Rodent Regatta

Measuring things can be tricky. To correctly provide a metric, you must usually have some certainty about who wants to know and why? Otherwise, you get purposeful distortions or you get inaccuracies brought about by imprecision.

“I think they should count them differently,” she said of the list, which combines single-ticket attractions, such as Dollywood’s theme park, with multiple-ticket attractions like the Golf & Games Family Park. The park counts every ticket sold to its three 18-hole Putt-Putt courses, two go-kart tracks, an arcade, a golf driving range, batting cages, a laser tag arena and, in warm weather, a bumper-boat ride.—from Bigger Draw Than Graceland by Michael Lollar writing for The Commercial Appeal [free subscription may be required]

There you have it. Memphis offers its number one attraction to the state of Tennessee list with a putt-putt golf course. Let’s hope we do a bit better job of appraising and assessing property for taxation. Oh, wait, this is Memphis! Yet, ten million people go to Dollywood every year?

Use your best critical thinking to decide how to help with rescue and recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. For one of the most comprehensive lists of possibilities, Instapundit is, as usual, a great place to start. Review Glenn’s suggestions by clicking here.

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Believing it couldn’t get any better, I stopped following most coverage of the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz sting. However, this morning it remains in the news as defense attorneys prepare for their clients’ upcoming court appearances. With great appreciation to Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King for lyrics that simply fit:

I was dancing with my darling to the Tennessee Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
I introduced him to my loved one
And while they were dancing
My friend stole my sweetheart from me

I remember the night and the Tennessee Waltz
Now I know just how much I have lost
Yes, I lost my little darling
The night they were playing
The beautiful Tennessee Waltz

Tennessee is taking a stab at corruption. You’ll find a lot of the news as it breaks at Mike Hollihan’s site.

This effort is long overdue and, as a property owner in Tennessee, I can only hope that e-Cycle changes its name and continues to go after other state and local officials who operate outside the boundaries of their elected position and mostly in a lawless way.

Arrests haven’t shaken my confidence at all. Arrests give me hope. What has shaken my confidence are the years of corruption that have gone uncontested. Let’s fix this!

Tourist traps mean different things to different people. For some, they are treasure troves of trinkets and tribal lore. All alliteration aside, most people prefer to avoid the place known as a tourist trap.

Historic downtown Memphis, Tennessee is a place that has some tourist traps and some remarkable places to visit. Short on recollection of the latter, I’ll mention a place that has the potential to go either way. Last night it was the former.

Type “the peabody” into Google and your first link will take you to one of Memphis’s grand ole hotels. Rennovated and operated by a local family, this fine old place is full of the tales of the past. It’s beautiful, but attempts to preserve it as designed have left it looking a bit tired and worn in some areas.

Attempts to add modern expansion to it have resulted in the worst kind of disasters in space planning, customer convenience, parking and traffic flow. Park your car in one of the first available spots for “self-parking” and you’ll hike from somewhere in North Mississippi to the lobby. Forget to prepay for parking and you’ll wind up in a line of cars idling while owners exit their vehicles to search for one of the machines that takes money and validates your parking receipt.

If the place is busy – as it was last night – no one is in charge. Bellhops are feuding with valet parking attendants. “Not my job” can be heard often. The concierge desk is unmanned. Curbside luggage handlers are deciding what kind of item they will and won’t handle based on their own interpretations of “liability.”

One guest continually referred to the concierge as the connoisseur. Were it not for those moments of hilarity, I’d have made quite the scene. As it was, I exited with the full assurance that the Peabody’s ducks – look it up – will forever get better treatment than customers, guests and those who attend events there.

That is, until someone realizes that the difference between a fine hotel and a tourist trap has far more to do with substance than image.