Chuck Thompson has chiggers, local folks say.
Five nights ago, I called Thompson, the Portland, Ore.-based author of Outside magazine’s recent article naming Chattanooga as the best city to live.
He answered the phone after two rings, which surprised me: I figured he’d be busy greasing his bike chain or memorizing Nancy Pelosi speeches as a Kurt Cobain album played loudly in the background and a fresh café-latte-mocha-frappe-decaf brewed in the pot.
That’s, like, what all dudes on the West Coast do, right?
I wanted to talk to him about his experience here, and the loud reaction to his story — which called out Chattanoogans for our “ubiquitous evangelical dogma and a reputation for red-state conservatism” — from local readers.