“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.”
That thought from comedian Steven Wright inspires a collection of wise and wise-guy sayings.
“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.”
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.
A series of first-world deprivations has Dan Conaway in a mood. But thankfully he has tonic and limes.
“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.”
“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.”
“Our county is a mess. I’m taking it personally and so should you.”
“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.”
Golf began for everyone in Memphis in Overton Park in 1906 with the opening of the Overton Park 9, the city’s first public course.
“We lead the world in gun violence and mass shootings, rampages with numerous people shot and killed. Our governor is a coward. All who take gun money in the face of this reality are cowards.”
Idiots once, survivors now, we’re lucky to be alive, and very lucky to have stories and laughter – and friendships – like that to share.
As you read this, I will have completed the first leg — the longest leg — of a circular journey to visit family and friends. ... There’s a lot of driving, and between the Cracker Barrels, the walks with dogs in rest stops, the Waze warnings of vehicles on the shoulder ahead, and the whodunits in audio mystery books, there’s a lot of reflection.
“A lot of work for a lot of creative people. A lot of assists from Ja.”
The Tennessee Supreme Court recently approved the Education Savings Account Act. You say education savings accounts, I say vouchers. You say tomato, I say tomato. Rotten tomato.
Tracy City is representative of the majority of people in the Tennessee General Assembly. Repressing progress, fighting change.
They are banning books. Again. But more of them this time around, and with even less reason. There is nothing is more intrinsically un-American than controlling what we can see, what we can learn.
“I had some takeout at the Half Shell on Mendenhall. I took out the corner of the restaurant with a Subaru. Completely. Spectacularly.”
A recent study by GoBankingRates found how many years $1 million would last during retirement in 50 of the most populated U.S. cities and, yep, we won this one.
“We were living proof that there is a middle, and real, day-to-day life is lived there more than anywhere else. Then and now.”
A reminder of those who took on the feds to hold back I-40 and won.
“Democrat or Republican, there is no justification, no possible excuse, for what the puppet governor and the Tennessee General Assembly jerking his strings are doing to the children of our state and to our future.”
George Cates made Overton Park a song again. George Cates found a lost masterpiece and restored it. His quiet servant leadership was art. His final canvas is an inspiration.
“This is about simple celebration, something we simply don’t do enough of because we spend far too much time looking for something grand and glorious to pop our cork.”
“Both approaches are the desperate acts of people who can’t counter an argument with salient facts or pertinent positions, people reduced to talking points, perhaps, screaming points.”