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 321 articles by Dan Conaway :
“JB Smiley Jr., or any local elected official, has no business in the board rooms of the University of Memphis. If the city council ran the university, chaos would be the only curriculum, and a BS degree would not stand for Bachelor of Science.”
The worn Big Bird and Cookie Monster, the Scotties and Flamingos, the typewriter and macramé angel, the stuff kids made, weren’t for the marketing target audience, they were for us.
“If you’re looking for something to look forward to in the New Year, I’ll give you two. Just look up.”
Martavius Jones has just snuck into your house through an unlocked window and stolen a knee replacement from your dark living room.
“I got in touch with Harry and told him my idea. Conduct an experiment. Submit my column ‘Pig Ultimate’ to ChatGPT and ask for three different 100-word reviews: one very positive, one negative and one balanced.”
“Lee thinks his voucher program will become a national model. The lies told to get it, and the threats and pressure brought to bear, have already made it a national embarrassment.”
“And whoever — singular or plural — made the decision to bypass all elected bodies, kneecap the brand-new city mayor and invite Tenn. Gov. Bill Lee to come plant the state flag in City Hall does not speak for us.”
Your City Council has voted twice already — unanimously, through the body’s consent agenda — to give themselves health care for life. On Tuesday, if they vote for it a third time, it will become law.
“Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.”
At an upcoming event, unwanted guns will be turned into something that plants new seeds and instills new hope.
“The Boys and Girls Clubs have moved in, connected with and changed some of our most troubled communities. We could help so many more.”
The mayonnaise is richer than Elon Musk.
“Rather than flex his considerable corporate muscle in objection, a very busy man carved out two hours to spend with me to talk about something we both love. This city.”
All across Memphis, like the hives of Thistle & Bee, people are hard at work to bring fellow Memphians back from the ravages of poverty, abuse, neglect and the companions of those conditions — crime, addiction and exploitation.
This is the same power grab of something positive, something working, something of real benefit now and in the future from the largest and neediest public system in the state to further separate it and isolate it.
Research has revealed that Nathan Bedford Forrest’s slave pens were originally behind Calvary Episcopal Church, but in the 1880s, the church expanded to the east over the site of the pens.
“The state has not merely encouraged white flight, the state has enabled it. The state has not merely supported white flight, the state built the airport, and the runway surrounds the city.”
We’ve become physically and intellectually lazy. We’ve made our goals easy, and we’ve made the first answer we like good enough, true or not.
“We were out in the country, the middle of nowhere yet right here, two old friends and a couple dogs among old barns on a new morning, and we were having a business meeting.”
“In a world either on fire or simmering, in a country dangerously divided, in a challenged city, perspective returns in an ambulance.”
Like us, Memphis barbecue doesn’t need fancy; it abhors pretense and imitation; it stands on its own; it’s one of a kind and we’re happy to share.
“Here are just three Memphis medical miracles, three that have touched my life, brought about by people who have touched the lives of literally millions. Nowhere do we recognize all of our medical professionals, but there could be a way — and a place — to do so.”
Announcing the birth of our nation’s 51st state:
The State of West Tennessee.
The Sunset Symphony at the Overton Park Shell was testimony that people, thousands of them, will rise above the claims and clamor of crime to gather in Overton Park at night for the reality of a shared and celebratory experience.
“If you didn’t like my proposal for starting the state of West Tennessee a couple of weeks ago, there’s this possibility: The City-state of Memphis.”