“I look forward to the return of Lent ... To the return of the Word and waffles Downtown at 102 N. Second St.”

Even after all these years and all the meetings I’ve attended, all the projects I’ve worked on, it still amazes me how fast an opportunity to bring us together can turn to sewage.

State Sen. Brian Kelsey embodies the problem Memphis has with the Tennessee General Assembly. In many cases, he is the actual problem Memphis has with the Tennessee General Assembly.

“I used to think that everyone past a certain age — maybe 15 — should be required to wear a name tag, introduce themselves when they see you including maiden names and nicknames, and be arrested for stealth name calling if they sneak up on you.”

After a harrowing flight to Minnesota, a young adman learns three important lessons, one of which is you’re never very far from Memphis.

“Pete Bale called. Out of the blue. Probably a decade since we talked. It took about 10 seconds before we were laughing, since we remembered the sound of that, of each other.”

“We failed Eric Dale Martin, we lost some of ourselves on that sidewalk, and we must mourn the loss,” says Dan Conaway.

“My Tennessee sister Nashville is becoming a Disney World of cities, the reality of it is the fantasy, the place of it is the imitation.”

We’re good at wild ideas around here, and both last week’s and this week’s are worth exploring. Sometimes the best discoveries are right in front of you. Sometimes the very things you’re looking for are already yours.

Three years ago, John Vergos had a straight-up world-class idea. He thought Memphis was worthy of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

“It tastes like the year we got married. Like our first apartment. Our first house. It tastes like becoming parents. Like promotions. Like graduations. It tastes like celebration, and like eating half of it on the way home from the bakery with your fingers.”

“Whatever your faith, whether you believe this is a time of anticipation and arrival, or of reflection or celebration, or of renewal or recognition — or all of those — I believe it’s a time to look inside to places only you can visit, to look at the paths traveled and at those who’ve shared the journey then and now, and to know, truly know, you are not alone.”

From the Big River Crossing one can stand above the middle of the churn of this nation’s main artery like nowhere else, for a view of the city like none other.

“There is a vaccine for COVID. There is none for what’s wrong with us.”

The boys from rural Tennessee are doing what naughty boys in rural communities have always done. They’re metaphorically climbing up to the top of the Memphis Regional Megasite water tower to paint out what they don’t like.

Gathered again for Thanksgiving, this time with four generations, I’m again reminded of, well, of everything. Most of all, I’m reminded of loss and of renewal, and I’m still surprised at the wonder of it.

Halloween was a couple of weeks ago as was Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

‘What they’re proposing and passing this time will kill people. Now and in the future. Men, women, and children will needlessly die at the hands of the super majority of the Tennessee General Assembly.’

Nora and I started walking together when our youngest child, our son Gaines, started driving himself to school. That was 24 years ago. 

The hint of political pressure and/or lack of political will hangs over North Parkway at McLean like the smell of elephant and donkey dung on a hot summer day.

Every year, Americans are swallowing about 45 gallons of water per capita from either plastic or glass bottles. That means folks around here, people literally sitting on top of famed Memphis water, are getting soaked. 

The new manufacturing site is named Blue Oval City after the iconic Ford logo and it will be three times larger than their current flagship Ford Rouge Factory in Dearborn, Michigan.

When the truth is being denied, when we are increasingly threatened by that denial, we as a society, we as responsible human beings, must stand for truth against any who knowingly trade falsehood for power.

Nora and I are no longer capable of the chase. And the chase is constant enough that the father no longer coaches the older kids but has returned to the sidelines to help the mother wrangle the 2-year-old.

Memphis 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 in these, their most trying of times.