Dem
52
Ties
2
GOP
46
Forgive us for running our second item on the passing of Dolly Parton in as many weeks, but it's not often that someone as iconic and beloved as she was passes from the scene. The outpouring of tributes has been impressive, and we thought we would mention a couple of them.
Parton, of course, was not a college graduate. However, she was a big supporter of her home state's most prominent public university, the University of Tennessee. That included the school's educational mission, its arts programs and its sports teams. And on the weekend after Parton passed, the university community decided to use the football game it played against Furman to send her out in style.
The entire day was full of Parton remembrances and tributes, but there were two that stood out in particular. The first of those is that, at halftime, the marching band performed a medley of Parton songs, and they choreographed their formation such that by the end of the performance, they spelled out "Dolly" followed by a heart. Here it is, if you'd like to see it:
After the band left the field, the entire crowd—over 100,000 strong—participated in a singalong of "I Will Always Love You." And, by the way, this is surely the first time we've linked five different videos on the same day.
Another story that caught our attention is one that pretty much everyone was asking for the moment Parton's passing was announced. New Orleans' airport is named after Louis Armstrong, Liverpool's is named after John Lennon, and Salzburg's is named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. So, it's really only fitting that Nashville's airport should be named after Parton, since she is as identified with Nashville as those other musicians are with the cities that have honored them.
Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) has already gotten to work on the project, and says it's a matter of "when" and not if. It does take some time and some red tape, especially since they want to change the airport code, which has to be approved by the International Air Transport Association. It's currently BNA, because it was once Berry Field, and so it's now "Berry Nashville Airport." It might become DPI, for "Dolly Parton International," but DPI is already used in airline computer systems; it's short for Departure Planning Information. So, they might instead go with DPM, which would be "Dolly Parton Memorial."
We try to make sure, at least most of the time, that these last two items each week have at least some connection to politics. And the contrast between the future DPI/DPM, and the recently renamed airport in Florida where the honor was not earned, and where some people are deliberately continuing to use the old name, means that we think this news qualifies as "politics-related." (Z)