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Proud to be a “university twit”
Posted By katie allison granju
As immortalized in the NYT piece detailing the dramas of Knox County Commission meetings, you, too can now be the owner of a “University Twit” t-shirt..
The background:
And here was Commissioner Greg Lambert, better known as Lumpy. A used-car salesman who won national attention years ago for a “Buy a Car Get a Gun” promotion, he leveled his blunderbuss at another commissioner, a university professor named Mark Harmon, who had done nothing more to antagonize than open the meeting with a reflection that referred to “the inherent dignity of every person.”
Thus Lumpy spoke. In defending why county employees should be allowed to hold county office, he rambled about poor people in need of jobs, then channeled their imagined thoughts about Mr. Harmon, the academic: “And what they say is, ‘How does that arrogant little university twit sit up there and make those decisions that keep us from having jobs?’ ”
Shouts, calls for order, calls for an apology that never came, brief recess.
Feb 12th, 2008
While a grad student in North Carolina the subject of Jessie Helms came up one day in class. Someone asked how people in the state could elect such a backwards dolt. NC has a number of famous Universities and one would assume the state had a fairly educated populace.
The answer was quite interesting and ran something like this: “They vote for him because it’s their way of thumbing their nose at the intellectual elite”.
That must be why folk in Knox vote for the Lump. It’s their way of thumbing their nose at the University (though they would never say a harsh word about the Vols- because ball is god in Knoxville).
Lumpy is a likable guy but he just does not know when to shut up. I thought Mark Harmon showed a lot of class when asked on camera what he thought of the remark and he said, “it was just Lumpy being Lumpy.”
I am going to get one of those T shirts!