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.”

“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.”