Hoptown News

1201 When is advice good?

I was watching one of the financial channels on tv the other day. Get this. Merrill Lynch went under last year and had to be taken over by another company to avoid bankruptcy. An ad for Merrill Lynch was running on this channel that you should give your money to Merrill Lynch for investment. They were experts at "wealth management". What ever happened to truth in advertising? All these companies getting bailout money from the Government are suddenly qualified wealth managers? They can't manage their own affairs, how are they going to manage yours?

1123 Trigg Swigs the Good Stuff

I would not be surprised to see some legal action in Trigg County if the court tries to pass the alcohol ordinance they have proposed. "No advertising" Clearly a violation of free speech. Can't smoke in a place that sells alcohol by the drink. Discrimination against a class of people who were free to smoke in the place before the cordinance was written. I see the fingerprints of that anti Sex guy from Trigg County that goes around preaching sex is bad. His name is David something. The writers of the ordinance are on record of wanting to keep families together (apparently as if they are together now). Let's see, last year had an alledged rape of a girl by 7 or 8 boys. Good family fun. About 3 years ago several rapes in the park at the bridge over Little River during some kind of dungeon and dragons game playing. More good family fun.

Yep, got to keep those families together. Gonna use alcohol to do it. That David guy has a chance to show how strong he is on his home turf now. Let's see if he can do for alcohol what he has done for sex.

1122 Home Grown Terrorists at our Back Door

This was sent to me by a faithful reader. It's a little scary but apparently documented as true.

1122 Health Care Reform

As we come down to the wire on health care legislation it appears we will have very little of what we originally dreamed of but we'll have something which is be better than nothing. In this country, it's hard to take on big insurance companies and big health care companies and expect to not get a few scratches. The will to succeed has to be strong to do it. They have the upper hand since they're organized and the general public is not. We have always gone along with the status quo on health care on the assumption they will do what's best for us.  As we learn they may not have had our best interests at heart the only way we can fight back is at the polls. Elect people interested in getting coverage for everyone so that no sick person will go untreated. But most importantly, do it in such a way that everyone is accountable for their actions and the taxpayers don't get ripped off too bad. Insuranace companies and healt care providers hire lobbyists to represent them. As individuals we elect officials to represent us. Those very individuals are the ones the lobbyists go after. Our representatives have to have strong wills to get what's best for us over what's best for a few.

In any case we're coming down to the wire and it's going to be close. If you have an opinion now is the time to pass it along to your representative and senators. Unfortunately we are not very well represented right now with big  money Republicans McConnell, do nothing Bunning and follow McConnell, Whitfield. But you never know. Email them your opinion. It's easier to count emails than opening all those letters. You better do it quickly or it'll be over.

Keep your email short and to the point. They don't need the history of your aunt Pearl's gall bladder etc. They need your opinion on the subject at hand. Give it to them. It's free and it works. Even Mitch McConnell would listen to a ground swell of support from his constituents because he wants to get elected again. Do a little home work on where the battles are and express your opinion on how those battles should end. It's really up to you and me to get the job done. But take action now!!!

1121 Yamato Visit for comparison

Dropped in on Yamato at Clarksville Friday night. Packed, busy as usual. Poor Mr. Yu had lost a friend to cancer after a 4 yr battle and he was sad. The funeral had been today.  On the bright side, he finally got his teeth all fixed from the assault last year. Million Dollar Smile. Now he thinks he's going bald so he's getting hair implants. I wish I had half the hair he has.

I kept looking around trying to see what was different from Osaka. I can't figure it out except the staffing. Mr. Yu has one American working for him. The rest are Korean and they have an extremely good work ethic. Constant motion, no loafing. They struggle a little with English but you can make yourself uderstood. Some speak English as well as we do.

Also the staff actually knows what every item on the menu is. They apparently grow up with this stuff so they know what it is. Very few Americans were reaised on oreintal seafood.

I saw Jeff Burkhead this morning and he said he had seen me at Yamato the night before but I missed him somehow. I need to get that other eye fixed. Scheduled to get it Dec 9. (Cataract removal).

1120 Health Care Opponents

The big insurance companies and Health care providers are really bitching about the new health care reform bill cost. Why it's going to cost a few billion dollars a year. We could easily pick up the tab for the healthcare out of savings from ending two wars gone bad and bleeding money that we will never see again. At least when taxpayer money is spent on health care there is some return on investment. When a hundred thousand soldiers in the middle east cost us billions to keep there,  there is no return on investment. It's a wasted amount. (Unless we take the countries and all their assets and put them on our balance sheet and operate their oil fields for ourselves. That entire region would die without oil revenue. We now would own the oil. We set the price. We make money to pay back all those billions we blew away. We make Iraq the 51st state, Iran the 52nd and Pakistan the 53rd. We have martial law until we get the killing under control which will take 5 years but think of the investment return. All that oil.

1119 Good News??

It appears the US Economy may be finally recovering from the setback we got last year. While unemployment is the highest in 30 years at 10 percent the 90 percent of the people still working are finally starting to loosen up and spend a little money rather than hoarding. On the local scene, Fort Campbell continues to grow and prosper on our tax dollars. The new plant in Clarksville will employee several hundred construction workers before opening in 2012 with full time employees reportedly in the 500 range. I hear some locall plants are actuppearally hiring a few people now and judging by parking lot appearances, some seem to be quite busy compared to 6 months ago.

I watched Warren Buffet being interviewed day before yesterday and he says we will come back meaner and leaner but we have got to get used to thinking in world terms as opposed to a closed economy for the US. We have got to figure out ways to make money off China, India and other large coutries with growing economies. Former president Bush did a lot of damage to our relationships overseas by wanting to be the big dog everywhere but president Obama is asking how we can get along better and trade with each other to reach a goal of everyone benefiting. It will take years to smooth out the rough spots but Buffet says it will happen because the US Economy has always been able to change and adapt to new ways of doing things to keep people working. It takes scares like we had last year to make us better. I hope he's right.

1115 A day at the Zoo

Peggy, Paige, Matt and I loaded up yesterday and went to the Nasville Zoo at Grassmere for the day. It was a special day in that some of the Tennessee Titans and some of their cheerleaders were on hand to raise money for the children with disabilities program sponsored by Cortland Finnegan (Number 31) of the Titans.

It was a beautiful day and the parking lot was packed. You cannot imagine the transformation that has been made to the zoo in the past year. It's gotten to be a big deal. The Titans had rented the old homestead area for their event so they wouldn't interfere with the zoo goers who were there to see the animals.

It was my lucky day. Matt and I got our pictures made with the cheerleaders to start off. Then one of the Nashville Jewelry stores, Lindell's I believe, was giving away prizes if you bought raffle tickets with drawings every hour or so and the grand prize drawing for a 1/2 carat diamond at 2 PM. I bought some tickets. On the next drawing about 12 PM my name was called and I was the winner of a nice ring with diamonds. They put my name back in the pot and told me I was eligible for further drawings.

When it got to be about 1:30 we were ready to go but I said "let's wait for the drawing at 2". Well, low and behold guess what. Yep, my name was drawn for the diamond.  I told Peggy we should go to the nearest store and buy a lottery ticket. I never win anything bit it was obviously my day. We decided that might be pushing it. The diamond had a value of 2500 dollars.

So Matt and I  got our picture with some cute girls, Matt and Paige got some autographs from the Titan players, Peggy got to spend a fun day with her grandson, daughter, and husband and I got the loot. Just call me "Lucky".

1115 Deleted Thread

Some of you will notice that I have deleted a post and all comments attached to it. This post was singling out an individual who is not a public official and holds no celebrity in the community. This is not the proper place to indict any private individual, their family or friends. The proper way to handle the alledged actions is to contact HPD with your complaint. If it's true, the police will take the appropriate legal steps to do what the law requires. If the police do, for some reason, fail to take action, then call the Commonwealth Attorney and ask for an investigtion. Any future comments on this subject will be erased so don't waste your time making them. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, dont ask?

1107 New restaurant downtown.

Since we have had almost no comments on the new restaurant Downtown, Peggy and I decided to try it for ourselves. First of all the official name of the establishment is "Harper House". Harper is the name of the baby sitter who helped raise the proprietor, Nelson Green, and her sister. Harper was kind of a second mom to the kids.

The restaurant is located in the building formerly occupied by Bartholemew's and some other's, most recently Timmons. We were early enough to beat the rush and found a parking place on the street just a few steps from the front door. The place started filling shortly after we ordered.

The main bar has been moved downstairs and the mezzanine will probably be used for parties etc. We asked for a particular server who happened to be working upstairs so we got to eat up there. There was a party of 12 or so going on but it didn't affect us. We could look out over the entire restaurant from a different point of view. I like the new layout.

The menu was extensive and easy to read. Prices were more than reasonable. Service was excellent and we were welcomed right away. Since neither of us was starving we passed on the appetizers and went straight to the entrees. A couple of slices of some kind of bread were brought to us immediately. I ordered the 12 oz. bone-in pork chop and Peggy got the grilled chicken salad.

Our food arrived within just a few minutes. Remember, we had beaten the rush, but I noticed everyone was being served in pretty much the same fashion. We were asked several times to comment on the food since they want to know what they're doing right and what might be wrong. When Ms Green came by she asked me specifically about the pork chop and was it too dry. I said "just a little" and she said they were working on trying to moisten the item to be perfect. I felt like a food critic and was glad she asked. The chop wasn't THAT dry, just a tad. The turnip greens and potato were faultless.

Our server named off the desserts and my mouth watered but I just couldn't hold any more. Next time I'm going to save room for dessert. By the way, the iced tea was fantastic, better than any other I have had in Hoptown.

The entire experience got two thumbs up from both of us. That's not bad for a place that's only been open for a short time. I almost forgot, there was a gentleman playing the piano and a big screen toward the back up high, was showing a comedy silent movie, Charlie Chaplin, I think. It was hilarious but I didn't get to see the entire thing.

That's about it as far as I can remember. We knew several of the other patrons which is always nice. Most of them were on the lower level so we chatted with them as we were leaving. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. We'll be going back. You owe it to yourself to try it.