Rex: Radnor Lake Rambo returns

The Radnor Lake Rambo, as dubbed by the Nashville Scene’s Jeff Woods, is at it again.

Leonard Embody, who alarmed hikers in December when, dressed in fatigues, he went for a stroll brandishing an AK-47 handgun at Radnor Lake State Park, walked down a street in Belle Meade with a loaded pistol in his hand recently. Shockingly, something about that really freaked out the police.

Embody again said he’s trying to make the point that state licensees can openly carry their handguns just about anywhere they please.

“I walked with my Navy model 1851 black powder pistol,” Embody wrote on his blog. “It was loaded with hornady .44 cal ball or .454, triple 7 powder, and ccc percusion caps. One chamber was left empty for safety. It was carried in my hand as law requires. I wore a reflective vest and an arm band and ankle band for safety as it was nearly dark when I began the walk.
I walked north on Belle Meade blvd against traffic and to the median as required by ordinance … I almost reached the first break in the median a cop car stoped and the officer told me to put the gun down. Against my objection he searched me (inside of my pockets). He also called in the serial # of the handgun which I told him I objected to. The handgun is loaded and his fiddling around with it made me uncomfortable. Two other cops also showed up. I was held 15 minutes and released to go on my way.” [sic]

All of this gun stuff started last year, when the General Assembly said you should be able to carry a gun into a place that serves alcohol or in a state park. It’s ramping up again this year, with a combination of this Barney Fife zaniness and legislators ready to overturn a court opinion that blocked their guns-in-bars bill in the first place.

In retaliation, one state House member is filing bills that would shut down most of the bars from Beale Street to Blountville.

I’ll take “Therapists” for $1,000, Alex

If you’ll permit Rex a moment of pride: One of his protégés is going to be a TV star, and he could not be prouder.

The self-proclaimed “beguiling, be-spectacled and be-bow-tied” City Paper and Nashville Post scribe J.R. Lind headed to sunny — and way, way warmer — Los Angeles last week to tape an episode of Jeopardy!

Rex was a little jealous — Alex Trebek’s all-knowing, smarter-than-thou attitude has always served as a font of inspiration. But envy subsided as Rex peppered J.R. with a warm-up A&Q session that made him realize how long it’s been since he cracked open a book that didn’t have the words “for dummies” in the title.

Lind ought to be just fine so long as Trebek sticks to questions about condo square-footage, foreclosure trends and the Kansas City Royals. Maybe he’ll get lucky and one of the answers will be, “What is a blighted property in Nashville?”

Rex doesn’t know how J.R. did — the little guy had to sign pages upon pages of release and confidentiality forms — but if we see him sporting gold-plated Chuck Taylor’s, we’ll have a pretty good idea he went all Ken Jennings on everybody.

Watch this space for when the show will air in Nashville and for watch-party details.

EuroRex

Rex has heard that former Deputy Governor of Tennessee Stuart Brunson can’t count on the in-laws for a while if he and his wife need some free babysitting. A couple weeks ago, Brunson’s father-in-law, Theodore Sedgwick, was nominated by President Obama to serve as U.S. ambassador to Slovakia in Bratislava. Not a bad gig.

Slovakia is nestled among Poland, Austria, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Hungary. It is a member of the European Union and NATO, as well as the home of a number of Victoria’s Secret models, if you trust Google.

According to the U.S. State Department presser announcing the nomination, “Sedgwick is a business executive with experience in launching and operating publishing and timber enterprises. He is the founder of Pasha Publications, a specialty publisher focused on energy, defense, and environment markets.” And so on goes the list of impressive accomplishments.