Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed candidate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, Omar Hamada in studio to play Taking the Fifth.
Leahy: In studio, Omar Hamada.
Hamada: Hey, Michael.
Leahy: Omar is contemplating getting into the race for the 5th Congressional District here in Tennessee. The new district that now leans Republican. Includes parts of Davidson, the western half of Wilson, the eastern half of Williamson County. You live in it?
Hamada: I do.
Leahy: But barely.
Hamda: Barely. But I live in it. I’m actually 20 meters off the line.
Leahy: There you go. So you live in it. And then all of Maury County, all of Marshall County, all of Lewis County. I don’t know if you know this, Omar, but we play a little game with every candidate and we call it Taking the Fifth.
Hamada: Oh, I’ve seen it.
Leahy: It’s a little quiz game and we just see how much you know about the district. Here it is, here’s Taking the Fifth.
(Taking the Fifth theme plays)
Leahy: All right.
Hamada: Don’t hurt me too bad.
Leahy: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, Omar Hamada bravely stepped in, playing Taking the Fifth with us.
Hamada: How much money do I win?
Leahy: It’s seven questions. All right, first question. What auxiliary interstate highway identified with three digits, not two digits, serves as a Southern bypass around downtown Nashville?
Hamada: 840?
Leahy: 840 is one of them.
Hamada: 440.
Leahy: You got them. Excellent. One for one.
Hamada: Wow.
Leahy: Over 100 years ago, a festival called Mule Day was begun in the 5th district. It attracts over 200,000 people every year. What 5th-district city hosts Mule Day?
Hamada: Nice. That’s an easy one. Columbia!
Leahy: Ding, ding, ding, ding. I used to be the ER director at Maury Regional Hospital for several years.
Leahy: You’ve lived here since 1972.
Hamada: There you go. Mule Day. ER visits.
Leahy: Two for two. All right. Over the past month, there has been much discussion and reporting about the truckers and horn-honkers in Canada.
About 20 years ago every day, Tennesseans and Tennessee truckers encircled the state capital in Nashville, honking horns and disrupting the state legislature. What were those Nashville horn-honkers protesting?
Hamada: I have no idea. You’re going to get me on this one.
Leahy: Got you on that one. They were protesting against Don Sundquist and his imposition of a state income tax.
Hamada: Wow.
Leahy: Two for three. Still pretty good. Okay, fourth question. Recently, the city of Mount Juliet in Wilson County lost its most famous resident, a country music artist known worldwide. What was the name of that country artist?
Hamada: How recent did he pass?
Leahy: He passed within the past year. Let me just say …
Hamada: I remember that. I don’t remember his name.
Leahy: Okay. You want a hint?
Hamada: Yes, I do.
Leahy: The devil went down to Georgia.
Hamada: Yeah, I don’t remember.
Leahy: Okay, time’s up. Charlie Daniels. Fifth question. Two for four. You’re hitting .500. All right. If you’re in baseball, you’d be an all-star.
Hamada:Â Fantastic.
Leahy: What is the Carter House? Where is it located and what is its significance in the 5th-district history?
Hamada: The Carter House. I believe it’s in Franklin, Tennessee.
Leahy: And significance?
Hamada: I don’t remember. I’m going to guess here, but Civil War era.
Leahy: Yeah, it was a center. It was Union headquarters in the Battle of Franklin. Excellent.
Hamada: I was going to say it was a hospital in the battle.
Leahy: Well, that was Carnton House. But still, it was a center. So, good, three for five. Number six. Who is the head football coach of Tennessee State University? Hint. He was an all-pro running back for the Titans.
Hamada: Eddie George.
Leahy: Ding, ding. Four for six.
Hamada: All right.
Leahy: One of the two leaders of the exploration team of Lewis and Clark, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, [and] defined a path to the Pacific, was Meriwether Lewis. He died under suspicious circumstances in 1809 and is buried along the Natchez Trace in which 5th-district county?
Hamada: (Laughs) Oh, let me guess. Lewis.
Leahy: Ding, ding, ding! Five of seven. That’s pretty good.
Hamada: Not too bad. I can’t believe I missed Charlie Daniels. I don’t feel too bad about the horn honking.
Leahy:Â This is why taking the Fifth quiz is fun. Everybody is running for office. Typically they prepare, right?
Hamada: Right.
Leahy: And they’ve got to answer to issues, et cetera. But we just said these are basic questions. I would say those are fair questions.
And we try to we prepare to make sure that these are questions that people should know if they’re running for the 5th Congressional. Pretty good. Pretty good.
Hamada: I’ll take it.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
