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It wasn’t just the singing that dropped jaws at Saturday night’s Knoxville...
Soprano Julia Lima. Don't worry, there are more photos later in this post! Everybody said last Saturday’s Opera Ball was going to be “different” this year. And, take it from me, it was! It was so much...
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Fantasy of Trees is official start of Christmas (With a bonus lesson: don’t...
Two turtle doves are tending a nest in the gorgeous Christmas tree designed by G&G Interiors. The decorating theme this year: The 12 Days of Christmas. Warning: There has been an explosion of...
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Stars ignite the Urban League Gala
Martin Luther King, III, speaks in front of projected images of his parents, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King. Chilling. (Photo by John Black Photography.) Is it just me, or has anyone...
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Les Trois Chefs: good eating for a good cause
Fried pimento cheese balls were prepared by Chef Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta. If your idea of a good time is tasting course after sumptuous course prepared by three excellent chefs...
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Eating at Eddie’s: pairing food, wine, beer and fun
My husband, Alan Carmichael, and our friend and client, Mary Ellen Brewington. Mary Ellen's company, Cherokee Distributing, was a sponsor of "Under a Harvest Sky." There was a little nip in the air...
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Kreis Beall: At Blackberry, the answer is always yes
Kreis Beall speaking at her home recently “Thirty-six years have gone very quickly,” Kreis Beall told the 75 guests gathered on the tent-covered porch of her beautifully appointed Lyons View Drive home...
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It was a Dickens of an evening!
Deane Conley, right, and her daughter, Pam Williamson, were NOT dressed as Victorians! What the Dickens? We just threw on our dress clothes and headed to Cherokee Country Club to check out the...
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There’s snow business like hospitality business
Kim Beets, the Knoxville Convention Center's director of food and beverage, helped make the center's rotunda into a snow globe for the client holiday party. Ever wondered what it would be like to...
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Downtown Christmas progressive dinner: eight friends celebrating life in the...
The Glencoe at 615 State Street was the final stop on our downtown Christmas progressive dinner. A bunch of downtown buddies usually use our periodic progressive dinners to recruit more fun people to...
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Happy New Year, downtown Knoxville style!
Richard Ford tips his hat to the last few hours of 2012. We have found, over the years, that the kind of New Year’s celebration we enjoy most is the kind where we go to several different places in a...
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How to get invited back
We were in charge of two parties last year for the new restaurant, Chuy's. Here's the mascot, Chuy the Redfish, with Gay Lyons. “Don’t take me off the list!” I can’t tell you how many times I hear...
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Knox County Commissioner Amy Broyles: You either laugh or bang your head on...
Commissioner Amy Broyles I found myself in a Unitarian Universalist church service for the first time a few Sundays ago. There was no mistaking the church parking lot on Kingston Pike for any...
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MLK weekend: Madly Leaving Knoxville
The "MLK Girls" are, from left, Madge Cleveland, Susan Brown, Cheryl Bartley, Katie Kline and me (taking the picture.) Basically, our annual “girls’ trip” this year consisted of lurching from one...
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In Knoxville, Scripps employees “live the brand”
Ken Lowe, Scripps Networks chairman, president and CEO, addressing a sold out Leadership Knoxville crowd at Scripps Networks' west Knox headquarters. In the early ’90s, Ken Lowe, a hot-shot young radio...
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Knoxville Restaurant Week is coming up: We’ve made our first reservation....
Server Chris Voto offers steak tartare during Restaurant Week kick-off at Ruth's Chris Steak House last night. Knoxville Restaurant Week is set for Feb. 24 through March 1 and, already, more...
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Dining among treasures on a Saturday night
A fabulous setting for Saturday night dinner Did you know: Fine cut glass can get flea bites? Silk lasts 800 to 1,000 years? Close-mouthed dolls are not worth as much as dolls with their mouths open...
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OK, fellas: I’m about to save your life
This is Daryl Johnson. He is a very smart guy because he went to G&G Interiors last night to buy Valentine's gifts for his lovely wife, Lynn. Let him be your role model. This is what success looks...
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What happened in Mox Vegas!
It's not Vegas without a showgirl! Ours was Joy Riddle. We said on the invitation that what happened in Mox Vegas might end up on the Blue Streak. And, sure enough! The 21st annual Moxley Carmichael...
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Who needs Hollywood? We had our own Grammy performance here in Knoxville
Lucas and Debbie Richman with the maestro's Grammy Award What better way to spend Grammy Awards night than with someone who actually won a Grammy? That’s what Alan and I figured when we signed up to go...
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30 years of “Straight from the Heart”
Edye Ellis and Bill Williams earlier this week looking as good as they did 30 years ago when they anchored WBIR's news. I was invited to WBIR’s celebration earlier this week of the 30th anniversary of...
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