AS MOST CHATTANOO-GANS, I was thrilled to hear of Volkswagen’s decision to build its assembly plant in Chattanooga, and it got me thinking. Will the fact that we’ll have a German company locating in the Scenic City help bring a German restaurant to town? If there is one, I’m unaware. I looked at www.germancorner.com/yellowpages/restaurants and found hundreds of listings for German eateries, but none in Chattanooga. Actually, there was just one listed in Tennessee — Erika’s German Restaurant in Memphis.

And now my mouth is watering for some good wiener schnitzel. Do you know of any place close by to get it?

A COUPLE OF WEEKS ago I was reminiscing about a problem my dad once had with birds eating the cherries off his cherry tree. This prompted a suggestion from reader Barbara David:

“Last year, I started hanging CDs on a string across my blueberries. I tied one on the string every 2 feet or so from one end of the blueberry rows to the other. It worked pretty well.

“This year I added some bells, hung up some old Christmas CDs and strung them over my even larger blueberry plants, and it has definitely kept the birds away.”

And there’s a bonus, she said. When the sun reflects from the CDs, they make her garden shimmer.

I’M IN ST. MAARTEN as you read this, and since this column has been written in advance, all I can say is I’m hoping to be eating my weight in fresh lobster and fish.

I will let you know when I get back, along with some suggestions if you’re planning a trip to this most popular Leeward Island.

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