Conaway: Welcome to the world of old white men
“While white men over 65 represent something in the neighborhood of 5% of our population, they’re engaged in a battle to hold their fierce grip on power and opinion. Sadly, tragically, they’re winning.”
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 321 articles by Dan Conaway :
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July 2022
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Dan ConawayConaway: Whistling isn’t evil. Whistling something evil is evil.
“The terms Republican and Democrat have become dog whistles to gather on the far right and far left. The colors red and blue, and the words conservative and liberal have been co-opted into whistles.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: Around here, if you look closely, you’ll find a connection
“In that wonderful Memphis sort of way of zero degrees of separation from anybody and anything in the rest of the world, I’m related to Teddy Roosevelt.”
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August 2022
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Dan ConawayConaway: Give us a break
A series of first-world deprivations has Dan Conaway in a mood. But thankfully he has tonic and limes.
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Dan ConawayConaway: Weekend’s golf tournament has everything to do with us
This weekend, the top 125 players on the PGA tour are in Memphis for the the first step to winning professional golf’s biggest prize but, for us, it’s personal.
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Dan ConawayConaway: The winds blow hard Downtown
“Gene’s dreams survived, not just Hurricane Elvis but also the winds of the 2008 recession, slowed but resilient, and the winds of pandemic, slowed but recovering.”
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Dan Conaway Conaway: ‘I intend to live forever. So far, so good.’
That thought from comedian Steven Wright inspires a collection of wise and wise-guy sayings.
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September 2022
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Dan Conaway Conaway: The Tasteful List 2022
“This city is blessed by its food, the abundance of creativity, diversity and tradition mixed in the same bowls, seasoned with love, soul and imagination — and still made and served by amazing people with a smile through the most trying of times.”
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Dan Conaway Conaway: The Lucca Model — a proposal
“Let’s make Memphis an independent city-state.”
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Dan Conaway Conaway: Pauses in the flow, a city’s tragic losses
Eliza Fletcher was a measure of this city. This tiny, tiny town with such a huge, huge heart.
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Dan Conaway Conaway: At minimum, a wake-up call
At a minimum, minimum wages must go up, and employers have to start paying more attention to the welfare of those they employ.
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Dan Conaway Conaway: Davy Crockett used to track by following signs; now he’s lost
Davy Crockett is gone. The tavern is gone. The waterfront is gone. And the signs that told you they were there are gone as well.
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October 2022
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Dan Conaway Conaway: ‘Elvis — in the building’ (at Whitehaven High)
Parents, students, faculty and community members are very proud of Whitehaven High School. There’s spirit there. There’s hope there. There’s alumni support there. There’s a symbol there.
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Dan Conaway Conaway: A few things for my birthday
“There are some things I want. I’ve wanted them for a while and the hints just aren’t working. So, I’ve made a modest list — 10 things you can choose from.”
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Dan Conaway Conaway: A note from the Tennessee-Alabama game: Georgia matters
“If Herschel Walker is elected to the U.S. Senate, make no mistake, Georgia as a state, the Republicans as a party and we as a country will have made a new statement: character doesn’t matter.”
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Dan Conaway Conaway: You might want to sit down for this
Dan Conaway has found something that unites across political and religious boundaries. It soothes when it’s needed most, provides warmth when warmth is called for and cools and refreshes in an instant.
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November 2022
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Dan Conaway Conaway: ‘Opportunity doesn’t exist if you can’t get to it’
MyCityRides is open, exactly where it should be, on Summer between Highland and Tillman, on quite possibly the most Memphis of streets. There are things and vibes on Summer that aren’t anywhere else.
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Dan Conaway Conaway: She ran for a friend, she ran for a city
Eliza Fletcher’s kidnapping and murder in September galvanized a city, and Memphians responded by the thousands — both here and nationwide.
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Dan ConawayConaway: We have models; what will we be?
“These are the women who raised my generation — the boomers — and taught, supported and sustained us — and amazingly have received only history’s condescending pat on the head for the effort.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: To see the wonder, all you have to do is look
As half the country was in a drought — Lake Mead turning into Pond Mead and our own Mighty Mississippi becoming the Measly Mississippi — the ginkgoes didn’t turn yellow. Until they did.
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December 2022
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Dan ConawayConaway: Ghost of a river — Part One
“No river in America’s maritime history has seen greater tragedy. And no drama on the Mississippi has been as dramatic, no tragedy as tragic, as what occurred right here.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: 3Gs deal isn’t a Christmas gift; it’s a theft
“I’m a Memphian, and I’m being robbed in Germantown in broad daylight.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: Ghost of a river — Part Two
The island you see across from Greenbelt Park and Harbor Town and Shelby Forest is called the Loosahatchie Bar, and all of it — bigger than all of Mud Island and some of Downtown together — is in Shelby County.
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Dan ConawayConaway: Christmas time, together at table and memory
“Four generations of two families over five decades have spent Christmas Eve with us around this table.”
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Dan ConawayConaway: A messy desk, a mess of memories
This column was prompted by the sale of Oak Court on the courthouse steps, and by last week’s announcement of the pandas leaving Memphis. But this isn’t about loss. This is about redemption. This is about celebration.
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