Ask Schwall

Ken Schwall has made an art out of asking tough provoking questions to the citizens of East Tennessee.

Here is your chance to Ask Schwall a question and read responses to other WBIR viewer's questions.

Do all these security cameras everywhwere we go make you worry? It seems that we have no privacy anymore. Brenda, Knoxville

I'm not sure how I feel about all the cameras. I've never been a fan of the redlight camera...more so after I got socked for a $50 fine. (It was for turning right on red and two weeks later they stopped giving tickets for that!) They say that in some cities you can leave your house, be gone all day and come home and never be out of range of a camera. A lot of those cameras are set up to catch bad guys doing bad things. I guess it's a choice between privacy and safety. But like anything else, there's lots of room for abuse. And forget the privacy. We used to have security cameras up on Sharp's Ridge where we have your transmitter. You'd be shocked at some of the things our cameras picked up. Then again, maybe you wouldn't.

Have you seen the wild socks that former President George H.W. Bush has been wearing? Would you have the nerve to wear them? Sid, Knoxville

I've seen Mr. Bush's recent sock choices and no, I wouldn't have the nerve to wear them. Then again, I'm not a former U.S. President. Those guys can pretty much do what they want. I'd like to know where he finds them. I've never noticed them in the stores. It reminds me of legendary sportscaster Lindsey Nelson who was known for the loud sportscoats he wore. After he retired to Knoxville I asked him where he got those loud coats and he said he'd go into a men's store and ask to see "whatever they can't sell".

Is it fun being on tv? Alyssa, Knoxville

It's a living. Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's not. Most people don't realize that being on TV is a job and does require a certain amount of actual work. Like any job, there are fun moments. But like any job there are maddening and frustrating moments. I try to keep those to a minimum. When I covered "real news" there were lots of frustrations because I was always working on someone else's schedule. If I needed to interview the mayor, it was always on his schedule. If I was covering a prison escape it was always on the escapee's schedule...and the police. Now I'm able to work on my own schedule so it's better. But trying to come up with something every day does get old. There are days that I long for a good prison break to cover.

I saw the video of Michelle Obama getting heckled. And last week the President was heckled. Have you ever been heckled? Connie, Knoxville

Not lately. I try not to put myself in front of a live audience, just to avoid such incidents. There was an evening about 40 or so years ago when I was heckled...and worse. I was a radio disc jockey and another guy and I were hired to emcee an outdoor country music show at the Alpena County Fair. It was late and the crowd was pretty well snockered-up. (That's Northern Michigan for drunk.) The bands weren't very good and the crowd took it out on us. They heckled us everytime we came out to talk and about halfway through the show, they set fire to the stage. Talk about a tough audience.

	If you could trade places with anyone who would it be? Kevin, Lenoir City
	Scott Ralph Mackenzie. He is a 57-year old man who lives in Jacksonville, Florida. Beyond the fact that he's been divorced for ten years and he has no children and he lives on Murray Hill St., I know nothing about the man. Not exactly nothing. I did see something in the paper about his 83-year old mom winning a $590 million Powerball jackpot or something.

I'm puzzled by road rage. What makes a person turn into a monster when he gets behind the wheel? Kathy, Knoxville

Road rage has always fascinated me. If someone accidently cuts someone off in traffic, the cut-ee will sometimes react violently to the cut-er. Whereas if the same thing happened with shopping carts in the frozen food aisle at Food City, the same person who reacts violently on the road might just smile and say "oops!" and move along. There's something about the anonymity when you're in your own car on the road that makes it okay to yell, honk and worse at a person in another car. It's kind of like some of the people who write in the comment sections of websites like WBIR.COM. They may be nice reasonable folks in real life but the anonymity of the internet seems to bring out the worst in people.

Did I hear right that Twinkies are going to make a comeback? BIlly, Knoxville

You did. The famed snack food that went kaput in 2012 will reappear on shelves this July. Hostess, the company that owned Twinkies, decided after a labor dispute that sales were slumping because their customers were going to healthier foods. Apparently, a couple of investors including Apollo Global Management decided that that wasn't the case...that Americans were as infatuated with junk food as ever..and bought the rights to Twinkies. By the way, Apollo Global Management also owns Elvis Presley Enterprises so expect to see a new banana-peanut butter flavor of Twinkies.

Do you think that Hillary will be elected president? Sarah, Knoxville

Sarah. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. Have you looked at your calender? We're not halfway through 2013. According to what I read, the next Presidential election is in November of 2016. This is what we in the business call "jumping the gun". But it's not only you. Just about every major media outlet is guilty of the same. I listened to an interview the other day with Donald Trump and the whole interview was about "Are you going to run for President?". And if I had a nickel for every time I've heard speculation about Mrs. Clinton I'd be able to pay my insurance premium when Obamacare takes effect. And as soon as word got out that Chris Christie had weight-loss surgery, everyone knew for sure that "He's gonna run!". If this keeps up do you realize how tired we're going to be of politics by the summer of '16? I realize that the cable news networks have to fill 24-hours-a-day........but we don't.

	The Obama administration is thinking about selling TVA. What do you think? Randall, Knoxville
	I don't know. Depends on how much they're asking. I know it does have a lot of lake frontage.

As a journalist, are you afraid that the federal government might seize your phone records like they did with A-P and Fox News? Kevin, Knoxville

I'm guessing that my phone records are somewhat less interesting that those of journalists at A-P and Fox. After getting your question I did a quick review of my recent phone calls. They include a call to a local diner inquiring about the daily special, a quick call to Neal Denton to get his opinion on my idea of crossing a tomato plant with a radish plant (apparently it's a no-go) and a call to Mrs. Schwall asking if I'm supposed to pick up a loaf of white or whole wheat. That's not really the kind of stuff that Eric Holder and his folks would salivate over. Additionally that quick review of my own phone records confirmed what a dull life I lead. Thanks.

	Were you a hippy in your younger days? Jacob, Loudon
	No I wasn't. And that's odd since I lived 10 miles from the heart of the University of Michigan campus. Back in those days U-M was a center of the protest movement and there was a demonstration about every other day. I never joined in but they were fun to watch, especially when the Washtenaw County Sheriff's guys showed up in riot gear and their "less-than-gentle-tactics".

Why do they keep building those traffic circles around here? They're so confusing. I'll go blocks out of my way to avoid them. Sandra, Knoxville

Traffic circles, or roundabouts (they're different but I don't know how) seem to be the wave of the future. But you're not alone in your confusion. I'm hearing that complaint a lot. But highway engineers all say the same thing: "you'll get used to it". I think the problem could be that it's a European concept and we just don't think like they do. I'm comfortable with he ones around there because they're not that busy. But I dread going through the one at Clearwater Beach. With nearly 60,000 cars driving through each day, you know it can get hectic.

I'm confused. I'm watching the network news coverage of Benghazi, the IRS profiling of conservative groups and the Justice Department snooping through the phone records of reporters. Depending on whether I'm watching FOX or MSNBC they're either scandals or they're not scandals. Which to you think? John, Knoxville

I'm gonna go with scandals in at least two out of the three. Benghazi and the IRS are definitely scandal quality. I think that most supporters of the Obama administration would say that there are no scandals here. But that reminds me of Nixon Press Secretary Ron Ziegler referring to Watergate as just a "third rate burglary". It wasn't long until we found out that there was a little bit more to it.

	Ken: ...Why would anyone pay 2M for that cheap Gatlinburgish topless painting of Bea Arthur???!!! Steve, K-Town
	I've heard a little bit about that deal. The only reason I can think of is that the purchaser bought it as a public service just to get it out of sight.

Will Schaad Road in Knoxville ever get repaired. . . really? I don't mean widen I mean repaired. It's been a hazard way to long. Nancy, Powell

I'm afraid I can't help you. I used to have a friend at T-DOT but he left to work for a federal agency (not the IRS). And to be honest, I can't remember the last time I was on Schaad Rd. But I do know that bad roads are among the things that make Americans the maddest. I assume that T-DOT has a hotline or at least a phone and if I were you I'd be calling it on a regular basis. And I'd be having all my friends do the same. The old saying "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" is true. The goal is to make those boys down at T-DOT so tired of hearing the sound of your nagging voice that they'll do anything to stop it. Even to the point of fixing that road.

Why do restaurants insist on serving us such huge portions? Pass by most any restaurant and you'll see people walking out carrying those styrofoam containers with about half their meals in them. Why can't they just service smaller portions and charge us less money? Larry, Knoxville

"Charge us less money??????????" I think you've answered your own question. Can you imagine an employee at Ruby Tuesday's headquarters walking in and saying to his boss "I've got a great idea...let's charge people less for their meals!!!" Nope. The markup on food is so great that serving less and charging less would not be a good idea...at least for the restaurant. Now your fancy restaurants do serve smaller portions...but that's because goose liver and caviar cost more to fix than chicken and steak.

Was my sister kidding this morning when she told me that they've banned butter from school cafeterias in New York? Cindy, Knoxville

Nope, sis was serious. Just when we thought that things couldn't get nuttier in New York, we learn that butter is soon to be a thing of the past in cafeterias run by the New York City Department of Education. It's a little murky in that officials deny any butter ban. But school cooks note that recipes, which come to them from the central office, no longer contain butter as an ingredient. And it's no longer to be offered with bread. And several schools who stuck with butter have received disciplinary notices. So butter is not banned...they just can't use it. New York City logic.

	Why do men always leave the toilet seat up??? Peg, Knoxville
	To give women something to complain about...just in case leaving their socks on the floor, not listening to you, whining that the chicken is over/under cooked, forgetting your birthday or wearing socks with sandals don't work.

	Do you get your wife anything for Mothers Day? Rachel, Knoxville
	OOOOOOOPS!!!!!!! Thanks for the reminder.

	Do you have a favorite poem? Noel, Knoxville
	I have a few, but space limitations make it impossible for me to relate them here. So I'll mention my favorite short poems. The shortest I know is "Fleas" by Ogden Nash. It goes: Adam Had 'em. There's another I've always like. It deals with air pollution but I don't know the title or writer. But here it is: I shot an arrow in the air. And it stayed there.