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Hip to Be Square
Dr. Bill Bass brings a different set of bones to each “Dinner with the Bone Doctor.” The fourth such event at Echo Bistro & Wine Bar was held last night. Guests enjoyed sea bass and veal while staring at various bones from the Body Farm. I have had the good fortune to serve as emcee for each of the dinners.
The first bone of the evening was a native American skull that was about 400 years old. Dr. Bass could tell that the person’s skull was flattened by a cradleboard during infancy. As he placed the skull on each table in the restaurant, guests grabbed their cameras and cell phones to take a picture. Melissa Treece posted her photo to Twitter right away.
One of the bones came from the neck of a bison. It had a huge hump spine. Dr. Bass compared it to the same bone from the neck of a human. Before the dinner, Susan Seals of the Bone Zones team said to me, “when Dr. Bass holds up the buffalo bone, be sure to mention that they serve bison steaks here at Echo.” When the time came, I grabbed a menu and read aloud: “Bison Strip Steak ‘Denmark,’ broiled to perfection then topped with sautéed shiitake mushrooms, country ham and blue cheese crumbles.”
In the past, Dr. Bass has shown what remains of an artificial hip from a person who was cremated. Last night he showed an artificial hip from someone who decomposed at the Body Farm. The number 31-05D is visible on the pelvis. According to the Body Farm numbering system, the bones came from the 31st body donated in 2005.
Dr. Bass gave a few hints about the next Jefferson Bass novel, “The Inquisitor’s Key,” which will be released on May 8. It involves the Avignon Papacy, the Shroud of Turin and a mysterious set of bones.
The Brew Crew
Kim Leslie came down the stairs as soon as I arrived at the Smoky Mountain Brewery. Lauren, the manager on duty, smiled and said she had given Kim one of the same buzzers used to tell patrons their table was ready. When I gave my name at the hostess stand, Lauren activated the buzzer.
I’ve known Kim for years. We worked at different Washington radio stations but had mutual friends. She is now on the air in Nashville. When I read on Facebook that her family was on their way to a vacation in Gatlinburg, I suggested that they have dinner at the Brewery. I had plans to be there for a live video feed on SMOMOtv.com with Taz Cable.
My blogfather, Rich Hailey, and his wife Lissa were also in attendance. I mentioned them as well as a Twitter message I received from Travis Quick, a fan of the Brewery’s Turkey Creek location. Taz and I were on just as the Champs Sports Bowl ended. I was rooting for Knoxville Catholic High School alumnus Harrison Smith, who was playing his last game for Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the Fighting Irish lost but Smith is likely to play again next year in the NFL.
Playing Kitsch-up
The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile visited some of my old haunts in Burbank and North Hollywood this week. My friend Susan Olsen was an honored guest along with songwriter Allee Willis and Americana archivist Charles Phoenix. For starters, the three friends rode the giant hot dog to the Brady Bunch house on Dilling Street. I always loved taking out-of-town guests to see it, even though the subsequent owners took pains to change its appearance and discourage looky-loos.
Allee posted great pictures of the journey on her blog. They went to two Burbank restaurants that I used to frequent: Bob’s Big Boy and Chili John’s. Perhaps the most clever picture was taken at Circus Liquor, which was also used as a location in the movie “Clueless.” They positioned the Wienermobile so that it looks like the giant neon alcoholic clown is standing atop the vehicle.
I had my first experience with the Wienermobile when I was working at WAVA. One morning I had privilege of riding in the vehicle while broadcasting via cellphone. I had my upper body through the sun roof as we drove around Washington D.C. and Arlington. I tossed wiener-whistles to people and shouted “I’m in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! Don’t you wish you were me?”
Stay Classy
The shiny desk at East Tennessee PBS had a familiar look to it. The desk used to be part of the Good Morning Tennessee set at WATE. When WATE made the switch to high-definition, they gave pieces of their news sets to Fulton High School and to East Tennessee PBS.
My assignment on Sunday night was to sit at the desk and ask for pledges. I also plugged the premium items available during three programs: “Ava Barber’s Smoky Mountain Christmas,” “Great Performances: Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park” and “Barbra Streisand – One Night Only at the Village Vanguard.”
Ava Barber and Cylk Cozart were the celebrity guests during Sunday night’s pledge drive. I first met Ava in August in the same studio. Cylk was surprised to hear that we first met 19½ years ago in California. Shortly after the L.A. riots, Power 106 aired a Stop the Violence radiothon, hosted by Arsenio Hall. I was the producer for that show as well as a subsequent live broadcast from the Galaxy Theatre complex in Hollywood. Cylk Cozart, fresh off the success of “White Men Can’t Jump,” was one of the very first celebrities to agree to participate in the radiothon.
East Tennessee PBS arranges for a local restaurant to donate food for the volunteers each night of the pledge drive. Sunday night’s food came from Five Guys Burgers and Fries. The staff of the TV station put the fries in crock pots to keep them warm, with successful results. Two of the managers from Five Guys added red bow-ties to their uniforms as they answered phone calls from donors.
The phone bank was also manned by volunteers from the Morristown Theatre Guild, who asked me if Einstein Simplified would be interested in doing a fundraiser for the Guild. One of their board members is a lovely woman named Kay Flockhart, whose daughter Calista is a well-known actress. Mrs. Flockhart told me that she and her husband retired to Tennessee after moving all over the country for his job with Kraft Foods.
Marga-tweet-aville
The invitation tweet had all the charm of a time-share offer. Blue Coast Burrito Grille promised free food in exchange for attending a “social media experiment.” I recognized the Twitter names of several other invitees and thought it would be worth the trip to Market Square, even if it was just to see them.
Patrick Goodman, tweeting as @MargaritaLoft, sought out people in Knoxville with significant numbers of tweets and followers. By inviting them to sample the food and drinks, Goodman hoped that they would help spread the word about Blue Coast Burrito and their loft bar.
As we arrived at the restaurant, we were given name tags which also showed our Twitter handles. Once we got upstairs, we saw that Patrick had connected his laptop to one of the big-screen TVs and had set it up to show a “Twitterfall” of posts that mentioned “@MargaritaLoft” or “#Knoxville.” Naturally, we were inspired to post tweets that would show up on the screen.
After a delicious dinner of salad, grilled chicken, rice and beans, the sales pitch began. Throughout December, the restaurant will be offering discounts for those who post to Twitter with a certain hashtag. For example, from December 2 through 11, anyone can get a free appetizer by re-tweeting the following while they are in the restaurant: “Free appetizer @MargaritaLoft, one per table. RT in store 2 redeem #BCBApp.” The servers will check a computer to verify that the hashtag was used properly.
Later in the month, Blue Coast Burrito Grille will use different hashtags to offer free queso with the purchase of an entrée (December 12 through 18); buy one entrée, get one half-off (December 19 through 25); and 12% off the entire ticket (December 26 through January 1). As an incentive to get more Twitter mentions, the restaurant will give a gift card to the person whose followers re-tweet the discount messages the most.
Skilled Skillet
Lunch at Monell’s was like another Thanksgiving feast, except with strangers. My wife and son and I arrived in Nashville an hour before he was to catch a ride back to school. Fortunately, there was no wait for a table on a rainy Sunday while the Titans played across town. We sat at a long table for ten where everyone passed the meats and sides to their left.
The suggestion to eat at the family-style restaurant came from Mary Constantine, the food writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel. She responded via Twitter to an inquiry I had posted on Saturday. Mary promised that they would have excellent fried chicken, which they most certainly did.
Last year my family had a family-style meal at The Loveless Cafe, which still had the feel of a restaurant. At the Loveless, we sat at our own four-top table and chose meats and sides from a menu. Monell’s feels more like you’re visiting someone’s home. Unless you show up with your own party of ten, you’ll sit with some people you don’t know. There is no menu; you eat what’s on the table. The meat selection varies by the day of the week but skillet-fried chicken is served at every meal. Everything was tasty. I liked their fruit tea, which was made with sweet tea, orange juice, apple juice and pineapple juice. I also liked their banana pudding, which was so fresh that the Nilla Wafers still had some crunch.
Baconian Method
Bacon was featured on three of my favorite dishes at the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction on Sunday night. Dr. Donetta Poisson and her team from the UT Culinary Institute prepared a bacon-wrapped shrimp on a bed of polenta with a smear of Korean barbeque sauce. Chef Chris Moore of the Knoxville Convention Center served chicken and waffles topped with bacon crumbles as big as postage stamps. Kathleen Robinson of Scrumps Cupcakes had a variety of mini-cupcakes, the best of which had a maple icing and bacon garnish.
When my wife and I are given tickets to a fundraiser, we usually make a bid on a silent auction item or buy a raffle ticket at the event. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don’t. This time, my wife had the top bid on gift bag of Clinique skin care products. She also bought a small teddy bear in a chef’s outfit. One item struck me as particularly odd until I realized that one of the many doctors in attendance would be the likely high-bidder for the disposal of 24 boxes of medical waste.
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