Jay GreesonSo, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke is apparently raising money across the state and may be angling for a federal government post, say, in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Side note: If he does go to work for the ag department, maybe he could come up with a way to get the chicken smell out of the Southside.)
And mayoral challenger Larry Grohn is happy to groan about it at every turn, throwing a wide array of claims that range from Chattanooga being an afterthought for the current mayor to the potential of city employees misusing their time.
Of course, the mayor said all this is laughable - the documents that Grohn pointed to were simply part of Chief of Staff Stacy Richardson's master's degree homework, which makes this entire thing feel childish.
We have wondered before in this space about what is Berke's top accomplishment - and it's anyone's guess.
We also wonder what exactly Grohn brings to the conversation other than a loud tone and a pointing finger.
Then there's Dave Crockett, who is so from the 1980s we'd be willing to bet that his chief of staff would be named Tubbs.
Anyone else feel like the presidential election has in some ways descended on the 423 with this ballot option of "who is the less worse" for the next leader of our city?
A Democratic front-runner who has a history of secrecy (remember the self-erasing text message software?) against a bombastic Republican who is great at making noise and, well, that's about it.
Alas.
Speaking of low approval rating
This week was Groundhog Day, which meant America's favorite real-life rodent took center stage in Pennsylvania.
Around these parts, it meant Chattanooga Chuck was in the spotlight. Chuck said we'll have an earlier spring, and here's hoping that he's right - and that he's more accurate than his more famous colleague to the north.
Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his well-kept lair in Pennsylvania, pranced about and waited to see his shadow.
According to Phil, we have six more weeks of winter.
Well, like a lot of legends, Mr. Phil seems to be full of hot air.
The good folks at LiveScience.com report that Phil is correct about 39 percent of the time. If you are a baseball player, hitting .390 is great; if you are a gambler, well, 39 percent gets you living out of suitcases and trying to find a new spot since they tore down the Cherokee Motel.
And Phil is especially bad when predicting an extra six weeks of winter, like he did this week. (There are no official numbers on Chattanooga Chuck, if you're wondering.)
The numbers are telling. Phil has predicted 103 extended winters and 17 early springs in his 129 years of doing this. (The other nine years are unreported, meaning that either Phil stayed out too late the night before with his 'hogs or previous versions of Phil just couldn't deal with the pressure.)
Since 1969, Phil's correct percentage drops to 36 percent.
Super Bowl numbers
The big game is this weekend. Companies are paying more than $150,000 per second for commercial time to pitch their goods to a monster Super Bowl audience in the hundreds of millions.
It's a crazy day of excess. The cheapest game tickets start at $3,000. There will be more than 5,000 credentialed members of the media in Houston. Fox will use 70 cameras to broadcast the game.
For the stock market, investors should be pulling hard for the Atlanta Falcons. With 82 percent accuracy over the last 50 years, when the NFC team wins, the market rises. When an AFC team like the Patriots wins, the market falls.
Finally more than $126 million will be wagered on the Super Bowl, according to WalletHub.com. Bettors can stake a claim to everything from what type of pants Luke Bryan will wear to sing the national anthem to what color Gatorade the winning coach will be doused with after the game.
Enjoy.
Saturday star
Speaking of the Super Bowl, here's one way we can all cheer for the same team.
Meet retired Air Force Master Sgt. Mark Evans, who is in his ninth year of running Pizzas4Patriots, a nonprofit organization in the Chicago suburbs devoted to sending deep-dish pizza to service members overseas, veterans and first responders.
Evans sends pizzas to the American troops every July 4 and Super Bowl Sunday. Since 2008, he told Fox that almost 170,000 pizzas have been shipped overseas to service members.
That's a Super cause we can all support.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.