Off Limits
A Papa Honeybear at City Hall. Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell is fond of bragging that every member of his staff who has a kid sends the little brat to a public school, himself included. Starting this fall, it looks like Hizzoner is going to have to shelve that crowd-pleaser: Off Limits has learned that Marc Hill, director of the Mayor's Office of Children and Youth Photo Opportunities, is enrolling his elder daughter at—gasp—Harpeth Hall. Cynics suggest that this is a coordinated and ever-so-subtle move by the mayor to further display his disappointment in the public school system. (Who knew he even micromanaged his employees' personal lives?) Purcell's rabid East Nashville base reportedly didn't even know the tony West side girls' school existed until Hill, a likeable indie-rock snob with an early morning radio show on WRVU, put it on the map. For his part, Hill says it was a "family decision"—translation: my wife made me do it—because they wanted a single-sex school environment for their daughter. Frankly, we don't care too much where these folks send their spawn. (If we did, we would have noted long ago that some of Metro schools' own administrators send their kids to Williamson County schools.) Just don't be surprised when Hill moves to the Mayor's Office of SUVs and Gated Communities.
The Job is Bob's. If you're interested in filling the Tennessee Supreme Court vacancy left by retiring Chief Justice Frank Drowota, we've got bad news for you: you're probably too late. And hell, even if you're on the short list of seven candidates or the even shorter to-be-determined list of three (from which the governor will pick one), we've still got bad news for you: if your name's not Bob Cooper, you're a dark horse. Off Limits is told that Cooper, the guv's attorney, told Bredesen that he'd be interested in the job before he applied. Barring unforeseen circumstances, like a history of child molestation or a story by Brad Schrade that mentions his name and document shredding in the same paragraph, Off Limits' money is on Cooper. The only way we see Coop's nomination getting derailed is if the committee fails to include him on the short list; it would be, in political terms, a major screw-off to old Phil.
313 Meets 615. Last week brought word that venereal musician and venerable strip club fighter Kid Rock, a.k.a. Bob Ritchie, bought a three-story condo in the West End area for more than $800,000. Off Limits would like to be the first anonymously penned column to welcome you to the neighborhood, Bob. Do drop us a line. Meanwhile, our stepsister publication Nfocus reminds you to drop it a line before you host your coming out soiree—and be sure to invite Manuel; he brings the ladies. We bet the music will be better than most West Side social events.
No Legal Leg to Stand On. Just in case you missed the AP story: The amputee Tennessean who won a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court disabilities case after crawling up the steps of the Polk County Courthouse in 1996 was arrested last week with his pants down and baggies of suspected methamphetamine littering the ground around him. George D. Lane, 45, was stopped on a rural Polk County road with his car doors open and, we repeat, his pants down; to date, the disability rights pioneer has been arrested more than 30 times. But Lane apparently found a novel way to make his disability work for him rather than against him: inside his prosthetic leg, deputies found more drugs.
Comments (0)