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From Tennessean music writer Peter Cooper: Kellie Pickler, who has vaulted from the ranks of the American Idol show to a place in the contemporary country hit parade, is getting plenty of ABC exposure on Monday.
First, she'll appear on Good Morning America (7-9 a.m. on WKRN-Channel 2), and at 8 p.m. she'll be on CMA Music Festival: Country's Night To Rock (also on WKRN). Tuesday, she'll sing on the Regis & Kelly show (9 a.m. on ... you guessed it), most likely doing her current single, "I Wonder," a song she co-wrote about her absent mother and that often finds her in tears before the music ends.
Another development that could bring Kellie to tears: a potential Predators exit from Music City. If the hockey team leaves, it would mean she'd be missing neighbors Vern and Chrissy Fiddler and boyfriend Jordin Tootoo.
"They're staying, because I'm praying," she said. "We need to have a big concert and raise money so they can stay. I'd be in. It would kill me if they have to move, and it would kill the guys. They love Nashville."
Kellie said Jordin's rough-and-tumble on-ice demeanor is quite the opposite from his behavior on non-frozen terrains.
"He's a little troublemaker when he's playing for the Predators, but he knows not to cross the line with me," Kellie said. "We'll be out and people will think he's this tough guy, all about fighting, but he's a sweetheart off the ice. It's interesting, though, to see people come up to him and say, 'It was awesome when you knocked that guy out and his teeth went flying across the ice.' "
Kellie said she's better at Jordin's line of work than he is at hers.
"He worked with me on my skating, and now I'm pretty good," she said. "But he tries to sing and, trust me, he cannot carry a tune."
Area's suicide rate touches Tootoo
By Kevin Allen, USA TODAY
RANKIN INLET, Nunavut — Jordin Tootoo and his family say they aren't ready to discuss his older brother Terence's death, but their feelings about him come across.
As Tootoo nears the end of a grueling workout, he offers that he misses his older brother.
"This is where Terence would push me to get me going," he says.
Last August, Terence Tootoo, 22, used a shotgun to commit suicide in Manitoba, not long after he was charged with impaired driving.
He left a note that read: "Jor, go all the way. Take care of the family. You're the man, Ter."
"When I heard what happened, it was the toughest moment of my life," said Jim Ramsey, a close family friend. "To me, Terence and Jordin were the same person. They weren't just brothers. They were best friends."
Terence was believed to have become the first Inuit in pro hockey when he played for the Roanoke (Va.) Express of the low-minor East Coast Hockey League in 2001-02. He had hoped to play with Norfolk (Va.) in the American Hockey League, one step below the NHL.
"It was so hard for us to understand because he was at a level that we only dreamed about," said Jackson Lindell, who had played with Terence in Rankin Inlet. "It was surreal when he died."
University of Windsor professor Michael Kral, currently a lecturer at Yale, didn't know the Tootoos, but he was the chief investigator in a study on Inuit suicides.
According to Kral's research, the suicide rate in Nunavut, the territory in which Rankin Inlet is located, "is among the highest in the world and continues to rise."
The breakup of a romantic relationship is the No. 1 catalyst for suicide in Nunavut, according to Kral's study, but trouble with the law is second.
Everyone in Nunavut seems to know someone who committed suicide. "One angle I'm looking at is that ideas are contagious," Kral said. "That's how culture works. ... Suicide is an idea; like all other ideas, it's a choice. It's an action plan. ... You look around (and) say: 'What are people doing when they are upset?' "
No one saw this coming with Terence, who was just as popular in Rankin Inlet as Jordin.
Lindell has an interesting perspective on the Tootoos because he was from another area and played against the Tootoos before he played with them.
The impression he had of the Ranklin Inlet players "was that they were full of themselves."
Once he moved to Rankin Inlet he was stunned by how gregarious and friendly the Tootoos were.
"When you played against Terence, he had a way of getting under your skin. ... They just didn't accept anything but first place," Lindell said. "They didn't know how to lose. We had great pride."
Jordin Tootoo is dedicating the 2003-04 season to his brother. Terence's name and jersey number are painted on his stick.
Last season, when he was named one of the game's three stars, Jordin would touch his heart and point to the heavens.
"Nobody knew what that meant, but we did," his father, Barney, said. "It meant that he knew that his brother was with him."
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