News - Friday, February 10, 2012

“Welcome to our new home,” Amazon executives said last week as they welcomed Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, along with other public officials and local leaders, to the company’s Chattanooga facility at Enterprise South. And what a home it is: The one million square feet facility employs 1,700 people and has the equivalent of 28 football fields worth of storage and work space. Haslam (right) said he’s impressed with the size of the operation and expressed his gratitude to Amazon for its “real world investment in Hamilton County.” Above, Haslam surveys the intake section of the facility with Sanjay Shah, plant manager. During remarks preceding the governor’s tour of the facility, Paul Misener, director of global public policy for Amazon, suggested that Amazon has more plans for Chattanooga. “This facility is called the Chattanooga One facility. The ‘One’ is suggestive. We’re all counting on counting.” (Photo by David Laprad)

As stakeholders in the City of Chattanooga began to assemble to address the gang problem, one question kept coming up: “Where’s Fred Houser?” Houser was in Nashville, Tenn., working as a case manager and counselor for Davidson County Juvenile Detention Center. His job daily put him in rooms with Crips, Bloods, Vice Lords and more. His compassion for the wayward young men kept him in those rooms.

You’ve heard of finding the perfect match – looking for someone who’s just your type. The same can be said of the role Blood Assurance and its blood donors play in providing life-saving blood products to area patients. In order to keep an adequate supply of blood on hand for more than 50 hospitals and healthcare facilities to use, it is important for area residents to know their blood type and how it can be used to help others in need of blood transfusions.

Delta Dental presented a check for $50,000 to HOPE for the Inner City to support the Dr. William Roy Mercy Dental Clinic. The Dr. William Roy Mercy Dental Clinic is a joint effort between HOPE for the Inner City and the Chattanooga Area Dental Society that serves low-income residents in greater Chattanooga. (Photo by David Laprad)

Watch any home remodeling or house hunting show on HGTV, and chances are the husband or boyfriend on the program will express a desire for one thing: a man cave. Superman has the Fortress of Solitude, He-Man has Castle Greyskull, and Modern Man has the Man Cave, a place of seclusion from the stressors of life and a haven of entertainment. The best man caves can double as a family amusement center, as long as the primary resident is willing to allow the members of his clan into his sacred dwelling.

Feb. 10

J. Ledford Hamilton book signing

Author J. Ledford Hamilton will be available to sign copies of her novel, “L’Chaim to Life,” February 10 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Pasha Coffee & Tea, located at 3914 St. Elmo Avenue. In the book, trouble starts brewing in Maggie Sanders’ neighborhood when residents discover the new renters next door are Jews. J. Ledford Hamilton’s novel “reveals the burden of discrimination and the loving choices that can conquer it,” Tate Publishing says.

What was happening in Chattanooga in 1962?

Saturday, Feb. 10

The Chattanooga Civitan Club netted approximately $5,500 on as much as 300 pounds of fruit cake sold in December, Gilbert T. Stein reported Friday at the club’s noon luncheon at Hotel Patten. Money from the sale goes toward the support of Bonny Oaks and other charitable organizations.

The new year is only a month old, and I am already yearning for the past. I do not wish to return to last year – Lord knows that was a tough one for virtually everyone. No, I wish to return to the days when email was dependable.

It's funny, actually. I am old enough to remember the days before email even existed. Yet I do not want to go back to those neanderthalic days. I just want to return to that heavenly mid-point – the time after email was created but before spammers had jammed the works so badly that security measures became necessary.

It does not happen very often, but sometimes I can spend an entire day at the office and get nothing done. Combine a touch of the flu with a bad attitude and a fairly light schedule, and I can accomplish next to nothing with very little effort. There is no requirement that I have nothing to do, only that I do not have to do it at that particular time. I often find that when these days roll around, the projects and work that are putting pressure on me actually contribute to my inability to get anything done.

Volkswagen Group of America, Chattanooga Operations, on January 31 announced the company is creating 200 new jobs at its Tennessee manufacturing facility. The positions are needed as Volkswagen Chattanooga increases production capacity from 31 to 35 cars per hour.  The new jobs will be integrated into Volkswagen’s current two-shift operation and filled by full-time Volkswagen employees.

I hate when this happens. Last week, I concluded the column with remarks indicating that “Dog Tags” was the last David Rosenfelt Andy Carpenter-novel in print. I even went so far as to write that “One Dog Night,” novel nine in the Andy series, “is due out later this year.”

God bless Mike Robinson. Or God bless Volkswagen. Really, God bless anyone who had anything to do with the opening of Brewhaus, a new German-American pub on Frazier Street. This is remarkably good food. If you’re familiar with German fare, you might already have made up your mind that it’s not your thing. Sauerkraut, brats and dark beer have never appealed to me. But that doesn’t mean Brewhaus won’t be your thing. I’ve eaten lunch there once, and I’ve already declared myself a regular.

Politics and Eastern Bloc chaos aside, there were some other bits of recent news, that need repeating. Like the reports from survivors of that Costa Concordia cruise liner, which recently had trouble staying upright due to a lapse in judgment by its captain. Apparently, the music playing over a loudspeaker in one of the restaurants on board just before the calamity was “My Heart Will Go On,” the theme from the movie “Titanic.”

The “Merchant of Venice” will take stage in February when Shakespeare Chattanooga presents one of Shakespeare’s most challenging and controversial plays. “I have been fascinated by this play for years,” says SC founder and producing director Janis Hashe.

There is an upper middle class suburb on the outskirts of Dallas with the feel good name of Flower Mound. But for a few of the residents, it had become less than the Shangri-La they likely envisioned. You may have heard this story, about a homeless man named Kenneth Robinson, who took up residence in one of those Flower Mound houses. He was able to do that because the previous owners, unable to make their mortgage payment, and likely not having any equity in the home, like so many others, decided to abandon ship. And it didn’t hurt Robinson that the mortgage company went out of business either.

The band Sanctus Real is bringing more than music to its Chattanooga stop on the Winter Jam 2012 Tour Spectacular Feb. 12. Lead singer Matt Hammitt is bringing a message of education and support for families who have a child with a Congenital Heart Disease. It’s a message born of his own family’s experience, as their son Bowen was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome in 2010.

In June 2012, the production crew of Prehensile Productions will follow five Waorani students as they race to document their ancestors’ knowledge before the last of their elders disappear. With it, the students will build an encyclopedia describing their forest and their way of life, and teach a global audience and future Waorani generations the value of their culture and homeland.

Our English language is constantly morphing. Some words are lost, some are born. How well have you kept up? See how well you do at the puzzle below!

1. There are only four countries in the world with one syllable in their name. Can you name them?

Super Bowl is over. Some of you are happy and some of you are sad. Me? I’m okay. I didn’t care who won. But then, I don’t follow football much. I did watch the game, though, and it was fun to see all the festivities and commercials. I wasn’t quite sure why so many people had to be out on the field to help toss the coin. It just takes one person to flip it, and one person to call it.

As parents, we strive to teach our children everything they need to know to survive in the world: don’t talk with strangers, don’t take drugs, drive carefully, and don’t descend into strange holes in the ground. The parents of high school students Andrew, Matt and Steve must have skipped the last bit of advice, because a few minutes into “Chronicle,” their sons are dropping into a dark hole, video camera in tow, to look at a glowing rock. Things hum and crackle, there’s screaming, the camera goes dark, and then...

I remember a time when my sister, our two cousins and I cut some wild grapevine branches and hid behind our grandparent’s barn to smoke them. Yes, it was horrible and yes, we were caught and punished. However, we thought it was worth it. Sneaking around and being devious is always tempting to a child.

“Trends around this country continue to indicate that we Americans are buying more expensive convenience food items for preparation at home, as well as more food away from home.”

An economist made that comment during a special session on nutrition at a Farm Bureau convention awhile back. I hadn’t really thought that much about it until recently, when I was standing in line at a local grocery store behind a young father with two small children. Of course, having been a father shopper myself several years ago and understanding what it is like to have two small children in tow as you cover the grocery store aisles, my observation would hold no scientific substance, but from the items I witnessed in his cart, this modern-day family has never turned on the oven in their electric range. The items they were going to consume in a future meal could only work in a microwave.

To quote Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy, “I’m a man, I’m 40.” Well, okay, I’m a few days shy of 50, but, well, the point is, I do have years of experience in getting out of tight spots. I have never been trapped inside a canyon like the guy that had to amputate his arm (see movie, “127 Hours”). I have not lined up to kick a 50-yard field goal on the game’s final play with the outcome in jeopardy. And any smart thief would know better than to waste their time holding me hostage for ransom, so that one is inconceivable.