The Week That Was

All we can say is this book better be good. Last week, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction against Nashville author Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone, a much ballyhooed parody of Gone With the Wind. A lower court had issued an injunction forbidding the publication of the book on the grounds that it was a copyright infringement; in fact, the judge called it “unabated piracy” of Margaret Mitchell’s Civil War epic. Predictably, the injunction elicited a good dose of righteous indignation from Randall.

Booting up

Dell Computer is getting a little testy in what is shaping up to be a hotly competitive PC price war. Last week, a company executive likened the current computer market to the long, bloody war in Bosnia, according to MSNBC. A protracted decline in computer demand has left many manufacturers reeling, Dell included. The Austin, Texas-based company, which brought some of its operations to Nashville after being enticed by a package of generous tax incentives, has cut prices by more than 30 percent since October.

Pilot dead

Retired insurance executive Bill Kuckler was found dead two weeks after his plane took off from John C. Tune airport. Authorities discovered the downed plane in Sequatchie County near the Cagle Mountain area. Kuckler had not reported any problems during the flight.