I had a pleasant morning in Nashville, despite a busted exhaust pipe. Ordinarily I might have repaired the pipe myself. But, caring for a two-week-old doesn't permit much custom auto-work. At a roaring decibel, I drove to the Batey Muffler Shop (5303 Charlotte Avenue; (615) 297-4765) near Vanderbilt, so that I could walk or ride the bus to work during the repair, if necessary. Surprisingly, the work only required about 45 minutes. So I decided to have breakfast across the street at Wendell's, a classic greasy spoon with good gravy biscuits and excellent fresh tomatoes. At Wendell's I picked up a free copy of The Nashville Retrospect, containing "Stories & News From The City's Past". I was reminded that nearly 205 years ago (May 30th), the future President Andrew Jackson shot and killed Charles Dickinson in a pistol duel over comments Dickinson had made regarding Jackson's wife Rachel. I'll reproduce the short news item here, as I am confident the copyright is expired. From the Tennessee Gazette, May 31, 1806:

A duel took place yesterday morning, near the southern boundary of Kentucky, between Genl Andrew Jackson, and mr. Charles Dickinson, both citizens of Davidson county of this state, in which the latter received a ball in his harm, which passed thro' and entered his body. When the messenger who brought the intelligence left him, there were little hopes of his surviving the wound.

Spending time and money with local businesses is refreshing, and brings a sense of doing right by the community. Sadly, it seems that my age cohort prefers to patronize the more mainstream franchises and mega-businesses. Indeed, I was certainly the youngest diner at Wendell's, judging by the visible features (white hair mostly) of other customers.

P.S. I'll take one more jab at mega-businesses. I am currently migrating my checking account from Bank of America (BoA) to First State Bank (FSB) in Nashville, TN. Briefly, here are the reasons: