March 26, 2002

Knoxville is SO cosmopolitan

Last night, we went to Buca di Beppo in Palo Alto for a friend's birthday celebration. It was fun, and it was good to see people. I was a little sad at missing the Lady Vols and the Vanderbilt Commodores playing for a spot in the Final Four, and even more annoyed that I had forgot to set my UltimateTV to tape it. Oops. Happily, though, the bar in the restaurant had a TV that was showing the game. Meredith and I walked over to the bar to watch the final minute of the game, next to two men in suits who were sitting at the bar. Soon, we heard: "... yeah, Knoxville is such a great city. It's so much more cosmopolitan than Palo Alto is. They've got all these great sports teams, even a hockey team. There's lots of big high-tech companies there..." This went on.

The dictionary defines cosmopolitan as:


  1. Pertinent or common to the whole world: an issue of cosmopolitan import.
  2. Having constituent elements from all over the world or from many different parts of the world: the ancient and cosmopolitan societies of Syria and Egypt.
  3. So sophisticated as to be at home in all parts of the world or conversant with many spheres of interest: a cosmopolitan traveler.
Now, I really enjoyed my years in Knoxville, and I think it has a lot of things going for it. But this description does not particularly bring Knoxville to mind for me. Certainly not when compared to Palo Alto. Meredith's theory is that the guy was trying to impress her.

Oh, and the final result? Lady Vols win! Coach Pat Summit now holds the record for taking a team to the Final Four -- this is her 13th trip.

(Continuing my rant from last time... the main headline on ESPN.com right now is indeed about the Women's Basketball Final Four. On CNN/SI? It's about baseball. Which hasn't even started yet.)

Posted by Mike at March 26, 2002 09:58 AM