Blowing the Bad Air Whistle
When I moved to Knoxville nearly nine years ago from Phoenix, I was amazed that there were no annual vehicle emissions testing requirements.
This always seemed like a simple and effective check against excessive vehicle emissions: you drive up, hand them your 12 bucks, get your auto's exhaust gasses sampled and drive off.
Ten minutes and 12 bucks. Easy. Of course, if you fail, you'll need to get a tune-up or repair and attempt to pass again.
The downside of this is that if you're barely making ends meet and your car needs new piston rings, you'll never pass an emissions test. Typically exemptions are made for car owners after they demonstrate that they have spent X-amount but still cannot get their car to pass emissions.
Since living here I always pray for windy days (wind=blue skies) and have just about worn the "recirc" button on my car's A/C, which I use whenever I pull up behind a belching beater.
I'm delighted to know that this subject is getting some well-deserved [Dec. 24 Insights] attention.
Brett Burdick
Knoxville
It's the Opera's Festival
Thank you so much for kindly dubbing [Dec. 24] the Knoxville Opera Rossini Festival "the best all-around festival of the year." We at Knoxville Opera are very proud of what the festival has done for opera awareness and attendance. The audience at October's Turandot was noticeably larger and overall younger than any opera audience in recent memory. Sales for February's Die Fledermaus are brisk.
Opera seems to be the "in thing" right now. We recognize the role the Rossini Festival, and the Metro Pulse readers who attend, play in opera's resurgence. Your excellent coverage has meant a great deal to us.
I would be grateful if you would bear in mind that the official title of the festival is the Knoxville Opera Rossini Festival. You mentioned Dogwood Arts, but failed to mention Knoxville Opera in your very kind article in last week's [Dec. 31] edition. As a result I'm afraid some of your readers might get the impression that Dogwood Arts creates or sponsors the festival.
While we enjoy a good friendship with Dogwood Arts and their remarkable executive director Ed Pasley, I'm certain neither Ed nor his wonderful staff and volunteers would want credit for the Rossini Festival's success to be attributed to anyone other than the hard-working Knoxville Opera and Knoxville Opera Guild volunteers, board, and staff who make it happen. We are proud that the Knoxville Opera's Rossini Festival is a sanctioned event among the many wonderful sanctioned Dogwood events in the spring. We look forward to this April's festival.
Viva Dogwood! Viva Rossini! May we prosper side-by-side and continue complementing one another, making Knoxville a better place to live in the process.
Francis Graffeo
General Director/Conductor
Knoxville Opera
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