Protecting Informed Consent
💉 Your body, your choice · Tis the season · Week in streaming · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
Murders leave a mark on a place. Yesterday, I was thinking about the old Bellacino's on White Bridge—a frequent after-school or sporting event stop for my family and many others growing up. Then in the Fall of 2010, two employees were executed (yes, executed) during a robbery by a former employee who had been fired for theft.
The restaurant shut down in the aftermath and didn’t reopen until the new year, but it was never the same. The tragedy lingered, and eventually, Bellacino’s shuttered, giving way to Porta Via. As Porta Via remodeled the interior and established itself as a neighborhood staple, the murders' imprint largely vanished, but it took time.
I tell this story because it’s easy to see homicide statistics and forget the very real impact these incidents have, not only on the victims and their families, but the broader community, and specifically, the places where they occur. This story comes to mind almost daily as I drive past the strip mall that used to house Bellacino's.
Onward.
The term “anti-vaxxer” is attached to all manner of undesirable imagery—at least for about half of Americans. Talk show hosts evoke subhuman entities from drooling simpletons to horned grandma killers. Bernadette Pajer is neither of these, but she’s had the label slapped onto her cause plenty. Pure in intention and intentional about research, Pajer’s work is focused on “informed consent,” a process in which healthcare providers fully explain the costs and benefits of treatments and procedures to their patients, who are then empowered to make knowledgeable decisions.
Pajer has witnessed firsthand the effects of withheld or misrepresented information, and seeks to combat it. She shared with me how she got started on this mission and what she wants to see in the future.
Everything began for Pajer in Washington state, where her son went to public school. The building itself was full of a federally banned toxic compound, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). Created and sold by Monsanto as “Aroclor” starting in the 1930s, PCBs were often used industrially in adhesives and paints until 1978. The EPA found them to have adverse health effects: reproductive, neurological, and even carcinogenic.
The PCBs in her son's school had dried and become airborne. While she couldn't provide the full details due to an ongoing lawsuit, she revealed that some people got sick and her son was impacted. Pajer found herself in an online community centered around detoxing and healing children harmed by institutional negligence. At the same time she joined the board of Informed Choice Washington, where she remains an advisor. The nightmare Pajer endured ignited something within her, motivating her to learn anything she could to prevent anything like it from happening to anyone else.
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🎄 Tis The Season During last night’s Christmas at the Capitol celebration, a light snow fell as Tennesseans gathered to count down the annual Christmas tree lighting. The trimmed, 30-foot Norway Spruce that towered over the crowd was donated by Paul and Connie Nichols of Ashland City. Also on display at the Capitol are two other trees selected from farms in Tennessee: a Fraser Fir from Wildwood Christmas Tree Farm in Cannon County, and an Eastern Red Cedar from Blankenship Farms and Nursery in Warren County.
Brenda Lee was also honored yesterday during a ceremony proclaiming her song, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” an official state holiday song. Nashville Representative Jason Powell, alongside Governor Bill Lee, honored the 79-year-old crooner who recorded her chart-topping holiday hit when she was only 13. After 65 years of climbing the charts, “Rockin’” finally hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 last year. Throughout her career, Lee sold over 100 million records and became the first woman to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll and the Country Music Hall of Fame.
🛣️ Yuletide Car Ride Tidings The Tennessee Department of Transportation is encouraging roadway safety in a special way this holiday. Yesterday, Deputy Governor and TDOT Commissioner Butch Eley announced that the department will be holding a slogan contest for the holiday safety displays on Tennessee’s interstate Dynamic Message Signs. You can enter your catch phrases for the "Make Travel Bright Safety Sign Contest" until December 11th.
💸 Vercher the Virtuous Yesterday, former Antioch Councilmember Tanaka Vercher filed a lawsuit against Tennessee State University. Back in August, Vercher was let go from her position as TSU’s Director of Financial Aid after 21 years of administrative work at the university. According to the complaint, Vercher refused to illegally request financial aid funding on behalf of ineligible TSU students and was subsequently fired. Vercher claims that she was terminated in retribution for her actions, which “meant a loss of approximately $7,000,000 in available cash to TSU.”
TENNESSEE EV SALES DRAG
DEVELOPMENT
- Kase x Noko in East Nashville will seat its first guests on Dec. 13 (NBJ)
- Plans revealed for East Nashville townhome development (NBJ)
- Historic SoBro church to be converted into event venue (NBJ)
- Plans revealed for Dickerson Pike project (NBJ)
- Ex-musical instrument shop building in Nations sells for $850K (Post)
✹ THIS WEEK IN STREAMING (December 3rd)
Alien: Romulus (Hulu) Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror sci-fi touchstone has as many sequels as it does imitators. But not even James Cameron’s Aliens could rival its predecessor like Fede Alvarez’s take on the material did earlier this summer. Armed with Alvarez’s knack for resurrecting moribund horror franchises (2013’s Evil Dead), obsession with practical effects, and talent for creating a sense of compelling claustrophobia (2016’s Don’t Breathe), it’s the endlessly engaging Big Pharma meets A.I. allegory we didn’t know we needed. Plus, Priscilla and Civil War star Cailee Spaeny proves Sigourney Weaver doesn’t have a monopoly on iconic rough-and-tumble heroines fighting oozing extraterrestrial monsters.
The White Lotus (Max) With the first gust of winter here and the holidays fast approaching, there’s no better time to take in HBO’s light-class satire set against the backdrop of exotic locals. Borrowing a smarmy page from Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, the series follows a rotating cast of characters vacationing at the various outposts of its titular travel and leisure group. Featuring everyone from Sydney Sweeney, Aubrey Plaza, and Alexandra Daddario to Steve Zahn and Emmy-winner Jennifer Coolidge, its navigation of wealthy white liberal insularity is unrivaled. Sure, the annoying binge-watchers at work have been talking about how much they are looking forward to season 3’s premiere early next year every chance they get. That doesn’t make it any less good.
Hitchcock for The Holidays (Criterion) The best streamer in the business continues its annual tradition of bringing 19 of the canonical director’s finest works to our living rooms just in time for the box-office wasteland between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sublimate your holiday anxiety with Vertigo and Rear Window! Live vicariously through Cary Grant in North by Northwest! Prepare for the next era in Russo-American relations with Torn Curtain! There’s a Hitchcock entry for every holiday mood.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.
TONIGHT
🎄 Elf in Concert with the Nashville Symphony @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $85+, Info
🎸 Willie Watson @ The Basement East, 8p, $26.71, Info
🪕 Shelton & Williams @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info
🎸 Lauren Daigle @ Ryman Auditorium, 7:30p, $38+, Info
🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p
🎸 Cole Ritter and the Night Owls @ The Underdog, 11:30p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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