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E D I T O R I A L L Y

McDougal’s: Just another chicken place?

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 Issue 52 I N D E P E N D E N T

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Commission to discuss park advancement Robbie Hargett Staff Writer Approximately 100 organizations and individuals will meet Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the report of the Second Century Commission.

Last year, the National Parks Conservation Association created the Second Century Commission, co-chaired by former S ens. Howard Baker and Bennett Johnston, to develop a vision for the National Park Service for the next 100 years.

“The commission was comprised of a diverse group of private citizens, educators, scientists, historians and conservationists, with a common goal of creating a vision that would advance and expand the national park idea,” Dr. Stephen Lockhart , chairman of the board of Yosemite National Institutes, said.

The commission wishes to expand the idea of the parks within their borders but also to expand the idea outside the borders. An ardent climber and backpacker with an enthusiasm for the environment, Lockhart understands the importance of protecting the national parks.

“The goal is to engage this group in tor of development and policy research at reviewing the recommendations and to the Howard Baker Center for Public develop strategies for their implementa- Policy, said.

Discussion scheduled Wednesday tion,” Lockhart There will be group said. “There is discussions and quesa strong desire tion-and-answer sesamong commissions following an sioners that the introduction to each of report not lanthe four topics. guish on a shelf Individuals who were but actually not invited to the becomes a docuevent, including stument that stratedents, can view the gically guides the discussions and particfuture of the ipate in the Q&A sesparks.” sions via Web cast.

The four areas Gibson said it of discussion duris important for ing the two - day students to particevent are park pate in the prosystem expansion, gram. natural and cul- – Dr. Stephen Lockhart, “Students as a tural resources, chairman of the board of Yosemite National whole should be looksustainable fund- Institues ing at this because it’s ing and educationthe future of who we want to suggest we al engagement.

“The whole process is about how we are as a nation,” she said.

There will be breakout sessions in the identify ways to make sure that people continue to appreciate, promote and pro- afternoon to discuss each area in detail, tect these treasures,” Amy Gibson, direc- as well as voting sessions in which partic-

“

The goal is to

engage this group in reviewing the

recommendations and to develop strategies for their

implementation.

”

ipants vote for recommendations that they support. The results will be used to promote further discussion in later sessions.

Thursday, the groups will work around the recommendations to discuss opportunities, obstacles and the role of each group in the advancement of the national park idea.

Gibson noted that changing population and changing habits have changed the ways in which the people use the parks.

Education, travel habits and demographics have shifted, which requires the U.S. to think about different ways to keep people engaged in national parks.

“In addition to that, it’s about how we make sure that the parks are great, comfortable places for everybody, so that people of all races, all ethnicities and so forth all feel welcome and understand that the parks are a representation of what it is to be American,” Gibson said.

Individuals can view the discussions and send in comments via Web cast at http://tinyurl.com/yfku2r9.

The full Second Century Commission report is available from the Baker Center Web site and at http://www.visionfortheparks.org.

Centripetals luncheon focuses on recession’s impact, future on U.S. Kyle Turner Staff Writer

George Richardson • The Daily Beacon

Kicking off Homecoming Week, campus organizations compete in various games at “Anything Goes” at Figi Island Sunday night.

Pageant to honor minority freshmen Kyle Turner Staff Writer The Mr. and Miss Freshman Pageant will take place for the first time during this year’s Homecoming Week.

The pageant is hosted by the Minority Achievement Program, an “organization dedicated to assisting and supporting minority first-year students in making a successful transition to life on campus,” Tracia Cloud, graduate assistant in the Office of Minority Affairs, said.

Cloud said the program has over 400 active, first-year minority students and 50 minority mentors.

MAP offers a host of support to students: social events, mentoring, study skills, as well as other programs and resources

to promote success among firstyear minority students.

Brandon Jones, undecided freshman and MAP member, is participating in the pageant this year.

“MAP has really kept me focused,” Jones said. “My mentor, DeAngelou Stevenson, is always checking up on me and helping me whenever I need it.

The program has really been important to my success here at UTK.” This year’s inaugural pageant was open to any freshmen students wishing to participate.

The pageant aims towards advocating healthy self-awareness, where the winners will receive a book scholarship.

The pageant consists of three men and five women. All hopefuls were required to sub-

mit an application, as well as attend an interview before the finalists were selected. “(The pageant) is a fundraising opportunity,” Cloud said.

“Each participant was required to raise a minimum of $50. We also have sponsors, and tickets are $3 to attend.”

Above all, Cloud said the new pageant is “a way for students to showcase their talents, build confidence and find their place as freshman at UTK.” The contest will contain traditional features of a pageant but with a collegiate twist.

Categories will range from dressing for success to the casual-wear category to showcase classroom attire.

Jones said he wanted to participate in the pageant for a few reasons.

“MAP has been a great program for me, and this is another way to get involved,” Jones said. “Also it is something to showcase freshmen here on campus who are sometimes overlooked.”

Cloud echoed that sentiment. She said the pageant is really a way for freshmen to get their name out there and get involved early as students.

“Some freshmen find it hard to break into school early on, dealing with classes and responsibilities,” Cloud said.

“This is a great opportunity to get their names out there and showcase what the freshmen class has to offer.”

This year’s Mr. and Miss Freshman Scholarship Pageant will take place on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the UC Auditorium.

The state of the recession and future predictions for the U.S. economy were discussed among faculty, emeritus faculty and local professionals at the University Studies Program Centripetals luncheon last week.

Associate Director of the Center for Business and Economic Research Matt Murray and Bill Fox, director of the center, presented the lecture “The Great Recession” on the impacts of the recession.

The lecture iterated that the current economic downturn has been the most severe recession since that of the Great Depression.

“The good news is the recession is over,” Murray said.

Despite the positive forecast, Murray suggested to the diverse group of professionals, from engineering professors to baseball team managers, that it will be an uphill battle in many sectors of the economy for years to come.

“The national economy was at risk this time last year,” Murray said.

Murray cited the high unemployment for Tennessee and other states, noting that things would be much worse without the stimulus presented by the federal government.

With the stimulus and upturn to the economy, U.S. consumers are starting to see strong growth, but it will take awhile before the economy is back to where it once was.

“The trends seem to be increasing, though they are still lower with a long road of recovery in the future,” Murray said.

As a gubernatorial election takes place, Tennessee’s new governor will certainly face problems with an unemployment rate in Tennessee being 10.5 percent in September compared to the 9.5 percent unemployment nationally.

Additionally, Fox said state and local sales taxes will not see substantial recovery until 2012.

New pressures will emerge on local and property taxation to fill in budget gaps that will be created after the stimulus money runs out.

The lecture and lunch were hosted by the University Studies Program, which offers interdisciplinary faculty development.

The Centripetals is one of several programs offered to promote dialogue among faculty and professionals about research, scholarship and creative work.

CAMPUS CALENDAR

2 • The Daily Beacon

InSHORT

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

?

What’s HAPPENING AROUND CAMPUS

Nov. 4 -Nov. 6, 2009

Wednesday, Nov. 4 —

• 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. — The School of Art hosts its annual holiday pots and prints sale in the atrium of the Art and Architecture Building. Proceeds from the sale benefit the UT potters’ club, print club, visiting artists and scholarships in the School of Art.

• 6 p.m. — The Medieval Studies Club screens the film “The Name of the Rose,” which is based on the novel by Umberto Eco and stars Sean Connery and Christian Slater. Held in room 252 of Hodges Library, the screening is sponsored by the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and is free and open to the public.

• 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. — The International House hosts an evening exploring the Turkish culture, including a discussion of Turkey’s architecture, food, music and religion.The event is free and open to the public.

Friday, Nov. 6— • 12 until 1 p.m. — This week’s science forum features Shawn R. Campagna, assistant professor of chemistry, speaking on “Look Who’s Talking: Social Engagement in Microbial World” in the Thompson-Boling Arena dining rooms C-D. • 5 p.m. — Alternative spring break applications due. Applications are available online at http://teamvols.utk.edu. After submitting an application, students are required to stop by the TeamVOLS office to sign up for an interview time.

Nick Schlacter • The Daily Beacon

Violinists Mark Zelmanovich and Miroslav Hristov of the UT Symphony Orchestra perform at the Cox Auditorium Sunday afternoon.

THE CRIME

LOG

Friday, Oct. 30 • 12:17 p.m. — Officer was dispatched to Staff Lot 23 to tow a vehicle. He noticed that the parking permit from the Student Health Center had been altered to expire on Oct. 30. The driver arrived and said he had just gotten the permit from the Student Health Center that morning. Later the officer found out through dispatch that the clinic issues the permit on Oct. 27. After giving the officer a lot of problems about how he was not going to let his truck be towed or drive it to the police impound, the driver finally agreed to drive to the impound. He kept telling the officer that he could not be on the tow list because he had just paid all of his tickets. Later the officer checked with parking services and found out that he had paid all of his fines when UT towed his truck on Oct. 19. However, in the following nine days, his vehicle amassed seven more citations, two of which were for parking in handicapped spaces.

• 2:33 p.m. — On Oct. 29 around 4:30 p.m., a complainant was attending a health care reform rally at UT campus. During the rally, she placed her backpack on the front lawn of 1505 W. Cumberland Avenue. At approximately 5 p.m., she went to retrieve her backpack and found that it was missing.

The black-and-gray backpack contained a blue-and-brown wallet, a silver 16GB iPod Nano and a white Mac Notebook laptop.

The wallet also included her VolCard and Tennessee driver’s license. The combined value of the missing items was $1,026. The complainant had no serial numbers on hand but said she would get back with UTPD if she could find them.

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY • 1948 — T.S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize in literature for his profound effect on the direction of modern poetry. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Mo., to a long-established family. His grandfather had founded Washington University in St. Louis, his father was a businessman, and his mother was involved in local charities. Eliot took an undergraduate degree at Harvard, studied at the Sorbonne, returned to Harvard to learn Sanskrit and then studied at Oxford. He became lifelong friends with fellow poet Ezra Pound and later moved permanently to England. In 1915, he married Vivian Haigh-Wood, but the marriage was unhappy, partly due to her mental instability. She died in an institution in 1947.

— Courtesy of History.com Correction: In a Nov. 3 letter to the editor, Joshua Ogle, senior in music, said Daily Beacon columnist Gabe Johnson was an alternate for both years Johnson was in the Pride of the Southland Marching Band.

This is incorrect. Johnson was a regular member of the Pride for both years, excluding one game in which he was an alternate.

The Daily Beacon regrets the error.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Daily Beacon • 3

ENTERTAINMENT

Perks of new restaurant not worth tradeoff Robby O’Daniel Chief Copy Editor

in a person’s mind, the actual meal will not. The chicken strips are juicy and filling, perhaps too filling. The “small” chicken platter is more appropriate than the large one for an average person’s appetite.

The fries are salty but not particularly tasty, something for absent-minded munching but not devouring. The unnecessary, Five Guys Burgers and Fries-esque amount of fries will probably result in a small village of potatoes in the trashcan as leftovers.

The restaurant also advertises “free ice cream,” leaving a reader waiting to hear the catch. There is none. A sign reading, “Free ice cream. Just ask,” hangs behind the cashier.

Asking brings you a free two-ounce cup of vanilla ice cream.

“It’s the small things that we do that build a cult following, a loyalty,” McDougal said.

The restaurant’s innovative sauce bar also adds variety to the choosing of condiments, even if that variety doesn’t exist in the signature platter. Eight choices of sauce include original, buffalo, tearjerker, HoneyBee, gold, old smokey barbeque, citrus chipotle barbeque and McDougal’s sauce. There’s also ketchup, honey mustard or ranch for the traditionalists.

The sauce bar saves those copious eaters of Zax sauce the extra cost.

“I’m a sauce person,” McDougal said. “I want my sauce lined up. I like to dip. I like to mix things. I don’t want to be nickel and dimed.”

Other menu items include wings, chicken-finger sandwiches, grilled-cheese sandwiches, salads and more. Sides include fries, Tennessee toast, cole slaw, celery sticks and extra pickles.

Even if the restaurant has problems, it deserves a round of applause for not sticking to the formula: “the plate,” whose taste is so relatively indiscriminate between all the restaurants that the only decision-making involved is cost or distance.

And the national chains’ atmospheres will fade quickly out of the memory, but the sights and sounds of McDougal’s will linger.

Whether you like or hate McDougal’s restaurant’s take on serving chicken to the masses, one thing’s for sure: It’s not “just another chicken restaurant.” But the unique atmosphere and large portions are not worth losing the speed, cost and variety of the other fast-food chicken restaurants.

In an area already populated by Zaxby’s, Guthrie’s, KFC and Chick-fil-A, another chicken restaurant might seem superfluous. But McDougal’s is shirking the fast-food identity of small portions and cheap prices, which serves as a unique selling point but also the source of the restaurant’s biggest detriments.

Established in 2004 in Nashville, Tenn., the Knoxville location at the corner of 17th Street and White Avenue is the regional restaurant chain’s fourth location and the first without a 615 area code.

One first notices the difference between McDougal’s and the haunts of other chicken places by the atmosphere. The building that used to serve as a Sawyer’s location still has an unlit Sawyer’s sign in the corner, but everything else looks different. Hardly an inch is not covered with album covers, University of Tennessee sports memorabilia, license plates, a deer head or a pink flamingo.

At the same time, the college dorm room-style decoration just adds to the feeling of entrapment. A sauce bar dominates one side of the restaurant, and tables leave tiny walking space for customers.

It adds the atmosphere of hearing that constant murmur of a packed restaurant’s conversations, but the limited space available makes Guthrie’s or Zaxby’s look expansive by comparison.

Also, since McDougal’s food is cooked-to-order, there’s a wait time involved.

This Sunday night trip to the restaurant, the order took around 15 to 20 minutes to arrive at the table, an uncomfortable amount of time to wait in a cramped restaurant, especially for, say, a quick lunch. The time dwarfs that of the speedy Guthrie’s or even the average Zaxby’s, but unlike those two restaurants, the chicken strips presented were scalding on the first few touches.

While Guthrie’s, Zaxby’s and Sawyer’s have “the plate” or “the box,” with its promise of chicken strips, fries, cole slaw and Texas toast, McDougal’s has the small chicken platter and the large chicken platter at the top of its menu.

The $6.99 small chicken platter consists of three chicken strips, fries and a piece of “Tennessee toast,” while the $7.99 large chicken platter ups the ante to five chicken strips.

Adding in the price of a drink with a large chicken platter, the bill ends up being over $10, which could sound steep on first glance.

However, the chicken strips are significantly larger than the same dish served at other joints.

A mound of fries accompanies the plate, with a piece of “Tennessee toast” on top.

One must question the choice of not having the traditional cole slaw side with the meal. Tommy McDougal, the owner of the restaurant, chalked it up to past experience with “the plate” at chicken restaurants.

“I noticed that I was a person that always wanted to substitute my slaw for extra toast or extra fries,” McDougal said. “So I said, ‘Screw it, no slaw.’ It’s just a waste. Keep it simple: Get more fries. You want more toast? Sure. We’ll charge for the toast.”

It’s worth noting that a substitution of an extra piece of toast seems more feasible than what must be double the fries. The result is a challenging-looking plate: a mountain of chicken fingers and an avalanche of French fries. One wonders whether he or she will finish.

“We got bigger fingers,” McDougal said. “Size does matter, hand-cut fries. We’re not fast food. We’re fresh food.”

It also doesn’t leave much room for variety in what should be a full-course meal, something a restaurant striving to be more than “fast food” should consider. Large portions of one or two things are associated with snacking.

A meal is an ensemble.

Look at KFC’s Variety Big Box Meal. It offers a drumstick, a chicken strip, a box of Popcorn Chicken, two sides, a biscuit and a drink for around $8 including tax! That’s a lot of food, and the small portions and eclectic mix makes for something that customers can pick and choose and not get bored with.

Another problem with the chicken platter dinner is that, © 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. “PricewaterhouseCoopers” refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (a Delaware limited liability partnership) or, as the context requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network or other member firms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity. We are proud to be an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. while the experience of going to McDougal’s will stick out

Feed your future See how more than 29,000 people are working together to help inspire change.

Begin at www.pwc.tv

4 • The Daily Beacon

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

OPINIONS

LettersEditor to the

Monetary interests at heart of new basketball ticketing system I must take exception at the new basketball ticketing system being described as a “benefit” to students in the Nov. 3 issues of The Daily Beacon. This new system, where our VolCard must be activated prior to each game in order to attend, is designed to make the Athletic Department more money. That’s it. The student section does not fill up for every game, only the big games such as Florida and Kentucky. The empty seats that the students are not sitting in are not making money for Mike Hamilton. By the students registering before each game, Hamilton has a chance to sell our unused tickets to the general public. This makes sense. However, the new process is a hassle, just like the football system and will cause student attendance to decrease. The Athletic Department is probably OK with that. Besides, we’ll all still have to wait in line to get into the game. Because we are not guaranteed a specific seat, it will still be a first-come/first-serve basis for the good ones. Just like in previous years. This is just another thorn in the side for the students so that the most important, er, self-important department on campus can make a few extra bucks.

John Thomason M.S. candidate in geography

Stay-at-home mothering requires planning, work After reading Anna Parker’s Oct. 23 column, I was utterly and completely flabbergasted by the assumptions that Parker presents in her view on stay-at-home mothers. First off, she claims that planning on being a wife and mother one day “isn’t really much of a plan.” I would argue that, in fact, those two things require a lot of planning.

For instance, after one is married, you plan your life not just for yourself but with someone else, which takes work.

Add a child or two in there, and you are up against more planning than a 100-page research paper.

Then Parker moves on to say that a woman becomes completely dependent on her husband after she is married.

The only way this is true would be through financial dependence if the woman does not work at all. But I doubt the fact was considered that a wife provides to her husband in ways beyond producing a paycheck. This interdependence is what makes a marriage, a marriage. The two become one and provide for the new unit in different ways.

Finally I would like to point out Parker’s illogical claims about motherhood. She claims that being a mom is “short-lived,” and a mom “does not even perform intense child-rearing for a full 18 years.” She goes on to say that “motherhood is a job that slowly requires less and less work” and, finally, that women who raise children rather than have a career have no personal accomplishments. All I can say about these statements is ... What?! Anyone who has a child or is remotely close to someone with a child knows that being a mother is a 24/7, 365 days a year job that lasts for a lifetime. Being a stay-at-home mom requires more effort and energy than a circus performer with no days off, no breaks and, sadly, not much recognition.

I am not a mother, but I found this column to be insulting to the oldest, most influential job of all time — being someone irreplacable in a person’s life, being the main source of care for a completely helpless being and later being the child’s emotional, social and relational guide throughout the rest of his life. I challenge anyone who agrees with Parker to be a shadow of a mother and consider every task they put energy into and every thought that goes through her head. I challenge everyone to do this: Then say that mothering is not true work and not a personal accomplishment.

Cayce Powers Junior in child and family studies SUPER BROCCOLI • Sumter & Starnes

DOONESBURY • Garry Trudeau

Money dictates television news values C ommon S e n se by

Kel Thompson

It seems to me that there has been a lot of bickering going on lately about the journalistic integrity of the various news media giants (Fox, CNN, NBC, etc).

There’s about to be some more.

The main thing that irks me about all the arguing is that I feel like everybody is missing the real problem.

So much of the debate revolves around the sentiments that either, “Fox News is biased and CNN is unbiased,” or vice versa. Fact is, they (among the others) are both biased outlets and shoddy excuses for real news.

Let’s face it, what could possibly be a hidden motive behind the antics and programming of these fine journalistic corporations? Money. It always goes back to money. These media outlets want ratings, and a good way to get them is to push simplified leftversus-right issues. In doing so, each outlet guarantees itself roughly half of the viewer population, who will be more inclined to agree with them than their perceived opponent. This tendency is what leads to the argument over which news source is more credible, when in fact, the only real argument is over which outlet a particular person agrees with more.

None are credible.

If the issue were over actual journalistic credibility, all major news media sources would fall short of an acceptable standard. For example, let’s take a look at the most popular stories on CNN.com at the time of this writing: “Iraqi woman in U.S. dies from injuries,” “Anna Nicole Smith video raises questions,” “Mom, daughter, both pregnant, battling H1N1,” “Set afire, teen now struggles for survival.” I know that the “most popular” category may say more about the viewership than the company, but that’s irrelevant to my point.

by

Gabe Johnson

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The Daily Beacon is published by students at The University of Tennessee Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Friday during the summer semester. The offices are located at 1340 Circle Park Drive, 5 Communications Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314. The newspaper is free on campus and is available via mail subscription for $200/year, $100/semester or $70/summer only. It is also available online at: http://dailybeacon.utk.edu.

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— Kel Thompson is a junior in creative writing. He can be reached at kthomp28@utk.edu

Band needs spring practices, black uniforms C ome On! S e r i o u s ly ?

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Sounds like at least three of those headlines are about some fairly bad situations. But what exactly is it that makes these stories worthy of considerable discussion by the national news media? Ratings.

Auditing the Federal Reserve may be a critically important issue to the whole nation, but “Teen raped at homecoming” is more interesting to the average viewer. Which story do you think gets more attention?

I don’t want to make light of what happened to that poor girl, but it’s an issue for the local news at 10, not the national community.

I’ll be honest; I only watch televised news in order to elevate my blood pressure every now and again, so I’m a bit out of the loop on the issues currently being pushed. With that in mind, please recognize that I’m not just hating on Fox or CNN but all of the TV news outlets; they all make journalistic concessions for money and entertainment value, among other possible motives.

It baffles me that the vast majority of Americans seem to either miss the fact that all of the major news outlets are pushing an agenda or simply not care at all.

We shouldn’t be calling for CNN to be more open to Republican views or for Fox News to stop being such bullheaded a-holes. Instead, we should concern ourselves with finding alternative news sources and/or establishing a truly independent informationproviding agency (not funded by the government).

Unless we demand a more reliable and independent source of information, we will be stuck with the undeniably lousy options that we currently have. Sure, it’s great that Fox and CNN are out there offering us the illusion of a free press, but I’d much rather have truly uncorrupted journalism.

From top to bottom, the credibility of our news is cheapened by decisions made on a monetary basis. It is not one source or another that is guilty of this transgression but all of them. It is time, then, to get over the red-versus-blue mentality and get into a freepeople-versus-the-corporations frame of mind. Let’s get together and make sure we have a free press — Lord knows that nobody will do it for us.

LETTERS POLICY: The Daily Beacon welcomes all letters to the editor and guest columns from students, faculty and staff. Each submission is considered for publication by the editor on the basis of space, timeliness and clarity. Contributions must include the author’s name and phone number for verification. Students must include their year in school and major. Letters to the editor and guest columns may be e-mailed to letters@utk.edu or sent to Jenny Bledsoe, 1340 Circle Park Dr., 5 Communications Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-0314. The Beacon reserves the right to reject any submissions or edit all copy in compliance with available space, editorial policy and style.

Once in a blue moon, people who are truly great at what they do come along. You have people like the All-American quarterback Brett Favre, the All-American, American George Washington and of course the Nature Boy himself: Ric Flair. (Wooooo!)

But what do all these great people have in common (besides obviously being great, that is)?

They cannot stay retired. Brett Favre has retired countless times only to come back to the game of football. George Washington came out of retirement in 1798 to raise an army to fight the French (though the war never came). And there’s no need to explain Flair’s situation because everyone should already know his story.

So then it dawned on me: If I want to be a great Beacon writer, and I mean truly great (like Dylan Meggs-level great), I must come out of retirement sometime. So yes, fans, I am once again going to treat you to another delightful column about everyone’s favorite marching band: The Pride. So someone cue “Also sprach Zarathustra” (a.k.a. the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey”) because the dirtiest player in the game is back. This time, however, I’ll give instructions on how to improve the band.

1. Spring practices. Can you believe the Pride does not practice in the spring? What a travesty!

If the football team decided to forgo spring training, we’d be up in arms. Somehow, though, the Pride gets away with this every year.

The members would love this change. Who doesn’t want to be out in those heat boxes (a.k.a. intramural fields) on a sunny day? The temperature there is always 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding area, and isn’t that what makes band fun?

2. Remove the directors from their other teaching responsibilities. We all know the directors only want to teach marching band, but for some reason, we force them to teach what some have called “real music” as well. We don’t expect Kiffin to teach molecular biology and run a good football program too, yet for some reason, we enslave the directors by forcing them to teach other music classes. It is just insane to demand so much of them.

3. Lower UT’s academic standards for members of the Pride. Sousa said it himself in the Oct. 8 WBIR interview that the band cannot

get new members because “B students” cannot get into UT. This is a legitimate problem. Not to knock athletes, but we don’t turn away a five-star recruit who is looking at playing for UT because they didn’t keep a 4.0 in high school. In fact, I’m sure we’d let anybody into UT if they could guarantee us another national championship. So why don’t we do the same for the band?

Every university would rather be known for its football team and marching band than for having high academic standards of admission.

Just look at Harvard. Everyone dreams of going there because they have a ballin’ football team and a notoriously amazing marching band. I dream of hearing “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard” almost every night.

4. Black uniforms. I was against any change to the Pride’s vintage 1960s uniforms, but I have since changed my mind. The uniform was one of my favorite traditions, and I will hate to see it go.

(Though some of the older uniforms need to be replaced anyway because they were growing mold.) However, after the football team’s recent domination of the Gamecocks in their black uniforms, I decided to reevaluate my opinion.

It is a fact the football team won because of their new (and very unattractive) black jerseys.

Hard work and practice be damned. All one has to do is change their wardrobe, and they’ll improve their results. Looks like a pig with lipstick is not a pig.

5. Outsource the band’s job to someone else. I was thinking China would do a good job providing us with a decent marching band. The quality will surely suffer, and the new band might even break as soon as we take it out of the packaging, but it will undoubtedly be cheap so we can just buy a new one. Of course we’ll have to keep the new band away from children and pregnant women because it will probably be saturated with lead.

6. The band needs to dance. If you haven’t realized by now, these are all ridiculous ideas, and I thought this one was equally as preposterous until Saturday. I don’t know if I am pleasantly surprised by the very entertaining show put on Saturday or appalled with the sharp break in tradition it required. Either way, the rumor I heard before the game about the Pride dancing was just as unbelievable as the rumor about the black jerseys. I am hoping both of these are just Halloween treats and will not become the norm (And they were treats, good job, band.) because I love UT traditions. If for some reason, however, the band does dance again, they should do the moonwalk. That would be boss.

— Gabe Johnson is a senior in political science and history. He can be reached at gjohns13@utk.edu.

ENTERTAINMENT

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Daily Beacon • 5

Nashville family band tours around album Jake Lane Staff Writer

tones down some of the bombast of their live shows and accentuates the band’s more rustic, lyrical side.

Originally signed to indie Outlook Music Company, the band recorded its debut “Says Pop” in 2002 and began to immediately receive attention from music media such as Rolling Stone. When the album’s rights were sold to Hollywood Records, now a Disney subsidiary and home to acts such as Miley Cyrus and the Jonas

Sometimes with a band, it’s all in the name.

Case in point, Nashvillevia-Chapel Hill’s Roman Candle: Thinking of the pyrotechnical device from which they take their name, one sees multi-colored balls of fire in the clear summer sky, shooting out at intervals and exploding at their pinnacle. For the band, this, metaphorically, is all true.

Founded in 1997, while the members were undergraduates at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the trio has been on a roller coaster ride through three albums, four record labels, a marriage with two children and constant tour– Skip Matheny, ing, playing for handsinger-guitarist of Roman fuls of people to Candle thousands of screaming fans.

This time around they Brothers, the band began a are touring behind their frustrating experience of third LP, May’s “Oh Tall reworking its first album.

Tree in the Ear,” released The album was eventually

by Carnival Records. The shelved, but the process album, whose title is yielded the groundwork for derived from Rilke’s a great working friendship producer Chris “Sonnets to Orpheus,” with

“

We’d gone

to England to play

some shows, and we started writing the songs.

Stamey, co-leader of the power-pop group the dB’s.

“We met Chris in our early days at Hollywood,” singer-guitarist Skip Matheny said.

“They brought him in to rework our record. We worked at his house for about two or three years, and he and his wife kinda became like family.”

Matheny, who is married to bandmate Timshel Matheny and brother to Logan Matheny, explained that their band is a family affair. He and Timshel have two young children that tour with them and often come along to meetings with the record company.

Both have retired parents who come along on tour to watch their grandkids while the band plays.

In 2006, now-defunct Virgin Records imprint V2 bought the rights to the “Say Pop” revision, titled “The Wee Hours Review,” and released it to critical acclaim.

The album was listed as Paste Magazine’s No. 38 record of the year, and one writer called the album “one of the best roots-rock records of the decade.”

Unfortunately, V2 began to fold, and the band were left without an outlet for new

”

Image Courtesy of RomanCandleMusic.com

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record ever came up.”

Matheny said fans had been very receptive of the new material, and the band were having a lot of fun playing it live.

Roman Candle will appear with Jeremy Lister at Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria Thursday at 8 p.m.

start. Around this time came the inspiration for “Oh Tall Tree.”

“We’d gone to England to play some shows, and we started writing the songs,” Matheny said. “We met with the Carnival people and talked for a good nine or 10 months before a

releases.

“We kept writing songs and playing new material live, but after the shows, nobody could buy a CD with those songs on it,” Matheny said.

In 2007, the band left its native Chapel Hill for Nashville to try for a new

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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD • Will Shortz Note: When the puzzle is done, the circled letters will spell, from top to bottom, the name of the town where all the people in this puzzle’s theme once lived.

Across 1 & 6 With 22-Across, noted 19th-century writer 11 British rule in India 14 With aloofness 15 It beats nothing 16 Arthur Godfrey’s instrument, informally 17 The Ivies, e.g.

18 Where Emirates Airline is based 19 Málaga Mrs. 20 Refrain syllable 22 See 1-Across 24 With 53-Across, noted 19th-century writer 29 Some saloon signs 30 Took in 31 In ___ (as found) 32 The Bakkers’ old ministry, for short 33 Meditate (on) 35 Subject of a Debussy piece 36 Places to hibernate

39 Noted 19th-century writer 43 Mushy snowball sound 44 Tre + tre 45 Have influence on 46 1945 Pacific battle site, briefly 47 Solar wind particles 49 “A” in German 101?

50 Little hooter 53 See 24-Across 55 See 70-Across 57 ___ sister 58 Went underground 59 Bull on glue bottles 62 2008 Pixar robot 66 H.S. subj.

67 Pope’s triple crown 68 iPhone function 69 Alternative to white 70 & 71 With 55Across, noted 19th-century writer Down

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE C E D A E L U D L O O S P V I C E I N H A S T O K T E C A L K A A W S A B E I N L E G T O M I C A S K

R T E E E C A L A C S H L E E R D E E A B A R E R L T A H A R R A M O H Y

A N N I E

L E N D L E E A P S I E

O L D I E

B L A S S

O N R O O N O N C O P I X I V I E I E N D N A

T O N I

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V O W E L

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8 Place for a designer’s name 9 Circular meas.

10 Monopoly avenue in the light-blue group 11 Rene of “Lethal Weapon” movies 12 Goodyear’s Ohio headquarters

49 54

58

1 Copacabana locale 2 Georgia Tech’s sports org.

3 On 4 Sylvia who wrote “The Bell Jar” 5 Many-headed serpents 6 Glob of gum 7 TV’s Kwik-E-Mart clerk

38 42

44 46

51

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13 Casual wear 21 Lively, on a score 23 Tomb artifacts, e.g.

24 Table salt, chemically 25 Friend of Aramis 26 Prepare to drive 27 Bullet point 28 Superstate in Orwell’s “1984”

62

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65

48 Didn’t skip something 50 Alternative to this and that, with “the” 51 Prone to complaining 52 Rustic retreat 53 Any of us 54 “The Audacity of Hope” author

32 Lamentations

56 Get caught in ___

34 37 38 40

60 Muff one

More artful Galley toiler Coffee spot Cutting-edge features 41 “That hurts!”

42 Daly of “Judging Amy”

61 Bit of sunshine 63 Head of London?

64 52, in old Rome 65 Days of yore, in days of yore

THESPORTSPAGE

SPORTS CALENDAR

6 • The Daily Beacon

?

What’s HAPPENING IN SPORTS

Nov. 4 - Nov. 5, 2009

Wednesday, Nov. 4 — Women’s Soccer Florida Orange Beach, Ala. 6 p.m.

Men’s Basketball

Lincoln Memorial (Exhibition) Knoxville 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 5 — Women’s Basketball

Carson-Newman (Exhibition) Knoxville 7 p.m.

Women’s Tennis ITA Indoor Charlottesville, Va. All Day Men’s Tennis ITA National Indoor Championships New Haven, Conn.

All Day

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Lady Vols aim to meet high expectations The Associated Press Pat Summitt says while she isn’t sure Tennessee deserves to be picked to win the S o u t h e a s t e r n Conference, the Lady Vols coach expects her team to work to live up to the annual expectations.

Summitt admits she was expecting her Lady Volunteers to be picked third or fourth in the league when she recently traveled to the SEC’s annual media day. Instead Tennessee was picked to win it, as the Lady Vols have done 14 times under Summitt.

“I don’t know that we belong there, but that’s where we want to get to,” Summitt said Monday during the team’s media day.

“We want to have the best team in the league, but there’s a lot of great teams right now.”

Despite returning nearly the same team from Tennessee’s worst finish in the NCAA tournament last season, the Lady Vols grabbed the No. 8 spot in the preseason Top 25.

If the players themselves are paying attention to the preseason hype, they’re not letting on.

“It doesn’t matter what the rankings say.

It just matters that we go out there and show that we can be the best team that we can,” sophomore center Kelley Cain said.

With a tough schedule that includes games against 10 other currently ranked opponents and an improved SEC, Summitt knows it will take a lot to prove the Lady Vols belong among the best teams in women’s basketball.

A loss in the opening round of last season’s NCAA tournament to Ball State stuck with the Lady Vols during their offseason.

They spent plenty of time during the summer in the gym with strength and

conditioning coach Heather Mason, who said she hasn’t seen a Tennessee team do more during their time off as this team has done.

They’ll get their first test immediately when they host No. 7 and top recruit Brittney Griner on Nov. 15. The rest of their November will be spent traveling to Texas Tech, No. 14 Virginia and No. 24 Middle Tennessee.

“I think they really get it,” Summitt said.

“With the schedule we have we have to get it, and we have to get it early.”

Last year’s Lady Vols squad was the youngest the Hall of Fame coach had ever instructed, and this year’s squad has three freshmen, six sophomores and three juniors — but no seniors.

Summitt said having a young team will never cause her to lower the standards she’s set for players.

“I’m not going to lower my standards because of that, not at Hayley Debusk • The Daily Beacon all. My thought is we have to raise the bar,” Lady Vol head coach Pat Summitt conducts an interview after winning her 1,000th game at Tennessee last season. she said.

Cross country teams wrap up SECs Kevin Huebschman Staff Writer Both the Tennessee men’s and women’s cross-country teams headed to Oxford, Miss., to compete in the SEC

Championships Saturday. The women finished second of the 12 teams, while the men finished sixth on a damp Ole Miss Golf Course on Halloween day.

Junior Jackie Areson led the way for the Lady Vols, turning in 21:12.13 time for third-place individually and all-SEC honors.

Junior Brittany Sheffey (12th), senior Katie Van Horn (13th), sophomore Chanelle Price (18th) and senior Phoebe Wright (34th) rounded out the scoring for the Lady Vols. Sheffey and Van Horn also earned All-SEC honors.

Although Areson finished third, head women’s cross country coach J.J. Clark said he went into the race knowing Areson had a chance to win.

“I know we both tried to win the meet individually,” Clark said. “She gave it her best shot. She should be proud of her effort. I’m very proud of what she’s done.”

Wright and Price only recently rejoined the team because of an extended trackand-field season, where both ran in the 800 meters.

However, Clark said their contribution was vital to the team’s second-place finish.

The Lady Vols finished with a total of 80 points,

ahead of third-place Arkansas but well behind a Florida team that placed all five of its scoring runners in the top 10 for 24 points.

Clark said he wasn’t expecting the level of control Florida exerted on the race, but he wasn’t surprised by the athletic ability of the Gators.

Senior Michele Levy (46th), sophomore Elizabeth Tiller (78th) and redshirt freshman Ramzee Fondren (83rd) also ran for Tennessee but did not score.

Men’s team Following the women’s performance, Tennessee’s men’s team finished sixth in the conference because of several “subpar” races, head coach George Watts said.

“We had a disappointing day,” Watts said. “I felt like we were good enough to finish in the top four, but with the exception of Michael Spooner, we ran subpar races.”

Spooner, a junior, turned in a 25:07.60, 11th-place performance to earn All-SEC honors. Junior Peter Sigilai, finished second for the Vols and 22nd overall. Watts said Sigilai could have led the team alongside Spooner, but Sigilai wasn’t quite able to finish the race.

“I thought Peter had a chance to be All-SEC,” Watts

said.

Leoule Degfae made the All-SEC Freshman Team, finishing 33rd, but Watts said he expected a better race out of Degfae.

“For a freshman at his first SEC Championship, he ran OK,” Watts said. “He and I had thought … that he could be as much as 10 places farther up than he was.”

The men will compete in the NCAA South Regional next on the docket, but Watts said his team needs to become more aggressive before then.

“By aggressive, I mean getting out, you know, first mile being a little farther up in front of the pack,” Watts said.

“Hopefully, we’ll prepare them in our designs to kind of put them in kind of a race situation in practice.”

Senior Mike Brodsky (34th) and junior Steve Fassino (43rd) rounded out the scoring for the Vols.

Sophomore Chris Bodary (51st), sophomore Tom Gilmartin (62nd), sophomore Joe Franklin (72nd) and junior David Clabo, who did not finish because of a recurring foot injury, also ran but did not score.

The next meet for the Vols and Lady Vols will be the NCAA South Regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Nov. 14.