People who had a way with words in the news last week:
“Today was the hard work, but tomorrow is the harder work. It is time to work.”
— Democrat Montrell Besley, who unseated incumbent Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, in Thursday’s elections to represent District 11 (Alton Park, Lookout Mountain and Lookout Valley) on the Hamilton County Commission.
“This is like gravity, folks. The wood chipper of reality is brutal.”
— Attorney David MacNeill defending his client, Mark Caslin, against two charges of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder. Caslin was convicted by a jury Friday.
“There are very real issues that are caused by a large concentration of homeless individuals around your location.”
— Chattanooga City Council member Jenny Hill of North Chattanooga on a proposal by the Chatt Foundation to build a large low-barrier homeless shelter at its property on 11th Street.
“My job is to make math fun. My job is to make math understandable and simple for you. … I will teach you to be a mathematician.”
— Eastside Elementary teacher Kate McDaniel to her fifth grade students on the first day of classes for the 2026-27 academic year.
“It’s tough being a salad restaurant when everyone is scared of lettuce.”
— A post on Build-A-Salad’s Facebook page. The restaurant on Chattanooga’s North Shore announced it was closing. The restaurant attributed the decision to the cyclospora outbreak linked to lettuce.
“Cam was about 14 months younger than me, so I’ve known him since we were teenagers … He was a good guy, the closest thing to a brother I ever had.”
— Attorney Billy Gouger on his longtime friend and former business partner, Circuit Court Judge John Harvey ‘Cam’ Cameron, Jr., 61, who died after a battle with cancer.
“We think about front porches as places where friends and family come together to connect with each other and nature, and that’s really what this project is about.”
— River City Co. President and CEO Emily Mack on the Riverfront Parks Next project, which got a boost when BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee announced it would contribute funds to establish the BlueCross Healthy Place at Ross’s Landing.
“If you and 10 friends have a party, and it’s going to cost $100 to buy snacks and beverages, you’re going to charge everybody $10 apiece. If five of them are exempt, that means the other five are going to pay $20 apiece. If you have less taxpayers, that burden is going to have to increase on the remaining tax payers.”
— Robert Sivick, Whitfield County administrator on new tax exemptions.
“It’s like burying somebody.”
— David Shavin, on saying goodbye to his childhood home, which was designed for his parents in the early 1950s by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. A lawsuit filed by one of the Shavin siblings forced a public sale of the home.
“I’m very grateful that people voted, and I also understand and respect the fact that not everyone who voted voted for me. It is still my job to represent the people of District 3 well, and so I really hope to be able to do that and to honor and respect the people in our district.”
— Republican Ashley Dillon of Hixson, who won a three-way race Thursday to represent the Hixson and Lakesite areas on the Hamilton County school board.
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