understand their fear. Some are facing devel-opment that could have a very real negative impact on their property and, maybe, on their lives.

This is where the dra-ma happens. People don’t like change. Nobody ever says, “I’ve always enjoyed this wooded lot behind my house, where squirrels and birds play. But I don’t mind if someone knocks down the trees and grades with loud equipment in order to build a new hospital/shopping

center/apartment complex behind my house.

“I understand that de-velopment is part of the natural order of things in a growing city like Knoxville.”

To be honest, I tend to side with those citizens − all of them. Our homes are overwhelmingly personal. They are our refuge. It’s cruel to deprive people of the things they love best about their homes for the sake of progress, especially if a developer profi ts from the loss.

Still, I have to admit that, after watching several hours of meetings, I’m beginning to understand the other side.

No matter how surround-ing property owners feel, sick people benefi t from

During my process of ed-ucating myself about local government, I’ve watched a few meetings online and attended a few in person. Last week was my fi rst in-person encounter with the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC), and I was transfi xed.

Before the meeting be-gan, I examined the audi-ence and found I could pick out the developers, lawyers and concerned citizens. Most of the lawyers I knew by name because a rela-tively small pool represents

By now, everyone in the world and the astronauts in outer space know that Pres-ident Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, vis-ited Pellissippi State Com-munity College last week to announce a national plan of two years of tuition-free community college for any-one willing to work for it.

The plan will be based on Tennessee Promise, a pro-gram with the same incen-tive offered for the fi rst time ever to the class of 2015 throughout our great Volun-teer state.

I am not usually one to follow politics, but I think this is a great idea if we can all make it through the red tape without getting stuck in it.

This is why I support the president’s plan: When cov-ering school news, every

Sara Barrett

The case for tuition-free college

day I visit at least one public school and meet students who blow me away with their ideas.

Students of all ages have shown me projects they’ve created, fundraising they’ve planned and hosted themselves, goals they’ve achieved and dreams they would like to follow upon graduating from high school.

Without Tennessee Promise, many of them would never be able to af-ford college.

I can’t speak for the rest of the country, or even for

everyone else here in Ten-nessee, but I know when I hear a kindergartner tell me an idea she has to help the homeless or I interview a student in the fi fth grade who already has a busi-ness plan to start his own company, I am so glad they will have the support they’ll need right here at home. Not only will they have the po-tential to better themselves, but they’ll better their world – mine and yours – in the process.

During his announce-ment, the president said he hopes to level the playing fi eld among the haves and the have-nots. “We don’t ex-pect everybody to make it,” he said, “but we do expect everybody to get an equal shot.”

It shouldn’t be about what you look like, how you worship or your last name,

he said. I couldn’t agree more. There are many gift-ed children who may not be given the same opportuni-ties because of the area they live in or how much money their parents make.

“No one with drive and discipline should be left out,” the president contin-ued.

“Two years of college will be as free as high school is today.” Once students com-plete the two years of col-lege, they could transfer those credits to a university and essentially get half of a bachelor’s degree free.

The students I meet and write about are a glimpse of the talent thriving in today’s schools.

With a national plan to give them a hand up, their possibilities are endless.Sara Barrett is West Knox school beat re-

porter for Shopper-News.

hospitals. People buy things they need at shopping cen-ters, which supports jobs and produces tax reve-nues that pay for stuff like schools and pothole repair.

People live in the apart-ments, and they’re more likely to be young profes-sionals, like my son, than drug dealers.

It comes down to those who serve, without pay, on the MPC, to make decisions about where such things will be built.

And here’s the good news − they take their jobs seri-ously. They ask questions, and they seek input from citizens, even when the agenda is long and each side has spent its fi ve minutes of talk time.

They’ll never be popular, except maybe with the de-velopers. They will, more often than not, approve de-velopment, even if it hurts the little guy. It’s done, in theory, for the greater good. It’s what they did when your subdivision, your grocery store and your offi ce build-ing were approved.

Whenever two oppos-ing forces come together, there’s high drama. That’s what makes MPC meetings interesting. They’re better than a soap opera.

The “platinum” plans come close, covering 90 percent of costs on aver-age, but are prohibitively expensive for many. “Silver” plans, covering 70 percent, are the most purchased.

Hypocrisy in academia is at least a change of pace from rampant political hy-pocrisy. But with the latter on full display in East Ten-nessee last week, it couldn’t

be ignored.Lamar Alexander and

Bob Corker, Tennessee’s full complement of U.S. senators, were eager to be seen with President Barack Obama as he visited Big Or-ange Country.

Neither made an appear-ance during Obama’s earlier treks to Tennessee (Nash-ville and Memphis), so is it growing admiration for his

leadership that drew them this time?

During a Nov. 20, 2014, interview on Fox, Corker, riled over Obama’s deci-sion to take executive ac-tion on immigration, called his presidency the “worst in modern history.” Obama is “weak,” Corker said, and acting like “a 13-year-old.”

I don’t hear the Carpen-ters singing “Close to You” in that rant. They must want to praise his signature legis-lation.

“The health-care law is an historic mistake that should be delayed, dis-mantled, repealed and re-placed,” Alexander said in a speech before the Senate on Sep. 27, 2013.

Oops.Corker? He voted against

passage of a continuing res-olution that included fund-ing Obamacare and instead supported U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s bill to repeal it.

No denying that ignor-ing one’s own hypocrisy can

be politically useful. And, while sharing a platform with the president, some of the “weakness” that has

steered the country clear of economic and diplomatic disaster for six years might rub off on our senators.

Larry Van Guilder From previous page

Congrats to SchoonmakerLongtime homeowners advocate John

Schoonmaker will replace former Knox County Commissioner Richard Briggs as the District 5 commissioner. He was elect-ed Monday. Tamara Boyer, the only woman in the race, fi nished second.

Schoonmaker will resign from the Board of Zoning Appeals. Briggs was elect-ed to the state Senate in November.Schoonmaker

6 • JANUARY 14, 2015 • Shopper news

Betsy Pickle

GRAND GARDENSChris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) sets his sights on a target in “American Sniper.”

Chris “Thor” Hemsworth

plays a hacker in “Blackhat.”

The title character

learns about plumb-

ing in “Paddington.”

Josh Gad and Kevin Hart star in “The Wedding Ringer.”

By Betsy PickleDirector Clint Eastwood

knows war movies. His “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima” are two of the best in recent years.

“American Sniper” had the potential to make it a trifecta, but Eastwood can’t fi gure out what kind of war movie he’s trying to make.

Based on the story of Chris Kyle, whose like-titled autobiography spent months on the best-seller lists, “American Sniper” has a strong central perfor-mance but little nuance oth-erwise. The one thing that’s inarguable is that Bradley Cooper makes a tremen-dous physical transforma-tion and powerfully conveys the growing inner discon-nect between military and home life.

Eastwood and screen-writer Jason Hall jump around in time at fi rst, but even that gives way to a mostly orthodox chronol-ogy.

Chris Kyle (Cooper) is a Texas rodeo rider who de-cides it’s his duty to defend his country. He joins the Navy SEALs and soon after his training is fi nished he is deployed to Iraq.

Trained as a sniper, he proves exceptionally good at his job, gaining the nick-name “Legend” for his re-cord number of kills. But when he goes home to his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller), he keeps his feelings and experiences to himself.

Chris returns for tour af-ter tour, passionately dedi-cating himself to protecting his brothers in arms. But he can’t save everyone, and unless he fi nds a way to ad-dress his inner demons, he may not be able to save him-self, or his marriage.

“American Sniper” feels right in the details of the Iraq war: the danger, the diffi culty, the tunnel vision of trying to kill the enemy before he or she kills you. It also shows how Chris tries – and fails – to keep his work life separate from his home life with Taya and their growing family.

But each aspect starts to seem redundant, especially Taya’s pleas for Chris to open up to her. And while the script – rightly – refus-es to let in any political or historical revisionism, that only adds to the simplistic nature of the fi lm.

“American Sniper” doesn’t foreshadow – it

blares. His father preaches a message of defending oth-ers, so Chris joins the mili-tary. Young Chris showed a talent for hunting, so he becomes a sniper. Macho cowboy Chris discovers his girlfriend being unfaithful, so macho SEAL Chris fi nds an attractive woman, gently woos her and starts making plans for his version of their perfect life.

Chris never questions the mission, and he takes it as inevitable that a col-league who does should die. If that’s how it went down, that’s fi ne. But after the lengthy buildup to Chris’s inner torture, the solution comes at warp speed. The breakthrough seems too convenient.

Cooper’s bulked-up gi-ant deserves better. The intensity he creates is pal-pable. The pain within him is wrenching.

Simplistic in so many ways, “American Sniper” denies the audience the light-bulb moment that en-sures a connection.

It robs the story of the catharsis it should have earned and makes the de-nouement feel like an after-thought.

Pardon the cliché, but this weekend’s new movies offer something for practi-cally everyone.

For Oscar bait and war-movie fans, there’s “Ameri-can Sniper,” starring Brad-ley Cooper and directed by Clint Eastwood. (Please see review, this page.)

For the moviegoing main-stream, there’s “Blackhat,” a timely thriller starring Chris “Thor” Hemsworth. Hemsworth plays a jailed hacker recruited by the gov-ernment and furloughed to help stop another hacker who’s trying to collapse the world’s fi nancial markets.

Viola Davis and Wei Tang co-star in the thriller di-rected by Michael Mann, whose last big-screen di-recting gig was 2009’s “Pub-

Cooper impresses, but ‘Sniper’ misses mark

Movie hodgepodge should satisfy most tastes

lic Enemies.”For families, there’s

“Paddington,” based on the beloved books by Michael Bond. The lovable Peruvian bear is alone in a London train station until the kindly Brown family fi nds him and takes him home. It looks like a happy ending for Pad-dington until an evil muse-um curator (Nicole Kidman) fi nds out about the unusual talking bear.

A top-notch British cast

– Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Michael Gam-bon and Imelda Staunton – stars. Ben Whishaw pro-vides the voice of Padding-ton, who is entirely com-puter generated. Paul King directed.

Finally, for lovers of raunchy comedy, “The Wed-ding Ringer” fi lls the void. Kevin Hart plays a best-man-for-hire who attempts to save the day for a shy young groom trying to im-press his in-laws.

Josh Gad, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Josh Peck, Jorge Garcia, Cloris Leachman, Mimi Rogers and Jenifer Lewis round out the eclectic cast. Screenwriter Jeremy Garelick makes his feature-directing debut.

Shopper news • JANUARY 14, 2015 • 7 weekender

THURSDAY-SATURDAY, JAN. 15-17 ■ “Love Letters” presented by the Tellico Community Play-

ers, 7:30 p.m., the new Tellico Community Playhouse, 304 Lakeside Plaza, Loudon. Doors open 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $15 at Village Salon, Salon Anew, the Tellico Village Yacht Club in Loudon; Kahite Pub & Grille in Vonore; and at the door. Info: http://tellicocommunityplayhouse.org.

FRIDAY, JAN. 16 ■ Alive After Five concert: Tennessee Sheiks, 6-8:30 p.m.,

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive. Tick-ets: $10; $5 for members/students. Info: 934-2039.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, JAN. 16-18 ■ “Huckleberry Finn” presented by Knoxville Children’s

Theatre, 109 E. Churchwell Ave. Performances: 7 p.m. Friday; 1 and 5 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. Info: 208-3677, knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com or info@childrenstheatreknoxville.com.

SATURDAY, JAN. 17 ■ A Night of Improv, 7-8:30 p.m., Nita Buell-Black Auditorium,

Powell High School, 2136 W. Emory Road. Presented by the Powell Playhouse. Tickets: $10, ages 5 and under free. Featur-ing a special Powell Playhouse performance. Ticket info: 947-7428, 256-7428.

■ Bugs Bunny at the Symphony II concert, 8 p.m., Civic Auditorium, 500 Howard Baker Jr. Ave. Part of the Knoxville News Sentinel Pops Series. Tickets: $35-$89. Tickets: 291-3310 or www.knoxvillesymphony.com.

■ Wade Hill in concert, 8 p.m., Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave. Tickets: $12, some discounts available. Info/tickets: www.jubileearts.org.

Celebrating an event?

Share your family’s milestones with us!

Send announcements to news@ShopperNewsNow.com

The pork tenderloin is grilled to perfection and fork-tender at The Grill at Highlands Row. On this plate, the sides are rum sweet potatoes and roasted acorn squash. Photo by Mystery Diner

Mystery Diner

Plate it

The Grill at Highlands Row

I can never enter The Grill at Highlands Row without a fl ashback to An-drew Morton’s Fine Gifts, one of Knoxville’s premier gift shops that operated at the location.

Folks older than I, how-ever, will quickly point out that The Grill at Highlands Row has actually returned the building at 4705 Old Kingston Pike to its original use. The Highlands Grill was one of Knoxville’s fi nest dining establishments from the early 1930s to the early 1960s.

The new restaurant was opened in 2010 by Knoxville developer Tom Weiss, Chad Barger and Pat McMullan. They feature sophisticated Southern cuisine and strive to buy locally whenever pos-sible. Steaks and seafood are favorites on the menu, and guests are always eager to see what culinary twists the chef has put on tradi-tional Southern favorites.

For my night out at High-lands, I went for the grilled pork tenderloin. I was hav-ing a hard time deciding between the tenderloin and the mountain trout, primar-ily because I don’t like col-lard greens, which was one of the side dishes with the tenderloin. The kind waiter let me substitute the col-lards for the roasted acorn squash, which came with the trout, so I was happy.

The master griller knew what he or she was doing with the pork tenderloin. Beautifully presented with grill marks and cooked per-fectly with just a whisper of pink, the pork was fork-ten-der and delicious. The dark

rum whipped sweet pota-toes and aforementioned acorn squash were incred-ible accompaniments to the pork.

My only complaint was the brandy peppercorn sauce under the pork ten-derloin. I was really look-

ing forward to that sauce, expecting the warm, dark sweetness of brandy with just a hint of heat from the peppercorns. The pepper-corns stole the show, howev-er, and I found myself avoid-ing the sauce as I gobbled up the wonderful tenderloin.

By Carol ShaneJanuary isn’t typically

thought of as the cheeri-est month, what with the brightness of the holidays over and done with and tax season looming. Add in the usual cold, gray weather, and you’ve got a prescrip-tion for downheartedness.

But there’s plenty of color around if you know where to look.

The Arts and Culture Al-liance of Knoxville is cur-rently presenting the works of seven East Tennessee art-ists in “New Group Exhibi-tion in the Balcony,” which opened with a warm, con-vivial reception at the Em-porium Center on Jan. 9.

Visitors mingled, snacked on treats from the Melting Pot, viewed the art-work and visited with par-ticipating artists.

Lynn Corsi Bland from Gatlinburg mixes wax with oil to create her colorful, blocked abstracts. She says the wax “gives the oil body so you can move it around.” She uses various tools, in-cluding a palette knife and a brayer (a type of hand roll-er) to manipulate the paint.

Bland has taught at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts along with an-other featured artist, Jen-nifer Willard, whose fabric works borrow from fairy tales. Using embroidery on hand-dyed material, Wil-lard incorporates darker, more ambiguous aspects of the stories to add an in-triguing conceptual layer to

The power of

Amy Porter, music director at Redeemer Church of Knoxville, enjoys the evening with her outgoing 9-year-old daughter, Fio-na. “Did you know I play the violin?” asks Fiona. The two stand in front of Tony Sobota’s “Heat Source.” Photos by Carol Shane

Painter and caricaturist Tony Sobota draws a customized “doodle” for Amy Simmer-man of Farragut. In the background, South Knoxvil-lian Barry Jenkins gives his wife, Maria, an aff ectionate peck on the shoulder.

seven

the hand-stitched pieces. Tony Sobota’s brilliant

draftsmanship takes cen-ter stage in his paintings, most of which feature some kind of industrial presence: a spark-spitting smelter, a conveyor belt tower, steel girders, coal-mining appa-ratuses. The viewer can al-most hear the clang and feel the weight of these immense machines. “I love the archi-tecture of industry,” says Sobota, “and I’ve become a downright factory junkie of late.”

Sobota is also interested in “manmade versus living realities,” so human ele-ments are often included: a rumpled coal miner, a mus-ing face.

Tony Henson’s big, viv-id abstract-expressionist works dominate much of one wall of the exhibit. Eight years ago, he broke his

right hand – yes, he’s right-handed – in three places in “a stupid accident.” Hen-son, who up until then had been a representational artist, found that he could no longer hold a brush or pen, even after a period of recovery. He experimented with applying paint to can-vas directly with his hands. As he healed, he moved on to using tools such as squee-gees and palette knives and, eventually, brushes.

He now says the accident “was a blessing because my paintings got better!”

The Shopper’s own copy editor, Emily Shane, has seven pieces in the show. Shane uses discarded book covers with bright graphic designs to create optical fl ights of fancy. “Oasis,” an installation consisting of nine squares, appears to contain many layers. Some

viewers see a pool in the depths; others imagine that they’re gazing through the piece to the sky. “I like mak-ing art that doesn’t try to tell a story,” Shane says. “Ten people can look at the same piece and see it 10 different ways.”

Beth Meadows’ paintings superimpose a punked-out model in unlikely settings like the great hall from “The Sound of Music.” Her work has been shown at Old City Java and Relix Variety Theatre. A transplant from Memphis, Meadows runs The Salvage Room for the nonprofi t Knox Heritage and is also the director of the 17th Street Studios.

Terina Gillette teaches art classes for all ages in her Holston Hills home. Her pieces show a love for texture. “I call them wall sculpture,” she says. Gillette

also provides chalk art for various local businesses, in-cluding the popular Dean’s Restaurant in Fountain City. Like all seven artists featured in the show, she is driven by her creative vi-sion.

“I like to say that she has an affair with a guy named ‘Art,’” says Gillette’s hus-

band, Daniel, “and if she doesn’t see him occasion-ally, she gets irritable!”

The “New Group Exhibi-tion in the Balcony” runs through Jan. 31 at the Em-porium Center, 100 S. Gay St. Hours and info: www.knoxalliance.com.Send story suggestions to news@shop-pernewsnow.com.

8 • JANUARY 14, 2015 • SOUTH KNOX Shopper news kidsSuccessful merger From page 1 By Betsy Pickle

Members of the Boys and Girls Club at South Knox-ville Elementary School didn’t mind the gray skies overhead when they hurried outside to receive a fantastic gift.

The Rocky Top Triathlon Club donated 18 bicycles to the group to be used by the bike club being formed this semester for third- through fi fth-graders.

Boys and Girls Club members who stayed for the fi nal afternoon before win-ter break got to test-ride the bikes, with help from the triathlon club.

Joel Denardo of the Rocky Top Triathlon Club said this is the third year in a row that the club has do-nated bicycles to a Boys and Girls Club in Knoxville.

Kim Madeiros, director of the South Knoxville El-ementary B&GC, said the bikes were a big deal for the kids. She doesn’t know how many intend to sign up for the bike club, which will hold safety training at the beginning, but there are 30 to 40 third- through fi fth-graders who participate in the SKES program.

Michael Threat and Bryson Givens ride down Barber Street

in front of South Knoxville Elementary School.

These wheels are made for ridin’

Sophia Piggush, Delease Green, Jaylee Moore and Ra’Tyler Lee are ready to roll. Photos by Betsy Pickle

Assistant principal Christopher Deal, principal Lana Shelton-Lowe and assistant principal Aaron Maddox model the anni-versary T-shirts designed by fi fth-grade teacher Dennis Mene-fee. Photos by Betsy Pickle

Dogwood alum Liam Trainor and his mom, Pam Trainor, right, are reunited with Liam’s fourth-grade teacher, Teryl Magee, who taught at Dogwood for about nine years.

School board member and former elementary librarian Amber Rountree, second from right, helps Dogwood staff members Michael Ogle, Robin Herbert, Jessica Newport, Susan Cotten and Lisa McCoy organize the books for the book bingo. Photo submitted

REUNION NOTES

■ All Halls High 1975 grads who are interest-ed in a 40-year reunion are encouraged to send contact information to Cathy Hickey-Johnson at hallshighclassof75@gmail.com. Those interested in serving on the planning committee should email Tim Witt at hallshigh75@yahoo.com.

Austin-East to host youth symposiumThe MLK Commission Youth Symposium team is part-

nering with the Knoxville Chapter of Jack & Jill of America to host a day of youth development and leadership train-ing, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, at Austin-East High School.

Jack & Jill will present an oratorical contest concurrent with the breakout sessions for middle and high school stu-dents. The Jack & Jill program is designed to inspire and encourage teens ages 13-18 to embrace and value the art of public speaking. An online registration form for the event is available at www.MLKknoxville.org.

The event will feature a day packed with activities, food and entertainment and is intended to nurture and develop the next generation of leaders.

Austin-East High School is at 2800 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. Info: youth@MLKKnoxville.com.

THROUGH SATURDAY, FEB. 28“Buy One, Get One Free” admission tickets

available for Knoxville Zoo. Tickets can be purchased at the zoo ticket window during regular zoo hours. Info: 637-5331, ext. 300 or knoxvillezoo.org.

THROUGH FRIDAY, APRIL 10Tickets available for Rhythm N’ Blooms music

festival, on stages set exclusively along downtown Knoxville’s historic Jackson Avenue. Features fi rst-timers, chart-climbers and highly lauded acts from varied musical backgrounds. Info/tickets: www.rhythmnbloomsfest.com.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 14Tea Time and “Good for the Brain Games,”

9-10:30 a.m. Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

Dance classes, Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Line dancing, noon-1 p.m.; intermediate ballroom dancing, 1-2 p.m.; beginner ballroom dancing, 2-3 p.m. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

Scrapbooking techniques, 3-4 p.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY, JAN. 14-15Gabriel Lefkowitz & Friends in concert, 7

p.m., Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive. Part of the KSO Merchant & Gould Concert-master Series. Tickets: $20. Tickets: 291-3310, www.knoxvillesymphony.com or at the door.

THURSDAY, JAN. 15Dressing Girls for Charity, 3-4:45 p.m., Hu-

mana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

Movie & Popcorn: “Casablanca,” 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

White Elephant Bingo, 10-11 a.m. Bring a prize and win a prize. Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

FRIDAY, JAN. 16Application deadline for the Farragut Folklife

Museum’s Quilt Show 2015: The Love of Quilts. The show is scheduled for Friday through Sunday, Feb. 13-15, at the Farragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Drive. Info/application: www.townoffarragut.org/quiltshow; at the Town Hall; or Lauren Cox, lauren.cox@townoffarragut.org or 966-7057.

Brain Games, 10-11 a.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

Knit & Crocheting for Charitable Organiza-tions, noon-1:30 p.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

Knox Heritage “Lost & Found” lunch, 11:30 a.m., Historic Westwood, 3425 Kingston Pike. Guest speakers: Jack Neely and Becky Hancock. Topic: the history of the Tennessee Theatre. Free lunch buffet. Reservations required. Info/reservations: Hollie Cook, 523-8008 or hcook@knoxheritage.org.

Tax Return Tips, 11 a.m.-noon, Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

FRIDAY-SATURDAY, JAN. 16-17All-level fl atpicking guitar workshop led by

guitarist Steve Kaufman, the three-time winner of the National Flatpicking Championships, 7-9 p.m. Friday and beginning 9:30 a.m. Saturday, MainStay Suites, 361 Fountain View Circle, Alcoa. Preregistration required. Info/to register: Steve, 982-3808 or steve@fl atpik.com.

SATURDAY, JAN. 17AAA Driver Improvement Course, 8 a.m.-5

p.m., AAA offi ce, 100 W. Fifth Ave. Cost: $40 members; $50 nonmembers. Must preregister. Info/to register: Kate, 862-9254, or Don, 862-9250.

Diversity Day and Race Against Racism 5K, 11 a.m., YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Center, 124 S. Cruze St. Sponsorship and registration info: www.ywcaknox.com. Diversity Day or the Race Against Racism info: Alicia Hudson, ahudson@ywcaknox.com.

Farragut Skate Date, 4-6 p.m., Cool Sports, Home of the Icearium, 110 S. Watt Road. Offered by Cool Sports and the town of Farragut as part of the Let’s Move! Initiative. Info: 218-4500.

Free family fun day about dinosaurs and fossils, 1-4 p.m., McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Drive. Features activities and a craft for children to take home. All materials provided. Info: 974-2144.

Introductory Internet Genealogy, 1-3 p.m., East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St. Instructors: Dr. George Schweitzer Ph.D., Sc.D., and Eric Head, Knox

County Archives. Preregistration and a valid email ad-dress required. Info/registration: 215-8809.

Saturday Stories and Songs: Becca Tedesco, 11 a.m., Cedar Bluff Branch Library, 9045 Cross Park Drive. Info: 470-7033.

Saturday Stories and Songs: Sean McCol-lough, 11 a.m., Lawson McGhee Library, 500 W. Church Ave. Info: 215-8750.

MONDAY, JAN. 19A Night with the Arts: A Celebration Concert in

honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 6 p.m., Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay St. Featuring the Knoxville Sym-phony Chamber Orchestra. Free and open to the public. Info: knoxvillesymphony.com or mlkknoxville.org.

Heart Healthy Eating, 1-2 p.m., Humana Guid-ance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

Needle Tatting/Crochet/Quilting classes, 3:30-7:30 p.m., Hobby Lobby classroom, 6580 Clinton Highway. Cost: $24. Info: Monica Schmidt, 406-3971, monicaschmidt.tn@gmail.com or myquiltplace.com/profi le/monicaschmidt.

Tennessee Shines: Michaela Anne and poet Susan O’Dell Underwood, 7 p.m., Knoxville Visitor Center, 301 S. Gay St. Tickets: $10, free for students with valid ID and children ages 14 and under. Info/tickets: WDVX.com.

TUESDAY, JAN. 20Computer Workshops: Excel 2007, 2 p.m.,

East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St. Requires “Word 2007 Basics” or equivalent skills. Info/to register: 215- 8700.

Healthy Cooking Demonstration, 10-11 a.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

TUESDAYS, JAN. 20-FEB. 24Pilates class, 6:30-7:30 p.m., community room in Far-

ragut Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Drive. Instruc-tor: Simon Bradbury. Cost: $50. Info/to register: www.townoffarragut.org/register or 218-3375.

WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY, JAN. 21-22AARP Driver Safety class, noon-4 p.m., O’Connor

Senior Center, 611 Winona St. Info/to register: Carolyn Rambo, 382-5822.

THURSDAY-FRIDAY, JAN. 22-23Moxley Carmichael Masterworks Series:

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 performed by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, 7:30 p.m., Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay St. Tickets start at $15. Info/tickets: 291-3310 or www.knoxvillesymphony.com.

Send items to news@ShopperNewsNow.com

ShoppernewseVents

SOUTH KNOX Shopper news • JANUARY 14, 2015 • 9 business

ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS

(865) 278-8417PAIN MANAGEMENT

Nancy Whittaker

By Bonny C. MillardTwo former Wellspring

facilities, purchased last fall by Fortress Investment Group, provide residential units for people needing services in memory care and assisted living. The proper-ties are under the manage-ment of Blue Harbor Senior Living, whose headquarters are in Portland, Ore.

Regional sales leader Caroline Wilder said the properties were renamed: Maple Court Senior Liv-ing in Powell and Raintree Terrace Senior Living in Bearden. Fortress has 24 properties nationwide, but these are the only two in Tennessee, she said.

Maple Court is a 56-bed memory-care facility for those with dementia or Al-zheimer’s who need secure living conditions. Wilder said in the industry it is known as a “standalone memory-care neighbor-hood.” It offers residents both security and interior freedom to move about the building. Dementia behav-iors include wandering, so this facility gives residents the space to do that, she said.

“What I love about Maple Court is that it doesn’t feel like a memory-care neigh-borhood,” Wilder said. “Typically speaking, mem-ory care is kind of closed off and away from – and secured from – everything. The fact that it’s a specialty built-alone memory-care (facility) means that once you walk in the secured doors in the front of the building, everything’s open. There’s a beautiful indoor courtyard.”

The enclosed courtyard gives residents a safe place to go outside and even work in raised-bed gardens.

Raintree Terrace is dif-ferent from Maple Court in that it offers both memory-care and assisted-living units. The memory-care unit has 16 beds while the assisted-living area is larg-er, with 48 beds.

Wilder said Raintree Ter-race has a condo-like atmo-sphere because of the ame-nities.

“When you walk into the dining room, there’s a large stacked-stone fi replace that’s just gorgeous. Off the dining room, there are two doors that go to a cov-ered deck. That’s upstairs, and even downstairs in our

Fans of the Arts and Crafts movement will get

a special treat at 11 a.m. Sat-urday, Jan. 17, when Stickley Furniture historian Mike Danial visits Braden’s

Lifestyles Furniture in Turkey Creek.

Stickley Furniture was founded in the early 1900s by Gustav Stickley and his brothers. The Mission-style furniture line quickly gained recognition due to solid construction and quality.

While Stickley Furniture is now owned by the Audi family of New York, the company’s integrity and commitment to quality remain.

While at Braden’s, Danial will speak about the Arts and Crafts movement as well as the “rescue” of Stickley Furniture by the Audi family. He will also speak about furniture res-toration, care and construc-tion.

Braden’s Lifestyles Furniture is at 11105 Turkey Drive. Info: Carrie Grey, 382-8530.

An unusually impres-sive boutique arrived Nov. 1 in South Knoxville with the opening of new busi-ness Not Too Shabby Con-signing. The owner is Jama Williams, who credits her grandchildren with the idea.

Williams has always loved to shop in thrift and consignment stores. She also says she has the privi-lege of raising three of her grandchildren, and she’s passed down her love of bargains to them. One day while shopping, 10-year-old Jaeden suggested she open her own store. It didn’t take long before she realized what a great idea he had.

Being very involved with her grandkids’ school and sports activities and not wanting to miss any of them, Williams needed a job with a fl exible schedule.

Not Too Shabby Consign-ing fi t the bill nicely. With a previous background in business management, Wil-liams says she is now “oper-ating on faith” and is excited about the possibilities she sees for her new labor of love. It’s still a work in prog-ress; she is fi guring out what works best, and with a wide range of prices, her goal is to have items to suit everyone’s needs.

The fi rst thing you notice is the eclectic look in every corner of the store. Unusual household décor and furni-ture are displayed: vintage chairs from the 1960s and modern items, as well as chalk-painted distressed furniture that Williams cre-ates herself. She enjoys dis-tressing the pieces and has many more in the works.

Raintree Terrace

Senior Living activi-

ties assistant Mary

Magyar visits with

resident Mary Rust

during a recent

afternoon tea party. Photos by Bonny C. Millard

Raintree Terrace Senior Living health services director Crystal Murphy, Maple Court

Senior Living maintenance director Jim Williams and receptionist LaVonne Murray

Jama Williams, owner of Not Too Shabby Consigning Photo by Nancy Whittaker

Shabby chic comes south

Locally made jewelry is available throughout the store, as are antiques. Un-usual women’s clothes are popular, too. If you like fi nding stuff you won’t see anywhere else, this is the place to shop.

Williams loves having a business in South Knox-ville. “We have West Knox-ville merchandise at South Knoxville prices,” says Wil-liams. “The South Knox business owners are won-derful people and help each other.”

She has created a fun place to shop and is us-ing the opportunity for her grandchildren to learn about the business world. In addition to Jaeden, who helps greet customers when he is not in school, she also has help from Jaeley, 6. No doubt the youngest one, Jaece, will be working with her before long.

Not Too Shabby Consign-ing is at 5901-A Chapman Highway, next door to Im-promptu Home and Garden. Winter hours are Wednes-day, Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wil-liams has plans to expand soon and add a Not Too Shabby Kids Corner where she will have children’s clothing and jewelry. Find Not Too Shabby Consigning on Facebook or call 865-776-1006.

December brings good tidings for real estate markets

News From The Register Of Deeds

By Sherry WittA strong December

closed the 2014 calen-dar for both real estate and lend-ing markets in Knox County. For the month, there were 866 prop-

erty sales in Knox County, comparing favorably to the 729 transfers from last De-cember, as well as the 735 sales registered in Novem-ber 2014.

The total value of prop-erty sold during December came in at just a fraction over $200 million – an im-

provement of some $43 mil-lion over sales from Decem-ber 2013. Mortgage lending also fi nished with a surge. The month of December saw nearly $341 million loaned against real estate in Knox County, the most since July, and $34 million more than in December 2013.

The largest property transfer involved the Hamp-ton Inn & Suites at 11340 Campbell Lakes Drive in West Knox County. The parcel sold for $11,725,000. The largest real estate loan of the month was a $31 mil-lion trust deed fi nancing the Sherrill Hills Retirement Community.

Initial analysis of data from 2014 indicates a mod-

est improvement in the overall value of property sales. The year produced 9,989 transfers with an ag-gregate value of $2.29 bil-lion, compared with $2.1 billion in 2013. Mortgage lending in 2014 was well off the pace set the previ-ous year, as $3.27 billion was loaned against property compared with $3.74 billion in 2013; however, a strong fourth quarter did help close the gap.

I hope you enjoyed a safe and joyous holiday season, and on behalf of all of us at the Register’s offi ce I want to wish all of you a very hap-py, healthy and prosperous new year.

Sherry Witt

Historian Danial to visit Braden’s

Bonny C Millard

Blue Harbor Senior Living

memory care, there’s a pri-vate secured patio so that the residents who are in memory care can enjoy the outdoors in a secured envi-ronment.”

Both facilities offer indi-vidual or double-occupancy rooms, which provide so-cialization and lower resi-dency costs.

“We offer companion suites, or shared suites, as an alternative,” she said. “It’s particularly helpful in

memory care because stud-ies show that individuals with Alzheimer’s or demen-tia do better socially when they have a roommate.”

Amanda Spencer is the executive director at Rain-tree, and Cindy Winegar, who started this month, is the executive director of Maple Court. Both directors have been in the business for years, Wilder added.

The two senior living residences have full-time

dining services and avail-able 24-hour nursing care, and each has about 30 em-ployees, including activi-ties directors. Residents go for group outings such as a recent trip to Gatlinburg to see the Christmas lights. Wilder said the centers also hold family nights and holi-day dinners.

Info: www.raintreeter-raceseniorliving.com and www.maplectseniorliving.com.

Mike Danial

10 • JANUARY 14, 2015 • Shopper news

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