Monday Link Roundup: 4/23/12

Hello Nashville, and welcome to your new and improved Bright & Early! You may have noticed that we occasionally (read: every day) have issues getting Bright & Early posted, well, bright & early. As much as we adore our readers repeatedly pointing out that 11am is not bright & early, it’s time to make a few format changes to the daily news roundups. Bright & Early is going away to give us more flexibility on the time of day we bring you the news, and we’re going to experiment with a more link-based format for the daily news.

Give us a few days, then let us know what you think via comment or email! We want to hear from you if you hate the changes we’re making (as we all know, the Internets hate change), but we’d appreciate civil, constructive feedback. We’re real, live people over here (more on that later). But enough with that. On to the news!

• A mystery plane has appeared at the closed Cornelia Fort Airpark in East Nashville, and no one knows where it came from or who the pilot is. We’re not really surprised – boat and plane are pretty much the only ways into East Nashville on weekends right now.
• Three cheers for the Preds, who took down the Detroit Red Wings on Friday to become the first team to advance from round 1 in this year’s playoffs! We can’t wait to watch them crush either the Chicago Blackhawks or the Phoenix Coyotes in round 2.
• Nashville’s brand new riverfront Cumberland Park is closed for repairs mere days after opening, after a child broke either his arm or his thumb playing on either the rock climbing wall or at the base of the bridge.
• Some guys got hurt falling off a Cumberland River bluff, too.
• It’s TCAP time! TCAP testing starts this Wednesday in Nashville, and this is the first year that scores will factor into students’ final grades. Take luck, kiddos.
• PSA: “Nashville residents are warned not to accept any offers of free bags of potatoes“
• Record Store Day was this past weekend, and we have all sorts of warm vinyl-buying, local-shopping fuzzies.
• As if the USPS didn’t have enough problems already, someone is vandalizing mail trucks in Brentwood.
• Got 5 million smackaroos lying around? You can purchase Alan Jackson’s mansion!
• We’re suckers for a weird headline, so here you go: Suspect Asks Officer If He’s Jesus, Steals Cruiser
• Bits & pieces: An express bus from Clarksville to Nashville is under consideration … There are cigarette butts in the streets … Keith Urban is the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry … Country Music Marathon runners will be served chocolate milk post-race this year, mmm … Everyone’s talking about Goo Goo Clusters … Tax revenue in Tennessee was up 8.5% in the fourth quarter of 2011 … The Bridgestone Arena will probably get some upgrades next year.

Photo by Paul Beavers.