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IN THIS ISSUE
The Shopper interns took a special tour of the Knoxville office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week. Perhaps the most excited kid in the group was columnist Jake Mabe. See page A-10
What a view! The view of the city of Knoxville’s skyline is breathtaking from the South Knoxville ridge, writes Ruth White. Legacy Parks Foundation executive director Carol Evans gave the interns a sneak peak at one of Knoxville’s most beautiful but lesser-known sights last Tuesday, as well as a history lesson at Fort Dickerson. See page A-11
Moment of truth arrives for Vols It is (winning) football time in Tennessee, Marvin West writes, and fans are so excited and optimistic and probably so full of themselves as to overlook facts.
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See Marvin’s story on page A-5
Needlework tells a story ... Wendy Smith likes a good story. Her favorites come from books, movies and, of course, newspapers. But stories can also spring from objects, like needlework created by schoolgirls in the 18th and 19th centuries. Thank goodness we have Jennifer Core and Janet Hasson to translate.
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is going places By Wendy Smith Kevin Slimp wears many hats. He’s the publisher of Kidsville, a new magazine for Knox County elementary school students. He’s a globe-trotting public speaker. YouTube videos that chronicle his disputes with companies like AT&T and Delta have earned him the title “America’s Consumer Crusader.” But his resume may soon have a new entry – television star. What started as a weekend diversion has taken on a life of its own. Two years ago, Kevin invited Ken Bell, an old friend from Dallas, to spend some time in Knoxville. For lack of a better diversion, they decided to head up I-81 with no plan at all. As Kevin drove, Ken, a PR executive for an insurance company, announced on Facebook that the two were on a road trip. Within an hour, they had several invites. That night, they attended three birthday parties for people with whom they were only loosely associated. They also dropped in on small businesses and restaurants in upper East Tennessee. They visited Dixie Christian Bookstore and asked for Dixie. The 81-year-old owner was happy to pose for a picture with them. They sang hymns and “Crocodile Rock” with a waitress at a restaurant outside Jefferson City. Ev-
The Ken and Kevin’s Road Trip website caught the attention of Athlon Sports, which is sponsoring the production of a pilot television show featuring Ken Bell of Dallas and Kevin Slimp of Knoxville. Photos submitted erywhere they went, Ken and Kevin announced that they were on a road trip and were treated like celebrities. “We just knew we were onto something,” says Kevin. They planned a second trip, to Tampa, Fla., and Ken created a website, www.kenandkevinroadtrip.com. They visited nine beaches in three days. Because they had given advance notice on Facebook, they had several invitations, like breakfast with actor Patrick Dempsey’s manager. At an Amelia Island resort, a band introduced them to the crowd. Their Facebook following grew, and they decided to make the road trip a regular event. The third trip started in Louisville, Ky., and included stops in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. They attended 11 festivals in three days. When they showed up at the Dor-Stop Restaurant in Pittsburgh, the owner shut the doors so he could serve Ken and Kevin everything on the menu. When a newspaper editor friend asked Kevin why he took the trips, he
See Wendy’s story on page A-3
Cash mob! Koolioz! frozen yogurt shop was packed for the sixth cash mob initiated by County Mayor Tim Burchett. It was the first in Hardin Valley.
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See page A-9
Index Coffee Break A2 Wendy Smith A3 Government/Politics A4 Marvin West/Betty Bean A5 Anne Hart A6 Faith A7 Interns A10,11 Health/Lifestyles Sect B
10512 Lexington Dr., Ste. 500 37932 (865) 218-WEST (9378) news@ShopperNewsNow.com ads@ShopperNewsNow.com GENERAL MANAGER Shannon Carey shannon@ShopperNewsNow.com EDITOR Sandra Clark sclark426@aol.com BEARDEN REPORTER Wendy Smith shopperWendy@comcast.net ADVERTISING SALES Patty Fecco fecco@ShopperNewsNow.com Shopper-News is a member of KNS Media Group, published weekly at 10512 Lexington Drive, Suite 500, Knoxville, TN, and distributed to 24,267 homes in Bearden.
American sprinter Justin Gatlin, right, asked Mike Petty to accompany him to the Olympic Games in London. This photo shows, from left, Leonard Scott, Petty and Gatlin.
London calling Mike Petty answers with chiropractic care for U.S. track and field athletes By Stefan Cooper Mike Petty will always wonder if he could have made a difference. Tom Pappas entered the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens as the world’s top-ranked decathlete. He had won the Jesse Owens Award a year Mike Petty earlier, given to the top male athlete in U.S. Track and Field. Of Greek decent and owner of one of the best point totals all time in decathlon, Pappas was looking to make Athens a crowning moment.
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July 30, 2012
Ken and Kevin’s road trip …
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Petty, a Farragut resident and doctor of chiropractic, had noticed something in Pappas’ stride from video of the 2004 U.S. Trials, where the Tennessee All-American finished second after winning the World Championships the year before. Petty worked with Pappas at the University of Tennessee for some time to correct a landing problem that Pappas had when running. Petty’s brand of “muscle testing” integral in diagnosing the problem and accelerating Pappas’ rise to the top. When Pappas asked Petty to accompany him to Athens just in case, Petty declined. He didn’t want to get
Kevin Slimp and Ken Bell of Ken and Kevin’s Road Trip respond to the price of a tour of Graceland.
said, “It’s cheaper than therapy and a lot more fun.” The two single dads included their kids on the fourth trip to Pawley’s Island, S.C., and they loved every minute. When Kevin was contacted in May by a representative from Athlon Sports, he assumed the company wanted to sponsor the Road Trip website. The rep surprised Kevin by saying he thought the concept was perfect for television. He envisioned cameras inside the car and
at the various stops, with each trip ending at an athletic event. Ken and Kevin took one last trip, a 2,500-mile jaunt from Dallas to Knoxville, without the intrusion of cameras. But their next outing, to the Aug. 10 NASCAR race at Watkins Glen, N.Y., will be filmed for a pilot. Kevin says he’ll be surprised if the pilot sells, but that Athlon is confident. If Ken and Kevin’s Road Trip leaps to the small screen, he’ll have a new full-time job. If it doesn’t, he’s got plenty of others.
in the way or be a bother, he said. In the opening event of the decathlon, the pole vault, Pappas injured his foot and was forced to withdraw. “I just should have gone,” Petty said. When American sprinter and former Vol Justin Gatlin phoned and asked Petty to accompany him to this year’s Games in London, Petty said he didn’t have to think twice. “The neat part is you develop a relationship, a camaraderie,” Petty said. “That’s what makes it special.” It has been a long, disciplined climb to the top for the Petty. After graduating from the University of Tennessee in pre-med in 1983 and Life Chiropractic College, where he was valedictorian, in 1986, Petty already had a plan in place. He’d heard a colleague address a convention about the benefits of chiropractic care for athletes. It fit nicely with Petty’s lifelong love of sports. When he opened his Concord Chiropractic Clinic in 1986, he made contact with University of Tennessee football coach Johnny Majors. Majors and then-Vols trainer Tim Kerin were interested but wanted to go slow, Petty said. When Kerin passed away suddenly in 1992, his successor, Mike Rollo, maintained a dialogue. UT placekicker Jeff Hall would soon make it more insistent . Petty had steadily gained credibility for his pioneering work with the UT track team. When Hall injured himself in the weight room, the Vol training staff, looking for answers, phoned Petty. “I get this call from Mike Rollo,” Petty said. “They’d tried everything and wanted to know if there was anything I could do. He’d basically jammed his femur into his pelvis do-
ing clean and jerks or squats.” After 10 days with Petty, Hall was back on the practice field booming kick after kick through the uprights. “That’s when (former Vol) coach (Phillip) Fulmer was out there wanting to meet me,” Petty said. “Everybody said, ‘Does that hurt?’ He (Hall) said, ‘No. It feels great.’ So everybody wanted to try it.” Petty is now on staff as part of UT’s sports medicine team. The list of athletes he has helped excel beyond previously displayed limits includes not only the world champion and Olympian Gatlin, but former Vols and Olympians Aries Merritt, Dee Dee Trotter and Tianna Madison. Merritt is on his way to London after winning the U.S. Trials in the 100-meter hurdles, his time of 12.93 seconds missing the meet record by a hundredth of a second. Petty has actively followed Merritt’s progress. “Every time we went to a meet, he hit a PR (personal record),” Petty said. Trotter is making her third Olympic appearance, hitting the mark for London in the 400-meter run. Madison will race for gold in the 100 after a second place trials finish. London will be her first Olympics. Petty, who left for London on Sunday, will be keeping a close eye on Trotter when track and field kicks off Aug. 3. As he’d done with countless Vols under his charge, Petty said he began noticing problems in Trotter’s stride during her run up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He immediately contacted Tennessee director of track and field J.J. Clark. “I texted J.J. and said, ‘You need to check the film on this. She’s running off the side of her foot,’ ” Petty said. If the problem recurs in London, this time Petty said he will be there and is leaving nothing to chance.
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