I Wannabe Like 'Mique

Pat Summitt's media day was, as one would suspect, a big success—a lot like last year, but more so. Chamique Holdsclaw was the hit of the show with her considerable poise and humor. Tamika Catchings sat quietly and worked on a math assignment. Newcomer Michelle Snow talked about dunking, promising that she won't allow anyone else to do it before she does. Semeka Randall, who sent UConn coach Geno Auriemma into a cussing hissy fit last year when she said the Tennessee crowd "scared" his Huskies on their roadtrip here, was her effervescent self, saying her ambition this year is to be more "in control" on the court.

(Summitt's response to a reporter who relayed this information: "You believe that?")

Randall alluded to last year's Geno tirade: "The trip to UConn will be interesting for me personally. They don't like me much up there, but the Good Lord told us to love everybody..." She paused, smiled and started to sing, dancing out across the floor and doing a slow waltz to "The Barney Song:"

"I love you, You love me, We're a happy family..."

I Wanna Be Like Victor?

Mayor Victor Ashe, whose globe-trotting proclivities are the stuff of standard Knoxville political gossip, breezed into a celebrity roast of retiring legislators Bud Gilbert and Wayne Ritchie Friday just in time to call Gilbert (rumored to be getting ready to run against Ashe in '99) a "good friend" and lob a few zingers. Ashe drew his biggest laugh when he read aloud a note he said was from Sen. Bob Rochelle to Sen. Bud Gilbert:

"Dear Bud;
Bite me."

Republican Gilbert has been campaigning for the Lebanon Democrat's GOP opponent. Rochelle has been a bitter foe of Gilbert's ethics reform attempts.

Ashe reminded the audience that when Gilbert said he wasn't going to seek re-election, he cited wanting to find time to snare a wife and start a family.

"But he suffered a setback in this pursuit (finding a wife) when Dr. Stephanie Hall got Caller ID. He tried to woo Dr. Hall with the tactic of endorsing her boss's opponent." (Hall, the director of the Knox County Health Department, works for County Executive Tommy Schumpert. Gilbert endorsed Schumpert's opponent Scott Davis.) Ashe also suggested that Gilbert is getting "dating advice from Ray Hill." (Who needs no identification.)

Ashe waved around a copy of Gilbert's Legislative Report "mailed at taxpayer expense..." that he said arrived at his office. Then he pulled out another one that he said he got at home. Then he pulled out a third one: "What got my attention was when J. Victor got one."

Then Ashe was gone, pleading a pressing engagement downtown before Gilbert could get his return shot at Ashe:

"I'm glad he could fly in. I was going to ask if he could stay..."

Why a Duck?

A few years ago, the city of Knoxville asked the Tennessee Department of Transportation to look into replacing the Gay Street Viaduct, which bridges the Norfolk-Southern tracks between Regas and the tenuously thriving 100 block, effectively joining North Gay with South Gay. The 1919 reinforced-concrete bridge has deteriorated visibly, and though it's not a threat to its current traffic load, it's considered under par by modern standards for both height and maximum load-bearing potential.

Though the mayor's office was said to be enthusiastic about replacing the bridge, it's fair to say that they're now less so. The project, and especially the prospect of closing Gay Street for two years, brought such an outcry from merchants and other businessfolk who would be affected that Mayor Ashe sent a letter to TDOT Commissioner Bruce Saltsman in Nashville, three weeks ago, reporting the concern among his constituents "that closure of the Gay Street Viaduct for two years will do irreparable economic harm to businesses in this area of downtown Knoxville." Earning points for flexibility, Mayor Victor Ashe goes on to ask whether TDOT and Knoxville might "work together to rehabilitate the existing structure rather than replace it."