Year in Review: Zaniest news of 2011
Zany news abounded in 2011.
In April, an impassioned speech by state Rep. JoAnne Favors railed against dogs roaming about in Nashville's legislative plaza. Shockwaves reverberated across the blogosphere.
A spring Chattanooga City Council meeting found Councilwoman Sally Robinson taking some time to implore her fellow members to join the fight in reducing manhole cover theft. Supposedly manhole cover theft is a growing trend in Chattanooga.
Tennessee drew national ire in June as it became the first state to announce sharing passwords for Netflix-type accounts would become a crime. Legislation for the new law was introduced by Chattanooga's own House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick. There have yet to be any arrests.
In an attempt to resonate with working class constituents, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann decided to man a shift at a local gas station. But the idea went south, as Fleischmann was accused of forcing an employee out of his job for the day. To be fair, the owner of the station quickly came to Fleischmann's defense, saying it was his call to not put the employee to work and that the congressman was not to blame.
In October, a Tennessee state representative who sponsored a law making it legal to bring guns into bars was arrested for drunk driving with a loaded .38 caliber pistol. Presumably he was on his way home from the bar.
Speaking of bars, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner found himself in Chattanooga and decided to catch the World Series' epic Game 6 at the bar in Hennen's. When asked by a waiter why he was there, the speaker cooly replied, "I gotta be somewhere, right? I might as well be here." He then proceeded to take a smoke break.
In a single tweet, the Tennessee Tea Party set itself up for national mockery. The outburst against retiring Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank traveled through the corners of the internet, all the way to the desk of Stephen Colbert, where the pundit properly lampooned it.
Chattanooga attorney John Wolfe announced he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. And he wasn't joking.
