Month: October 2000

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Tigers Fall in Overtime to Houston

A game which had been sleep-inducing for more than three quarters, erupted into a barn burner as Houston beat Memphis 33-30 in three overtimes. It was the first overtime football game in University of Memphis history and was the longest game ever played between two Conference USA teams.

Memphis (4-4; 2-3 in conference play) either led or were tied throughout regulation, saw quarterback Jason McKinley hit tight end Stephen Cucci with a five-yard touchdown with 3:46 to go in the fourth quarter. That tied the game at 17-17. Ryan White barely missed a 48-yard touchdown at the end of regulation.

In the first overtime, White kicked a 47-yard field goal but Houston’s Mike Clark countered with a 35-yard field goal. In the second overtime McKinley hit Tommie Baldwin on a 3-yard scoring strike. The point after touchdown was blocked and returned for an apparent score by Idrees Bashir. But the officials called Memphis for “illegal batting,” saying that a Tiger player had batted the ball downfield. Houston got to kick again and hit this one, making the score 27-20. When Memphis got the ball back, Scott Scherer passed for a four-yard touchdown to Billy Kendall, sending the game to a third overtime.

On the first play of the third overtime, Scherer was sacked and offensive tackle DeCorye Hampton was called for a 15-yard personal foul penalty. Rip Scherer said after the game that Hampton punched a player. Ryan White ultimately kicked a 43-yard field goal, making the score 30-27 Memphis.

But McKinley would be the hero on this night. He hit Brian Robinson for a 18 yard touchdown over free safety Idrees Bashir and Houston won the game 33-30.

In the locker room, after the game, reporters heard shouting and objects banging, but when the doors opened they only saw a group of quiet, crest fallen football players.

The Tigers had no one to blame but themselves, with 15 penalties for 132 yards. The number of penalties tied a school record. The amount of penalty yardage was the fourth-highest in school history.

“You reap what you sow in life and you reap what you sow as a football team,” said Rip Scherer after the game. “We shot ourselves in the foot with the stupid personal foul penalty in our third overtime possession. That was very stupid. We lost our poise and this is what happens when you lose your poise.”

It was another ineffective game for the Memphis offense. All three scores in regulation came after the defense forced turnovers deep in Houston territory. Even with the extra periods, Memphis could only manage 202 yards on 72 offensive plays. Houston held the Tigers to 73 yards on the ground.

Memphis never threatened in the first quarter, accumulating only 56 yards and two first downs. The Tigers never got beyond the 50-yard line in the period. Houston’s offense could not do much better. Mike Clark attempted a 45-yard field goal, but it was blocked by Memphis cornerback Michael Stone.

Stone set up the game’s first score moments later, picking off a McKinley pass at the Houston 33 and returning it to the 6-yard line. Two plays later Sugar Sanders sprinted around left end from the two for the game’s first touchdown. White’s extra point made it 7-0 with 11:36 to go in the first half.

Houston responded with a 13-play, 80-yard drive with McKinley hitting Tommy Baldwin on a seven-yard pass for the tying touchdown at 7:17.

Special teams again proved a problem for Memphis. The Cougars partially blocked two Ben Graves punts in the first half. But Houston repaid the generosity with a bad snap which was downed at the 12 -yard line. Quarterback Scott Scherer was sacked for a loss of 8 on third down, but Ryan White hit a 38-yard field goal to send the Tigers to the locker room with a 10-7 lead.

Memphis could only muster five first downs in the first half. The Cougars offense only did marginally better. McKinley completed 16 of 24 for 116 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Houston had -7 yards rushing.

Houston tied the game at 10 all with a Clark field goal from 22 yards out late in the third quarter. Memphis nose guard Marcus Bell recovered a fumble at the Houston 25 yard line and Scherer hit Ryan Johnson with a 25 yard touchdown, making the score 17-10.

Memphis now has a week off before playing Tennessee on November 4th.

GAME NOTES:

Joey Gerda was replaced in the starting lineup by Jason Austin at the left guard spot that has been troublesome all year. Last year’s starter, David Sherrod, left the team after the 1999 season. His replacement, Josh Eargle suffered an ACL injury in the second game of the season. Trey Erye and Joey Gerda have started there. Austin becomes the fourth player to start at left guard.

Jared Pigue returned as deep snapper and for the first time in four tries Ryan White successfully completed a field goal. The kick came on the last play of the first half and gave Memphis a 10-7 halftime lead. The Tigers had suffered three consecutive blocked field goals covering the past two games. Pigue injured his knee at Army. It was his first action since then.

freeland@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Ford On the Mend/Internet Hoaxes

Former U.S. Representative Harold Ford Sr., who was hospitalized for two days at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville after suffering from chest pains, was released from the hospital Thursday, and arrived in home-town Memphis in late afternoon to chow down at an East Memphis barbecue rally for the Democratic ticket.

Professing to be “fine” (though not quite ready to hit the stump at the rally for one of his patented fire-breathing speeches), Ford displayed scars on his left leg — the result, he said, of a freak accident involving his car. “I don’t have heart disease,” the former congressman said, maintaining that his chest pains were the result of “blood thinner” prescribed as a prophylactic against the possibility of clots stemming from the accident.

Ford, now a consultant with a large clientele in the health-care industry, will repair to a house he owns in Florida for some R and R this weekend.

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Bush Uber Alles?

One of the more extravagant claims of this or any other election season was made at the Thursday night rally by State Representative Joe Towns of Whitehaven, one of the serial speakers, who at one point in exhorting the parking lot crowd at Eastgate, informed them that the Bush family, a few generations back, had been instrumental in supporting Adolf Hitler. ! ! !

Towns did not elaborate, but other Democrats later on said they had seen some such report “on the Internet.”

Haven for Hoaxes

More and more, the Internet is cited as the authority for this or that hoax that makes the rounds. The 2000 political season has been rife with them.

Virtually anybody who both owns a computer and keeps up with party politics received a “pass-it-on” email recently from a friend who had received it beforehand from an equally gullible person, to the effect that there was a plot in Republican ranks to dump vice-presidential pick Dick Cheney and replace him with either John McCain or General Colin Powell.

The purpose of the “pass-in-on” injunction was to foil the plot by giving it maximum publicity . There never was any such undertaking, of course, and Cheney’s good showing in his debate with Democrat Joe Lieberman put that one to rest in any case.

Another hoax, this one directed at Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, was passed by Republican cadres, who gave credence to the canard that Gore, in a recent speech, had inadvertently cited the scripture John 16:3 rather than the better known John 3:16. John 16:3 has Jesus saying “And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.” A real boo-boo, huh?

It never happened. Another Internet hoax, and when Cherrie Holden, a West Tennessee communications coordinator for Bush-Cheney, realized she’d been had, she had the integrity to circulate another email on her network explaining the hoax and apologizing both to her GOP readers and to Gore.

The odds are much better than good that the “Bush-Hitler Connection” is yet another Internet hoax.

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The Package?

Something of a flap developed over the last couple of days between right-wing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the ladies of daytime TV’s The View.

Seems they found the current issue of Rolling Stone— or at least its cover, which features a frontal view of a casually clad, windblown Al Gore— something of a rouser. “The package,” Barbara Walters, Meredith Viera, Star Jones et al. kept bragging about.

Limbaugh, doing an upright Bill Bennett number, chided them for “hypocrisy.”

To see the cover shot and get a sense of the controversy, go to www.Rollingstone.com or to www.tennpolitics.com.

(You can write Jackson Baker at baker@memphisflyer.com)

Categories
News News Feature

Mongo Loses Round Two

On Wednesday, October 17th, Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges lost Round Two in his battle to defend The Castle, his controversial nightclub. The Memphis Alcohol Commission indefinitely revoked Hodges’ beer license for the Midtown club, located in Ashlar Hall at 1397 Central Avenue.

The license revocation will have not have an immediate effect on the nightclub as it is already temporarily enjoined from having any alcohol on the premises. The injunction, imposed last week by Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft, will be in effect until November 20th, when a full Criminal Court hearing on public nuisance charges will occur.

The Castle has been the focus of negative attention due to allegations of underage drinking, public nudity, and patrons disrupting the neighborhood. A smattering of the most out-spoken of The Castle’s opponents were on hand for the Alcohol Commission hearing, as was the club’s colorful front man, Prince Mongo.

Outfitted in his now standard uniform of a long gray wig, bug-eye sunglasses, and a military-style frock coat that hangs just over his bare knees and feet, Mongo sat quietly in the city council chambers, where the hearing was held, until his case was called. The outspoken restaurateur, who claims to hail from the planet Zambodia, stood behind his attorneys, Leslie Ballin and Mike Pleasants, and did not respond for several minutes after the board first addressed him, eventually blaming his delayed response on having to “contact my spiritual beings.”

When asked, Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges insisted for the record that his name was simply ”Prince Mongo” and denied that he operated a dance club, preferring to describe his guests movements as “exercising.” (The Castle does not possess the requisite dance permit.)

“We do not allow anyone to dance,” said Mongo, who claimed that a sign near the DJ Booth says, “Atonement Only — No Dancing.” “They can do exercises, but we do not call it dancing.”

Prince Mongo has long claimed that the various bars and clubs he has operated have been religious centers of atonement, rather than night spots.

“When they [patrons] cleanse their bodies and souls to rid themselves of demons they do exercises to release the demons,” said Mongo. “Sometimes we have music, sometimes we don’t.”

At that point, Prince Mongo himself began to dance an improvised jig in front of the Alcohol Board. After several more questions from the board about the nature of Mongo’s religious activities, the Prince continued to dance and began barking and howling, loud enough for the staccato yelps to echo off the chamber walls.

An unidentified board member interrupted Mongo’s outburst to ask, “Are we to understand that what is recognized as a dance floor downstairs is actually a tabernacle?”

To which Mongo simply responded, “Amen.”

Moments later Prince Mongo excused himself from the hearing and left the room, dancing down the aisles, inviting gallery members to his “church,” and greeting various spectators with, “Hi, Spirit.”

After Prince Mongo’s departure, the board heard testimony from a young man who claims his girlfriend passed out and stopped breathing after ingesting a drink that had been spiked with GHB (gammahydroxybutyrate), which is often used as a date rape drug.

The young man testified that several times he and his friends asked security guards at The Castle to call an ambulance and that the guards refused to do so for 30 minutes, with one guard eventually complying.

After hearing this testimony, the board decided that it had enough information to render a decision and all but one member voted to revoke The Castle’s beer license.

Ballin and Pleasants say that they will appeal the decision to the Circuit Court. However, there is no need to do so immediately because Judge Craft’s injunction prohibits Mongo from having any alcohol on the premises until after the nuisance hearing.

In the meantime, neighbors of The Castle say that they enjoyed last weekend, the first quiet weekend they say they’ve had in two years, and plan to enjoy the solitude for the rest of the month.

(You can write Rebekah Gleaves at gleaves@memphisflyer.com)

Categories
News News Feature

Council Debates Public Access

Discussion became heated Tuesday, October 17th, when the Memphis City Council discussed a plan in the Personnel, Intergovernmental & Annexation Committee that would limit public and media access to the council members and their documents.

The new policy requires anyone requesting information from the council to pay a minimum $10 per-hour research fee and $1.50 per-page for any copies made, to be paid before the party receives the information. The policy also states that requests for information must be in writing and state a “legitimate interest” in the information. Further, “the council chairperson or vice-chairman must approve all requests.” Upon approval, the requesting party must show proper identification and prove that he is a citizen of Tennessee.

The policy also states that, “If the request is not in person, the requester may secure the above form and have it notarized.” In the procedure list that is included with the proposed ordinance, step nine allows that council staff, “blocks confidential information out of the records.”

Several council members expressed their opposition to the proposed ordinance.

“I think this proposed set of rules could be interpreted, and rightfully so, as an impediment to those who are trying to do fair information gathering, trying to do their jobs,” said Council Member Tom Marshall.

This proposal comes after City Council Attorney Allan Wade sent a letter to Commercial Appeal reporter Blake Fontenay reprimanding the reporter for opening and reading council members’ mail. Wade’s letter also informed Fontenay that his future access to the council offices would be greatly limited.

In a “Viewpoint” article in the Sunday Commercial Appeal, Managing Editor Henry Stokes stated that the newspaper stood behind its reporter, that Fontenay had been set up, and that Wade’s letter and the proposed ordinance were attempts to punish the Commercial Appeal for negative reporting on the council and on Wade in the past.

Besides being the attorney for the city council, Wade is representing Cherokee Children and Family Services, a daycare services broker. The Commercial Appeal has written numerous times about the agency and its troubles. The daily has also written extensively about a telephone that council chairwoman Barbara Swearengen Holt had installed in the council restroom.

In the meeting, council members quickly became divided over the ordinance with Holt speaking passionately about why such a policy was necessary.

“Just because a reporter got angry and wants to teach me a lesson, we shouldn’t go back to the way it was,” said Holt. “The pen, the mighty newspaper, ought not to be able to run our office.”

Her comments quickly met with opposition from council members John Vergos, Brent Taylor, and Pat Vander Schaaf, who complained about the principle behind the new policy, as well as the policy itself.

“I think this is unnecessary,” said Taylor. “We’ve got $13 million in cost overruns on the convention center, a hotel/motel tax increase, and we’re here talking about how we’re going to give information to reporters.”

Vergos further argued that the proposed ordinance, which was copied from the policy adopted by Memphis Light, Gas & Water in 1993, is not applicable to the council.

“I don’t know what MLG&W’s standard is, but that board is not elected, and we are,” said Vergos. “The people I have to answer to are the ones in my district. I will tell my staff that if Blake Fontenay doesn’t have $10 for the information, I don’t care. There is a lot that goes on outside of these meetings that reporters should have access to.”

Vander Schaaf agreed, saying, “We work for the public and the public has a right to the same materials we are given.”

The emboldened Holt did not back down though, and insisted that because of The Commercial Appeal’s actions, the issue had become personal.

“This came about because they [The Commercial Appeal] were trying to teach us a lesson,” said Holt. “They wanted to show us that the pen is mightier than the sword.” Holt then referred to the stories written by the daily on the telephone, which cost $800 to install.

“It’s an effort to try to make me look bad,” said Holt. “Yes, it is personal because Blake decided he was going to teach me a lesson. They have made it personal. Besides, they already have the open records law.Ó”

Council Member TaJuan Stout Mitchell quickly agreed with Holt, saying that some policy should be adopted to control public and media access to the council and to council information. However, Mitchell did not think the entire issue should be pinned on Blake Fontenay.

“I don’t want this to be about Blake,” said Mitchell. “I don’t think that’s fair. Today it may be Blake, tomorrow it may be Lake. It should be about what’s good for the business of the city.”

The council ended discussion on the proposal by postponing a vote until November 7th.

Prior to the end of the meeting, Vander Schaaf turned to Holt and said, “Maybe you ought to consider removing that phone from the bathroom. I, for one, if it rang, I’d be afraid to pick it up.”

(You can write Rebekah Gleaves at gleaves@memphisflyer.com)

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

This Vote’s For You

SAINT LOUIS — It would have been no surprise for Bill Clinton to have poked out from behind the curtains last night at the final presidential debate. Clearly, American voters have earned a toast. And who better to give one than the man who has shown that he knows an easy conquest when he sees it.

I regret to report that the Green Party is winning the race for the nation’s next Commander in Chief — and I’m not talking about Ralph.

At least the journalists, the ones who are entrusted to deliver objective observations of what’s really behind those velvety blue Oz-like debate curtains, have been bought and sold all for the sake of some freebies.

Herded into the debate media tent were thousands of journalists from across the globe talking in their native tongue: garbled mouth fulls of free food and liquor. The open-all-evening bar offering Budweiser products (of course) was only half as popular a way to pass the hours before show time as having a flirty chat with the Bud Girls. Like perky perfume women at the mall, they gave out frosted Election 2000 collector’s mugs.

Most reporters declined the glasses because they were carrying too much already. In three free tote bags donated with various corporate labels, they lugged around complimentary t-shirts and baseball caps in between games of Budweiser foosball, air hockey, and ping pong. I suppose most wanted to savor their Southwestern Bell advertising packet for quieter times back at their hotels, especially those taking off on the Bush plane Wednesday morning when the candidate continues mangling his verbiage in the Northeast. A ticket to ride with W. costs news agencies $1,000 or more a day. That, of course, makes the cost of filing this story – which I had to do from Washington University’s Athletic Complex cum reporter bullpen – mere pocket change at $100 per phone line.

Reporters were confined to the pen all night. The auditorium was a coveted place, a mythical up-close-and-personal land that old curmudgeon journalists remember from elections decades ago. So, in an enormous gymnasium, reporters watched Gore and Bush duke it out on television. If Citibank had the foresight similar to their competitors, they could have banked a killing with a commercial — the ending going something like, “A ticket to one of the presidential debates . . . priceless.”

Unless you were an American with a heavy checkbook who gave heartily to the Bush or Gore campaign, getting a seat in the auditorium face-to-face with them remained a silly fantasy of true Democracy. Lucky students at Washington University won raffle tickets to the show but were ultimately told to stay back and keep quiet.

PBS journalist Jim Lehrer, who hosted all three debates by himself, announced before the debate began that a diverse group of undecided voters would get the opportunity to ask the Bush and Gore a variety of questions. However, he failed to mention that the people were hand-picked by the organization that runs the debates, the Commission for Presidential Debates, a filtering agency that complies with the desires of only the Bush and Gore camps without consulting third-party candidates Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan. Given the questions Tuesday afternoon, Lehrer chose which ones the candidates would address — but not before briefing Gore and Bush’s advisors about subjects of the questions first! So much for quick thinking and spontaneity.

There has been much grumbling from third party candidates that the commission has excluded them. Nader announced to a paltry audience of no more than 40 supporters that he has filed suit against the University of Michigan, the candidates themselves, and the Commission for Presidential Debates for blocking his entrance into the first debate.

“I had a ticket,” he explained to the mostly college-age crowd. “Our car was pulled over and a man who called himself a security officer told me that he had been instructed by the commission to order me to leave whether I had a ticket or not.”

Nader said that his banishment from the University of Michigan campus that night meant he had to cancel a prearranged post-debate commentary with Fox News.

Nader said he didn’t have a ticket to Tuesday night’s debate. When asked if would consider attempting to force his way onto Washington University’s heavily-policed campus and onto the debate, he replied, “No, I prefer to be the plaintiff in all matters, never the defendant.”

As I was writing notes in my complimentary Budweiser note pad, I started to give Nader’s strong accusations more credit. But, hanging my head low in disappointment, I, like most other journalists, filed this story and made a bee-line toward the fully Bud-stocked bar.

(You can write Ashley Fantz at freeland@memphisflyer.com)

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

No KO for Gore, But a Win

Rules for debate-watching: It is helpful to watch televised presidential debates in the company of political partisans– and most helpful to be able to divide your watching time between the partisans of one candidate and the partisans of the other.

It is better yet if you can avail yourself of some studiously neutral testimony on the side. And, of course, you have to trust, and be comfortable with, your own instincts.

On Tuesday night, when Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush met for the third time, all these conditions were Present and Accounted For.

I began my debate-watching Tuesday night at the roomy Republican headquarters in Park Place Mall. It was a smaller crowd than had gathered there last Wednesday but one confident in the knowledge that their man Bush, ahead again in all the polls, probably needed only to hold his own with Gore in order to lead in the stretch– which will focus on issues and reward Get-Out-the-Vote efforts.

Consequently the crowd was both loose and edgy, aware of the consensus that Bush had won the first debate– one in which Gore looked the bully, huffing and puffing and demanding extra time– on style points and the second one, a variant on the Empty Chair debate in which a narcotized and chastened Gore seemed not even to be there, on both style and substance points.

The first time both men had stood behind lecterns, the second time they sat, somewhat distanced from each other, behind an angled desk which greatly benefitted a glib and comfortable Bush, who resembled nobody so much as Johnny Carson. (This was first pointed out to me by Kenneth Neill, the resident Mahatma of my workplace.)

This third matchup was the “town meeting” sort which featured an audience whose members would ask the questions. It was a format which Gore had worked at more often than Bush, and when both men emerged with dark suits and red ties the way they had for the first debate, it was apparent that no punches were going to be pulled.

Stay with that metaphor: the boxing one. Early on, Gore was swinging with what-the-hell vigor, a little wild. He began by staying too long with his commiserations on the death, in a plane crash the previous evening, of Missouri Governor Mel Carnavan and was stopped by moderator Jim Lehrer before he was fully launched into his first answer.

A couple of times thereafter, Lehrer stopped a would-be rebuttal by Gore cold, reminding him firmly who was in charge.

As this sort of thing kept happening to Gore, the GOP crowd was a mix of titters, belly laughs, and heady hollers. Things were going good. But this Gore, unlike those of the previous two weeks, seemed to know what he was up to and was neither mindlessly arrogant like Gore Number One nor an unoffending Prozac case like Gore Number Two.

At one point, David Kustoff, the state Bush-Cheney director who had been slam-dunk in his own debate the previous night in Germantown with Democratic counterpart Roy Herron, turned to me and asked how I thought it was going. “Gore’s in his Andrew Golota mode,” I said, cautioning Kustoff against over-confidence. Golota, of course, is the hard-hitting Polish prizefighter who has been penalized by referees (for low-blows and brawling and what-not) in virtually every one of his fights, but he has managed to win most of them, usually by knockouts, and even those few who have bested him were somewhat the worse for wear.

A little later, I told Kustoff and Shelby County GOP chairman Alan Crone (like Kustoff a solid analyst in his own right) that Bush looked a little wobbly on his feet. He was still scoring referee’s points Ñ a fact confirmed by the visiting Ken MacDonald of the BBC, whom I was squiring about for the evening– but it seemed to me that Bush’s bantom-cock persona might wear down in an hour and a half.

Or as I put it to Crone and Kustoff, “That easiness of his is hard to maintain when you’re on your feet that long.”

Gore meanwhile kept bearing in, for all of Lehrer’s cautions and Bush’s effective jabs, invoking over and over the litany of “My Plan” and challenging Bush’s own blueprints. “If this were a spending contest, I’d come in second,” the Republican would reply, or “A lot of people are sick and tired of the bitterness of Washington,” or accusing the vice president’s targeted tax cuts of favoring “the Right People” rather than being universal like his own.

Over at Democratic headquarters at Eastgate for the second half of the debate (in an office space which had been the GOP headaquarters only two months earlier!), a rapt crowd– wholly unlike the distracted bunch of Dems that had seen the second debate last week at a bistro– watched as Gore-s strength began to tell.

On several key exchanges– concerning environmental concerns, campaign-finance reform, Hollywood excesses (ironically), and affirmative action (especially)– Gore summoned strong, effective arguments even as a fading Bush kept managing nice soundbites. (The Texas governor’s “Every day is Earth Day if you own the land” was better said than Gore’s “Farmers were the first evangelists.”)

But a visibly weaker Bush would once in a while seem Queegllike (“You heard what I was for” he kept saying defiantly, eyes darting, when Gore challenged him on the Republican’s use of the quota-dodging term “affirmative access.”) You could almost heart the marbles roll. I could certainly hear my Briton friend, Ken MacDonald, say to Bush’s image, “You’re no Jack Kennedy!” (One judge’s card was going through changes!)

Bush would rally, however, and gave a sober and surprisingly moving denial to a questioner’s suggestion that he enjoyed putting so many prisoners to death in Texas.

At the end, the lines of argument were as clear as they had been in the first debate. Gore– like every Democratic candidate before him– attempted an astrophe to governmental activism. He largely succeeded and had at least three passionate and eloquent speeches to the camera in closeup. Bush’s mission, like those of his Republican predecessors, was to disparage bureaucracy and extol the actions of the private sector. He, too, had some good lines late– the kind that would play well in the next day’s soundbites– but his energy seemed clearly down. Too often, he was having to play rope-a-dope.

In the end, there were two reliable indicators of how it came out. The Democrats were hooting and hollering in satisfaction, and Ken MacDonald, adopting the boxing metaphor in full, observed, “It was interesting how Gore finished the fight on his feet while Bush remained in his corner.” (Which was no more than saying that the aggressive Gore continued to stalk the camera while Bush hung close to his stool, but the observation captured an observable nuance.)

Gore, the erstwhile Master Debater, had metamorphosized into the Underdog for this last round, and he’ll get the media bounce for the next week or so. Bush may have lost on points, but not so badly as to give Gore back the advantage which the Democrat enjoyed after his successful policy-wonking, wife-smooching convention in Los Angeles.

”I promise you I’ll fight for you,” Gore had said then. He repeated it Tuesday night in St. Louis. He proved he can fight, and it’s axiomatic that he’ll have to. This election is still anybody’s to win. (No, Ralph and Pat, that doesn’t mean you.)

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

High Irony on Highland Street

It was a brief, almost inconspicuous moment in the history of Memphis– the protest rally of Palestinian natives held last Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the corner of Highland and Poplar.

Except for some Arab dress here and there, a red-white-black-and-green Palestinian national flag or two, and– most notably– a banner declaiming that “Israelis Kill Children,” this well-behaved group of men, women, and children attracted less attention than a group of high schoolers haling down cars for a fundraising car wash might have.

At peak, about ten minutes after the rally started, the demonstration numbered perhaps 40. Two of those were moustachioed, polite men in Western clothes named Hayel Mausour and Maher Taha, both residents of Memphis for the last twenty years.

Masour owns a couple of gas stations, Taha a camera store. Both are doing quite well in Memphis, thank you, and neither is contemplating a return to Palestine (you will never, but never, hear one of these exiles referring to his homeland as anything else, even if his part of it is now formally joined to Israel).

Why are they demonstrating here on this warmish Friday afternoon in fall when there are other things, most of them more recreational, to do?

To even meditate on such a question is not to understand the Palestinian mind, which burns more or less constantly for a national redemption which has not– and may never– come. On the other side of the world, in that sliver of desert territory which begat the major religions of the Western world, the near kin of Masour and Taha and these other demonstrators are in a virtual state of war with the Israeli Army.

Rocks against tanks, they say. They are asked about the shocking televised scene of an Israeli soldier being dropped out of a West Bank window to undergo, whether living or dead, a prolonged stomping by an enraged mob.

Another Israeli soldier was reportedly stabbed to death, yet another burned.

”These were mourners who were at the funeral of a Palestinian in Ramallah who had been beaten, burned, and killed by Jewish settlers,” Mausour explains. “We do not justify their violence, but we understand it.”

It all started, says Taha, when Israeli General Ariel Sharon showed up with an armed entourage at the holy site in Jerusalem called Temple Mount by the Jews and the Noble Sanctuary by Muslims and revered as one of the holiest of their holy places. “Never before had Israelis come to the place. The Wailing Wall, which is nearby, yes, but not there.”

Was not Temple Mount so-called by the Jews because it is believed to be the site of their ancient ruined temple? Would this fact not entitle a Jew, even the alleged provocateur Sharon, to visit there?

”That is the past! Thousands of years ago, if at all. The past should be forgotten!” says Taha.

Perhaps it is difficult for the Israelis to forget the past, since so much of it, even very recently, involves persecution and destruction.

“We do not condone what Hitler did. But we do not want it done to us!” He claims that the Palestinian people, the native Muslim Arabs who lived in Palestine under the Turks and the British had suffered some 500,000 casualties since 1948, when Israel was established and the land was partitioned between Jew and Arab and the first of several wars began.

If the past is past, why cannot these transplanted Palestinians themselves forget, the two men are asked.

”Let me tell you a story,” says Hayel Masour, and he gives a lengthy account of an Arab traveler on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, finding a winding bridge over a chasm leading to a rocky promontol where, he was told, there was a university of sorts being conducted by Palestinian refugees.

The story makes several points. It speaks of perseverance, fortitude, and the Palestinian hunger to excel and be educated, to prove itself against obstacles.

”We have learned that the best soldier is an educated soldier!” says a third man, Heshan Habib.

The three men join in a refrain concerning how a people has been thrown out of its homeland, cast into every reach of the world (“We are everywhere!” says Habib), and perseveres through every turn of fate, educating itself and becoming accomplished in its transplant realms as it dreams of its lost beginnings.

It is a story told by Arabs. It could as easily be told by Jews.

After some 40 minutes or so, the Palestinian rally begins to break up, and the people retire quietly to their cars and move on.

Only a few minutes later, a man dressed in a grim reaper costume materializes on the center strip of Poplar, waving his cardboard sceptre at cars and shilling for special Halloween offers in the commercial establishments of Poplar Plaza.

From the beginning, he attracts more attention from passing motorists than had the Palestinians who preceded him on the corner. He is still there as the day grows late, waving. Whether smiling or not is hard to say.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

The Tigers’ Loss to UAB Was Costly

If last week’s win over East Carolina was one of the biggest wins in Tiger football history, Saturday’s loss at UAB has to be one of the most disappointing. Here’s why:

* Memphis failed, once again, to build momentum after a significant victory. Tiger football could have taken a great stride towards football respectability with a follow-up win after the East Carolina game. They could be 5-2 going into this weekend’s homecoming game against Houston. Instead they lost to a team that didn’t even play football until six years ago.

* For the second game in a row, the Tigers’ all-Conference placekicker, Ryan White, had a field goal blocked. East Carolina blocked two the week before and Memphis has suffered five blocked field goals this year. For a team with as little punch as the Memphis offense, to waste a scoring machine like White is inexcusable. Even the worst teams in college football can kick field goals. Memphis has had this problem since the second game of the year. And they have not fixed it.

“Obviously that’s coaching. The responsibility falls on me,” said a dejected Rip Scherer after the game. “That’s embarrassing, it’s just plain embarrassing.”

* The special teams made plenty of other mistakes besides the blocked field goal. None was more critical than the penalty flag on the fourth quarter kickoff after UAB had taken the lead with a touchdown. Ryan Johnson took the ball one yard deep in the end zone, and ran it back 101 yards for an apparent touchdown. But a penalty flag nullified the run and Memphis never challenged again.

* The offense was again inept, gaining negative yardage in the crucial fourth quarter. The offensive line, which had played so well the week before, was completely dominated by the Blazer defensive line. Scott Scherer rarely had time to throw and the Memphis running backs could only manage 57 yards on 35 carries. The offense hasn’t gotten better. In fact, based on the results at UAB, it may have gotten worse.

* Memphis again fell apart in the fourth quarter, letting a 9-3 lead turn into a 13-9 defeat. While the Memphis offense went backwards, UAB had 52 rushing yards and 38 yards passing and, most importantly, 10 points in the final period.

It was the third consecutive game that the Tigers failed to score in the fourth period. Memphis has been outscored an astonishing 68 to 22 in the fourth period this year.

* It was another missed opportunity. In 1996, after beating Tennessee, the Tigers lost the next game. Now with a big win over East Carolina, Memphis lost a winnable game and failed in one of Scherer’s missions: to win over the hearts and minds of the Memphis sports fans. Missed opportunities are the theme of the six-year Scherer tenure.

The coach was right. It is his fault. The buck stops with him. His team wasn’t ready to play and they seemingly have not gotten better as the season had progressed. Rip Scherer is a man who takes his job personally. He must have had a long, miserable trip home from Birmingham.

(You can write Dennis Freeland at freeland@memphisflyer.com)

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Sports Sports Feature

Tigers Lose to UAB

Birmingham — The glass slipper did not fit this time. UAB scored a fourth-quarter touchdown and the Blazer defense held on for a 13-9 Conference USA victory over Memphis here in historic Legion Field Saturday. Scott Scherer, making his second start of his career could not lead the team to victory as he did last week against East Carolina. The Tiger offense had negative yardage in the fourth quarter.

Ryan White, the all-conference kicker for Memphis had another field goal blocked. It was the fifth time this season the Tigers have suffered a blocked field goal. The 43-yard attempt came early in the second quarter and looked big after UAB overcame a 9-3 lead with a fourth-quarter touchdown.

“Obviously that’s coaching. The responsibility falls on me,” head coach Rip Scherer said about the blocked field goal. “That’s embarrassing, it’s just plain embarrassing.”

Memphis also had a 100-yard kickoff return by Ryan Johnson nullified by a penalty in the fourth quarter. “We had too many mistakes on the kicking teams,” said the coach.

After holding the Blazers to negative yardage in the third quarter, the Memphis defense gave up crucial plays in the fourth quarter, yielding the go-ahead touchdown with 8:41 to go and a 41-yard field goal with 1:28. UAB had 52 rushing yards and 38 yards passing in the fourth quarter. It was UAB’s first win against Memphis in three tries.

“Usually in this game the team that plays the best wins and they did,” said a dejected Rip Scherer.

Both teams had trouble moving the ball. Memphis ended the game with 186 total yards, but only 57 on the ground. Scherer completed 10 of 21 for 130 yards. He had one interception. UAB had 200 yards, with 56 coming on the ground

The UAB offense had Memphis on its heels in the first quarter behind junior quarterback Jeff Aaron’s short passes. Aaron, making his first career start, completed six of 12 passes in the first quarter and led the Blazers to a 44-yard field goal by Rhett Gallego. Aaron completed 14 of 27 for 144 yards in the game.

Scott Scherer hit Bunkie Perkins with a 32-yard pass to the UAB two-yard line in the second quarter. Scherer ran it in two plays later and the Tigers led 7-3 midway through the second quarter. No one scored after that and Memphis went to the locker room with a four-point lead.

The first half was the sort of defensive struggle that Memphis has become accustomed to this season. The Tigers managed only five first downs in the first two quarters, gaining just 47 yards on the ground. Scherer was 6 of 11 for 104 yards passing. Memphis did not have any turnovers in the opening half. Meanwhile, UAB could only manage 116 total yards in the half. Aaron completed 9 of 18 passes for 87 yards.

Memphis returns home to play Houston Saturday in the Liberty Bowl.

GAME NOTES:

** It was a bad day for offensive football. Memphis had -7 yards in the fourth quarter. UAB had minus yardage in the third quarter.

** Ben Graves had a career best 64-yard punt in the first quarter. He averaged 43.1 on nine kicks.

** After seeing his streak of having caught a ball in 21 consecutive games end last week against East Carolina, senior tight end Billy Kendall caught a 10-yard pass in the first quarter.

** Dernice Wherry saw his first extended action since being injured in the Southern Miss game. Wherry has been unable to play in three games this year.

** Scott Scherer left the game with an ankle injury midway through the third quarter. He was replaced by Travis Anglin for the remainder of the drive. Scherer returned on the next possession.

** Memphis scored on a safety in the third quarter when a punt snap sailed over UAB punter Ross Stewart’s head. Memphis scored in the same fashion last year in Birmingham against the Blazers.

** UAB has a new athletic director for the first time in 23 years. Herman Frazier was hired in August after Gene Bartow retired. Frazier spent 23 years at Arizona State, his alma mater, moving up to senior associate athletic director for the school. Frazier is the only African-American A.D. in Conference USA.

** UAB lost the coin toss for the sixth time in six games this year. Memphis chose to defer.

(You can write Dennis Freeland at freeland@memphisflyer.com)

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Tigers Fall to UAB

Birmingham — The glass slipper did not fit this time. UAB scored a fourth-quarter touchdown and the Blazer defense held on for a 13-9 Conference USA victory here in historic Legion Field Saturday. Scott Scherer, making his second start of his career could not lead the team to victory as he did last week against East Carolina. The Tiger offense had negative yardage in the fourth quarter.

Ryan White, the all-conference kicker for Memphis had another field goal blocked. It was the fifth time this season the Tigers have suffered a blocked field goal. The 43-yard attempt came early in the second quarter and looked big after UAB overcame a 9-3 lead with a fourth-quarter touchdown.

“Obviously that’s coaching. The responsibility falls on me,” Scherer said regarding the blocked field goal. “That’s embarrassing, it’s just plain embarrassing.”

Memphis also had a 100-yard kickoff return by Ryan Johnson nullified by a penalty in the fourth quarter. “We had too many mistakes on the kicking teams.”

After holding the Blazers to negative yardage in the third quarter, the Memphis defense gave up crucial yardage in the fourth quarter, yielding the go-ahead touchdown with 8:41 to go and a 41-yard field goal with 1:28. UAB had 52 rushing yards and 38 yards passing in the fourth quarter. It was UAB’s first win against Memphis in three tries.

“Usually in this game the team that plays the best wins and they did,” said a dejected Scherer.

Both teams had trouble moving the ball. Memphis ended the game with 186 total yards, but only 57 on the ground. Scherer completed 10 of 21 for 130 yards. He had one interception. UAB had 200 yards, with 56 coming on the ground

The UAB offense had Memphis on its heels in the first quarter behind junior quarterback Jeff Aaron’s short passes. Aaron, making his first career start, completed six of 12 passes in the first quarter and led the Blazers to a 44-yard field goal by Rhett Gallego. Aaron completed 14 of 27 for 144 yards in the game.

Scott Scherer hit Bunkie Perkins with a 32-yard pass to the UAB two-yard line. Scherer ran it in two plays later and the Tigers led 7-3 midway through the second quarter. No one scored after that and Memphis went to the locker room with a four-point lead.

The first half was the sort of defensive struggle that Memphis has become accustomed to this season. The Tigers managed only five first downs in the first two quarters, gaining just 47 yards on the ground. Scherer was 6 of 11 for 104 yards passing. Memphis did not have any turnovers in the opening half. Meanwhile, UAB could only manage 116 total yards in the half. Aaron completed 9 of 18 passes for 87 yards.

Memphis returns home to play Houston Saturday in the Liberty Bowl.

GAME NOTES:

** It was a bad day for offensive football. Memphis had -7 yards in the fourth quarter. UAB had minus yardage in the third quarter.

** Ben Graves had a career best 64-yard punt in the first quarter. He averaged 43.1 on nine kicks.

** After seeing his streak of having caught a ball in 21 consecutive games end last week against East Carolina, senior tight end Billy Kendall caught a 10-yard pass in the first quarter.

** Dernice Wherry saw his first extended action since being injured in the Southern Miss game. Wherry has been unable to in three games this year.

** Scott Scherer left the game with an ankle injury midway through the third quarter. He was replaced by Travis Anglin for the remainder of the drive. Scherer returned on the next possession.

** Memphis scored on a safety in the third quarter when a punt snap sailed over UAB punter Ross Stewart’s head. Memphis scored in the same fashion last year in Birmingham against the Blazers.

** UAB has a new athletic director for the first time in 23 years. Herman Frazier was hired in August after Gene Bartow retired. Frazier spent 23 years at Arizona State, his alma mater, moving up to senior associate athletic director for the school. Frazier is the only African-American A.D. in Conference USA.

** UAB lost the coin toss for the sixth time in six games this year. Memphis chose to defer.

(You can write Dennis Freeland at freeland@memphisflyer.com)