Nelson: A WGC event is ‘like having the NBA all-star game in Memphis every year’
The roughly 75 golfers who qualify will play all four days. If there's a golfer you want to see on Saturday or Sunday, you can count on him being there.
Michael Nelson
Columnist
46 recent articles by Michael Nelson:
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July 2019
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Nelson: What 'Hamilton' gets that Nike doesn't
Mild inaccuracies mark the play. To which I say, so what?
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Nelson: Biden is in trouble for working with James Eastland. Who was Eastland anyway?
Joe Biden recently suggested maintaining civil relations with even the most difficult people is important to accomplish anything in Washington. The problem? He chose as an example ardent segregationist James O. Eastland, who represented Mississippi in the Senate from 1942 to 1978.
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June 2019
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Nelson: Yeah, no, so ... here’s a possibly annoying column about the English language
Here's a collection of 13 terrific innovations in our language, plus a longer list of major annoyances in contemporary use.
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Nelson: Sam Phillips was a small-town boy with big-city ambition
It’s called the music business for a reason, and from the beginning, Sam Phillips’ never-ceasing struggle was to make records he loved while keeping his shoestring operation financially solvent.
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Nelson: What’s right at MEM (with a modest proposal for FedEx)
We’ve gone from being the nation’s most-expensive airport for travelers to its 28th most expensive. And flights cost less than $10 more from Memphis than at the 20 next-cheapest airports, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
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Nelson: Don't sell Memphians short when it comes to cross-racial voting
Our history of cross-racial voting calls into question whether Memphis might not be ripe for a redistricting of city council and county commission districts that intentionally makes them racially diverse instead of solidly black or solidly white.
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May 2019
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Nelson: When the 'silent majority' was black
In 2019, Black Lives Matter means efforts to “end broken windows policing” and “limit use of force” by officers, among other items on the movement’s “Campaign Zero” agenda. In 1973, Black Lives Matter meant something different.
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Nelson: 'Charged' author aims at Shelby County DA, and misses
In her book, legal writer Emily Bazelon tells the story about District Attorney Amy Weirich and her prosecution of Noura Jackson, whose mother was killed in their East Memphis home. Jackson was tried and convicted of second-degree murder; in 2017, her conviction was overturned.
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Nelson: Why Sinatra came to Memphis
Frank Sinatra spent most of his life not liking us much. The South during the early and middle years of Sinatra’s career as the preeminent vocalist of his era — the 1940s through the 1960s — was a hotbed of racial bigotry, one of the things he hated most.
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Nelson: A tale of two Gores
Al Gore somehow managed to be dealt a straight flush — a booming economy, a world at peace, and a popular administration in which he served as vice president for eight years — and play it into a losing hand.
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Nelson: When it comes to voting legislation, I'm about to make you mad
Tennessee should enfranchise ex-cons and regulate voter registration drives.
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April 2019
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Nelson: Former Channel 5 reporter Basil Hero offers lessons from the moon missions
Aware that the clock was ticking toward the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing this July, Basil Hero decided in 2017 to turn his lifelong fascination with space travel into a book.
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Nelson: How to fight recidivism with great books
The parole board was blown away when a woman who had spent 25 years behind bars, and who was a member of the great books group at West Tennessee State Penitentiary, quoted Herodotus in answer to a question about how she now defined success.
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Nelson: For Democrats in the Mid-South, the presidential election starts now
Democratic presidential contenders will be all over this region in the months leading up to the Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi primaries. None of them has a prayer of winning electoral votes, but all three states will be sending delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.
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Nelson: A battle near Memphis 157 years ago changed the face of war
The horrors of the battle fought at Shiloh April 6-7, 1862, made it clear that the weaponry of war had far outstripped the Napoleonic-era tactics taught at West Point.
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March 2019
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Nelson: Remembering MLK50 on the Eve of MLK51
A bland marker erected near the midpoint of an almost century-long celebration of Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis now has a new companion marker. It describes the grotesque nature of Forrest's "business enterprise."
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Nelson: Want to win, Democrats? Then reclaim Bill Clinton
The combination of global peace, domestic prosperity and political moderation kept Clinton’s second-term job approval rating in the 60 percent-plus range even as his personal approval rating went down. Voters were right on both counts.
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Nelson: There's still time for Tennessee to hit pause on medical marijuana
Because the legalization movement has made marijuana sound healthy, more people are using it. Daily intake nearly tripled from about 3 million users in 2005 to more than 8 million in 2017.
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Nelson: Steve Cohen's push for impeachment is doomed
Trump is going to be on the ballot in 2020. By the time an impeachment process got under way, voters would already be casting ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire. Let the American people take care of removing Trump if that’s what they want.
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February 2019
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Nelson: For Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, it all started in Memphis
Paul Manafort and Roger Stone were young, politically ambitious, and determined to advance their careers by coming to Memphis for the Young Republican National Convention in 1977.
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Nelson: Ernest Withers – flawed but no less a hero
Ernest Withers, the famous Memphis photographer, was also Ernest Withers the informant, a man whose life illustrates Martin Luther King's description of man's dual nature.
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Nelson: Why Mississippi needs a new state flag
E Pluribus unum is our nation’s traditional motto. Conservatives are drawn to the unum – the unity – in that motto. Liberals often prefer the pluribus – the diversity. Wouldn’t it be great if all our flags allowed us to put aside the pluribus among us and experience the unum?
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Nelson: Here’s hoping the Memphis Express make it
If history is any guide, the new Memphis Express professional football franchise will do fine. The big question concerns the league, the new eight-team Alliance of American Football.
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January 2019
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Nelson: 1978 Democratic midterm convention could tell us something about 2020
What effect would a serious intraparty challenge to President Donald Trump’s re-nomination have on his chances of being elected for a second term? -
Nelson: Memphis author – me! – pens book about first two years of Trump
Over the past two centuries, presidents almost always have become more effective and less influential during their first two years in office. President Donald Trump has defied these patterns.
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Nelson: It’s time to bet on MATA
Legalizing sports betting could ultimately mean more buses, more drivers, more frequent service, more routes and more shelters for waiting passengers in Memphis and Shelby County.
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Nelson: Law, politics – and girls’ basketball – in Tennessee
“In the entire history of girls’ high school basketball in Tennessee, no one had ever seen a uterus lying on a basketball court.” -
Nelson: Mid-South politics – here’s what’s coming in 2019, part 2
Michael Nelson offers his take on sports betting in Tennessee; the Mississippi governor's race; and why Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn face some interesting times in Washington.
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December 2018
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Nelson: Mid-South politics – here’s what’s coming in 2019, part 1
Whether in Memphis, Mississippi, Tennessee or Washington, politics in 2019 promises to be more interesting than usual in an odd-numbered year. -
Nelson: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and a movie that’s not about Bill Clinton – except it is
Go figure: a Christmas week movie called “Vice.” -
Nelson: Some Civil War monuments need to go, others ought to stay, and still others should be built
There are Confederate monuments, and there are Confederate monuments. -
Nelson: The Mid-South is getting redder; the rest of the South is not
Now that November is behind us, where does the Mid-South stand politically? -
Nelson: How Tennessee got it right during the 'in-between time' – and the City Council should get it right in our time
Keel Hunt is a Nashville guy, which is why his fascinating new book about Tennessee politics, "Crossing the Aisle: How Bipartisanship Brought Tennessee to the 21st Century and Could Save America," is a lot more Nashville than Memphis.
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November 2018
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Nelson: Democracy = rule by the people; gerontocracy = rule by the old people
I’m 69, so maybe the P.C. crowd will give me a pass when I ask: What’s with all the geezers dominating the world of politics and government? -
Nelson: Overton Park and how the good guys finally won
With a new master plan for Overton Park in the works – the first in 30 years – what better time than now for Brooks Lamb’s new University of Tennessee Press book “Overton Park: A People’s History” to appear in Memphis bookstores? -
Nelson: Politically, Steve Cohen’s days are numbered
Should Congressman Steve Cohen, re-elected Nov. 6 with an even higher than usual 80 percent of the vote, be worried about holding on to office into the 2020s (and his own 70s)? -
Nelson: Election night overload? Here are some things you may have missed
So much to talk about after the Mid-South midterm elections. Let me focus on some non-obvious things that happened in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Memphis last night – in that order. -
Nelson: Is Big Shelby back?
Memphians of a certain vintage may recall a time when the rest of Tennessee disparaged us as Big Shelby. It was a backhanded way of expressing East and Middle Tennessee’s resentment of – and, truth be told, our own vaulting pride in – the power wielded by Memphis and Shelby County in the state’s politics and government.
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October 2018
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When it comes to casinos, Arkansas politics still gets wacky – with Memphis and Tunica in the crosshairs
Early voting started in Arkansas on Monday. Memphis and Tunica aren’t on the ballot, but they may as well be. -
Seeds of poisonous court fights planted 50 years ago when Memphian Abe Fortas’ nomination went down
In almost any previous era of our history, it would have been possible to begin a column two weeks after a controversial Supreme Court nominee was confirmed by writing, “Now that the dust has settled …” -
Take the pledge to stop nagging us, WKNO
When my wife was a girl, she and her seven brothers and sisters liked to trick their sweet, unworldly grandmother into posing for the camera with her middle finger held high. They told her it meant, “I love you but I don’t like what you’re saying.” -
25 years ago we thought the NFL screwed us; turns out it did us a favor
In an alternate universe the Memphis Hound Dogs are playing the NFL’s Thursday game tonight. In the real world it’s the eve of the Memphis Grizzlies’ first NBA preseason home game against the Atlanta Hawks.
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September 2018
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Mississippi lays claim as the nation’s capital of gambling
Gambling 2.0, in the form of legal sports betting, and soon Gambling 3.0 – a state lottery – have come to Mississippi, which means they’ve come to neighboring Memphis and Shelby County as well. Mississippi will soon be the only state in the country with sports betting and a lottery and both commercial and Indian casinos. -
Sen. Bredesen? Maybe. But Tennessee is still a bright red state
By some accounts, Democrat Phil Bredesen narrowly leads Republican Marsha Blackburn in what may be the nation’s most important contest in determining which party will control the United States Senate for the next two years. Democrats in Tennessee are right to rejoice at the prospect that the popular former governor has at least an even chance to represent the state in Washington come January. -
Author appearing Monday urges free speech – even on college campuses
“Liberal science” is one of those terms that sort of makes sense after somebody takes 10 minutes to explain it but seems baffling on first hearing. Is it an oxymoron – science isn’t supposed to be ideological, right? Or is it, as conservatives might fear, science from the left end of the political spectrum?
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