Hey, I thought of something non-political that I can blog about: pretty pictures! Those always work. :)

As a follow-up, sort of, to my shiny old cars post, here is my promised photo gallery of "Springtime in Knoxville." A few highlights:

That’s Neyland Stadium in the distance in that bottom picture, and the Tennessee River on the left… in case you were wondering. The middle picture is of Knoxville’s Krutch Park. And the top one was taken from a downtown parking garage. Those white trees are gorgeous (though they aren’t white anymore; they turned green a couple of weeks ago).

Anyway, again, the full album is here. It starts on March 6 and continues through April 9 (and I’ll add to it if I take more pictures that belong in it). Nothing photographically spectacular, IMHO, but some nice pictures anyway. It’s truly a beautiful time of year here.

Last weekend, Becky, Loyette and I went to "Harriman’ Cruisin 2008," a street festival in the kinda sorta nearby town of Harriman. Basically, Harriman Cruisin’ involves a bunch of car buffs parking their classic cars all up and down Main Street and letting people ooh and aah at them. Here’s my photo gallery.

As the title and the above photo suggest, it’s mostly pictures of shiny old cars, but there are a few miscellaneous shots of what is otherwise, frankly, kind of a depressed, Rust Belt-ish looking downtown area. (See, e.g., here and here.) In fact, if you look closely, you might see some small-town folk who look a little bitter and might well be clinging to religion and, er, antipathy to people who aren’t like them. ;)

Anyway, we had fun. Old cars are neat. We even saw a Ford Model A! Here, again, is the link to the gallery.

UPDATE: As noted in comments, the above-pictured car is (I think!) a 1959 Chevy Impala. Here’s an old "subliminal" TV ad for it, featuring Pat Boone and Dinah Shore:

Ain’t YouTube great?

Joe Lunardi has published his initial, ridiculously early, meaningless yet fun, pre-pre-season 2009 Bracketology projections. (Hat tip: BK.) His #1 seeds are North Carolina, Duke, Texas and Pittsburgh. 2007 finalists Kansas and Memphis drop to #2 and #3, respectively, and UCLA plummets to a #7. w00t! :)

More importantly, Notre Dame is a #2 seed (without Gene Cross? Hmm…), Gonzaga is a #5, and USC is a #9. Frankly, those all seem high to me, but maybe I’m just a pessimist about my own teams. (Although, if so, it didn’t prevent my irrational Zag-xuberance last year.)

Tennessee falls all the way to #9… where they’re matched up in a brutal first-round game against #8 Davidson. (Stephen Curry FTW!) This year’s mid-major superpower that almost beat UT, Butler, is on the bubble but out, as are the Washington Huskies. The UConn Huskies, though, are sitting pretty as a #2 seed. Oh, and the University of Hartford Hawks, after falling one game short in 2008, make their NCAA Tournament debut in 2009 as a #16 seed. Hurrah!

Yeah, so, we have a college football season to start — and finish — before I’ll get really excited about any of this, but it’s fun to look ahead. :)

In the last half hour, a spooky sort of here-come-the-storms feeling has definitely settled over Knoxville. Tornado warnings off to the west. I'm heading home, and should beat the storms.

UPDATE: I’m home, in case anyone was worried. :) No major storms yet here, though I think Jay’s hometown of Loudon got pounded. [UPDATE: Apparently not.]

Looks like we may get some action in 30-45 minutes, but overall, the line of storms appears to be weakening. Indeed, thankfully, there are no more tornado warnings at the moment.

LATER UPDATE: The line of storms kind of fell apart as it neared Knoxville proper, so we were largely spared. But one isolated storm cell did move over a while later, bringing some heavy rain for a few minutes and briefly turning the sky a weird shade of yellow — I’m not sure what that was all about. Here are the “before & after” shots, at 8:02 PM and 8:07 PM:

Hmm… upon further review, sunset was at 8:07, so maybe the sunlight at 8:02 was somehow shining through the clouds and rain at some weird angle, producing the yellowness.

It was a bit spooky, though, regardless.

Becky e-mails that The Weather Channel "is telling people in western Nashville suburbs to take cover." That would be because of the tornado warning for central Cheatham County. And that line of storms is headed our way. "Methinks it’ll be one helluva night," Becky writes. Indeed.

UPDATE: The big Dogwood Arts Parade in downtown Knoxville, scheduled for 7pm tonight, has been postponed to next Friday April 25 due to the approaching line of storms.

It's a beautiful spring day here in Knoxville, with forecast highs in the upper 70s. But, better enjoy it while it lasts; a wintry blast is coming, and by Monday the high will be around 40. Yikes!

And here's the UT student paper. It notes that Pat Summitt is two championships away from tying John Wooden's record. Hey, this could be my opening to root for the Lady Vols without being disloyal. :)

The News-Sentinel front page.

I'm at the UT bookstore on my lunch break, and the Lady Vols national championship t-shirts are out in force.

…does this mean there’s going to be a parade?? I love parades!!

UPDATE: Local news says there will be a celebration at Thompson-Boling Arena at 5:30 PM tomorrow, free and open to the general public, with doors opening at 5:00. No word yet on any parade plans.

P.S. My Facebook profile asks the question:

It’s Candace vs. Candice (and Smoky vs. The Tree) in the women’s national championship game, and Jeff vs. Jeff in the Living Room Times women’s pool, as March Madness officially ends tonight.

If the Tennessee Lady Vols, led by Candace Parker, beat the Stanford Drunken Trees Cardinal, led by Candice Wiggins, in tonight’s title showdown, then Jeff Freeze, a 1992 Indiana alum, will win the 11th annual Times women’s pool. If Stanford prevails, then Jeff Vaca, a 1982 Cal alum, will be the pool champion.

The game starts at 8:30 PM EST on ESPN. Gamecast here.

P.S. If Tennessee wins, there will be three contestants in my pools who correctly predicted both the men’s and women’s champions: Chris Aemisegger, Dan Port, and… Loyette! Heh. (If Stanford wins, there will be no such contestants.)

UPDATE: It’s 37-29 Tennessee at halftime.

UPDATE 2: The Lady Vols win!

The final score was 64-48. I guess they used up all the drama in their Final Four win over LSU:

Ever since I saw (and photographed) the above-pictured robin en route home from work on March 6, I’ve been meaning to put together a "springtime in Knoxville" photo gallery for the blog. There are a ton of beautiful flowers, trees and other lovely signs of spring in this part of the world. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to make the album yet, but I hope to do so soon.

I’ll definitely have a lot more material to work with after today, as Becky, Loyette and I ventured out to the Crescent Bend Tulip Time festival this afternoon, then walked three miles along the riverfront, snapping photos all the way. Here’s one pic from the tulip gardens:

Very pretty. It was an absolutely gorgeous day here, and it looks like a very nice week ahead. It all puts me in mind of the song "Rambles of Spring," one of my favorite Makem & Clancy numbers — of which, conveniently enough, I found a YouTube clip recently. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds has some nice pictures from yesterday as well.

If you think the men’s tournament is Chalk City, check out the women’s bracket: the Elite Eight consists of four #1 seeds and four #2s. (Admittedly, chalkiness is more common on the women’s side, where parity is less pronounced than among the men. But still.) #1-seed Tennessee sealed the deal last night with a 74-64 win over #5 Notre Dame, which is now 0-16 all-time against UT.

The Irish gave the Lady Vols a much better game than they did in an 87-63 loss back in January at the Joyce Center. In this one, ND led at halftime, 33-31. But between about the 18-minute mark and the 13-minute mark of the second half, Tennessee went on a 17-1 run, and Candace Parker wound up with a career-high-tying 34 points. That was just too much for the Irish to overcome.

In my 11th annual women’s pool, six contestants correctly predicted the "all chalk" Elite Eight: Ken Stern, Kevin Pilz, Tom Caputi, Carol LaPlante, Joseph Hiegel and Lisa Velte.

Stern currently leads the pool with 316 out of a possible 352 points. He took first place from Chuck Wessell when #3 Texas A&M beat #2 Duke last night. Wessell, who had picked the Blue Devils, is now second with 313. Pilz is third with 311. Those three contestants are the only ones ahead of the "all favorites bracket," which would have 309 points. Complete standings here and after the jump. Information on who’s still alive to win the pool — 21 contestants in all — here.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention this before, but in the men’s pool (presented by the UCLA Bruins, blah blah blah), 28 contestants got the "all-chalk" Final Four right. Their names are listed after the jump.

(more…)

Notre Dame and Tennessee are about to get underway in a Sweet Sixteen showdown. The #5-seed Fighting Irish are the last chance to prevent an “all chalk” Elite Eight in the women’s NCAA Tournament; so far, all the #1 and #2 seeds have won.

Incidentally, the women’s pool standings and scenarios are updated through seven Elite Eight games. Ken Stern currently has the lead. The standings are after the jump as well.

(more…)

The Bruce Pearl to Indiana rumors are officially on.