#Tennessean food

[paulpingminho]

[alienelvisobsession]

The Jack White Connection

In January 2015, Elvis’ very first recording, an unassuming simple acetate dating back to 1953, was sold at an auction to an undisclosed buyer for $300,000. It featured two sentimental ballads sung by Elvis, then a shy 18-year-old kid with a ducktail haircut: on the A-side was “My Happiness”, a tune from the 1940s that would be later made famous by Connie Francis, and on the flip side “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”, which Elvis would later re-record and release as a B-side to “All Shook Up”. Back in 1953, Elvis had paid $3.98 for this service offered by Sam Phillips at Memphis Recording Service, either to hear how he sounded on record, or as a present for his mum, as he would later claim in interviews. Some would go so far as to say that he hoped Sam would hear his voice and sign him up at Sun Studios. Whatever the reason, Elvis took the record to his high-school friend Ed Leek, who, in his recollection, had given him the money ($3.98 amount to about $45 adjusted for inflation) and owned a record player. Elvis played the songs there, and then for some reason left the record at his house. It’s funny how in later years some articles would claim that Gladys played the record over and over, while Elvis admitted in the Million Dollar Quartet recordings that he had lost it. In 1988 Ed Leek let RCA transfer the songs to digital to be released, but he kept the original acetate until his death in 2010.

In March 2015, a couple of months after the record was sold at an auction by Leek’s niece, it was disclosed that the buyer was a fellow rock ‘n roll musican, Jack White. The Detroit native planned to reissue the precious artifact on vinyl in a limited edition for Record Store Day. For this, he faithfully recreated the 10-inch, 78-rpm record in every detail, including the yellowish aging paper of the plain sleeve and the typewritten labels. Alan Stoker, the son of Gordon Stoker from the Jordanaires, the background singers in many of Elvis’ hits, did the transfer at the Country Music Hall of Fame. He ensured that the sound would be as clean as possible while maintaining the old haunting feeling of what many consider to be the Holy Grail of rock ‘n roll.

From this, you may have gathered that Jack White, who has won 13 Grammies in his career and is credited for writing the most distinctive guitar riff of the early 2000s with “Seven Nation Army”, is an Elvis fan. Not only did he embark in the project of bringing Elvis’ first record to the public with a precise replica, but he also played Elvis in a cameo for the comedy “Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story” (2007), which is a parody of music biopics. In the now iconic scene, Dewey, played by John C. Reilly, is terrified because he has to go on stage after Elvis, who’s hungry and wants to get out of there early. When Elvis approaches Dewey Cox, he speaks in an unintelligible Southern drawl, and anachronistically attempts a karate chop in the 1950s, before he even started to study it! This is a spoof of music biopics, after all, where these “artistic liberties” are plentiful (Baz Luhrmann’s movie has Elvis sing “Trouble” at Russwood Park, for instance). Then Jack White’s Elvis hilariously explains karate: “It’s called karate, man. Only two kinds of people know it, The Chinese and The King.” This unflattering and stereotyped portrayal of Elvis purposefully misses everything about Elvis’ personality, especially his humility and his Southern accent, focusing on some unimportant stereotypes instead: the sweating, the love of junk food, and the mumbling.

But, aside from playing him in a now famous gag, Jack White payed homage to Elvis as a musician as well. His 2014 Grammy-winning single “Lazaretto” features a cover of “Power of My Love” on the B side. The single holds the record of being the world’s fastest released record. It was recorded live in Nashville in front of an audience, pressed and released in under 4 hours. The B-side is according to The Tennessean “a thunderous version of Elvis Presley's ‘Power of My Love,’ — a faithful rendition, aside from cranking up the tempo and piling on the guitar overdrive.” In 2022, as we know, he had the honor of recording a duet of the same song alongside Elvis’ voice. The song is featured in the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s movie.

And finally, Jack speaks about his love for Elvis Presley in a 2018 episode of the podcast “Revisionist History” by Malcolm Gladwell. In an episode called “Analysis, Parapraxis, Elvis”, the author tries to understand why Elvis never seemed to get a particular part of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” quite right. Jack, accompanied by his guitar, sings the song in full, including the slightly corny spoken bridge where the singer feels vulnerable, deceived and rejected, which is the emotional part that Elvis couldn’t face to sing. He says there are a lot of minor chords in the song that can get you in that melancholy vibe. The singer is lonesome and he doesn’t really care if his ex lover is lonesome: “it’s a McGuffin to pretend he’s worried about her”, Jack explains.

I’m sure there will be more occasions to hear Jack White paying homage to his idol in the future. After all, he has an Elvis shrine at home, as Gladwell reveals!

This is part of a series of posts about Elvis’ influence on the artists who followed him. You can read the other Elvis connections I wrote about here. So far I’ve written about people as diverse as Jimi Hendrix, Quentin Tarantino and Andy Warhol.

[thebiscuiteternal]

The entire story is brutal and worth reading, but I want to point out some of the fact points interspersed in the second part, because they highlight just how fucking little the assholes who built this post-Roe-reversal system care.

Research indicates access to paid family leave is linked to a decrease in infant deaths and better economic, physical and mental health for new parents. Currently, 13 states have some form of paid parental leave to care for newborns. No states that banned abortion offer paid parental leave.

In 2019, nearly half of Tennesseans lived in a child care desert, an area that has three times as many children as licensed child care slots. In Mayron’s city, Clarksville, more than 3,000 children in 2023 qualified for government assistance for child care, but 941 were unable to access it. Between 2011 and 2020, 13 bills aimed at alleviating child care burdens were proposed in the Tennessee legislature. All of them failed.

In Tennessee, a family of four making less than $39,000 a year should be eligible for food stamps if their current bank balance is under $3,001 and they share their household with a person over 60 or with a disability. Tennessee’s child poverty rate ranks among the worst in the nation, in part, because families who qualify for government help aren’t getting it. About 1 in 10 families eligible for food stamps aren’t receiving them. According to researchers, the program requirements are too punitive and complicated, leaving such families shut out. In 2019, the state was holding nearly $800 million in unspent federal funding designated for temporary assistance to needy families. Since then, monthly benefits for eligible Tennesseeans have barely risen, from $277 to $387 in 2021. That ranks among the lowest in the nation for temporary cash assistance.

[beardedmrbean]

Missouri college student Riley Strain's death appears to be "accidental," Metro Nashville Police Department told The Tennessean.

Toxicology results are still pending, but there is no apparent foul play, MNPD spokesperson Kris Mumford said.

"Detective attended the autopsy examination," Mumford said. "Continues to appear accidental."

A final autopsy won't be complete until all testing is finished.

Strain's body was discovered early Friday morning about eight miles from where he was last seen in downtown Nashville following a two-week search for the missing 22-year-old. Police said his body was pulled from the Cumberland River in west Nashville, a major waterway that weaves through downtown Nashville and eventually flows back north into Kentucky.

Who was Riley Strain?

Strain went missing after being kicked out of Luke's 32 Bridge Food and Drink Nashville's Lower Broadway while vacationing with fraternity brothers. He attended the University of Missouri and was a member of the Delta Chi fraternity.

Prior to his disappearance, he was seen on surveillance footage walking around the downtown area, sometimes stumbling.

He had a friendly exchange with a police officer near 1st Avenue North and Gay Street. His bank card was discovered near the Cumberland River on March 17, five days before his remains were recovered.

Nashville holds candlelight vigil honoring Riley Strain

About 50 people gathered for a candlelight vigil memorializing Strain on March 22, the same day his body was found in the Cumberland River.

Strain's parents told reporters at a Friday press conference they were grateful for the community's help to find their son.

"I just ask that you mommas out there hug your babies tight tonight, please." his mother, Michelle Whiteid, said. "Please for me. Hug your babies tight tonight."

[epistolizer]

Hit & Run Commentary #150

Will those celebrating the transformation of Victoria Secret from a fashion show into a podcast also demand that the Chip and Dale dancers dump the muscular men in favor of thin bookish nerds?

Bush Regime Homeland Security Functionary Tom Ridge has been rushed to the hospital following a stroke caused by a blood clot. Wonder if he recently relented to Plague Cult Alchemy.

George P. Bush has launched a campaign for the Attorney Generalship of Texas. With no other viable candidates for President, the young Bush eventually actively supported Trump. For such, he was accused of betraying his family. But don’t any other time leftists and progressives celebrate those that so openly defecate on the values of their respective families as just a normal part of the maturation process?

And when minorities can’t afford the mortgages with which they demand to be lavished for simply not being White, I guess it will also be Whitey’s fault when the properties are lost or the owners are forced to labor in order to retain them.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Lady Mao) ruminated on the tragedy of tossing human beings into what she described as human garbage bins. If so, has she spoken out against those taken into custody during the Capitol Kerfuffle languishing in jail over what amounts to little more than a glorified trespassing violation?

If the Autarch is so concerned about crime, why doesn't he also take actions against knives?

Wonder if these Pentagon elites that can drone on and on about the boogeyman of White supremacy are as eloquent and schooled in the intricacies of the Islamist, Antifa, and Black Lives Matter threats.

The Loudon County school board members forbidding clapping most likely this time last year called for the defunding of the police had very little to say negatively regarding the joint Antifa/Black Lives Matter campaign to redistribute other people’s property.

Apparently applauding in regards to statements with which one agrees pertaining to public policies one opposes is an outrage that cannot be countenanced but looting merchants in response to certain judicial rulings is.

As part of the Autarch’s anti-Second Amendment agenda, it is being proposed that those who deal in firearms whose merchandise ends up being used in a nefarious manner even if the dealer violated no other discernible regulation should be held liable.  So if heart attacks rise above a certain level in a particular area, should the fast food establishments located there be held responsible?

On an episode of Batwoman laced with even more propaganda than usual, the crime was depicted as particularly outrageous not because an innocent man was shot by privatized police but because the victim was an innocent BLACK man. So is that somehow more tragic than Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas getting murdered, the event that spurred the young lad into eventually becoming Batman? Perhaps Thomas Wayne got what he deserved as part of the maligned “One Percent”. And when future audiences are retold the origins of the Dark Knight, should the new narrative be that the Caped Crusader embarked on the quest to avenge the death of his White parents if viewers need to be deliberately told the ethnicity of the actor portraying the victim before their very eyes?

Speech codes have banned the term “powwow” for being culturally insensitive. Instead it has been suggested that the term “gathering” be used. But isn’t that potentially triggering to Highlander fans? For in that series, the Gathering was the time when the Immortals commenced the ritualized killing of one another.

In an oration, the Autarch sympathetically explicated why Blacks and Hispanics are reluctant to submit to Plague Cult alchemy. Yet his doctor bride was much more critical of Tennesseans just as skeptical regarding injectable pharmacological elixirs. If the concerns of minorities are to be addressed with gingered sensitivity, Evangelicals concerned about prophetic implications, Catholics regarding pro-life concerns, and libertarians opposed to invasive government intrusion are worthy of just as much respect.

Travel guides are published to showcase the most noteworthy attractions an area has to offer. No doubt one of the most prestigious placements in such is the inside front cover. As such, are we to assume that Durham, North Carolina has little more going for it than a neon depiction of the female reproductive tract complete with boxing gloves as ovaries?

Shannon Bream of Fox News is a devout Christian. So much so that she published a regarded book on women of the Bible. It is too bad her theological thinking is deficient in that she mockingly chuckled on the 6/28/21 episode of America Reports at the hypothesis that unidentified aerial phenomena might be interdimensional in nature. Will she be as dismissive in regards to the terminology to describe how other spiritual realities such as the Resurrection or the Afterlife interact with the temporo-spatial continuum?

Contrary to a public service announcement sponsored by the U.S. Airforce, that branch of the military does not exist to promote diversity. It exists to assert technological superiority in the expanse above the territory of the United States in pursuit of the nation's defense.

Teacher union president defends Critical Race Theory as teaching accurate history. Mind you, these were the same postmodernist subversives this time 30 years ago insisting that a singular version of history did not exist. Rather, the discipline merely consisted of competing narratives regarding what is hegemonically referred to as the past.

The Autarch is threatening to send plague alchemy gestapo door to door. Am sure that will play well in the sticks.

Nearly two decades ago, no doubt many of the Democratic legislators patriotically singing on the steps of the Capitol following the 9/11 attack now side with necromongering ideologies and worldviews bent on toppling traditionalist understandings of America.

So a certain social media mogul can post video of himself riding a hydrofoil surfboard waving an American flag but to his fellow technocrats you are a threat to regime solidarity if you use your air conditioner.

Teachers Unions claim that these organizations want to defend the right of pedagogues to teach controversial epistemologies such as Critical Race Theory. To be consistent, these guilds should issue a similar proclamation in defense of Creationism or Intelligent Design forthwith.

Now it's claimed a third jab of the Plague Cult alchemy may be required. Where do the demands end? Brings to mind Picard's line from Star Trek: First Contact about continually falling back at the relentless advance of the Borg.

The Autarch’s chief propagandist admonished that criticizing of Plague Cult mendicants with the charism of evangelizing on behalf of the sacredotal alchemy among infidel peasants groveling in their hovels is a disservice to the regime and its dedicated sorcerers. That’s pretty much the same excuse invoked to crack down on free speech throughout the megadictatorships marring the twentieth century. Will those that deliberately remain on enhanced unemployment despite jobs being available will also be accused of doing the nation a disservice?

The Secretary of Health & Human Services insisted it is indeed the state’s business as to who has not acquiesced to Plague Cult alchemy because of how much it has spent fighting the pestilence. In other words, you are nothing more than the government’s whore.

If you can be arrested for not showing up for jury duty, why shouldn't the fugitive Texas legislators be arrested for a similar violation of the law?

The Autarch claims that those who question Plague Cult Alchemy are killing people. As such, the regime insists it is justified in gathering intelligence in order to curtail the dissemination of counterrevolutionary perspectives. So on what grounds do these progressive sorts gripe about any bit of information J. Edgar Hoover might have collected?

Does the Autarch intend to as carefully monitor the communications of Antifa and Black Lives Matter?

Regime propagandist Jen Psaki suggested that those spreading content categorized as disinformation should be banned from ALL social media platforms. It is assured that such is not censorship and in accord with free market principles. If so, shouldn’t it be up to each platform to decide which content will be allowed or forbidden rather than the state making such a determination?

If the vaccinated are able to contract and spread plague, don’t they bear as much responsibility for spreading the plague as the accursed Neo-Lepers?

For all this panic about the increase in Plague, it seems the death rates are still pretty much flat.

If boycotts are organized of venues that require proof of plague cult alchemy, why should we give an excrement if they go out of business?

So employers are pitching fits that they already can’t find enough workers, yet the tyrants holding power want fired the workers refusing to consent to this Mark of the Beast prototype

A private business is theoretically free to deny services to those that have not embraced invasive Plague Cult sacraments. They also ought to be forced to live with the financial ruination and repercussions of such a decision.

So apparently those insisting opposing same sex matrimony is an egregious denial of human liberties would deny the very right to eat for those withstanding the herd consensus on a dubious alchemical elixir.

A social justice degree. And what exactly does that train one for, life as an Antifa looter? If one had a legitimate academic interest in that topic, there is no reason such studies could not be pursued within the context of more traditional academic disciplines such as History, Political Science, Philosophy, or even Sociology. Unless of course the real reason for such a formalized major is that these subjects are too rigorous for those pursuing such a scholastic path.

By Frederick Meekins

[theoldhempfarmer]

Dead Man Walking... THC Flower in Tennessee

Dateline 12-19-23

This morning here in Middle Tennessee, The Old Hemp Farmer is contemplating yesterday’s “Call To Action” Cannabis Industry conference call while drinking a rather large, hot cup of organic Indonesian coffee and vaping some of Tennessee homegrown flower that may or may not be legal July 1, 2024. You see 12-14-23, a day after I warned in a previous column that THCa flower could be “toast” the Tennessee Department of Agriculture dropped the hammer on THC by lumping Delta 9 THC and THCa together when testing edibles, tinctures, vapes and most importantly Cannabis Flower. Can’t say that I didn’t see this coming because The Old Hemp Farmer saw this coming. Back in April when HB0403 was passed I immediately saw the flaws in this supposed law that legalized Hemp Derived Recreational Cannabinoids that would be major road hazards when the bill would start to be enforced. First of all, the people that crafted this Recreational Lite law didn’t understand the scope of what Cannabinoids were sold, how much was being sold and where Cannabis was being sold. Even the few Cannabis professionals that advised the politicians on HB0403 didn’t know how big Cannabis sales were because there was no real way to track the Cannabis Industry in Tennessee then and there still isn’t now. So the result was a hastily written ambiguous Cannabis Bill that left the details and enforcement up to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture with no money to accomplish this Herculean task. The other thing that The Old Hemp Farmer noticed in one of the amendments attached to HB0403 was a couple of sentences buried deep in the bill, that basically stated that the tests for THC would be calculated post decarboxylation. My very Cannabis knowledgeable partner Lee Crabtree interpreted this in the same way as I did, if and when TDA decided they wanted to start testing THCa Flower that it would all flunk. I think by now everyone knows THCA flower and marijuana are the same thing but a loophole in the 2018 Farm enabled THCa Hemp flower to become a thing and still is for now. The other major flaw about HB0403 was the fact for that some unknown reason the state of Tennessee decided that the TDA would oversee a Recreational Cannabis program. These folks are great about giving you advice on your orchard and what kind of plant pathogen is threatening your nursery but when it comes to Cannabis there is little knowledge and comfort with the Cannabinoids they produce. The TDA wanted Hemp agriculture to be about food and textiles not CBD and they certainly didn’t want to deal with D8 THC and THCa flower and let that be known to the legislative and executive branches. The TDA still got stuck with a half written law and no money to enforce it.

So why did the TDA make the regulations as stringent as they possible could? Especially when a Tennessean/Siena College Poll published December of this year stated that 62% of Tennesseans think that Recreational Cannabis should be legal? I have bounced a few ideas around in my head and the one that makes the most sense is that this is the TDA’s way saying that if you don’t get us enough money and the people to oversee a large Hemp Derived Cannabis Industry then we will make it a small Hemp Derived Cannabis Industry. Which is how a bureaucracy pushes back when given an unappreciated task. So now the folks that invested heavily into THCa products are “throwing up prayers like Hail Marys”. And unless one of these prayers are answered, sadly The Old Hemp Farmer believes that the THCa industry in Tennessee is a “Dead Man” walking. Anyway as always, Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.

Visit our Tennessee homegrown web site to try our great products: https://www.tnhomegrown.com

The Wife's web site: https://www.theoldhempfarmerswife.com

Our Podcast - Full Contact Cannabis: https://fullcontactcannabis.podbean.com

[svalleynow]

Food Sales Tax Holiday begins Tuesday

Another sales tax holiday begins this week. On Tuesday, August 1, 2023, at 12:01 am and running through October 31, 2023, at 11:59 pm. Tennesseans will save on grocery bills during the state’s Food Sales Tax Holiday. Tennessee defines food and food ingredients as liquid, concentrated, solid, frozen, dried, or dehydrated substances that are sold to be ingested or chewed by humans and are consumed…

[paulpingminho]

[clarklovescarole]

December 1939: Gone with the Wind Premiere

December 1, 1939 – Buffalo Evening News

Clark Gable won’t take Carole Lombard along for that Atlanta world premiere of “Gone with the Wind” Dec. 15 as originally planned. Fears of crowd buffeting have Gable badly scared, and he’s anxious to save half the family from being pushed around.

December 11, 1939 – Fort Worth Star

Celebrities to Go by Air to Atlanta

Two chartered airplanes will take the celebrities of Cinemaland to Atlanta for Friday’s premiere of “Gone with the Wind.” 

Vivien Leigh, the English “Scarlett,” will leave Tuesday by TWA. Also aboard will be Producer and Mrs. David O. Selznick, Laurence Olivier, and Olivia de Havilland. Stops will be made in Albequerque, Kansas City, and St. Louis, with arrival in Atlanta scheduled Wednesday afternoon. 

Clark Gable, hero of the piece, will depart Wednesday by American Airlines with his wife, Carole Lombard, and Director Victor Fleming. The plane will pause in Dallas and Nashville, reaching Atlanta Thursday afternoon.

December 11, 1939 – The Tennessean

“Rhett Butler” will visit Nashville Thursday

Which is another way of saying Clark Gable will be in this city while en route from Hollywood to Atlanta for the premiere of the motion picture version of “Gone with the Wind.” 

Two special airplanes will transport stars and motion picture executives to Atlanta, the International News Service reported last night. 

The first group, including Miss Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Olivia de Havilland and Mr. and Mrs. David O. Selznick leave Tuesday night. Stops will be made at Albuquerque, Kansas City and St. Louis. 

Aboard a special plane leaving Wednesday night will be Gable, co-star of the film, and his bride, Carole Lombard, and Director Victor Fleming. 

The Gable plane will stop at Dallas and Nashville and arrive in Atlanta Thursday afternoon in time for the affair that marks the opening of the official three-day holiday, the annual Atlanta Junior League Charity Ball, to be attended by 7,000 persons.

Note – The exact time Gable and his actress wife would stop here Thursday was not definite last night. 

 December 11, 1939 – The Atlanta Constitution

STARS TO ARRIVE OVER TWO DAYS

…

“Rhett’s” Wife Coming

So far it is a very deep secret but Carole Lombard, who in private life is Gable’s wife, will arrive on a plane with him. 

There will be several officials of the Hollywood movie colony, including Howard Strickland, and many lesser lights accompanying Gable on his separate entrance. 

December 13, 1939 – Atlanta Constitution

December 14, 1939 – Montgomery Advertiser

Clark Gable, Where Are You?

In response to an inquiry, Floyd Goolsby, manager of the Whitley Hotel, said last night Clark Gable was “somewhere” in the hotel. Where, he did not know. 

“They drove up front,” said Mr. Goolsby, “and the driver came in. They took several rooms under assumed names.” 

Didn’t he know which room the actor was? 

“There are 256 rooms in this hotel and I am unable to say in which room they are,” he said. 

Perhaps he had learned something from the bell boys? Perhaps they had ordered food or ice.

“No,” he said, “I’ve been watching that myself.” 

Mr Goolsby would not expand on his replies beyond this. It was assumed that Gable’s wife, Actress Carole Lombard, was in the hotel, too, since Mr. Goolsby spoke of “they” and Associated Press dispatches said she accompanied him. 

Gable is en route to Atlanta for the premiere of “Gone with the Wind.” 

December 14, 1939 – Fort Worth Star Telegram

Dallas Fans Greet Gable and Carole

Clark Gable, starred in “Gone with the Wind,” stopped here 20 minutes Thursday en route to Atlanta for the premiere of the movie. 

He was accompanied by Carole Lombard, his wife, and two studio press representatives. 

About 2,000 admirers of the Hollywood celebrities were on hand at Love Field to greet the players when they emerged from the chartered plane. Most of them dogged them during the entire stopover, crowding into a small café at the rear of the airport terminal and interrupting the coffee session with requests for autographs. 

Miss Lombard signed “Carole Gable.” She took good-naturedly the obvious preference of the crowd for her husband, most of the women asking Gable to “have your wife sign it, too.” He suggested they take up the matter with her.

Gable must report in Hollywood Monday for work on “Strange Cargo,” in which Joan Crawford is to be co-starred.

December 15, 1939 – Atlanta Constitution

Cheering 300,000 Hail Clark Gable In Wild Welcome

It was Gable’s show. 

A bronzed and debonair Gable – a very “Rhett Butler” of a man – came into Atlanta late yesterday afternoon to the largest, most spontaneous, often hysterical demonstration which Atlanta has ever seen. 

It was Gable all through, this time. 

His wife, Carole Lombard, gracious and charming, sat beside him and shared in the adulatory cheers and gestures, from what must have been at least 300,000 people lining roads and streets from Candler airport to the Georgian Terrace. But Gable was the one they were looking for. 

December 15, 1939 – Kansas City Star

Of all the visitors, the most unusual is Carole Lombard, who is playing second fiddle and playing it tenderly and gracefully as ever Kreisler stroked a Stradivarius, to her limelight-stealing husband. Carole was the mayor’s girl at the ball tonight. She wore a black evening gown of extremely simple cut. Not only that but she lent a patient ear to her husband’s grousing tonight as she put the studs in his shirt. 

Before the mammoth crowd in Atlanta and the smaller ones that greeted them at Dallas and Atlanta on the way here, Clark was a genial figure. But no sooner was he locked in a room with his wife and a few friends that he began to mutter. 

“I always feel like a chump in front of crowds,” he growled. “Why do they want to look at me? I’m not Pershing. I didn’t win the war, and I’m not Lindbergh. I didn’t fly the ocean. I’m just a guy that tries to make his living doing a job. I feel like a sap when everybody begins to holler at me.” 

“You’d feel awfully wistful if they didn’t, darling,” remarked his wife with a pat and a dimple.

December 15, 1939 – The Tennessean

December 15, 1939 – Austin American Statesman

December 15, 1939 – Boston Globe

December 15, 1939 – Atlanta Constitution

December 16, 1939 – Daily Herald

December 16, 1939 – Fort Worth Star Telegram

Clark Gable Sleeps Through Fort Worth – Tuckered Out

Mr. and Mrs. Clark Gable stopped in Fort Worth for 30 minutes Saturday morning, but two publicity men, an airline stewardess and another member or so of the royal retinue kept interviewers and others from disturbing their slumber, which started in Atlanta, Ga., at 3 a.m.

“They’re dead on their feet – they haven’t had any sleep since Wednesday,” Howard Strickling, head of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer public relations department, told hopeful reporters who wanted to ask Gable what he thought of himself in “Gone with the Wind,” which had its premiere in Atlanta Friday night. 

Then he confided that Gable, co-star of the picture, and his wife, who is Carole Lombard on the screen, had taken sleeping pills on leaving the Georgia city after 24 hours of fanfare and celebration. 

Gable must be back in Hollywood Sunday to resume work on another picture, “Strange Cargo,” with Paul Lucas and Joan Crawford. 

Strickling said both of the stars “got a great kick” out of the “Gone with the Wind” premiere and added that few movie openings ever were carried off with such splendor and pomp and ceremony. 

Also on the plane that arrived here from Atlanta were two fortunate persons, Stewardess Betty McLaughlin and Pilot WR Vine. 

They are two of the comparatively few persons who saw the premiere. Strickling said they got tickets, which were at a premium, when CR Smith, president of American Airlines, had to elave Atlanta before the show. The Gables turned the tickets over to the pilot and stewardess. 

Since Vine lives in New York, Miss McLaughlin has become the first person from Fort Worth to see the great, four-hour picture. 

“It’s marvelous,” smiled the pretty stewardess, who lives at 2314 Market Street. 

“The greatest picture I ever saw,” said Vine.

“Mr. Gable and Miss Lombard are two of the very finest people you ever saw and you couldn’t be with anyone who is more fun,” said Miss McLaughlin as she left the plane after escorting the movie couple from Hollywood to Atlanta and back to Fort Worth on a special American Airlines flagship labeled “Gone with the Wind Special.” 

December 16, 1939 – Knoxville News

It was noticed by those who saw the cyclorama spectacle with them that Great-Lover Gable held Carole Lombard’s hand through the whole showing. 

December 16, 1939 – News Press

December 16, 1939 -Des Moines Tribune

December 29, 1939 - Los Angeles Times

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

Tennessee is approaching a milestone. It will soon be nine months since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision rolled back federal protection of abortion rights and, soon after, Tennessee’s trigger law made abortion illegal in the state — even in cases of rape or incest. While state law does provide an exception for situations in which an abortion will prevent death or serious bodily harm to a pregnant person, it’s a narrow provision, and punishment is very harsh for doctors who can’t prove that an abortion was necessary to save a life.

Some Assembly Required: Department of Children’s Services in Shambles

In the decade preceding Dobbs, Tennesseans had roughly 12,000 abortions per year. Now, nearly nine months after the institution of Tennessee’s strict trigger ban, pregnancies are coming to term that might not have otherwise. Babies will be born as actual humans who need food, medical care and love.

“We the people have a responsibility to raise these children that nobody is raising — that is a big task,” says Fayette County General Sessions Court and Juvenile Court Judge Jim Gallagher, a Republican who is also a member of the Tennessee Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges. “This is the scary trend that I see. Mamas drop these kids off. Daddies are gone. They drop them off as infants when they’re born, they drop them off when they’re 5, whatever. And I’m not obviously saying all of them, but the ones that come to court. ‘Well Grandma is gettin’ too old. She can’t deal with ’em. She doesn’t have the energy.’ So where are these kids gonna go? Because Mama’s already dropped them off. She can’t pass a drug test. So they go to DCS.”

Before we’re faced with the consequences of the abortion decision on our already severely strained system for taking care of at-risk children, it’s a good time to stop and take a look at how that system is doing.

The short answer? The system is collapsing. 

The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services is the agency responsible for reviewing complaints, investigating a child’s situation and ultimately getting children placed in temporary housing. With roughly 9,000 youth in DCS custody, the system is currently in disarray. In December, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury issued a damning report on the department’s many failures. Another report released earlier this year by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth found that Tennessee’s foster children experience the highest levels of instability in the U.S.

“We’re traumatizing kids,” says state Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville). “We remove them from their homes because of traumatic situations and then traumatize them further by making them sleep in offices across the state, or rushing them off to foster homes that weren’t fully vetted.”

Turnover of staff at DCS has reached crisis levels — a staggering 56 percent in 2022. Johnson doesn’t mince words about the reason why: “People don’t want to work at a place where you have 52 kids on your caseload, when the standard is 12. You can’t humanely do that work. And if you can’t humanely do your job, no amount of money is going to entice someone to put kids in danger. Social workers are literally traumatized by concerns of not being able to get their caseloads complete.” 

One of the biggest reasons cited by the state audit is a lack of available foster care options. Teenage boys are particularly difficult to find placement for. Social workers report they are making the hard choice of leaving kids in abusive homes, because they have no better alternative to offer. A whistleblowing social worker was fired in 2021 after she clued in the public on kids spending months at a time sleeping on the floor in state office buildings because there was nowhere to discharge them to. These kids reported not having consistent access to food, beds, clothes or showers. “There were recently several teenagers who went for five days without showers,” says Johnson. “All they had for entertainment were coloring books. There’s no television, no computer devices, or anything like that for them.”

In that environment, it’s not surprising that foster kids face a highly disproportionate risk of being incarcerated. Tennessee has a strong foster-to-prison pipeline, and lack of staff means poor oversight of the state’s juvenile detention centers. The DCS audit found that these centers are typically at 100 percent capacity. A 2021 ProPublica investigation into Rutherford County’s detention of children found that 48 percent of juvenile court cases ended with children behind bars — kids as young as 7, and disproportionately Black. DCS inspectors repeatedly failed to intervene despite the county’s frequent and egregious jailing of children.

[xocookiest]

U.S.A Natural Disasters Alerts Summer of 2021

So, over the past week or two the United States has undergone a bombardment of natural disasters that have devastated people’s homes and killed more then 20 people alone and the numbers are rising as people are being searched and found because of this I have attached some news articles with photographic evidence and video footage covering the California wildfires on the 14th of January 2021, the flash flooding in Tennessee on the 21st of August 2021, Hurricane Ida hitting Louisiana and Mississippi on the 29th of August 2021, and the flash flooding in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia on the 2nd of September. 

In addition, I have also linked several disaster safety preparations, tips, and evacuation spaces if you are living in the area and need somewhere to go. For those of you who would be willing or are able to donate and volunteer in those disaster zones I have also linked several different organizations and places to donate as well as information that might be helpful to keep in mind.

If anyone has any additional information you know or feel might be helpful please feel free to message me about it or reblog with the information and I will do my best to update this post as much as possible. Thank you. 

NEWS ALERTS: Hurricane Ida Hits Louisiana, Mississippi, Flash Flooding in Tennessee, Flooding in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, California Wildfires

CALIFORNIA FIRES

KSBW8 Action News: September 6th, 2021

CNN: September 6th, 2021

The Sacramento Bee: September 5th, 2021

Vox: September 3rd, 2021

ABC7 News: September 1st, 2021

NBC News: August 31st, 2021

Mercury News: August 21st, 2021

NPR: August 31st, 2021

New York Post: August 30th, 2021

San Francisco Chronicle: August 28th, 2021

Los Angeles Times: August 27th, 2021

New York Times: August 20th, 2021

ABC News: August 20th, 2021

Los Angeles Times (Photographic Evidence of Wildfires): August 19th, 2021

The Guardian: August 19th, 2021

Bloomberg: August 18th, 2021

The Washington Post: August 17th, 2021

Reno-Gazette Journal: August 14th, 2021

NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, AND PHILADELPHIA FLOODING

New York Post: September 2nd, 2021

CNN (Live Updates of Flooding): September 2nd, 2021

New York Times (Live Updates of Flooding): September 2nd, 2021

ABC7 News: September 2nd, 2021

NPR: September 2nd, 2021

Washington Post: September 2nd, 2021

U.S.A. Today: September 2nd, 2021

BBC News: September 2nd, 2021

New York Magazine: September 2nd, 2021

NBC News: September 1st, 2021

HURRICANE IDA

New York Times (Live Updates of Hurricane Ida): September 1st, 2021

BBC News’s Photographic Evidence of Hurricane Ida’s Devastation: September 1st, 2021

Subway Creature’s Video Footage of Flooding: September 1st, 2021

Wall Street Journal: September 1st, 2021

Fox News: September 1st, 2021

The Atlantic’s Photographic Evidence of the Devastation from Hurricane Ida: August 31st, 2021

U.S.A Today (New Orleans in the Dark as Ida pounds Louisiana): August 30th, 2021

The Washington Post (Live Updates of Hurricane Ida): August 30th, 2021

C.B.S. News (Live Updates of Hurricane Ida): August 30th, 2021

ABC News’s (Live Updates of Hurricane Ida): August 30th, 2021

CNN’s Live Updates of Hurricane Ida: August 30th, 2021

New York Times: August 30th, 2021

NBC News: August 30th, 2021

CNN’S Video Footage of Power Falling in Louisiana: August 29th, 2021

WCNC: August 24th, 2021

TENNESSEE FLASH FLOODING

Red Cross (Tennessee Flooding Response Team): August, 27th, 2021

NY Times (Record Breaking Rainfall Floods Tennessee): August 25th, 2021

KLTV: August 24th, 2021

NY Times (22 Dead and 50 People Missing in Tennessee Flooding): August 24th, 2021

ABC News (The Horrors of Tennessee Flash Flooding): August 24th, 2021

NPR: August 23rd, 2021

BBC News: August 23rd, 2021

The Washington Post ( Survivor’s Recount of Tennessee Flooding): August 23rd, 2021

CNN’s Tennessee Flooding Disaster: August 22nd, 2021

The Washington Post (Catastrophic Flooding in Central Tennessee): August 22nd, 2021

CBS News: August 23rd, 2021

USA Today: August 22nd, 2021

NY Times (Tidal Wave Ravages Rural Tennessee): August 22nd, 2021

Time’s Magazine: August 22nd, 2021

Tennessean’s : August 22nd, 2021

News Channel 5 [Nashville]: August 22nd, 2021

KSLA News: August 21st, 2021

News Channel 5′s Photographic Evidence of Flooding Devastation: August 21st, 2021

Linda Almond’s Facebook Live Footage of Tennessee Flooding: August 21st, 2021

News Channel 5 [Nashville]: August 20th, 2021

DISASTER SAFETY & STEPS: 

Red Cross’s How To Stop Misinformation & Rumors: September 3rd, 2021

Red Cross’s Rescue Preparation: August 29th, 2021

Another Gulf’s Hurricane Preparation

WXIINBC12 How To Survive A Flood

Almanac’s How To Survive A Hurricane Safety Tips

WikiHow How To Survive A Flood

Imagine Water Works COVID-19 Queer/Trans Guide for Hurricane Disaster Guide 2021 [New Orleans]

Southern Solidarity’s Resources

Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana

Disability Disaster Strategies Resources & Hotline: +1 800-626-4959

MADRN (Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Network) Hurricane Ida Needs Sign Up Sheet

Federal Disaster Assistance for Middle of Tennessee

Community Foundation of Middle of Tennessee

Disaster Grant-making for Middle of Tennessee

Realtors Relief Fund Middle of Tennessee

HOPE Program for Nashville

PLACES TO DONATE: 

Google Document Advice About Where To Donate [Thank you to @aro-prince-aj for creating the document!]

International Medical Corp

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief for Hurricane Ida

Global Giving Hurricane Ida Relief Fund

Imagine Water Works [Hurricane Ida]

Southern Solidarity’s GoFundMe

Another Gulf Mutual Aid [Hurricane Ida]

Cajun Navy Relief Supplies Donation Form

Louisiana SPCA (Animal Welfare Services) 

CNN’s IMPACT Hurricane Ida

Second Harvest Food Bank for South Louisiana

Greater New Orleans Foundation

Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans Donation

Community Foundation of North Louisiana

Second Harvest Food Bank in Middle Tennessee

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee

Humane Society [Flash Flooding Tennessee]: August 27th, 2021

Nashville Humane Association for Homeless Animals

Habitat for Humanity in Greater Nashville

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES: 

Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans

Save The Children Ida’s Relief Fund

United Way of Southeast Louisiana

Team Rubicon Disaster Response Team in Louisiana

Red Cross

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

World Central Kitchen

Hands On Middle of Tennessee

United Way Middle of Tennessee 

Second Harvest Food Bank in Nashville Volunteer

Nashville Humane Association for Homeless Animals Fostering & Volunteering Form

Habitat for Humanity in Greater Nashville

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

The President Game

There’s a game I like to play where I take an obnoxious habit, social norm, common courtesy, or random behavioral tick and ask myself “would the President of the United States do this?”

You can play the President Game with any starting question, just pick something that bugs you:

Would the President use the last of the toilet paper and not replace the roll?

Would the President reach their hand over the sneeze guard to point at the ingredients at Subway?

Would the President make a pregnant lady stand on a crowded bus?

Would the President put an empty milk carton back in the fridge?

Would the President load the dishwasher with all the cups rightside up so they fill with water and don’t get cleaned?

For the purposes of the game we assume that all the presidents know about the social norms and would react according to their upbringing; there’s no such thing as Subway in the 1830s, but a sixty-something conservative Tennessean like Andrew Jackson would probably reach over the guard with his unwashed hands and point at what kind of toppings he wants.  Also, no president would ever ride on a public bus, so assume they're a civilian and judge them based on their personalities rather than their prestige.

It’s not a partisan thing either.  There are assholes on both sides of the aisle, it all just stems from their personalities.  How much do they know?  How much do they care?  About others?  About themselves?  You have to get into the minds of the presidents, you gotta get meta; the faces they put on in public are seldom representative of who they really are, so you have to delve deep and figure out who they are as a person before you answer.

Example: Would the President put their mouth on a water fountain?

Would George Washington put his mouth on a water fountain?  No, probably not, because he was a very reserved statesmen of high social standing, well aware of how he is perceived by others.  He would never commit that faux pas because he wouldn’t want other people to think less of him.  His teeth are terrible, his breath really stinks, and he's self conscious about it.

Would Abraham Lincoln?  No, for similar reasons to Washington.

Would Teddy Roosevelt?  Yes. He’s President Ron Swanson, he doesn’t give a damn what you think.  If he’s thirsty, then the man’s gonna take a drink and no unspoken social rules are gonna get in his way.  He’s not doing it to be an asshole, he just figures that it’s no big deal; a little germ theory never hurt nobody. Not nobody, not no how!

Franklin Roosevelt?  Probably not. He’s much more reserved than his fifth cousin (yes, that’s how they’re related), he’s a New York socialite with polio; he managed to keep his wheelchair a secret, so he’d definitely make sure nobody ever saw him so much as look at a water fountain, let alone put his mouth on one.

Harry Truman?  No

Dwight Eisenhower?  No

John F. Kennedy?  No

Lyndon B. Johnson?  Yes.  Hard Yes.  He’s a southern hick, he drinks too much and eats like crap.  This is the guy who burps through sentences and talks about his nuts and bunghole, he’d totally put his mouth on the water fountain without even thinking about it. That's just how they do things in Texas.

Richard Nixon?  In public no, but in private yes; he’d be paranoid about people seeing him do it, but that wouldn't stop him.  He’d deny doing it at first, but after he got caught he’d try to turn things around and say you're the weird one for making a big deal out of it.  “Yeah, I did it, so what?  What are you gonna do about it? It's not illegal. It's my fountain, I can do whatever I want with it.”

Gerald Ford?  No

Jimmy Carter?  No.  He might have when he was younger, but his mama done raised him right, she put the Fear of God in that boy.

Ronald Reagan?  No, he’s all about image, he’s an actor playing the president, he knows how to keep up public appearances.

George H.W. Bush?  No

Bill Clinton?  Yes.  He’s Bubba, he’s Slick Willy, he’s a 10-pound douche in a 5-pound bag.  He sleeps around, he cheats on his wife, he eats and drinks and acts like a cartoon, he’d absolutely put his mouth on the fountain and if he got caught he’d probably make a joke about it.

George W. Bush?  Yes.  He’s less like Reagan in this instance, and more like Johnson and Clinton.  He’s a Good Ole Boy. He probably thinks truck nuts are hilarious. His front yard would have three flagpoles for the United States, Texas, and the Confederacy, in that order.  He’d put his mouth on the water fountain, and he’d make weird slurping noises while doing it; he’s off in his own little world, living proof that ignorance is bliss.

Barack Obama?  No, because he knows that’s gross. Next question.

Donald Trump?  Oh, he doesn’t just put his mouth on it, he’s deep throating the spigot on purpose because somebody told him not to.  Do you remember when COVID started and that one basketball player ended a press conference by touching all the microphones?  Trump’s the same way.  He doesn’t think it’s a problem, but he knows that everyone else does, so he feels compelled to do it just to get a reaction, then deny doing it to piss off the people who caught him while continuing to do it for his supporters.  He can’t not do it if he knows it’s wrong, he needs to be the center of attention at all times. There’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Joe Biden?  No, but he would make a big deal out of it, letting everyone around him know he didn’t do it, as if he deserves a prize.  Like, yeah Joe, you’re not Trump, but you don’t get recognition for doing what everyone expects you to do anyway.  The bar is so low, that even something this mundane seems like an achievement. What, do you want us to clap when you wash your hands too?  For the love of God, focus on the important issues, Joe.

Now that you know the rules, you can play the President Game at home!

Would the President forget to hold the door open for the people behind them?

Would the President answer their cellphone during a movie?

Would the President chew with their mouths open?

Would the President refuse to pick up after their dog?

Would the President double park their car?

Would the President eat somebody else’s food from the break room fridge?

Would the President fart in an elevator?

Would the President take the last slice of pizza without asking if anyone else wanted it?

Would the President stare at a disabled person?

Would the President fill a water cup with soda?

Would the President sneeze without covering their mouths?

Would the President press an elevator button that you’ve already pressed?

Would the President litter?

Would the President throw a lit cigarette out their car windows?

Would the President return a tape to Blockbuster without rewinding it?

[sadamericanorca]

If u wanna know what its like being a tennessean listen to this song

Pjfhfdhhd those are fancy food places for me

[johnschneiderblog]

'A wonderful bird'

For as long as I live, I'll never be able to look at a pelican without thinking of the limerick my mother taught me, salty language and all, when I was 5, or so (and if you knew my mother, this would not surprise you.)

It's often attributed to Ogden Nash, but was actually written by Dixon Lanier Merritt (1879-1972), an American humorist and editor at the Nashville Tennessean. It goes like this:

“A wonderful bird is the Pelican.

His beak can hold more than his belly can.

He can hold in his beak

Enough food for a week!

But I'll be damned if I know how the hellican?”

[nancypullen]

Melons and Murders

We didn't do anything special on the 4th of July. Because only 30-something percent of Tennesseans are vaccinated and the Delta variant is unpredictable, we're still avoiding crowds. It sucks because I really want to enjoy a ballgame or a concert. Downtown Nashville broke a previous record by hosting an estimated 400,000 drunken idiots for an Independence Day celebration. What could possibly go wrong there, right? So we stayed home, grilled some brats, and watched tv while our neighborhood lit up like a combat zone. It was insane. After all of that grumpy complaining, I'm actually here to pay tribute to summer food. As far as I'm concerned, the absolute QUEEN of the summer is the Sugar Kiss melon.

This melon will change your life. I've never tasted anything so good. Don't be deceived into thinking this is just a cantaloupe. This is magic in your mouth. This melon tastes like it's been injected with vanilla and sugar. They're only in season for a brief part of the summer and we eat about three a week. Not even kidding. We get ours at Publix, even though I've seen and purchased them elsewhere, the Publix melons seem to be at peak freshness. I don't know if Kroger warehouses theirs before they're in stores or what, but the Publix melons are superior. You'll spot Sugar Kiss melons right away, wrapped in their distinctive blue mesh and set apart from the other cantaloupe. Get one (no, seriously, get two) and you can thank me later. It wouldn't be summer without watermelon. I buy one every Saturday, chunk it up and keep it in a big, lidded tub in the frig. When I come in from working in the yard, hot and sweaty, a couple of pieces of chilled watermelon cools me down faster than anything I could drink. Mickey says the same thing. It's always sad toward the end of summer when watermelon becomes scarce. I have some heirloom seeds from my Grandma Ethel's watermelon patch that I treasure, and I haven't had the courage to plant them. How silly is that? I'd hate to get my hopes up and have some stupid pest ruin everything. Anyyywhooo...back to watermelon. Aside from just eating it straight, I'm addicted to this combo.

Day after day, I drop chunks of watermelon into a bowl, sprinkle some feta and a bit of chopped, fresh mint leaves, then top it with a quick squeeze of lime, just a little. Holy moley, I hear angels sing when I eat this. The super sweet melon, the salty feta, the zing from the mint and the lime - it's everything a summer dish should be. It doesn't hurt my feelings that it's really pretty to look at too. Know what else I'm addicted to? Breakfast salads. I love breakfast, it's my favorite meal of the day. I would be content to eat a hearty breakfast and then just nibble for the rest of the day. Normally I'll dice up tomato and onion and get it sizzling in a skillet, then I'll throw in some riced broccoli.

Once that's cooked through, I season and scramble two eggs and pour that in - a few stirs with a spatula and I've got a bowlful of veggie eggs and a yummy breakfast. If you're so inclined and can spare the calories, add cheese or bacon or whatever floats your boat. It's delicious, low in calories and fat, offers plenty of protein and fiber, and will keep you full all day. Winner. Lately I've been throwing together a flavorful salad...spring greens, a quarter of an avocado, a tablespoon of feta, and a tablespoon of crumbled bacon. Super simple.

Then I spritz a pan with a little olive oil and fry an egg. I season it like crazy and plop it right on top of the salad.

When I cut through the egg it releases the warm, yummy yolk as a dressing and coats everything. It's a delicious, healthy breakfast. The mister and I are still working the Weight Watchers thing. It's so stinkin' easy and NOTHING is off limits. I'm on the Purple Plan because I don't like to log things, so I have a bazillion "free" foods but only 16 points a day. The items that cost me are fatty things like mayo and butter. As long as I eat clean and whole foods (even whole grain pasta is zero points for me!) I can finish every day with points to spare. A grilled chicken breast with roasted broccoli and sweet potato is a zero point meal. How simple is that? Of course, that doesn't mean I don't have treats. It didn't take me long to figure out that a macaron is just two points and totally worth it. I'm down 21 pounds and it's been embarrassingly easy to do. It's been a slow drip, pretty much a pound a week, but it's the easiest diet I've ever been on and I think I've tried them all. Sorry, I rambled. I promised melons and murder. The murder part is really more of a question for you. It's no secret that I'm a true crime junkie. My DVR history is frightening- Snapped, Cold Justice, etc. My reading list looks like I'm either planning or solving a murder. But I'm new to true crime podcasts. When I'm at my desk I like to listen to a murder or two, usually tuning into a Dateline series (the Mommy Doomsday episodes will blow your mind). I'm in the market for other podcasts though, so I'm asking for your favorites. You don't have to answer here, you can always send suggestions to njpullen@gmail.com - no need to create a Tumblr profile or any of that. Hit me with your favorites, My Favorite Murder? Anatomy of a Murder? Crime Junkie? Sword & Scale? Do tell! Gotta' go. It's time for me to trot out to the garden and pick more cucumbers and have a chat with the birds and squirrels. Summer is in full swing and I intend to enjoy these days. Besides, if I don't go out and get sweaty, I can't justify eating more melon. I have an agenda. I hope you're having some fun with your day. Stir up some giggles, even if you're just laughing at yourself. I used to write jokes on Post-It notes and leave them on the doors of bathroom stalls at work. I wonder how many pantsless people chuckled ? Go spread some sunshine and make sure you get some on yourself. Stay safe, stay well, stay sunny. XOXO - Nanccy

[mcwriting]

London boy

Hi guys! I’m back with a lil quarantine pick me up! It’s been sooooo long so it felt good to write again. I’m almost done with this semester so I’m hoping I can do more writing soon. All this being said, make sure to check my note at the end about a possible part 2 and let me know what you think! Love y’all!

*Also PSA I’ve never been to London unless Heathrow airport counts so I tried to do my best research but sorry if things are wrong*

Fandom: Tom Holland

Ship: Tom Holland x y/n

Setting: Begins in Nashville, TN but mostly takes place in London

Word Count: 2299 (whew)

Warnings: Alcohol consumption? I can’t think of any others. It’s mostly fluff

Rating: Like a K or something

$

You were hanging out on Broadway St.

No, not the one in New York. The one in Nashville, Tennessee.

It was a place filled with great live music, dancing all night long, and lots and lots of alcohol. 

You and some friends had gone out to a particular bar that another friend’s band was playing at, all dressed up in ripped up jean shorts, riding boots, and a cute cowboy hat.

As you all waited for them to get on stage, you ordered a round to loosen up a bit, you getting some Jack Daniels on the rocks.

That local flavor would forever be your first choice, especially compared to the tequila shots some of the girls chose instead.

$

Tom Holland, Harrison Osterfield, and some of their buddies strolled down Broadway, too.

Tom’s newest project was set in the city and a long day of filming called for letting loose for the night and getting to know a little bit more of Nash culture.

They came upon one place where a band was playing a Bruce Springsteen song, so they headed in, beelining to the bar. 

As they waited for their own drinks, Tom turned his head to look around when he caught a glance of you, and everything seemed to move in slow motion. 

You were coolly half sitting-half leaning on a barstool, sipping your drink as you soaked in the music. Your friend’s band always sounded great, but you decided to scan the room to see how other people were reacting. 

You turned your head, the big curls in your hair flipping over your shoulder. As you looked straight down the bar you caught eyes with a brunette man laughing with his friends, face going slack as he stared back at you. 

You looked him up and down, not taking much time to study his face, then smiled and turned back to the band. 

Please come over here you thought, trying to not look again.

Tom turned to his group.

“Do you see that girl? That’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen!”

“Well then go on you div, make a conversation,” Harrison said as the others gassed Tom up, too.

The guys pushed him around a bit as he bounced up and down on his toes, trying to hype himself up.

A few moments later you saw a male figure approach from the corner of your eye. You had planned to flirt with him, but the second you turned to say something, you froze.

It was Tom. Holland.

You both stared at each other silently for a second, both surprised, until finally he spoke up, his accent clearly British among the southern Nashville drawls around you.

“Sorry to bother you, but I saw you across the bar and couldn’t help but notice how beautiful you were.”

A blush rose to your cheeks, and it took a moment before you found words to reply.

“I- thank you. You’re Tom Holland, right?” you asked incredulously.

It was his turn to blush and look at the ground. He nodded his head, a cute smile lighting up his face.

“That’s me. Now would you mind the honor of teaching me how to dance like the tennesseans?”

It took no thought to take his hand and tear up the dance floor that night.

$

It had been almost 3 years since you’d met Tom that in Nash. A night of dancing and drinking had led to you going back to his hotel that night. 

Nothing had actually happened between you though, because you were both too drunk and sleepy to do anything but crash on top the bed.

It had, however, sparked the beginnings of an amazing romance, where in the present, you were strolling down Camden Market looking at art, clothing, and jewelry as you tried to decide where to grab food.

Hands held tightly together, you both decided to stop for a moment to look over the canal, but you instead focused your attention onto his face that glowed in the sunlight.

He turned to you and did the same, both of you grinning like kids when your eyes met. 

“Oh how I love that American smile of yours,” he breathed.

“I fancy you too, darling,” you returned, heart full. 

$

On your first trip to London, he’d taken you to Highgate, where some of his childhood friends lived. Of course you already knew Harrison, Tuwaine, and Tom’s brothers (considering most of them had been there the night you met), but you’d been nervous to make a good impression.

It wasn’t long until you were jumping into their conversation and joking too, as if you’d all been friends for years.

You and Tom had only been dating about 6 months by this point, and had somehow kept the relationship secret from the public, so it felt nice to be introduced as his girlfriend.

You’d gone into the kitchen to refresh your drink when Harrison followed behind. 

“You really love him, don’t you?” he asked out of nowhere, “at least, that’s what we all think.”

You paused to think.

I guess the rumors are true...

$

Another trip about a year into the relationship and you’d learned to love high tea, listening to stories from Tom’s days in acting and carpentry schools, and the West End.

It was hard to believe every time you went to a show that in days past, Tom had been on that stage, too. 

You’d also spent time at the pubs with him and the boys, sometimes watching rugby, other times playing pub quizzes. 

There were also times that you went out dancing. It was a whole different world from line dances and country music, but over time it felt just as natural.

$

In the present, your time around the market had been ended early as clouds darkened and turned to gloomy rain. 

It didn’t really bother you though, because as the cab took you through the city, you saw the lights glow and illuminate the glistening buildings you’d come to love.  

“I’m sorry we had to cut the day short, love,” Tom whispered, squeezing your hand with his. 

“Are you kidding?” you beamed, “I’ve had so much fun today! We got to explore the heart of the city, go shopping at the market, and eat great food. Plus, now we can go with everyone to that teahouse I love. What more could a girl ask for?” 

“God, I love you,” he grinned as you leaned on his shoulder to look back out the window, distracting yourself for the long ride back to his house.

$

About a year and a half of dating, and you’d come to visit Tom while he was filming a movie at the Warner Bros. studio in Watford. 

Since he was filming up north, you chose to rent a hotel in the heart of the city so Tom could stay closer to work (and therefore have more time with you).

Most of the nights he could, you’d go club in Brixton. Afternoons off were spent in Shoreditch trying restaurants and looking at art. You also got to see his buddies from Highgate again, joking and having fun just as before.

By now, your relationship was public and of course the paparazzi was often trying to photograph you, but you didn’t really mind it. It was nice getting to show the world just how in love you were with this boy.

$

For your two year anniversary, Tom had flown you out to the city for a romantic getaway, where instead of staying at his house like usual, he paid to have you stay in a royal suite at a 5 star hotel in the heart of London, overlooking the river. 

You spent the trip mostly to yourselves, not going out to the pubs at night like usual, instead choosing to have private dinners or go to nice restaurants. 

He took you shopping around Bond St, showering you with expensive things that you of course didn’t need (and had to buy a second suitcase to haul), but the gesture alone was the nicest thing a boyfriend had done for you.

Of course, you also visited with his family and had a nice time with all of them, but spending private time with Tom was the best of all.

The place you stayed made you feel like a queen (it was royal after all), and it fit the way he could never help but call you his Tennessee queen.

The lingerie he’d gotten you also came in handy, because when you emerged from the bathroom wearing only that, he would say in a husky voice, 

“Babe, don’t threaten me with a good time,” before you’d do exactly that.

$

In the present, you were back at Tom’s place, preparing for dinner with his family when he called you to the backyard.

The rain had let up, leaving a lovely sunset sky, which is what you were expecting him to talk about once you came to the back porch.

“Wow, that’s pretty,” you stated, snapping your hoop earring shut to complete your look for the night. 

Tom had said it would be a nice dinner, so you’d put on the soft pink dress he had bought earlier that day the second you said you loved it and some matching heels. You had also spent time curling your hair and doing some makeup, wanting to look and feel good.

“You look more beautiful than a thousand sunsets,” he whispered back, causing you to blush as pink as your dress. You gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

“What did you call me out here for? Shouldn’t we head out soon?”

“Right, yeah. I got distracted there for a second,” he chuckled before continuing, “Y/n, do you remember the night we met?”

“Of course. I’ll keep that day burned into my memory until the day I die.”

“Well, that night I told my mates that you were the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and it’s still true. I don’t regret a single thing about the past 3 years of loving you.”

Your heart began to pound and you tried to steady your breathing. Was this it? Was this what you thought it was?

God, I hope so a voice in your head was screaming.

He took your hands in his and squeezed them. 

“Y/n L/n, I love you so dearly. I’ve probably loved you since the night I took you back to my hotel and I woke up to find you laying atop my bed and just didn’t realize it then.”

He began to bend his knees and reached a hand into his pocket, butterflies now rising in your stomach like nothing before.

“I want to love you for the rest of my life. Y/n L/n, will you marry me?” His hands held open a box with the most perfect ring you’d ever seen.

Tears welled up in your eyes and a watery smile rose to your face. You were speechless, so at first all you could do was nod, then finally you exclaimed,

“YES!”

Both of your hands were shaking as he slipped the ring onto your left hand, and then he stood up, pressing you into a deep kiss. 

You were on cloud nine.

You heard shouts behind you, breaking the kiss to see Harrison and Tuwaine cheering and recording on their phones. 

“Wait a second, where’s Harry?”

Nearby, a bush rustled and out stepped the twin, camera in hand.

“You guys all really planned this for me?” you asked, elated.

“Anything for you, babe. I was worried that it would be ruined by the rain, but it looks like things worked out just right,” he answered.

You stared down at the ring, still not quite believing everything, but your gaze eventually fell down to your watch.

“Well, I hate to kill the mood, but I’m so hungry I don’t know what to do with myself, and it’s time to go anyways, so let’s get out of here!”

$

You rode in Tom’s car while the other boys piled into Harry’s. They arrived first and were waiting at the door when you arrived. 

“Alright, follow us, we have a private room,” Haz said, the three boys leading you and Tom that way. 

You had a feeling the dinner was an engagement celebration, but had no expectation of what happened next.

The doors opened to tons of people yelling “Congratulations!” while holding cute balloons and champagne glasses. You scanned the room and were happy to see Tom’s family and friends from London and home, including the one’s that had been there that night in Nashville.

The most surprising thing, however, was your family. You hadn’t seen them in almost a month due to work and travel, so immediately you ran into their arms.

“She said yes, by the way!” Tom exclaimed happily, causing another round of cheers from the crowd.

“I can’t believe you all came!” you said to everyone, especially towards your US friends. 

“Well it wouldn’t be a real engagement if we didn’t celebrate with something special,” one friend said. 

“What do you mean?” 

With that, she plopped a hat onto your head. You pulled it off, confused until you got a good look at it. It was the hat you were wearing the night you met Tom. 

“We were gonna bring the boots and booty shorts, too, but I think what you’ve got goin’ on is a little classier,” another friend piped up, garnering laughs from your friend group. 

You pressed the hat back over your head, not caring if it squished the curls you’d gotten to lay perfectly not too long before.

“Well, then. Let’s get this rodeo started!” you exclaimed, gathering yet another of many cheers you and Tom would receive that night and for years to come.

$

A/N: Omg guys. I did it. I wrote something new. I’m thinking about making this a two shot, where the second part is more from Tom’s perspective and explores his visits to the US and I’ll call it Nashville Girl. Idk if any good songs exist that would tie in but whatever. 

Anyways, love you all and thank you for your continued support! Please stay safe and STAY HOME!