Further evidence of Knoxville's ascension into the annals of pop culture history: We've become a trivia question. Last week on Win Ben Stein's Money, the Comedy Central game show on cable TV, the question was posed: "What city was the first capital of Tennessee and hosted the 1982 World's Fair?" Compounding the honor of becoming a point of reference on modern television was the fact that the contestant got it right. Can Jeopardy be that far off? Dare to dream.

On the Other Hand...

Have you heard the new Knoxville slogan making the rounds of city and county officials?

"Knoxville: Where Nature and Technology Stop for Gas"

Show 'Em the Money

At first glance, a new report from UT's Center for Business and Economic Research (touted in a page-one News-Sentinel story over the weekend) looks like a no-brainer. The study says UT athletics has a big impact on the Knoxville economy, to the tune of $62 million a year from both fans and direct spending by the Athletic Department. So tell us something we don't know. Well, there are some interesting wrinkles, the most notable being that the dollar figure now is more than twice what it was when a similar study was conducted in 1991 (that report showed an annual impact of $27 million).

Why the big jump? Bill Fox, the economist who heads the research center, cites a couple of causes: expansion of Neyland Stadium, people spending more while they're in town, more people going to women's and men's basketball games. But the biggest single factor is the explosive growth in the budget of the Athletic Department itself. In 1991, the department had a budget of about $21.8 million. Last year, it was $35.4 million, an increase of 62 percent in six years, attributable to booms in ticket sales, TV contracts, product endorsements, sports camps and other sports-related activities.

Fox says that translates into more spending by the department on everything from equipment to services, which boosts the local economy. Fair enough. But it may be small comfort to beleaguered professors and department heads in the other parts of the penny-pinched university—you know, the parts with students and classes and such—who are more likely to see unicorns galloping along Neyland Drive than a 62 percent increase. Maybe they should pursue their own endorsement arrangements—lab coats by Nike?

She'll Be Back

Avid County Commission watchers will miss Madeline Rogero, the 2nd District commissioner who announced Tuesday she won't run for re-election next year. But don't count on the opinionated Democrat—a key member of commission's "progressive" wing—staying out of political life. "I'm keeping my options open," she says. "I'll just weigh the opportunities as they arise." For the moment, she says she wants to concentrate on her family and her work with UT's Community Partnership Center. That's what kept her from throwing her hat in the state Senate candidate ring this year, despite entreaties from some local Democrats. Rogero says the prospect of commuting between home and Nashville six months a year "doesn't fit in for me at this point in my life." But in the future...well, as she herself notes, "I'm just 45 years old. I've got time."