Presenting the Tasteful List 2020 — my tenth annual alphabetical presentation of local favorites, from A/M breakfast to waffles.

Dan Conaway: "Memphis, in fact anywhere, is about connections. There is no more connected place to our beginnings than here."

Broken heart syndrome is defined by the Mayo Clinic as a temporary heart condition that’s often brought on by stressful situations and extreme emotions.

While thousands considered Steve a friend, it never felt like thousands when you visited with him. It was just you and Steve. He listened to you, you the homeless, you the wealthy, you the mover and shaker and you the one being moved and shaken.

There will be a vaccine for COVID-19. In the meantime, we will continue to suffer from chronic, fatal stupidity.

We, the South, may be finally admitting that the primary cause of the Civil War was slavery, and that the loss of that cause should be celebrated rather than honored.

Even if we can’t be there, we should join the rest of the world and watch. Even if you don’t like golf or don’t understand it, watch these guys play it like nobody else can.

As you wander the world and see a sign somewhere that says barbecue – by any spelling anywhere else – it’s best to just run. Barbecue in Memphis is quite simply the highest a pig can go. 

I was actually looking forward to holding gas pump handles with antiseptic wipes, considering hazmat suits in bathrooms, counting masks in Cracker Barrel, and Atkins breakfast bars in lieu of La Quinta’s breakfast bars.

Italians didn’t deny COVID-19 and science itself. They didn’t lie about the number of cases. They didn’t point fingers at each other, or promote false cures, or stigmatize and demonize care and caution.

A funky triangle bounded by Park, Lamar and Airways would be the first shopping center where things would start to change, where black and white Memphis would mix and mingle, where Memphis would start to look like Memphis.

But don't worry. Our grandchildren could not possibly do anything but improve on that.

I ran from the cops, people. I was driving drunk. The driveway I was parked in belonged to a prominent Memphian, then and now. Then and now, there’s every reason to believe if I’d been black in that driveway, I might never have left that driveway.

Stranded by COVID-19 and the loss of a wireless connection while watching weather stall the SpaceX rocket launch, it's hard to find order in this first-world life.

I would like to dedicate the prom White Station didn’t have in 1967 to our classmates — the students of T.W. Patterson High — and to their quiet courage and inner strength. 

Gov. Bill Lee called the day the House passed the school voucher law last year an “historic day.” If so, the bar for historic days is lower than a salamander’s belly.

The artist Dolph Smith named his Ripley home Tennarkippi, but it's also a place where the borders of three states merge to create a particular state of mind. 

We can’t even stand up and come together as one to fight something that’s killing us for two or three months without falling apart. After all, we need our nails done and a haircut.

The dogs are loving COVID-19. We’re here all the time. Here for every squirrel alert. Here to charge the door for every delivery. Here for walks, lap time, ball chasing, floor wrestling, dropping food on the floor. And dancing to “The Monkey Time.”

Even though it’s in my state, Knoxville doesn’t know any more about barbecue than a pig knows about Sunday. However, there were a couple of places that provided affordable consolation in greasy bags.

The oldest active cemetery and most storied ground in Shelby County provides perspective, now and always.

You keep me going. Even the reader who called a recent column “a load of horsehockey,” and all those who’ve been more direct.

When you’re on camera, your background and work area are visible. Don’t make them the star of the show. For instance, a home bar in the background or a TV screen on a freeze frame of "Game Of Thrones" reruns.

A collection of old white men may sound like a Cabinet meeting in Washington or a Senate vote, but it was just another Tuesday and the regular meeting of my “and I’ll tell you another damn thing” lunch group.

Tennesseans don’t trust Tennessee to take care of them any more than they trust Washington to take care of them. The same people are in charge in both places.