From The Nashville Scene

 
Restaurant openings 
Thistle Stop Café Opens on Charlotte Pike

Posted by Abby White on Tue, May 28, 2013 at 11:04 AM



While most of the city’s attention was focused on a pretty big ribbon-cutting ceremony last week with the Music City Center, another grand opening happened across town on Friday. The crowd was smaller, but no less enthusiastic in welcoming the long-awaited opening of The Thistle Stop Café, the new venture from the nonprofit Thistle Farms.

The cafe is adjacent to the Thistle Farms headquarters on Charlotte Pike, which houses the organization’s offices, its bath and body care manufacturing facility, paper-making and sewing studios, and retail outlet.

Thistle Farms founder Becca Stevens addressed the crowd, which packed every inch of the bright, light-filled space, as they enjoyed coffee from Just Love Coffee, Possitifitea tea, and samples of the fare offered at the cafe, including vegan and gluten-free bakery items from Vegan Vee and sandwiches and salads from Arnold Myint’s AM@FM. The full menu has yet to be announced, but the cafe will offer a variety of tea and coffee drinks, including French press and Chemex pour-over options.

“The theme is a story in every cup,” Stevens said. “A story of what redemption and healing looks like … for every single person in here. We can always come together and love each other.”

The cafe will be run and staffed by residents and graduates of Magdalene, the residential program of Thistle Farms, which offers housing, food, therapy, education and job training for women recovering from prostitution, trafficking, addiction and life on the streets. Stevens introduced these “pioneers,” and thanked the many volunteers, donors and supporters who made the dream of the cafe a reality.

“People have given enormously to this project,” Stevens said. “We want to honor and thank the five women who are the pioneers and the new hires for the Thistle Stop Café.”

Stevens also thanked Mayor Karl Dean and the city of Nashville for supporting the project. Before cutting the purple ribbon with the cafe staff, Dean praised the program offered by Magdalene/Thistle Farms, and the many women who have graduated from the program.

“We need to build a city where the doors are open to everybody,” Dean said. “To people who are new to this country, who are young with new ideas and people who are struggling.

“To the graduates and clients here, you made a big decision to improve and change your lives. As a city, were all really proud of you. We know that change takes strength courage and support.”

The cafe’s cheerful, comfortable atmosphere is enhanced by a 150-year-old California pinewood floor made from Al Gore’s tobacco barn in Carthage, Tenn., chandeliers by James Worsham, handmade counters by inmates at the Turney Correctional Facility and an outside deck built by Peace Corps volunteers. More than 800 teacups were collected from around the world, part of a yearlong project to collect cups and stories.

The Thistle Stop Café is located at 5128 Charlotte Pike and is open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.


Thistle Stop Cafe on Facebook

George Carlin on Fat People

From The Huffington Post: 13 Benghazis That Occurred on Bush's Watch Without a Peep from Fox News

by Bob Cesca

The Republican inquisition over the attacks against Americans in Benghazi has never really gone away, but it appears as though in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and the House Oversight Committee's Benghazi hearings this week there are renewed psycho-histrionics over Benghazi.

Lindsey Graham and Fox News Channel in particular are each crapping their cages over new allegations from an alleged whistleblower, while they continue to deal in previously debunked falsehoods about the sequence of events during and following the attacks. Fox News is predictably helming the biggest raft of hooey on the situation -- turning its attention to Hillary Clinton in an abundantly obvious early move to stymie her presidential run before it even begins.

So I thought I'd revisit some territory I covered back in October as a bit of a refresher -- especially since it appears as if no one, including and especially the traditional press, intends to ask any of these obnoxious, opportunistic liars about why they're so obsessed by this one attack yet they entirely ignored the dozen-plus consulate/embassy attacks that occurred when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were allegedly "keeping us safe."

The Benghazi attacks (the consulate and the CIA compound) are absolutely not unprecedented even though they're being treated that way by Republicans who are deliberately ignoring anything that happened prior to Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009.

January 22, 2002. Calcutta, India. Gunmen associated with Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami attack the U.S. Consulate. Five people are killed.

June 14, 2002. Karachi, Pakistan. Suicide bomber connected with al Qaeda attacks the U.S. Consulate, killing 12 and injuring 51.

October 12, 2002. Denpasar, Indonesia. U.S. diplomatic offices bombed as part of a string of "Bali Bombings." No fatalities.

February 28, 2003. Islamabad, Pakistan. Several gunmen fire upon the U.S. Embassy. Two people are killed.

May 12, 2003. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Armed al Qaeda terrorists storm the diplomatic compound, killing 36 people including nine Americans. The assailants committed suicide by detonating a truck bomb.

July 30, 2004. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A suicide bomber from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan attacks the U.S. Embassy, killing two people.

December 6, 2004. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda terrorists storm the U.S. Consulate and occupy the perimeter wall. Nine people are killed.

March 2, 2006. Karachi, Pakistan again. Suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Consulate killing four people, including U.S. diplomat David Foy who was directly targeted by the attackers. (I wonder if Lindsey Graham or Fox News would even recognize the name "David Foy." This is the third Karachi terrorist attack in four years on what's considered American soil.)

September 12, 2006. Damascus, Syria. Four armed gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar" storm the U.S. Embassy using grenades, automatic weapons, a car bomb and a truck bomb. Four people are killed, 13 are wounded.

January 12, 2007. Athens, Greece. Members of a Greek terrorist group called the Revolutionary Struggle fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. Embassy. No fatalities.

March 18, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Members of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Jihad of Yemen fire a mortar at the U.S. Embassy. The shot misses the embassy, but hits nearby school killing two.

July 9, 2008. Istanbul, Turkey. Four armed terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate. Six people are killed.

September 17, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Terrorists dressed as military officials attack the U.S. Embassy with an arsenal of weapons including RPGs and detonate two car bombs. Sixteen people are killed, including an American student and her husband (they had been married three weeks when the attack occurred). This was the second attack on this embassy in seven months.

To read the entire article click here.

To Be With You

by Dee Newman

On the steepest slope or the desert plain,
Whatever the scope, the scale or terrain,
Be it small and profound, a vast allure,
Safe and sound or ruggedly insecure,
In the cool of the night or the heat of the day,
Beneath sunlight or the Milky Way,
Beyond the shore, the sea cliffs and caves
As the gulls soar over white-capped waves,
Off the asphalt beyond the tossed-debris
Where the Great Fault meets the Joshua Tree,
Among ancient pines older than history,
Gnarled shrines veiled in moonlight and mystery,
Along a wild remote alpine expanse,
Scenes of mountain goat and flowering plants,
Toward a towering quest of ice and snow,
Lit from the west with the evening’s glow,
To share a perspective, a point of view,
Ah, what I would give to be with you.

TED Talk (Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud)