I was flying out of the Nashville airport recently, and I passed by a large, prominently displayed electronic sign, which said the following: "Plane Truth #1: BNA stands for Best National Airport. For real" (BNA is Nashville's airport code). Then
Author: Chris Jones
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From The Side of the Road… Top 10 bluegrass conspiracy theories
Esquire magazine recently published a list of the top 30 conspiracy theories prevalent in the United States. They ranged from the faked moon landing and flat earth theories to the one about Disney making Frozen as a distraction from the
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From The Side of the Road… Dude, you smell good!
Since it has been established in the advertising world that if you can identify a niche, you can target it, it was probably inevitable that we would one day see the rise of bluegrass men's cologne. Bluegrass women's fragrances had already
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From The Side of the Road… I got you on video!
The smartphone, especially the smartphone with video camera, has changed a lot of things in our society. Just ask any politician who has had video of something he or she said posted to social media that directly contradicted yesterday's statement,
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From The Side of the Road… perils of the gig economy
If you've ridden an Uber or Lyft lately, or stayed in an AirBnB, you know that the "gig economy" is the big trend in employment, especially in the service industry, and it's likely here to stay. People everywhere are becoming
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From The Side of the Road… naming schemes in the wider world
In the past we've discussed the issue of naming bands; I even offered a band-naming kit, in which you take an adjective (e.g. "blue," "lonesome," "grease-stained") and combine it with an article in nature or rustic mode of transportation (e.g.
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From The Side of the Road… further thoughts on band naming conventions
There was interesting response to last week’s discussion about naming bands after their "hit" songs. One grammar specialist thought it should have been "Doyle Lawson and The Yellows River"rather than "Yellow Rivers," but at this point that seems like splitting hairs. Straying
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From The Side of the Road… the ‘biggest song’ band naming scheme
Ages ago—I believe it was pre-iPhone 5—I offered up an advice column about coming up with band names. In it I provided a band-naming “kit” that involved taking an adjective or geographical location from column A and combining it with
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From The Side of the Road… making murder ballads safe for school
In past columns, we've discussed the fact that while bluegrass bands get booked at weddings, there are almost no appropriate bluegrass songs to play at these weddings. Most either involve a groom failing to show up for his own big
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From The Side of the Road… context in attribution matters!
Quotations aren't always what they seem when taken out of context. Be especially wary when authors who write both fiction and non-fiction are quoted. It happens often, especially on calendars for some reason (the month of July is notorious for