The folks out there in TV land watching City Council on Channel 12 probably couldn't tell, but the room was packed at the most recent meeting, mostly with constituents of Ivan Harmon there to protest two proposed rezonings—both of which had been unanimously rejected by the Metropolitan Planning Commission. The MPC rulings were being appealed to Council, which promptly voted to overturn them after Harmon said he'd prayed about it. Afterward, angry neighborhood types met in the hall outside to discuss alternatives, the most popular of which was to recall Harmon at the earliest opportunity. Now there's talk of a petition drive to trigger the 3rd District Councilman's ouster. Of course, the suddenly passionate residents could have saved themselves some trouble by finding someone to run against Harmon in last month's election, when he skated back into office sans opposition.

Peyton Makes the Cut

When Peyton Manning first came to Knoxville, he had instructions from home to put his hair in the hands of Frank Gambuzza, owner of Salon Visage, a friend of Papa Archie Manning's hairdresser in New Orleans, who gave the kid Gambuzza's number. Turns out, Peyton wrote it down wrong, and kept reaching some hardware store. A couple of years later, Gambuzza ran into Manning's mamma, Olivia, who asked him to do something with Peyton's hair. Who'd been cutting it? "The other players," says Gambuzza. "They'd cut each other's hair."

Anyhow, this season, Manning's coif has been stylin', and he came in for a little touch-up just before he was on the David Letterman show.

"How do you want it?" Gambuzza asked.

"Just don't give me the same cut you did before the Florida game," Manning responded.

A Whittle Goes a Long Way

On the heels of reports that Knox County school Superintendent Allen Morgan and other local educrats recently visited one of Chris Whittle's Edison Schools in Kansas comes a report that most of the 25 schools managed by the for-profit Edison company have shown substantial gains in reading and math over the past two years. The New York Times story says even critics of the Edison approach—contracting with local boards of education to run schools—are impressed by the results. But don't bet on Whittle making a return to Knoxville any time soon. Although Morgan went to Kansas at the behest of Restoration Outreach, a Mechanicsville-based organization interested in putting an innovative program into Maynard Elementary School, local school officials have traditionally been resistant to letting anybody but themselves tinker with their programs.

Last Minute Shopping Suggestion

What child wouldn't be overjoyed to find a Smith & Wesson product under the tree on Christmas morning? And best of all, your kids won't have to be afraid of breaking the "zero tolerance" policy when they bring it in for show and tell at school. That's because the world's leading manufacturer of handguns is now licensing its brand name for a full line of merchandise—and it has opened its own store at the Tanger Outlet Center in Pigeon Forge. Has Mom always wanted a Smith & Wesson umbrella? Or how about a pair of Smith & Wesson boots for dad? Don't forget that Smith & Wesson model train for the kids. Well, you now have access to one of only three such stores in the entire country, and one of only two that includes the entire line of Smith & Wesson quality firearms. "We see a growing public demand for our high-quality logo clothing and gifts, and we want to make these products easily available to all our customers," declares John Steele, director of licensing and apparel merchandising.

And so it goes...