"So many were saying, 'All you have to do is get one percent of the national market and you'll do just fine.' ... Three hundred cities bought the same logic."

— Christopher Leinberger, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, as quoted in a post at The Atlantic Cities blog, perhaps rhetorically titled "Is It Time to Stop Building Convention Centers?"

Today, Wikileaks has released its latest document dump, "The Global Intelligence Files," which includes millions of emails between Texas-based private security firm Stratfor and its international clientele, essentially the John Galts of the congressional-military-industrial complex. The emails detail "the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency."

The feared Internet document-purveyor has worked in conjunction with dozens of traditional news outlets, including Rolling Stone and McClatchy, to plumb the depths of some 5 million emails from July 2004 and December 2011, details of which will be forthcoming over the next several weeks (unless the outlets are charged with sedition and treason for collaborating with a known enemy of freedom).

The emails primarily shed light on the revolving door between government and private corporations and how that symbiosis feeds off of general public welfare — an ecosystem among the world's upper echelon that forgoes mythological notions of "free markets" in favor of an economic system that more closely resembles the life-cycle of the blood-thirsty, chest-bursting creatures in the Alien films:

• Via

Over at The Daily Beast, Andrew Sullivan posted this map of housing solitude in the U.S., showing that urban areas (at least according to 2010 census data) lead the way in single-person households. Nashville checked in at 35 percent, the same as Chicago (which I expected to be higher) and well behind my old hometown of Seattle's 42 percent.

While urban living and widespread solitude do seem to correlate, I'm curious what more drilldown of the statistics might yield. For instance, how does age figure in? Do cities attract more young people, who tend to be less established (and therefore more likely to live alone)? And do these single households tend to contain a higher percentage of entrepreneurs and mover-shaker types? Does living alone allow more social and economic agility, and therefore help drive creativity and innovation? And by that token, does the aloneness quotient line up at all with any of the "creative class" or other such theories of urban progress and transformation?

Living alone tends to be more expensive than collective life. At least it was in Seattle, where I could barely afford the apartment in which I first watched Altman's Nashville (alone, on two VHS tapes). So it should also correlate with, if not affluence, then at least a can-do attitude, right?

Factually challenged Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield had plenty to think about (and on an empty stomach, too) when he was denied service at downtown Knoxville's Bistro at the Bijou restaurant yesterday.

According to the Gay Street establishment's Facebook page, Bistro owner Martha Boggs served Campfield a taste of his own provincial medicine by turning him away like some kind of freak unfit to dine with normal society.

From the Knoxville Metro Pulse:

"I didn't want his hate in my restaurant," Boggs said in a interview this morning. "I told him he wasn't welcome here. ... I feel like he's gone from being stupid to being dangerous, and I wanted to stand up to him."

The status went viral last night, exploding all over Facebook and Twitter. As of 9:30 a.m., it had almost 400 likes. There are also several dozen posts congratulating Boggs on her actions. We asked Boggs what she thought about all the support, but she said she hadn't even looked at Facebook.

"I'm busy making soup. I've got to run," Boggs said.

The Southern Environmental Law Center has named East Tennessee's Chilhowee Mountain to its 4th annual Top 10 Endangered Places for 2012.

According to the SELC's website, the list comprises "areas of exceptional scenic, ecological, or cultural value that are facing immediate, potentially irreversible threats," and posits that a proposed road corridor that would cut through wild expanses of Cherokee National Forest would irreversibly harm the Chilhowee-area.

Chilhowie Mountain and the rugged peaks and hollows in its viewshed are in the path of Corridor K, a chain of highways linking Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Asheville, North Carolina. Despite the fact that completion of the interstate system made the project obsolete, the Tennessee Department of Transportation is studying multiple options for finishing the leg of Corridor K running through the Ocoee Region. Among them are proposals for routing a new four-lane, divided highway across the shoulder of Chilhowee Mountain and through largely unspoiled reaches of the Cherokee National Forest.

When it was conceived in 1964 by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Corridor K was seen as a means of lifting this area out of poverty. But since then, local citizens have built a thriving, tourism-based economy that capitalizes on the Ocoee Region’s extraordinary natural assets. Pushing new asphalt through national forest lands would jeopardize the intact wildlife habitat, clear-running rivers and streams, and mountain scenery that have made Chilhowee Mountain and the Ocoee Gorge a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts.

Rather than pour a billion dollars or more into a new road, TDOT should focus on targeted upgrades along the existing two-lane highway, U.S. 64—the lifeline of the local economy. This would improve safety, enhance the flow of traffic during the busy tourist season, and preserve the natural and cultural features that are vital to the Ocoee Region and its communities.

• A dramatic reenactment of our No. 1 post.

I'd have to dig through the data, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time the Top 10 have all come from the second half of the year — in this case, August and afterward.

From Venture Nashville Connections:

Magdalene/Thistle Farms is a social enterprise serving women who are healing from violence, addiction and-or prostitution; it aims to earn its way in the world by producing and marketing its Thistle Farms-branded line of bath and skin-care products.

It needs to double its sales as rapidly as possible, in order, among other things, to begin buying raw materials in greater volumes and marketing its products more broadly. Its topline from operations is roughly $1.2 million annually.

Founded by Rev. Becca Stevens, chaplain at Vanderbilt's St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, Thistle Farms employs members of the Magdalene program, meaning that each eco-friendly vial of lip balm or candle you purchase directly benefits the nonprofit program and puts money back into the local economy. It's a win-win, obviously.

From their website:

In addition to being the subject of an in-depth three-part consideration on NPR earlier this year, Stevens was, over a decade ago, honored as the Scene's 2000 Nashvillian of the Year, a distinction perhaps outshone a bit by this well-deserved presidential recognition.

Full press release follows.

"The caption would be, ‘Notice has been delivered, and receipt of said notice has been acknowledged.’ ”

—Metro codes director Terry Cobb, referring to a photo of Chad Baker, co-owner of East Nashville doggy daycare center The Dog Spot, in which Baker is holding a stop work order issued by Metro while also giving the photographer the finger.

• Joseph Anthony Baker/Courtesy of 13 Management

Anyway, the 2011 edition features Music City's own world-conquering, flying-balcony-piloting, multiple-sold-out-nights-arena-show touring phenom Taylor Swift, who discusses her ability to still be surprised when everything goes her way and why it's so hard to pick a cover song to play in front of a hometown crowd.

Elsewhere, we've got you covered with a quarter-year of top-notch music including the newly rebranded SoundLand Festival, loads of fall events and author appearances, a preview of the Battle of the Food Trucks and other gastronomical goings-on, an excellent documentary series and other film treats for your screening pleasure, a serious coming-together of local galleries and other art for your eyeballs, a roster of upcoming theater productions including a staging of Terminator 2: Judgment Day using only Shakespearean dialogue, a banjo in the symphony hall leading an impressive classical season and a snappy fall fashion pictorial curated by some of our favorite local fashion bloggers and style guides.

So snuggle up — fall's here. And just for fun, here's a behind-the-scenes video from our fashion photo shoot at Peter Nappi in Germantown: