Knoxville, Tennessee. Central Ave.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Behind the Dougherty Engineering Building at UT.

Knoxville, Tennessee. WNOX studios, with George Korda. That’s Michael Silence on the right, and, barely visible in the background, Jack Lail.

Knoxville, Tennessee. By request from reader Patrick Clemens, who’s worried about an influx of settlers and writes: “I was wondering when you were going to post a picture of that Godawful ‘Nation’s Best Motel’ sign on I-40 looking over to Kingston Pike, man talk about ugly. You need to post it so people will think twice about moving there.” Done. This should fix that problem!

Dixie Lee Junction, Tennessee. By request, another photo from Ott’s Barbecue. Not only is the barbecue good, but the staff is very friendly and efficient. And note the big-screen TV’s. It’s not your father’s barbecue joint.

Dixie Lee Junction, Tennessee. Ott’s Barbecue, and my version of Althousian cafe-photoblogging. The papers on the left are page proofs for the new John Birmingham novel, which rocks.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Shadow of a bike rack on The Hill, near Ayres Hall.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Near the World’s Fair site. The glass-ball lamps with “Police” written on them make it seem like Commissioner Gordon should be working inside.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

Alcoa, Tennessee. It’s not much of a palace, really — it’s a Chinese buffet in a former Western Sizzlin’. Of course, all you can eat in a comfortable dry place makes it pretty palatial by the standards of, well, all previous human history . . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee. They do good work.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Tomato Head, downtown.

Knoxville, Tennessee. They told me that if George W. Bush were re-elected, the palace of Liberty would be shuttered. And they were right!

Knoxville, Tennessee. Yes, it’s a flag theme this weekend.

Farragut, Tennessee.

THIS is a very nice photo. So’s this.

Farragut, Tennessee. Happy Independence Day! I’m on the road today, but will be checking in from time to time thanks to EVDO. And I’ve got a few scheduled posts, too.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

Alcoa, Tennessee. The nursing home where my grandmother spent some time.

Concord, Tennessee. MPG = Miles Per Godliness?

Knoxville, Tennessee. On the UT campus.

Knoxville, Tennessee. On the UT campus.

UPDATE: Reader John McGinnis emails:

A striking picture, well done.

But the young lady in the picture disturbs me. She reminds me of my daughter with the cell phone stuck in her ear. An opportunity to ‘smell the roses’ is foregone. Conversations can sometimes wait, fact generally. But a contemplative moment? They are few and worth observing.

Yes, that was just my thought — oblivious to the world, despite it being a beautiful day. As I noted when I originally posted this picture, you see that a lot — though in the intervening years I think you see it less, probably because people are texting more and talking less.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The University’s Engineering and Science research building. I post this in response to reader Herschel Smith, who suggested that the beautiful Law School rotunda indicated that the University undervalued engineers relative to lawyers. His specific beef was with the (different) building housing the Nuclear Engineering department — which I’ll admit isn’t much of a building — but I’ll note that they have access to some pretty fancy facilities out at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where the University is the prime contractor.

Knoxville, Tennessee. A detail from the East side of Neyland Stadium.

Knoxville, Tennessee.