KNOXVILLE — Dennis Talley keeps $4.12 in a sandwich bag in his truck’s console so he can get it under a loose paver on Gay Street before work. A paving crew found the 1911 ledger that says he owes it, and nobody at any of four banks can say to whom.
Oak Ridge badge clerk says AI task force hasn’t called, but everyone else has
OAK RIDGE — Joyce Ledbetter has run the badge counter at a contractor visitor office since 2007, and she would like it noted that nobody from the White House’s new AI task force has contacted her. Everyone else has.
Retired Neyland staffer still dusts 31 left shoes, none of them claimed
KNOXVILLE — Hollis Loy, 77, retired from Neyland Stadium in 2011 and still visits the lost-and-found shelf, which holds 31 left shoes from 40 years of home games and no right ones.
Cabin manager disputes bear warning as review from guest who never stayed
GATLINBURG — Cabin manager Lyle Whaley has sent a Gatlinburg police bear-feeding warning to his booking site’s review-removal team four times, on the grounds that the reviewer never stayed.
Pruitt family moved uphill from Norris Lake in 1935 and back in 1936, kept both mileage forms
ANDERSON COUNTY — Wanda Pruitt Sizemore keeps two TVA mileage forms in a bread bag under her oven. Her grandparents moved their house up a ridge in 1935 and back down in 1936, and both trips were paid.
Sign shop worker asks which of two Cusick Road ramp signs is the real one
KNOXVILLE — A TDOT sign-shop worker lettered CLOSED PERMANENTLY for the Cusick Road ramp, then received a second sign reading THROUGH FALL 2027, and would like to get back to his speed limit sign.
Retired driver rides his old KAT route every Tuesday to make sure it still runs
KNOXVILLE — Earl Lawson, 79, has paid the fare on his old KAT route every Tuesday since 1996, and keeps a pencil notebook of the stops he has been told were “temporarily” moved.
Beaver Creek moonshiner kept his still warm for 61 revenue visits
A misfiled box of Bureau of Prohibition reports describes the same warm still, the same dent and the same cup on the same stump across ten years of visits to Walter Blevins’s hollow.
TADOS rents moving truck for people who miss California
TADOS has parked a rented box truck on Kingston Pike, offering newcomers a free move back home before the election. The first caller wanted to be clear that he was staying.
TADOS reactivates for governor’s race, discovers most of its new members are from out of state
The anti-out-of-stater lobby TADOS is back for the governor’s race, pending resolution of an internal audit showing 24 of its 61 members arrived after 2019 — including the new chapter president, who moved from Sacramento to get away from people like himself.
Curb crew finds Kingston Pike sidewalk block an inch taller than the other 4,312
The city’s 1937 ledger lists exactly 4,312 WPA blocks on Kingston Pike. A curb crew has now found a 4,313th, and it is an inch taller than the rest.
Planners confirm Kerbela hill fails the same seven code requirements as the apartments
City planners said the hill at the former Kerbela Shriners site fails the same seven South Waterfront Form-Based Code requirements a neighborhood group cites against the proposed apartments.
Market Square pigeons found to be same 40 birds since 1987
A Knoxville naturalist’s 39-year photographic record shows Market Square’s pigeon population has been the same 40 individual birds since 1987. “They don’t hatch and they don’t die. They just attend.”
Fraternity Park fence wasn’t rated for enthusiasm, UT confirms
UT says its police force can secure a sitting president more reliably than a free DJ show, after Saturday’s screened Neyland operation succeeded four days after a rented Fraternity Park fence gave way under about 10,000 people.
Man invents key that fixes plastic toothpaste tubes, resents every one he makes
Gene Wallace’s machined key rolls and locks plastic toothpaste tubes, recovering the stranded paste. He considers the invention a defeat and sells it at cost.