Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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The Real Rick Driggle

There was quite a dust-up on the K2K Internet forum last week leading up to the Universe Knoxville vote at County Commission. At first glance, there wasn't anything particularly unusual about the back-and-forth questioning of various aspects of the project and defenses of it by assorted parties. But then someone noticed something: the two most vociferous Universe Knoxville advocates, Chad Boetger and Rick Driggle, had IP (Internet Protocol) addresses that originated from the same point. And that point, as it turned out, was Barber and McMurry, Inc.—the designated architect for UK and one of Knoxville's most respected firms. That was kinda interesting in light of the tone and tenor of posts by Mssrs. Boetger ("How many other ideas are we going to watch go by?"; "Would you really want a structure that stands 220 feet above Gay Street on the World's Fair Park, next to all the lovely crack houses in the Fort?") and Driggle ("We'd have to be RETARDED not to support this project"; and to a few skeptics, "It probably is your lack of education," "Know your role"). As it turns out, Boetger does indeed work for Barber and McMurry. But there's no one named Driggle there. And once K2K moderators bounced the apparently pseudonymous Driggle, Boetger dropped off the forum in a hurry. What gives? BMI executive Mike Ragsdale was surprised to hear about the exchanges. "Absolutely I'd be troubled by that," he said. "Anytime anyone [from BMI] responds, then we should be upfront about who we are." As of Tuesday afternoon, Ragsdale said there were efforts under way in-house to "figure out who Rick Driggle is." Meanwhile, BMI stands to get about $110,000 of the $200,000 Commission approved Monday for UK planning. Hey, they'd have to be retarded not to support this project.

Calling Elmer Fudd

Monday's County Commission meeting had it all, baby—a smattering of astrophysicists, a front row full of White Guys, and the Easter Bunny, too. Sam Furrow and Jim Haslam sat cheek by jowl as the festivities began with a detour from the bunny trail as Mary Greene, in a bunny suit, handed out eggs and hot-pink flyers, dropping them on the floor as County Executive Tommy Schumpert scuttled along behind picking up the debris. Despite the fact that the eggs contained a message from a group called "action democrats" urging the rescue of the school system from the fell clutches of the GOP, the rascally rabbit drew little response from the commissioners, who were perhaps focused on the Universe Knoxville vote. Who did pay attention? Maybe the pooh-bahs of the local Democratic party, who let it be known that they were not pleased with the rabbit attack. "The word was the party was embarrassed and that I should have gotten their permission," said organizer Jim Gray. "...I pointed out that this group calls itself 'democrats,' not the Democrats."

New Math

Away they go: members of a new group called KnoxRecall (headed up by K2K activists Steve Dupree and Regina Rizzi) filed forms Tuesday to start a petition drive to recall Mayor Victor Ashe and City Council members Jack Sharp, Larry Cox and Ed Shouse from office. Assuming the forms are OK'd by the Election Commission, they'll have 75 days to collect more than 15,000 signatures. But before they even get to that point, they'll have to overcome the city's first line of defense: according to city Law Director Michael Kelly, none of the incumbents meets the statutory requirement of having served "two full years in office." He means from the date of their last election; whether that's what the law means will have to be settled somewhere along the way, probably in court. But for the record, the four named officials have served a combined total of 76 years in their current positions.

Mark Your Calendars With an X

When Knoxville made its appearance in the X-Filesfour or five years ago, it looked sort of like Vancouver. Next month, a more recognizably genuine Knoxville institution will make an appearance in the still-trendy postmodern sci-fi series: one of the key actors will be Knoxville native Dale Dickey. Fresh from her major-motion-picture debut as a detective opposite Jack Nicholson in The Pledge, Dale will play a Georgia fish-and-game warden in the series' season finale, to air on Sunday, May 20. (It will follow airings of a couple of her appearances on the PAX Christy series, which is a testament to her versatility; we're not sure how much of a crossover audience those shows have.)

Dickey, a talented standout in several Clarence Brown Theatre productions in the '80s, has spent most of the last decade working in New York and California. For now, that's all we can tell you. The X-Files episode, already shot on the West Coast, is strictly under wraps.

MVP (or, "What Would Allen Iverson Do?")

This week, hundreds of basketball fans all over the country received hand-signed thank-you cards printed with the following message: "I cannot even begin to express the gratitude that I feel for all the support that I've received. When I tore my ACL my heart felt like it was ripped from my body. But, as life has taught me, God works in mysterious ways. In my case it was through your letters. Each of you has definitely motivated me to stay strong and work harder. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart! Best wishes and God bless! Tamika Catchings, #24."