Knoxify » The University of Tennessee

View of Knoxville, Vol. 79

CP — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:30:51 +0000

Stairway to Vol heaven. Photo: Derek Slagle | flickr

The View of Knoxville series is derived from photos in our flickr group. Add your pictures and we might feature them here.

Year in Review: Top Knoxified Stories of 2009 and More

CP — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:30:08 +0000

Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday to us! Happy two year birthday dear Knoxify!

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been churning away at this site for nearly two years now. Time flies when you’re having fun interacting with the many people that call Knoxville home. We want to take this pixel space to display a few stats, look back on our top stories from 2009, and also give you a glimpse at what’s on the horizon for the site.

Stats
Unique visitors: 36,586
Pageviews: 130,326
Total # of photos in flickr pool: 2,210

Top 10 Most Popular Stories/Series

Knoxville Neighborhood Guides. We have heard stories that our ‘hood guides have convinced people to move to Knoxville sight unseen so we’re not surprised to see them at the top of the list.
Lost Your Job? Apply Inside. This post generated a ton of buzz including multiple TV interviews and hundreds of resumes landing in our inbox. We feel fortunate that we got to help a few people land jobs during this tough economy.
University of Tennessee Salary Database. A last minute addition to our site, this brief story is a search magnet. Inquiring minds want to know about salaries.
How to live in Knoxville. Sure, we love Knoxville but we also know how to ruffle a few feathers now and then. Patrick’s post on living in Knoxville brought out the boundary lines in a few commenters.
Best Place for a Haircut in Knoxville? Everybody needs a haircut, right?
Did Publix Buy Food City? Actually, no they didn’t but the rumor we reported blew up the Google juices. However, Publix is looking for a home here.
Knoxville’s best coffee shops. Our readers love to talk about coyotes, food and coffee. It’s no surprise that this post is in the top 10.
Best Pizza in Knoxville? We live in a town where pizza joints sue each other over cooking methods. The 30+ comments on this story provide good direction on where to find the tastiest slice.
The New UT Football Locker Room. A popular post but we were asked to take down the images we posted shortly after the story ran. Go Vols!
Have you seen coyotes in Knoxville? You knew it was coming. 80+ comments don’t lie, Knoxville has an abundance of coyotes.

If you follow us on Twitter you probably know that we’re in the midst of a site redesign and branding overhaul. We want to provide you with more content presented in a user friendly way. We’re hoping our new layout will do the trick but we can’t reveal anything major just yet. Butttt, we can give you a sneak peek at our new logo that’s still in draft mode (hopefully our design firm will forgive us for this).

As we wrap up we’d like to say to all of our family, friends, readers, visitors and coyotes, thanks for another great year! We’re looking forward to keeping the site going and giving you more reasons to love Knoxville.

All the best and Merry Christmas,
The Knoxify Crew

Photo by: timlewisnm

View of Knoxville, Vol. 51

CP — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:30:08 +0000

This photo was taken by Jackie Crumpler

The View of Knoxville series is derived from photos in our flickr group. Add your pictures and we might feature them here.

Sweet Melissa: A Story About the Beauty of Friendship and Orchids

Laura Bower — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:30:09 +0000

My friend, Melissa, told me her grandmother advised her always to have orchids in her house, especially in winter, because they bring a cold room to life. So, Melissa’s lovely home teemed with live orchids of every variety: phalaenopsis, cattleyas, paphiopedilums, dendrobiums and oncidiums. Her favorite orchid was called “Lady’s Slipper” and is actually native to this region. The Cherokee used it to treat various nervous disorders. Lady’s Slipper is sunny yellow with purple veins, fragrant and fragile-looking. Melissa was fragile too, dying suddenly and leaving two young children behind. She was my childhood friend, rediscovered as an adult, when we were both young mothers with tow-headed toddlers.

Melissa moved to Florida for a few years when her husband was in the Navy, but she always dreamed of coming home to Knoxville to raise her family. After her first bout of cancer, she was more determined than ever to move back, close to her parents and the friends with whom she’d grown up. Melissa and her husband ended up buying a house within walking distance of her childhood home, where her parents still live today. That sense of place, practically a genetic trait in all Southerners, called Melissa home.

We became neighbors and best friends. Our children were devoted playmates. We’d hang out at Whitlow Park in Sequoyah and watch our fearless little ones climb to precarious perches in the pine trees or swing themselves higher and higher on the swing set till they were airborne, landing in the gravel and laughing. We trick-or-treated together, had birthday parties at each other’s houses and shared chicken pox, so our kids would all get it over with at the same time. And, always there were orchids in Melissa’s immaculate, inviting house. Our children knew not to touch them or even breathe on them!

Crossroads, seem to come and go, yeah.
The gypsy flies from coast to coast
Knowing many, loving none,
Bearing sorrow havin fun,

So go the lyrics to the Allman Brothers song, “Melissa.”

It’s been ten years since Melissa died, but I think of her often, especially when I make the trip out to Lady Slipper Lane, off Watt Road in deep West Knoxville to Elmore Orchids. Melissa introduced me to this greenhouse that serves as a spa for orchids, a place for them to rest and recuperate from the hard work of being beautiful. Elmore’s boarding program is a wonderfully practical idea, typically East Tennessean in concept: don’t toss out those orchids after they bloom. Recycle them at Elmore’s, and you’ll never have to buy new orchids again! Of course, Elmore Orchids sells new orchids too. The family-owned business supplies local retailers and has a thriving walk-in business. Jim Elmore is adept at cultivating hybrid species of orchids as well as rare varieties of ferns.

Paul Fortsch, a University of Tennessee horticulture graduate with extensive experience at Selby Gardens in Sarasota, Florida and an internship with Lines Orchids on Signal Mountain, manages the greenhouse. Fortsch knows all his customers on sight, even if we’re only in every few months. He’s the one who calls us when our “babies” are back in bloom. Some people like to pick up their plants when they’re just beginning to bud. I like my orchids to get as much TLC as possible before I bring them home, preferably with a bloom or two and no “dud buds” in sight.

It’s interesting that Fortsch studied orchids in South Florida, since Susan Orlean’s mesmerizing book, The Orchid Thief, is set in South Florida’s Fakahatchee Strand and involves the Seminole Indians’ mystical connection to a rare species called the “Ghost Orchid,” from which they extract a mood-altering substance. The Academy Award winning movie, Adaptation, is based on this deliciously quirky and compelling story. I asked Fortsch about the infamous Ghost Orchid. He debunked the myth but said there are psychedelic orchids called ceboletta which are used by the same indigenous tribes that use the peyote cactus for ritualistic purposes.

During Fortsch’s time in the Florida everglades, he inventoried epiphytes or “air plants” in Sarasota County and slogged through the very same swamps featured in the book and the movie. “It was the most dangerous place I’ve ever been in my life,” he recalled. “The cottonmouths are worse than the alligators, unless they’re mating or have a brood. It’s all about timing with alligators.”

Although the ghost orchid is not psychotropic, it is an event in the orchid world when one blooms in cultivation, as it’s doing right now at Elmore’s. “It’s the only ghost orchid that’s bloomed for us this year,” said Fortsch.

As for me, I’m content with the domesticated phalaenopsis or “big-leaf orchid.” Phals are the hardiest house orchids and bloom the longest. The shape of the blossoms reminds me of our Tennessee state flower, iris germanica, a kissing cousin to the orchid. I put them in baskets and cachepots around my house, tie their drooping stems to stakes with raffia and spray their waxy leaves with Leaf Shine. Voila – instant room makeover! Who notices dust or scuffed baseboards when there’s a show-stopping phalaenopsis amabilis in the room? At least, that’s what my friend, Melissa, always said …

No one hears his lonely sigh,
There are no blankets where he lies.
In all his deepest dreams the gypsy flies
With sweet Melissa … mmm …

Her husband remarried. Her kids changed schools. Our boys, born just four months apart, are no longer inseparable. I got divorced and moved out of the neighborhood where Melissa and I both grew up. But somehow, the orchids connect us and sustain our friendship.

Should UT Have Moved the Rock?

CP — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:25:27 +0000

It’s not everyday that a rock gets more press than a man who calls 911 and shares his plan to rob a bank. But this week was no ordinary week at The University of Tennessee campus.

Famous for its ever-changing messages, ‘The Rock’ has been a staple on campus since the 1960s. But as some of you shared your feelings with us about the recent ‘Rock Move’, it became clear that little is sacred at the university.

Did the university make the right move by placing ‘The Rock’ across the street from its original location just to build a new Student Health Center?

Photo by: uncle mike in knoxville