• Word broke late last week that Nashville-based Gaylord will sell its hotel brand to Marriott for a cool $210 million.
• Nashville is bracing for CMApocalypse to descend upon the city. Bingo coming soon, we promise!
• The water in Franklin stinks again, quite literally.
• Hickory Hollow mall will officially close this summer, with Metro planning for a rec center, library and public “green space” at the location sometime in the future.
• Traffic was really really bad this weekend due to road and bridge closures, which you already know if you tried to go anywhere near I-24.
• VOTE 4 PEKKA!
• Nine new charter schools will open in Memphis and Nashville next year, serving 3,000 students.
• Cool Springs Galleria is getting a real, live Apple Store on the heels of MacAuthority’s departure from the mall.
• Bits & pieces: Frothy Monkey is opening a new location in downtown Franklin … TDOT is now working on safety improvements to a Vietnam Veterans Blvd bridge after a 100-car pileup in December … We love Robyn and we love that this video of two Leiper’s Fork sisters covering Robyn has gone viral … More than 2,000 job hunters showed up at Saturday’s Nissan job fair … A new gourmet burger joint, Burger Republic, has opened in Lenox Village … Gas prices are down, and we all rejoice.

Photo by Jon Erickson.