Subject: Pete Kotz

• Wine tax and gang signs

  March 26, 2009

• Scene Announces New Editor

  June 20, 2008

• Lacey v. Walker Smackdown

  June 25, 2008

• Browns vs. Titans Redux: It's Not Easy Being Brown

  Here's a police report of questionable origin that's clogging up email inboxes throughout Northern Ohio. Yes, we know it's juvenile. But perhaps it will help you to better understand me, not to mention Scene editor Pete Kotz, who also did a few years of hard time in the land of Cleve. This one's for you, Pete:Breaking News: Monday, Dec. 3, 2008Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Police have recovered the body of an adult male from the Cuyahoga River at 6:45 AM. The victim apparently fell in and drowne

  December 4, 2008

• Food Fight

  From hot fish to pizza, Nashville favorites go head to head in culinary face-offs

  October 30, 2008

• Kick 'em when they're down

  February 19, 2009

• Kill Old People Cheap Act

  March 12, 2009

• Terrorism, lesbianism

  April 2, 2009

• Why Bredesen Would Make a Terrible Health Care Czar

  The Latest: Bredesen says this afternoon he still hasn't heard anything from the White House. On the New Republic's health care blog, Jonathan Cohn says the buzz that Phil Bredesen might replace Tom Daschle as Obama's HHS secretary "is not completely idle speculation." In fact, Cohn writes, "I'm told that he's been discussed at high levels within the administration." (Some people are certainly taking it seriously. See Pete Kotz' post today about the Tennessee Health Care Campaign's phone drive

  February 5, 2009

• Cravings: Looking for the Best Fish and Chips in Town

  I really need to stop watching Food Network after 10 p.m. It leads to cravings. Last night, my man, my cat (hi Doug!) and I ended up watching an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay. It was a battle for fish and chips supremacy between Bobby and A Salt and Battery in the West Village. Needless to say, I found my mouth watering. I know Scene editor Pete Kotz swears by the version at Dan McGuinness, but does anyone know of anywhere else in town with a solid version? Extra points for homemade tar

  February 27, 2009

• Lawmakers Explain Why People Hate Them So Much

  Today, dear Pith reader, we ask the urgent question: Why has public opinion of our legislature fallen to such incredible new lows? That's a tough one, all right. There are so many reasons from which to choose. Lawmakers win approval from a paltry 34 percent of the public--a five-point drop since only last fall and the lowest level since the Tennessee Waltz bribery scandal. At least some of them got envelopes full of cash then. Here are a few of the possible reasons for the latest slide: 1. Peo

  March 6, 2009

• Hell's Bells? Eastland Baptist Church Sounds a Clarion Call Heard All the Way to Cookeville

  In the Cleveland, Ohio, neighborhood where I grew up, Sunday morning silence was as sanctified as kielbasa, Bernie Kosar and P.O.C. beer. You didn't blast your stereo, rev your Harley or, during the three weeks each year when it's warm enough for grass to grow, start your lawn mower before noon on the Lord's day of rest. (Well, my Lord actually takes Saturdays off, but that's another story.) Anyway, it's a day of rest, right? So why does the Eastland Baptist Church at Gallatin Road and McKenn

  March 9, 2009

• Ode to Jimmy Naifeh

  Jimmy Naifeh should have worn a costume like Louis XVSo House Democratic caucus chair Mike Turner says his party is taking no position on abortion or guns in bars, playgrounds, state parks, college campuses, hospital maternity wards, etc. "We are going to let those bills, let the people in the caucus vote their own convictions, on those bills. Gun bills will be done the same way. We don't have a particular caucus item. Most of our people will probably vote for most of the gun bills; There are

  March 13, 2009

• Saint Patrick Was Italian (and May Have Suffered From Stockholm Syndrome)

  So Scene editor Pete Kotz and I are eating lunch with the Savarino's Sandwich Gang a couple weeks ago, when out walks Corrado Savarino with a tray full of sfingi, an Italian pastry of fried dough filled with cannoli cream typically served around St. Joseph's Day (March 19). Naturally, the discussion moves on to the impending arrival of St. Patrick's Day, when suddenly, Savarino's fixture Mike Figlio says, "Hey, you know St. Patrick was Italian," and launches into a detailed analysis of the patro

  March 17, 2009

• Is the Economy So Bad You'd Endure a Hard-Sell Pitch for a Free Oil Change?

  So I'm surfing the Interweb last night and I come across this newly posted video ad for Downtown Nashville Nissan. As the extremely incredibly preternaturally perky and animated Jolene explains, you can get a complimentary oil change and tire rotation just for test-driving a car. Well wouldn't you know it, I'm due for an oil change, and I've personally felt the pinch brought on by our current economic meltdown. Not to mention, the new Tennessee unemployment figure (9.1%, as Pete Kotz noted e

  March 20, 2009

• Stacey Campfield Waxes Delusional Poetic on the Binghamton Murders

  Few Tennessee politicians get as much love from Pith in the Wind as does state Rep. Stacey Campfield. Regular Pith readers have witnessed Jeff Woods and Pete Kotz shower him with attention. Still, though he's finished seventh, and fourth and, just last week, second in our weekly "Kook Power Rankings," he can't seem to take the No. 1 spot. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Maybe that's starting to get to Stacey. Is he desperate to be Top Kook? At least that would explain his bizarre blog post

  April 6, 2009

• Love-Hate Mail

  July 3, 2008

• A Rust Belt Import

  June 26, 2008

• Tea and Socialism and Murder, oh my!

  April 23, 2009

• Understanding Nashville Scene's Cleveland Connection

  Like Cold War-era Soviet spies, Clevelanders have been infiltrating the ranks of the Nashville Scene for some time now. First there was me, then our editor Pete Kotz, and soon after, staff writer Caleb Hannan and retail advertising director Chris Hutchins. In other words, damn near 10 percent of our full-time staff has migrated from The Best Location in the Nation (a.k.a. The Mistake on the Lake). So to give you greater insight into what makes Pete, Caleb, Chris and I tick, and to help you

  April 20, 2009

• May Town Scam, Hear No Evil

  May 28, 2009

• Lebanon wants its money

  June 11, 2009

• Nashville Scene Cancels Salon Dinner, Refunds $27.43 in Sponsor Fees

  Photo: Cabbage BabbleThis shadowy watering hole in Printers Alley was to be the site of the Scene's aborted salonIn the wake of the brouhaha over a planned Washington Post salon (in which corporate sponsors could pay $25,000 or more to dine at publisher Katharine Weymouth's house with journalists, Obama administration officials and other Washington power brokers), the Scene has canceled its own upcoming salon, titled "Reckless Abandon With the Feckless at Brandon's." The powwow at the legendary

  July 7, 2009

• Sex Scandal Finally Stops Stanley's Assault on Family Values

  Happier times: Paul Stanley with his familyUntil his name became synonymous with hypocrite a few minutes ago, Sen. Paul Stanley was fond of preaching traditional family values. As he crusaded to take away the right of gay people to adopt children in Tennessee, he spoke knowingly of the ideal home environment that only a loving married couple can provide and of the importance of his own conservative Christian upbringing in molding his viewpoints. Children's advocates met with Stanley, a Sunday s

  July 21, 2009

• Blue Dogs Are Lap Dogs for Insurance Industry

  Bart Gordon is raking in campaign cash from health and insurance interests.​On Pete Kotz' post this morning about how the Blue Dogs are killing health-care reform, commenter Rex Hammock is demanding facts to back up Pete's assertion that the Blue Dogs are rolling over for the health and insurance industry in return for campaign cash. Well, we did a little quick addition here on our breakfast napkin ... Ha! Actually there's a new report on this very matter, and here's what it says: An anal

  July 29, 2009

• Jim Cooper's hot seat

  August 6, 2009

• What a change in the Scene's ownership means for the paper's future - and the city's

  September 17, 2009

• Memories: A Look Back at 2009's Most Widely Read Pith Posts

  ​As Pith counts down the hours to the guitar dropping on Lower Broad, we pause for a moment to wring out the old. Revisit some of the year's most controversial topics--and some choice rancor--as we recap the 10 most popular posts that appeared on Pith in 2009: 10. WSMV Names Bob Sellers New Co-Anchor for Dan Miller's Former Slot While the city continues to grieve the hugely popular newsman, the question is finally answered: Who'll fill the empty chair next to Demetria? 9. The Lingering Ques

  December 31, 2009