LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR, 21st CENTURY STYLE:  How do couples meet these days?  Everyone knows that meeting online is much more common now than it was … well … before there was an online.  But I did not realize until I saw this chart that there had been such a sharp uptick since 2000 in meeting in a bar or a restaurant.

One possible contributing factor to all this is the rise of sexual harassment lawsuits under Title VII and Title IX.  Note from the chart that the decrease in “meeting through or as coworkers” seems to roughly track the 1986 Supreme Court case that recognized sexual harassment lawsuits against employers under Title VII and (more importantly) the 1991 amendments to the law that made general money damages available for the first time.  That’s when employers started strongly discouraging amorous co-workers.

There was a bit of a time lag with Title IX (which covers colleges and universities).  It wasn’t until 1999 that the Supreme Court held that a school district could be held liable under Title IX for failing to control a student who is sexually harassing another student.  The students in that case happened to be 5th graders, but colleges and universities knew they were the ones most at risk for a lawsuit.  They stepped up their game at discouraging what they (often overzealously) considered “sexual harassment.”  Right on schedule, the line for “met in college” starts to decline.

Since 2000 or so, the number of couples who met in a bar or restaurant increased by about 50%.  It’s hard to know whether this is a real uptick in “cruising the bars” or something else.  But it makes me wonder whether all this concern over women’s safety at school and work has made them safer.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS, FONDLING OUR JUNK: TSA Nightmare Security Lines ‘Inevitable,’ Says DHS Secretary.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Henley Street bridge (recently rebuilt) viewed from Volunteer Landing. Unedited pic from iPhone 6.

Knoxville, Tennessee. From Club LeConte.

Knoxville, Tennessee. At the Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop, where business is currently very good. Quoth the InstaDaughter: “Pie is the new cupcakes.”

Knoxville, Tennessee. From the cocktail deck at Calhoun’s On The River, last night with Brannon Denning and Ben Barton.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Boyd’s Jig and Reel in the old city — location is in the old Manhattan’s, for the Knoxville expats out there. Nice place, Belhaven on draft. This pic is with the iPhone 5, which I upgraded to awhile back. Not as good a camera as the Lumix, but pretty darn good for a phone. Click on the picture to see it full-sized, and note that you can read the labels on the bottles.

PEOPLE ASK FOR KNOXVILLE PHOTOS ALL THE TIME, SO HERE ARE A COUPLE FROM MARKET SQUARE YESTERDAY:

Knoxville, Tennessee. On Cherokee Boulevard, just before the Knoxville Marathon.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The sole surviving Kay’s Ice Cream stand, out on Chapman Highway.

Knoxville, Tennessee. On Market Square. I’m told that the dog and bird are great friends, and go everywhere together.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Stefano’s Pizza on the Strip, which looks pretty much the same as it did when I was in college.

Knoxville, Tennessee. On Market Square.

CAMERA UPDATE: So I noted a while back that I hadn’t bought a new camera in a while, and wanted to try out a new micro four-thirds camera. I wound up buying a Panasonic Lumix GX-1 with the Lumix 7-14mm ultra-wide angle lens.

After playing with it for a while I can report that it’s a great camera. It’s terrific in low light. Here’s a picture from Big Ed’s Pizza, and you can see how it froze the pizza-toss in available light. Pretty well.

The wide-angle lens takes in a very wide angle, and as you can see, the color-rendering in dim uneven light is still quite good.

Pics taken around stately Instapundit Manor suggest that the 7-14 lens is great for making houses look better than they do: If I were a real estate agent I’d order one immediately. The only downsides are (1) While it’s smaller than a full-sized DSLR, it’s still big enough that it won’t fit in a pocket; and (2) It’s kind of expensive. It’s a better and more versatile camera than the Lumix LX-5, but is it enough better to justify the price difference? If you need interchangeable lenses and high quality in a small package, yes.

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Black, who’s a fan of the LX-5 writes:

Hi Glenn,

I was a professional photographer and photo lab owner with my wife for about 25 years. We got out of the lab business just before the digital tsunami hit, and are now employed in geographic information systems. I picked up a Panasonic Lumix LX-5 last summer, and I honestly think it’s the best camera I’ve ever owned (I still have about a dozen film cameras, from Mamiya M645 to Canon A2E and F1’s, none of which will ever see another roll of film). The Leica F:2.0 wide angle zoom on this camera is amazing, and the low light performance you mentioned on your model is evident in this model as well. I’ve always been a bit puzzled by folks enamored of super zoom telephoto lenses. I find the wide angle lens to be far more useful in practical terms (so much so, I also bought the .75 wide angle converter for it, making it an 18mm wide angle). Most of the time, you can move closer to a subject to get the framing you want. But if your back is up against a wall, and you can’t get everything in the image you want, you’re SOL. Below is a link to some of the images I took on our 30th anniversary trip to Chicago last August.

A small sample of some of the 1,000+ images I shot while in Chicago…

Very nice. And I quite agree about the value of a wide angle lens vs. a telephoto, especially for the kinds of photography I tend to do.

Despite his resemblance to a Simpsons character, the man plays guitar like a god.

Jimmy Logston and Jen. Both pics from the Knoxville Blues Society’s 10th annual birthday party for the late Sara Jordan.

Here’s some video.

Courtesy of Les Jones. More here and here.

WHILE OTHERS CAMP OUT IN TENTS, the more enterprising youth of America tackle the economic slump creatively. And successfully, to judge from all the cash.

Knoxville, Tennessee, at the downtown Farmer’s Market.

UPDATE: Reader Kenneth Lawton writes: “Saw the young buskers with their case full o’ cash – right out there in the open… While I greatly admire their enterprising – and entertaining – spirit, these kids need to be more careful some other less-enterprising youth doesn’t grab their stash and run. Every busker has this happen. Once.”

Ah, that’s just a compositional issue. My fault. Just outside the frame is a spike, holding the head of the only guy to try that. Don’t mess with this crowd.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Pizza Palace on Magnolia. This place should be familiar both to Knoxville expats and to fans of Guy Fieri.

Knoxville, Tennessee. I dropped by Sam and Andy’s the other day for lunch. It was just as good as always, which was very good.

KNOXVILLE SKYLINE: I went to a reception last night at Club LeConte in the top of the First Tennessee bank building. Here’s the view down the Tennessee river. Note the under-repair Henley Street bridge again.

FOR SAM HUNG AND OTHER HOMESICK KNOXVILLE EXPATS:

This is the under-repair Henley Street bridge — notice the absence of anything above the arches — seen from the deck at Calhoun’s On The River last night.

AT LONG’S DRUG STORE, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Some of my Utah friends may find this particularly amusing.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

THEY TOLD ME IF WE ELECTED BARACK OBAMA. . . .

Actual background here.

UPDATE: Reader Steve Eimers sends this link. He writes: “Were you at the parade today? Unfortunately we didn’t see Congressman Duncan I was hoping to tell him not to raise the debt ceiling. I’m attaching a picture of the parade. Just above the yellow light in the distance you can see a little red dot. That dot is the flag box.”

No, I took that picture a couple of years back. I don’t live in Lenoir City. But if I did, here’s what I would have seen today. Thanks, Steve!

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE. Market Square.

FOLLOWING UP ON READER SAM HUNG’S REQUEST, another Knoxville picture. This one of the Petro’s food truck.

ANOTHER KNOXVILLE PHOTO, in response to reader Sam Hung’s request. This is from the Farmer’s Market on Market Square.

READER AND KNOXVILLE-EXPAT SAM HUNG wrote the other day asking for more Knoxville pictures, which made me realize that I haven’t posted any in a while. So here are a couple from the Farmer’s Market downtown. This is the Cruze Dairy ice cream truck. The Cruze Dairy folks have a blog, too.

SO LAST NIGHT my brother Brad’s band Copper, which has been on hiatus for a while, put on a new show at the Valarium as they gear up again. My other brother Jonathan came down, and we went — along with my sister Katy — for a family musical reunion. (All pics taken with the Lumix –the old one, not the new one. I took the old one because a rock club is a high-threat environment for cameras. . . .)

A rare appearance by all three Reynolds Brothers at once:

Brad hasn’t lost his rock & roll moves:

And a good time was had by all.

For those unfortunates who weren’t there, here’s a song. It’s one of my favorites, and not just because of the cool bass-solo intro by my brother.

UPDATE: Reader Light Maleski emails: “I just bought their latest album. The kicker was the youtube video you posted. Perhaps you could post their MySpace page which has more music to listen to, after which I went to their website and bought the CD. I’ve been reading you for a decade, but this is the first I’ve bought or even really listened to music from Copper. They have a great sound.” Yes, they do. Here’s the MySpace link.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Market Square. Taken with the shirtpocket Sony.

Durham, North Carolina.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Dead End Barbecue, on Sutherland. Despite the slogan, their prices are quite reasonable.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Taken with the Sony that I just happened to have in my pocket.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Taken with my new pocket Sony. I don’t think it’s quite as good as the Lumix, but it’s less than half the size, which is worth something . . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee.

SOME PICS FROM SARAH PALIN’S SPEECH. I had some idle time backstage, and my Lumix.

UPDATE: Here’s what it looked like backstage, with the PJTV video crew.

A TEA PARTY CONVENTION TEA PARTY PROTEST: This is Antonio Hinton, one of the organizers of the Knoxville Tea Party, one of three folks from the Tennessee Tea Party Coalition who showed up to remind people that there’s more to the Tea Party movement than this convention. The press tried to get him to say something bad about Sarah Palin, but he called her a “breath of fresh air,” instead. It’ll be interesting to see how the story gets played.

UPDATE: More here.

Taken with the Nikon D300, with the 10.5mm fisheye lens. From the Popular Mechanics assignment mentioned below.

UPDATE: Okay, I thought the uncropped version, where you could see my feet at the bottom, gave a cool you-are-there effect, but enough people made fun of me that I’ve posted the cropped one instead.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Brian Biesenkamp writes: “Put the picture back up with your feet in it (or at least include a link). Half of the fun of shooting with a 10.5 is that it is so wide you need to know where your feet are at all times. Aside from that, it would give it more of a Lee Friedlander aesthetic that I already see in many of your shots of reflective surfaces. Don’t cave in to pressure from people who don’t know the difference between a fisheye and a fish’s eye.”

It’s funny you say that, because I do like Lee Friedlander — one of my friends even dated his daughter — and William Eggleston, as well as the father of all such, Walker Evans.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Crown & Goose, in the Old City.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Upstairs at the newly reopened (after nearly 30 years of closure) S&W. And here’s a landmark many old Knoxvillians will recognize.

And the old S&W didn’t have a bar, but the new one has two. Progress!

Plus, a friendly, upbeat staff!

Quincy, Illinois. Taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX-3.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

SO I WOKE UP EARLY to find the Insta-wife already surfing, her face gently lit by the Asus-glow. I snapped a picture — and then went back to sleep.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Getting ready for Sundown In The City.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Another picture of the deflated credit ape. Poor guy; it’s kind of sad.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Gay Street, at lunchtime.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Krutch Park, downtown.

THE CREDIT BUBBLE: Before:

And after:

GRAND CAYMAN, BWI. For when only an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent stylist will do . . . .

GRAND CAYMAN, BWI. The blonde blur in the foreground is a waitress named Fiona from New Zealand; after seven years her Cayman work visa is about to run out (more on that topic later) and she’ll be moving to Sydney to be a personal trainer.

Grand Cayman, BWI. Morgan’s Harbor.

Grand Cayman, BWI. On the North End.

THE VIEW FROM MY WINDOW, 6:20 a.m. this morning.

Knoxville, Tennessee. On Market Square, taken yesterday when the Insta-Daughter and I were downtown for the Rossini Festival.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Downtown Grill & Brewery.

Asheville, North Carolina. Looking like a better choice every day. . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee. In the era of hope and change!

Knoxville, Tennessee.

Farragut, Tennessee.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Naples Italian Restaurant.

Farragut, Tennessee.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Grand Cayman, BWI. This is Lauren, a dive guide, who’s from New Zealand. When she posed, I asked her to “look intrepid.”

Grand Cayman, BWI. This is Georgetown Harbor, and as I mentioned earlier I did a couple of dives — Eden Rock and Cheeseburger Reef — within one or two hundred yards from this site and the reefs looked good.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Grand Cayman, BWI. Bob McManus wrote asking for a picture of an “offshore tax haven.” That would be the whole island, I think, but most of that kind of thing goes on in these fairly unremarkable buildings in downtown Georgetown.

UPDATE: Dan Mitchell on why tax havens are good for the global economy. More here and here. (Via, er, Dan Mitchell, who also has a book on tax competition and why it’s good.)

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

My Bar, Grand Cayman. Shot handheld with the Panasonic LX3.

Grand Cayman, BWI. Fidel Murphy’s Irish Pub.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Asheville, North Carolina. Some Althouse-style cafe-photoblogging. No, I haven’t been back there — this is from the weekend trip last month.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Near the UT Student Center, on the site of the Ernest & Ellis Drug Store, which provided a memorable hangout for generations of students long before my time.

Asheville, North Carolina.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The bar at the Northshore Brasserie, where we had an excellent faculty happy hour last week. Taken with the Lumix LX-3 that I was talking about yesterday.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Tree in front of Sophronia Strong Hall on the U.T. campus. Taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX3, advertised as the pocket camera for digital SLR owners. It’s a very nice camera with a very nice lens.

Asheville, North Carolina.

Knoxville, Tennessee. At the Student Center (that’s the law school building in the background), where there was no visible mob voting. There was a TV truck, too, but things looked pretty sedate.

Ashevile, North Carolina. The Grove Arcade.

Asheville, North Carolina. The Insta-Wife, in a photo taken by the Insta-Daughter.

Asheville, North Carolina. Electric cars are very popular here. Detail below.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Medical Arts Building, downtown.

Maryville, Tennessee. Lemon Grass restaurant.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Spanish-American War Memorial, at the Old County Courthouse.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Detail from the statue of Justice at the federal courthouse.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Some people wondered if I was making up the Reasonable Ron’s motto. As you can see, I was not.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The solution to the credit crisis, courtesy of Reasonable Ron’s Used Tires. (Motto: “The Best Place in Town to Take a Leak.”) Well, it’s better than putting giant subhuman apes in charge, anyway . . . .

THE CREDIT CRISIS EXPLAINED: We’ve put giant subhuman apes in charge.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Farmer’s Market.

Knoxville, Tennessee. At the Farmer’s Market.

Knoxville, Tennessee. She says she’s Tennessee’s only licensed raw-milk cheesemaker. I bought some sheep’s-milk Cumberland. It was excellent. Blessed are the cheesemakers! Er, and all dairy workers, of course. . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee. Across the street from the Rescue Mission.

Knoxville, Tennessee. At the Farmer’s Market.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

UPDATE: Reader Sean Malloy emails: “After watching your photo posts for the past couple of months, I now have to get one of these lenses. Damn you!” It’s the Nikon fisheye.

That’s Commerce Clause god Brannon Denning on the left. For fun, I dummied this picture up on Photoshop like a double-page profile spread in Vanity Fair, with the caption “Brannon Denning Wants You To Care About the Commerce Clause. And He’s right.” Followed by a discussion of beer and the Commerce Clause, a surprisingly important subject, actually. Yes, I am a geek. But you knew that.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Heirloom veggies — lumpy but yummy. At the Farmer’s Market.

Knoxville, Tennessee. I was afraid to walk past it for fear that I’d trip . . . .

Asheville, North Carolina. Best alternative caption for yesterday’s photo: “We can’t drill our way out of this problem!”

Knoxville, Tennessee. The view from the dentist’s chair. Not my most artistic work, but it captures the feeling of the moment . . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee. Central Ave.