Cooler and calmer heads prevailed in Soddy-Daisy, thankfully.
Jared Hensley, an administrator at Soddy-Daisy High School who made a mistake that became national news with the help of Twitter, has apologized and soon will get back to his job.
Reaction to Hensley's comments that "girls ruin everything" in one of his regular video broadcasts to Soddy-Daisy students was swift and harsh. The ripples spread all over the country. But after a 10-day suspension, Hensley will return to work.
Among the overreactions was an effort by a national petition site called Care2.com to gather signatures of people who called for Hensley to be terminated. Care2.com apparently is the landing place for anyone wanting to collect a few signatures from their fellow social media morality mob - a group that lives for the keyboard finger-wagging that unfortunately is quickly becoming an American pastime.
Seriously, on the Care2 website, there is a section called Activist University for our random online social justice warriors. Among those 'causes' that have petitioners begging for support is the urgently important "Don't Wipe Right on Dating Apps that Allow Elephant Cruelty" as well as folks looking for change in Russia by wanting no more "Star Wars" movies released there until "they clean up their act" and almost 10,000 wanting Sinead O'Connor to get another turn on "Saturday Night Live."
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All candy means cold hard cash
Later this month, Americans are expected to spend more than the $2.6 billion we shelled out for candy before Halloween 2017.
Yes, more than $2.6 billion.
The folks at CandyStore.com have gone back over the sales, state-by-state, of Halloween candy over the last 11 years.
The top five nationally are not that surprising. Skittles, M&M's, Snickers, Reese's Cups and Starbursts, in order, are the most popular.
Some of the surprises, though, are that candy corn is the most popular Halloween treat in Alabama. Jolly Ranchers are the most popular in Georgia, and Tennessee loves Tootsie Roll Pops.
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Flying under the influence
In Gilbert, Minnesota, there is an issue with some of our fine-feathered friends taking to the air after having a couple too many.
Several birds in the area of Gilbert, according to the police department's website, have been eating fermented berries that leave them drunk. An early frost caused the berries to ferment more quickly this year before the birds head south for the winter. That or they are trying to drown their sorrows because the Green Bay Packers have wasted Aaron Rodgers' prime.
The Gilbert police told area citizens to keep an eye out for "'Angry Birds' laughing and giggling uncontrollably and appearing to be happy" or "Tweety acting as if 10 feet tall and getting into confrontations with cats."
So apparently we can universally add to the universal truths across species that we all love wings and alcohol.
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Saturday stars
A lot of us love this time of year because of football.
That said, we must thank the thousands of folks around the region and the state who man the sidelines monitoring the health and safety of the players, be they kids, teenagers, young men or grown-ups.
A prime example of this was the near-tragedy in the Vanderbilt-Tennessee State game last weekend. Linebacker Christion Abercrombie is still in intensive care after suffering a head injury in the game, and while there's still some prayers needed and major recovery ahead, it would have been worse and could have been fatal if not for the medical folks on hand at Vandy.
"Who would have thought that we would be in Nashville at a game and a couple of blocks away, here is the hospital?" Christion's mom Staci Abercrombie told The Tennessean this week. "And there was a neurologist [Jason Hubbard] on the sideline. Because of that, we are thankful. By the time we walked into [the emergency room] my son was almost ready to go into emergency surgery. So there was no down time. It was immediate. And I think that made a difference."
Amen.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.