Chattanooga survived its test against the Boone-heads last weekend and this week prevailed against Eau Claire, Wis., in the semifinals of Outside magazine's Best Town Ever competition. Tough break for the fine folks of Eau Claire, since we edged them and the Boone, N.C., folks -- who were less than impressed with my review last week and tried to get out the vote against Chattanooga with the #ABC (anybody but Chattanooga) hashtag.
Again, this is an online vote by less than impartial participants. As I wrote last week, being dubbed the "Best Town Ever" this way is akin to picking the leader of the United Nations by who has the grooviest Facebook page.
Still, my interest has been piqued if for no other reason than the angst directed this way from the Boone contingent. So go vote online at outsideonline.com if you are so inclined.
Chattanooga is up against Port Angeles, Wash., in the finals. Our fair city was a No. 1 seed in its bracket; Port Angeles, which looks to be a lovely town and is the home of the Northwest Hair Academy, was a 16 seed. In NCAA tournament parlance this would be a historic upset on par with Basil Marceaux beating Bob Corker for a U.S. Senate seat.
Jay GreesonIf you don't vote, that's OK, too, and it's certainly understandable since there's plenty of fun stuff to do around town.
In Boone, apparently one of the best activities is online voting, whether they are still in consideration or not. Maybe they could try #betterlucknextyear.
Say what
The United Auto Workers is so threatened by competition it has resorted to a last-ditch effort in its strong-armed tactics against ACE at the Volkswagen plant.
The UAW is calling for transparency.
Yes, transparency.
We'll hold here while you catch your breath.
A group that has forever been backed by everyone from gangsters to Teamsters to potentially even the Munsters is calling for transparency.
What's next, Hillary Clinton looking for open email relations?
Good luck with that.
Finishing the drill
Many thanks to those who volunteered to help pick up flags this week at the National Cemetery after this week's Memorial Day observances.
It's a daunting job that was made a touch more challenging because of the rain.
It's also an important one and will become a family tradition for us.
Here's to trying to be mindful of the reasons we should think about Memorial Day once a day rather than once a year.
Futbal corruption; football business
OK, there obviously was a mountain of evidence and layers of international intrigue in the whole FIFA scandal.
And yes, that's potentially the first exciting thing to happen in soccer since Brandi Chastain took center stage.
Anyway, 14 people involved at various levels of FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, have been charged by the FBI for allegedly taking hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes as they determined which locales would host major events, including World Cups.
Here at home, there's a very similar process in which a small number of sports power brokers try to strong-arm where events will be held with threats of relocation unless hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money is spent.
It's called refinancing and rebuilding stadiums.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com. His columns appear on A2 on Thursdays and Saturdays and in the Sports section Tuesdays and Fridays. Read his online column "The 5-at-10" weekdays starting at 10 a.m. at timesfreepress.com.