Columnist
Dan Conaway is in a relationship with his city. A communication strategist, freelance writer, and author of "I'm a Memphian," he can be reached at dan@wakesomebodyup.com.
95 articles by Dan Conaway :
My doctors seem to have no idea who I am. I had back surgery in November and follow-up appointments since, but I’m still asked to fill out a complete online personal medical history, family medical history, and identity check including photos, front and back, of all requisite cards and documents in advance of my next appointment.
The fates of a Holiday Inn-turned-Hotel Indigo and the empty Sterick Building are a study in the contrasts that define the city.
There is no excusing the murderer who took Glenn Cofield’s life or Brandon Webber’s self-destruction. There is also no excuse in the richest nation on Earth for the poverty and despair our policies produce, and the pressure that puts on law enforcement and support systems.
Our grandchild, born June 10, is part of the flow of the Mississippi where my father's ashes are, and the stream in upstate New York where my brother Frank's ashes are. Just as every one of us is an individual, every one of us is part of something larger, connected in ways large and small, and always to place.
He was 13 years older, the blond guy in the living room reading books and blowing smoke rings, off to college when I was 5, married and off to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop when I was 12.
Richard Halliburton wrote a steamer trunk of bestsellers and syndicated articles, but to call him merely an author would be like calling Indiana Jones merely an anthropologist. And while Indy’s unbelievable fictional adventures are just that, Halliburton’s unbelievable adventures were real.
Saunders' tale is a roller coaster ride from rock bottom to dizzying height and back again, a journey that left an indelible mark on the world.
We’re about to spend $50 million to fix something that’s not really broken, and throw chump change or nothing at all at opportunities for true transformation.
The NBC series "Bluff City Law" is about fighting for civil rights in Memphis, and there’s a very real chance it will be made somewhere else.
We must find a way to take the warmth around our tables, the generosity in our hearts, and what I believe to be the genuine decency of our nature, and carry it to the chambers of those elected to lead us.
Whether or not the voucher program becomes law, it’s bad law, and a self-inflicted wound to our new governor. He used his honeymoon period to shove school vouchers down the throats of just two districts already strangled for cash.
If reelected, Trump will be 74 starting his second term and even his combover will be somewhere around 40. The two leading Democrats will turn 80 in their first term if elected, an age closer to terry-cloth robes and sunrooms than mantles of power and situation rooms.
It's a building that could become a beautiful part of what’s next, or remain the biggest ugly elephant in our biggest room.
I don’t want my kids taught your religion on my nickel anymore than you want them taught mine on yours. Neither of us has the right to send them to that private school with the other’s money.
When asked about Memphis, 55 percent nationally have a favorable opinion, up seven points since 2017. Among multicultural millennials, that favorability exceeds the national audience by 10 percentage points, up five since 2017.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said it's his job to look at an issue affected by county government, look at how many people it touches, look at the cost both societal and fiscal, and look at where he can be most effective.
For those of you who don’t understand the idea of tomato aspic, understand this: You’re living in the South and at some important point in life, you'll be in a place where it’s wiggling right in front of you. A place like the Calvary Waffle Shop during Lent, for instance.
The very first politically wired, insider Memphis land grab was a done deal when the Chickasaw Nation was pressured into ceding almost 7 million acres at about 4.5 cents apiece, around 99.5 percent below market value.
Vouchers would take money and support out of the public school system. Public education is a right, and if we give up on it, we abandon our responsibility to the future.
This city already pays less for light, gas and water than any other in Tennessee, and less than most cities in the country. If we really want to help the poor with their utilities, there are subsidies, sliding scales and credits.
John Simmons gets a tribute that recognizes that he, not his imaginative inventory, was the treasure in his Memphis shops.
Some cities just naturally make stories. Others just make noise. Orderly and predictable are safe, but funky and unique are a lot more fun. New Orleans and Memphis are what they are because of those latter traits.
Despicable behavior isn’t new, people at their worst doing what they do because they can. What’s new is the lack of national outrage, the shrugging of our national shoulders, a coast-to-coast “so what.”
Historian Jimmy Ogle has an encyclopedic knowledge of Memphis – and he generously shares it with anyone he thinks might want to know. As he prepares to move closer to family, he's leaving us with what he calls his "bicentennial gift": a farewell storytelling series.
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