Rex Hammock, who is such an early adopter that he owns the Twitter handle @R, posted about a data tool that shows the frequency of any words use in the NY Times since the paper launched in 1851. Nashville peaked in 1862, the year the Yankees took the city without firing a shot, with more than 4 percent of all stories in the paper mentioning the (future) Music City. We popped above 3 percent two years later, when the Battle of Nashville took place. Our only other years above 1 percent were 1893 (Im guessing due to economic disaster stories locally during that years Panic) and 1902 (I have no idea about causes for that year). In 2000 -- the year of the Music City Miracle, the Titans Super Bowl heartbreak, the Symphonys Carnegie Hall appearance and Bush v. Gore -- Nashville hit its highest level of usage since 1902. Every year since 2010, our number has risen. So far in 2014, it is outperforming 2000s best-in-a-century score. Just one more measure of the citys Itness? Looks that way to me. (By the way: If you feel like reliving Nashvilles turn of the current century, Parnassus Books has the last remaining Patrons Editions of Nashville: An American Self-Portrait -- boxed, numbered and signed by editors the late John Egerton and Yours Truly. It features reporting and meditations on the citys Y2K from the likes of Ray Waddle, Bruce Feiler, Roy Blount Jr., Fred Russell, David Halberstam, Richard Schweid, Liz Garrigan, Will Campbell, Lamar Alexander and Jean Bethke Elshtain, among many other contributors. I get no cut if you buy it. However, that towering Maecenas of Nashville letters Townes Duncan will get back a few pennies of his financially unwise but socially noble investment in helping the city tell its story.)
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 01:33:34 +0000
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