This 15-year old successfully pulling off "French detective investigating daring jewel heist" to the extent that much of the world believed it is pretty much what the Mandate of Heaven looks like. As @betsyphillips.bsky.social was telling me, there's a god, and he likes this kid.

It makes me mad to admit this, but the best book about Edmondson, even if it's somewhat outdated, is still the book Cheekwood did in 1999 with Mississippi.

Today I found a long-lost Edmondson headstone and held a lost Edmondson dove. In my hands! In my fucking hands! There are no art police who stop you to check to see if you have an art degree before you touch the priceless sculptures.

Chamberlain and Crofton are all “Here’s my whole heart for you to consider.” I’m like “What if we built a statue that was just one thousand hands flipping the bird and faced it toward the state capitol?”

I really love Chris’s writing. I’m feeling mushy today about everyone at the Scene. Just a bunch of solid talent and then some old broad trying to see how many “fucks” Patrick will let her have.

Cothren spent about as long in prison as he spent in that vagina.

I'm so grateful to @andrewgill.biz & @drleahpayne.bsky.social for having me on their show I can hardly stand it. We talk Amy Grant & Switchfoot & Michael W. Smith & Brian Eno & Nashville. Also apocalypse. Also the Prayer Trade. Listen here. www.iheart.com/podcast/310-...

Man, I hope no one in the 7th spent money on an ad linking his opponent to Pelosi.

How is Matt Van Epps so bad at this?

Did Rollin Horton steal that woman's spouse or something? This is otherwise inexplicable.

Perhaps I shouldn't have made so much of my personality clowning on rich people...

Man, people won't even let Bill Lee enjoy his favorite hobby: benignly neglecting Tennesseans until they die.

Polls must be bad: after receiving criticism from Republicans and Democrats, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is kicking in $5 million to help cover SNAP shortages caused by the federal government shut down. around 700,000 Tennesseans have had their food benefits cut.

Please don't throw a sandwich at me, but let the record show that, if anyone does throw a sandwich at me while I'm armed to the teeth, I will die of shame before I testify in court about it.

Writes Betsy Phillips: Lee Beaman says Kid Rock got him a recent Trump appointment. This is what things have come to.

Sometimes you select the photo, sometimes the photo selects you.

This picture! @dpatrickrodgers.bsky.social you are a genius.

If you’re having Pope problems, I feel bad for you, son. I’ve got 99 theses on the church for fun. — @bradengall.bsky.social on @pbn.bsky.social this morning.

The irony is that we need Houdini to speak from beyond to warn us about how AI is the child of an Ouija board and spellcheck and we’re having the same problems now as they were then.

Whew, the second Billy figures out how to use a phone, he’s got a complaint for Parks. He HATES the scarecrows out at Bells Bend. Like they killed his father, prepare to die kind of hate.

Okay. I did a ton more research and I think I’m starting to suspect that the Slade Town war may have been between a benevolent society and the Sisters of the Mysterious Ten.

I love that Secret Societies are listed in the phone book.

Y'all want to see something cool? I've mapped the home addresses of all the Nashville people William Edmondson made headstones for AND all the family members of William's I could easily find. I threw in the two churches that keep coming up and the benevolent society. www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...

I like my job, but I’ll be honest, I’m not sure about this new “Harvard in the streets; Alabama in the sheets” initiative. I can’t Alabama in the sheets like I used to. Not and live.

There's a man in the Nashville Enslaved and Free People of Color Database who's name is listed as Jumpier (alias Peter) and I just realized his name is Jean Pierre. Though I do love Jumpier, too.

Honestly a version of this, led to the end of Reconstruction. It was white Northerners were too tired of holding white Southerners accountable and they figured they had more in common than not so….under the bus Black people went So yeah, no…

Next round is on the @nashvillebanner.bsky.social, everyone!

The Healing Game of Art, y'all. #EverydayApocalypse daviddark.substack.com/p/the-healin...

Writes Betsy Phillips: Here are a few convoluted explanations as to how The Nations might have gotten its nickname — and one pretty simple one.

All I have this week are embarrassing self-owns. www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithint...

The 8th & Roast remodel is sexy as hell. The ambiance is making me feel like I’m in a movie. @pbn.bsky.social, please do a location event where we all wear trench coats and fedoras and look furtively at each other.

Going to Kroger with my mom is functionally the same as going to Kroger three times with my mom. But my dad hurt his back and can't drive, so someone had to take one for the team.

Republicans continuing to post hot pics of this guy is the greatest self-own. Speaker Johnson probably had to report himself to his son ten times about this webpage already.

This week’s cover story: From the Nun Bun and Snowbird to Opryland and political corruption, the Old Nashville Encyclopedia is our curated list of pre-“it”-city Nashville artifacts.

I've documented about 50 Edmondson headstones, give or take a few. I don't know how many statues he made (that weren't originally on headstones), but I think we might argue that most Edmondsons are free to view, if you know where to look.

There's something so bleak about the phishing scam test sent out by the university being an appreciation gift from the university. You're the sucker who fails the test if you think the university would ever be so generous.

I’m the luckiest person.

I have not a single article of clean clothing. I'm about to go to my first Historical Commission Meeting in paint-splattered overalls.

Writes @betsyphillips.bsky.social: Despite crime in Memphis being at a reported 25-year low, our governor thinks the Trump administration's task force in the city should last "forever."

Forever. www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithint...

No!!!! The “this is more of a comment than a question” person is here.

Holy shit. David Dark and Joel Dark are actual brothers.

Famous author, Steve Haruch, is talking to famous author, David Dark!

My favorite sign today.

Also, we’re right next door to the Millerites. I’m refraining from singing “He marched them up to the top of the hill and marched them down again.”

We can hear all the bands in TSU’s homecoming parade from the Southern Festival of Books!

The most important question about Tennessee you can ask yourself this weekend is “What is Memphis?” Because the answer to that question that justifies putting troops there and the answer to that question that decides where the troops actually go are different.

Whites Creek, if I can smell your weed from in my house, you might need to calm down.

People, do not write me work emails when you're on vacation. Enjoy your vacation.

Look who finally showed up in time for the Southern Festival of Books!