Dan Conaway
Conaway: A journey to my tomorrow and the path of my yesterday
“As you read this, I’m headed east on Interstate 40 to a reading and book signing of ‘Never Over The Hill,’ a memoir I coauthored with Bill Haltom about our time in college.”
Dan Conaway
Columnist
Dan Conaway is a lifelong Memphian, fascinated and frustrated with his city, but still in love. A columnist since 2010, his distinguished advertising career has branded ribs in the Rendezvous and ducks in The Peabody, pandas in the zoo and Grizzlies in the NBA. Stories in Memphis tend to write themselves. He’s helped a few along. Two book collections of his columns have been published.
There are 336 articles by Dan Conaway :
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April 2025
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Dan Conaway -
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Dan ConawayConaway: Everybody in the golf world knows every King-Collins course, except here, of course
“Should you like to play a King-Collins course, still rare but growing in number, there’s one right smack dab in the middle of your city.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: First-period civics – the school board mess
“Whatever happens next, however ill-conceived, will largely be the result of the hubris and selfishness of the majority of that school board, and the losers will be our city’s kids and our tomorrow.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: You can’t sell Summer Drive-In memories; they’re priceless
“If the drive-in was mine, what would I do with it?"
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March 2025
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Dan ConawayConaway: A life, and this one comes cubed or crushed
And the photo fell away, while the magnet crashed to the floor between my feet, depriving the meerkat of its left ear. There’s something to be said for sloppy, arbitrary, impetuous, and rough around the edges. Right in front of you. You know, like life in the moment.
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Dan ConawayConaway: If we don’t do Memphis over, others will, and soon
“We have to get our act together. The city and county mayors need to sit down together for a cup of coffee. Strong coffee. A pot of it.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: A time for reflection — and mayonnaise
“For me, Lent is a time for reflection. The journey so far, the journey at present, and the journey to come. That’s what I feel called to do these 40 days.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: Of Katz and rats, dads and doughnuts, then and now
“Even though we were in those same places at the same time, we were not the same. My public pool was in the Fairgrounds; Howard’s was in Orange Mound. At Katz, he’d have his water fountain, and I’d have mine.”
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February 2025
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Dan ConawayConaway: Eight Tennessee volunteers could save us — but we only need four
No core principles would be abandoned. In fact, those four would become the most important members of Congress, and their tiny caucus the most impactful in the entire body.
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Dan ConawayConaway: They should wear ‘This Shirt Kills Kids’
“Numbers are cold, numbers don’t bleed. Numbers don’t silently cry in a waiting room or crumble to the floor when the news arrives. Numbers don’t comfort or explain or justify when a child dies.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: Bottled arrogance, just in time for Valentine’s
Dan Conaway writes, “We’ve been chosen as the test market for a new men’s cologne just in time for Valentine’s Day: Elon Musk.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: A gift of perspective
“The morning brings a new day, like the one before never happened, but like all the days before, what happened is baked in old slave-made brick, and immigrant-laid stone, and preserved.”
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January 2025
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Dan ConawayConaway: The governor’s wallet opens Jan. 27
“Every vote for vouchers takes tax money, your money, from already underfunded public schools and gives it to private schools.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: If you’re in the funeral business, you’d best know where to dig
“Brent Taylor would use his elected office — voted on by about 20% of the county — to remove a county official elected by 100% of the county voters.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: Let’s pick the cabinet
“Aside from the obvious point that we could all suggest better than we’re going to get, the larger point is that we’re all going to need each other as things shake out in Washington.”
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November 2024
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Dan ConawayConaway: Tuesday is the measure of us
In his opinion piece, Dan Conaway says that if you vote for Donald Trump, whatever he does will be with your permission.
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October 2024
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Dan ConawayConaway: Katz and Wright, therapy for the moment
“If you see me talking to myself, just move along. I’m self-employed; we’re having a staff meeting.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: This ballot ‘triggers’ memories but also possibilities
Tennessee’s Republican leadership maintains that cities and counties can’t have different state laws, but what did they do when it came to new, suburban school districts and school vouchers?
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Dan ConawayConaway: Oceans give rise to storms and lies. We must rise to meet them.
“The truth is that no one is asking the people that have lost everything whether or not they are Republican or Democrat before they help them, no more than those two walkers on the beach asked me.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: Dan’s Tasteful List 2024
Eating out in Memphis is a reward for living here. You deserve it.
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September 2024
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Dan ConawayConaway: The hotel that saved Downtown
“The City of Memphis buying a hotel to protect its interests — our interests — is not a bad idea. But, the city running a hotel is a terrible idea.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: We haven’t done anything about guns, and the Legislature is scared we might
“Can a city stand against laws that disproportionately and negatively affect their entire population, daily threatening their safety, their livelihoods and their very lives?”
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Dan ConawayConaway: In Tennessee, Trump couldn’t vote
“In one of the reddest states in the nation, where Trump will likely win by more votes than Tennessee-based Cracker Barrel has biscuits, Trump couldn’t vote.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: This time, The Citadel saluted
This is about effort against odds, the measure being the effort itself, never accepting that there’s no sense in trying, never giving anything less than your best, knowing the measure of you is you.
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Dan ConawayConaway: Finally agreed — the boys can write
After my oldest brother died, my other brother and I began really talking and laughing.
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