Good morning, Nashville. We were trying to ignore the whole Al Gore Earth Hour saga, but in honor of his birthday today, we’ll give you the rundown. In case you’ve missed it, Drew Johnson, head of libertarian thinktank Tennessee Center for Policy Research, went lurking around Al’s mansion in Bellevue Belle Meade during Earth Hour to make sure the lights were off. While the lights inside seemed to be off minus a few TVs and computer monitors, they apparently left some giant flood lights on in the front yard. Drew did what any self-respecting savvy youth would do and snapped some photos, which he then published on Facebook with a long note. Word got around, Al’s spokeswoman said that Drew was lying, somehow this all ended up on national news, and now Drew is challenging the former Vice President of the United States to a Facebook fight. We couldn’t make this stuff up.

• Kind of a big deal. We don’t know much of anything about soccer, but we hear there’s a huge World Cup qualifying match coming up and LP Field, and they’re selling a whole lot of tickets.
• Mr. Fix-it. Jesse Register, Director of Metro Nashville Public Schools, knows he’s got his work cut out for him when it comes to whipping the school system into shape. Over the weekend, he revealed his plans to put together committees to look at every aspect of the schools and figure out what can be done.
• Bits & pieces. The wine bill (no, not THAT wine bill) passed in the Senate yesterday … Governor Phil is going to tell us how we can stop hogging so much energy here in Tennessee … Print media continues down the slow path to extinction with more layoffs at the City Paper … Somehow we’re still considering the May Town Center project, maybe.

Photo by rumielf.